The Worst Ten Episodes Of Star Trek: Enterprise!

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The Basics: Corrupted almost from the beginning, Star Trek: Enterprise’s lowest episodes are the worst of the worst!


At the end of my reviews for each of the individual episodes of Star Trek: Enterprise, I find myself contemplating the entire series. That brings me to the usual Bottom Ten List. The series, which almost instantly mortgaged its potential as a prequel to Star Trek had some real low points and the Worst Ten Episodes Of Star Trek: Enterprise are almost entirely episodes that are bad on their own (save the #10, which is horrible in the context of the Star Trek franchise).

Without pretense, the bottom ten episodes of Star Trek: Enterprise are:

10. “The Andorian Incident” (reviewed here!) – Not, technically, a bad episode of television, “The Andorian Incident” was the first, big “fuck you!” episode for fans of the Star Trek franchise. The episode is all about how Vulcans are lying to both the humans and the Andorians . . . which comes out over the course of an agonizing hostage situation in a Vulcan monastary. Completely undermining one of the key cultural conceits of the greatest allies to humans in the Star Trek Universe is utterly ridiculous for the prequel and showed fans of the Star Trek franchise that the executive producers and writers of the series could not give a damn about precedent, continuity, or what made Star Trek wonderful. That makes “The Andorian Incident” fine television, but utterly lousy Star Trek,

9. “Singularity” (reviewed here!) – When the Enterprise approaches a Trinary Star System, everyone starts acting utterly obsessed with mundane tasks. This is an episode that seems like a possession episode, but never develops into something so smart. Are there really no other Trinary Star Systems in the Star Trek universe and since when does radiation make people focused on very small details in their lives?! This episode is just ridiculous,

8. “Horizon” (reviewed here!) – It’s always nice when Star Trek shows try to give a decent role to the secondary characters in their series. “Horizon” tries to focus on Ensign Mayweather and the plot – which has Mayweather returning to his family’s ship only to have his brother treat him like a jerk – is canned and boring. The episode also is one of the worst-performed episodes of the entire series,

7. “Shockwave, Part II” (reviewed here!) – Opening the second season with one of the least satisfying episodes of the entire series, “Shockwave, Part II” finds Archer in the distant future with no usable technology of his own (or support from StarFleet). And yet, he somehow magically manages to contact his adversary and time travel?! And the Suliban prove to be tools who aren’t all that compelling in the way of villains. Yeah, it’s just a sucky action-adventure episode,

6. “Terra Nova” (reviewed here!) – The prequel show sets up a whole ton of episodes of Star Trek that focus on lost human colonies. Arriving at Terra Nova, the Enterprise crew finds humans who have regressed and devolve a bit. This an episode that is supposed to be scary, but flops entirely on the mood front. More than that, the acting is horrible and there is no real character development. “Terra Nova” is just bad television,

5. “Anomaly” (reviewed here!) – Despite being essential to understanding the third season of Star Trek: Enterprise, Anomaly is just ridiculous. This is a space anomaly of the week episode and the sheer number of wonky physics moments in the episode should have torn the ship to pieces. The next time – in context – that Star Trek tried to do something like this episode was in Star Trek: Voyager when the technology was vastly more advanced. This episode is paced and has a soundtrack as if it was an action episode, but it is just boring,

4. “Canamar” (reviewed here!) – How exciting can an episode of television be when one plot is guys waiting for the legal system to set them free and the other plot having the crew trying to convince aliens that Tucker and Archer are not the criminals they are accused of being. This is a prison break style episode where Archer and Tucker are stuck with hardened criminals and T’Pol has to deal with an irate planetary administrator and who the hell cares?! This type episode always sucks because there’s no real menace. Is a Star Trek captain ever going to be killed in a random act of violence? No. This isn’t “Joss Whedon’s Enterprise,” so “Canamar” fails largely because it is impossible to suspend one’s disbelief for it,

3. “Extinction” (reviewed here!) - The only thing worse than Star Trek: Enterprise making episodes that are a mockery of other episodes in the Star Trek franchise is when the show blandly recreates the worst episodes of other Star Trek episodes. “Extinction” is the worst of that type episode: remaking “Genesis” (reviewed here!) and “Threshold” (reviewed here!), Archer and other crewmembers devolve and the result is no better than when Star Trek: The Next Generation or Star Trek: Voyager did mutation episodes,

2. “Regeneration” (reviewed here!) – The only thing worse than time-traveling Borg in Star Trek: First Contact (reviewed here!) is believing that 22nd Century humans could defeat 24th Century Borg . . . and that they didn’t keep adequate notes on the Borg to be able to thwart them when they encountered them later on. Some people like “Regeneration;” I see it for what it is, an action-packed mess that makes no sense on its own or in the larger Star Trek storyline,

And . . .

. . . the worst of the series is . . .

1.“Fusion” (reviewed here!)! When the Enterprise encounters a ship full of emotional Vulcans, the writers take a big, steaming dump on all Star Trek continuity. “Fusion” has rational adults succumbing to the most banal form of peer pressure and a situation that is entirely blasé when it could be revolutionary. “Fusion” is an episode that undermines main characters in Enterprise (T’Pol is weak-willed and Tucker is essentially a hillbilly) and that is no way for any Enterprise crew to be staffed. I suppose the only redeeming aspect of “Fusion” is that it got the worst of Star Trek: Enterprise out of the way fairly early.

For other “Worst Of” lists, please check out my lists of:
The Worst Ten Episodes Of Star Trek
The Worst Ten Episodes Of Star Trek: The Next Generation
The Worst Ten Episodes Of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
The Worst Ten Episodes Of Star Trek: Voyager
What Is So Bad About Star Trek Into Darkness

For other Star Trek reviews, please be sure to check out my Star Trek Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2014 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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The Top Ten Episodes Of Star Trek: Enterprise!

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The Basics: Star Trek: Enterprise did not have a single perfect episode, but there were some that were tolerable, even for fans of the larger Star Trek franchise. Here are the best ten episodes of the series!


Having concluded my reviews of each and every episode and movie in the Star Trek franchise with my final reviews of Star Trek: Enterprise episodes, it’s time to put up the Top Ten Episodes Of Star Trek: Enterprise! It is worth mentioning up front that the homogenously troubling nature of Star Trek: Enterprise to serious fans of the Star Trek franchise made it extra difficult to “pick the winners.”

