Terra Prime

DVD, Enterprise S4 (Terra Prime)

Strange, when I first saw this two-parter I preferred the second part, but now my opinion is reversed. It's not that it's a bad episode, and to its credit everyone is markedly involved in the story, this being the sort of, kind of, half-official, actual conclusion to the series' timeline (since the finale is a flashback to historical events, and is as much about saying goodbye to all of Trek on TV as it is for concluding 'Enterprise'), but… The villains are a good place to start, the evil Terra Prime terrorist group who, masterminded by John Frederick Paxton (he's got a long name and wears a tie so he must be bad!), had succeeded in taking control of the defence weapon for blasting stray comets in the system to deflect them from Earth or inhabited bodies. And they're not afraid to use it, threatening the very seed of interstellar exploration, Starfleet Command itself! But as long as all aliens leave, they won't destroy the place. Trouble is, they seem pretty stupid, or ill-informed, with Daniel, the man guarding Trip, believing the Vulcans should have stopped World War III back in the day, and thinks Vulcans want to control humans, etc, but all these things make no sense when we hear from Trip what Vulcans are really like. And wanting aliens to step in and save us from our own mistakes goes completely against Terra Prime's mandate. But that's the thing, like all evil organisations they aren't consistent: with an obvious parallel with Hitler to draw (the founder of the force to kill off all non-Aryans, wasn't), since Paxton needs alien medical treatment for a condition he has - Archer points out that Colonel Green, Paxton's hero, would have had him exterminated!

Paxton counters by saying it's now that matters, basically, and seeing the inconsistency of these villains turns them from calculating, intelligent threat, into standard bad guy bozos. I also feel the drop in quality from when the series began: when you look at the pilot, 'Broken Bow,' there's an amazing fight between Archer and Silik that was as inventive as it was exciting. Here, Paxton is defeated in his little control room, basically running out of oxygen (though that doesn't stop him wasting air to triumphantly explain that his mining days have given him greater resilience against oxygen deprivation, as Archer and he fight for the control of the weapon - this is the calibre of enemy we're dealing with!). It is a good moment when we think the weapon is about to wipe out Starfleet HQ, and then it hits the water instead of the San Francisco Bay area (in a visual strikingly reminiscent of the drill blast in 'Star Trek XI' - did they get inspiration for that from seeing this episode?), Trip having recovered enough in the next room to divert the beam. But it's such a limp defeat, and I'm not even sure if Paxton was just unconscious or dead. A far more dramatic ending for him would have seen him sucked out of the opening, or even to show him on trial for his crimes.

At least we finally got to visit Mars, a planet that's always been part of the Trek mythos, particularly well known for being the location of the Federation's foremost shipyards, Utopia Planitia, seen in holographic form when the Doctor on 'Voyager' took Denara Pel to the hills above. This time, Archer, Reed, Mayweather and Phlox get to traverse some of the actual ground there, near Utopia Colony, presumably the forebear to the shipyards, after the ingenious use of a comet to cover their entry path (though surely the point of the weapon was to blast such comets so they couldn't do any damage, yet we see it smash hard into the surface of Mars - maybe Paxton wasn't using the weapon for its intended purpose, conserving the power to attack Earth). It's good that we got to Mars, but the actual production wasn't so good, recreating an alien planet like that difficult at the best of times, especially with shrinking time and budget as the series headed for closure. They could have saved some money by not wearing those odd green and white outfits! Why didn't they just use EV suits or standard uniforms, or was it for disguise in case they were seen as Starfleet from a distance? The Shuttlepod approach looked good, battered in the debris from the comet, but why did they have to fly in on the tail of it anyway, couldn't they have used three-dimensional thinking and approach from the other side of the planet, or did Paxton have satellites and sensors to detect all approaches? While the CG sequence looked great in close-ups, the comet seen from distance had no weight or presence at all.

