ENT: United

         We are at the point where I suspect the writers knew this was the end of ENT and that if they were going to have Archer help found the Federation they had better get moving. For pretty much the first time ever it even felt like yes, Archer might make a positive contribution to such a thing. I am not sure where they are going with the Romulans using a kidnapped Andorian, but I am sure there is some evil reason for it. The Tellarites still seem like jerks, but I guess sometimes you have to form alliances with jerks to keep the really dangerous people at bay. I do appreciate that we still haven't had a member of starfleet actually see a Romulan. An evil Vulcan did, but he may have actually been a surgically altered Romulan so who knows.
         We open with Trip and Malcolm still stuck on the drone ship. They manage to disable the warp drive but this draws the attention of the Romulans. Trip gets into the engineering section to try and knock out all the power but they trap him there and increase the radiation levels. On Enterprise Archer is trying to put together an alliance to try and stop the drone ship, but Shran and the Tellarite ambassador just want to keep fighting. Things get worse when his fiance dies and he challenges the ambassadors aide to a duel. Archer finds a loophole though and takes the Tellarites place in the duel which upsets Shran, but he isn't willing to step down. The duel goes ahead and Archer manages to choke Shran long enough to cut off one of his antannas which destroys his balance and apparently ends the fight since he can no longer defend himself. Honor satisfied they move ahead with the joint action. On the drone Trip passes out and Malcolm turns on the warp drive so the Romulans will open the door to where Trip is. Malcolm brings their helmets and leaves a surprise behind, his phase pistol rigged to destroy the power grid. It works but the drone starts repairing itself as Enterprise locates it and comes under fire. Trip and Malcolm escape out a hatch but their presence keeps the alliance ships from firing and the drone escapes to Romulan space. We close with the reveal that the hooded figure controlling the drone ship is a pail faced Andorian.

         Review: An action packed episode with some good starfleet lawyering. Not a lot of science fiction, but enough story and character to make it a good episode.

7 out of 10