Jammersreviews

Warning: This lengthy recap article contains plentiful spoilers for the 
entire third season of "Star Trek: Enterprise."


In brief: Hardly perfect, but a solid, reassuring turnaround from season 
two, making for Enterprise's best season so far.

-----
Star Trek: Enterprise - Third Season Recap
Capsule Reviews & Season Analysis

For episodes airing from
9/10/2003 to 5/26/2004 (USA)

Series created by Rick Berman & Brannon Braga
Executive producers: Rick Berman & Brannon Braga

Review by Jamahl Epsicokhan
-----

Yes, it's that time of year again, where I use capsule retrospectives to 
rehash points I already made in my full-length reviews, and then discuss the 
whole season in a longer piece that I call Jammer's Final Judgment (actually 
not). Agree, disagree, keep wearing those blinders of yours, put your fist 
through your flat-screen monitor while cursing my name. Whatever. I'm not 
the boss of you -- although maybe I should be.


--
PART 1: CAPSULE REVIEWS

"The Xindi" -- Airdate: 9/10/2003. Written by Rick Berman & Brannon Braga. 
Directed by Allan Kroeker.

The season doesn't exactly start out with a bang, and begins with a mediocre 
outing that manages to erode some of the interest and goodwill that had been 
prompted by the series-shattering episode that ended season two, "The 
Expanse." What we have here is the typically good production values of a 
modern Trek television outing that from a story standpoint employs far too 
many cliches to come across as the fresh new direction the creators seem to 
have intended. Most specifically, I could really have done without a season 
premiere where Archer is thrown in jail and must escape through sewers, and 
I could've done without the all-too-Enterprise-like use of pseudo-sexuality 
with the "Vulcan neuro-pressure." On the positive end, we did have excellent 
production design and gritty atmosphere, we did learn that the Xindi came in 
five different types, and we were introduced to the new, more serious Archer 
that would define the character for the entire season. Call it "redeemable 
mediocrity."

Rating: **1/2


"Anomaly" -- Airdate: 9/17/2003. Written by Mike Sussman. Directed by David 
Straiton.

In what would've made a far better season premiere than "The Xindi," here 
was a hint of what the season could and should be, in which Archer's 
borderline-obsessive search for answers takes an interestingly ugly turn, 
culminating in the "airlock scene," which brings up a number of troubling 
questions that the story doesn't really answer -- which might be the right 
idea, really, since there may be no good answers. It makes for one of the 
best outings of the season, and announces that the Enterprise, in entering 
the Delphic Expanse, will face challenging internal and external forces. In 
addition to setting the season's stage for moral quagmires and increasing 
danger, the show also introduces the mysterious spheres and the anomalies 
they create. As setup material, this might be the most influential episode 
of the season, and it's also proof that action-oriented episodes can work on 
Enterprise when assigned a meaning and focus. If my confidence had been 
eroded by "The Xindi," then "Anomaly" definitely helped quickly restore it.

Rating: ***1/2


"Extinction" -- Airdate: 9/24/2003. Written by Andre Bormanis. Directed by 
LeVar Burton.

But then "Extinction" was a step back in the wrong direction, with a boring, 
rehashed Voyager plot involving unconvincing Fun With DNA [TM]. Archer, 
Reed, and Sato get their DNA rewritten by way of a magical bio-engineered 
virus designed by a now-dead society to transform other species into theirs. 
This results in clunky, tedious scenes where T'Pol has to try to communicate 
with a bunch of savages. Of course this transformation is easily reversed by 
the show's end, but until then we have to deal with the typically 
frustrating encounters with the aliens who have authority in this region --  
and we must ask why this planet hasn't been incinerated to neutralize the 
virus, which is apparently dangerous enough to destroy entire civilizations. 
Archer's decision to preserve a sample of the virus as a way of preserving 
the dead culture is stupid beyond all reason. The season's worst episode.

Rating: *1/2


"Rajiin" -- Airdate: 10/1/2003. Teleplay by Paul Brown and Brent V. 
Freidman. Story by Brent V. Freidman and Chris Black. Directed by Mike 
Vejar.

