Enterprise 1x26 "Shockwave"

rating: **

the story: The mission is cancelled after a horrific accident, but turns out it's really meddling from agents of the Temporal Cold War.

what it's all about: "Shockwave" is a blunt concept, too obvious in at least one element.  It might be the reason fans never warmed to the concept of the Temporal Cold War.  It's all obvious setup for a season finale: the crew finally managed to screw up that badly?  And Archer's stuck in the future with no time travel devices to get him back home?  And of course the second season premiere quickly resolves both of these issues, and it's back to the status quo as if nothing ever happened.  It just feels too cheap, especially for being a featured element of the series.

Silik doesn't have the same chemistry with Archer as he did in "Cold Front," and that's a major problem in and of itself.  Daniels is as fascinating as always (well, as he'd been in his debut, "Cold Front"); in fact he's the best part of this finale and an even better part of the second part.  But again, here he's mostly relegated to setup.

The Temporal Cold War deserved a much better push if it was going to be featured in such a climactic moment.  Maybe learning more about "Future Guy," the shadowy instigator of the Suliban, but not only do we learn nothing more than when we saw him in the pilot ("Broken Bow"), we never learn more about him, even with the rushed wrap up of the arc at the start of the fourth season ("Storm Front").  And that's the most disappointing thing of all.

criteria analysis:

• franchise - Will casual fans really care about too-obvious material?
• series - Despite reservations, it does serve as a reminder of the Temporal Cold War, and its scope.
• character - Archer's the one caught in the crosshairs, as always.
• essential - It's the most painful thing to say about a season finale, that it isn't essential.

notable guest-stars:
John Fleck (Silik)
Matt Winston (Daniels)
James Horan ("Future Guy")
Vaughn Armstrong (Forrest)

Enterprise 1x1/1x2 "Broken Bow"

rating: ****

the story: The budding Starfleet finds itself in a crisis with the Klingons...instigated by participants of the Temporal Cold War.

what it's all about: The pilot of any Star Trek series is almost by definition essential viewing, as it establishes the premise and characters and therefore the context that will set it apart, even when it seems, as even many fans tend to think, it looks like business as usual, a voyage of exploration.  In fact, only one series in the franchise hasn't been one of those voyages, Deep Space Nine, even that one had vast new territory teased in its first episode, the Gamma Quadrant, which would be the source of a lot of later material.  "Broken Bow" immediately established Enterprise as a prequel, first in Star Trek history, insofar as its events are set before the classic adventures of the original series (later, Discovery would become the second, with less than a decade separating it from them). 

Now, a lot of fans, who tended to be upset about just about everything by this point, and had been since about the time Kirk died in Star Trek Generations (though you'd be hard-pressed to find any of them admit that; they're more apt to express "disappointment" in that event, the first stage of fan resentment and then outright disgruntlement), thought that if anything, the timeline ought to be advanced forward.  And "Broken Bow" does that, too, with the Temporal Cold War.  And yet fans rejected that, too, because...I don't know.  I really don't.  I can argue logics all day long here.  I can argue that the very technology that looked futuristic in the '60s was actually in large part in everyday households by 2001.  The cleverest thing Enterprise did was actually to embrace the tech that was still years and years in the future, and how exotic it remains as a concept, even if variations on it had resulted in Star Trek's competition like Stargate: the transporter.  In setting the series at a time when classic Star Trek tech was in its infancy, it allowed a classic franchise fear to meet a point when it was most justified, and it proves a key point in the pilot and throughout the rest of the series. 

And this is probably something that's best appreciated when it's pointed out.  So, too, is the fact that Enterprise actually serves best as a sequel.  Yeah, not as a prequel.  As, first and foremost, it's a follow-up to Star Trek: First Contact.  This was the most successful of the Next Generation movies, and memorably ends with humanity's introduction to the most iconic of Star Trek aliens, the Vulcans.  And yet again, Enterprise serves up a curveball, which predictably irked fans: they didn't become fast friends.  In fact, they didn't much like each other at all.  And again, I don't really see how this tracks; we see humans react with bigotry in the original series, whether in "The Galileo Seven" or "Balance of Terror," which is not even to mention that Spock was apparently the lone Vulcan in Kirk's crew, with only a fleeting reference to an entirely Vulcan crew in another episode. 

