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Captain Jonathan Archer and the crew of the first warp-five
starship, Enterprise, continue their voyage of exploration,
encountering alien species both familiar and strange, including
Suliban, Klingons, Andorians, Romulans, Tholians, Tellarites
and Borg. But events take a deadly turn when a race called
the Xindi attack Earth...
Season
2 is, in my opinion, Enterprise's weakest. Though there
aren't that many truly dire episodes (I count three: the tiresome
A Night in Sickbay, which was inexplicably nominated
for a Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation, the uninspiring
Vanishing Point and the similarly unoriginal Precious
Cargo) too many of the rest are just bland.
Those
merely OK episodes are Shockwave, Part II, Minefield,
Marauders, The Seventh, The Communicator,
Dawn, Canamar, The Crossing, Horizon,
The Breach and Bounty.
Shockwave,
Part II makes a satisfactory resolution to the previous
season's cliffhanger, but Daniels (Matt Winston) - and thus
the writers - avoid explaining the time paradoxes by simply
telling Archer (Scott Bakula), "There's no way for you to
understand." The episode also contains the cheap titillation
of Hoshi Sato (Linda Park) losing her top, while Bounty
plunges even greater depths by having T'Pol (Jolene Blalock)
prematurely entering the Vulcan mating cycle and running around
the ship scantily clad and "on heat".
Minefield
is notable for its depiction of Starfleet's first encounter
with the Romulans. In accordance with the Original Series
episode Balance of Terror there is no visual communication
between the humans and the Romulans. However, the story is
let down by its predictable and tiresome Archer/Reed (Dominic
Keating) bonding scenes.
Ideas from several previous Trek episodes are regurgitated
during this season. Marauders reduces the Klingons
to their Original Series role of bad guys of the week,
while The Communicator recycles an idea from A Piece
of the Action. Vanishing Point, with its invisible
Hoshi, is a rehash of The Next Generation's The
Next Phase, while the spoilt alien princess of Precious
Cargo owes much to Elaan of Troyius. The Crossing
sees Starfleet's first encounter with a non-corporeal species
- but, by golly, not its last! We have already seen far too
many 23rd- and 24th-century instances of such entities attempting
to possess humanoids.
Other
sources are also plundered. Canamar is a Star Trek
version of Con Air, though it is well done. Less forgivably,
Dawn is an out-and-out rip-off of Enemy
Mine, even down to the look of the alien. It
is telling that, in the audio commentary to Regeneration,
writer and co-producer Mike Sussman admits that the production
team grew short of ideas during this season.
Rather
more impressive are the episodes Carbon Creek, Singularity,
The Catwalk, Stigma, Cease Fire, Judgment
and Cogenitor.
Carbon Creek is a charming flashback tale in which
Jolene Blalock plays T'Pol's great-grandmother. Poignant and
amusing scenes such as the City on the Edge of Forever-style
stealing of accoutrements make this a refreshing change from
Enterprise's usual "Vulcans are gits" approach.
Singularity boasts many humorous scenes of the crew
becoming fixated on one thing or another after being affected
by a stellar phenomenon, while The Catwalk is a good,
solid story that turns in an interestingly unexpected direction.
Both Stigma and Cogenitor are powerful morality
tales concerning metaphorical or actual sexual prejudice.
Cogenitor in particular benefits from not reaching
a comfortable resolution with a straightforward "right" answer.
Some
fans have expressed displeasure at the way in which Vulcan
"melders" are treated as deviants in Stigma, claiming
that this contradicts the depiction of mind melds in the original
and subsequent series. However, as Michael and Denise Okuda
explain in their text commentary, what this actually shows
is that Vulcan society evolved during the century or so that
elapsed between Enterprise and The Original Series.
Cease
Fire is another enjoyable Andorian instalment, in which
the ever-reliable Suzie Plakson joins recurring guest actor
Jeffrey Combs (Shran), while Judgment sees the impressive
re-creation of the Klingon courtroom and prison colony from
Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country.
However,
my favourite episodes of the season are Dead Stop,
Future Tense, Regeneration, First Flight
and The Expanse.
Dead Stop is a science-fiction "haunted house" story,
with director Roxann Dawson providing the dispassionate voice
of the mysterious automated space station. This instalment
also boasts some very funny dialogue, in particular the banter
between Reed and Phlox (John Billingsley). Reed complains:
"It can't be ethical to cause a patient this much pain." To
which Phlox replies: "It's unethical to harm a patient.
I can inflict as much pain as I like."
Future
Tense features such pleasing elements as a TARDIS-like
craft from the future (like the ship in Doctor Who,
it's bigger on the inside than the outside) and the titular
aliens from the Original Series episode The Tholian
Web, while Regeneration sees the return of the
Borg.
Many fans objected to the appearance of the Borg in Enterprise,
but in my opinion their presence is far better justified than
that of the Ferengi the previous season, because this tale
is essentially a sequel to the movie Star Trek: First Contact.
Admittedly, any excuse for a Borg story is good enough for
me! The fact that Phlox is able to counteract assimilation
does pose a problem, but I theorise a solution that is perhaps
simpler than the one suggested by Mike Sussman in his audio
commentary: I reckon that few species other than Denobulans
can survive the levels of radiation that Phlox exposes himself
to.
First
Flight is another flashback story, this time taking us
back to the days when Archer and a rival pilot named AG Robinson
(Keith Carradine) broke the Warp 2 barrier. Like Kirk, it
transpires that the younger Archer was a rather serious "by
the book" fellow.
The
season concludes in spectacular style with The Expanse.
With the Earth attacked and both the Klingons and the Suliban
after him, it's a very bad day for Archer! This is, in effect,
the first episode of a multi-part narrative that spans the
whole of the subsequent season. The increasingly aggressive
activities of the Klingons in this and the previous episodes
Marauders, Judgment and Bounty may be
viewed as paving the way towards the Klingon/human hostilities
depicted in The Original Series.
In
addition to the Klingons, Romulans, Andorians and Tholians,
we also see two other popular alien species from the original
show: Tribbles, in The Breach, and Tellarites, in Bounty.
We
also witness the development of some well-loved elements of
the older series. In The Expanse, the Enterprise
is fitted with photon torpedoes for the first time, though
at this stage they are called "photonic torpedoes". Singularity
has Reed mulling over an alternative to the tactical alert,
hinting at the development of the colour-coded alert statuses
used on board subsequent starships.
The
final disc contains more than 90 minutes of extra features,
including profiles on actress Jolene Blalock, director Levar
Burton and the production of A Night in Sickbay and
Future Tense. There's also a photo gallery and some
outtakes that show "Trip" Tucker (Connor Trinneer) living
up to his nickname!
Among
the episodes you will find 13 minutes of deleted scenes from
six of them, including four minutes from A Night in Sickbay
and almost five minutes from The Expanse. Stigma
and First Flight can be viewing with informative on-screen
text information by Denise and Michael Okuda, while Dead
Stop and Regeneration are accompanied by audio
commentaries by writers/co-producers Mike Sussman and Phyllis
Strong. Sussman and Strong demonstrate that they really know
their Star Trek, particularly The Original Series.
This
season may be the weakest of the bunch, but it ends well,
providing a hint of the excitement to come in the much-improved
Season 3...
Richard
McGinlay
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