Jammersreviews

Note: This review contains significant spoilers.


In brief: An unremarkable finale to a trilogy with more potential than the 
writers end up tapping.

Plot description: As disagreements drive a wedge between Soong and Malik, 
the Enterprise must stop the Augments from launching an attack that could 
incite a war with the Klingons.

-----
Star Trek: Enterprise - "The Augments"

Airdate: 11/12/2004 (USA)
Written by Mike Sussman
Directed by LeVar Burton

Review by Jamahl Epsicokhan
Rating out of 4: **

"How long can we sustain warp 5?"
"As long as the captain wants it. Or until we blow up -- whichever comes 
first."
   -- Soong, Trip
-----

The problem with "The Augments" is the Augments. They just don't seem very 
bright. More specifically, their leader, Malik, doesn't seem very bright, 
and the rest of them are supplied no screen time, so they become faceless 
lemmings willing to follow Malik over a very obvious cliff. As Kirk once 
said, I'm laughing at the superior intellect.

The lone exception is Persis, who has a conscience and is smart enough to 
think on her own, but not smart enough to stage her own power play by 
killing Malik and taking command over the other Augments. Based on what we 
see of the Augments, there's little reason to believe that they wouldn't be 
willing to follow Persis as blindly as they follow Malik.

And that's the problem. The crux of the story is reduced to an unremarkable 
three-character power struggle that is supposed to be a microcosm for the 
trouble that comes with genetically engineered super-humans, but comes 
across instead as overly bland and tidy drama. On one hand we have Malik, 
the crazed lunatic who's willing to kill anyone who stands in his way. On 
the other hand we have Soong, who wants only to save his "children" and 
teach them right from wrong. And in the middle we have Persis, who wants to 
come to the right decision and do the right thing, but doesn't have the 
prudence to be proactive about it.

Meanwhile, the Enterprise desperately hunts the Augments' Bird of Prey in 
order to supply the plot with the timeless story device of The Chase.

All of the characters are wearing blinders in their own way (and in the case 
of Soong, that's the point), but the big problem is that Malik simply seems 
too stupid. He lashes out and is quick to look for the violent solution to a 
given problem. This is very obviously going to be his own undoing, but he's 
too blind to see that. When Soong suggests that the Augments lay low in the 
Briar Patch so Soong can birth the other Augment embryos, Malik suggests an 
alternative plan: launch a bio-attack on a Klingon colony that will kill 
millions of Klingons. His logic: Since humans will be to blame, the Klingons 
will launch a counterattack on Earth that will "keep Starfleet busy for 
years." In the meantime, the Augments will be safe from the Klingons and 
Starfleet.

Please. I for one don't buy it -- not unless Starfleet and the Klingons are 
both equally as stupid as Malik's plan ... which I guess is what the script 
is betting on. In reality, both the Klingons and Starfleet, even *if* they 
went to war (which, by the way, is a completely contrived scenario on the 
plot's behalf), are still going to be looking for *the people who actually 
did it*.

There was a reason Khan gave in to his emotions and threw logic and 
intelligence out the window: because it was personal. He was obsessed with 
Kirk and wanted to get even, period. Malik doesn't have that excuse, and his 
argument that his plan is the best chance of ensuring the Augments' survival 
is pure idiocy.

Meanwhile, I kept waiting for Soong to just get it over with and throw Malik 
into a holding cell. Time after time, Malik disobeys Soong, and time after 
time, Soong lets him off with a sternly worded warning. It's obvious to 
everyone in the audience that Malik's power play is imminent, and yet Soong 
sits back and lets it happen. Part of this is admittedly the point; indeed, 
it's the arc of Soong's character -- he doesn't let himself believe Malik 
will actually take things to such extremes. But with all the warning signs, 
you'd think Soong would put his foot down once Malik starts whispering plans 
to murder millions of Klingons in order to incite a war that will kill still 
millions more.

Eventually, Soong is thrown into a cell, with all the Augments backing Malik 
except Persis, who pretends to go along with Malik long enough to break 
Soong out of the cell and get him off the ship in an escape pod. The 
Enterprise finds and retrieves the pod, at which point Soong explains to 
Archer the details of Malik's deadly plan, which the Enterprise must now 
prevent, upping the ante in The Chase. In the midst of The Chase through 
Klingon space, the Enterprise runs into some Klingon patrols. One of these 
encounters ends with a rather weak con by Archer that shouldn't be fooling 
anybody; perhaps, based on this gullibility, the Klingons really *are* dumb 
enough to launch a war on Earth if the Augments destroy one of their 
colonies. In another showdown, Soong tries to reason with the Klingons by 
speaking in Klingon. I like how he speaks Klingon in an American accent. ("I 
tried," he says. Reminded me of high school Spanish class, where some of my 
classmates would use American pronunciation that bordered on laughable.)

Back aboard the Augments' Bird of Prey, Malik suspects Persis of letting 
Soong out of the holding cell. But of course he should. The question is why 
Persis didn't anticipate Malik's suspicions and kill him right away, before 
he even knew Soong had been freed. Surely she had to know Malik would 
suspect her and probably kill her. If any of these characters were as smart 
as they're supposed to be, we wouldn't have to sit through so many 
transparently inevitable scenes. The scene in Malik's quarters that 
escalates from lazy pillow talk to Persis' death is one of those where you 
know simply from the demands of the script who must live and who must die, 
and yet the story goes through the motions as if there were actually any 
question about it.

The actors do their best. The always reliable Brent Spiner delivers a good 
performance under the circumstances, considering he has to convince us that 
he never saw any of this coming. Abby Brammell is effective as Persis, able 
to look hard-edged in some scenes and vulnerable in others. Her scenes with 
Soong in particular reveal a humanity that is refreshing after all of 
Malik's annoying posturing. Alec Newman convincingly creates a character in 
Malik we dislike because of his arrogance; too bad that the overall dynamics 
aren't more interesting.

The episode has some nice cross-references with the other Trek outings. My 
favorite is the way Malik, after the Enterprise's attack on his ship, 
stumbles out from under the rubble and confronts a control panel. The 
writers and director LeVar Burton successfully cite Khan's similar emergence 
from the rubble on the bridge of the Reliant; they do this using only visual 
cues.

But the story ultimately fails to draw us in or understand the plight of the 
Augments. By making the show completely about Malik and his madness, we 
don't understand what motivates everyone else. And Soong's arc, while 
expected, doesn't have enough of the right notes of regret. The episode ends 
on a note of forced whimsy, in which he decides that cybernetics are the 
direction he should now apply his brilliant mind. (This, of course, explains 
how future generations of Soong will eventually invent Data.)

Perhaps this story was simply content to show absolute power corrupting 
absolutely. Unfortunately, aside from Persis, none of the Augments stop to 
think about what they're doing or why, and the story of Malik is content to 
blandly repeat the story of Khan, but without the crucial personal motivator 
of revenge. I think the writers owed the material more than this.

--
Next week: A three-part story takes us deep into Vulcan culture.

-----
Copyright 2004 Jamahl Epsicokhan. All rights reserved.
Unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this article is prohibited.

Star Trek: Hypertext - http://www.st-hypertext.com/
Jamahl Epsicokhan - jammer@...