"Rajiin" was neither good nor bad but simply extremely average adventure 
fare. There are reasonable nods to the overall storyline continuity, like 
the crew's attempts to get a hold of some Trellium-D in order to protect the 
ship from anomalies. But the episode's title character is of only moderate 
interest, mainly because her role is so obviously that of a spy meant to 
gather intelligence on the Enterprise -- specifically bio-readings so the 
Xindi can develop a bio-weapon. There's an action scene where much is made 
of the Xindi's Kewl New Weapons and defenses, most of which is abandoned 
later on in the season. As for the bio-weapon plot, I guess it was okay to 
try to add another layer to the season, but considering the payoff was 
"Carpenter Street," that idea seems awfully misguided in retrospect.

Rating: **1/2


"Impulse" -- Airdate: 10/8/2003. Teleplay by Jonathan Fernandez. Story by 
Jonathan Fernandez & Terry Matalas. Directed by David Livingston.

This is all style, and very little substance, and ranks as this season's 
most blatant guilty pleasure. This is a show about lighting, production 
design, and strange Vulcan behavior, in which a missing Vulcan ship becomes 
a darkened house of horrors for our stranded away team. The Vulcans, because 
of their exposure to the toxic-to-Vulcans Trellium-D, have all gone 
terminally insane, and have turned into violent zombies. Why they haven't 
killed each other and decide instead to gang up on the away team is beyond 
me, but like I said -- style, not content. Aside from assaults from Vulcan 
monsters, the key plot point here is that T'Pol is slowly but surely going 
insane and quickly goes from a teammate to a liability. After it's over we 
get one last little psychological shock, which hints at T'Pol's Trellium 
troubles yet to come.

Rating: ***


"Exile" -- Airdate: 10/15/2003. Written by Phyllis Strong. Directed by 
Roxann Dawson

One of the few quieter, character-oriented shows this season, in which 
Ensign Sato is revealed as something of a loner, who doesn't outwardly 
express that loneliness but feels it's a part of who she has always been. We 
learn this because a telepathic alien named Tarquin tells her (and us) in 
his attempts to bond with her; he is lonelier than she. The concept employs 
good use of Linda Park's likability. Reasonable use of continuity includes 
the detection of another sphere, the outfitting of a shuttlepod with 
Trellium insulation, and Tarquin's proposal to help the Enterprise crew. 
Solid performances mark the Sato/Tarquin scenes, which are civil even when 
they turn awkward and uncomfortable as Sato learns she is being lied to and 
her memories are being probed. The show doesn't go as far as it could've 
into character development, but it takes a stab, which is more than a lot of 
shows did in this plot-driven season.

Rating: ***


"The Shipment" -- Airdate: 10/29/2003. Written by Chris Black & Brent V. 
Freidman. Directed by David Straiton.

The name of the game in this episode is "restraint," and that's both 
necessary and welcome here, after a few early episodes this season left us 
unsure whether we would be moving in the direction of ugliness (Trip cursing 
the Xindi at every opportunity) and recklessness (Archer's airlock 
interrogation). This time, Archer points out that destroying the kemocite 
factory (the substance being used to fuel the Xindi weapon) might start a 
war rather than prevent one, so he instead ops for information-gathering. 
What we get here are two important things: (1) some backstory and depth to 
the Xindi, who up until now had neither, and (2) the notion, by way of the 
character here named Gralik, that not all Xindi are the enemy. Gralik and 
Archer share some dialog that proves that this season will not just be 
comic-book action (though there would certainly be plenty of that) but also 
an arc with Star Trek themes still in mind.

Rating: ***


"Twilight" -- Airdate: 11/5/2003. Written by Mike Sussman. Directed by 
Robert Duncan McNeill.

An effective take on the reliable "what if" scenario, in this case the "what 
if" being: What if the Xindi were successful in destroying Earth and most of 
humanity? The answer is shown by way of giving Archer a "Memento"-like brain 
condition where he can't form new memories and must start every day in a 
future he does not recognize. The story takes place 12 years after the last 
thing he remembers, where he resides with T'Pol in the last existing human 
colony. My thinking is that every day in this reality would probably be like 
an unreal, nonlinear nightmare, in which terrible events have happened and 
you must now learn about them after the fact. The episode is a superb mix of 
a little bit of everything, most notably an intimate character show (the 
unspecified caretaker-and-perhaps-more relationship of T'Pol to Archer) 
alongside an escalating disaster scenario (the Xindi have found this last 
colony and are about to destroy it). Bakula and Blalock find the right quiet 
notes for their relationship; this must be one of the quietest and most 
subtle episodes in which timelines are skewed and the Enterprise gets blown 
up.

