As a prequel to Journey to Babel and as a continuation of the Romulan conspiracy this episode was a big success. It was obvious that they were setting it up so that neither the Andorians nor the Tellarites were responsible for the conflict, but it wasn't clear just what was actually happening. A holographic projector equipped ship is such a cool/obvious idea I am not sure how this hasn't been a thing up until now. Also it seems kinda high tech for a show that takes place before the rest of Trek, but I am not going to let that ruin it for me. In hindsight it should have been obvious that the Romulans weren't actually on the ship, but the reveal at the end actually got me which I really appreciated.
We open on the bridge of a crippled Andorian ship which we learn from an injured Shran was attacked by Tellarites and is about to suffer a warpcore breach. Cut to Hoshi and Archer bickering in what turns out to be a preparation for the arrival of a Tellarite ambassador. They are taking the ambassador to Babel where negotiations between the Tellarites and Andorians are scheduled. The ambassador arrives and Archer opens by insulting him which is apparently the right thing to do as we move to reception. Archer is called away though by the distress signal from Shran's ship. They pick of the survivors, less than a third of the crew, and head for Andoria. Shran is super pissed when he learns the Tellarites are on board and the Tellarites are pissed when they learn they are now going to Andoria. Enterprise is attacked by and Andorian ship before they make it far though and they don't listen to Shran when he tries to call them off. Even the information on their shield generator location proves wrong, but some torpedoes drive the ship off. Cut to the vessel and we see it has a small Romulan crew. Enterprise tracks the ship down and it seems to be disabled so Trip, Malcolm and two MACOs beam over, but soon it turns back on and escapes trapping Trip and Malcolm. While Archer and T'Pol try to figure out what is happening Shran and his fiance break out of their quarters and hold a gun to the Tellarite ambassador. Luckily Archer figures it out just in time and rushes in to defuse he situation. The Romulans though have figured out they have stowaways but can't stop Trip and Malcolm from making to the empty bridge. We close with a pull away shot revealing the Romlans are comfortably back on Romulus and have been remote flying the ship.
Review: A fun episode with my favorite guest star makes for an very enjoyable experience. By this point the audience is pretty well aware that the Andorians and Tellarites are founding members of the Federation along with Humans and Vulcans but it isn't clear how the Romulans figured it out. Still, not a bad group to pick for the villains of this particular bit of the story.
7 out of 10
No comments:
Post a Comment