Birth Of The Federation: “United” Is One Of Star Trek: Enterprise’s Best!

The Good: Engaging plot, Good acting, Decent special effects, Shran’s character
The Bad: Light on main cast character development.
The Basics: As tensions run high between the Andorians and Tellarites, Archer steps in to try to unite both races to fight the impending Romulan threat.


Star Trek: Enterprise is a prequel that precedes the United Federation of Planets in the Star Trek universe. As a result, fans of the franchise were hoping the prequel would be leading to familiar Star Trek, like the use of phasers, transporters, and the founding of the political entity known as the Federation. In its fourth season, Star Trek: Enterprise finally moved to living up to that potential with its new creative team. Truly building the Federation was the subject of the season’s third three-part arc. It began in “Babel One” (reviewed here!) and continued in “United.”

“United” might well be one of the best middle acts in Star Trek: Enterprise and the Star Trek franchise. In addition to creating a steady foundation for the impending Romulan War (which based on previously-established time references), “United” is both entertaining and has a decent character story for a recurring character who has been consistently growing in influence in the series, Shran. In “Babel One,” his relationship with his subordinate, Talas, was revealed; in “United,” Shran exhibits profound loss.

The Romulan drone ship continues its assault through the sector, with Tucker and Reed aboard. Disguised as the Enterprise, the Romulan drone ship attacks a Rigellian starship. While the Rigellians call for Archer’s head, Archer tries to get Mayweather’s sensor grid up and running by enlisting the Andorian and Tellarite fleets. As the Romulan Admiral Valdore tries to convince his superiors that the drone plan is working perfectly, the political forces giving him orders threaten him with Remans. While Tucker and Reed try to take control of the drone ship, and Valdore manipulates the life support controls to manipulate them.

When Talas dies as a result of her phaser injuries, Shran is infuriated. After a tense encounter with the Tellarite ambassador, Shran challenges Gral to combat to honor Talas. While Reed and Tucker effectively disable the drone ship, Archer commits to standing in for the Tellarite Naarg in the combat to the death. In order to save the growing alliance, Archer prepares to sacrifice his life.

“United” is a decent overall episode and little scenes like Sato and Mayweather looking for a loophole to the combat give it charm and character. The fight between Shran and Archer has a somewhat predictable outcome; Star Trek captains are not easily killed and given that Archer is known to be integral to the founding of the Federation, it is unlikely that this was going to be the end of Archer. In the wake of the combat, Jeffrey Combs gives a wonderful physical performance.

“United” is basically half a chase episode (the Enterprise hunting down the Romulan drone ship) and half a diplomatic incident that has to be resolved. The two stories play off one another very well and David Livingston keeps the tension high and makes the episode look great.

One of the best episodes for showcasing the emotional range of actor Jeffrey Combs, there are no bad performances in “United.” In fact, the only real detraction to the episode is the fact that the most significant character struggle in the episode comes from the guest character. While Archer is given a nominal bit of growth, most of the time, he is simply being the usual heroic captain one expects from Star Trek captains.

The three biggest gaffes in “United:”
3. Babel is a codename for the peace planet in “Journey To Babel” (reviewed here!). Given how fleeting political secrets are, it seems unlikely that Babel would still be useful as a clandestine meeting place,
2. There’s no reason for the drone ship, which is unmanned, to have inertial dampeners to keep a crew inside alive. The radical maneuvers in the episode should have splattered Reed and Tucker all over a wall the first time the drone made an abrupt turn,
1. The Romulans are all wearing Star Trek: Nemesis (reviewed here!) costumes.

[Knowing that single episodes are an inefficient way to get episodes, it's worth looking into Star Trek: Enterprise - The Complete Fourth Season on DVD or Blu-Ray, which is also a better economical choice than buying individual episodes. Read my review of the final season here!
Thanks!]

For other works with Brian Thompson, please visit my reviews of:
The X-Files
“Surprise” / “Innocence” - Buffy The Vampire Slayer
“Welcome To The Hellmouth” / “The Harvest” - Buffy The Vampire Slayer
“To The Death” - Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
“Rules Of Acquisition” - Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Star Trek: Generations
“A Matter Of Honor” - Star Trek: The Next Generation
The Terminator

9/10

For other Star Trek episode and movie reviews, please visit my Star Trek Review Index Page!

© 2014 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Wait For It . . . The Vulcan Logic Arc Ends With “Kir’Shara” And Disappointment!

The Good: Tucker’s character, Moments of character development, John Rubinstein and Gary Graham’s performances
The Bad: T’Pol’s lack of character, Huge plot problems, Stupid reversal, Uninspired space battle scene.
The Basics: Were it not for the Andorian plot in “Kir’Shara,” the final episode in the “Vulcans get logic” arc would be utterly unwatchable.


Fixing the Vulcan problem in Star Trek: Enterprise was a pretty heavy task. Establishing the Vulcans as a conflicted and much more emotional race in Enterprise was a huge problem for the series and in the fourth season, rectifying that was the task of the second major three-episode arc. Following immediately on the heels of “The Forge” (reviewed here!) and “Awakening” (reviewed here!), “Kir’Shara” completes the arc. Unfortunately, for as engaging as the episode is, “Kir’Shara” is based on an essentially flawed premise.

“Kir’Shara” deals substantially with the results of a conspiracy at the highest level of Vulcan government. Vulcan warmongers have planned an invasion of Andoria and as a result, as the conspiracy comes to a head, the Vulcans are characterized as fundamentally emotional liars. The fractured and underhanded characterization of Vulcans makes it impossible for the Star Trek Vulcans to be characterized as monolithic and unified . . . much less entirely emotionless.

The Vulcan High Council, under V’Las, are convinced that the Andorians are preparing to use Xindi technology to launch an attack on Vulcan. As a result, V’Las prepares to launch a military assault on Andoria itself. Back in the Forge, Archer, T’Pau, and T’Pol recover the Kir’Shara – the book of Surak’s most important writings – and begin a journey to return it to the Vulcan High Council. While V’Las orders a military strike on the Forge, Tucker takes the Enterprise and Ambassador Soval to a nebula where they rendezvous with Shran to warn him about the impending invasion of Andoria. Shran captures Soval and tortures him using a device that reduces his ability to inhibit his emotions.

When Soval confirms that the Vulcans are staging their attack from Regulus, Tucker and the Andorians prepare to mount a defense. As Vulcan operatives attack the team in the Forge, T’Pol allies herself with the Syrannites. As Archer and T’Pau bring the Kir’Shara to the Vulcan High Council, the Enterprise joins the defense of the Andorian fleet against the Vulcans.

“Kir’Shara” is littered with problems, most of which are painfully obvious. On the basic continuity front, how T’Pol and Archer (inhabited by the mind of a pacifist) could hold their own against Vulcan security agents trained in personal combat is ludicrous. That T’Pol references her violation from “Stigma” (reviewed here!), but does not mention her medically-based inability to raise her emotional defenses that the entire third season was developing makes little sense (or becomes a serious character defect for T’Pol). The violent escalation between the Vulcans and Andorians makes it much less likely that the Federation could have been reasonably formed.