Rating: ***1/2


"North Star" -- Airdate: 11/12/2003. Written by David A. Goodman. Directed 
by David Straiton.

This episode is a Western, but it's neither an entertaining send-up nor a 
useful invocation of a setting to ask interesting questions. It's a shallow 
and by-the-numbers "analysis" of prejudice ported into a Western. We 
therefore get all the Western cliches (sheriffs, deputies, schoolteachers, 
saloons, shootouts, etc.) but very little else. The story is about humans 
that were kidnapped 300 years ago from the Old West and brought to a planet 
where they have not evolved even a decade through the generations. The 
episode puts forth no useful ideas about why this is the case. Instead, we 
build up to a final act of inane action that uses the Western setting for 
would-be "fun" but is mostly just boring and tired. The first clue that 
we're in trouble comes early on when Archer spends the night in jail.

Rating: **


"Similitude" -- Airdate: 11/19/2003. Written by Manny Coto. Directed by 
LeVar Burton.

"Similitude" is the toughest episode of the season to come to terms with --  
which is to its credit -- but I just can't go along with it. The underlying 
way the plot clones Trip is purely and unfairly magical, and the mounting 
conditions it puts into play for this clone's survival are endlessly 
manipulative. I found I couldn't care about Sim's emotional plight because I 
resisted the very notion that he could be standing there in the first place. 
I think this is one of those episodes where if you don't buy into the 
foundation, the rest of the episode becomes untenable. That Phlox just 
happens to have this perfect cloning organism -- that goes from birth to 
death in 15 days -- sitting on his shelf is outrageous. That it gets used in 
the way it gets used is questionable on its own. The ethical implications 
are staggering, but ultimately pointless to ponder. Here's an episode that 
thinks outside the box, and allows the can of worms to crawl away.

Rating: **1/2


"Carpenter Street" -- Airdate: 11/26/2003. Written by Rick Berman & Brannon 
Braga. Directed by Mike Vejar.

On the other hand, I'd rather the writers think outside the box rather than 
deliver a timid, tepid, boring, and painfully mediocre episode like 
"Carpenter Street." Daniels, the guy with all the answers or none of them, 
depending on whether or not he ate his 29th-century Wheaties that morning, 
sends Archer and T'Pol back in time to "the year 2004" (yippee -- more time 
travel) where they must stop a Xindi research team from releasing a 
bio-weapon and killing Earth's population (or maybe just Detroit's). Why did 
the Xindi choose 2004? Probably for the same reason Daniels sends Archer and 
T'Pol back to the day before the Xindi release the toxins instead of six 
months before: Because it ostensibly makes for a better action premise. 
Unfortunately, in reality it doesn't. The results are tired 
fish-out-of-water gags and even more tired B-movie run-and-jump scenes. Here 
lies the blandest of bland mediocrity.

Rating: *1/2


"Chosen Realm" -- Airdate: 1/14/2004. Written by Manny Coto. Directed by 
Roxann Dawson.

Enterprise does a rare allegory focusing on religious/political extremism, 
but ends up with a rather uninspired story that looks far too familiar, 
since it has in its employ all the usual Trekkian devices where the ship is 
seized by bad guys before our crew must make plans to seize it back. 
Religious extremism is a topical subject these days, but the episode takes a 
topical subject and does nothing particularly interesting with it. D'Jamat, 
the leader of the pack here, is solidly performed as one of these zealot 
types; he's not crazy but simply self-righteous and able to justify his 
actions (to a point) with cogent arguments. Unfortunately, the show 
ultimately sabotages its allegorical points by reducing the situation to 
blatant silliness that makes the extremists come across more as 
unintentionally pathetic than as true followers in a cause.

Rating: **


"Proving Ground" -- Airdate: 1/21/2004. Written by Chris Black. Directed by 
David Livingston.