It is worth noting that Star Trek: Enterprise, in my objective rating system, never had a perfect episode and that there are remarkably few I would actually recommend watching more than once. These episodes were the highest rated using my objective rating system and it is also worth noting that many fan favorite episodes do not appear on this list for a very simple reason: I am not impressed by special effects. Special effects account for only one point out of ten in my rating system, so the primarily special effects-driven episodes that are very popular with many of the fans may not score as high with me because so many of those episodes lack the distinctive or interesting plots, the genuine character development, or remarkable acting one might hope for. As well, many episodes of Star Trek: Enterprise suffer because of how they fit into the larger context of the Star Trek franchise.

What might be most surprising about this list of the Top Ten Episodes Of Star Trek: Enterprise is how few episodes from the final season ended up on the list. The fourth season of Star Trek: Enterprise is the best of the series . . . but so many of those episodes and arcs still had serious issues with how the episodes fit into the larger context of the Star Trek franchise. That said, if one feels they want to cull Star Trek: Enterprise down to the ten worth seeing, the best ten episodes of Star Trek: Enterprise are:

10. “Observer Effect” (reviewed here!) – Arguably the best acting exercise in the series, “Observer Effect” had Reed and Mayweather possessed by Organians, observing a scientific experiment the race from “Errand Of Mercy” (reviewed here!) put into motion. More than a generic, lame possession episode, “Observer Effect” allowed almost all of the main cast members to play a completely different character. While weak on the character development front (all of the character development comes from the Alien Of The Week Organians), “Observer Effect” was a smartly-written, well-acted episode that is strong enough to remind viewers what they were missing from the show’s prior seasons. This is also one of the most clever allusions to the original Star Trek that the series pulled off,


9. “Breaking The Ice” (reviewed here!) – The first truly smart, standalone episode, “Breaking The Ice” had a cool realistic element in the form of a long-distance classroom report that Archer has to deal with while the Enterprise visits a comet. The episode is light on plot, but is packed with character development. As Reed and Mayweather mine a comet, T’Pol learns the value of free will from Tucker when she resists the idea of the arranged marriage awaiting her on Vulcan. “Breaking The Ice” is (mostly) a bottle episode, but it was enough to give viewers some hope that Star Trek: Enterprise would not homogenously suck (the episodes that preceded it were not all that good). Unfortunately, it stood alone for a while in the first season, though it is a strong character episode that fleshes out the personalities on the ship enough to hook viewers until the next truly worthwhile episode,

8. “Cold Station 12” (reviewed here!) – Brent Spiner’s second episode as Arik Soong actually puts Archer’s crew in direct conflict with the scientist’s villainous Augments. This fourth season episode is action-packed, legitimately menacing and has an engaging character struggle for Smike, Phlox, and Archer. This episode revealed the potential of the corrective measures the writers and producers were using for the fourth season of Star Trek: Enterprise and it was enough to give viewers hope that the series would be improving,

7. “Shuttlepod One” (reviewed here!) – Two men (Tucker and Reed) are waiting to die from a shuttlepod that is out of the range of the Enterprise. It could have been a half-assed reworking of “Armageddon Game” (reviewed here!), which forged the bond between O’Brien and Bashir. This episode smartly became an “odd couple” episode that fleshed out Tucker and Reed extensively without making either seem like a placeholder for a prior character in the franchise. Good acting and engaging character development saved a slow episode and make it one of the best,

6. “Shadows Of P’Jem” (reviewed here!) – While “The Andorian Incident” (reviewed here!) might be one of the inarguably worst episodes of Star Trek Enterprise for anyone who was a serious fan of the Star Trek franchise, the follow-up episode is actually one of the best. Returning Shran to the mix, “Shadows Of P’Jem” finds Vulcan/human relations falling out as a result of “The Andorian Incident.” The Enterprise becomes embroiled in a Vulcan/Andorian conflict on Coridan that creates a legitimate bond between Archer and T’Pol as well as Archer and Shran. The action-packed episode is smart, well acted and actually has character moments that create an emotional resonance in the viewer! There’s a first time for everything and in many ways “Shadows Of P’Jem” was full of firsts for Star Trek: Enterprise,

5. “Future Tense” (reviewed here!) – The only episode from Star Trek Enterprise’s Temporal Cold War to make the list, “Future Tense” has Suliban, Tholians, and what is essentially a TARDIS! “Future Tense” coolly illustrated that at the technological level the crew of the NX-01 Enterprise was stuck with was woefully inadequate to deal with all that the ship encountered. As a result, this episode (which has almost no real character development) still plays well for Star Trek fans looking for a legitimate prequel. This is one of the first big time anomaly episodes and Star Trek Enterprise somehow managed to pull it off well,

4. “Proving Ground” (reviewed here!) – In a pretty tightly serialized season of Star Trek: Enterprise, the executive producers reminded viewers that outside the pocket universe of The Expanse, there was still a Star Trek universe moving right along. The return of Shran is cool and sets up a sense that the Andorians in the prequel will be more of a valuable ally to the humans than the Vulcans. As the Xindi continue to develop their weapon which will destroy Earth, Shran aids the Enterprise in getting the Xindi prototype. This is a wonderful action episode of Star Trek: Enterprise that speeds by each time one watches it. For all the problems with the Xindi arc, “Proving Ground” is not one of them,

3. “The Council” (reviewed here!) – For all of the problems with the third season and the Xindi Arc, no episode reminds viewers of the third season that they are still watching Star Trek the way “The Council” does. “The Council” is all about alliance-building and the triumph of intellectualism over action is a refreshing change of pace for the series. The episode’s tragic elements make the villains more villainous and the intellectual aspects make the heroes more heroic,

2. “The Communicator” (reviewed here!) – It’s “A Piece Of The Action” (reviewed here!) without humor and focused on cause instead of effect! “The Communicator” is a violent, political espionage episode packed with paranoia and a Star Trek sense of the importance of the Prime Directive (without the Prime Directive existing). While there is a bit of unfortunate torture in the episode, “The Communicator” has good acting and a decent amount of character development for a concept episode,

and finally . . .

. . . perhaps obviously to those who are fans of the Star Trek franchise . . .