While developing Tucker in a productive way – he is willing to carry on Archer’s mission and ally himself with both Soval and Shran – “Kir’Shara” uses T’Pol in an unfortunate and underwhelming way. T’Pol suffers from a reduced ability to regulate her emotions. For a change, that justifies Jolene Blalock performing the character in an emotional way. However, Jolene Blalock plays T’Pol with far less emotional trouble than in prior episodes. In fact, outside the passing reference to the death of her mother, one might not see any emotional effect on T’Pol of her mother being killed in the prior episode. It’s a ridiculous character choice. It is only in the climax of the episode where Blalock plays T’Pol with a

Unfortunately, the usually wonderful Robert Foxworth is given a ridiculous character to play. V’Las is an emotional and angry Vulcan leader who connives and pushes the Vulcans to the edge of a potentially costly and utterly illogical war. He lives in utter denial of the facts. Foxworth’s performance would be amazing . . . if he was playing any race other than a Vulcan. In fact, the twist at the end makes less sense overall; if V’Las was who he is revealed to be, none of the other Vulcans should have been willing to follow him. As Spock notes in “Mirror, Mirror” (reviewed here!), it is far easier for a civilized person to act as a barbarian than a barbarian to act like a civilized person. V’Las should not have been able to “pass” for decades.

At the other end of the spectrum is John Rubinstein as Minister Kuvak. Rubinstein, save one facial expression of exertion and stress while launching a counterassault and a slight smirk in his final scene, plays a perfect Vulcan. This is a huge departure from his usual portrayal of creepy or conniving character and Rubinstein plays the role amazingly well.

“Kir’Shara” sets up another arc . . . poorly with a reversal in the end. The space battle is unimpressive and the twists are silly and obvious, as opposed to being at all clever. Ultimately, “Kir’Shara” ends a three-part arc which could be subtitled “How Archer Brought Logic To Vulcan” and it would be about as ridiculous as it sounds.

The five biggest gaffes in “Kir’Shara:”
5. If Surak’s teachings were so fractured and the “true teachings” were lost, there was no practical way for Vulcan society to be built upon them,
4. Vulcans have a death penalty in this episode, which flies in the face of previously-established Vulcan tenants – both present and historical,
3. The Romulan in “Kir’Shara” is wearing a Star Trek: Nemesis (reviewed here!) uniform . . . despite the fact that that fashion would not exist for two hundred years,
2. T’Pau refers to the need to get Archer to an experienced priest. In Star Trek III: The Search For Spock (reviewed here!), restoring katras was treated as an anomaly that was so rare it had not been done in hundreds of years. As a result, there would be no “experienced” priests in this time period,
1. T’Pau is essentially a radical in “Kir’Shara.” Given that, there is no reason she would develop into the ultra-conservative, stoic character seen in “Amok Time” (reviewed here!).

[Knowing that single episodes are an inefficient way to get episodes, it's worth looking into Star Trek: Enterprise - The Complete Fourth Season on DVD or Blu-Ray, which is also a better economical choice than buying individual episodes. Read my review of the final season here!
Thanks!]

For other works with Jack Donner, please visit my reviews of:
Four Christmases
“Home” - Star Trek: Enterprise
“The Enterprise Incident” - Star Trek

3.5/10

For other Star Trek episode and movie reviews, please visit my Star Trek Review Index Page!

© 2014 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Post-Khan, Pre-Khan: “Borderland” Stuffs Enterprise With Villains!

The Good: Fast-paced, The few moments of character, Decent acting
The Bad: Creates big continuity problems in the franchise, Underwhelming on the character front
The Basics: Brent Spiner returns to the Star Trek franchise as one of Dr. Soong’s ancestors, a corrupt scientist bent on being reunited with his genetically-enhanced creations.


In the fourth season of Star Trek: Enterprise, the writers worked hard to make the series – which was strongly divergent from the rest of the franchise from the outset – fall in line with the rest of the franchise. Sometimes, in order to make references to the original Star Trek - which Star Trek: Enterprise was a prequel to - Star Trek: Enterprise went in some truly extreme directions. Such was the case with “Borderland,” the first of a three-part arc that involved the Augments.

The Augments are the genetically-modified (though how is entirely unclear) humans who were spawned from embryos that were genetically enhanced from the Eugenics Wars. The Eugenics Wars were a late-20th Century conflict invented in the Star Trek episode “Space Seed” (reviewed here!). The concept of that episode was that genetic engineering would lead to heightened violence and aggression in addition to increased intelligence, ambition, and strength. Despite supposedly being super-smart, the primary antagonist of “Borderland,” Arik Soong, makes the exact same mistakes as those who engineered Khan Noonien Singh.

A Klingon ship near the space controlled by the Orion Syndicate captures two humans. When they do, the Klingons are abruptly killed violently by the humans and the humans stage a jailbreak for their fellow genetically-enhanced friends. Captain Archer arrives at the StarFleet prison cell of Dr. Arik Soong. Soong was a brilliant, but unethical, scientist captured ten years prior. Now his experiments, augmented genetically-enhanced humans, led by Raakin, are staging attacks. Insisting that only Soong can track down the Augments in the space controlled by the Orion Syndicate, Archer conscripts Soong to stop the Augments.

En route, the Enterprise is attacked by Orion ships and several of the crew are abducted. With T’Pol, several other women, and Ensign Pierce, abducted, Archer reluctantly lets Soong go free in order to get him into the slaver auction where his crewmembers are being sold. After T’Pol is sold for millions, Archer and Soong arrive at the slave auction. As the Augment Malik convinces Persis to back him, Malik stages a coup on the Augment leader, Raakin. As the Enterprise crew and Soong break out the enslaved StarFleet officers, their victory is short-lived as the ship finds itself in the crosshairs of both the Orions and the Augments.

“Borderland” follows on the heels of “Home” (reviewed here!) and it marks a number of important continuity events. T’Pol has been married and “Borderland” is her first day as a full-fledged StarFleet officer (though why she is not given a proper uniform by Archer makes absolutely no sense). The episode marks the relaunch of the Enterprise and that is handled with sufficient fanfare. As importantly, Archer is still being treated as a celebrity, much as he was in “Home” and that makes for some wonderful snarky remarks from Dr. Soong.

Dr. Soong is played by Brent Spiner and the episode is thrilling to see him back in action in the Star Trek franchise. Spiner plays Soong with as much intelligence as the character is written – there is something seriously disturbing about the fact that Soong learned nothing from the mistakes of the prior generation of genetic engineers – and with menace that reminds viewers almost instantly of how he played Lore on Star Trek: The Next Generation. Spiner is good and the role of Arik Soong in “Borderland” allows Spiner to play much more to his comedic side in a way he was seldom allowed to on Star Trek: The Next Generation. When he is not being funny, Spiner’s performance is very familiar. Spiner plays smart, funny, and menacing well.

