Fallen Hero

DVD, Enterprise S1 (Fallen Hero)

I didn't identify with V'Lar, and found her to be too expressive and emotional for a Vulcan. Perhaps it was her age or the long years in alien cultures, but she seemed a lot less Vulcan than we've come to expect, even from 'Enterprise'. As a story the suspense was kept up reasonably well, but wasn't actually such a big deal. Trusting Archer seemed to be the only stumbling block to the ambassador revealing the truth behind events, which didn't seem that logical. Plus the Mazarite's weren't the best designed aliens this season, and no detail of their species was uncovered. If it had cleverly been about a recognizable species, say the Bolians, it would have provided the hook, but as it was, they weren't great villains.

When Archer told Reed he was relying on him, I assumed he meant to have a team of security to greet the invading Mazarites and take them captive. When only two heavies came aboard with the enemy Captain it looked a bit easy to capture them. In the episode's defence, it had some good battle scenes, helped by the dramatic music that recalls 'Voyager', and the chase sequence was suitably tense. When the Vulcan ship descends like a great eagle to rescue the NX-01 it's a great moment and shows off the Vulcan ship design very well. There are also little links, such as Admiral Forrest, mention of Soval, and of course, Risa. However, the bulk of the episode was a mystery which didn't warrant such secrecy, which is where it fell down.

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