United
Date: Unknown
Original Airdate: February 4, 2005
Reviewed by Diesel Micky Dolenz

The Story

The episode kicks off with a recap of “Babel One.” Rather than go through that again, you’re welcome to read the synopsis we did following the episode. When we reach current events, we see Reed and Tucker being tossed about the empty bridge of the Romulan drone. Fortunately for them, the drone has reached its next target and stabilizes its flight path in preparation for attacking a Rigillean ship. The Romulans choose a skin for their latest impersonation, but don’t let us in on the secret (I’ll give you three guesses what it turns out to be, and the first two don’t count). The Romulans allow the Rigilleans to fire off a “guess who’s killing us” message, then finish the job. Surprise, surprise, it was the “Enterprise” skin. I wonder if I can get one of those for my browser. The usual theme song kicks off, squashing rumors that it had been replaced with the theme from “Shaft.”

Back from commercials, Talas is in sickbay. As predicted, she’s in worse shape than Shran said she was last week. It turns out that the phase pistol was set to kill. The only reason she’s alive at all is that she was only grazed by the shot. I’m guessing that Naarg, the Tellarite that shot her from a whopping distance of two feet, won’t be winning any marksmanship awards. We find out that phase-infections in an Andorian can be particularly nasty, and Talas makes Shran promise that she will not go unavenged.

On the bridge, Archer views a recording of the Romulan probe, in it’s spiffy NX-01 skin, destroying the Rigillean’s ship. The Rigelian Trade Council wants reparations for their lost ship, and Archer’s head on a platter. Well, OK, they say they only want him arrested, but we know what they mean. T’Pol tells us that Mayweather has taken a break from staring at the viewer to develop a method of detecting the drone. All that’s required to make the sensor grid work is 128 ships, exactly 127 more than Archer has at his disposal.

Back on the drone, damage inflicted by the Rigellian ship has forced the Romulans to abandon their plan of bouncing Reed and Tucker to death. A Romulan senator orders that the drone return to Romulan space immediately, if not sooner. The drone is a prototype built from a modified warbird. The structural impossibility of that is ignored, but the Vulcans would be able to trace it back to the Romulans. The senator leaves, flanked by two Remans whose only function seems to be a vain attempt to convince us that putting them in Nemesis was a good idea.

Archer finds out that assembling 128 ships isn’t as easy as it sounds. Ships from Earth will take weeks to get there, and even the Columbia can’t join the party as she’s stuck in space dock. I hope Starfleet kept the receipt. The Vulcans are sending 32 ships. Archer isn’t pleased, but T’Pau has been doing some house cleaning after the Vulcan High Command disbanded, and not many Vulcan ships have a full crew compliment. If there were only some sort of alliance or federation of species he could call on… Nah.

Archer gathers Shran and Graal at the conference table. Round one went so swimmingly, why not try it again? The two aliens act predictably. Archer suggests that instead of him accommodating the Tellarites with insults and putting up with Andorian arrogance, the two should act human for a change. I’m guessing he means without all the greed and prejudice. Archer says that humans are the best he’s seen at putting their differences aside to take on a common cause, even if he does say so himself.

In the drone’s bridge, the Pep boys manage to access the leftover warbird controls. They get life support online and access the warp controls, causing the drone to drop out of warp. This doesn’t go unnoticed back on Romulus, and when Trip enters a side room to find more control circuits, the Romulans trap him inside. They flood Trip’s service corridor with radiation and will kill him unless Reed restores warp control. The ship’s auto-repair mechanism would eventually restore it anyway, but would take too long.

Shran hands communication codes over to Archer, relaying that the Imperial Command has agreed to help in forming the sensor grid. The Tellarites have agreed to help as well. Shran notices the images of past ships named Enterprise on Archer’s wall. The Kumari was the first ice-cutter to circumnavigate Andoria. He suggests that future ships will be named after their ships if they manage to do something historic. The two agree that Earth and Andoria could be allies and shake hands on it. Something tells me there’d be more ships named Enterprise and Kumari regardless, but let’s not ruin the moment.

T’Pol shows archer that all 128 ships are in place. Before Archer can enjoy that warm fuzzy, Phlox calls him to sickbay. Archer arrives there before Shran. Talas has died.

