Storm Front

DVD, Enterprise S4 (Storm Front)

It's been almost a decade since watching this season, and in that time it's become known in my eyes (and many others), as the best of 'Enterprise,' supplanting my previous favourite, Season 1, which wasn't as strong in its second half after viewing on DVD. Will this view prove to be correct, or will it disappoint? I doubt it, although I must say I was more ready to be excited at the series' return back then, willing to overlook a certain lack of depth, and a slight feeling of simplicity to the storytelling. The guest characters are okay, and it's good to see our Starfleet heroes again, especially considering Season 3 could easily have been the last, but rather than a new season, fresh and with the potential to lead to more Trek, I now see it as part of the Trek that was, a huge block of 40 years, now ridden roughshod over by the desire for megabucks films. Not that this has great character depth, there's very little time for it (there was the potential of a more emotional return for Archer which could have been so much more powerful, though it was nice to see his crew surprised and happy to see the man they thought they'd lost), and actually this is closer to the Abramsverse films with a focus on action and excitement (though obviously with a smaller budget), so you don't peer too closely at all the time-related plot points. If you did, you might start to wonder why Daniels couldn't send other time agents to this period previously if this is the best point at which to stop Vosk.

Another thing that I first enjoyed when seeing this episode years ago, but which now is not so wonderful, are the links to the Temporal Cold War, with that backbone that ran through the series from its pilot (just as Sisko and the Prophets, or the USS Voyager's journey home was the main theme of their series'), and again, had great potential, though was used far too sparingly. Well, I was excited to see them return to it (I say return, though Season 3 was strongly connected with the Sphere Builders one of the temporal factions, so it had been at the forefront), but now that I know this and the follow-up episode are the last remnants of such a great concept I feel slightly disappointed with how it was written out. I was glad to see Silik the Suliban again, doing all his squidgy, climb-ey tricks, and it adds to the mystery of what's going on since he beats up Trip, then saves his life by moving him out of the shuttle bay before depressurising it to escape in a stolen shuttlepod. And it was good to have Daniels return, though we're never going to be concerned for his health since he'd already been killed once on the series. But it is a shame that rather than become the vast and complex time war that had been hinted at over the series, it becomes a much smaller scale affair with this front being the dead end where the Big Bad of the whole thing can be defeated. When put in that perspective, Vosk doesn't seem all that threatening, he's just another alien.

Now that I know they're not Remans that also colours the episode differently, though it's still enjoyable seeing such facially outlandish aliens (another great job from Michael Westmore!), wearing human clothes, let alone Nazi uniforms. It's a tradition that (almost), every Trek series has to have Nazis as the villain at some point, continuing the tradition of 'TOS' ('Patterns of Force'), and 'Voyager' ('The Killing Game' two-parter), though I'm not sure how successfully the impression of their occupation was carried through. It was certainly a strong sci-fi concept to have Germany invading mainland America, but I doubt there would be boys off fighting in the Pacific (as Alicia's husband is), with such a chunk of the States under Nazi control, but who knows what paths this version of WWII took? The aliens (actually called the Na'kuhl in the script, so as close to canon as you can get without it actually being said on screen), may look fascinating with their red Pah-Wraith eyes, and grey skin (talking of which, wouldn't it have been even cooler if they'd been Cardassians, as that would have been a nice tie-in to a race we know, fitting what we know of them, especially drawing parallels with the Nazis as often happened on 'DS9'), but, certainly in this episode, we don't really get to know them. Daniels tells us they're a threat, but that's about it, and context was needed to give us more reason to be concerned about their interference.

