Day 349: Enterprise, Cold Station 12

Show: Star Trek; Enterprise

Episode Particulars: S4EP5, “Cold Station 12”

 Summary: Having been rescued from Enterprise by his children, Soong and the augments make their way to Cold Storage 12, the medical facility where the other genetically engineered embryos are kept. It’s incredibly simple to take the facility hostage, although they meet some resistance. One, medical director Jeremy Lucas (Richard Riehle), refuses to give up the code to gain access to the embryos, and two, Soong wants to rescue the embryos with little bloodshed, which is looked on with disapproval by the leader of the augments, Malik (Alec Newman). Enterprise, meanwhile, does their best to track Soong and company down, including a visit to where Soong raised the augments and the surprise discovery of Udar (Kaj-Erik Eriksen), an augment whose genetic engineering didn’t really take and therefore was left behind. Given what they’re up against, though, every extra brain helps.

Standalone Thoughts: This episode is overall a marked improvement over “Borderland”. The plot is much more focused and better paced, the action is short but punchy, and there’s good tension of both the suspense and the between characters kind. Most notably, the acting from the guest stars has shown an upswing in quality. Spiner has toned down the arrogance somewhat and given Soong a little nuance, which makes him much more bearable. Newman, meanwhile, is showing a little more bite to him, where he felt more like a block of wood in “Borderland” (though there was some humor to be had in the fact that the supposedly genetically superior character was so bland). The new guest star, Riehle, is also very good, though if you take one look at how many roles he’s played, I think that stands to reason; he’s had a lot of practice. And while the conflict of “Malik sees himself as superior to Soong” is predictable, it’s being set up well, and will hopefully have a good payoff tomorrow. I only have one real complaint about the episode, but I won’t discuss it just yet, on the off chance that it’s dealt with in the next episode (if it’s not, look for it in the “Other” section). So let’s see what the last episode of the arc brings, and if it can sustain or improve upon this one's quality. I will say that I have more faith in that then I did after yesterday…

How it Relates to the Whole: Only one “new” thing gets brought to the table in this episode, and that’s the actual appearance of Doctor Lucas, the pen-pal Phlox has mentioned several times throughout the series. Unlike Chef, I guess the writers decided it was time to make him more than just a recurring mention.

Other: *The “previously on” for this episode just highlights how little was actually plot-relevant in yesterday’s episode. Obviously, the recaps are meant to grab the most important bits in order to bring people (back) up to speed, but there’s absolutely nothing in there from the segments with the Orions. The whole thing just winds up giving me the impression that the first episode was filled with padding, which may explain why it’s nowhere near as strong as this episode. Like I said, it was probably always going to be a bit weak because of the amount of exposition needed, but surely there had to be a way to make it feel as streamlined as the recap made it look.

*Credit where credit is due; the embryos’ continued existence is explained as being too controversial to destroy at the time. The presence of all those diseases is at least somewhat justified because Cold Station 12 is a medical research facility, but as the end of the episode shows, it still seems like a very stupid idea to have them all in one place. But I’m a reviewer, not a doctor.

Badass Malcolm Moment: Malcolm once again isn’t given much to do, but when he and the away team are exploring the planet where the augments grew up, he and the MACOs walk right past Udar’s hiding place, only for Malcolm to become aware of him when Udar tries to escape. Which suggests that he either heard Udar’s footsteps or turned around just to make sure everything was clear. He might not have augmented senses, but he certainly has finely-honed instincts.