So as far as I'm concerned, the logic is more than sound, and bursting with fulfilled (as far as I'm concerned) potential.  We even get to see Cochrane in the pilot (and in the final season, a twist on First Contact's historic moment that creates the Mirror Universe in the two-part "In a Mirror, Darkly").

The rest is adventure and setup.  We meet Archer, T'Pol, Trip (deliberately featured as the three main characters in parallel to Kirk, Spock, and Bones), and the rest of the crew.  Phlox immediately stands out, as he will as the fourth lead, like Scotty, the rest of the series.  We're introduced to "Future Guy" and his minion Silik.  There's also Soval and Forrest, who will have major supporting roles the duration of the series.  And to round all that out, it's also prelude to an enduring conflict with the Klingons.

But yeah, the scene that sticks out most is decon with Trip and T'Pol, which was greeted with outrage.  I don't even know how this happens, except that persistent puritanical regression impulse peculiar to Americans.  The original series is littered with sexual imagery and a shameless ladies man as the lead character, and yet fans became increasingly uncomfortable and embarrassed by this legacy. 

Basically, the first thing you need to overcome in getting into Star Trek is the opinion of other fans.

criteria analysis:

• franchise - See how the legacy of Starfleet begins!
• series - See how the crew launches its voyage!
• character - Aside from Sisko, it's hard to find a main character in Star Trek with their initial motivation spelled out better than Jonathan Archer.
• essential - A fascinating conflux of past, present and future.

notable guest-stars:
John Fleck (Silik)
Gary Graham (Soval)
Vaughn Armstrong (Forrest)
James Cromwell (Cochrane)
James Horan ("Future Guy")
Thomas Kopache

Voyager 3x13 "Fair Trade"

rating: ***

the story: In an attempt to prove his further usefulness, Neelix finds himself in an awful mess.

what it's all about: In hindsight, the biggest missed opportunity of Voyager was the chance to tell Talaxian stories when the series was still in Talaxian space.  Instead the first two seasons focused on the Kazon, which was certainly not a bad thing, but no one seemed to realize that there was ample creative room for Neelix to explore at the same time, until it was too late.  In a lot of ways, the third season was an opportunity for the producers to take a last look at what had been overlooked previously, and it was ample fodder for rich material, like "Fair Trade."

Now, as most fans didn't really care for Neelix, this is hardly an episode they're going to appreciate one way or another.  It's just skippable material to them.  It's a shame, because Neelix was one of the best-developed and best-used characters of the series, and it's thanks to material like this.  As one of two Delta Quadrant natives to become passengers of the ship, he was always in a unique position to contextualize the crew's journey in unfamiliar territory.  But "Trade" sees him reach the last of the territory he himself has explored.  It also features the rare fellow Talaxian, another reason why the episode stands out.  The whole thing becomes an exercise, like "False Profits" earlier in the season, of contrasting Neelix and Talaxians as a whole with their Ferengi counterparts.  Quark had many similar experiences in Deep Space Nine, but they played out differently because Quark was always focused mostly on himself whereas Neelix cared about the crew around him.

"Trade" is another in a series of existential crises for him, and that's really the key to understanding both the character and the episode.  He worries here that he still hasn't done enough to justify himself as a permanent passenger, that they're going to kick him off the ship.  What he's craved so desperately since before he came aboard was a new family.  He never dared dream that he had actually found one.  In a way, that impulse fans have to loathe him is broadcast by Neelix himself, because in his doubts he's always trying too hard to please, and for people like Tuvok it's immediately off-putting.  Little wonder that a Vulcan represents the interests of the fans.  But more on these two in "Rise" six episodes hence...

criteria analysis:

• franchise - I suspect you have to be a fan of the series to truly appreciate it, even though the material resonates well with experiences across Star Trek.
• series - It wonderfully explains what happens to Neelix as originally conceived.
• character - A definitive turning point for ship's morale officer.
• essential - For this series it really is.