That's the problem I found running through this episode: as exciting and fast-paced as much of it is, with explosions and fistfights and shootouts (can you see why I equate it to the Abramsverse now?), as too often occurred on the series, it lacks depth. Things fall too easily. Take the period setting, for example. Travis recognises the planes attacking the shuttlepod 'from air shows,' which is fair enough, and Archer knows the Hollywood actresses his captor reels off (still plausible considering Trip liked showing old films to the crew), but he also knows the old-fashioned music right away (not the best idea to play an illicit record loudly enough for any passing German to hear!), and just seems far too at home in the environment for us to worry about his situation. There's just not enough jeopardy, despite him coming up against German soldiers who question his walking with the black Alicia, or having shootouts with soldiers. And people don't appear to be fazed by anything. Alicia seems to take it in her stride when she's beamed away, and it feels like it's all 'we could go into this, but there'll be time for that later,' just like when Archer returns to his dumbfounded crew. Which is strange in a two-part episode when you have time to show character scenes that build up the connections and make us care more. To be fair, there are slivers here and there, such as Trip apologising to T'Pol for questioning her on the bridge, or Phlox trying to comfort Porthos, but it's not quite enough.

The crew haven't had all that much time travel experience compared to other Trek crews, but they're not bewildered, they just calmly get on with it. You can imagine they would if this was 'TNG,' where people were so used to such things, but I think this is the NX-01 crew's first major time travel story - yes, some had done it before, but if you remember back to Season 1 when they first visit an alien planet and we see the wonder of such a thing played out, here it's as if we're in 'TNG' almost, but without the technology. It comes back to the jeopardy again, and if the crew are comfortable, then why do we need to worry for their safety as viewers? It's mostly a little too tidy and comfortable, the closest we get to seeing people rattled is when Sal and Carmine, the gangsters assisting Archer, come face to face with an alien. I do wonder why these aliens were happy to wander around without any covering, and it could have been more mysterious and creepy if they'd had they're faces hidden and we almost never actually saw that they were alien, adding to the mystery, furthering the myth of German experiments on people, and adding a layer of creepiness. Because we see them openly among German soldiers it's another example of this all being 'normal' and fine, another day at the Trek office, when perhaps a different perspective was needed? Of course it would have been more difficult to have such an intriguing cliffhanger if Archer hadn't seen the alien face looking down at him at the end of 'Zero Hour.'

There's some good continuity with the rest of the series, however, which is always good, such as T'Pol coming under fire for her previously expressed disbelief in time travel. Since then she's actually experienced it firsthand with irrefutable evidence ('Carpenter Street'), so she doesn't rule it out as she once would have, though it seems she hasn't shared her experience with the rest of the senior staff as they start giving her a hard time about not believing, which they wouldn't have done if they knew about her and Archer's trip to the early 21st Century. I also felt she was too expressive, as I often have, but that may be because I haven't watched the series in a while, and they did set a precedent with her drugs problem last season so this may be a continued side effect of that. One character who, although not getting a huge amount to do, sticks in the memory, mainly because he usually gets absolutely nothing, is Travis Mayweather. He got to leave his seat on the bridge! He goes off with Trip to chase down Silik, which strikes me as something Reed should have been done as he's Security Officer, but maybe Manny Coto was aware of Travis' lack of action and decided to give him some screen time. Which is fair.

It doesn't explain why T'Pol doesn't warn them to keep out of sight or be careful not to show their shuttlepod as would be said in the other series' if someone was going down to infiltrate another time, but that shows that this is a prequel series and they're not as concerned with altering the timeline and such. Of course this is an alternate history so it doesn't matter what they do, I suppose (another reason this feels a bit Abramsverse!), but it doesn't add to, yes, the 'j' word again: jeopardy. It's quite something that they actually destroy one of their prized shuttlepods because that's such a rarity, and it's not like they can just go and get another one from Starfleet HQ, so you'd think a salvage operation would have been a high priority, not just to stop people from this time getting their hands on future technology, but to keep as many cards in their deck as possible, since they didn't know if or how they were going to get back home. But no, Trip is fine with blasting it to pieces, and not only that, but he waits until it's full of German soldiers!

