Day 333: Enterprise, Proving Ground

Show: Star Trek; Enterprise

Episode Particulars: S3EP13, “Proving Ground”

 Summary: Enterprise finally gets a lead on the Xindi weapon, but in order to get to the right location, they need to pass through a large cluster of anomalies. They get pretty banged up, but before things can completely fall apart, they get rescued by a very familiar and very unexpected face; Shran the Andorian. The Andorians wish to offer their support to the Humans (especially to stick it to the Vulcans), and Shran volunteered to go into the Expanse and help out. Archer accepts the assistance, but T’Pol is skeptical, believing Andorians have a reputation for looking out more for themselves than for others. If it helps save the Earth, though, Archer’s not about to look a gift horse in the mouth. Not that that means he’s going to give the gift giver free rein, of course…

Standalone Thoughts: The mere presence of Jeffrey Combs is enough for me to at least somewhat like this episode, but unlike “Shadows of P’Jem”, the rest of the material is pretty good too. Granted, Shran and the rest of his crew are essential for making this episode as good as it is, but at least it means that the writers cared enough to integrate them into everything instead of just shoving them into the third act.

At any rate, this episode is good (I might even say great) because of the interplay between the Andorians and the Enterprise crew. Despite what we’ve seen of Shran (compounded if we’re also fans of Combs), there’s good reason to be wary of the Andorians, and this is addressed in the episode itself, thus allowing for a little bit of underlying tension in addition to the bigger conflict of trying to find the Xindi weapon. Acting-wise, Combs is doing most of the heavy lifting, having some great exchanges with Blalock, Trinneer, and especially Bakula. It’s a delight to watch him, especially since we get even more of a sense of his character than we did in any of his three previous appearances. It’s so good, in fact, that you almost forget that the Enterprise is finally getting the chance to learn something useful for their mission, though of course that’s a welcome development too.

Really, I don’t have anything particularly negative to say about this episode. The various conflicts are handled well, the new sets (for the Andorians and the Xindi) are interesting, and of course the acting is great across the board. I’ve said my piece on Combs, of course, but I should also give a brief nod to the semi-subplot surrounding Malcolm working with the Andorian tactical officer Talas (Molly Brink), since the two of them also play off each other well and offer a decent parallel to what’s going on between Archer and Shran. In the end, I’d call this a very satisfying episode, certainly the best one that’s directly tied into the Xindi arc so far and would probably rank pretty highly on my hypothetical list. Whether most of the remaining episodes can continue at this level remains to be seen.

How it Relates to the Whole: The episode may continue not to follow up on the events of “Carpenter Street”, but it did at least acknowledge what happened in “Chosen Realm”. More importantly, we finally get a continuation of things set in motion in “The Shipment”, culminating in the Enterprise finally learning more about the Xindi weapon. Plus, we get more development on relations between Humans, Vulcans, and Andorians and a tiny hint of development regarding T’Pol and Tucker. Plot-relevant, continuity heavy and entertaining to boot; looks like we finally got an episode this arc that strikes the perfect balance.

Other: *This shot was deliberately calculated to be funny;

…but unlike when media deliberately manipulates me into feeling sad, I’m more inclined to give this a pass. Besides, a lot of work probably had to go into post-production to make everything line up just right.

*I absolutely love the scene where Shran pretends to be a miner in order to get close to the Xindi weapon and run some scans. Not only does Combs do a great job of making Shran act like a different, less confrontational person, but the scene ends with a line that would have won “Best Line/Exchange” without any competition if I was still doing that category. It’s things like this that make Jeffrey Combs one of my favorite Star Trek supporting actors. Andrew Robinson takes the top prize, but I think Combs is at a very comfortable second place.

Badass Malcolm Moment: I was really hoping I could give this to a moment where Malcolm was smart enough to notice and fix a problem before it actually became a problem, but the narrative didn’t quite play out that way despite the obvious setup for it. Instead, I’ll give it to the fact that Malcolm, after being antagonistic to Talas for all of their interactions up until that point, realizes that she’s offering up useful advice and sincerely apologizes, complete with offering an olive branch. This is admittedly not “badass” in the slightest, but I admire it anyway; it means he’s man enough to admit when he’s wrong. And that’s a good trait to have.