1. “United” (reviewed here!) – Remember when the Star Trek prequel was first announced? Most fans had one of two reactions: 1. How can they possibly pull it off given how the technology would be so primitive? or 2. What the hell is the point?! The only obvious point to Star Trek: Enterprise is to reveal how the United Federation Of Planets was actually founded. VERY late in the fourth season, Star Trek: Enterprise came out with an episode that truly accomplished that goal. The episode was “United” and it clearly illustrated how aliens with different motivations and cultures could come together for a common cause. Too bad it was “too little, too late.” Still, “United” is arguably THE essential episode of the series for fans of the Star Trek franchise or just good television!

For other “Best Of” lists, please check out my lists of:
The Top Ten Episodes Of Star Trek
The Best Ten Episodes Of Star Trek: The Next Generation
The Top Ten Episodes Of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
The Top Ten Episodes Of Star Trek: Voyager
The Top Ten Episodes Of Frasier

For other television reviews, please visit my Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2014 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Finale 2.0, “These Are The Voyages . . .” Ends Star Trek: Enterprise And Star Trek: The Next Generation

The Good: Interesting retcon for Riker, Inside jokes, Moments of concept
The Bad: Nothing stellar on the plot or character front
The Basics: In a one-shot finale episode, “These Are The Voyages . . .” has an old Star Trek: The Next Generation episode revisited with Star Trek: Enterprise as a Holodeck program within in!


Cut short (or, for those of us who were not fans, finally going off the air after being dragged out for far too long), Star Trek: Enterprise had a surprisingly controversial finale. Instead of ending Star Trek: Enterprise on its own strength, with the logical end point for the series – the founding of the United Federation Of Planets - “These Are The Voyages . . .” (the series finale to Star Trek: Enterprise) concluded with an episode that devoted a decent chunk of time and more in the way of actual character development to Star Trek: The Next Generation! After years living in the shadow of the prior Star Trek series’s, Star Trek: Enterprise surrendered to the probability that no one would ever accept the show the way they fell in love with Star Trek: The Next Generation, the executive producers and writers hedged their bets and essentially created a “lost episode” of Star Trek: The Next Generation.

On the clever front, “These Are The Voyages . . .” occurs within the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode “The Pegasus” (reviewed here!). In that episode, Commander Riker had to make a tough choice. To help him get the emotional strength to make his tough decision, Riker disappears (in this retcon episode) to the Holodeck. Revisiting the final mission of the NX-01 Enterprise, Riker begins to get the inner strength that we are supposed to believe he did not have before that. Go figure.

During the mission to recover the U.S.S. Pegasus, Commander William Riker is troubled. Having encountered Admiral Preston, his former commanding officer, and learned that he plans to continue pursuing illegal military operations with cloaking device technology, Riker finds his loyalties divided. To make the difficult decision as to whether or not to betray his former commander by outing the secret mission the Pegasus was on when it was lost, Riker takes Counselor Troi’s advice and visits the holodeck. There, Riker relives the final mission of the NX-01 Enterprise.

On its way to the signing ceremony for the United Federation Of Planets’s charter, the NX-01 Enterprise is diverted when Shran pops up. Presumed dead for the four years prior, Archer brings Shran aboard and he reveals that his daughter, whom Archer never knew existed, has been kidnapped. Calling in his favor with Archer, Shran and the Enterprise go to the Rigel System to make the trade. Getting his daughter back, Shran returns to the Enterprise. But the raiders who kidnapped Shran’s daughter catch up with the Enterprise and in their zeal to capture Shran, Tucker steps up to protect his captain and his captain’s Andorian ally.

“These Are The Voyages . . .” unfortunately undermines both Star Trek: Enterprise and the character of Commander William T. Riker. Riker has been known to make tough decisions prior to the seventh season of Star Trek: The Next Generation (which is when “The Pegasus” happens). So, the idea that the events of “The Pegasus” are so daunting that he needed to use a mission of the NX-01 Enterprise just to do the right thing is somewhat preposterous. More than that, the two halves of the episode do not really jive. Archer does not make any particularly tough or world-shattering decisions in his half of the plot. And Tucker, who dominates the character front of the Star Trek: Enterprise portion of the episode, makes a fast decision that is no more difficult or different from his other, prior decisions.

As a result, “These Are The Voyages . . .” glosses over most of the Enterprise crew on the character front. T’Pol and Tucker reference their defunct relationship but because the episode happens over five years after the prior episode, “Terra Prime” (reviewed here!), there is a real emotional disconnect in the characters. The idea that Shran has been presumed dead for years and that Archer so quickly accepts his return is an abrupt one. Shran pops back in and given that the Enterprise crew has had some experience with shapeshifters, that Archer just accepts his sudden appearance is as disconnected as the other elements of the story.

“These Are The Voyages . . .” tries to use all of the main cast of Star Trek: Enterprise, but they are glossed over very quickly. Riker taking on the role of Chef is an amusing in-joke (Chef is never actually seen in the series) which gives him access to all of the crewmembers, but with one or two lines each, there is no real depth to the character arc of the episode.

What “These Are The Voyages . . .” ends up being is an episode that brings real closure to the modern Star Trek era; reminding viewers why they loved the Star Trek franchise. It wasn’t Star Trek: Enterprise they loved and, ironically, the finale to the show illustrated that.

[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 Star Trek finales, please visit my reviews of:
“Turnabout Intruder” - Star Trek
“The Counter-Clock Incident” - Star Trek: The Animated Series
Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country
“All Good Things . . .” - Star Trek: The Next Generation
“What You Leave Behind” - Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
“Endgame” - Star Trek: Voyager
Star Trek: Nemesis

4.5/10

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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So Much Reference! “In A Mirror Darkly, Part II” Is An Enterprise Love Song To Star Trek!

The Good: Interesting character work for Archer, Good acting, Engaging plot progression
The Bad: It’s tough to get emotionally invested in the characters, Ridiculous-looking CG Gorn
The Basics: “In A Mirror Darkly, Part II” concludes the prequel Mirror Universe story by having a Gorn hunt through the U.S.S. Defiant, which leads to the solidification of the Terran Empire in a clunky way.


As Star Trek: Enterprise was winding down, its producers had a choice to make: go out with a referential episode or an original arc. The final three episodes of Star Trek: Enterprise were a distinctly Enterprise story, but immediately before that it did a final arc that was tightly related to the original Star Trek. Following up on the Mirror Universe episode “In A Mirror Darkly” (reviewed here!), “In A Mirror Darkly, Part II” was the final Enterprise episode that extensively referenced original Star Trek episodes.

