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 1x11 "Cold Front"

rating: ****

the story: Archer is confronted by rival agents in the Temporal Cold War.

what it's all about: The Temporal Cold War proved to be controversial among fans.  They thought it was poor compensation for having a prequel series that looked backward instead of ahead.  And yet it was an obvious extension of the increasingly sophisticated view of time travel in the franchise, building on the Department of Temporal Investigations (Deep Space Nine's "Trials and Tribble-ations") and a future Starfleet that actually policed time travel (Voyager's Captain Braxton, as seen in "Future's End" and "Relativity").  In "Cold Front" we meet Daniels, who comes later still than Braxton, and becomes the second most important figure we meet in the arc, other than Silik, who debuted in the pilot, and the forever-mysterious "Future Guy," Silik's shadowy boss. 

"Cold Front," I always thought, was actually the best Temporal Cold War episode.  Rather than attempt a major event, it merely plays up the "cold war" aspect, in which agents are constantly working against each other, as happened between operatives of the United States and Soviet Union.  It's a spy story, essentially.  It casts the arc back to the origins of the franchise, when the real world cold war was running hottest, and adversarial aliens like the Klingons and Romulans earned their enduring place in Star Trek lore, having been cast in the roles of the Chinese and Russians, the two biggest communist threats. 

Which means Daniels and Silik are actually the best reasons to enjoy the episode, not only for their own sake, but how they play off Archer.  And actually, this is the best Archer showcase of the series to this point, and as with his earlier foreshadowing in "The Andorian Incident," proves that his real importance will be his ability to pivot humans between opposing forces, as would develop in the fourth season, the birth of the Federation. 

criteria analysis:

• franchise - A powerful argument in favor of the Temporal Cold War as an extension of classic Star Trek storytelling.
• series - An explanation for the stakes of a signature Enterprise arc.
• character - The introduction of Daniels, a key player in the arc.
• essential - It not only sells the concept, but it helps contextualize it, once you realize what it's really about.

notable guest-stars:
Matt Winston (Daniels)
John Fleck (Silik)

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

Deep Space Nine 7x16 "Inter Arma Enim Silent Leges"

rating: ****

the story: Bashir is tricked into working for Section 31.

what it's all about: "In times of war, the law falls silent."  This is kind of a cult-within-a-cult-within-a-cult sort of deal.  If Star Trek became a cult sensation, and Deep Space Nine became a cult sensation within a cult sensation, then "Inter Arma Enim Silent Leges" became the episode that was the cult within the...well, you get the picture.

In the preceding season, "Inquisition" introduced Luther Sloan and the concept of Section 31, Starfleet's answer to the long-established Tal Shiar of the Romulans and Obsidian Order of the Cardassians, a secret spy organization subject to no one and capable of anything.  It was itself a classic piece of work, and yet it's an achievement that pales in comparison to "Silent Leges," the episode that perhaps crystalizes the Deep Space Nine approach to the franchise.

This was always a series that took a different look at the lore, a more nuanced one, that dared to suggest there was more to Gene Roddenberry vision of a utopian future than met the eye.  While attending a conference on Romulus, Bashir is confronted with the idea of Section 31 all over again, and he becomes determined to expose it.  Except he doesn't take into account just how clever it really is, and that's what's so special about the episode, really, how it takes what was always one of the hallmarks of Star Trek and turned it on its head, the idea that geniuses could work miracles.  The miracle of "Silent Leges" is that it explains how and why Section 31 exists, as a support structure for Starfleet's highest ideals.

In these days of constant revelations about what real world organizations like Section 31 have been up to, it's hard to appreciate that they were founded to do that kind of work, that there really is justification for what looks so awful in the news.  "Silent Leges" serves as an argument in their favor even as Bashir can only consider Section 31 with disgust, as a necessary evil.  And yet (there's even a classic episode with that name in the second season), that was a concept at the very heart of the series, so "Silent Leges" is kind of the final statement of the series about that, in such a sensational, new way that it becomes, well, a cult within a...well, you know.