notable guest-stars:
Alexander Enberg (Vorik)
James Horan

Deep Space Nine 5x15 "By Inferno's Light"

rating: ****

the story: The Federation mends fences with the Klingons as the Dominion threat comes into focus.

what it's all about: Basically, "By Inferno's Light" completes the reclamation of what Deep Space Nine was originally about with what the studio attempted to make it with the insertion of Klingons into the fourth season in an ill-fated effort to ramp up its popularity and/or accessibility.   With Dukat finally assuming full authority over the Cardassians and completing his journey to becoming the definitive Cardassian in the process (it's shocking to think it really did take this long to achieve, with considerable work done during the third and fourth seasons to set it up), the original premise of the series, that Starfleet was coming to Bajor to help it recover from Cardassian oppression, becomes an integral component of the Dominion arc that had at times seemed sidelined by the Klingons.

Yet, at no point in franchise lore had the Klingons truly become such ready allies with the Federation as they do by the end of this episode.  Picard seemed to have special sway in Next Generation, but that translated to one man, a limited scope that kept relations at a distance.  Gowron, the Klingon leader whose debut in Next Generation helped set the tone of the warrior culture moving forward, passes the torch to Martok here, Martok whose earlier appearances couldn't really give an indication of his later significance.

That begins to change in "Inferno."  His relationship with Worf deepens as they grow to depend on each other in a Dominion prison camp.  This is also, primarily, Worf's best Deep Space Nine moment, by the way.  He becomes forced to compete in a series of fights with Jem'Hadar soldiers, persisting even when he begins to break down because of his famous pride.  He's never been pushed like this before, never been forced to demonstrate just how far he's willing to go.  As a Klingon, he'd always represented his people well, but he was more often than not constrained by the oath he took to Starfleet.  Too often, even in Deep Space Nine, his Klingon loyalties ended up seeming like a weakness.  There's no such hesitation here.  His prowess in combat, only hinted at elsewhere, becomes as much a focus of his arc in the episode as his legendary resolve.  While Martok is there to support him, this is totally Worf's show.

There's also Garak finding out that Dukat has singled him out in his efforts to reclaim Cardassian honor, but by making it clear he thinks Garak has no honor, and no place in the new Cardassia.  This is much as Garak had experienced in recent years anyway, but he also went to extreme lengths, in this two-part episode, to prove his loyalty to his people.  Shows what integrity gets you.  Somewhat surprising is that for the first and only time, he and Bashir share an adventure together ("Our Man Bashir" doesn't count), but it's not an experience that's particularly relevant to their bond.  Increasingly, Bashir moves off in his own direction (see the next episode, "Doctor Bashir, I Presume?" as well as "Inquisition," which ironically integrates him into the world of spies, which he'd only previously known about from his suspicions about Garak's past). 

This is a big, big moment in the series, where the war becomes positively inevitable.  It ends somewhat tidily, but by the end of the season, everyone knows such developments won't be possible anymore, which makes this somewhat the last of the happy endings in Deep Space Nine...

criteria analysis:

• franchise - A big moment in Federation/Klingon relations.
• series - A big moment in Dominion relations.  And Cardassian relations!
• character - Arguably Worf's finest moment.
• essential - This is self-explanatory, given the above statements.

notable guest-stars:
Andrew Robinson (Garak)
Marc Alaimo (Dukat)
James Horan
Melanie Smith (Ziyal)
J.G. Hertzler (Martok)
Robert O'Reilly (Gowron)

Deep Space Nine 5x14 "In Purgatory's Shadow"

rating: ****

the story: Garak receives word that his mentor Tain is alive after all, but finding out for sure leads him directly into a Dominion trap...

what it's all about: This is the unofficial start of the Dominion War.  It's also the culmination of all Garak's appearances to this point in the series. 