“In A Mirror Darkly, Part II,” like its predecessor, is set entirely in the Mirror Universe that was introduced in “Mirror, Mirror” (reviewed here!). But, more than just presenting a straightforward story in the Mirror Universe, “In A Mirror Darkly, Part II” weaves a story that is very much a love song to Star Trek. As such, the episode is enriched by viewers having seen “The Tholian Web” and “Arena” (reviewed here!). Because of how insular the Mirror Universe stories are and how the action of “In A Mirror Darkly, Part II” is set on the U.S.S. Defiant from “our” universe, it’s actually possible to watch “In A Mirror Darkly, Part II” on its own (without seeing the first part).

With the Enterprise destroyed and a skeleton crew having made it to the U.S.S. Defiant, Archer has Reed and Tucker get the weapons systems of the futuristic ship brought back on line. Destroying the Tholians with the Defiant’s weapons, Archer takes aboard their captives as slaves and sends the Defiant, at impulse, toward Imperial space. When Kelby is killed, Phlox discovers another alien is aboard the ship. Interrogating the alien slave, Archer learns that Sklaar the Gorn is loose on the ship and is sabotaging the Defiant. Archer plans to lead the assault team on the Gorn to recover the plasma regulators needed to get the Defiant up to warp.

When Reed and Archer lead teams to find the Gorn, the Gorn is killed and the Defiant is able to rendezvous with Fleet Admiral Black’s ship. Rescuing Admiral Black from a rebel attack, Archer is dismayed that the Admiral will not give him a battlefield promotion to Captain and the Defiant. Killing Black, Archer takes command and he demands StarFleet’s unconditional surrender. Admiral Gardner refuses to surrender and Archer heads toward Earth, with the U.S.S. Avenger at his side. Aboard the Avenger, Soval and T’Pol work to protect the Empire by saving the Emperor’s life. Phlox allies with T’Pol and Soval, but Tucker manages to get the power grid up and running, destroying the Avenger and setting Archer on a historic course toward Earth.

One of the fun things about every Mirror Universe episode – in Star Trek and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - is seeing how the normal universe characters are tweaked in the Mirror Universe. In “In A Mirror Darkly, Part II,” Archer suffers from a multiple personality disorder, seeing himself goading him into being more assertive. Dr. Phlox is sadistic and Soval is openly emotional and knows how to manipulate emotions. T’Pol is largely unchanged in the Mirror Universe as she is a principled, logical standing up for the greater good.

What does not work as well in “In A Mirror Darkly, Part II” is the Gorn plot. The Gorn seems to be a gratuitous addition to the storyline, as if the writers were saying “See how many episodes of Star Trek we can allude to?!” But the conflict aboard the Defiant distracts from the larger conflict in the Mirror Universe and seems somewhat silly. Archer’s fight with the Gorn ends pretty abruptly and it does not lead to much of a consolidation of power aboard the Defiant (in fact, it is after that that Soval and T’Pol are able to sway Phlox to their side).

The computer-generated Gorn looks ridiculous; it is lit without respect to the elements in its environment, which is a pretty clumsy mistake. Oddly, the space battles which were also done with CG effects are pretty impressive.

The acting in “In A Mirror Darkly, Part II” is good. Scott Bakula’s performance, in particular, stands out as he plays opposite himself (though director Martin V. Rush does not quite get the perspectives right in some shots, so one Archer is noticeably larger than the one he is standing behind!). Most of the rest of the main cast is not given as much to do to play with their warped versions of their characters, but what they are given they rise to the challenge of presenting in an interesting-enough fashion.

“In A Mirror Darkly, Part II” is neither the social revolution story of “Mirror, Mirror” or the usual bloodbath that Alternate Universe Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episodes were known for. Theoretically, “In A Mirror Darkly, Part II” is the story of the establishment of the tyrannical Empire which would evolve into the Empire seen in “Mirror, Mirror.”


The two biggest gaffes in “In A Mirror Darkly, Part II:”
2. In “Mirror, Mirror,” humans and Vulcans are allies; the origins of the Mirror Universe Empire is awkwardly presented with a rebellion from the outset and an inherent disparity in the power base of the two most powerful Federation/Empire races,
1. The Tholians, despite being 100 years prior to those seen in “The Tholian Web” (reviewed here!) use a vastly faster web-creation technology.

[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 Gregory Itzin, be sure to check out my reviews of:
Lincoln
The Ides Of March
The Change-Up
“The Shadows Of P’Jem” - Star Trek: Enterprise
Adaptation.
Original Sin
Evolution
"Critical Care" - Star Trek: Voyager
“Who Mourns For Morn?” - Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
“Dax” - Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

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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“Journey To Babel:” The Prequel – “Babel One”

The Good: Good conspiracy story, Decent acting
The Bad: Light on character development
The Basics: Moving toward the founding of the Federation well, “Babel One” puts the Andorians, Tellarites, and Romulans in play in an intriguing way!


As a prequel series set in the Star Trek Universe, one of the purposes of Star Trek: Enterprise was to explore how the Federation was founded. The implication – made by correlating timelines mentioned in prior episodes – was that the Federation was founded in the wake of a war between Earth and its allies and the Romulans (despite the humans not seeing a Romulan until “Balance Of Terror,” reviewed here!). “Babel One” creates a reasonable foundation for both the war and the Federation that would result in its aftermath.

Much like the Star Trek episode “Journey To Babel” (reviewed here!), “Babel One” finds an Enterprise crew ferrying diplomats when it finds itself in the midst of political intrigue and conspiracies. The fundamental difference (other than scale): “Journey To Babel” was smart enough to balance the political story with a deeply personal one – with Spock and his father, Sarek, being given extensive backstory that plays off the political story. “Babel One” is much more plot-focused.

After Shran’s ship, the Komari, is attacked by a Tellarite ship, Archer and Sato find themselves preparing to meet the Tellarite Ambassador in advance of peace negotiations between the Tellarites and Andorians. When Ambassador Graal comes aboard, Tucker finds the Tellarites fascinating, while Arher and T’Pol are baffled by their confrontational nature. When the Enterprise rescues the survivors of the Komari, the implication that the Tellarites are involved threatens to derail the peace talks. Archer and Shran discuss how war may be inevitable between the Andorians and Tellarites.

