Star Trek Arcs XVIII: Romulan Elegy

The conclusion of this series on story arcs in the Star Trek franchise revolves around a thread weaving through three separate projects and interweaving two separate arcs. Unthinkable. But it happened.

Star Trek Nemesis gets little to no respect from fans, but it’s always been a personal favorite. Its plot revolves a clone of Picard created by the Romulans, who end up bitterly regretting it when he seizes power in his bid for revenge. In the process, Data sacrifices himself to stop him, and everyone thought they knew exactly what would happen next, and they were so sure they were bitterly disappointed and it seemed like nothing at all would happen.

The next Star Trek movie premiered seven years later and was somehow a reboot and a continuation. Its complicated timeline sets it after the events of Nemesis, so that we see an aging Spock involved in the response to the destruction of Romulus. Canonically we have no other information at that point involving familiar characters.

In Picard, we see what happened in the aftermath. In fact, Picard himself torpedoed his Starfleet career in bitter disgust at how the Federation effectively turned its back on the Romulan refugee crisis. Then of course he winds up being drafted right back into the action.

At the same time, he’s unraveling a mystery that leads him into a most unexpected reunion with Data, culminating in a “dream sequence” in which his android friend gets the chance to say an extended farewell, giving his final thoughts on the journey he took toward becoming more human. 

It’s bittersweet and heartbreaking, and really quite beautiful. It’s by far the most unlikely arc of the franchise, and probably impossible to occur in any other context.

Star Trek Arcs XVII: The Xindi

One of my favorite franchise arcs is the Xindi crisis from Enterprise’s third season, until Discovery and Picard the only example of full serialization in Star Trek. 

Of course, as was true of the franchise, to that point, even that left plenty of room for standalone stories, plus a few out-and-out standouts. Here’s a complete rundown:

“The Expanse” - The second season finale kicks off the arc with the Xindi launching an attack on Earth, carving a swatch across Florida and killing, among others, Trip’s sister. The Enterprise is subsequently sent into the eponymous region to seek out the Xindi to confront them and prevent further attacks.

“The Xindi” - We meet the Xindi Council, along with weapons developer Degra, in the third season premiere, but the Enterprise crew itself quickly determines that their search for answers won’t be easy.

“Anomaly” - The region of space they’re forced to travel through is itself dangerous, and contains mysterious spheres, the first of which they encounter here.

“Extinction” - Doesn’t have a ton of arc relevance.

“Rajiin” - Enterprise never understood that modern fans had a hugely different opinion of hot chicks than those of the original series. So this episode, featuring a hot chick helping the Xindi Council spy on the crew, was yet another instance of not getting the expected reception.

“Impulse” The region’s weird properties have negative effects on…everything, but here they’ve resulted in Zombie Vulcans. Fans loved this one. If there was one way to guarantee a good reception, it was to drop in a random horror episode (see also: the second season’s “Dead Stop”).

“Exile” - Sato has another in her long series of uncomfortable situations, this time with an alien who could give them actual information about the Xindi.

“The Shipment” - For me this is the first episode of the season to dig fruitfully into the arc, in which Archer meets some actual Xindi, and discovers that it’s definitely going to only get more complicated.

“Twilight” - One of the true highlights of the arc is also a classic “reset button” episode (in the vein of “City on the Edge of Forever,” “The Inner Light,” “The Visitor,” and “Timeless”) in which a great premise must be undone so there can be a happy ending, in this case Archer losing his ability to retain long term memories and thus seeing an alternate version of how all this plays out, and developing a very different relationship with T’Pol.

“North Star” - A kind of classic original series episode that serves as a kind of metaphor for how the arc will need to play out.

“Similitude” - The other major highlight of the arc sees Trip needing to be saved by growing a clone from which Phlox will harvest needed organs. It’s one of those bitter ethical dilemmas the franchise can do so well, and a great spotlight for the show’s best character.

“Carpenter Street” - The most direct overlap between this arc and the Temporal Cold War, featuring pizza and Jeffrey Dean Morgan nearly quitting acting because of his Xindi getup.

“Chosen Realm” - Another nod to the original series that serves as a cautionary tale for Archer growing too obsessed with the mission.

“Proving Ground” - Our Andorian pal Shran pops up.

“Stratagem” - Another big highlight of the arc is Archer’s considerable battle to win Degra over as an ally. It’s the “In the Pale Moonlight” of the arc, solidifying Degra’s importance and humanizing, once and for all, the enemy, in the best franchise tradition. 

“Harbinger” - The crew becomes more aware of the Sphere Builders and their role in all of this.

“Doctor’s Orders” - A Phlox spotlight. Kind of sad, because it forces him to spend a lot of time alone, and he always works best off of other characters.

“Hatchery” - Another cautionary tale of obsession.

“Azati Prime” - The crew reaches the Xindi! But it’s still going to be very far from easy to resolving all this…

“Damage” - Driving home the point that sometimes hard choices must be made.