At a point where the Delphic Expanse mission was flagging a bit, due in 
large part because we still didn't know what motivated the Xindi, this 
episode turned out to be a lot of fun because it brought in a familiar and 
reliable character -- Shran, played by the always-entertaining Jeffrey 
Combs. The result is one of the season's more purely fun outings, as the 
story sets the engaging interaction between Shran and Archer within the 
confines of a worthwhile Xindi story segment in its own right. The two 
become reluctant partners in an important mission (which seems to be the 
definition of their relationship) -- in this case spying on the Xindi as 
they perform field tests with an intermediate version of their weapon. What 
I like best about this episode is the code of integrity that Shran plays by: 
He's actually lying to Archer and has plans that are in the interests of the 
Andorian Imperial Guard, but within the parameters of his orders he does his 
best to do right by Archer. It's an interesting -- if slightly 
dysfunctional -- dynamic.

Rating: ***


"Stratagem" -- Airdate: 2/4/2004. Teleplay by Mike Sussman. Story by Terry 
Matalas. Directed by Mike Vejar.

I think for me, "Stratagem" might very well be the turning point in the 
season (even though I still had "Harbinger" and "Hatchery" to suffer 
through), for one overwhelming reason: Degra. In the course of an hour, 
Degra went from a vague, half-sketched presence to a full-fledged 
character -- a man with a family and a conscience. Randy Oglesby delivers a 
performance with a full range of thoughts and feelings, after Archer puts 
him into a simulator room as part of an elaborate sting. The episode is a 
workable and entertaining "Mission: Impossible"-style premise that reveals 
Degra as a person in addition to a source of information. I don't know if 
Degra would really have been taken in by the second con after the first one 
failed, but I believed just about everything else about Degra. His presence 
would be crucial to much of the rest of the season.

Rating: ***


"Harbinger" -- Airdate: 2/11/2004. Teleplay by Manny Coto. Story by Rick 
Berman & Brannon Braga. Directed by David Livingston.

I will grant that some of the individual pieces in "Harbinger" would surface 
again later and play out reasonably, but that doesn't really change the 
problem with the episode itself -- a shallow and stupid display of 
passive-aggressive behavior between characters who should stop acting like 
adolescents and start acting like professionals (or at least half-witted 
adults). The showdown between Reed and Hayes is glib and pointless but 
perhaps not nearly so glib and pointless as the Trip/T'Pol subplot, which 
makes no sense in the episode and even less sense in the context of the 
season as a whole. (At least Reed/Hayes ends with a well-choreographed fight 
scene. Trip/T'Pol ends with inexplicable off-screen sex.) We are introduced 
to a sphere builder, who walks around the ship and messes up systems and 
portends ominous doom -- which as setup material for later, turns out to be 
somewhat necessary. It's not as bad as I felt in my initial reaction, but 
it's certainly not good, either.

Rating: **


"Doctor's Orders" -- Airdate: 2/18/2004. Written by Chris Black. Directed by 
Roxann Dawson.

The idea here, perhaps, is to show the cumulative effects of isolation on a 
person who is not designed to be isolated (Phlox) and as a result slowly 
goes mad. The story twist is that we are made to believe he is not really 
alone, because T'Pol is also walking around the ship (the crew has been put 
into an unconscious state for several days because of a toxic anomaly). 
T'Pol is actually a hallucination, which is telegraphed early on and is 
unlikely to fool many viewers who have seen similar twists in just about 
every other mystery movie that comes out these days. The episode doesn't put 
all its emphasis on the twist, fortunately; it's also interested in the 
atmosphere of a silent ship and the psychological terrors of being alone and 
losing one's mind. John Billingsley, in his only headliner of the season, 
turns in a good performance of a man steadily becoming unhinged, in a story 
carried almost exclusively by that performance.

Rating: ***


"Hatchery" -- Airdate: 2/25/2004. Teleplay by Andre Bormanis. Story by Andre 
Bormanis & Mike Sussman. Directed by Michael Grossman.

It's a cheat plot, in which a contrived, external force (in this case being 
sprayed by a Xindi insectoid toxin) causes Archer to begin exhibiting 
strange behavior inconsistent with his mission and counter to his attitude 
from every other episode this season. When his most trusted officers 
question his judgment, he promptly confines them to quarters, while putting 
Hayes (and thus the MACOs) in charge of the bridge. This is the catalyst for 
a mutiny that T'Pol and Trip must engineer against Archer and the MACOs. The 
one saving grace here is the analysis of the Starfleet officers vis-a-vis 
Hayes and the MACOs, who have a more stringent concept of chain of command. 
Other than that, we've already seen unworkable examples of the false, 
manufactured mutiny plot on Voyager, so I don't see the point of sitting 
through it again on Enterprise.