It's all the more ironic that it's Bashir who stars in the episode, as he was at the start of the series the most naïve Star Trek character ever, so gung-ho to take a posting "at the edge of the final frontier" (so the premise was originally posed) that he was actually fascinated by the idea of Garak, a Cardassian spy who never got to come in from the cold, that he never even considered the danger posed by such an individual.  (It's to be reminded that these dangers were eventually explored in the third season.)  So to become entangled in the very real depths of spy business, the messiness of the frontier, of Starfleet's mission in general, is a way for Bashir to take the series out of the war context it had become immersed in and would end its run exploring. 

It's an ideal episode to view Deep Space Nine at its very best.

criteria analysis:

• franchise - When Star Trek Into Darkness later brings Section 31 to the masses, it's this episode that made the organization truly relevant.
• series - This is what Deep Space Nine was all about.
• character - Shows how far Bashir has come in the course of the series.
• essential - An episode you could sell the whole series on to a reluctant fan.

notable guest-stars:
William Sadler (Sloan)
Andrew Robinson (Garak)
Barry Jenner (Admiral Ross)
John Fleck
Adrienne Barbeau

Deep Space Nine 3x1 "The Search, Part 1"

rating: ****

the story: Sisko introduces everyone to the Defiant, a powerful new Starfleet warship he's taking into the Gamma Quadrant to confront the Dominion.

what it's all about: What always set Deep Space Nine apart was that it was, well, set aboard a space station.  Did that really change in the third season with the introduction of the Defiant?  Well, no.  Occasionally it would be used to tell more traditional Star Trek stories, but for the most part it remained an extension of the station dynamic.  But it was by its very nature a clear signal that this was a series that wouldn't outright condemn war so much as explore its many facets. 

It was also a kind of redefining of Sisko himself, who proudly announces his role in its development, and that he'll be its commanding officer (he wouldn't gain the rank of captain until the end of the season).  This whole episode begins the third season's strong characterization of Sisko, which was the series' best characterization of him to that point, and arguably from its whole run.  Sisko first appeared as a broken, lost man, and while accepting the space station assignment gave him new purpose, it didn't really fix him.  He and son Jake acknowledge that they've now found themselves a home, in the episode.  Sisko had purpose before, but now he has a reason to live.

But others are less happy about what's been happening.  Odo, for instance.  "The Search, Part 1" is also the first appearance of Michael Eddington, a seemingly minor and yet increasingly significant character in the middle portion of the series.  At first he's important because to Odo it's Starfleet's ultimate rebuke of his role as the lawman of the station.  This was something that bubbled up in the previous two seasons, but comes to a dramatic head with Eddington.  Odo doesn't particularly care about Eddington himself (he ends up working alongside him just fine) so much as the fact that once again he's being forced to confront his status as the unwanted "other."  Which leads him, unexpectedly, not only to resign but show up to take part in the expedition, because he once and for all is convinced that his origins, another long-teased development, really do lie in the Gamma Quadrant.

By the end of the episode, the mission has turned into a disaster, but Odo has discovered exactly what he sought: the Founders, and the forever-unnamed Female Shapeshifter who is destined to change the course of his life forever...

Unlike how the previous season began, with that historic three-part episode that ran out of steam and authentic developments well before its conclusion, "The Search" packs a strong one-two punch, with a strong beginning (here) and conclusion (next episode).  Both halves are distinct in and of themselves, although of course inextricably linked.  They both focus on Sisko and Odo, besides, setting them up one moment and knocking them down the next, to remarkable effect.  What was previously reserved for strong episodes was now beginning to settle on strong characterization.

Given how big the Dominion story ultimately became, it might be tempting to dismiss how it began and increasingly irrelevant.  But that would be a mistake.

criteria analysis:

• franchise - Seldom has storytelling been this forceful and assured in Star Trek.
• series - Iconic elements are falling into place at last.
• character - Sisko and Odo are front and center.
• essential - And having some of their best-ever material.

notable guest-stars:
Salome Jens (Female Shapeshifter)
Ken Marshall (Eddington)
John Fleck
Martha Hackett

Deep Space Nine 2x1 "The Homecoming"

rating: ****

the story: Kira believes the key to reviving Bajor's fortunes is liberating a Resistance hero who has just been discovered alive in a Cardassian labor camp.

what it's all about: A lot of fans found the first few seasons of Deep Space Nine dull because of their heavy quotient of Bajoran stories.  Actors playing Bajorans tended to play them as subdued individuals (a key exception to this rule was Nana Visitor's Kira, who's one of the most spirited characters in all of Star Trek).  The hero Kira liberates in "The Homecoming" conforms to this standard.  Thankfully, there's always Kira and the complexities of Bajoran politics.  It's fascinating that politics became such a favorite subject on TV in the years following Deep Space Nine's conclusion in 1999, whether in The West Wing or House of Cards.  Like a lot of its content, this was one element in which the series was ahead of its time.

