Review
Well, with the short synopsis, you may have noticed that
it was, well, short. That's because not much happened
in this episode. It felt a little slow and the ending montage
building up to the fight scene was too long. Though, the
slow pace of this episode did allow for some good character
development. I liked the scenes between Trip and the boy
from the colony. They played off each other well and I
liked the way Trip reacted to the kid. The rest of the
cast got a little screen time, all of which was good and
did not seem like it was just thrown in there to incorporate
them, like happens a lot of times. Hoshi's scene
with Malcolm when they were training the colonist to use
the weapon effectively, not only was a great reference
to last season, but also showed a new type of bond between
the two characters (couldn't tell if it was fatherly
or romantic). Something that might even be developed? T'Pol's
scene with Mayweather training the colonists in self defense
was an interesting scene – Travis and T'Pol
haven't had much interaction thus far and I liked
seeing them work together. Phlox's scene in sickbay
showed how Phlox's never ending curiosity could come
in handy. But, like I said at the beginning, this was definitely
a big three episode: focusing mostly on Trip, T'Pol
and Archer.
The Klingons in this episode were used very effectively.
They were pure pirates, and seemingly, had no honor. They
were very reminiscent of the Original Series Klingons,
always squandering away others wealth and pillaging other
colonies. The entire episode I thought back to the Klingons
in one of my favorite TOS episodes, Errand of Mercy. The
colonist had said the Klingons had killed three extra colonists
after an uprising for punishment. The same happened in
Errand of Mercy. This is a great reference back to TOS
and I like how Enterprise writers are making their Klingons
more like TOS than TNG. I also liked the new Klingon ship – great
predecessor to the Bird of Prey. Also, the red transporter
effect was perfect. The downsides of these Klingons was
they were kind of stupid to fall into that trap and they
seemed like children with their immature remark as they
left after being defeated.
I like the fact that we saw the desert fatigues again.
Once again, great inter-series continuity. T'Pol's
outfit, on the other hand, was not only unnecessarily tight,
again, but completely (excuse the reference) illogical.
Why would she wear a completely white outfit (something
very reminiscent to a certain Star Wars outfit, btw) to
a dusty, dirty desert? It makes no sense, aside from being
purely lewd. Now, I don't usually complain about
T'Pol wearing an unnecessarily tight outfit, because
I realize the need for sex appeal when it comes to ratings,
but in this case it was just imprudent. But, I did like
the fact that she changed into the baggy civvies of the
colony for the fight scene – and I liked the fact
that she kicked some major butt.
Though, all in all, one of the best parts of this episode
was the inter-series continuity that I keep referring to.
Enterprise has done a great job with this and it continues
in this episode. With references to the Kreetassans, Klaang, "Sleeping
Dogs" (both in the helping the Klingons and with
Hoshi's target practice), and the damage to Enterprise
from "Minefield", this episode is "action – packed" with
references (so to speak).
Overall, this was a good character episode, with a "big
action" ending.
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