Rating: **


"Azati Prime" -- Airdate: 3/3/2004. Teleplay by Manny Coto. Story by Rick 
Berman & Brannon Braga and Manny Coto. Directed by Allan Kroeker.

If "Stratagem" was the character-based turning point of the season, then 
"Azati Prime" is clearly the action-based turning point. Finally, our 
patience with the Xindi arc -- at times strained, no doubt -- pays off here 
in a highly entertaining way. The key to why this show works is that the 
events here seem to actually be *happening* instead of existing in a vague, 
half-developed plot. Sure, there are still plenty of questions even at this 
point, but at least now the objectives and the consequences and the plan of 
the mission is clear. The Enterprise crew finds the weapon, has a deadline, 
and must figure out how to stop it. The underwater construction site is an 
impressive sight. Naturally, everything starts to go to hell, with Archer 
being captured (resulting in the most amusing interrogation scene all year) 
and the Enterprise getting pummeled in a Xindi attack. Here's an episode 
that works as both payoff and cliffhanger.

Rating: ***1/2


"Damage" -- Airdate: 4/21/2004. Written by Phyllis Strong. Directed by James 
L. Conway.

"Damage" temporarily but almost immediately solves all the cliffhanger 
elements from the preceding episode ... only to supply us all sorts of new 
problems. For me, this season's story arc never felt more real than it did 
here, where the ship lies in ruins, and all the characters are bruised, 
battered, and beaten down -- physically and emotionally. If that sounds 
bleak and demoralizing -- well, it is. When your ship has been through a 
major battle, it shouldn't look shiny and new; it should look like it's been 
to hell and back. Kudos to the production designers. Kudos also to the 
actors, who look like they mean business. No episode of this series has been 
so single-minded in its tone and so credible in its depiction of characters 
under stress, even in a minor Sato/Mayweather scene that could've been a 
throwaway, and especially a heated Archer/T'Pol exchange. T'Pol's Trellium-D 
addiction is revealed in a riveting scene of practiced desperation. The plot 
is Archer's version of "In the Pale Moonlight," in which he must resort to 
piracy upon innocents because his ship is crippled and "I have no choice." 
For once the use of the MACOs and all the shooting is justified and part of 
an actual storytelling effort, rather than tacked-on noise. The episode is 
not just about completing the mission, but about what ethical compromises 
have to be made in order to complete the mission. Enterprise's best episode 
to date.

Rating: ****


"The Forgotten" -- Airdate: 4/28/2004. Written by Chris Black & David A. 
Goodman. Directed by LeVar Burton.

The third in a series of commendably focused and substantive episodes proves 
that the Enterprise creators can tell solid storytelling for a sustained 
stretch. The show advances along the lines of the season's arc, but its more 
important theme involves the ship's casualties; it begins with a direct 
acknowledgement of the 18 who were killed in the attack of "Azati Prime," in 
a scene that correctly balances the need to remember the fallen alongside 
the need to move on and get the job done. The theme is shown via microcosm 
through Trip, who finally faces up to his sister's death, which he has 
avoided dealing with all season. The way he seeks solace from T'Pol is 
appropriate (and plays like an indictment of the stupidity of their 
interaction in "Harbinger"). Archer makes his case to Degra, showing Degra 
the evidence with a calm but intense determination that's fascinating to 
watch. The story reaches another noteworthy turning point when Degra 
destroys a Xindi reptilian ship in order to ensure Archer will be heard by 
the Xindi council.

Rating: ***1/2


"E^2" -- Airdate: 5/5/2004. Written by Mike Sussman. Directed by Roxann 
Dawson.