Another was its focus on serialized storytelling, of which "The Homecoming" was the first of an unprecedented three-episode arc (the series later had six- and ten-episode-long arcs, but not until its final two seasons).  It's also the best and most focused episode of this first stab at extended storytelling.  It builds on work from the first season, notably "In the Hands of the Prophets," the season finale, which helped set the tone for the rest of the series. 

The story of a forgotten hero is a compelling one, which fans might tend to overlook because the two episodes that follow kind of move on from it to other elements.  In fact, the whole of the arc is very relevant to 2016 U.S. politics, the search for a hero who will unite a dispirited population, amid controversies over outside influence and outsiders within the population itself.  (It's no surprise, then, that scores of Star Trek personalities have been pledging to oppose Donald Trump, who certainly appears to fit the model of the villains in this story.) 

In fact, the xenophobia in the arc is later echoed in Enterprise's "Demons"/"Terra Prime" arc, which many fans consider the true final episodes of that series.  Certainly, fans remember those episodes better.

The problem, again, is that Deep Space Nine became much better known for other stories, or for earlier, more self-contained efforts like "Duet."  Yet it's absolutely worth immersing yourself in the most ambitious look at the problems facing Bajor, the planet Starfleet and Sisko came to help transition from years of Cardassian oppression, as represented in "Homecoming" and its two sequels.  The hero Kira finds actually helps Kira find her own voice, as someone who's far more willing to cooperate with Starfleet than she'd been previously.  That means this episode is best viewed as an essential Kira episode, which in turn helps unlock the entire series for fans still wondering what it's all about.

As a lot of fans have already, you may decide that Deep Space Nine has considerably more merit than you have previously considered.

criteria analysis:

• franchise - Star Trek's mission statement is all about discovering the hero in all of us.
• series - The mission statement of this series is all about discovering heroes in unlikely places.
• character - Kira's most certainly a hero, which this episode makes clear.
• essential - As stated above, this is an episode that unlocks a lot of series mythology.

notable guest-stars:
Frank Langella
Max Grodenchik (Rom)
Marc Alaimo (Dukat)
John Fleck

The Next Generation 4x24 "The Mind's Eye"

rating: *

the story: Geordi is programmed by the Romulans to become an unwitting assassin.

similar to: "Babel One," "United," "The Aenar" (Enterprise)

my thoughts: This is such a roundabout way to lead into "Redemption" that it's almost not even worth commenting on in that regard, but it's probably the best way to talk about it at all.

And by the way, this is also the introduction of Sela, the Romulan daughter of the Tasha Yar from "Yesterday's Enterprise," and even in that it's kind of a needless tease for how little mileage the character ends up getting.  Denise Crosby famously exited the series in its first season because she didn't think she got enough to do.  These are the episodes where she gets to prove whether or not it was a horrible mistake on her part, because they're by far her most important.  Yet she never quite breaks the mold of being an actor who was arguably better suited to play Deanna Troi, as originally cast (Marina Sirtis makes a far better argument about deserving a shot at Yar in episodes like "Power Play" and "Face of the Enemy").

But since she's hardly in it, and not even officially so, let's not spend this review talking about Sela.  It's not even worth talking about Geordi, which makes this another episode featuring a character but not really using them as bedeviled the midpoint of the season.  Until the closing moments of the episode, in which Troi helps Geordi realize what's happened to him, he literally has nothing interesting to do except walk around on autopilot.  Based on the classic movie(s) The Manchurian Candidate, I'd say "Mind's Eye" was a horrible misfire in that regard, far more so than the Deep Space Nine episode evoking Casablanca, "Profit and Loss."