“Borderland” also marks the final appearance of actor J.G. Hertzler in the Star Trek franchise. Hertzler plays the anonymous Klingon Captain in the episode’s teaser and there is a sense of symmetry to his final appearance the franchise; his first appearance was as a Vulcan Captain who was killed in the teaser of “Emissary” (reviewed here!). This is not his most significant role at all, but Hertzler makes the most of the opportunity he is given.

The rest of the acting is unremarkable in “Borderland.” Dominic Keating is understated as Reed and Jolene Blalock is given ridiculously little to do other than be flopped around by the giant guest stars playing the Orion slavers. Connor Trinneer gets the short end episode as his character is not given a realistically-written part. Trinneer’s Tucker finally admitted his love for T’Pol and at the climax of the prior episode Trinneer delivered a heartwrenching performance as Tucker was forced to watch T’Pol marry someone else. The writers of “Borderland” fail to follow-through on the character’s angst and only make a passing reference to Trip asking about T’Pol’s honeymoon. Tucker’s character is so unimpressively presented that it takes Arik Soong explaining why he thinks Tucker must hate him for it to make any sense when Soong accuses Tucker of having those feelings. While this is supposed to make Soong seem especially perceptive, it only serves to accent how sloppy Tucker is presented in “Borderland.”

At the other end of the spectrum, the actors playing the Augments are good. Abby Brammell plays Persis well-enough to explain her character’s attachment to Malik long before it is made explicit in the episode. Alec Newman’s Malik is a convincing villain, as is Joel West’s Raakin. Raakin is generically villainous in a way that instantly harkens back to Khan.

Ultimately, “Borderland” is an action-adventure episode of Star Trek: Enterprise and it is more enjoyable than it is objectively good. Packed with villains, it is a compelling first part to the next major Star Trek: Enterprise arc.

The four biggest gaffes in “Borderland:”
4. Given how the effects of the attacks by the Augments were incredibly widespread, the Augments are a huge example of issues with human genetic engineering. As a result, it is a much more relevant, StarFleet-related, and current example of why genetic engineering would be outlawed by the Federation, and yet it seems to have slipped the minds of Bashir and everyone else in “Statistical Probabilities” (reviewed here!),
3. If the Orions are truly so powerful and right off the border of Klingon space, it makes no sense that the Klingons would not wipe them out before ever attempting to attack the Federation in the era of Star Trek,
2. The Enterprise goes to warp within the solar system – actually between Earth and the moon – which is considered exceptionally dangerous and environmentally destructive in all subsequent incarnations of Star Trek. In fact, it is so dangerous that it is only under the most extreme emergencies that starships go to warp within a solar system. No such crisis exists in “Borderland,” making the warp jump unnecessarily dangerous and pointless,
1. The Augments and the Eugenics Wars are spoken about as common knowledge. Why it takes a specialized officer in “Space Seed” to remind the crew about Khan makes no sense given that happens only a few decades later.

[Knowing that single episodes are an inefficient way to get episodes, it's worth looking into Star Trek: Enterprise - The Complete Fourth Season on DVD or Blu-Ray, which is also a better economical choice than buying individual episodes. Read my review of the final season here!
Thanks!]

6/10

For other Star Trek episode and movie reviews, please visit my Star Trek Review Index Page!

© 2014 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Alliance-building Reaches “The Council”

The Good: Good plot, Wonderful acting, Decent effects, Clever
The Bad: Light on character development (annoying regression for Tucker)
The Basics: The third season’s serialized plot moves toward a resolution with reversals and politics during “The Council!”


As Star Trek: Enterprise reached the climax of its third season, it had a number of plotlines to resolve and when “The Council” came up, the true adversaries of the season are exposed. While most of the season has had Archer and the Enterprise confronting the Xindi, by the time “The Council” comes up, the Xindi have been exposed as puppets to an alien race of Sphere Building Guardians. The Guardians are essentially the Founders in the Xindi storyline and the concept of the Xindi is somewhat weakened by the derivative nature of the villains.

Moveover, Manny Coto – who wrote “The Council” - seems to be eager to prove to Star Trek fans just how clever he can be. And he is. “The Council” contains the Enterprise encountering what is essentially a Death Star . . . but he writes the solution the Empire should have used in Star Wars (reviewed here!) to protect its massive weapon (a hologram over the vulnerable air vent). As the episode progresses, it starts to strongly move the plotline toward a resolution and it is compelling and entertaining, if a little low on character development.

While the Sphere Builders worry that they are losing the chance to destroy Earth, Archer plans to infiltrate a nearby Sphere. While Degra is harassed by the Sphere Builders, Reed assembles a team to attack the memory core of a nearby Sphere. Degra is convinced Archer is telling the truth and he tells Archer of the history of the Sphere Builders and their relationship with the Xindi. He also briefs Archer on the state of the Xindi Council, including tales of how ruthless Commander Dolim is. While escorting Archer to the Council planet, Degra stands up to Dolim and backs Archer in a clearly military sense.

After appearing before the Xindi Council, the Xindi politicians fracture with the Aquatics breaking as the Council’s swing vote. When Dolim confronts the Sphere Builders, they assure the Xindi Reptillian of Reptillian dominance in the future. While T’Pol, Reed, Mayweather and a M.A.C.O.S. soldier infiltrate a Sphere, Archer presents the Xindi Council with the pod from the transdimensional alien they recovered. Seeing the hologram of the transdimensional alien, the Xindi Council agrees to hear more. With the potential of peace when the Reptillians agree to postpone the launch, Degra and Archer come to believe they can form an alliance to save Earth and the Xindi people.

“The Council” has a strong storyline for Degra. More than simply telling Archer incredible amounts of exposition, the stories Degra tells – most notably about Dolim having his grandson killed – enhance Degra’s character. Family truly is as important to him as it initially seemed. Moreover, Degra spends “The Council” with a surprisingly decent amount of rationality. He is a scientist above all and the way Randy Oglesby subtly emotes as Degra when delivering lines about the Avians enhances the character in a compelling and well-rounded way.

What stands out in “The Council” is the acting. The aliens who are members of the Xindi Council are all portrayed by actors who have a clear ability to play politicians. The arguing in the council chamber is done by Randy Oglesby, Tucker Smallwood, Rick Worthy, and Scott MacDonald, all of whom play their characters with a level of erudition and emotion that makes them seem like viable politicians. Even Dolim is given more in the way of character; the resolution to the episode is smart and illustrates the cunning and ambition of the Xindi Commander wonderfully.

What does not work especially well is Tucker’s character. It has been months since Tucker’s sister was killed in the attack in “The Expanse” (reviewed here!) and his level of anger at the outset of the episode seems unrealistic. The arc for Tucker seems like a forced reprisal. Similarly, Dominic Keating is given a wonderful acting moment as Reed when he reacts to the death of Corporal Hawkins aboard the Sphere. Reed’s anger is presented abruptly and in a fairly ridiculous way. It’s almost like the actor complained about having a shitty arc for the season and the scene was written as filler at the last moment.