A television reality check, so to speak, in which we're snapped out of the 
spell of the fantasy and reminded that what's happening on the screen isn't 
actually happening but is instead a process subject to the weekly ups and 
downs of a writing and production schedule. "E^2" is a reasonable but 
all-too-familiar take on the time paradox, in which the Enterprise crew 
meets their own descendents. It's a story with themes that loyal Trek fans 
have seen many, many times over the years, most notably DS9's "Children of 
Time" or TNG's "Yesterday's Enterprise" (done much better in the previous 
examples than here). The one noteworthy point here is that the time-travel 
story is woven into the overall Xindi story arc -- admirable given the focus 
of this season, but something of a mixed blessing in practice. And like I 
said before, I'm time-traveled out. Enterprise needs to find an alternative 
crutch to time travel. (Note: The answer is not Archer being thrown in 
jail.)

Rating: **1/2


"The Council" -- Airdate: 5/12/2004. Written by Manny Coto. Directed by 
David Livingston.

Archer finally gets to make his case to the Xindi council, in an episode 
that allows this season to have one ending as a true-to-Trek search for a 
peaceful resolution ... before the council is fractured and we get a second, 
more explosive climax in the following two shows. This is an exciting 
installment, properly paced, and benefits from Degra's economical exposition 
that we've been long waiting for, including the fact that the Enterprise 
will essentially have to turn the Xindi against their own gods. Nice touches 
include Reed's nod to casualties (the Enterprise has surpassed a painful 20 
percent), and Trip finally accepting Degra on the basis of his individual 
actions rather than what his people did to Earth. Degra's death at the hands 
of Dolum is played just about perfectly, in a scene of ominous stage-setting 
that ends with a brutal act of violence -- effective because we can see it 
coming and Degra cannot. The show ends with another cliffhanger as Sato is 
kidnapped and the reptilians vanish with the weapon.

Rating: ***1/2


"Countdown" -- Airdate: 5/19/2004. Written by Andre Bormanis & Chris Black. 
Directed by Robert Duncan McNeill.

It's at this point that it becomes hard to talk about these shows as 
episodes since they are more like chapters. That's probably to the season's 
(and the writers') credit. "Countdown" is a lot like "The Council," with a 
format where the plot sets up pieces leading to a last-act action climax. In 
this case it's the mission to rescue Sato, who has been kidnapped by the 
reptilians to decrypt the remaining launch codes. The MACOs finally are seen 
as soldiers rather than action figures: Reed and Hayes have relevant dialog 
that the writers should've given us months earlier. Perhaps that explains 
why Hayes dies in the course of the rescue -- loose ends have now finally 
been tied up. Pace, action, and structure are the name of the game here, and 
once again the show delivers on those terms. There's not too much in terms 
of storytelling or character, but that's okay.

Rating: ***


"Zero Hour" -- Airdate: 5/26/2004. Written by Rick Berman & Brannon Braga. 
Directed by Allan Kroeker.

The season ends just in the nick of time, revealing the craziness of the end 
of the season as having gone on just long enough to start losing its luster 
but without completely wearing out its welcome. About here, the repeating 
format of ramping up to action and then blowing things up in a big finale 
begins to feel a bit familiar. All the plot pieces are assembled into an 
exhausting crosscutting between two plot lines, where technobabble nonsense 
is used to bring down the sphere network while the catch-all "overloading 
the reactor" device (by, amusingly, rearranging neon light tubes) is used to 
destroy the Xindi weapon in a big-ass 'splosion. Fun but thin. It employs 
lots of sci-fi/action cliches in a less-than-stellar script that at times is 
silly, but the technical credits all rank from impressive to amazing. The 
final minute of the show is a "Twilight Zone"-like teaser for season four, 
but comes off more goofy than shocking.

Rating: **1/2


--
PART 2: SEASON ANALYSIS

At the end of the second season, about the only good thing to feel about 
Enterprise was the fact that the writers had all but acknowledged the series 
was drowning in its own unending mediocrity and decided it was time to shake 
things up with the direction-changing finale, "The Expanse." The show's 
ratings were no longer at a point where UPN was going to sit by and give the 
show a pass simply because it was Star Trek (which at one time, as Voyager, 
was the network's flagship series). And, creatively, the show was already on 
the precipice of the abyss of blandness.

Season three, it seemed, would be do or die.

Well, good news: Season three slowly but ultimately turned the corner and 
made this series worth watching again. The question at the end of the third 
season was whether the changes came too late and if the show would be 
renewed. It was, just barely, at the eleventh hour. There will be a fourth 
season, and it should be interesting to see how the producers build on the 
successes they had this past season.