It's funny, but after the awkwardness introduced into the series by a studio interested in the familiar (bringing in the Klingons for the fourth season), all the scrambling to rediscover the beating heart of Deep Space Nine led to a remarkable turn of events: two dramatic reveals in this episode help drive the significance of not only what has come before, but what will come later.  In a way, the episode is also a preview of Ron Moore's later Battlestar Galactica reboot, where a series of big reveals across the span of that series constantly rewrote the book on what fans did and did not know about the characters they were following, with many of them turning out to be Cylon sleeper agents.  Moore wasn't by any means the sole creative voice behind Deep Space Nine (to my mind a series defined by its remarkable stable of writers, which included Moore but also, among others, the ones responsible for "Purgatory," Robert Hewitt Wolfe and Ira Steven Behr, the latter of whom was arguably the most important and driving voice for the whole thing), but he was clearly inspired by the material most fans don't even realize he had anything to do with.  Ask any fan and they'll tell you Moore's main contribution to Star Trek lore was his expansion of Klingon culture.  But I ask you, do you see Klingons represented in his Battlestar Galactica?  Or changelings?

Anyway, the two characters rediscovered in this episode are Martok, who had made two prior appearances, and Bashir.  Martok was by far the more successful discovery, as he goes on to become a major recurring character and the most important Deep Space Nine element of Next Generation transplant Worf's legacy.  Bashir, meanwhile, is thrown in as more of a curveball.  There's no foreshadowing of this one, and to make it work you have to do a lot of mental gymnastics with his appearances earlier in the season, and still be left guessing as to when the switch was made.  It's another of the clumsy creative decisions that plagued the transition from what the studio had forced upon the series to the Dominion War that would come to define it. 

But putting aside Founder (the aforesaid changelings, and runners of the Dominion) shenanigans, this is a Garak episode.  Going back to his breakthrough appearance in "The Wire" at the tail-end of the second season, this "plain, simple," Cardassian tailor had come to define the intangible qualities of the series.  In the third season, his leading role in the "Improbable Cause"/"The Die is Cast" two-part episode, which was the prequel material for "Purgatory" and its "By Inferno's Light" follow-up, was the material that most advanced the Dominion arc to that point, so it's only fitting that he's also at the center of the discovery that the evil alliance is finally moving forward with its plans at invasion, first hinted at in the third season premiere "The Search," which had been far less conclusive in where things would be headed.

Garak became for Deep Space Nine what Guinan had been in Next Generation, the intriguing character in need of an explanation, and when that explanation finally came (Guinan's, alas, remained somewhat ambiguous, atypical of her series and therefore indicative of its general lack of interest in advancing much beyond episodic material), a clue as to where everything would go. 

It's ironic that it wasn't Moore who wrote this, because the impact of "Purgatory" is very similar to Moore's Klingon work in galvanizing a series.  It's perhaps not a coincidence that the Klingon material previously foisted on Deep Space Nine is roundly perfected as it's put in entirely new context, led by Worf being given material that seems relevant to a bold new direction, not only for him but, again, for the series.  Tellingly, this is material later echoed in the war arc itself, as was the best of the fifth season in general.  Aside from his relationship with Dax, Worf stubbornly remained aloof from the things happening around him, until he's paired with Garak to find out what Garak found out.  In this context he meets the real Martok, rather than the changeling imposter from their previous encounters.  It also feels like the first time, above and beyond Martok, that Worf is presented as a Klingon without needing other Klingons around to help prove it.  But more on that next episode.

Garak's arc across the two episodes is pretty evenly split between the one involving his mentor ("Purgatory") and what amounts to a second exile ("Inferno"), which itself serves as a link to Worf, too, who had been twice-exiled from his people as well (the second time during his Deep Space Nine debut in "Way of the Warrior").  In contrast, Dukat is about to return home, back to a villainous role the series had consciously drifted away from in that all-important third season.  But, more on that next episode...

Making her debut this episode is the last actress to play Tora Ziyal, Dukat's daughter: Melanie Smith.  The character, like Martok, had appeared several times already, but had never really stuck.  It's another way of seeing "Purgatory" as a definitive changing point.

criteria analysis:

• franchise - Part of the tradition of game-changing episodes.
• series - The Dominion War arc all but begins.
• character - Significant to Garak, to Worf, to Martok, to...
• essential - A truly defining moment.

notable guest-stars:
Andrew Robinson (Garak)
Paul Dooley (Tain)
J.G. Hertzler (Martok)
Marc Alaimo (Dukat)
Melanie Smith (Ziyal)
James Horan

