Enterprise 3x21 "E2"

rating: ***

the story: The crew encounters its own descendants thanks to a time paradox.

what it's all about: Though "E2" closely mirrors Deep Space Nine's "Children of Time," there are plenty of other episodes throughout the franchise where time paradoxes or outright time travel present alternate outcomes and thus encounters that otherwise would not or could not have happened.  Actually, one of the more famous is Next Generation's "Yesterday's Enterprise," which features the Enterprise-C, from between the Star Trek Generations and Next Generation eras.  But the descendants bit definitely feels like a riff on "Children of Time."

The episode is mostly another attempt at something like "Twilight," where the urgency of the Xindi mission is emphasized via outlandish sci-fi storytelling, only this time it doesn't quite feel as justified.  Where "Twilight" ultimately focused on Archer and T'Pol, "E2" actually spends much of its time with a wholly original character, the offspring of Trip and T'Pol.  And an aged T'Pol exists in this scenario, where the crew had entered a region of space that spit them out more than a hundred years in the past.  The logic of why they didn't stop the original Xindi attack from happening isn't very sound, nor how exactly they managed to stick around for so long, nor why they didn't do anything or learn anything else...only to conveniently show up right when the crew is about to enter the region all over again...

But the interactions between the crews is good, and the aged T'Pol gives current T'Pol another chance to meditate on what's been happening with her, and even what may happen later, a real relationship with Trip, which the fourth season spends much of its time exploring.  I assume the only reason the episode wasn't focused solely on these elements is because "Children of Time" did that, too, with Odo and Kira.  So they had to find something fresh.  And pretty much...didn't.

criteria analysis:

• franchise - A familiar trope receives new life.
• series - Another rumination on the scope of the Xindi mission.
• character - A soft spotlight on T'Pol.
• essential - In hindsight, even if the episode hadn't completely paralleled "Children" by placing a hard focus on T'Pol and Trip, merely putting it on T'Pol herself would've been a nice complement for "Twilight."

notable guest-stars:
Randy Oglesby (Degra)
Tucker Smallwood
Rick Worthy