Holy hell, it is almost like they writers on ENT have actually watched an episode of Star Trek before! Any maybe they even paid attention to what happened and tried to not directly contradict things we were told in TOS. Specifically they don't break with what we were told in Balance of Terror that humanity fought a war with the Romulans and negotiated peace without ever seeing them face to face. The icing on the cake is the fact that their ships even look like the ones in TOS. Sure, they are CGI, but they seem to be the same design in general and not something way more futuristic like some of the Klingon ships we have seen. They also managed to give some story and character to Malcolm which is something I had pretty much given up on. The idea that he is afraid of water seemed kinda silly, but it does at least explain why he is obsessed with navy ships but is in fact not in the navy.
We open with the captain having Malcolm over for breakfast and trying to get some small talk going with him. Malcolm is visibly bothered by all this and is eager to get out of it when the bridge calls with news of an unexplored planet. Archer tells them to drop out of warp to investigate but as soon as they enter orbit there is a huge explosion which knocks out a chunk of the saucer section. Even worse they detect what appears to be a mine lodged to the hull near a fusion generator which Malcolm immediately volunteers to go defuse (which actually makes sense since he is armory guy, had this been season one Hoshi would have gone and taken her shirt of for no reason in the process). Even worse an unidentified ship shows up and starts acting menacing which is extra bad since Hoshi is in the infirmary and the computer can't understand them.
Things get even worse when the mine impales Malcolms leg to the hull of the ship with one of its spikes and the captain goes out to help. Hoshi manages to get the comm logs and gets working on a translation and figures out it is the Romulans and they want Enterprise to leave now. On the outside the captain is working with Malcolm to defuse the mine and manages to drag some actual personal information out of the guy in the process. It seems Malcolm doesn't believe captains and their crew should get to know each other due to his families history with the Royal Navy, but he does admit his fear of water is why he didn't join. He also makes it clear he is willing to sacrifice himself to save the ship. The Romulans get extra pushy so Archer comes up with a plan to activate the mine after separating it from the ship and then cutting Malcolm out before it can explode and using doors from the shuttlepods to shield them from the blast. Despite that seeming like maybe a bad idea it of course works and Malcolm admits he is glad the captain ignored his advice.
Review: This episode manages to have some actual tension in addition to character growth from one of its least developed characters in a way that made me actually like him a bit. Still ENT, but a much better ENT that first season ever gave us.
6 out of 10
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