The Next Generation 7x1 "Descent, Part 2"

rating: ***

the story: Data confronts Lore one last time.

what it all means: The seventh season of The Next Generation is often slagged as being meaningless space-filler material, after the grand storytelling contributions of the previous four seasons that measurably added to the legacy of Star Trek.  In contrast, "Descent, Part 2" already seems like it's treading water in comparison to predecessors like "Time's Arrow, Part 2" (sixth season premiere, finally explains why Guinan and Picard mean so much to each other), "Redemption, Part 2" (fifth season premiere, which concludes the Klingon epic), and the mother of them all, "The Best of Both Worlds, Part 2" (fourth season premiere, which finishes out a universally-acclaimed classic chapter in franchise history).

In contrast, "Descent, Part 2" seems to confirm all the neutering of the Borg established in its sixth season finale predecessor, and makes the whole thing more of a resolution of Data's relationship with Lore than anything else.  The later Enterprise fourth season premiere,"'Storm Front, Parts 1 & 2," similarly finishes up an arc (the equally long-standing Temporal Cold War) with a somewhat dismissive gesture.

What does it all mean?  As a Data/Lore episode, it's perhaps the most satisfying one from the whole series.  For once, Lore is at the advantage, and instead of trying to get Data out of the way, tries to get him to be more like himself, which is perhaps more chilling than the struggles Data experiences in the first part of the story, where no one really knows what's going on.  On that score, "Part 2" is definitely a step up from "Part 1."  But then, its conclusions are troubling.  Data simply decides to switch Lore off, indefinitely.  This is cold reasoning from Data, something that doesn't seem to be supported by the many other episodes where he championed not only his own rights, but those of his offspring as well.

It's tough to reconcile "Part 2" with the ideals of the series or franchise around it.  There are multiple episodes where characters find redemption.  "Part 2" doesn't even seem to consider that as an option, and worse still, Lore is never seen again.  A different Soong android pops up in Star Trek Nemesis, and one of the fascinating thing about that movie fans rarely consider is that it's an odd kind of redemption for Data, because initially he considers treating B4 the same way he does Lore, but eventually relents, with a little help from his friends, which ends up being justified.  That's the Star Trek message in a nutshell, no matter how many irredeemable villains there might be (even Dukat in Deep Space Nine had periods where he could be seen in a positive light).

"Part 2" is an important episode in the overall scheme of Next Generation, and it does set a tone for the season, in which other episodes question whether redemption really is possible.  More often than not, the conclusions are far different from the ones Data reaches in this episode, which actually serves to demonstrate his limitations, where more often than not he didn't seem to have any, except his ability to behave as a human would.

That being said, its limitations prevent "Part 2" from fulfilling its promise, even if those same limitations open up the season to go deeper into Next Generation's psyche than had ever been attempted. 

criteria analysis:

• franchise - Is not a great representation of the franchise.
• series - Is a good representation of the series.
• character - Is a good representation of a character.
• essential - Is an essential episode for Data, and the series.

notable guest-stars:
Brent Spiner (Lore)
Jonathan Del Arco (Hugh)
James Horan

The Next Generation 6x22 "Suspicions"

rating: ****

the story: Crusher's investigation into the death of a Ferengi scientist puts her career into jeopardy.

similar to: "Remember Me," "Ethics"

my thoughts: The question about The Next Generation is how Crusher was so easy to drop after the first season, and what was gained when she returned again in the third, because she remained a notoriously difficult character to crack.  Most of the time, it seemed as if the failure was on the part of the actress portraying her, Gates McFadden, but the fact that nearly every episode that focused on Crusher featured a single theme might also be telling.

Simply put, Crusher tended to box herself into corners.  In "Ethics" it was, as the title of the episode implies, her ethical stance against a colleague who otherwise epitomizes the Star Trek custom to feature mavericks of their respective fields (if they're a main character, this is a good thing, and if they're not, it's not).  Next Generation, in the choice not even to have a main character portray the chief engineer in the first season, seemed to shy away from the idea of exceptionalism, with the cautious Picard leading the way. 