Later, Archer shows the Tellarites the functioning sensor grid, and says they’ll just have to wait for the drone to be detected. Shran insists on talking to the pigs, telling them about Talas and her family. He carries a vial of her blood to take back to Andoria, according to Andorian custom. Suddenly, he grabs Naarg’s hand and pours some of the blood on it, effectively challenging him to a duel. Archer must agree to let the combat occur, or the Andorians will withdraw from the alliance.

Trip didn’t bring his helmet with him into the corridor and is suffering from exposure to the radiation. He starts pulling circuits and briefly manages to interrupt main power, but the Romulans are able to switch to a back up system. He orders Reed not to do as the Romulans demand and starts to pass out. Reed defies orders and agrees to restore warp control. Once control is restored, the Romulans turn off the radiation and open the hatch to the corridor. Reed grabs both helmets and checks on Trip.

The Romulans see no further need for the humans, and once Reed is clear of the bridge, they seal off access. Reed uses a badly disguised code to tell Trip that he’s set his phase pistol to overload on the bridge, and the farther away they can get, the better. The pistol is connected directly to a power conduit. The overload causes enough damage to drop the ship back out of warp and cut off communications with Romulus. From space, explosions can be seen ripping through sections of the hull.

The duel that Shran is demanding is called the Ushaan (you can tell it’s an alien word by the double ‘a,’ you know). The weapon used is called the Ushaan-Tor, an ice miner’s tool that Andorians learn to use as children. Naarg wouldn’t stand a chance. Not that it matters, because Graal won’t let him fight in the first place. Archer asks Hoshi to look further into the rules of the Koon-ut-kal-if-fee, er, rather the Ushaan.

Archer visits Shran in his quarters, and informs him that Naarg is invoking the Right of Substitution. At first, Shran is delighted by the thought that Graal will be fighting in Naargs place. He’s someone less pleased when he learns that it’s Archer that will be doing the fighting. Shran has no desire to kill his friend, but he can’t back down either. It goes beyond just avenging Talas, he feels he must also avenge his ship and crew to save face. The fact that neither Naarg nor any of the Tellarites had the least bit to do with his lost ship doesn’t seem to bother Shran, or Archer for that matter.

Frick and Frack make their way toward the outer hull of the drone, hoping to use one of the many subspace transceivers to contact the Enterprise. Soon, the Romulans reestablish contact with the drone. Auto-repair is proceeding, but it will take weeks to complete. The commander orders that he be informed when the self-destruct is back online.

T’Pol tries to dissuade Archer from going through with the Ushaan. Archer explains that Shran can’t back out, and if he refuses to fight the Andorians will pull out of the sensor grid. Of course, if Shran is killed, the Andorians will pull out then, too. If any of the Tellarites were to die in the Ushaan, the Tellarites would pull out. Ergo, Archer must die. Critics of the series have been saying that for years now, but somehow I don’t think they’ll be any less disappointed this go ‘round. The writers toss the Archer-T’Pol ‘shippers a bone with T’Pol’s pleadings, but Archer is sure he’s taking the only path available to him.

In a stunning turn of events, Mayweather is given yet another something to do in the episode. This time he offers to help Hoshi sift through the rules of the Ushaan, including its 12,000 amendments, in an attempt to find a loophole that will allow Archer to avoid fighting. After an exhaustive search, Mayweather suggests looking for a way for Archer to win, rather than worm his way out. Lucky for us, Mayweather’s father faced a similar situation on Nobelia Prime.

Prior to the duel, Hoshi, Graal and Phlox all try to give Archer advice on tactics. Archer and Shran are attached to each other’s wrists via a long tether. The tethered hand and forearm get a metal shield and the Ushaan-Tor is wielded in the free hand. The two fighters knock each other around a bit. Shran is clearly more skilled with the weapon, and he manages to slide Archer in a couple places. Archer manages to get the upper hand when he wraps the tether around Shran’s neck, causing him to drop his weapon. Archer asks Shran to give up but he refuses. We see Archer take one last swipe with his blade then fade to black and the next set of commercials.

Following the break, we see Shran in sickbay, quite alive, but with a missing antenna. Phlox points out that it will grow back, but Shran is humiliated. According to the rules, once one of the fighters is defenseless, the Ushaan is settled. Shran agrees and that’s pretty much the end of it.