The villains in “The Council” are pretty monolithically rendered. The Sphere Builders have an advanced knowledge of temporal mechanics, but their strategy – which, to be fair, evolved in “The Council” – plays along very predictable and linear ways. Instead of making any sort of statement on the value of their existing plan. Moreover, given that they are extradimensional aliens, they seem like they would leave the Federation alone if they weren’t invading our space, so . . .

“The Council” moves along exceptionally well and the episode is a good build-up to a strong ending. The plot-based episode is entertaining and pushes the plot forward in a compelling way, but it is a plot-based, action-adventure episode without a strong amount of character conflict or resolution. There are no truly large themes or concepts in the episode. Instead, the final battle that caps off the episode seems like a chance to show off the special effects and bring up the pulse. It does that, but little else.

The three biggest gaffes in “The Council:”
3. T’Pol cites honor when talking to Reed, a concept that is far more Klingon than it is Vulcan,
2. Phlox mentions having a worm in his body for weight reduction. Given that, it seems like the Trill would be much less shocking in “The Host” (reviewed here!),
1. The presence of the Spheres makes it seem like the Dyson Sphere in “Relics” (reviewed here!) would

[Knowing that single episodes are an inefficient way to get episodes, it's worth looking into Star Trek: Enterprise - The Complete Third Season on DVD or Blu-Ray, which is also a better economical choice than buying individual episodes. Read my review of the penultimate season here!
Thanks!]

8/10

For other Star Trek episode and movie reviews, please visit my Star Trek Review Index Page!

© 2014 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Good Banter And Intriguing Serialization Save A Scattershot “Harbinger!”

The Good: Decent performances, Good dialogue, Good character development
The Bad: Terrible stunt casting, Mediocre (at best) plot development, Timing in season.
The Basics: “Harbinger” is part of the serialized third season of Star Trek: Enterprise where almost nothing happens . . . except for characters actually interacting!


The Star Trek franchise has a bad habit of putting episodes out of time even when the show is semi-serialized. The best example I have of this is how Major Kira reacts in “The Maquis” (reviewed here!); it was a character regression the way she conflicted so loudly with Sisko in that episode. In a similar vein, “Harbinger” comes a bit late in the third season of Star Trek: Enterprise for one of the three major threads to be truly believable. Given that “The Expanse” (reviewed here!), which saw the addition of the M.A.C.O.S. took a month and “The Xindi” (reviewed here!) occurred months later and “Harbinger” is still months later, the idea that Reed and Major Hayes either have such a deep hatred for one another or that it has taken this long to boil over seems to be dramatically out of place in the series.

That said, “Harbinger” actually is one of the best-written episodes of Star Trek: Enterprise. For a change, the writers – in this case Many Coto’s script – have a sense of fun with the dialogue. This is a fun episode, even if it is a little predictable for the reversals in the conversation.

Tucker has one of the M.A.C.O.S., Corporal Cole, over to his quarters for the pressure point exercises he usually shares with T’Pol when Cole kisses him and expresses her interest in him. A week later, Phlox speaks to T’Pol about Cole’s headaches and Tucker misapplying the neuropressure therapy, which seems to unsettle T’Pol. Reporting to the bridge, Archer is alerted to the existence of an inordinate number of spatial anomalies. Tracing the gravimetric disturbances back to their source, they discover a small vehicle trapped in an unstable region of space. Reed uses the grappler to bring the small ship, which he suspects is an escape pod, aboard. Inside is a single life form, who is suffering from rapid cell degeneration.

The alien is belligerent about having been rescued and he refuses treatment from Phlox. After Reed and Hayes disagree over M.A.C.O.S./Starfleet crosstraining, T’Pol confronts Tucker over his fraternization with Cole. Learning that the alien in Sickbay is disintegrating, Archer has Phlox revive him in order to get some answers about his purpose in the spatial anomaly. Questioning the alien, Archer withholds his pain medication to get information out of him, learning that the alien is part of a transdimensional experiment and the pod contained all the same alloys that were part of the Xindi weapon. When the alien begins to phase out of existence, he attacks the warp core, which makes Archer even more suspicious about him. When Reed and Hayes’s sparring session turns into a brawl, they are able to bring down the alien. And T’Pol and Tucker finally consummate their relationship.

Reed picking on Tucker in the mess hall is a fun scene. Long after “Shuttlepod One” (reviewed here!), the two finally have developed a friendship and in “Harbinger” we get to see that in a very realistic and enjoyable way. Actors Dominic Keating and Connor Trinneer have a great banter between them and the scene with them in the mess hall is one of their best together of the series.

Connor Trinneer actually has a good episode with “Harbinger” as his scene with Jolene Blalock that culminates in the T’Pol/Tucker sex scene (and Blalock upper butt shot, which seems to be about the most nudity of the Star Trek franchise outside the new films) has wonderful banter as well. Trinneer and Blalock both play off one another very well in the episode and it enhances their characters nicely.

But the big plot event in the otherwise aimless episode is the revelation of who the alien is. While its complete nomenclature is not revealed, the insinuation is clear: the Xindi are being manipulated by his race and that revelation makes “Harbinger” an exciting set-up for what follows.

“Harbinger” is very much dependent upon episodes that precede and follow it. The build-up to the T’Pol and Tucker scene has been coming the entire season and while the Reed/Hayes plot may be poorly timed (in season), the apparently aimless alien inserted into the episode makes for an awesome ending and sets up the rest of the season well!

[Knowing that single episodes are an inefficient way to get episodes, it's worth looking into Star Trek: Enterprise - The Complete Third Season on DVD or Blu-Ray, which is also a better economical choice than buying individual episodes. Read my review of the penultimate season here!
Thanks!]

For other works featuring Thomas Kopache, please be sure to check out my reviews of:
No Country For Old Men
"Broken Bow" - Star Trek: Enterprise
The West Wing
"Wrongs Darker Than Death Or Night" - Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
"Ties Of Blood And Water" - Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
"The Thaw" - Star Trek: Voyager
Star Trek: Generations
“Emergence” - Star Trek: The Next Generation
“The Next Phase” - Star Trek: The Next Generation
“The Parliament Of Dreams” - Babylon 5

6.5/10

For other Star Trek episode and movie reviews, please visit my Star Trek Review Index Page!

© 2013 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Return Of The Andorians: “Proving Ground” Is Good Despite The Conceit!

The Good: Good acting, Good pacing, Good plot
The Bad: Predictable character reversal that undermines the episode, Continuity issue reduces magnitude of the episode
The Basics: “Proving Ground” makes decent use of the Andorians, then manages to get the Xindi plotline back on track.


When a show tries to take a new direction, there is usually a sacrifice that is made. When that happens, the show risks its established audience. If the new direction takes, the show’s producers and writers are usually allowed to maintain their vision and see it through. If the new direction does not resonate with the audience, usually the showrunners run for what is safe to try to regain the audience. In the case of Star Trek: Enterprise, I have a respect for what the show’s producers tried to do with the third season, by creating a seasonlong arc. In fact, the argument could be made that the premise and the episodes that diverged from focusing on the main story of the season were what weakened the season. Episodes like “North Star” (reviewed here!) popped up in the third season and had absolutely nothing to do with the show’s serialized plot and that weakened the concept of the season. As the third season of Star Trek: Enterprise progressed without the ratings recovering from the prior two seasons’ backslide, the producers and writers trended more toward the safe and familiar in a desperate attempt to recover the audience before the network actually cut back the season order.