Now I know America is at war with the Germans, and I know they've been invaded, and Trip is going to identify with his countrymen, and he doesn't have the same ideals as 24th Century humans generally do, especially after the ruthless battles against the Xindi, but he didn't need to take out all those people, he could have blown it before they reached it. It would still have been a good diversion for him and Travis to escape, and wouldn't have resulted in them being wanted as murderers by the Germans. Though that wasn't very apparent when they were captured, another example of the lack of depth - there should have been Germans angry at them, threatening to kill them, but instead they're just brought before the alien and he isn't going to give two hoots about some soldiers being killed, so there's no jeopardy there, except the inference of torture to come. And while we're there, those dogs weren't very useful, unable to smell or hear the fugitives hiding close by!

So the Germans aren't given any character, it's down to the aliens to provide menace and colour to the villainy (ironic, considering their greyness). That's not quite true as we get a link to other Trek when none other than J. Paul Boehmer shows up as an SS Officer again (he'd been there at the end of 'Zero Hour' and further back, in 'The Killing Game' on 'Voyager' in much the same role!). It's only a small scene, but a good connection. This wasn't Boehmer's first role on 'Enterprise' as well as appearing in 'DS9' and 'Voyager' he'd played a Vulcan in 'Carbon Creek,' so was another of the multi-alien list some actors got to be part of. Interestingly, we also see the explosion from 'The Killing Game' episode, played as recorded footage which the alien uses to demonstrate to a German official how powerful the weapons are that he's going to build for him. The German seems remarkably cool about pursuing the alien's demands, even though, as he reminds him, they're standing in the former President's office! You'd think he'd jump at the chance to solidify his power (though maybe not the one about a plague that targets non-Aryans as Hitler wouldn't have survived…).

J. Paul wasn't the only face to return to Trek in this episode. The German official was played by Christopher Neame, who'd been a hologram in 'Voyager' episode 'Heroes and Demons,' and, continuing the strong links to that series, Tom Wright played the alien who meets with the informer, and he was much better known for being Neelix and Tuvok combined in 'Tuvix' (I knew I recognised that voice from somewhere!). Something which 'Voyager' shied away from, probably because of the technology of the time, was displaying wear and tear on the ship. Here, with the NX-01 a CG model, they were able to show the damage that had been wrought after a tough Season 3, which is one part of the episode which suggests a little jeopardy. If the aliens ever got a ship, the Enterprise would be hard put to fight. That was never likely, but still I like the attention to detail that it showed. The effects in general aren't bad, though being CG, they have dated, specifically the view of land in the early plane attack on the shuttlepod doesn't look too realistic. It doesn't affect the episode, but it was noticeable, and Allan Kroeker does a good job of capturing the action throughout. With his many experiences as a Trek Director that should be no wonder.

First and foremost, as was often the case with the series, this is a Captain Archer story, with his screen time probably equal to all the other cast combined. He's fine, but as I mentioned before, with his seeming to be at home with everything it doesn't provide much in the way of… jeopardy, or even humour. In 'TOS,' when they went to another time and were caught like fish out of water there'd be great fun in seeing them bluff their way out of it - think the mechanical rice picker of 'The City on The Edge of Forever' or "I only work in outer space" from 'Star Trek IV.' I was half expecting a similar response when Sal questions Archer about whether he's from the future, because he says he was born in New York, but could have followed it up with "I only work in the future." Archer is the typical brave hero, but it may not have been the best idea to try and take on machine guns with handguns, the Captain even wasting time to fire a parting shot from some distance before darting round the corner! I can't say Archer was a disappointment, as ever he goes into things with great gusto, perhaps having found a second wind after the wearing Xindi mission, and just glad to be alive having been trapped on the exploding weapon, but where was the discussion where he admits to such thoughts? He didn't have anyone he could really talk to. Will it all come 'later' as he tells T'Pol when she says they have a lot to discuss, or had such things slipped through the cracks permanently for Trek? I look forward to seeing the rest of Season 4, as I'm sure much of it will still hold up, but for now this first part isn't quite so easy to wholeheartedly embrace as when I first saw it.

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