When the Enterprise is attacked by an Andorian ship, which refuses to respond to Shran’s authority, Shran tries to rescue the StarFleet ship and when his technical knowledge does not save the ship, it appears there is a conspiracy in the sector. Shran posits that the Andorian ship was not actually an Andorian ship and amid the Tellarites fearing that the Andorians and StarFleet are working together, T’Pol discovers that the ship that attacked the Enterprise does not have and Andorian power signature and that the power signature is identical to the Tellarite ship that attacked the Komari. Tracking the alien ship, they discover an alien vessel that does not match either Tellarite or Andorian design. Beaming over to the alien ship, Reed and Tucker become stranded when the Romulans controlling it remotely attack the Enterprise. The Enterprise crew struggles to rescue its crewmembers from the alien ship while keeping the peace negotiations on track!

The writers of “Babel One” are remarkably perceptive. In addition to creating the clever idea of Romulans using remotely controlled vessels (which adequately explains why there would be a war with the Romulans without the humans ever seeing one), “Babel One” maintains internal continuity well. T’Pol identifies the vessel as Romulan from its power source, which they compare to the mines from “Minefield” (reviewed here!) and that makes a good deal of scientific sense.

“Babel One” features almost no real character development in main characters. Despite T’Pol’s divorce coming through (and how the hell did Tucker and Reed learn about it when she only told Archer?!) and Tucker and Reed talking about the possibility of Reed pursuing her, the main characters do not actually grow or change. Instead, “Babel One” is a big episode for recurring character Shran. In this episode, Shran is given growth as he has developed a love interest with Talas and lost his ship of twelve years. Outside Shran, the characters in “Babel One” are merely tools for the plot progression.

Despite the lack of complication, “Babel One” is a good plot-based episode. The plot is somewhat familiar, but the conspiracy concept is a good one and it lays the framework of both the Federation and the subsequent episode(s) well.

The performances are all good, though none of them are exceptional. While it is refreshing to see Archer developing into a more familiarly moralistic StarFleet captain, Scott Bakula’s monologues do not yet come with a sense of realism. Bakula is not bad, but his performances – even in “Babel One” lack a zest or memorability of many of the other Star Trek captains. No one in “Babel One” gives a bad performance, but no one stretches, either.

“Babel One” is the first part of another three-part arc in the fourth season of Star Trek: Enterprise and it sets up the arc and its larger place in the Star Trek franchise well.

The three biggest gaffes in “Babel One:”
3. In Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (reviewed here!), the notion that Sarek had a wife before Amanda is treated as audacious and uncommon. Given that T’Pol manages to get a divorce in this earlier time period, it seems like that would be an utterly unsurprising revelation for a Vulcan,
2. The sophistication of the Romulan technology presented in “Babel One” make it unlikely that even the combined forces of the humans, Vulcans, Andorians, and Tellarites could defeat them in all-out war,
1. Despite the issues with it being present in “Minefield,” the Romulans had cloaking technology in the episode. Why the remote control vessel would not have one (when it has ample power for a self-destruct mechanism and a holographic generation system) is illogical.

[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 Lee Arenberg, be sure to check out my reviews of:
Once Upon A Time - Season 1
Pirates Of The Caribbean: At World’s End
Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest
Pirates Of The Caribbean: The Curse Of The Black Pearl
Cradle Will Rock
"Juggernaut" - Star Trek: Voyager
“Bloodlines” - Star Trek: The Next Generation
“Force Of Nature” - Star Trek: The Next Generation
“The Nagus” - Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

6.5/10

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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Too Little, Too Late; Fortunately, Even All Bad Things Come To An End: Star Trek: Enterprise Season Four!

The Good: Storylines try to use Star Trek lore
The Bad: Terrible acting, Lack of character development, Sense of desperation
The Basics: On its final legs, the NX-01 Enterprise returns to the Star Trek universe to try to repair the damage of the prior three seasons and still fails.


Having fairly gutted the Star Trek canon with Temporal Wars, Xindi, and appearances by races that had no business preceding Kirk's times, Star Trek Enterprise had lost a large portion of its audience and it looked like it was going to utterly fail. Miraculously, the show was picked up for a fourth and final season and the producers must have sensed their time was limited. Brannon "I hate the original Star Trek" Braga was replaced in the writer's room by Manny Coto, a writer who had great respect for Star Trek. It fell to Coto to save the series and while Star Trek Enterprise - The Complete Fourth Season is easily the best in the NX-01's storyline, it is too little, too late.

Having destroyed the Delphic Expanse and rescued humanity as we know it, Captain Archer and his crew are forced to deal with the final twist from Season 3, that behind all the conspiracies were alien Nazis. No, no one could have realistically seen that one coming. Sadly, Coto's first task is to clean up the mess left at the end of the prior season and the first two episodes seek to do that. They manage to sweep the Temporal War up under the rug (finally) and the NX-01 goes on from there.

Where the Enterprise goes is into more familiar territory. Sort of. Following their debriefing on an Earth that is suddenly rather anti-alien, the Enterprise leaves to find genetic supermen like Khan, Orion slave girls, Vulcans who are working to reform their society around logic, and we finally learn why Klingons look different in Star Trek than in all of the other incarnations of the franchise. And it all leads up to an unreasonably bad series finale.

Is it worth it? No. Coto is a gifted writer and exec, but the efforts to save the show come far too late and the attempt to rewrite the prior three years of television catastrophe still force him to deal with those premises established for the previous three years. So, for example, from the series premiere of Enterprise, the Vulcans behaved in rather un-Vulcan-like ways. They were a factionalized society that was not terribly logical duking it out between factions that were solidly into mysticism and the other into political and social control. Coto is forced to deal with that disparity in the Trek pantheon and the resulting three-parter ("The Forge," "Awakening," and "Kir'Shara") explains the phenomenon, but doesn't make it work any better in the overall tapestry. That is to say that despite the "Temporal Cold War" being written out, Enterprise still finds itself stuck in the universe of Enterprise as opposed to Star Trek. To try to make those two creative visions come together, things like the illogical Vulcans have to be dealt with and even dealing with that undermines the Star Trek universe. In short, Coto is stuck in a "damned if you do, damned if you don't" scenario. After ending the Temporal Cold War, he (presumably) had the choice to restart the series from the beginning - doing it right - or doing his best to correct the problems and go forward from there. He chose (or it was chosen for him) the latter. All that could have saved the series was the former. All that could have saved Star Trek Enterprise was Patrick Duffy in the shower.

