From the beginning it was obvious something was up with the opening of this episode. But with all the time travel going on it wasn't initially obvious if that was the way they were going to get out of saying Earth had been destroyed again. As a result I was totally ok with it ending up that Archer had captured a Xindi commander and wiped his memory. It was also good to see the whole thing fall apart. It didn't seem reasonable that you could keep a guy like that fooled for very long. The final trick probably shouldn't have worked, but Degra was pretty shaken up by that point and it wasn't clear what exactly he remembered so maybe it would work. I can't help but wonder if tomorrow I am going to see another side plot episode though that doesn't continue the main story at all. We shall see.
We open with Archer and the weapon designer Degra in an alien shuttle. Archer explains that they both just escaped from an Xindi Insectoid jail and that Degra had his memory wiped by torture. Sure enough a blood worm soon starts wriggling under Degra's skin until Archer cuts it out. Degra doesn't want to believe Archer, but after they almost both die and Archer saves him from a coolant leak he seems more pliable. And when he goes to sleep Archer injects him with something and opens the door onto Enterprise's cargo bay. Cut to a few days earlier and Enterprise is still at the proving ground when Degra shows up in a shuttle or something to inspect the site. He and his crew are captured but refuse to talk, so Archer gets Phlox to erase his short term memory and we go back to the opening.
Back in the simulator Archer convinces Degra that three years have passed and there is a Xindi civil war going on in the aftermath of the destruction of Earth. He eventually programs in the coordinates to his families home planet into the simulator, but he encrypts them to keep them from Archer, luckily this isn't a problem for T'Pol. The problem is they aren't sure if that is also where the weapon is and can't figure a way to find out. Luckily for them I guess the simulator breaks and Degra figures it out. Eventually they bring him to the bridge and he sees what appears to be his families star system on the screen and bursts out that they will never get through the weapons defense screens and then they turn the viewer back to what is really outside, the same blasted moon proving grounds that were there before. We close with all the Xindi getting their memories wiped again and left on their ship as Enterprise heads for the weapon.
Review: I think the word for this episode is competent. Nothing goes horribly wrong with the story and the characters aren't insane. But it also didn't feel all that inspired or great.
5 out of 10
No comments:
Post a Comment