***
Like "Awakening," but in different ways, "Kir'Shara" stands out in the Surak Trilogy as potentially a classic episode, particularly for its work with some recurring characters from the series. Regard it as nearly essential viewing.
For a while, actually, "Kir'Shara" was one of my personal standout episodes from the series. It is, however, necessary to see the previous two episodes to understand what's going on, and the flaws in the previous entries are part of the overall experience, which means if the first two acts have flaws, so too by extension does "Kir'Shara."
Vulcan intrigue continues as Archer and T'Pol continue their desperate quest to redeem the faithful of the original teachings of Surak. To further complicate matters, the Andorians arrive on the scene. Remember that in the first season, Vulcan-Andorian relations were an essential ingredient of the ongoing story of the series. And as always, the Andorians are represented by Shran, whose importance to Enterprise would've finally been acknowledged in the aborted fifth season, in which he would have been elevated to regular cast status.
In "Kir'Shara," however, Shran has his darkest moment, against another recurring figure, Vulcan ambassador Soval. In contrast to Shran, Soval had routinely been viewed as a quasi-villain, always getting in Archer's way, the very embodiment of the somewhat cruel nature of the Vulcans that many fans saw the Surak Trilogy as correcting to more closely match later characterizations, notably Spock and his father Sarek.
The highlight of the episode is Shran's interrogation of Soval, reminiscent of Garak's with Odo in the third season of Deep Space Nine ("The Die is Cast"); in hindsight it only loses some of its luster because it is tangential to what leads to the resolution of the story.
As I said in my thoughts on "Awakening," the whole point of the Surak Trilogy, aside from a redemption of sorts for Vulcans in Enterprise, is to set up the menace of the Romulans, which would play out in later episodes, but would also have theoretically have led to a full-blown Romulan War arc, had the series lasted past this season.
If you watch only one episode in this trilogy, "Kir'Shara" would be that episode. But watch "Awaking," too, and then you might as well include "The Forge," too. But there are other episodes you need to watch, too, to understand what these stories are really gearing toward. So half of what this trilogy accomplishes is really only half the story...You may enjoy how that works itself out, or you may consider it a headache you can do without, and that's part of why I cannot fully endorse the whole story. But it's definitely worth consideration.
In truth, I'm still working on this season myself, so I don't think it's too much a stretch to assume others probably should be doing the same.
franchise * series * essential * character
Notable guest-stars:
Jeffrey Combs
Gary Graham
Robert Foxworth
Memory Alpha summary.
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Tuesday, September 18, 2012
Enterprise 4x8 "Awakening"
***
At this point I'm hesitant to add the full endorsement to the Surak Trilogy, but its borderline status means you probably ought to consider it premium material regardless.
"Awakening" sees T'Pol and Archer enter the heart of Vulcan territory, with Archer harboring Surak's katra (his soul; if you still don't know what I'm talking about, rewatch The Search for Spock). While they're trying to accomplish the transfer of the katra into the appropriate hands, the rest of the Vulcans are immersed in still deeper political intrigue, embroiled in a crisis that is being manipulated by the Romulans (but more on that in later episodes).
Like most of the season, the Surak Trilogy comes on a little suddenly and abruptly, as if some of the creators were becoming angsty about the future of the series (with good reason, because this was the final season), perhaps even desperate. If any one of these stories had been strung out over more episodes, or even covered in a single episode, the series might have been in better shape on the other end. The fourth season is exactly like the first season in a lot of ways. "Awakening" is itself like a cross between a few first season offerings, such as "Desert Crossing" and "Fusion."
While both Archer and T'Pol are indeed at the center of the story, they're busy experiencing it more than participating in it, which is something the fourth season continually did with the main characters, until the final episodes (ironically enough), with a few exceptions. As interesting as "Awakening" is, it's emblematic of the flaws that exist in the season, even as it exemplifies what also helped make it work.
franchise * series * essential * character
Notable guest-stars:
Gary Graham
Robert Foxworth
Memory Alpha summary.
At this point I'm hesitant to add the full endorsement to the Surak Trilogy, but its borderline status means you probably ought to consider it premium material regardless.
"Awakening" sees T'Pol and Archer enter the heart of Vulcan territory, with Archer harboring Surak's katra (his soul; if you still don't know what I'm talking about, rewatch The Search for Spock). While they're trying to accomplish the transfer of the katra into the appropriate hands, the rest of the Vulcans are immersed in still deeper political intrigue, embroiled in a crisis that is being manipulated by the Romulans (but more on that in later episodes).