The sensor grid picks up the Romulan drone. The Enterprise moves to intercept it, and alerts the rest of their fleet. The Romulans detect the Enterprise’s approach and order up a new skin. Reed and Trip notice the increased power drain on the ship’s systems. The skin of the day is Vulcan, though it’s more to hide systems from the Enterprise’s targeting sensors than an attempt to subterfuge. In any event, the power signature doesn’t match that of a Vulcan ship and Archer isn’t fooled. T’Pol finds Trip and Reed’s biosigns, but can’t get a transporter lock on them without getting much closer. The Romulan senator shows back up, upset with the commander for allowing the humans to board their prototype, but looking forward to seeing the Enterprise destroyed. Someone should tell him that UPN already took care of that.

The two ships exchange fire, and the drone’s camouflage system is damaged. Other ships from the fleet are detected closing in. Despite the skin is just a holographic projection, the drone is much more nimble without the skin, and easily evades most of the Enterprise’s weapons. Archer orders Tucker and Reed to get as close to the outer hull as possible to help with a transporter lock.

The Enterprise takes a pounding from the drone, eventually having to divert power from their weapons to their hull plating. Reed and Tucker decided their best move is to jump into space. T’Pol briefly locates them but then sensors go offline. Six fleet ships arrive to take on the drone, but Archer orders them to hold their fire. Without knowing exactly where Tucker and Reed are, they might get hit. Why these undamaged ships wouldn’t be able to distinguish between Romulan ship and floating crewmen is beyond me, but no one fires at the drone.

With auto repairs complete on the warp drive (and you thought Scotty used to overestimate his repair times? Sheesh), the drone jumps to warp. The fleet, minus the Enterprise, takes off in pursuit. After a few minutes of particularly bad FX work of Trip and Reed floating about, the two are beamed aboard.

Later, with part of the fleet visible outside the Enterprise portals, Archer tells Shran and Graal that the drone managed to escape. The drone damaged a Tellarite ship, and an Andorian ship rescued its crew. Graal suggests that there is more to be discussed than trade, and he and Shran shake hands. Archer suggests that there’s no need to wait for Babel, and the three move to sit down and talk. Last I checked, Shran didn’t have the authority to negotiate on behalf of Andoria, nor Archer for Earth, but why let a little thing like that get in the way?

Our final scene takes place on Romulus. The drone has crossed back into Romulan space, and the commander orders that the pilot be disconnected. Here we reach the Twist-Of-The-Week™ and find that under the virtual reality helmet is an albino Andorian. To Be Continued…

I’m not sure which was the bigger surprise of the episode, the revelation of an Andorian piloting the drone or Mayweather getting more than two lines. If you follow spoilers at all, there likely was no surprise on either count, but that’s why I try to stay spoiler free. I’ve always been a proponent of keeping the focus on the main characters, but every once in a while the lesser characters have their uses.

One thing that did bug me was Archer’s characterization prior to his fight to the maiming with Shran. For a man fighting a match against an opponent that has superior skills, he seemed abnormally relaxed, even to the point of cockiness. Remember, this is the same Archer that got knocked around on an almost weekly basis to start off the series. It’s one thing to go into such a fight knowing that it’s the right thing to do, it’s another to seem to not care that you’re likely to get hacked to death.

Once again, I find myself looking forward to the next episode. With the drone back in Romulan space along with the pilot, I’m curious to see how they’ll end up back in conflict with the Romulans again so soon. I wouldn’t expect another foray into “Federation” space so soon, but perhaps something else will draw the Enterprise’s attention to the plight of the Aenar. Where were episode like this two years ago, when there was still an audience?

Grade: 8/10 (B)

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 "Trip" Tucker III

Guest Cast:
Jeffrey Combs as Shran
Lee Arenberg as Gral (Tellarite)
Brian Thompson as Valdore
Geno Silva as Vrax
Kevin Brief as Naarg
Molly Brink as Talas
J. Michael Flynn as Nijil
Scott Allen Rinker as Pilot


Creative Staff:
Director: David Livingston
Teleplay By: Judith Reeves-Stevens & Garfield Reeves-Stevens
Story By: Manny Coto

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