Two Days and Two Nights

DVD, Enterprise S1 (Two Days and Two Nights)

A really good mix and one that features all the characters equally well, which is rare on this series! I had forgotten Kellie Waymire had a third appearance as Ensign Cutler, so it was really nice to see her again, and that whole plot with Phlox' hibernation was hilarious! If only they could use him in weird and wacky moments like that more often! There was a good variety in the crew's stories, with, ironically, Hoshi being the only one to enjoy herself while everyone else tries to make out that they had a good time, but really were imprisoned or pulled into some plot.

The only niggly thing at the end is that the woman Archer meets who turns out to be a Tandaran, never revealed her true mission or whatever was going on. Clearly she had been sent to gather details on the Suliban from Archer but it would have been better if they had given us more info, or if they wanted to leave it like that they should have made a sequel out of her somewhere along the line. After talking about going to Risa for a couple of episodes, the crew finally make it, and it's a crowd-pleaser to have such things and to have the continuity references to other episodes this season.

The episode does a solid job in all respects, tidying up our recollections of the first season, giving us the modern equivalent of the original series' 'Shore Leave' and providing multiple plots that were all interesting and giving us a chance to have all of them to some degree, in different situations. Good fun, and perhaps the best Risa-themed episode ever. Interesting also, to see Dey Young, who was the mysterious guest Archer meets - she played a similar kind of role in the 'DS9' episode 'A Simple Investigation'.

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