But what we have instead is season four of Star Trek Enterprise and in it, the Vulcans overcome their lying tendencies and embrace both mysticism and logic to become the Vulcans we know from Star Trek. The Klingons become infected with a genetic condition which make them look more human, which sets up the Klingons in Star Trek, but does not explain how the Klingons from Star Trek that we see later on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine make the transformation back. And ultimately, xenophobes on Earth must be thwarted to bring the Federation into being.

The latter concept is pretty much lifted right from the playbook of Babylon 5, which Coto was associated with. Babylon 5, which knew where it was going and what it was doing, did it much better because of who the people in the B5 universe were. In Gene Roddenberry's vision of the future in Star Trek and especially Star Trek: The Next Generation, humanity came together after the third world war and made something of itself and headed off in a positive and progressive direction. In the Berman/Braga Trek universe, that didn't happen. Coto tries to negotiate between the two, but as previously stated, this is a tough order that comes too late.

The acting throughout the fourth season of Enterprise is almost homogeneously bad, with Scott Bakula continuing to play Jonathan Archer as largely stiff and Jolene Blalock continuing to play the Vulcan T'Pol with far too much emotion. In the twenty-two episodes of Star Trek Enterprise Season 4, there are no superlative performances.

Here is where the show finds the characters, though:

Captain Jonathan Archer - Having survived the Xindi attempt to make a superweapon doomsday machine, he helps reset the timeline, then finds himself inside a catalog of Star Trek backstories where he blusters his way through,

T'Pol - Outside an arc where she helps save the Vulcan people, her purpose seems mostly to continue to develop a relationship with Commander Tucker,

Trip Tucker - He continues his relationship with T'Pol,

Malcolm Reed - He shows up and shoots things,

Hoshi Sato - She occasionally shows up to translate something,

Travis Mayweather - After being captured in the season premiere, his next big contribution is to help sniff out the xenophobes in the series' final arcs,

and Dr. Phlox - He continues to work medical magic for the crew and later for the Klingons.

Of note, the mirror universe from Star Trek's "Mirror, Mirror" (reviewed here!) and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine is featured in two later episodes of the series ("In a Mirror, Darkly - I and II") and the writers are careful and clever about how it is approached.

Even that, though, is not enough to make this set worth recommending. From day one, Enterprise tried to mortgage its original Star Trek audience. Creatively, they established a universe unlike what Star Trek fans were used to and comfortable with. The NX-01 was never a logical predecessor to the NCC-1701 and none of the equipment looked to precede Captain Pike's. Star Trek Enterprise - The Complete Fourth Season is the last ditch attempt by the creative minds behind the series to woo back the fans it forsook at the outset.

It's not enough.

For more information on this season of television, please visit the reviews of each episode in the set at:
Storm Front
Storm Front, Part 2
Home
Borderland
Cold Station 12
The Augments
The Forge
Awakening
Kir’Shara
Daedalus
Observer Effect
Babel One
United
The Aenar
Affliction
Divergence
Bound
In A Mirror Darkly, Part 1
In A Mirror Darkly, Part 2
Demons
Terra Prime
These Are The Voyages . . .

5/10

For other television reviews, please visit my Television Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2014, 2006 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Moving To The Finale, The “Countdown” Begins!

The Good: Good plot, Decent villain moments, Moments of character development
The Bad: Predictable, Most of the character moments
The Basics: “Countdown” moves the plot of season three along very well and sets up the third season finale of Star Trek: Enterprise!


As the serialized plotline of Star Trek: Enterprise’s third season wound up, the plots became tighter, but the lack of character work was obvious. In the penultimate episode, “Countdown,” there was a strong sense of movement, but the sense that the writers were realizing how unbalanced the cast actually was. With Hoshi Sato captured during the climactic battle in “The Council” (reviewed here!) and a new MacGuffin introduced – the idea that the Xindi weapon requires three of the five codes in order to activate it – the plot is moving fast toward a resolution. Sato had done almost nothing in the season and Reed had been largely neglected (which was why his outburst in “The Council” stood out).

“Countdown” is very much a continuation of the prior plotline, so the fact that Archer’s main ally is not present and there are ever-shifting alliances presented throughout the episode only makes real sense to the people who have been viewing the prior episodes. That said, “Countdown” has a lot that is familiar to fans of the Star Trek franchise – especially Star Trek: The Next Generation. Torture was well-explored in Star Trek: The Next Generation with episodes like “The Mind’s Eye” (reviewed here!) and “Chain Of Command, Part II” (reviewed here!).

Hoshi Sato, captured by Commander Dolim, is told that her brain will essentially be liquefied and she will help the Xindi Reptillians to decode the third launch code needed to arm the Xindi weapon. Jannar and the leader of the Xindi Primates bring Archer before the Xindi Aquatics. The Aquatic leaders are unwilling to help Archer until he suggests that he and the Enterprise can help disable the Spheres, which would make the Expanse livable for all the Xindi again and prove that the Sphere Builders are actually malicious. While Sato tries to resist Dolim’s commands, T’Pol and Tucker butt heads on how best to disable the Spheres. In the process, they work to solidify their relationship.

When Dolim confronts the leader of the Sphere Builders, he is irked to discover they are unwilling (they claim unable) to give him the access codes he needs to activate the weapon Degra designed. As the Xindi Council fractures, Archer forms a new relationship with the leader of the Xindi Primates. When the Xindi Aquatics come forth as allies, the Sphere Builders decide to intervene directly. With the Xindi Reptiles arming the weapon, Archer and his fleet move to confront the Xindi Insectoids and Xindi Reptiles.

“Countdown” illustrates well a fundamental problem with big special effects-driven projects. As the episode moves toward a climactic space battle between the Enterprise and its allied Xindi fleet and the Reptillian/Insectoid fleet, it is hard to genuinely care. The fleets are largely anonymous ships and the nature of the prequel makes for an unfortunate lack of consequence. Regardless of the Enterprise, which seems unlikely to be absolutely destroyed with all hands lost, none of the ships have characters or even species that the viewers are invested in.

On the character front, “Countdown” does a decent job of resolving the conflict between Reed and Major Hayes. Hayes declares that he feels like a member of the crew and his commitment to bring Sato back alive seems very genuine (which is odd because his insistence that Reed needs to be on the bridge seems very forced). The other big character growth comes from T’Pol and Tucker. In “Countdown,” they actually commit to a relationship and it plays well. T’Pol seems like (as contradictory as it would be to the overall continuity) she has foregone logic only and might well be open to a steady, romantic relationship with the human Chief Engineer.

