Show: Star Trek; Enterprise
Episode
Particulars: S2EP16, “Future Tense”
Standalone
Thoughts: With a title like “Future Tense”, you just know this episode has
something to do with the Temporal Cold War. Interestingly, though, it takes a
little while for that to become official, with the crew wondering whether this
ship belonged to warp pioneer Zefram Cochrane. And then once it’s made clear
that this is a future ship, the usual suspects (Silik and Daniels) don’t show
up, giving the episode a very different feel than most of the Temporal Cold War
episodes. This works in some respects and fails in others; because no one from
the future (or working for people from the future) shows up to explain why this
ship is so important, we never get a full understanding of the conflict, and
the whole thing gets resolved a little too easily and therefore leaves you with
a vague feeling of dissatisfaction. Sure, you can use the “the future works in
mysterious ways” explanation, but that’s a copout justification.
Like I said, though, there are things that work about the
episode. The writers/filmmakers stretch out the mystery of what’s going on in a
way that holds your interest for the majority of the episode, before giving us
an action-packed third act as a payoff. Then there’s the fact that they
introduce a “screwing with time” element into the mix, which has the effect of
making you feel uneasy, especially during that third act. Not only does it
ratchet up the tension, it feels abrupt and unsettling, which I think helps
with the idea that the Enterprise crew
has been caught in something they can’t even begin to understand. This does get
undermined a little when you try to figure out exactly how it works and notice
that the timing of the appearances can be a bit convenient, but the initial
impression is definitely effective. On the whole, I’d say this is another solid
episode for the season, even factoring in the weak ending. I’d like to think
this means we’re returning to Season One or better quality, but we’ll just have
to wait and see.
How it Relates to
the Whole: Obviously, this ties into the Temporal Cold War, though I think
this is the last time it comes up this season. The episode does have
connections to future events in smaller ways, though. We meet a classic enemy
from the Original Series, get pretty blatant foreshadowing for the lineage of
one of Trek’s most famous characters,
and while I don’t know if it was intentional, there’s a conversation between
Tucker and Malcolm that’s well worth keeping in mind when we hit a certain
point in Season Three. So even if the episode’s not as important as it might
look on the surface, you can definitely say that it’s at least somewhat
relevant.
Other: *Just
one today, but it’s a fun one for fandom. There are several comments made early
in the episode about the ship being “bigger on the inside”. Dr. Who fans, start
your TARDIS jokes and crossovers.
Badass Malcolm
Moment: After a long spate where Malcolm wasn’t appearing much, suddenly I
have a wealth of options to choose from again. Ultimately, I’ll go with the fact
that he’s always the first one to notice the time shenanigans, probably because
he’s been trained to be observant for anything out of the ordinary. Give him
some time (pun slightly intended) to work with it, and I bet he’d find a way to
use it to his advantage, too.
After the Fact
Update: Memory Alpha had a lot of interesting tidbits this time around.
First, writer Mike Sussman actually did base
the ship partially on the TARDIS. Secondly, the original ending for the story
did give some of the context I felt was lacking, though there’s no
reason given for why it was changed. And third, the original plan for the story
was going to be a callback to a TOS episode,
but was nixed at that point in time. However, Sussman did eventually manage to
get that callback in there, even if he had to do it in a roundabout fashion.
Trust me, you’ll know it when you see it even without me spelling it out for
you.
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