Essentially, the series this year was driven by a basic change in its 
structure, from episodic to serialized. Faithful readers will know that I am 
in favor of serialization and continuity in television (it's a medium that 
is especially suited for that), and that I particularly liked those elements 
in the later seasons of Deep Space Nine. Long-term story continuity is 
something that can make a show more focused and interesting over the course 
of a season, so long as the individual chapters still work and the larger 
storyline holds together. Serialization is by no means necessary to have 
good television, but in the case of Enterprise, which was definitely *not* 
good television in its second season, a new kick-start was obviously needed. 
When you don't have to start every week from zero, you can build on ideas 
and concepts, and set things up that can pay off down the road.

Season three of Enterprise was a definite success in terms of pure 
structure. The writers contrived an idea -- that of the Xindi attacking 
Earth and the Enterprise now going out to prevent a second, more devastating 
attack -- and then started sowing seeds for use later in the season.

It was slow going early on, and there were plenty of times when this season 
proved frustrating, but if you look at how the flow of the season was 
designed, it more or less works. We were given clues here and there, and 
then, in the final third of the season, we began a mad dash for two finish 
lines. The first was "The Council," where Archer finally gets to negotiate a 
(sort of) peace with the Xindi. The second was "Zero Hour," in which the 
doomsday weapon was destroyed in a big, pyrotechnic display after ratcheting 
up the suspense and action.

Both finish lines, and the pieces designed in getting there, follow from an 
overarching plot outline involving setup, progress, setbacks, crises, and 
revelations that make more sense at the end than at the beginning. At the 
beginning the season seemed lost in a void (which may be appropriate 
considering the Enterprise was itself lost in a void). By the end, it made a 
lot more sense. The spheres, for example, were introduced way back in 
episode No. 2 and played a key role in episode No. 24. That's thinking 
ahead, and it worked. The season is essentially a big story with a 
recognizable beginning, middle, and end -- a sum at least equal to its parts 
if not greater -- and that structure proved to be much more entertaining 
than season two, which was a series of fragments that added up to much less 
than their total sum.

BEYOND THE STRUCTURE: PLOT AND EXECUTION

But structure, of course, is only part of the story. All the structure in 
the world is not going to make for compelling stories if the individual 
installments don't work and plot pieces don't hold water from week to week. 
As you can imagine (or gather from the capsule reviews above), I had my 
share of objections, both big and small, to various aspects of season 
three's stories.

For starters, and this goes back to "The Expanse" (which is technically 
season two but still within the scope of this review), there's the whole 
notion of the Xindi's initial attack on Earth, which killed 7 million people 
and was the impetus for the Enterprise's mission. One year later, we still 
have no satisfactory answer for why this attack happened. The explanation we 
were given was that it was a weapons "test," but that's colossally absurd. 
In "Proving Ground," the Xindi test the weapon on uninhabited moons, so why 
would they test an earlier version of the weapon on the *actual target* 
months earlier? The weapons test is ultimately the very reason the Xindi 
plot to destroy Earth was foiled, because if there hadn't been an initial 
attack on Earth, there would've been no mission sent to stop the Xindi from 
their real attack. I'm sure a better reason could've been designed to 
explain this. (For example, wouldn't it have been ironic if the first attack 
had actually been carried out by a faction that *wanted* the Enterprise's 
mission launched to stop the second attack?)

But I've already talked enough about that. The second thing I didn't quite 
buy was the notion of the Xindi being manipulated into attacking Earth. It 
was initially an annoyance because I didn't know the answer and found it 
contrived. When I finally did get the answer late in the season, I still 
found it somewhat contrived. The real villains turn out to be these beings 
named the Guardians (or sphere builders), who are "revered" in Xindi 
culture. That at least lends some reason for why the Xindi might be willing 
to commit genocide for them, but I dunno; the relationship was more a plot 
layer that existed because the writers said so, and not because we really 
believed in the relationship. With DS9, we had the Founders, and we 
*believed* they were in charge of their subordinates because a lot of time 
was spent developing those relationships and giving them depth. With the 
Guardians, there wasn't time to do that, because they were kept off-screen 
as mysteries until the end of the season. The Xindi still came across 
somewhat as chumps being manipulated by writers than people in control of 
their fate. I'd have probably liked it more if the Xindi were divided on 
their own instead of having the sphere builders twisting the plot behind the 
scenes for them.