There's also "Remember Me," in which Crusher is as literally isolated as you can get (although this sort of thing happened to other Star Trek regulars, too), with everyone disappearing around her, and no one believing Crusher when she attempts to explain what's happening.  Taken together, "Remember Me" and "Ethics" present a pretty convincing portrait of who and what Crusher was in the series ("Sub Rosa" can be included as well, but to no one's credit).

What does this have to do with "Suspicions"?  This is the episode where this portrait of the character comes together.  This is one of those episodes with a framing narrative where we meet the character after the worst of it has already happened (Deep Space Nine's "Whispers" is a similar achievement, while that show's "In the Pale Moonlight" is the best one, and Voyager's "Thirty Days" is a step or two below), but more than that, it's about explaining why Crusher is so easy to isolate, because she's a character who isolates herself, and it takes extreme circumstances to prove it.

"Ethics" made it look like she was merely the good guy, and "Remember Me" was merely a fun experience.  "Suspicions" paints Crusher into such a corner that she feels the only way to get out is to actually remove herself entirely from the equation, risk everything to prove she was right about her investigation. 

In the best way, "Suspicions" challenges everything the viewer thinks it knows about Star Trek.  Like Enterprise's "Judgment," which introduced a Klingon who wasn't happy to be defined as a warrior, the presence and significance of a Ferengi scientist blows open the classic stereotype that even a prejudice-free concept like Star Trek can let creep in when introducing alien cultures.  Even as Deep Space Nine was introducing Ferengi who weren't merely villains or comic relief (although they could still be both), and hadn't yet introduced further wrinkles into the culture (the second and third seasons would do that), Next Generation finally suggesting that itself, for having produced all the stereotypes to begin with, was a bold move, one seemingly buried in a story that focuses on Crusher instead of the scientist.  It's not merely about producing sympathetic characters in a species otherwise considered the enemy (the series did that with Romulans all the time).  No, to go out of its way and find that ill-fated little Ferengi scientist...it was kind of a metaphor for Crusher, too.

Look below the surface.  It took six seasons, but Crusher was finally figured out.  And she helps bring further depth to the series, and franchise, along the way.  Yeah, I've been guilty of making Crusher look bad.  Sometimes it's all too easy.  But she has a way of bringing out the most surprising material, too, in a very good way.

"Suspicions" is a classic in ways few other classic episodes are.  Like Crusher herself, it may be easy to overlook, but it shouldn't be.

This one's also notable as the last time Guinan appears in a TV episode.

criteria analysis: franchise - series - character - essential (all criteria met)

notable guest-stars:
Whoopi Goldberg (Guinan)
Patti Yasutake (Ogawa)
James Horan

Enterprise 2x26 "The Expanse"

****

The second season ends with a bang, concluding the crew's efforts to figure out how they fit into the grander scheme by letting them know that they have a long way to go.  This is accomplished by kicking off the Xindi arc with a giant swash of Florida being eradicated, and also the last efforts by Duras to gain revenge on Archer, concluding another arc begun in "Judgment."

In a lot of ways, this is Enterprise being Deep Space Nine, having the series steeped in its own mythology.  Next Generation started this with "Redemption," which also featured Klingons, and certainly "The Best of Both Worlds," still the most famous but not first appearance of the Borg.  Contrary to how much of the preceding season had played out, there's a definite connection to other episodes (another irony of the perception of the season, given that even in the early episodes, there was a link between "Minefield" and "Dead Stop," and Trip references plenty of things we've seen in "Dawn").

Another notable feature of "The Expanse" is its inclusion of the Temporal Cold War arc, which even at this point seems to have been altered from its original conception.  Future Guy makes his last appearance of the series, undeniably aiding Archer, as previously suggested for his motives in "Cold Front" from the first season.  Rather than a black and white, Silik-is-the-bad-guy/Daniels-is-the-good-guy interpretation that some episodes might have argued (notably "Shockwave," which ambiguously ended the first season and began this one), we have reason to believe after "The Expanse" that it benefits plenty of factions for events to play out as they historically did, rather than be altered.

Which in itself suggests that the whole third season could be redefined as the definitive Temporal Cold War story, even though the familiar players from other stories in the arc are mostly absent (Daniels appears a few times).  But that's an argument for another time.

