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DVD, Enterprise S4 (Home)

I remember disliking this episode on first viewing. I think it was mainly the Vulcan side of it, but I wasn't impressed with the many threads running through, they were too shallow and I didn't see the point of much of it. It was important for the series to take a breath, much as 'TNG' did after 'The Best of Both Worlds,' or 'DS9' after the six-episode war arc at the beginning of Season 6. So there was precedent for a quieter, or more fun episode, to build on the experiences the characters had recently been through, and consolidate, or in some way reset the series, or put it on its next path. But this episode doesn't really delve into the characters, not all of them anyway. Perhaps that's fair. After all, 'Family' was all about Picard, and 'You Are Cordially Invited' was about Dax and Worf, not 'all the characters,' so perhaps I'm asking too much. It's just that the series had gone from the traditional 80s and 90s style of an ensemble piece, to more and more focusing in on selected main characters. And that doesn't change here, with Mayweather, Reed, Phlox and Hoshi once again given only one or two scenes of very little importance, while the can is carried by Archer, with about equal support from Trip and T'Pol. It's something the series needed to address, to get that sense of family back into the crew that, for example, 'Voyager' had so strongly.

That isn't to say the four 'lesser' characters don't have anything to do: Phlox has a few nice scenes, one with Reed who warns of rising xenophobia on Earth, another in which this is encountered (allowing Reed and Mayweather to let off steam in a minor bar fight), leading to the Doctor's puffer fish defence mechanism being activated (what at any other time would have been to hilarious effect, though here it feels more serious thanks to the cause), and one where he and Hoshi discuss what happened. It's good (that's probably the wrong word in the circumstances), that the temperature on Earth towards aliens, that would become so important in the penultimate two-parter of the season, was given some setup here, along with a plausible reason for why this mood was appearing: after the Xindi attack at the end of Season 2, humans had been knocked out of complacency, and while this Earth isn't the one of two centuries hence when everything is hunky-dory, it was still a peaceful and better place thanks to the aftermath of World War III, making any such belligerence shocking. That conflict helped change human history (just as The Great War, and World War II did for our times), forcing the nations to reason and cooperate, with the help of the Vulcans (although their assistance often seems to be underplayed in these later-produced Treks).

The change in humanity's mindset is embodied no less than in Captain Archer himself - not the xenophobic part, of course, but a wave of cynicism that has crushed his adventuring spirit and makes him wonder if Earth ships should stay close to home so they can protect the homeworld against future threats that could appear at any moment (nobody tell him about the Borg!). I say not the xenophobic part, but there is a slight impression of even that in his manner. He's no longer excited to explore new worlds, or is bitter that he can't be that same wide-eyed explorer that we miss from the first two seasons, his old attitudes represented by Captain Erika Hernandez of the NX-02 Columbia that has now reached completion (or almost completion, it wasn't clear). He sees himself in her, and can't accept that life can continue as 'normal' as it was before the Xindi attack. So, thanks to his recommendations, the new ship has upgraded weapons and more of them, when he admits himself that he originally argued against heavy weaponry with the designer. Similarly he recommends Hernandez take a squad of MACOs, even make one of them her First Officer, when it was initially something he wouldn't have considered. So it's really sad to see this idealistic personality have such a u-turn in his beliefs and optimism.

The debriefing didn't help. We begin the episode with the Captain and his senior staff lined up before a cheering crowd (done well, with a good impression of size and space - a prequel moment to the finale in which we see Archer make a more important speech), making a speech about those they've lost (did Reed look down because he felt responsible?). Even in that moment of triumph, that bring to mind the medal ceremony at the end of 'Star Wars,' you start to see the guilt and negativity that have taken root in Archer's mind. When his actions are questioned at the debriefing regarding the loss of the Vulcan ship Seleya (as seen in 'Impulse'), it's the last straw for him, snarling at the Vulcans, and Soval in particular, forcing an angry Admiral Forrest to order him to take some leave (he doesn't have a brother to end up rolling in the mud with to improve his mental state!).

I like that there's a callback to a specific event that occurred in the Expanse, it's not just as easy as returning to Earth as heroes that saved the planet and having no accounting for actions. But Archer's fed up with both sides, the hero worship and seeming accusations from the Vulcans. It's good that underlying tensions that have been there since the start of the series are being addressed and returned to, and it provides the best character moment in the episode: Captain Hernandez follows Archer into the wilderness where, in true Captain Kirk tradition, he goes climbing (he's no Kirk, though - has to use ropes!). With nightmares about Xindi-Reptilians coming to kill him (in the last ever appearance of the Xindi, I believe - they got some good use out of those Reman outfits, didn't they!), he admits to Erika that he's not the man he was, and seeing her as he used to be doesn't help, the guilt about what he did or became in the Expanse (such as stranding Casey Biggs' ship). It's not like she immediately changes his mind or tells him to pull himself together, but her presence helps to return a little of his natural optimism about the future.

