[ENT] Shockwave, Part II

TV Programme: Star Trek: Enterprise
Season: 2
Episode: 1
Date I watched this episode: 02/01/2010
Time since I last watched this programme: 2 years, 5 months, 22 days.

So this is the first review I've written of an episode in the Star Trek franchise, and of all the seasons of Star Trek that I am going to be watching over the next months and years, this was the one I was looking forward to least. I know roughly what is going to happen with this show, and it's fairly well-known across the Star Trek community - 1st season sets the scene, 3rd season is one continuous arc and 4th season is several small arcs building up to the founding of the Federation, but the 2nd season is something of an anomaly. Many standalone episodes with little relevance to the stories past or those to come.

However, I was pleasantly surprised by this episode, which had a very action-packed, sleek and unpredictable plotline. It almost felt like some of the old plans in Farscape, where John and D'Argo went off and did their own thing a bit. That normally doesn't get to happen in Star Trek, but they had the perfect setting here - a ship which had been overrun by an enemy faction, and the crew HAD to go to desperate measures to retake it.

Also similarly to Farscape, the plan was only revealed fairly slowly; we didn't know until the end what they were really planning to do. This made it all the more shocking when Reed got captured (although watching the episode again it's clear this was meant to happen) or when the warp core breach sounded (although at the time it seemed plausible that this could be real, as the timeline was going to be altered anyway). The backing music almost merged into one track which smoothly ran through the episode, bulging and dipping as the plan moved through its various phases.

The episode's stark focus on teamwork (which overall made for an uplifting feeling, especially when they were stranded in their quarters and making a plan) meant that it spent a little time with each character (as would be expected for a season premiere) but some characters were more neglected than others. In particular, Phlox and Travis hardly appeared at all, while Archer and T'Pol really led the episode.

The episode started with a sequence very much led by T'Pol. Here, she showed her brilliant leadership skills, bourne out of her logical method. She really showed her worth and was praised by Archer. However her role as leader did lead to her torture (under which she held up extraordinarily well) and we saw a different side of her from before, a damaged, broken side. She was barely up to dealing with Archer's orders, especially as she didn't even believe it was possible.

Archer was just getting very frustrated in this ep, as he wanted to help, but couldn't really do so because he wasn't allowed to know much of what was really going on. It was good to see him finding out about the Federation for the first time, and that he would have a large part to play in its founding. Archer also showed tremendous confidence in his actions at the end (not that I expected anything less), and somehow managed to get past legions of armed Suliban on enemy territory. A feat worthy of Roj Blake, surely!

Those who do know what is really going on are Daniels and Silik. Silik shows his inner weakness here - unable to lead without constant hand-holding by this figure from the future. He is weak on his own. Daniels must have known this and seemingly also that Silik wouldn't be able to contact this future figure. Perhaps the Future Guy is from Earth and so would have been destroyed in this alternate future?

The other characters made pretty average appearances, conforming to fairly well-established character patterns. Hoshi was moaning as usual, which is frankly getting boring. Tucker fitted well into the gunslinging, cowboy attitude he had to take on in this episode. And Reed retained that uncomfortable look which he exhibits throughout the programme, while carrying out his orders without question. In general I don't really rate Hoshi, Reed or Travis as characters.

The show also showed its bravery and willingness to set itself apart from other shows, even other Star Trek shows, by admitting that humanity has made some mistakes but is prepared to deal with them as part of the learning experience. And in that sense, it is a very mature show which shows humanity in a very realistic light. It also didn't try to answer every question about time travel - even Daniels admitted that he didn't have all the answers.

While "Shockwave" (i.e. last season's finale) was filled with doom and gloom, this episode was uplifting, cool, captivating, well-planned and generally enjoyable. While it doesn't make me any less sure that this season as a whole will be a disappointment, I do think this was one of the best episodes so far in the entire programme.