The result was that after episodes like “Carpenter Street” (reviewed here!), which tried to bring back the ever popular time travel element and “Similitude” (reviewed here!) which tried for raw sex appeal, fans were given “Proving Ground.” “Proving Ground” brought back reliable ratings favorite Jeffrey Combs and made a much stronger attempt to refocus the third season’s plot. However, fans of the Star Trek franchise could recognize the conceit for what it was: bringing the Andorians into the Xindi plotline, even for an episode, was an attempt to play to one of the aspects of Enterprise that fans had positively identified with, which had been abandoned when the Xindi plot began. For all the external factors weighing on the episode, “Proving Ground” manages to be solidly entertaining.

At the Xindi Council chamber, Degra announces to the impatient Dolim that he is ready to test the new planet-destroyer prototype in three days. The Enterprise homes in on the kemocite they marked and the ship hunts the Xindi ship carrying it to find the Xindi test location. En route, they encounter anomalies which nearly destroy the ship until they are rescued abruptly through the use of a tractor beam. After weeks of searching in the Expanse, Commander Shran and his Andorian crew find the Enterprise, rescuing the damaged starship. Shran reveals that his ship has come in response to the attack on Earth and he comes claiming to be Archer’s friend, sending his officers aboard to help repair the Enterprise.

After helping to repair the Enterprise, Shran’s warship and the Enterprise arrive at an uninhabited system where they find four Xindi ships and a planet that bears harsh evidence of Xindi weapons testing. While Reed and Andorian Lieutenant Talas work together to fix the weapons systems, Archer and T’Pol accompany Shran and the Andorian ship into the Xindi testing area. There, Shran bluffs his way into scanning the Xindi weapon under the guise of being the Andorian Mining Consortium on a mission to find Archerite. While the Andorians withdraw, the Xindi launch their prototype, which blows a local moon in half, while the prototype almost overheats and explodes. When Archer becomes determined to recover the prototype, Shran volunteers his ship to help recover the irradiated sphere, though Archer does not fully trust him.

Lately, my wife has been on a Doctor Who kick and after a day of watching it, she has a tendency to note that nothing ever goes right and it would be nice to see an episode where the Doctor and his Companions get to visit an alien planet for enjoyment, without some evil, twisted, conspiracy hunting them down. “Proving Ground” put me in the exact same mood the moment Shran and Talas begin making moves that foreshadow they will betray Archer and his crew. Instead of being a smart, serialized episode that makes a good play for the humans and Andorians actually working together in order to eventually build the Federation, “Proving Ground” illustrates no growth for Shran and a poor sense of plot progression for the larger Star Trek: Enterprise story. “Proving Ground” would have been just fine, better even, if Archer and Shran’s relationship actually had grown and the net result of the prior seasons’ interactions with Shran had led to a time when Shran would put his crew at risk to help Archer.

The only other real flaw with “Proving Ground” is in the test scale. In “Twilight” (reviewed here!), viewers saw the Earth get destroyed by the eventual Xindi weapon; seeing an unknown moon get barely split in half lacks resonance after seeing that.

On the flip side, Reed has some good scenes and actor Dominic Keating makes his very limited emotional journey in “Proving Ground” seem like more than just generic character exposition. Keating and guest star Molly Brink have decent on-screen chemistry to sell a potential Reed/Talas relationship. At the other end of the performances and character work, Scott Bakula and Jeffrey Combs actually seem like Archer and Shran are building a legitimate relationship. While Combs is forced to play a betrayal with Shran, his performance earlier in the episode establishes well the ultimate result. Even Jolene Blalock does a decent job as T’Pol, so the episode flows well.

“Proving Ground” is not as strong on its own as it is for those who have seen “The Shipment” (reviewed here!), but as strong serialized television goes, the episode works.

The three biggest gaffes in “Proving Ground:”
3. T’Pol spends time on the Andorian warship. The only way the Andorian ship could have survived the anomalies in the Expanse long enough to find the Enterprise was to outfit itself with the element that preoccupied the earlier episodes of the third season . . . the element that, according to “Impulse” (reviewed here!) is toxic to Vulcans. T’Pol should not have been able to spend time on the Andorian ship,
2. The Andorians have superior weapons to the Enterprise; if they needed them to keep a stalemate with the Vulcans, the Vulcans are either portrayed as incompetent or shortsighted. Keeping StarFleet’s only available ship weaker than their enemies makes no tactical sense,
1. Shran makes an excellent point about how the Andorians are willing to help the humans more than the Vulcans. Unless the Andorians took the brunt of the impending Romulan War, they should have had vastly more influence and presence in subsequent Star Trek series’.

[Knowing that single episodes are an inefficient way to get episodes, it's worth looking into Star Trek: Enterprise - The Complete Third Season on DVD or Blu-Ray, which is also a better economical choice than buying individual episodes. Read my review of the penultimate season here!
Thanks!]

For other Andorian-focused episodes of Enterprise, please check out my reviews of:
“The Andorian Incident”
“Shadows Of P’Jem”
“Cease Fire”

8/10

For other Star Trek episode and movie reviews, please visit my Star Trek Review Index Page!

© 2013 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Finally Returning To The Vulcan Problem: “Impulse!”

The Good: Interesting plot, Convincing acting
The Bad: Mediocre special effects, Odd crew separation choices, No real character development.
The Basics: “Impulse” is the Star Trek: Enterprise episode that features . . . zombie Vulcans and many groans from the viewers.


One of the problems with Star Trek: Enterprise that cannot be overstated is that the series has exceptionally weak teasers. The teaser, for those who do not know the lingo, is the first part of the episode - seldom long enough to be a proper act – before the opening credits. The purpose of a teaser is to set up the episode and to ensure that viewers will want to continue watching the episode after the first commercial break. Star Trek: Enterprise has a tendency to present teasers that are around thirty seconds long and do not tell the viewer much of anything about the episode they will be seeing. The series more often than not sets up a problem that viewers have little reason to return to.

I mention this at the outset of the review for the third season “Impulse” because the entirety of the teaser for the frenetically-shot episode is T’Pol screaming in pain and fear. Those who have no idea what the Expanse is, what Vulcans are or why T’Pol might be screaming are not likely to be even curious as to why a character is screaming incoherently; as a fan of the franchise, I found myself utterly unsurprised and uninterested. All “Impulse” promises viewers is that after months in the Expanse, Star Trek: Enterprise is actually going to revisit the problem promised in “The Expanse” (reviewed here!), namely that the spatial anomaly causes Vulcans to lose their emotional control and essentially go crazy . . . violent angry crazy.