“The Forgotten” - An episode for grief.

“E2” - The crew interact with their own descendants (like “Children of Time”), and once again the emphasis is on the cost of completing the mission.

“The Council” - Archer, with Degra as his firm ally, meets the Xindi Council. No happy ending here: Degra is murdered by the more belligerent faction of the Xindi as thanks for his efforts.

“Countdown” - Putting all the pieces together, the crew realizes that the Sphere Builders are the ones responsible for all this. But they still have the aggressive Xindi to deal with, and a second assault to stop.

“Zero Hour” - The season finale. You can guess how it ends.

“Storm Front, Parts. 1 & 2” - Well, almost! The fourth season opens by closing out the Temporal Cold War, including recovering Archer from an alternate WWII, where he was whisked at the last minute when stopping the final Xindi weapon.

“Home” - Archer attempts to recover, “Family” style, from the psychological fallout of his traumatic experiences. 

Captain Picard Day 2021!

 I haven’t been very good at acknowledging Captain Picard Day (which is basically Star Trek Day) in the past…like at all (unlike First Contact Day!), but I marked it my calendar an’ everything this year, and social media reminded me, and so here I am!

Ironically, we first learned about this in a Riker episode (“The Pegasus”), but in case you’re not familiar, here’s the gist:

The Enterprise of course is a ship with families aboard. The children are encouraged to create artwork to help celebrate Picard as captain of the ship.

(Which is all the more ironic, as Picard frequently professed his dislike of children.)

Anyway, this is as good an excuse to celebrate Picard in the real world as any. At its height Next Generation was able push Picard as a cultural icon. There was an actual business book called Make It So that encouraged taking leadership lessons from him. 

Star Trek fans still find it hard to let Picard compete with Kirk as best captain, but Patrick Stewart has been beyond reproach as favorite actor in the franchise. He never really parlayed that into a significant movie career, but he had plenty of TV projects for years keeping him busy, a lot of them drawing from classic literature and/or Shakespeare.

And of course he has since gone on to star in the to date only Star Trek series to serve as a direct spinoff and namesake for a single character.

Star Trek Arcs XVI: Duras Prologue

When fans think of arcs in Star Trek: Enterprise they naturally gravitate to the season-long Xindi affair. Feeding into that, however, is a three-episode arc that rounds out the second season, which actually acts as a prequel to events from The Next Generation, previously chronicled here as Part VII: Worf/Empire in this series. The impetus for the Klingon political saga was Duras creating intrigue by claiming Worf’s father had been in collusion with the Romulans.

As it turns out, as it proved true with the son and sisters of Duras, his ancestor, also named Duras, was just as despicable.

Archer had run afoul of the Klingons as early as the first episode of the series, but it wasn’t until “Judgment” that he made an enemy. The episode plays out as a courtroom drama in the style of Rashomon, in which we see the events leading up to the trial from the perspectives of Archer and Duras. There’s a neat subplot involving Archer’s public defender, who helps prove that Klingons need not be considered the enemy for a new generation.

Archer ends up in Rura Penthe (the same prison planet seen in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, which the trial format also evokes), but his faithful crew immediately springs him. But in “Bounty,” he’s recaptured by a Tellarite. Archer once again uses the opportunity to try and make peace with an apparent enemy.

The mini arc concludes in the second season finale, “The Expanse,” which is better known for kicking off the Xindi saga. Duras pursues Archer all the way to Xindi space, ensuring that epic space battles are a part of that story before we even meet a Xindi.

The whole affair is very similar to how the fourth season would be conceived, consisting as it would be almost entirely by two- and three-episode arcs, of which we will focus on an interrelated five episodes’ worth two entries from now.

Star Trek Arcs XV: The Andorians

The Andorians first appeared in the origin series episode “Journey to Babel,” and for all intents and purposes that was it. Their unusual look (blue skin, antennae) was both a blessing and curse. Next Generation introduced two additional blue-skinned aliens (Bolians, Benzites) but even they were used sparingly.

Then Enterprise. In its first season, the prequel gave them another shot as one of the first major encounters for Captain Archer in “The Andorian Incident,” represented , as they would be for the duration of the series, by Shran. Mostly they were used as counterpoint to the Vulcans, reluctant allies of humanity. Shran didn’t seem in much more of a hurry to embrace “pink skins,” but at least he respected Archer.

Later in the season Shran shows up again in “Shadows of P’Jem,” thanks to ongoing hostilities between the Andorians and Vulcans. In the second season, “Cease Fire,” Archer is able to leverage his unexpected rapport with Shran to peace talks between the two.

The third season, which is otherwise concerned with the Xindi arc, has Shran show up to offer his support in “Proving Ground,” another significant step in the path toward the Federation.

In the fourth and final season, “Babel One,” “United,” and “The Aenar” give us our most extended look at Shran and the Andorians, as well as the final building blocks (including roles for Tellarites and Romulans) of the Federation, which is what Archer’s relationship with Shran always pointed toward.