Day 279: Enterprise, Cold Front

Show: Star Trek; Enterprise

Episode Particulars: S1EP10, “Cold Front”

 Summary: When the Enterprise stops to join a bunch of alien pilgrims in witnessing a stellar phenomenon they call “The Plume of Agosoria”, it seems like it should be a fairly relaxed affair. Instead, a plasma storm nearly causes the warp core to explode, but a severed wire prevented a complete meltdown. The problem is, no one will take credit for cutting the wire. Archer soon gets an answer to the mystery, but one that raises even more questions; it turns out that Crewman Daniels (Matt Winston) is an observer from the future, here on business relating to the Temporal Cold War that was mentioned in “Broken Bow”. He explains that the 22^nd century seems to be one of the primary battlegrounds for this war, that the Suliban Enterprise encountered seem to be a part of it, that his sources show that one of the Suliban is here, disguised as a pilgrim, and that it was the Suliban that cut the wire, though it’s not clear to what end. Archer instructs a baffled Tucker and a disbelieving T’Pol to help Daniels find the Suliban, but the Suliban, Silik (John Fleck) has a very different perspective on what’s going on…

Standalone Thoughts: I was wrong in “The Andorian Incident”; we get some followup for major plot points a bit earlier than I expected. And overall, I think it’s a pretty good followup. It’s a little exposition heavy at times, especially when Daniels has to go into more detail about the war, but I think that would have been inevitable, so I’m not going to hold that against anyone. Besides, all the rest of the material surrounding the war is very well-handled. I particularly like the fact that there’s some ambiguity on display, because while we want to believe that Daniels is good and Silik is bad, we can’t be one hundred percent positive based on what we’ve seen. Furthermore, the ending not only doesn’t fully answer the question either, but it doesn’t follow the traditional formula for a Trek episode. It’s refreshing and intriguing, and certainly piques my interest for more.

The one downside to this is that the plot has to share space with the plot about the pilgrims coming to watch the Plume of Agosoria. While the two plots intersect nicely for a time, since Archer has to try to figure out which one of the pilgrims is a Suliban in disguise, eventually they wind up diverging, each cutting in to the other to the detriment of both. Like I said, the Temporal War material is good, but it seems to kind of happen in chunks instead of flowing together smoothly, which might have been better accomplished if we didn’t need to keep cutting back to the pilgrims. Meanwhile, the pilgrims (and the Plume) wind up being ignored near the climax, getting a few token shots that wrap things up but don’t provide any closure, if that makes sense. I don’t think either plot deserved to get short shrift, and therefore I wish the writers had found a way to blend the plots together a little more.

This is definitely another of the strong episodes this season, though it’s not as tight as “The Andorian Incident” and the structure keeps me from calling it a good episode in its own right. It’s a case of the parts being greater than the whole, but those parts are interesting enough that I can mostly overlook the weak spots. Besides, even if it’s not perfect, it suggests the writers are moving in the right direction, and I for one am all for that.

How it Relates to the Whole: We get more information on the Temporal Cold War, officially establish Silik as a recurring character, and end the episode on a shot that all but guarantees there’s going to be more to come. Plus, we get a brief continuity nod to “Unexpected” and we get the first glimpse of a semi-recurring element to the show, which is that the Enterprise sometimes shows movies in the evenings. This isn’t all that important in the grand scheme of things, but since I also review movies, this is of particular interest to me.

Other: *Speaking of the Enterprise’s movie night, while I certainly like the idea, I don’t think this was the place to introduce it. Hoshi, Mayweather, and Malcolm all grouse about how awful the previous night’s movie was in the first few minutes, and then the subject never comes up again. I’m guessing the intent was to do some character development, but it feels out of place. Because of its placement in the story, there’s a feeling that this conversation should be relevant to the rest of the episode, but instead, it just disappears. Personally, I’d have waited to introduce it until two episodes from now; there’s a scene there that gets the point in nicely, no awkward shoehorning required.

*To now immediately contradict myself, there’s another bit between Malcolm, Hoshi, and Mayweather that also serves no purpose except padding, but I’m okay with this one because a) it comes later in the episode, so there aren’t as many expectations attached to it, and b) it’s cute. And I can forgive a lot if something is cute.

*I like the way Daniels’ future tech is used in this episode. It’s established and shows up often enough that it never feels like a Deus ex Machina, even though it’s deployed in that capacity at least twice. Plus, as you can see by my header, sometimes it generates some really cool effects, which is always a neat bonus.

Badass Malcolm Moment: While Malcolm does appear a fair amount in this episode, he mostly seems to be there to provide reaction shots or to follow orders. That being said, when he notices that the starboard targeting sensor has gone out, he goes down to fix the problem himself (and does it pretty quickly) instead of relying on an engineering crew to do it, which implies he’s at least fairly well versed in engineering as well as tactical practices. Though this is going to become even more obvious in a later episode…