I actually stopped part way through this episode and had to ponder for a few minutes. Archer did something using the transporter that was both super smart and actually used their technology in clever way that hadn't been done before. After I restarted I noticed that Archer was actually making tough decisions, and paying the price for it, but not giving up either. Then he used his space marines to help retake the ship after getting Phlox to work his magic on an anti-exploding gas. By the end I felt like I had watched an actual episode of Star Trek with a message and everything. I was sure this was just some anomaly, must just be luck or something, but no. It turns out Manny Coto wrote but this one and the previous interesting episode, and there's more, he is the guy who gets hired to replace Rick Berman and Brannon Braga for the fourth season. I know there is still more of their third season left, but there is at least light at the end of the tunnel!
We open with Trip and Tucker flying around one of the spheres in the expanse giving it a close scan. They return to Enterprise and we cut to the bridge of a Triannon ship. Their leader, Pri'Nam D'Jamat tells them that they have found what they are looking for and should prepare to take Enterprise. On Enterprise they detect the Triannon vessel in very bad shape. Archer is suspicious though and tells Malcolm to take all precautions. They dock with the ship and take the injured to sick bay, but their religious beliefs prevent the scans Phlox would like to do. Soon D'Jamat shows up in Archer's ready room and tells him that his people are all over Enterprise and are living bombs. To prove his point he signals one of his people to explode himself which kills a member of Enterprise as well. Archer gives in to the demands and surrenders Enterprise ordering Trip to help them, but also telling him it isn't over.
D'Jamat turns out to want the ship to kill a rival faction of his religion that believes the universe was created in 10 days, not 9 which is so Star Trek it hurts. It also turns out they consider the spheres hella holy and think what Enterprise did was sacrilegious which is punished by death. Luckily for them D'Jamat is feeling lenient and tells Archer to pick just one person to die. Archer picks himself and suggests a novel for of execution, the use of a device that disassembles matter completely and painlessly. D'Jamat agrees because he is a zealot, not an engineer and of course it turns out to be the transporter. Soon after they encounter members of the rival faction you D'Jamat begins to slaughter without mercy.
Fortunately for them Archer is loose on the ship first heading to some sort of auxiliary controls and knocks them out of warp and disables weapons and sensors. He frees Malcolm and sends him to get the marines. Archer sends a clever coded message to Phlox and finds out Phlox needs a scan of one of them to figure out how to make them less explosive so Archer knocks out one of the zealots before he can self destruct and scans him. Next Archer talks one of the zealots who seemed a little shaky on the commitment to self destruction into helping him distribute the enzyme that will disable the explosives. After some firefights they retake the ship and get the other faction to stand down. In the end Archer takes them where they wanted to go, their homeworld. Which is already a nuclear wasteland from the same war they were trying to drag Enterprise into.
Review: I am not sure I am ready to call this great, but it was an actually good episode of Star Trek in almost every what that I measure. The crew were smart, but also tried to help people. There was a clear message that would have fit perfecting into TOS. Man, I can't wait for season four.
7 out of 10
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