Day 294: Enterprise, Shockwave (Part 1)

Show: Star Trek; Enterprise

Episode Particulars: S1EP25, “Shockwave, Part 1”

 Summary: As one of the Enterprise shuttlepods heads down to a mining colony, an explosion rocks the atmosphere and basically burns up the entire planet. Despite Malcolm’s very vehement insistence that the shuttlepod wasn’t the cause of the accident, nobody else seems to think so, least of all Starfleet. Archer gets the bad news from the semi-recurring character Admiral Forrest (Vaughn Armstrong) that the Vulcans are using the tragedy as an opportunity to recall the Enterprise and keep Humans out of space for another quarter-century. Upset that he’s letting his crew down, Archer doesn’t know what to do about it…until he gets an unexpected visitor who tells him that the explosion wasn’t supposed to happen, and that this is clearly related to the Temporal Cold War. In order to set things right, Archer’s given enough information to track down the ones who are really responsible and clear his name. Though because this conflict spans all time periods, the other side’s at least somewhat aware of the plan, and has some plans of its own…

Standalone Thoughts: This episode wound up really surprising me. After twenty-four episodes of a mostly lighthearted tone, the season finale feels much more serious and intense. There have been a few serious moments throughout, but only “Broken Bow”, “The Andorian Incident”, and “Detained” come close to feeling like this all the way through. It’s not a bad change by any means, but if you’re watching the episodes in rapid succession, it’s a little jarring.

Once you get over the sensation, though, the actual material of the episode is very good, although I feel like it’s kind of divided into three parts. The first section is a fantastic portrayal of guilt and loss as everybody tries to process what happened and the fact that their adventure is coming to an end. The second part ramps up the action and becomes a cross between a thriller and a heist movie. And the last third is a slow build of tension that ends in the cliffhanger that leads us into Season Two. All of these bits are good in their own way, but I’m not entirely sure each part naturally flows into the other. It all adds up to something very engaging, but when you stop and look back at it, it’s a bit of a surprise that all of this was contained in forty-three minutes. I don’t know if I’d go so far as to say this episode should have been a three-parter, but a little more streamlining might have been the right move here. That’s a fairly minor quibble, though; this is a great episode to end the season on, and makes me even more excited than usual for a chance to watch the next episode. I can only hope other viewers had/have the same feeling.

How it Relates to the Whole: This being a two-parter, this will obviously be important to at least one more episode. However, it also very much relates to the Temporal Cold War and the events of “Cold Front” as well as “Broken Bow”, so it’s definitely essential viewing.

Other: *Technobabble is part and parcel of Star Trek, but there’s one scene midway through which is so overloaded with technobabble that even the characters are a bit overwhelmed by it (though at least they’ve got a reason to be so). Still, it might be important to the scene, but I think a bit less jargon would have been all to the good here.

*Season wrapup: While I did generally enjoy this season, I can see why it wasn’t a huge hit at the time. As I said numerous times throughout the reviews, the quality of each episode was generally decent—certainly it was much more consistent and enjoyable than what we got in the first season of DS9—but a lot of the episodes were total fluff. Although the season was really good about making callbacks to previous episodes, it actually only spent four episodes (which includes the pilot) dedicated to the big plot they’d set up at the start, plus two episodes related to a different conflict that (at least at this point in time) looks like it’s been resolved. Anybody looking for something with a bit more substance would probably feel disappointed. For all that, though, the characters are all mostly likeable and the tone is pretty light and fun. At the moment, this is the sort of show that’s something you’d watch to pass the time on a hot summer day; something that’s entertaining and doesn’t require much brainpower. Unfortunately, given the Star Trek label, I think audiences at the time were expecting more, and that was part of why Enterprise eventually failed. Which is a shame, because it’s perfectly fine as it is now, and I’m pretty sure it’s going to get better from here.

Badass Malcolm Moment: There’s a fair bit I could choose from in this episode, but I think I’ll go with Malcolm being the “eye in the sky” during the heist. He’s mostly just observing, but he’s always on top of things, and that sort of quiet competence gets me every time.

After The Fact Update, sort of: While Memory Alpha didn’t really have anything of note, I have officially made the decision that I’ll be using it like I did the DS9 Companion. Therefore, I’ve gone back and added notes to episodes with things worth discussing; you can find them in the reviews “Civilization”, “Fusion”, and “Acquisition”.