Like most of the season, the Surak Trilogy comes on a little suddenly and abruptly, as if some of the creators were becoming angsty about the future of the series (with good reason, because this was the final season), perhaps even desperate. If any one of these stories had been strung out over more episodes, or even covered in a single episode, the series might have been in better shape on the other end. The fourth season is exactly like the first season in a lot of ways. "Awakening" is itself like a cross between a few first season offerings, such as "Desert Crossing" and "Fusion."
While both Archer and T'Pol are indeed at the center of the story, they're busy experiencing it more than participating in it, which is something the fourth season continually did with the main characters, until the final episodes (ironically enough), with a few exceptions. As interesting as "Awakening" is, it's emblematic of the flaws that exist in the season, even as it exemplifies what also helped make it work.
franchise * series * essential * character
Notable guest-stars:
Gary Graham
Robert Foxworth
Memory Alpha summary.
Enterprise 4x7 "The Forge"
***
Perhaps the essential three-parter in the fourth season, the Vulcans take center stage in Enterprise for the first time since the first season.
"The Forge" kicks things off in dramatic fashion with a terrorist attack (other than Deep Space Nine, Enterprise is the place to look in Star Trek if you want to look at the franchise's thoughts on this prescient topic, and its conclusions may surprise you) that claims the life of recurring character Admiral Forrest.
The attack draws attention to a group of radical Vulcans with ties to the historical figure of Surak, who came up with all the central tenets of logic that have been overlooked or distorted since his time. Critics of the show's handling of Vulcans saw this as an opportunity to make amends, though I don't think you need to adhere to that interpretation to enjoy this historic moment.
T'Pol is necessarily at the heart of this story, complicated family connections and such.
As with any multi-part episode, "The Forge" is not much of a complete experience, so you need to keep watching.
franchise * series * essential * character
Notable guest-stars:
Vaughn Armstrong
Gary Graham
Robert Foxworth
Memory Alpha summary.
Perhaps the essential three-parter in the fourth season, the Vulcans take center stage in Enterprise for the first time since the first season.
"The Forge" kicks things off in dramatic fashion with a terrorist attack (other than Deep Space Nine, Enterprise is the place to look in Star Trek if you want to look at the franchise's thoughts on this prescient topic, and its conclusions may surprise you) that claims the life of recurring character Admiral Forrest.
The attack draws attention to a group of radical Vulcans with ties to the historical figure of Surak, who came up with all the central tenets of logic that have been overlooked or distorted since his time. Critics of the show's handling of Vulcans saw this as an opportunity to make amends, though I don't think you need to adhere to that interpretation to enjoy this historic moment.
T'Pol is necessarily at the heart of this story, complicated family connections and such.
As with any multi-part episode, "The Forge" is not much of a complete experience, so you need to keep watching.
franchise * series * essential * character
Notable guest-stars:
Vaughn Armstrong
Gary Graham
Robert Foxworth
Memory Alpha summary.
Wednesday, September 12, 2012
Enterprise 4x6 "The Augments"
***
The blow-off to the Augments arc (conveniently named "The Augments") is the most satisfying installment, benefiting from the material that has come before it, which one would hope from any series of episodes.
Prior to this, it should be noted, the only time Star Trek had specifically done a series of three episodes for any one story was at the beginning of Deep Space Nine's second season.
Arik Soong becomes relevant, and his own arc more significant, in the conclusion to a desperate bid to shut down a group of genetic supermen reawakened from the batch that originally gave us Khan. As I've said in previous comments, the whole point of this story is to provide links through the franchise, and Soong is established not only in connection to Khan, but officially to Data as well in the episode. You can imagine a lot of stories to be based on the elements of the Augments arc. Enterprise would itself do one with the Klingons several episodes later.
franchise * series * essential * character
Notable guest-stars:
Brent Spiner
Alec Newman
Memory Alpha summary.
The blow-off to the Augments arc (conveniently named "The Augments") is the most satisfying installment, benefiting from the material that has come before it, which one would hope from any series of episodes.
Prior to this, it should be noted, the only time Star Trek had specifically done a series of three episodes for any one story was at the beginning of Deep Space Nine's second season.
Arik Soong becomes relevant, and his own arc more significant, in the conclusion to a desperate bid to shut down a group of genetic supermen reawakened from the batch that originally gave us Khan. As I've said in previous comments, the whole point of this story is to provide links through the franchise, and Soong is established not only in connection to Khan, but officially to Data as well in the episode. You can imagine a lot of stories to be based on the elements of the Augments arc. Enterprise would itself do one with the Klingons several episodes later.
franchise * series * essential * character
Notable guest-stars:
Brent Spiner
Alec Newman
Memory Alpha summary.
