Show: Star Trek; Enterprise
Episode Particulars:
S1EP14, “Shadows of P’Jem”
Standalone
Thoughts: Oddly, despite the fact that the episode has a lot of things I
should like, I think it’s the weakest episode I’ve seen so far. Episodes like
“Strange New World” and “Unexpected” have massive pacing problems, but at least
they aren’t set up to be important; you kind of know going into them that
they’re one-off stories. This episode, by contrast, throws all this important
stuff at us right at the beginning, thus making it seem like there’s going to
be a lot of drama, only to just kind of…coast. At the twenty-five minute mark
of a forty-four minute episode, I looked back and asked “what exactly has
happened in these twenty-five minutes?” And while a lot has technically
happened, it seems like we’ve been focusing on the wrong things. It honestly
feels like we spent more time dealing with the hostage situation then we did
watching anybody consider the ramifications of T’Pol leaving/being used as a
scapegoat. They do talk about it, but it never feels like it has any weight.
Archer’s discussion about being unprepared in “Silent Enemy” had weight, even
if it came out of nowhere. The various scenes where T’Pol’s leaving is
discussed don’t seem to have any emotion behind them at all. That makes sense
for T’Pol, but Archer should have some sort
of passion in his voice. Anger, indignance, determination…any of these would
work. Instead, he just sounds mildly annoyed, like T’Pol’s leaving is
equivalent to a minor engine problem. As a result, what should be a really
interesting episode about consequences and the continuing progress of
Human-Vulcan interactions feels really, really bland instead.
The episode also sets up expectations it doesn’t deliver
on. I won’t go into details, but we’re promised something at the start of the
episode that doesn’t actually happen until nearly three-quarters of the way in.
Once it actually happens, it becomes the highlight of the episode, but it’s
hard to shake the disappointment that it wasn’t a bigger element of the story
from the start. It doesn’t directly contribute to the weakness of the episode,
but it certainly doesn’t help.
Flawed as this episode is, though, it’s still maintaining
a level of quality that wasn’t as consistent in the first season of DS9. There’s still room for improvement
(as I’ve established), but they don’t have as high to climb as DS9 did. And considering what DS9 became, I have faith that Enterprise can manage that climb too.
How it Relates to
the Whole: This episode primarily gives us some followup to “The Andorian
Incident”, and while it appears that the matter has been closed at least where
one character is concerned, it will eventually turn out not to be the case. I
don’t know if the writers had that in mind when they wrote the episode, but it
makes the episode more interesting in hindsight. Which is about the best you
can say for it, considering.
Other: *There’s
nothing particularly noteworthy today, so we’ll just move on.
Badass Malcolm
Moment: Despite Malcolm being involved in the rescue party, he doesn’t
actually do all that much during it. Therefore, his best moment comes earlier,
when he not only stands up for his opinion despite the hesitation of his
superior officer (Tucker in this case), but he’s already got a rescue team ready
to go, despite not having been asked to prepare one. One wonders if he’s got a
protocol in place every time the away team goes out, just to make sure they
aren’t caught flat footed.
After The Fact
Update: Unfortunately, Memory Alpha gives no explanation why this episode
was switched around with “Sleeping Dogs”. I guess this one’s going to have to
remain a mystery.
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