A day before T’Pol wigs out, Trip Tucker proposes restarting movie night as Archer worries about his crew. Called to the bridge, Tucker, T’Pol, and Archer learn of a distress signal from the Vulcan ship, Seleya, a ship T’Pol once served aboard. The Seleya was the ship the Vulcan crew that went psychotic was looking for when it visited the Expanse in the cautionary video Ambassador Soval showed Archer after the attack on Earth and after entering an asteroid belt, the Enterprise crew finds the Seleya. The one person the crew finds alive aboard the ship is a psychotic Vulcan. Soon after, the rest of the Away Team is attacked by more Vulcans, all of whom have a distinctly undead quality to them.

The Away Team barely escapes the zombie Vulcans, who recover very quickly from the stun shots. T’Pol admits to being emotionally compromised and when she gets one of her former crewmates to examine, she finds him little more than a mindless, pustule-covered animated corpse. While Tucker and Mayweather try to harvest some Trellium from the asteroid field, T’Pol begins to suffer the same effects of the Expanse as the crew of the Seleya.

One of the biggest problems with “Impulse” comes in the special effects. I can live with the Star Trek version of The Walking Dead, but “Impulse” is riddled with mistakes that make it clear the producers and director David Livingston were prioritizing style over substance. On the effects front, this comes in the form of the Seleya. The Vulcan ship is missing huge sections of the hull. Those sections have clearly been picked apart; the framework of the ship below is clearly undamaged (it is steel colored, not burned) and it is symmetrical. In other words, the ship was not destroyed by the asteroids, it was systematically picked apart . . . then not hit by any asteroids, despite being stuck in an asteroid field that is visibly unstable.

More important is the lack of sensibility to the Away Team. Mayweather is the ship’s best shuttle pilot and the only way it makes sense for him not to pilot the shuttle that brings Archer and T’Pol over to the Enterprise is to service the b-plot. The b-plot does not make organic use of Mayweather, it just teams another one of the regular cast up with Tucker, even though that plot does not get off the ground until well-after the Captain’s Away Team is aboard the Seleya.

The emotion-crazed, zombified Vulcans work in tandem and have survived their exposure to Trellium-D for years. These are high-functioning crazy zombies and that idea is about as ridiculous as rewriting 28 Days Later (reviewed here!) to have those suffering from the Rage building skyscrapers.

What “Impulse” has to its credit is a decent plot progression. The episode moves fast, even if it does nothing to build any of the characters. There are moments when the episode is actually exciting. As well, the acting is homogenously good. This might be one of Jolene Blalock’s best performances as T’Pol as she plays the Vulcan science officer as slowly going mad in a disturbing way. She is unsettling to watch and that is exactly what the episode calls for.

Otherwise, “Impulse” just seems like an attempt to create a Star Trek episode for zombie enthusiasts. T’Pol is left in an unenviable position that has the potential to give Blalock a chance to show her acting range, but outside of playing batshit crazy effectively, whether she can rise to the occasion is not yet evident.

The three biggest gaffes in “Impulse:”
3. Given how many episodes of Star Trek where Spock is paranoid and succumbing to emotion, T’Pol doing the same should have prevented Spock getting ill ever being a novelty,
2. Dr. McCoy spends much of Star Trek amused by the idea that Vulcans have no emotions, so Spock’s human side must be asserting itself. Yet, in “Impulse,” T’Pol freely admits that Vulcan’s not having emotions is a common misconception; they have emotions, they just repress them. Why would McCoy still have such a misconception if, in one of their earliest meetings with Vulcans, that is a known misconception?! Is StarFleet Academy the worst educational body ever?!,
1. Corporal Hawkins has his phaser rifle set to stun; (normal) Vulcans have been seen in other Star Trek incarnations as easily resisting a single stun shot. Why earlier technology would actually stun Vulcans is virtually inconceivable and for a battle-hardened M.A.C.O.S. grunt to not have a weapon that could actually work is pretty lousy.

[Knowing that single episodes are an inefficient way to get episodes, it's worth looking into Star Trek: Enterprise - The Complete Third Season on DVD or Blu-Ray, which is also a better economical choice than buying individual episodes. Read my review of the penultimate season here!
Thanks!]

5/10

For other Star Trek episode and movie reviews, please visit my Star Trek Review Index Page!

© 2013 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Well, That Was Predictable: Why I Hate “Regeneration”

The Good: General concept is not absolutely terrible, Good special effects
The Bad: No character development, Lackluster acting, Horrible continuity
The Basics: “Regeneration” follows up on the Borg from Star Trek: First Contact and makes such a mess it is virtually impossible to take the episode seriously.


Poor Brannon Braga. Brannon Braga was a writer for Star Trek: The Next Generation who wowed the show runners and took over as an executive producer late in the run on Star Trek: Voyager. While, as a writer, he might have proven quickly to be a one-trick pony, as a producer and co-creator of Enterprise he added to his reputation as a guy who didn’t really give a damn about Mealticket, er, Star Trek and he set out to remake the Star Trek universe in his image. It was a colossal failure and Star Trek has been limping as a franchise ever since. Given the lack of success Braga’s subsequent television projects have had, one is either tempted to blame the demise of the Trek franchise on Braga or be impressed that it lasted as long as it did when he held the reins.

Unfortunately, even as Brannon Braga said “fuck you!” to decades of Star Trek continuity and worked to remake Star Trek as he saw fit, he did a surprisingly good job of maintaining continuity within his own little Bragaverse. As one of the co-writers of Star Trek: First Contact (reviewed here!), there was some sense to “Regeneration,” which returned the Borg from Star Trek: First Contact to the forefront. “Regeneration” is built on a somewhat ridiculous premise, which is that the Enterprise-D did not scan Earth after the destruction of the Borg Queen’s sphere for debris. Picard, who was very concerned about polluting the timeline, apparently left a pretty extensive amount of debris in the Arctic before returning to the 24th Century. Unfortunately, “Regeneration” pretty much undermines all of the subsequent interactions between StarFleet and the Borg and is an episode whose analysis is largely a string of continuity issues in the larger Star Trek universe.

StarFleet sends a science expedition to the Arctic where they discover corpses and debris from the Borg ship that crashed there almost a hundred years before. In thawing out and studying the Borg Corpses, the scientists accidentally reanimate them. The reanimated Borg begin assimilating scientists and they hijack a cargo transport. From there, the Borg attack a Tarkalean cargo ship.

The Enterprise is sent to intercept the rapidly transforming Borg ship and in trying to rescue the Tarkaleans, Dr. Phlox discovers the Borg nanoprobes. When the Borgified Tarkalean attacks Phlox, they flee the Enterprise and start heading toward Borg space. As Phlox tries to resist the nanoprobes taking over his body, Reed begins modifying the phase pistols to shoot through the Borg personal shields.

Where to start with the ridiculousness? First, Archer recalls Zephram Cochrane talking about the Borg and time travel during a college commencement ceremony in his later years. This makes either Zephram Cochrane into either one of history’s greatest villains (by not more coherently detailing who and what the Borg were so future generations could be prepared) or every subsequent StarFleet person who claimed Cochrane was their hero a liar in that they missed one of Cochrane’s most important speeches (especially after the Borg were encountered in the 24th Century).