Hoshi Sato is very weakly defined in “Countdown.” She makes a lone passing attempt to prevent the Reptilians from getting the arming sequence by killing herself. Similarly, Archer’s insistence on rescuing Sato shows an unfortunate lack of perspective for the Captain. While Sato blithely notes she is not a cryptologist, she is used as one in a way that makes no sense. After eight months in the Expanse, almost a year after the seven million people on Earth were killed, Archer seems suddenly willing to let his mission fail by rescuing Sato at the risk of the Enterprise and the new alliance.

“Countdown” is notable in that it utilizes the transporter in a very traditional Star Trek way. As Major Hayes and the M.A.C.O.S. fight to rescue Sato, the tension mounts and the use of the transporter helps one feel like they are actually watching something very Star Trek.

Unfortunately, the idea of “Countdown” is a self-defeating one. Because Star Trek: Enterprise is a prequel set in the Star Trek Universe, the question for the entire season has not been “if” the Enterprise will succeed in its mission to save Earth, but rather “how” Archer’s crew would stop the Xindi. The climactic moment of “Countdown,” then, is robbed of much of its suspense and intrigue because there is truly only one way this arc can end.

Despite the plot elements that make “Countdown” feel like familiar Star Trek, the episode is remarkably lacking in thematic resonance that sell it as Trek. While Archer is committed to saving Earth and the Xindi, there is an entirely missing element to the episode: any moralization about the destruction of the Spheres. Because the Sphere Builders are so monolithically presented, their survival is disregarded entirely. Archer never considers how the destruction of the Spheres might be tantamount to genocide on the same order as the one (or two) he is trying to prevent.

Dolim is presented as a decent Star Trek villain, though he lacks a level of empathy the best villains always have. He begins to indicate that he is an absolute evil; betraying those around him in ways that do not justify his blind obedience to the Guardians. Ultimately, “Countdown” is exactly what one expects of a penultimate episode in a season-long serialized arc: it moves the plot forward to the point where one is eager to see the final episode of the season.

The biggest gaffe in “Countdown” is: Spock was the first StarFleet Academy graduate, but the implication was that he was the first Vulcan in StarFleet, so T’Pol’s resolve to “formalize her relationship with StarFleet” seems troubling.

[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!]

6.5/10

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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Getting To Know The Enemy Is The Goal Of A Successful “Stratagem!”

The Good: Interesting story, Good performances, Good effects
The Bad: No real character development, Huge plot/character/ethical hole in the storyline
The Basics: “Stratagem” progresses the serialized story of Star Trek: Enterprise by having Archer capture and work over Degra, the lead Xindi scientist.


With all of the time travel, alternate universes, and false realities in the third season of Star Trek: Enterprise, it takes a lot of investment on the part of the fans to care about continued mind games by the time “Stratagem” comes up in the season. “Stratagem” smartly avoids trying to fool the viewer while the episode creates an elaborate plot to explore how Archer fools the leader of the Xindi weapons team. More than any other episode in the third season, “Stratagem” focuses on Degra.

The episode is also one of the most potentially divisive episode of the third season; the episode very obviously uses classic conditioning and shared obstacles to build trust between two people. This is actually a common form of torture for information and the fact that Phlox uses Regulan blood worms and drugs to get information from Degra to distort his sense of reality is troubling. “Stratagem” can easily be argued to be an “ends justify the means” episode, but the troubling level of unethical acts Archer and Phlox engage in – without any debate from T’Pol – is disturbing. On the plus side, the “it’s okay to torture the villain” story is well-balanced by humanizing Degra. Degra’s character is fleshed out in ways that were only previously vaguely insinuated at before in Randy Oglesby’s brief performance in prior episodes.

A small shuttle carrying Degra and Archer evades a Xindi Insectoid attack. With their escape successful, Degra is instantly suspicious, but Archer works to convince the befuddled scientist that they have just escaped from a Xindi Insectoid prison camp where the two had shared a cell for the prior three years. Archer tells Degra the story of the prior three years; how after the test that was sabotaged in “Proving Ground” (reviewed here!), Degra was captured by the Xindi Insectoids and shortly thereafter, Archer was kidnapped and the Enterprise was destroyed. While the Xindi Council worked to complete the weapon and destroy Earth, the Xindi Insectoids were building a fleet which they used to wipe out the other Xindi sects. According to Archer, the Xindi Insectoids were just using the rest of the Council to take over the Expanse and Degra is quick to agree that that seems plausible.

Soon, though, it becomes evident that Archer is manufacturing the incident and the story in order to get information from Degra. While Archer utilizes drugs and blood worms to extract information from Degra, the episode flashes back to how Archer came to be in possession of Degra and the tight-lipped Xindi gives Archer little other opportunity to get information from him. After manufacturing the shuttle and the story, Archer slowly builds Degra’s confidence to find the location of Azati Prime, a classified world where Archer believes the Xindi are building their doomsday weapon. The plan starts to fall apart when Degra becomes suspicious and starts to test Archer for knowledge he does not have.

“Stratagem” has a desperate quality to it that none of the episodes since “The Expanse” (reviewed here!) has truly possessed. The attack on Earth led to a seasonlong journey that has not seemed especially pressing, despite the fact that there have been glimpses of the Xindi preparing their new weapon. The concept for the season is a good one, but the sense of desperation that leads to “Stratagem” seems forced. That makes the episode far more troubling than realistic. The means do not justify the ends and considering that Archer gets the name Azati Prime almost immediately from the Xindi computer core, the elaborate way that Archer tries to get more information is pretty reprehensible. In fact, given that Archer has the name Azati Prime and Degra, he could easily have stalled the Xindi weapon simply by keeping Degra aboard. There was no real need for torture.

Despite the plot-centered nature of “Stratagem,” the additional character details about Degra work well. Unfortunately, Archer never gets to Degra the way he managed to get under the skin of the Xindi Arboreal in “The Shipment” (reviewed here!). As a result, there is something of a character anticlimax in “Stratagem.” The episode keeps tight on the plot and Degra never comes to truly admit that the Xindi weapon is wrong. If anything, Archer’s actions only solidify the distrust Degra has in the humans. It seems strange given how far Archer and Phlox go in the episode that they did not work to leave Degra with some sort of post-hypnotic suggestion that the weapon is wrong or that the humans do not deserve to be wiped out.