This is furthered by Ambassador Soval, at whom Archer had previously flared up, and whom had constantly been a thorn in his side, but now he actually thanks the Captain for what he did, and basically validates his actions against the Vulcan ship. It's a nice moment, and to show that Soval is sincere he even initiates a handshake, a human custom that, thanks to their distaste of physical contact (due to their touch-telepath nature), is quite a gesture. It's a shame there wasn't a similar moment of reconciliation between the Captain and Forrest considering what would happen to the unfortunate Admiral in short order, but I imagine it happened off screen, and he was hardly going to be angry with his best Captain, and friend, for long. One thing I didn't realise was that the Expanse was expanding (clue's in the name I suppose…), which is mentioned by Soval, another reason why he thanks Archer, since Vulcan would eventually have been caught up in it, too.

Soval's gesture is the least of the Vulcan interest that takes place - in one short episode we are given a statement of intent from the writers about where the series is headed from now on: we are going back to the familiar of 'TOS,' what we've missed in large part from this supposed prequel series was now jumping to the front of the queue, and you can't get much more 'Star Trek' than the planet Vulcan to which T'Pol takes Trip. Ostensibly to visit her Mother (played by Joanna Cassidy, whom I knew, ironically, as a crazy and dangerous woman in an episode of 'Starsky & Hutch'!), though it turns into a Vulcan wedding when we meet her betrothed, Koss, at last (played by Michael Reilly Burke, who'd been a Borg in 'Descent' and a Cardassian student in 'Profit and Loss'). So you could say this was almost a combination between 'Family' and 'You Are Cordially Invited'! This is where I had more problems with the episode, and once again it's with these Vulcans and how they're portrayed. We all know they have emotions, but you can't deny them their control or you deny the race its unique character. Yet every one has their emotions accessible just below the surface which rise up quite regularly and make a mockery of their so-called control, rather than the appearance of no emotion. Yes, T'Pol can be excused to a certain extent as she's a special case, having always been interested in aliens, living among humans, and more recently her addiction to a drug that released her emotions more readily (I'm not saying I like it, but these are excuses), but the others do not have these reasons!

T'Pol's homecoming isn't the serene occasion it might have been as we learn that her actions, specifically, the Enterprise's interference in the monastery of P'Jem, have made her almost an outcast, or at the very least, have driven the Vulcans to punish her in the only way they could - by removing her Mother from her high position (though it could equally have been for her abandonment of the Vulcan Science Academy in favour of joining the Enterprise crew permanently at the end of Season 2). Again, it's good that something that happened so long ago should be called up again ('The Andorian Incident' was an early episode from Season 1), a further statement of intent that though the series had a new direction (it's third after the initial exploration, and then the Xindi mission), it's not about to forget the things that were good about the early episodes, notably the Andorians, Vulcans and the interplay between these and Earth, all moving towards the founding of the Federation. It must have been so tricky to know how much to accomplish in this regard, when the future of the series was uncertain (and indeed, short-lived), as they would have wanted to play out the founding in real time so we eventually got to the year (2161), yet they wanted to get to the good stuff, too, in case they didn't get the chance to continue. A difficult balancing act that they carried off successfully, it's just a shame we never had the opportunity to see it happen.

On a more picky note, the lighting for outdoor scenes on Vulcan was flat, and when compared to the great outdoors Archer climbs in, looked completely unnatural. It was good to see the grand statues of Vulcan, though they must have been others to those we saw in 'The Motion Picture' since they looked different - why not just take the CG effects from the Director's Edition and use them here? Just as Soval initiated his human handshake with Archer, Trip initiated the Vulcan salute with T'Pol's Mother, in a nice piece of symmetry between the two plots. Usually if Archer is upset he can rely on his buddy, Trip, to go off with him, but this time it was good for them to have a break from each other, though you feel like he's just going to Vulcan because it's as good a place to go as any, now his home has been destroyed, and the Enterprise has become that for him. I think what's really missing is him going over the Enterprise refit, something that every other engineer we've ever seen would be hopping up and down to do, not swanning off to Vulcan! T'Pol should have had to pry him away from his engines and then when he realised how he felt, we should have seen him take the difficult decision to go with her rather than do what he really wanted to do. We're not shown much of the refit, and it's technically more of a repair, but still…

It's exciting to see the Columbia, Archer taking a tour of the bridge (it's only little so it didn't take long!), and helps inject some optimism into the unhappiness and uncertainty about the future hanging over some of the characters. There's still hope for the Federation to come and the universe we know. Again, I'd have liked to have witnessed the launch of the NX-02, perhaps to end on, but we'd still be waiting for the NX-01 to get back into space, so maybe that would have been inappropriate. I do wonder if 'Enterprise' had been the success originally envisioned, running for anywhere up to seven seasons, and then heading up the film series (the plan at one time), would Columbia have headlined a spinoff series to continue Trek on TV? Or another NX down the line - it seems likely that any new series would have followed in this time period. This was not to happen, and sadly we now have to endure a 'Star Trek' that is not really 'Star Trek' any more because of the failure of this version. And it really is sad, because what I do love about this episode now, is that despite being a relatively slow episode, it's heavily set in our favourite universe, no longer trying to be something it's not, what with a tri-screen in the debriefing room, mention of the kal-if-fee (though not realistically, it seems), Vulcan spoken with subtitles (yay!), the knowledge that successful film epics are made about World War III (though this seems hard to believe - wouldn't they prefer to forget this dark period of history?), and some of T'Pau's speech from 'TOS' used to close the episode out, it couldn't be any more 'Star Trek' if you added green people. Could it…?

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