I do like the concept of the story, that a group of humans bitter at aliens work to reverse progress, warning all non-humans to leave, at the very time a Coalition of Planets is in its formative stages. Their opposition could almost be called the catalyst to the Federation, except that it's said the Coalition could take years to get back on track after trust is weakened by the incident, and it's recognised that humans aren't quite ready to accept the inevitable change. It would be six long years after the date of this episode (2155-2161), before the United Federation of Planets would be born, and before that we'd have had a four-year war between Earth and Romulus, beginning in 2156 (oh, how I wish we'd got Season 6!), so Paxton's group and its aims were successful, they did slow the rise of the Coalition (just witness the ire of Andorian Ambassador, Thoris, at the danger they're in - played by Joel Swetow, who had been in 'DS9' and 'TNG'), they just weren't very clever about it - take control of the biggest gun in the Solar System and point it at Earth! Not the subtlest of gestures. They should have infiltrated the echelons of power - we already saw that they had operatives all over the place, including on Enterprise herself, but they failed in the Romulan way of extreme subterfuge, unable to contain their rage and hatred at the 'other,' when they could have been an insidious insider force like Section 31, and brought down the Coalition from within. It would have been fun if we found out the Romulans were behind it Terra Prime, just as they were with the Vulcan and Andorian situations earlier in the season.

Section 31 would have been a good role model, except that by the end of this you're thinking they're not so bad after all! Harris has never had any of the menace or exuded the unknown power that Sloan did, as I've mentioned in previous reviews, but he's happy to help Reed here, even wishing him well and shaking his hand like they're old buddies! It's good that we got to see them way back in the timeline as they were on 'Enterprise,' but there's a distinction between using them and using them well, and Harris just wasn't the man for the job of selling 31 as this enigmatic, horribly dangerous insider force - nothing against Eric Pierpoint, he's just playing what's there, but if only they'd taken the opportunity for some stunt casting and got Andrew Robinson in as a much more twisted operative with whom you were kept on the back foot (in emulation of Garak - he could have been amazing). Also, you'd think this would be exactly the kind of direct threat to Earth that Section 31 would deal with, but instead it's left up to Archer and the gang to do it all. I suppose things might have been slightly complicated if we'd seen 31 operatives running around as well as Archer and his people going in under the radar, Terra Prime spies, and Starfleet Intelligence (why didn't Gannet tell Mayweather when she first came aboard that she was SI?), but the series could have done with a greater degree of complexity.

One thing I always remembered was that Kelby, in one of these episode, turned out not to be a villain. I suppose it was expected that a character who had only been in a few episodes had been put there as a spy, it had been done so often before. But although this episode was not even close to the quality of the 'DS9' Season 1 finale, 'In The Hands of The Prophets' with the assassination attempt by an insider, it did at least turn the expectation on its head, Kelby turning out not to be the enemy after all. But that gives rise to another problem, because Ensign Masaro is just another face of the week, so we don't care about him in the slightest. When he commits suicide it would have been more dramatic if he'd vaporised himself, rather than just putting a phaser to his head, as it wouldn't matter where you put the phaser if it was on kill - was it for shame he did it, as I never got any sense of the power of Terra Prime to exact vengeance on failed operatives? Actually we don't know if he was vaporised as his death happens off screen, oddly, Trek had never shied away from grisly phaser deaths before. The trouble with 'Enterprise' was the lack of recurring characters. Yes, you had Soval, Shran, Silik, Daniels, Admiral Forrest, and, to an extent, Crewman Cutler, but we didn't get to know the crew beneath Archer and his main team. Kelby was an attempt to do that, and he was obviously meant to be there for conflict with Trip, having gained command of Engineering and then to lose it again when Tucker chose not to transfer to the NX-02, but he could have done with a lot more development.

I will say this for the episode, it made sure to use all the main cast: Mayweather gets to pilot the Shuttlepod in a truly risky manoeuvre, and makes up with Gannet; Reed's there to get the intel from Harris, and along for the 'pod ride (mainly to be nauseous), and even Phlox gets an emotional scene where he talks of his crewmates as the unexpected family he discovered. That was something else that the episode did, stretching back its hand to the start of the series, reminding us how they began (one reason the fight with Paxton showed up so badly, for me, when it could have been so much more dramatic with air whistling out and a fight to the death), with the Doctor admitting he joined the mission for diversion and to escape the complications of Denobulan family life for a while. Hoshi's past, too, is broached, Archer now confident enough in her to leave her in charge when he leads the rescue mission, noting that she used to jump at the sound of the engines, or something, and now look where she is. She did well under pressure in the Big Chair, despite Samuels proving that it doesn't matter what era you're in, if you command the Enterprise you're going to have a bureaucrat breathing down your neck at the most pressurised moment, urging you to hurry up and take the big decisions! Hoshi's relief at Archer's voice over the comm is evident, the decision weighing heavily upon her - it looked like she was about to carry out her orders, sealing so many of her friends' deaths, one of the best moments of the episode. I'd have loved to see more of Hoshi in command (but is an Ensign the highest rank left aboard? It's like Harry Kim having command!).

