Day 351: Enterprise, The Forge

Show: Star Trek; Enterprise

Episode Particulars: S4EP7, “The Forge”

 Summary: A bomb goes off at the Earth embassy on Vulcan, killing forty-three people, including Admiral Forrest. The Enterprise is sent to Vulcan to investigate, and eventually turns up evidence that the bombing is the work of a group known as Syrannites, a group of Vulcans who have a controversial view of the teachings of the great Vulcan philosopher Surak. Ambassador Soval (who was present when the Embassy blew up and was actually saved by Forrest) feels like something isn’t right, and urges the Enterprise crew to keep digging, regardless of what the High Command says. Things get even more complicated when T’Pol’s new husband arrives to deliver a message to T’Pol from her mother T’Les. It turns out she’s a Syrannite, and she wants her daughter to meet her in a place called the Forge, the place where Surak supposedly wandered and developed the philosophy all Vulcans follow. Wanting to get to the bottom of this, Archer accompanies her to the Forge, where they eventually run into a pilgrim named Arev (Michael Nouri). Given the location and everything that’s been happening, though, it’s a safe bet that there’s more to Arev than meets the eye.

Standalone Thoughts: Unlike the exposition heavy “Borderland”, the episode that starts this new arc is very promising. The actual start of the episode is one of Enterprise’s weaker teasers, but after that, it kicks off in a big way, especially given that we see the death of Admiral Forrest, which is both a surprising and unsurprising move. Killing off a character we know to show how serious things are is a classic move, and since you generally don’t do that to your main characters, a supporting character like Forrest was the obvious choice. On the other hand, Forrest has been around since the beginning, so even if you don’t feel actively sad about his death, it can still be a bit of a shock. It can certainly make you more invested in what is going on, if only because you know Archer has a personal stake in all this.

The rest of the episode is plenty entertaining, especially if, like me, you have a soft spot for mysteries. You’ve got the mystery of what happened at the embassy (complete with hints of a conspiracy), and then you’ve got the mystery of what’s going on with T’Pol’s mother as well as the true nature of the Syrannites. In both cases, new information is delivered at just the right time and in just the right doses to keep you intrigued, and with one exception, it’s generally well-paced. Throw in some mysticism overtones (though admittedly a little of this goes a long way) and a new location that feels appropriately dangerous, and you’ve got a pretty good setup here.

Now, about that exception, which has to do with mind melds. On the one hand, there’s a very clever subversion of the usual Trek tropes. In previous shows (Voyager in particular used it a lot), mind melds were used to gather information with barely any hesitation. Here, as was established back in “Stigma”, mind melds are considered taboo, so pretty much all Vulcans would balk at doing it. That aspect, I like; what I don’t like is that we get a revelation related to mind melds that comes out of nowhere solely for the sake of furthering the plot. They do try to justify it (sort of) in a later scene, and perhaps we’ll get more in the rest of the arc, but we’d never seen any sign of this before, and this is the sort of thing that probably should have been established earlier. Then again, mind melds have barely come up since “Stigma”, so it may have been hard to establish, but I still think the effort should have been made.

I don’t enjoy this episode as much as I enjoyed episodes like “Cease Fire” or “Damage”, but I’d consider it a cut above the already decent quality of the Season One episodes. Like I said, it’s a promising start. Hopefully, like the rest of the “augment” arc, the next two episodes will be even better now that we have some idea of what to expect.

How it Relates to the Whole: This episode uses the characters and relationships established in “Home” to great effect, brings back the idea of mind melds being taboo from “Stigma”, kills off recurring character Admiral Forrest while also allowing for some growth for Soval, and starts to set up a change in Human-Vulcan dynamics that will play out more in the next two episodes (and possibly a future arc as well). Looking at the connection to the franchise overall, the biggest connection at the moment is bringing up an idea that was first introduced in the Star Trek movies. Which idea, however, I won’t address until tomorrow…

Other: *Why do I get the feeling that the music in the teaser was deliberately trying to sound a bit like what you hear in movies set in Ancient Egypt? It’s not blatantly obvious, but I could swear it’s there.

*For that matter, I also suspect some of the scenes in the Forge are supposed to be riffing off of other movies involving deserts and explorations of ancient civilizations. Indiana Jones is the obvious inspiration here, but perhaps there was a bit of the Mummy remake in there as well. Or maybe this is me and my love of movies looking for parallels.

Badass Malcolm Moment: Remember when I said Malcolm has grace under pressure back in “Terra Nova”? That’s nothing compared to finding a bomb that’s armed, quickly demanding a transporter lock, dismissing the idea of beaming out the bomb because there’s a chance it will detonate, and carefully scanning the bomb, again with the knowledge that doing so could trigger it, and even managing to make a semi-joke at one point. Nerves of steel doesn’t even begin to cover it.

After the Fact Update: There was an extra reference in the episode that I didn’t catch; an homage to Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home. I figured I might as well mention it so the really big Star Trek fans and continuity buffs can find something else to enjoy about the episode.