Enterprise 4x5 "Cold Station 12"
***
The Augments trilogy begun in "Borderland" continues, and while the whole story is pretty interesting for fans of the franchise (because we revisit the genetic supermen that gave us Khan) and the series (because this whole arc kicks off the way the whole fourth season plays out), the real treat is that "Cold Station 12" finally allows us to meet Phlox's pen pal, Dr. Lucas.
Famously introduced in "Dear Doctor," Lucas is a key part of Enterprise lore. While the whole Augments arc is a tad extraneous to the series (except when revisited several arcs later), it's a little more disheartening that when we finally meet Lucas, it's basically the same thing. That's one of the hidden weaknesses of the season, which even fans who didn't particularly care for the series tended to like because of all the franchise stories, that it tended to disconnect from the rest of what Enterprise had done.
Being a fan of Phlox, I was always on the prowl for more material featuring the good Denobulan, and this was about as close to good Phlox material that the season featured. It's worth a look.
franchise * series * essential * character
Notable guest-stars:
Richard Riehle
Alec Newman
Brent Spiner
Memory Alpha summary.
The Augments trilogy begun in "Borderland" continues, and while the whole story is pretty interesting for fans of the franchise (because we revisit the genetic supermen that gave us Khan) and the series (because this whole arc kicks off the way the whole fourth season plays out), the real treat is that "Cold Station 12" finally allows us to meet Phlox's pen pal, Dr. Lucas.
Famously introduced in "Dear Doctor," Lucas is a key part of Enterprise lore. While the whole Augments arc is a tad extraneous to the series (except when revisited several arcs later), it's a little more disheartening that when we finally meet Lucas, it's basically the same thing. That's one of the hidden weaknesses of the season, which even fans who didn't particularly care for the series tended to like because of all the franchise stories, that it tended to disconnect from the rest of what Enterprise had done.
Being a fan of Phlox, I was always on the prowl for more material featuring the good Denobulan, and this was about as close to good Phlox material that the season featured. It's worth a look.
franchise * series * essential * character
Notable guest-stars:
Richard Riehle
Alec Newman
Brent Spiner
Memory Alpha summary.
Enterprise 4x4 "Borderland"
**
The start of the Augments arc and the way the rest of the season was to unspool, "Borderland" is the moment Enterprise started to play heavily with franchise lore.
(Ha! Not that Lore, but close enough.)
In the first season, the series did a fair bit of this, and also in the second, but not in ways that fans had been expecting when news of the prequel concept first came down the pike (not that Pike!). The fourth season became a totally different experience, building on the heavy arc nature of the third but broken into smaller narratives.
"Borderland" is the first time Star Trek deals directly with the idea of the Eugenics War since "Space Seed" and the famed second movie (Wrath of Khan), though it was a major point in the Deep Space Nine episode "Doctor Bashir, I Presume?" It's a key piece of franchise history, though it's always been shrouded in mystery. The Augments arc, set a hundred years after the late '90s event (there have been many attempts to explain how we lived through something like that, or how the Voyager story "Future's End," set during this time, failed to mention it), deals with protoypical Khans suddenly unleashed, thanks to an ancestor of the man who created Data. (I don't normally reference actors in these capsules, but that's indeed Brent Spiner in these episodes.)
Also the first episode of the season to feature the Orions, but not the last.
franchise * series * essential * character
Notable guest-stars:
Brent Spiner
Alec Newman
Memory Alpha summary.
The start of the Augments arc and the way the rest of the season was to unspool, "Borderland" is the moment Enterprise started to play heavily with franchise lore.
(Ha! Not that Lore, but close enough.)
In the first season, the series did a fair bit of this, and also in the second, but not in ways that fans had been expecting when news of the prequel concept first came down the pike (not that Pike!). The fourth season became a totally different experience, building on the heavy arc nature of the third but broken into smaller narratives.
"Borderland" is the first time Star Trek deals directly with the idea of the Eugenics War since "Space Seed" and the famed second movie (Wrath of Khan), though it was a major point in the Deep Space Nine episode "Doctor Bashir, I Presume?" It's a key piece of franchise history, though it's always been shrouded in mystery. The Augments arc, set a hundred years after the late '90s event (there have been many attempts to explain how we lived through something like that, or how the Voyager story "Future's End," set during this time, failed to mention it), deals with protoypical Khans suddenly unleashed, thanks to an ancestor of the man who created Data. (I don't normally reference actors in these capsules, but that's indeed Brent Spiner in these episodes.)
Also the first episode of the season to feature the Orions, but not the last.
franchise * series * essential * character
Notable guest-stars:
Brent Spiner
Alec Newman
Memory Alpha summary.
Saturday, September 1, 2012
Enterprise 4x3 "Home"
****
If there's one episode of the series that fans of the series absolutely must watch, this is it.