But, as far as high-minded time-travel concepts go, “Regeneration” hits a precarious new low. If the Borg survived the destruction of the Borg Queen’s Sphere and they sent a signal to the Delta Quadrant, the Federation had two hundred years to prepare for an invasion, not the year and a half they thought in “The Best Of Both Worlds” (reviewed here!). But equally important, if the events of “Regeneration” occurred, StarFleet officers and certainly StarFleet historians would be briefed on the mission. At this point, hundreds of StarFleet officers have (albeit ridiculously) been assimilated by the Borg. How is it none of them are students of history who know about the Borg’s mission in the 22nd Century? This is worth asking because by now it seems like one of the assimilated humans from the 24th Century would know how the Borg were defeated in the 22nd Century and before the Borg ever attacked Earth in Star Trek: First Contact all of the drones would have had the technical knowledge and strategy to avoid losing the same way.

Any way one cuts it, the Borg from the 24th Century should have no problem cutting through any race from the 22nd Century in the Alpha Quadrant. The inability of contemporary technology to defeat future Borg was already addressed in the Star Trek: Voyager episode “Drone” (reviewed here!), but apparently neglected when “Regeneration” was pitched. The Borg in “Regeneration” should have easily been able to adapt 22nd Century technology into 24th Century technology and created a beacon that would arrive in Borg space in the Delta Quadrant significantly faster than two hundred years.

In fact, the only thing “Regeneration” does it reasonably create a premise for the Hansens (Seven Of Nine’s human parents) to have heard of the Borg and go out looking for them. As I mentioned; Braga has a way of looking out for his own interests.

Continuing on the laundry lists of serious continuity problems, the Borg nanoprobes should have been fast acting on all of the aliens encountered in the episode. The idea that Dr. Phlox found a cure for nanoprobe technology in the 22nd Century is utterly ridiculous in that the EMH on Voyager was programmed with the sum of all Federation medical knowledge; if Phlox had found a cure to Borg nanoprobes, the EMH would have known about it because what possible reason could Phlox have for not sharing his notes on stopping Borg technology?!

Unremarkable with the acting, devoid of character development, “Regeneration” is a virtual shitstorm of bad concepts that once again undermines the once terrifying menace that was the Borg.

The three biggest gaffes in “Regeneration:”
3. T’Pol characterizes Zephram Cochrane as a drunk, but all accounts from everyone in Star Trek: First Contact had him pegged as a hero. In fact, the Zephram Cochrane subplot of Star Trek: First Contact is, by and large, the story of a man who was turning a corner. Given his historic accomplishments, it makes far more sense that humans would have whitewashed his personal history fast, especially with the way they compete with Vulcans to get into space,
2. Phlox references the Bynars. The Bynars were a relatively recently discovered race in “11001001” (reviewed here!) which was the only episode they were featured in. They should be so far from the core of the Federation that even the Denobulans have not yet encountered them,
1. If the Federation encountered the 24th Century version of the Borg in the 22nd Century, there is simply no way they should have been able to hold them off with their limited technology.

[Knowing that single episodes are an inefficient way to get episodes, it's worth looking into Star Trek: Enterprise - The Complete Second Season on DVD or Blu-Ray, which is also a better economical choice than buying individual episodes. Read my review of the sophmore season here!
Thanks!]

0/10

For other Star Trek episode and movie reviews, please visit my Star Trek Review Index Page!

© 2013 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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One Of The More Original Possession Episodes Initially, “The Crossing” Becomes Painfully Familiar!

The Good: Decent concept, Good special effects, Moments of performance
The Bad: Creates some pretty huge continuity problems for the franchise.
The Basics: “The Crossing” is a straightforward possession episode that introduces an incorporeal life form to Enterprise!


In the Star Trek franchise, like so many science fiction shows and series’ fall back on the tried and true plot of a possession episode. There is nothing inherently wrong with possession episodes, but more often than not, they follow a predictable pattern, especially with the reversals that come when people who are not previously possessed become taken over. “The Crossing” is the first major, crew wide, possession episode of Enterprise and while it starts as a potentially creative and compelling episode, it quickly degenerates into something unfortunately familiar.

Before the episode makes its intent completely clear, the show appears like it might be a very pure Star Trek episode working to present an exploration episode that is strongly science fiction. Star Trek did plenty of possession episodes, like “Wolf In The Fold” (reviewed here!) and “Metamorphosis” (reviewed here!). “The Crossing” initially seems like it might be shaking up the familiar formula by presenting characters more like those from “Return To Tomorrow” (reviewed here!) who actually might want to simply explore, but the show mortgages that in favor of the familiar and creepy.

The Enterprise is cruising through space when it encounters a massive vessel that is traveling at warp, without emitting a warp signature. The Enterprise is taken into the other vessel and they are unable to scan outside the ship or creature to understand if they are still at warp. The ship’s engines go offline and when Archer, Reed, and Tucker leave the ship to walk around the life form, Tucker is penetrated by a glowing light and he believes he was in Florida for the duration of its contact with him. Soon, the alien lights are infiltrating the ship and Tucker is possessed by one again. Almost instantly, though, other members of the Engineering crew realize something is wrong with Tucker. Tucker goes to the dining hall where he begins to binge and he seems amazed by very common foods.

Tucker reveals that he is actually an alien inhabiting the body of Trip. When Tucker is returned to his body, he describes an incredible experience of being elsewhere. While Tucker works to get the ship back online, T’Pol tries to convince Archer that the incorporeal life forms might just have been honest when they said they were explorers. But when Phlox is concerned that one of the energy life forms tried to penetrate him and Reed is inhabited, Archer’s worst fears are realized. As the crew is possessed by the life forms, T’Pol, Archer and Phlox work to resist the aliens.

“The Crossing” is hampered more by situational and directoral predictability than anything else. So, for example, David Livingston frames and reveals the possessed Sato in the most obvious possible way and Linda Park telegraphs the reveal with a dead-eyed expression that guts the moment of even the pretense of surprise. Moreover, once the episode takes a turn toward the formulaic possession plot, it turns surprisingly horrifically away from being Star Trek.

The writing in “The Crossing” does not make the aliens into a clear villain, which is fine especially at the beginning of the episode. When Trip encounters the life forms, he has a seemingly benign experience and actually is pretty excited by the first contact. It is only Archer’s perspective that this alien race is a menace to the ship that shifts the demeanor and nature of the first contact. That makes the aliens seem far less villainous and more like Archer is an ass. It is only after Archer rejects the benign advance of the aliens that they react in a sinister way.

At that moment in the episode, “The Crossing” transforms from something that could be smart and cerebral into a pretty typical and surprisingly lowbrow. Trip describes something akin to an out-of-body experience that is entirely pleasant to him; Archer responds by demanding the aliens leave and out come the phase pistols and lots of running, jumping, and ridiculousness.

