Shockwave

DVD, Enterprise S1 (Shockwave)

Shocking way to end a first season! This is the first time a first season finished with a cliffhanger, as well as the first time someone from Starfleet has gone this far into the near future. The 31st Century. Who'd have thought a 22nd Century-based series would have given us that? But that was the series' spice, its zest, what made it different. And though later seasons never used the storyline to full potential I think you could say it got reasonable coverage in Season One. Though I would have preferred a few more episodes on the subject of the Temporal Cold War, I must admit, this was a thoroughly effective way of bringing that side of it back.

The sad destruction of a colony of over three thousand was quite a hard thing to take, and was played well by the cast. It isn't often the series gets into more emotional or psychological problems, being more action based than previous Treks, but Archer's disappointment and guilt was strong. Action was represented by the daring and thrilling raid on a cloaked Suliban cruiser, with some great moments of phaser battles and quick, precise planning. Even the camera shots were higher quality and put you right in the moment.

As the mystery unravels, with input from 'dead' pseudo-crewman Daniels, and the Suliban's plot is uncovered, the tying into all the threads of the pilot and 'Cold Front' come up to haunt Archer. It's great having the two temporal titans of Daniels and Silik in a tug of war over the fate of Enterprise, and yet they don't even know the full details of what is happening, simply obeying orders. Certainly the cliffhanger leaves you wondering how they can resolve the story, with Archer trapped in the future and the NX-01 about to be destroyed! Unfortunately part two didn't live up as I recall, but you can't blame the set up for that. It closes out what has been a strong start for the series on a relative high.

One disappointment for me was in the very brief temporal echo room scene. We don't have time to see that amazing effect used so well (the pilot set very high standards!), and Future Guy, whom Silik receives orders from doesn't look as good in that bright room. The atmospheric scene from the pilot was probably using more money, but I felt simple things such as lower lighting could have made this approximation better.

As a season the first has had its ups and downs. I would say definitely more ups, than downs, with the strongest opening barrage of episodes than any opening season has boasted before it. But inertia slipped in I feel, to some degree, or maybe they didn't have so many solid ideas of what to do after the first half, and it seemed that it became a bit more patchy as the season drew closer to the end, with less satisfying integration of characters and less vibrant storytelling. In fairness they were doing 26 episodes when usually they only do around 20 in the first season, so perhaps fatigue set in.

I'm not talking about the actors who put all they could into their characters and created a bond of family even in a short time. Perhaps they grew too comfortable, too quickly, and that may have been a problem, but it's up to the writers to play the ideals for the characters to live up to, and not enough was done so that only Archer and T'Pol feel truly developed. But the production standards were rarely less than excellent, and the series' zest, or uniqueness, as I mentioned earlier, created some new kinds of episodes and a different feel to recent Trek's. Perhaps they weren't quite as bold as that opening set of episodes, which loses the momentum a bit, but in general a sterling performance.

It has been greatly enjoyable to see T'Pol grow to care for her comrades and feel part of the mission. Hoshi has gained her space legs (though I miss that neuroticism), Trip has proved a good friend to Archer, Mayweather hasn't changed much, Reed has done his business and Phlox has been a little forgotten. Archer has certainly been the one to learn so much from his many mistakes, his good humoured nature always rising to the surface for a Captain you like even more than you respect. It would be churlish to hope for much more from a debut series.

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