Even if you don't care about that arc, there's plenty to enjoy about the episode.  Trip loses his sister in the attack, which is the last push the season gives him for everything that would come, the material that would truly build his enduring legacy.  The Xindi crisis itself reflects the 9/11 attacks that had just occurred when the series began, marking the first time Star Trek used contemporary events to inspire an ongoing story (unless you count the other Cold War and the Klingons).

If you don't particularly want to watch this one for all the interseries continuity, it can still be enjoyed as a standout Star Trek adventure.

franchise * series * essential * character

Notable guest-stars:
John Fleck
Vaughn Armstrong
Gary Graham
Daniel Riordan
James Horan
Daniel Riordan

Memory Alpha summary. 

Enterprise 2x1 "Shockwave, Part 2"

*

I love Enterprise.  I quickly became one of its biggest fans and defenders, necessitated by the fact that a lot of fans weren't so keen on it or Star Trek in general at the time.  As time has passed, little has changed about my attitudes concerning the show except possibly in one crucial area.  The Temporal Cold War.

Part of this may be my growing disappointment at how the series abandoned the arc unceremoniously at the start of its fourth and final season, leaving its resolution in a cloud of ambiguity.  Now, don't get me wrong.  I still find the concept to be fascinating, and there is much to recommend it.  Yet its importance and specifically how its use is now reflected years after the fact becomes more problematic the more perspective I try to gain on the series as a whole.  The biggest victim of this changing attitude is the second season premiere, "Shockwave, Part 2."

Following the first season finale, in which the Suliban, agents of the shadowy Future Guy, attempt to sabotage Archer's mission and provoke the Vulcans into withdrawing their crucial support after a disastrous incident at a mining colony, Daniels has whisked Archer away in an attempt to salvage a contaminated timeline.  The problem is that the changes his foes have wrought leave Daniels in a future that has been completely altered.  (Yes, the Temporal Cold War may as a whole be compared to the exceedingly clever two-part Voyager episode "Year of Hell," and it's this episode that makes it most clear.)  

While the crew of the Enterprise attempt to combat invading Suliban forces, Daniels and Archer attempt to get past their bad break, which is made easier by the fact that Daniels was studying time travel when he was in grade school.  It all leads to Archer getting back to his own time and essentially overlooking the dire developments of the previous episode.  

So yes, "Shockwave" attempts to play both ends of the Enterprise story at that point, the Temporal Cold War and Archer's destiny to lead a successful mission and help found the Federation (you know that's his fate because Daniels can't seem to avoid saying so every time he appears).  The problem making an episode like this so early in the series is that it trivializes everything.  Not only is there a distinct lack of consequences, but it also proves how easily the Temporal Cold War can be resolved, no matter how grim the circumstances can get.  It's a far more interesting concept when used by proxy, as the series figures out in later episodes and indeed whole arcs, except when the creators decide to listen to the fans who probably only had "Shockwave" in mind when they decided the whole thing was a giant waste of time.

Daniels is a great character, but he's done no favors in this one.  Silik is similar interesting, except in this one. Seeing a pattern?

"Shockwave," and specifically this part of the story, is a moment that was incredibly important at the time, but its significance is weakened when compared to other developments, especially the speedy resolution.  When an overriding high-concept arc can find any kind of resolution in what most other incarnations of Star Trek had routinely done in season finale and premiere two-part episodes, there's a problem.  It's the "Descent" problem, the story that began Next Generation's final season, where the Borg have been completely neutered.  It would be like Deep Space Nine attempting to resolve Sisko's role as the Emissary in anything but the final episode.

That's why I'm extremely reluctant to recommend "Shockwave" as anything but an episode you might want to watch as part of the series as a whole.  It could so easily have been something of greater significance.  But it's just an extremely awkward moment, a rare moment of true miscalculation for a show that was far better than most fans were willing to admit.  Now that some of them are softening those views, it's important to recognize that there were indeed some problems, and "Shockwave" was one of them.  But don't let this one episode color everything in its mediocre shade.  It's an exception.

franchise * series * essential * character

Notable guest-stars:
Gary Graham
Vaughn Armstrong
Matt Winston
John Fleck
James Horan

Memory Alpha summary.