Equally problematic are the episode’s effects as a mechanic for the possession. When the aliens possess a human, there is no indication of their (for lack of a better term) soul. And yet, before any of the aliens leave their human hosts, an energy creature is seen entering before another energy creature exits. So, scenes like Sato becoming possessed while on the bridge make no rational sense; there should have been the light discharge from the alien arriving and Sato’s “spirit” leaving. It makes no sense for there to be an exiting spirit only when the host is reclaimed by its innate personality.

Such minutiae end up not mattering; the episode sinks fast into the mundane and the mechanics become less problematic than the broad strokes. “The Crossing” is one of those great episodes to point to that illustrates that Star Trek was left in the hands of people who had nothing new to say and little care for treading where the franchise, indeed almost all science fiction, had already gone before.

The three biggest gaffes in “The Crossing:”
3. If the Enterprise encountered a giant living ship, how is it still a novelty 100 and 200 years later? How is it that this alien race is never seen again if it is so close to the core of the Federation?,
2. If the NX-01 Enterprise encountered an incorporeal life form, how is it a novelty for the NCC-1701 Enterprise? Moreover, how have they not developed sensors to detect just such life forms?!,
1. Despite their methods, the aliens in “The Crossing” are just trying to survive. The resolution to the episode (spoiler alert!) makes Archer into anything but a StarFleet captain. In fact, he’s guilty of homicide, if not outright genocide. This is not entertaining to watch.

[Knowing that single episodes are an inefficient way to get episodes, it's worth looking into Star Trek: Enterprise - The Complete Second Season on DVD or Blu-Ray, which is also a better economical choice than buying individual episodes. Read my review of the sophmore season here!
Thanks!]

4.5/10

For other Star Trek episode and movie reviews, please visit my Star Trek Review Index Page!

© 2013 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Vulcans Are Further Undermined In “Stigma”

The Good: Generally decent special effects, Good theme, Decent continuity within the series.
The Bad: Terrible acting by Jolene Blalock
The Basics: “Stigma” might have been a fine allegory episode were it not for the fact that so many Vulcans have already appeared in the Star Trek franchise.


There are some great allegory episodes in the Star Trek franchise, very few are as subtle as they initially appear. In Star Trek: The Next Generation, well before the censors were comfortable with issues pertaining to homosexuality appearing on television, the show produced “The Outcast” (reviewed here!) which used an androgynous race as an allegory for homosexuality. “Stigma” in Star Trek: Enterprise is an allegory episode and it is not at all a subtle one. “Stigma” is an AIDS issue episode where Vulcan mind melds are treated like contracting HIV.

“Stigma” is a de facto sequel to the first season episode “Fusion” (reviewed here!). In “Fusion,” T’Pol had an experience with a Vulcan mind meld and in “Stigma” it is treated like an act of rape, which was not as explicit in that episode. Instead, T’Pol seemed more the victim of a date rape style of assault. Panar Syndrome in “Stigma” makes medical professionals seem like utter jackasses in that the Vulcans treat a rape victim like a willing participant in a “deviant act.”

Opening with Phlox revealing that T’Pol has some form of degenerative illness, but that Enterprise is headed to a medical conference, Phlox is reunited with one of his wives, Feezal. Feezal comes bearing a neutron microscope and Phlox goes to the conference to get information from the Vulcans. As Trip and Feezal work together, Tucker is put off by the fact that Feezal is clearly flirting with him. The Vulcan contingent comes to Enterprise where they explicitly deny Phlox’s request for information on a cure to a condition that is only transmitted via a Vulcan mind meld.

When Dr. Oratt and his staff surreptitiously scan T’Pol and realize T’Pol has the syndrome, Archer gets involved. The Vulcans take a hardline stance that the deviants who perform mind melds ought to be isolated and allowed to die, so they withhold the research on the syndrome from Archer, Phlox and T’Pol. When one of the Vulcans, Yuris, provides information to T’Pol with research that allows Phlox to develop a treatment. When Archer confronts Dr. Oratt, a hearing is called and Archer argues on behalf of T’Pol and the melders.

Allegory aside, “Stigma” has some serious problems, most of which come from the Vulcan characters who act remarkably un-Vulcan. Michael Ensign, who played a Vulcan ambassador in “The Forsaken” (reviewed here!) plays Dr. Oratt and is an even less convincing than his earlier Vulcan.

“Stigma” is marred almost immediately by the acting of Jolene Blalock. Even in the teaser, Blalock (who appears to be wearing an even tighter corset than usual) is much more physically expressive than almost any Vulcan ought to be. Blalock prances around in “Stigma” in a way that is vastly over sexualized and expressive than a Vulcan ought to be.

The saving grace of “Stigma,” outside the strength of the allegory for bringing to the forefront the issues of stigma associated with sexually-transmitted disease, is the b-plot. Feezal is interesting and the whole idea that the Denobulans are open in their relationships instead of being guided by Earthbound and evangelical Victorian notions of intimacy is refreshing. One of the real joys in “Stigma” is seeing how Feezal flirts and how uncomfortable Trip is made by her advances. It plays off Phlox’s much more even-tempered reaction wonderfully.

Unfortunately, “Stigma” belabors itself. Long after the point of the episode is absolutely clear, Archer rants explicitly about how ridiculous the Vulcan prejudice is. So, the menace to T’Pol’s career – which takes up half the episode after the medical jeopardy to her is resolved – seems far less compelling.

“Stigma” continues to build the bond between Archer and T’Pol and that is refreshing. So, despite all of the serious conceptual problems with the episode, “Stigma” has enough worthwhile elements to be worth watching.

The three biggest gaffes in “Stigma:”
3. T’Pol lies repeatedly,
2. “Melders” are treated as a dramatic minority in “Stigma,” so much so that the Vulcans have a list of the known melders on them. The odds that every Vulcan who has served on a starship since being one or two generations removed from that stigma being a melder is absurd. Moreover, the fact that Archer has to lecture in favor of the ancient philosophy of Infinite Diversity In Infinite Combinations, is absurd,
1. You don’t get much more straightlaced in the Star Trek universe than Sarek. The idea that when Sarek was a child (as he would have been during the Enterprise timeframe) Vulcan mindmelds were taboo is ridiculous, especially given how Sarek melds with Admiral Kirk. If Sarek was raised conservative (which he was) and it was taboo when he was raised, then it seems utterly implausible that he would have shed such a deeply-held belief by his midlife.

[Knowing that single episodes are an inefficient way to get episodes, it's worth looking into Star Trek: Enterprise - The Complete Second Season on DVD or Blu-Ray, which is also a better economical choice than buying individual episodes. Read my review of the sophmore season here!
Thanks!]

For other works with Michael Ensign, please visit my reviews of:
The Five-Year Engagement
Seabiscuit
Titanic
“False Profits” - Star Trek: Voyager
“First Contact” - Star Trek: The Next Generation
Superman

6.5/10

For other Star Trek episode and movie reviews, please visit my Star Trek Review Index Page!

© 2013 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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