Instead, “Stratagem” is unimaginative in its plotting and character work. However, the performances are solid. Randy Oglesby makes the previously efficient and clear-headed Degra seem entirely reasonably frazzled. Oglesby is a wonderful character actor and here he starts to layer Degra. Oglesby is not given a lot of work to do – the character is fleshed out with additional character details – but Degra is not asked to do any emotional heavy lifting. Strangely, neither is Scott Bakula. Bakula is pretty straightforward as Archer and the performance is not at all demanding for him. Still, he does a fine job at convincing the viewers that Archer can manage the deception he is perpetrating against Degra.

Best for truly moving forward the urgency of the third season plot of Star Trek: Enterprise, “Stratagem” still has a troubling concept, but a decent execution.

The two biggest gaffes in “Stratagem:”
2. The fact that StarFleet uses torture of this type should have made Riker much more resistant to the same techniques (or more aware of what was happening to him) in “Frame Of Mind” (reviewed here!),
1. The Xindi suddenly are using “subspace vortices” that seem to operate much the same way as the transwarp conduits in “Descent” (reviewed here!). Given that, the transwarp conduits should not have been as much of a novelty or anomaly by the 24th Century.

[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!]

5.5/10

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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Star Trek: Enterprise Does Beauty And The Beast With Death Stars In “Exile!”

The Good: Moments of character, Decent enough acting
The Bad: Some super-cheesy special effects, Predictable plot
The Basics: Hoshi Sato is kept as a captive when a lonely alien offers information on the Xindi and the Enterprise investigates the alien spheres in “Exile.”


The common wisdom in storytelling is that every story has already been told and now, magic in film and television comes by the familiar story being told in an imaginative new way. Unfortunately, in the Star Trek franchise, the last iteration of Trek, Star Trek: Enterprise, lost most of its originality and attempts at cleverness for the bulk of the series. One of the prime examples of how dull Enterprise was in terms of rewriting old words is “Exile.” “Exile” is basically Beauty And The Beast rewritten.

To be fair to “Exile,” the episode actually makes decent use of Hoshi Sato. Sato, like Mayweather, is one of the most neglected characters in Star Trek: Enterprise. In “Exile,” pretty much everything the viewer knows about Hoshi Sato is reiterated: she is nervous about space travel, she is a recluse, and she is a gifted linguist. Ironically, little is added to her character in “Exile” – save that her gifted nature was recognized at a young age by her parents and she was given special tutoring as a result and that she might have a secret crush on Mayweather (did they even have any scenes together in the prior two seasons?!) – but the viewer still feels like Sato is given a good run in the episode.

After Hoshi Sato hallucinates a being that can communicate with her, Phlox and Archer become concerned that Sato might be coming unhinged. As T’Pol locates a probable second sphere in the Expanse and the Enterprise diverts its course to confirm the sphere’s location and get specific readings, Sato is contacted again by the telepathic alien, who shows her images of his home planet. When the alien offers to help Sato find information on the Xindi, Archer redirects the Enterprise to find the planet Sato saw in her mind. On the planet, Archer, Sato, and Reed find the alien Tarquin.

Tarquin agrees to exchange information on the Xindi for Sato’s company if she’ll stay with him while the Enterprise moves on to explore the location of the second sphere. Tarquin begins to read Sato’s mind more and she quickly realizes he is terribly lonely. When Archer and Tucker use a shuttlepod to penetrate the barrier around the sphere, they are able to get more readings on the spheres and almost get stranded. Just as T’Pol realizes how dire the situation within the Expanse actually is, Sato comes to believe that Tarquin will not simply let her go when the Enterprise returns for her.

“Exile” is successful in that it intriguingly teases concepts that continue to resonate for the rest of the season. The moment Tarquin sees Dolim in his vision, the episode relies upon viewers having seen prior episodes, both to understand the significance of the alien and to recall the importance of the sphere from “Anomaly” (reviewed here!). The hunt for the Xindi, information on them and their facilities and capabilities is largely what the third season of Enterprise is about and the b-plot elements, the ones away from Hoshi Sato and the Beauty And The Beast-remake, actually make the unextraordinary episode feel fresher than it actually is.

Tarquin loses a lot of his pathos when director Roxann Dawson plays up his creepiness as opposed to the loneliness that supposedly drives the character. This is unfortunate because it telegraphs the reversal near the end when Sato is given a choice on whether to stay with Tarquin or return to the Enterprise. Despite Tarquin sharing a book that intellectually fascinates Sato, she and Tarquin have little chemistry because Tarquin is not direct or romantic in his advance on Sato, he’s creepy.

“Exile” is also hampered some by the special effects. While the make-up department did a good, though unimaginative, job on Tarquin (he looks an awful lot like a Xindi Reptile), the computer generated effects surrounding the shuttlepod are often miscolored or animated-looking.

Still, it is not enough to completely sink “Exile;” the episode is fair, but not superlative in any way. The episode is essential for the Star Trek Enterprise plot, but it is not remarkable; it is a somewhat creepy take on a classic story made worthwhile for the elements that ignore the main plot as opposed to the primary story it is trying to tell.

The three biggest gaffes in “Exile:”
3. Sato mentions “Medieval Klingon,” a language that seems to only exist in this episode and makes absolutely no sense for her to have knowledge of considering how poor the relations have been between the Klingons and humans and Vulcans,
2. This episode marks the first time that the Expanse is revealed to be an artificial construct. Unfortunately, it undermines literally dozens of other phenomenon, devices, and anomalies explored in the Star Trek universe, most notably the Dyson Sphere in “Relics” (reviewed here!) and V’Ger in Star Trek: The Motion Picture (reviewed here!). The size of those constructs was awed at by the respective Enterprise crews. Did not a single member of the Enterprise or Enterprise-D crew ever read about the Expanse?! ,
1. Considering how early this adventure is in Federation history, Tuvok and Kim should never have been bamboozled in “Alter Ego” (reviewed here!). Given how “Exile” is virtually a rewrite of that episode, Tuvok should have been onto the alien in “Alter Ego” almost instantly.

[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 directed by Roxann Dawson, please visit my reviews of:
“Riddles” - Star Trek: Voyager
“Workforce, Part 2” - Star Trek: Voyager
“The Andorian Incident” - Enterprise
“Vox Sola” - Enterprise
“Dead Stop” - Enterprise
“Dawn” - Enterprise
“Bounty” - Enterprise
“Eye Spy” - Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D.

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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