T'Pol and Trip, as ever, get plenty of screen time, captives of Terra Prime, with T'Pol having some nice moments of Vulcan-like formalness with her genetic daughter. It was a really nice move to name her Elizabeth after Trip's dead sister, giving us reason to care for this otherwise genetically created baby that came out of the blue (we find out that the spy aboard Enterprise stole their DNA, Paxton can't help boasting at his reach and influence, as all weak baddies do). Oddly, T'Pol is at her most Vulcan-like unemotional state after the death of the baby, whereas throughout the episode she flares up or becomes excitable when her Vulcan calm should be in control, in the way that we've had to get used to over the series. It's one thing I never liked about her, she's more like an emotional Kes sometimes the way her words gush out at moments of crisis. And holding hands with Trip at the end is just one more thing that Vulcan's don't do, but I suppose the damage was already done, and any telepathic connection was already firmly established. I wanted her to wipe away one of Trip's tears, but she seemed distracted and contemplative, which did at least show the difference between humans and Vulcans in a marked way, as opposed to her usual lack of control. And sitting there in Vulcan robes with a crying human made her seem more Vulcan than I can remember before.

While Trip's captive he's ordered to fix the weapon, or was it just the weapons on Paxton's ship, I'm not sure? It begs the question, why didn't Paxton have someone who could do the job without Trip, another flaw in the villain's plans - he even expects Trip to try sabotage, as this confirms he's a man of principle, but it makes the whole sequence rather pointless, except for Trip to try and work on Daniel. And who finished the work if Trip didn't? At least there are reminders of Trek history, with World War III mentioned, and in Archer's speech at the end he talks of humans not knowing there were aliens before a hundred years ago. Paxton seemingly wants to go out conquering, expanding Earth's territory, regardless of other species who are there (he seemed to respect what Archer did in fighting the Xindi, but wasn't a fan of anything else), and I think he said his Father had settled Mars, so there's some parallels between the exploratory minds of both his Father and Jonathan Archer - that's another link to the opening of the series as we see contrast between how Archer and Trip used to feel about the Vulcans, the bitterness they had against the species, and how they've changed, compared to Paxton's views - who knows, perhaps at that time they might have fallen in with such a group, although they're good men at heart, not desirous of power or control, but it shows how far they've come.

The same can be said of the Vulcans (with consulates in Berlin and Canberra - I can understand the warmer climes of Australia, but not so much Germany!), embodied by Soval in his final appearance. Since finding rapprochement with Archer after the Vulcan trilogy, his purpose as a thorn in the side no longer needed - his support is evident when he starts the applause for Archer's rousing speech at the end. Soval was another Vulcan I had problems with, despite appreciating his moments of friendship with Archer, he was always too emotional, shouting out his biting resentment when he would have been so much more cutting, as Vulcans used to be portrayed in the other series', by being snooty and self-satisfied. But the Vulcans were just one problem of a troubled series, which helped to shorten the lifespan of what should have been seven years, at least. It's like the end of an era for the 22nd Century which we didn't get to know as well as we hoped, this two-parter bookended by episodes that don't take place in the series (the Mirror Universe and a future Holodeck recreation), and it does feel like an ending, with Archer's speech to all the Coalition delegates, speaking the message of Trek, just as Q taught Picard: that real exploration isn't to planets and stars, it's ourselves, how we react to threats and opportunities, what we can do, and should do within this world we find ourselves in. The cast stand together (Universal Translators clearly visible, like Starfleet combadges!), facing the future of this little corner of our tiny Galaxy in the vast Universe, faced by the aliens that in time will become allies. And finally a scene of hope between Trip and T'Pol - even though their daughter didn't make it, a human/Vulcan child is still possible, setting the stage for Spock (though I'd have been surprised if they didn't have a baby at some point), and all the history still to be written from their perspective, but that we know so well.

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