Anyway, again, this whole story is really just an excuse to set up "Redemption" two episodes later as a season finale.  It doesn't feature Worf, for whatever reason, but does have Romulans and Klingons awkwardly clashing.  It's important in a very minor way, almost like the series realized such a moment was necessary, but had no better way to provide it.  It's a place-filler of an episode.

Besides, the whole thing was done better in a three-part Enterprise episode concerning Romulans manipulating events behind the scenes.

criteria analysis: franchise - series - character - essential

notable guest-stars:
Denise Crosby (Sela)
Colm Meaney (O'Brien)
John Fleck

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.

Enterprise 4x1/4x2 "Storm Front"

**

The fourth season of Enterprise is generally regarded to be its finest, the year that finally started to tackle all the continuity points fans expected from the series.

Of course, before all that, the show's own continuity had to be acknowledged one last time.  Since the first episode, something called the Temporal Cold War had been a recurring element of the plot, a way to visit the far future while sticking to the past.  At this point in franchise lore, you must remember, each new series had always moved forward.  Enterprise was the first look back, as it attempted to illustrate how Starfleet and the Federation helped create a landscape that seemed fully formed from the moment the original series debuted in 1966 (this, of course, is hogwash: "Starfleet" as a term didn't spring up for years).

The creators of Enterprise thought they were having their cake and eating it, too, but fans were already discontent, had been discontent probably since 1994, when Kirk was killed off falling from a bridge.  They felt betrayed by Star Trek, and so started betraying Star Trek in droves, fragmenting the fanbase until it finally collapsed on itself.  In 2009, the reboot finally came, and by starting fresh, the franchise found its greatest success to date.

That goes to show that the fans who were convinced they knew how everything should be done maybe weren't as right as they thought they were.  They thought the Temporal Cold War was an unnecessary complication to Enterprise, and so "Storm Front" concludes the arc, sending Archer and crew to WWII, because for some reason Star Trek has always loved bringing back the Nazis.

On a purely intellectual basis, "Storm Front" is a worthy culmination of the arc.  Since it was long implied that the whole basis of the Temporal Cold War was the absurd logistics of carrying out a conflict across time, it makes sense that it ends with a questionable amount of satisfaction.  Both Silik and Daniels, key players from the start, appear, but their participation is a far cry from appearances like "Cold Front," the best episode of the arc.  Future Guy, the shadowy instigator of the whole affair, does not make an appearance, unless you subscribe to my theory that he's the alien Nazi Archer defeats.

And that's it.  Archer even states for the record that he never wants to see Daniels again, and wants no further part of the Temporal Cold War.  Message received.  In some alternate version of the series, which would have lasted the traditional seven seasons, you know the arc would have been heavily featured in the finale.

It's a fine adventure, but it's a clear blow-off, skirting the thing it's featuring, and while it's possible to interpret "Storm Front" as more significant than it appears to be, you have to massage the material.  In one way, it's essential to the series, but given its placement and treatment, you can also pretend, as the show itself wants to at this point, that it never happened.  In that sense, how you feel about "Storm Front" remains entirely your decision.

franchise * series * essential * character

Notable guest-stars:
John Fleck
J. Paul Boehmer
Tom Wright
Matt Winston

Memory Alpha summary, Part 2.

Voyager 6x5 "Alice"

*

Tom Paris tends to get himself in trouble when he lets his ambition get ahead of him, not so much because he makes bad decisions, but because bad things happen when he doesn't adequately consider the risks involved.  (That's probably the difference between him and Nicholas Locarno, too.)

Case in point (other than "Threshold," a gem that's thrown in the scrapheap by most fans) is "Alice," where he gets the opportunity to test a radical new navigation system that in typical sci-fi fashion totally backfires, an artificial intelligence that turns evil.  (It's a wonder that the crew wasn't paranoid about The Doctor pulling this sort of thing.  But it never came up.  About the only Doctor story Voyager didn't do.)

You don't need to see this one for any other reason than it reflects the tendencies of Paris.  Not his best moment and actually a bit of a backslide for him, actually, perhaps evidence that this grease monkey will always need paying attention to.  B'Elanna, definitely pay attention.

franchise * series * essential * character

Notable guest-stars:
John Fleck

Memory Alpha summary.