Silent Enemy
Date: September 01, 2151
Original Airdate: January 16, 2002
By T'Bonz
The Story
Enterprise is approached by a strange vessel. Despite all hails,
the ship remains silent and eventually leaves. It later returns,
and scans Enterprise, then fires on it. Enterprise's weaponry
is ineffective against the alien ship.
Since the ship left Earth ahead of schedule (to return Klaang
to Qo'noS,), it left before all systems were installed
and finished. This included three phase cannons. Archer makes
the decision to go back to Jupiter station to have them installed
and the ship brought up to speed, so that they would be better
prepared to face any potential hostile enemies.
Meanwhile, Malcolm Reed's birthday is approaching. Captain
Archer charges Hoshi with the job of finding out his favorite
meal, seemingly an easy task. However, Hoshi runs into difficulty
getting this information. Reed's parents don't know
his favorite meal, neither does his best friend, his sister or
other various relatives, all of whom Hoshi contacted via subspace,
using the newly dispatched subspace amplifiers. Hoshi even tries
to get the information out of Reed himself, but her maneuvering
to get the information is mistaken by Reed as romantic interest
in him. She tries to explain, but leaves in embarrassment and
without the information desired.
The alien ship returns and attacks, taking down the main power.
They send a shuttle over and some of them incapacitate two
Enterprise crewmembers, and scan them. After Archer and several
others come running and challenge them, they depart. They return
to their ship which then leaves the area. Enterprise sustains
damage. The crew attempts to contact the Vulcan High Command
for assistance getting home, but can't raise them.
Trip and Reed don't wish to go back to Earth with their
tails between their legs, so have the Engineering crew work double
shifts to get the phase cannons installed. (The components are
aboard Enterprise). They get this done and test them and finally
get them working properly. During the test, they find out that
the aliens left a device aboard Enterprise. Archer relays a message
to the aliens, and destroys the device.
Hoshi finally gets a clue as to a favorite food of Reed's,
when she speaks to Dr. Phlox. Turns out that Reed is allergic
to something in pineapples, and Reed takes measures to counteract
that. Satisfied at last, Hoshi hurries off to provide the information
to prepare the birthday surprise.
The aliens return, insisting that Enterprise surrender. They
are introduced to the newly installed and more powerful phase
cannons. They are damaged by the cannons, and are forced to withdraw.
Enterprise is safe. Now that the weaponry is installed and shown
to be effective, Archer cancels the order to return to Earth,
he feels the ship is able to face what is out there. New subspace
amplifiers are deployed.
Finally, As Archer, Reed and Trip share drinks, Hoshi brings
in the birthday surprise for Reed. It's a birthday cake,
a pineapple one. Reed is astonished, wondering how they figured
out that pineapples were his favorite food.
Review
The Good
The story was interesting. It was different to see aliens who
weren't interested in being friends, and one was curious
as to who the aliens actually were. We got to learn a little
more about Reed, and his family, who don't seem to be the
usual doting Starfleet family (as with Bashir's family
in DS9 and Kim's in VOY).
The music. The music in this episode, as in Cold Front, was
gripping and stirring and enhanced the episode.
Hoshi and Reed's misunderstand over coming to her quarters
for a meal was amusing.
The Very Good
Continuity. Little touches in different places – from
mentioning events in Broken Bow, to the solution for making the
phase cannons work (drawing power through the impulse engines
- a fact mentioned "later" in ST:TMP). These little
touches help knit the episodes together into a smooth running
story.
The Bad
Hoshi being the errand girl for finding out what Reed's
favorite food was. Seemed to be a waste of her talent, they couldn't
have Chef or some other lesser crewmember do this?
Overall Opinion
This was a good episode. From wondering who the aliens were,
to the light humor of the "B" story, the story held
one's interest. The little touches of continuity, referring
back to events in early stories, and even ahead to later Trek
(TMP) are welcome and help interconnect ENT, not only with previous
episodes of the show, but with other Star Trek series.
It was nice to see different aliens, and not the usual "bumpy
forehead" ones.
One gets the sense that Enterprise is really on their own and
vulnerable. Yet they are independent and choose to attempt to
work things on their own, in spite of the dangers involved. One
truly gets the sense of newness and challenge; this is not the
floating luxury hotel of TNG, but a scrappy tough little ship
with something to prove.
Grade: 8/10
Cast:
Scott Bakula as Jonathan Archer
John Billingsley as Dr. Phlox
Jolene Blalock as T'Pol
Dominic Keating as Malcolm Reed
Anthony Montgomery as Travis Mayweather
Linda Park as Hoshi Sato
Connor Trinneer as Charles Tucker
Guest Cast:
Jane Carr as Mary Reed
Paula Malcomson as Madeline Reed
John Rosenfeld as Mark Latrelle
Guy Siner as Stuart Reed
Creative Staff:
Director: Winrich Kolbe
Teleplay By: Andre Bormanis