After the dramatic events of the Xindi arc from the third season and the complications of the season premiere, the crew is finally able to begin coping with what's happened to them. In a lot of ways, this is Enterprise's version of "Family," the Next Generation episode that followed "The Best of Both Worlds." Picard had been through a terrible ordeal. As the title of that episode suggests, Picard (not to mention Worf) has family matters he has to handle, especially an older brother who has long been jealous of him and once again breaches the logic of adventuring through the stars, something that has new relevance now that he's just survived being assimilated and causing the deaths of thousands.
For Archer, it's a time to perhaps rethink his prior attitudes about space travel as well. As the first deep-space captain and son of the man who developed the Enterprise's warp engine, he's long fought a sense of entitlement (see: "First Flight") and boundless enthusiasm for the resulting mission that brought him into pioneer territory every day. But the Xindi experience was different. He had to remain strong for the sake of success, and that took an incredible amount of willpower. Now he falls apart.
It doesn't help that an old girlfriend of his pops up. Erika Hernandez will return in later episodes, but for now she's a rare opportunity to glimpse Archer's life before the NX-01. Much of this season spends time revisiting past associations, actually.
The episode also features foreshadowing for another story later in the season. The unexpected fallout of the Xindi crisis was a newfound xenophobia on Earth, something Phlox experiences firsthand. Now, if you've ever watched the series, you know Phlox is one of the most lovable characters in the franchise. And yet he is not loved in "Home." That's a darn shame.
And besides that, arguably the most important element of the episode is T'Pol returning home. Again, there's further ramifications of this, too, throughout the rest of the series. Part of it reflects back on her relationship with Tucker, especially the knotty complications of the previous season. She learns that her mother (like Worf's brother Kurn in "Sons of Mogh") has suffered the consequences of her actions in previous episodes, and the only way to resolve them is to marry the man she was once betrothed to (something that was gone over in the first season).
The only problem is, Tucker still has feelings for her, and so the episode ends bittersweetly with the engineer biting his tongue as the wedding is conducted.
I said at the start of this recap that you should really watch this episode if you love this series. You will probably also love this series if you start with "Home." You'll want to know the rest of the story, because this is one of those continuity stories that explains exactly what to love.
franchise * series * essential * character
Notable guest-stars:
Ada Maris
Memory Alpha summary.
If there's one episode of the series that fans of the series absolutely must watch, this is it.
After the dramatic events of the Xindi arc from the third season and the complications of the season premiere, the crew is finally able to begin coping with what's happened to them. In a lot of ways, this is Enterprise's version of "Family," the Next Generation episode that followed "The Best of Both Worlds." Picard had been through a terrible ordeal. As the title of that episode suggests, Picard (not to mention Worf) has family matters he has to handle, especially an older brother who has long been jealous of him and once again breaches the logic of adventuring through the stars, something that has new relevance now that he's just survived being assimilated and causing the deaths of thousands.
For Archer, it's a time to perhaps rethink his prior attitudes about space travel as well. As the first deep-space captain and son of the man who developed the Enterprise's warp engine, he's long fought a sense of entitlement (see: "First Flight") and boundless enthusiasm for the resulting mission that brought him into pioneer territory every day. But the Xindi experience was different. He had to remain strong for the sake of success, and that took an incredible amount of willpower. Now he falls apart.
It doesn't help that an old girlfriend of his pops up. Erika Hernandez will return in later episodes, but for now she's a rare opportunity to glimpse Archer's life before the NX-01. Much of this season spends time revisiting past associations, actually.
The episode also features foreshadowing for another story later in the season. The unexpected fallout of the Xindi crisis was a newfound xenophobia on Earth, something Phlox experiences firsthand. Now, if you've ever watched the series, you know Phlox is one of the most lovable characters in the franchise. And yet he is not loved in "Home." That's a darn shame.
And besides that, arguably the most important element of the episode is T'Pol returning home. Again, there's further ramifications of this, too, throughout the rest of the series. Part of it reflects back on her relationship with Tucker, especially the knotty complications of the previous season. She learns that her mother (like Worf's brother Kurn in "Sons of Mogh") has suffered the consequences of her actions in previous episodes, and the only way to resolve them is to marry the man she was once betrothed to (something that was gone over in the first season).
The only problem is, Tucker still has feelings for her, and so the episode ends bittersweetly with the engineer biting his tongue as the wedding is conducted.
I said at the start of this recap that you should really watch this episode if you love this series. You will probably also love this series if you start with "Home." You'll want to know the rest of the story, because this is one of those continuity stories that explains exactly what to love.
franchise * series * essential * character
Notable guest-stars:
Ada Maris
Memory Alpha summary.
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