Day 347: Enterprise, Home

Show: Star Trek; Enterprise

Episode Particulars: S4EP3, “Home”

 Summary: Now finally back in the correct time, Enterprise and her crew return to Earth and a hero’s welcome. The crew gets some well-deserved shoreleave, and get a chance to see how things have changed while they were away, though it’s not always for the better. The Xindi attack has caused a rise in xenophobia, which could mean trouble for Phlox. Tucker and T’Pol, who go to Vulcan to meet T’Pol’s mother T’Les (Joanna Cassidy), discover that Vulcan traditions may wind up encroaching on T’Pol’s life and career, especially when her fiancé Koss (Michael Reilly Burke) shows up. And Archer finds himself going mountain climbing with the captain of the new NX ship, Erika Hernandez (Ada Maris), where he spends most of his time talking about preparedness and how things have been turning out, in a tone that suggests that he’s not very happy with either. It just goes to show that you can be a hero to the public, but not quite feel that way in private.

Standalone Thoughts: I’m guessing the inspiration for this episode was the phrase “You can’t go home again”, because it’s surprisingly grim. I actually don’t have a problem with this in theory. After all, the crew has been gone for a long time, and they saw quite a lot that would have changed them. However, the execution leaves a little something to be desired.

There are three plots in this episode, and honestly, the one that gets the least attention is the one that’s the best handled. That plot is the “Phlox is treated poorly because Earth’s gotten xenophobic” plot. Sure, it’s a bit heavy-handed at times, especially with Hoshi’s little rant at one point, but it’s believable in more ways than one. It probably couldn’t sustain a full episode, but what we got was pretty good, even if it’s not always the most comfortable of material.

T’Pol’s plot, meanwhile, has much bigger flaws. As a point in its favor, it winds up being good continuity-wise, since it not only addresses things that happened in prior episodes, including pulling in material from the early seasons, but it eventually winds up providing some plot material in later episodes this season. That being said, what we get in this episode is very rushed. While we were made aware of T’Pol’s fiancé back in “Breaking the Ice”, having him arrive and want to get married and introduce T’Les and her problems and play around more with the T’Pol/Tucker relationship is far too much to cram into one episode, especially when it has to share screentime with the other two plots. But the episode does manage to pace the T’Pol scenes well despite all the material they have to cram in, and the sets and costumes are nice, so it’s not too bad to watch, especially in hindsight when you know how some of this plays out.

And then there’s Archer’s plot, which is a great idea on paper but just doesn’t work in the finished product. It eventually comes out that Archer is grappling with his actions in the Expanse, that he doesn’t feel like a hero and is currently feeling very cynical. This is a completely believable thing that could happen to him…but it doesn’t feel earned. It just kind of comes out of nowhere, and suffers from “tell, don’t show”. The plot also contains an odd detail that may wind up being distracting for some people. Archer spends most of the plot with Captain Hernandez, but neither her first or last name ever comes up once in the episode. We figure out from context clues that she’s the captain of the Columbia, but that’s it. So you’re left wondering if we’re supposed to know who this is, especially since she and Archer appear to have a history. All of this might have worked with more build up (and actually telling us Hernandez’s name), but as it stands, it’s a good idea that’s squandered.

This is a better episode than both of the “Storm Fronts”, but I think I’d still classify it as a housekeeping episode, giving an official end to the Xindi arc while trying to set things up for later events in the season and kind of weakening both in the process. On the bright side, I believe things start to pick up more tomorrow, though as always, we’ll have to see if my memory is accurate or faulty. So far, though, Enterprise has mostly lived up to my expectations (the first half of Season Three notwithstanding). So I’ve got confidence that this will all work out fine as well.

How it Relates to the Whole: In addition to putting a bow on the Xindi arc, the episode introduces two new relationships into the show (though one of them was hinted at way back in Season One) and sets up a possible conflict for Phlox. It also introduces us to T’Les, who will be important in a later series of episodes. So despite feeling like a series of vignettes, this is actually pretty important viewing.

Other: *Another single observation this time. While chatting with Captain Hernandez, Archer asks if she’s seen any good movies lately. She says “Another WWIII epic. It swept all the awards.” That made me smile slightly, because it implies two things. One, movies are still being made in the 22^nd century. And two, apparently some things never change; war movies will always be nominated for Oscars. I just hope the go-to Oscarbait isn’t quite as pretentious as it is here in the 21^st century…

Badass Malcolm Moment: When a xenophobic jerk (Joe Chrest) starts picking on Phlox at a bar, not only does Malcolm stand up for Phlox, but he easily dodges the punch that’s thrown at him and gives it back in spades. I obviously don’t condone bar fights, but since a) Malcolm didn’t start it, and b) he was clearly on the right side, I’m more inclined to look at this one favorably.