Then there's the question of the Temporal Cold War, which is still an 
undecipherable, arbitrary mess. Are the Guardians even a front in this war? 
And is Daniels anything more than a convenient plot device? I sure don't 
think so. Really, the whole TCW is nothing more than a random concoction, 
and there's little reason to believe it will ever be more than that.

Those are the big objections I have with the storyline. But the writers, I 
must say, were often clever in putting all the pieces together, even if some 
of the pieces were contrived mandates. The notion of the spheres creating 
the Delphic Expanse was a neat idea, and even the notion that it was 
intended to be a way for the sphere builders to colonize space is kind of 
neat, albeit technobabblish. And the hints were there from the very 
beginning, in "Anomaly," where the writers tipped their hand without giving 
away the game. I like the idea of this strange expanse of space we've never 
heard about in the other series, simply because it disappears at the end of 
the story.

The season was initially slow going, mostly because the Xindi spent the 
first half of the season as blank ciphers. I complained early and often 
about the false urgency of the lame roundtable scenes depicting the Xindi 
council, which were entirely too repetitive and devoid of useful content. 
Those complaints stand. The season might've been better off giving the Xindi 
an identity earlier, and supplying them with more substantive things to say. 
When you consider the Xindi as villains, they pale in comparison to DS9's 
efforts. In this season's early episodes, we had arguments between Degra and 
Dolum, but these arguments were generic and didn't amount to much of 
anything -- and at the time, neither Degra nor Dolum even had names. They 
were just two faceless Xindi arguing over an arbitrary deadline. When you 
compare this to the dynamics and dialog between Dukat and Weyoun in 
"Sacrifice of Angels," where they wax poetic on philosophies of war ... 
well, there is no comparison.

Fortunately, later down the line, in the last third of the season, this more 
or less all came together. It's as if the writers suddenly realized what 
this season could and should be. Yes, there's still entirely too much time 
travel on this series, and the whole issue of the Xindi bio-weapon was a 
pointless plot layer, and we had more than our fair share of mediocrity with 
shows like "Extinction," "Carpenter Street," "Hatchery," "Harbinger," "North 
Star," "Chosen Realm," "Rajiin," and "E^2" (although, thankfully, there was 
nothing so wretched as "Precious Cargo" or "A Night in Sickbay"). But when 
it came down to paying off the end of the season, the creators delivered. I 
point to the back-to-back-to-back airings of "Azati Prime," "Damage," and 
"The Forgotten" as the best examples of this series using action within 
context and having substance. Finally, we had a battle where the 
consequences were as vivid as the battle itself. And it was absolutely 
crucial to see in "Damage" how the mission had forced Archer into a corner 
where he had to compromise humanity's ethics. You can't have a season like 
this without getting dirty, and the writers didn't shy away from that.

As pure technique, the countdown to the end of the season was excitingly 
depicted via "The Council," "Countdown," and "Zero Hour." It may have ended 
with a healthy dose of action cliches, but those cliches were well executed. 
As usual, the production values of this series are second to none. 
Production values, while easy to overlook or write off as an automatic 
product of a big budget, are still something I think are important, and 
there's a lot of talent and skill that goes into the production of these 
shows, from directing to editing to makeup to visual effects.

Also, music. In the last couple years, and particularly this season, music 
on TV Trek is something that has taken a dramatic turn for the better. The 
composers -- long reportedly held in rein by Rick Berman, who never wanted a 
score that could potentially overpower the images -- have finally been 
turned loose to deliver the most energetic TV Trek scores in years. There 
was a time when I could listen to the music on DS9 or Voyager for 10 seconds 
and tell you who scored it. Those days seem to be over. Jay Chattaway now 
turns out pounding action scores, and newer hires like Velton Ray Bunch and 
Brian Tyler have brought in new variation.

CHARACTERS AMID A MASSIVE PLOT

The characters, for the most part, were functions in a story much larger 
than themselves, and they were defined more by their jobs than their 
personalities. This was a season that by definition was more about the plot 
than the people, but there are some things here worth looking at.

Most obviously, we have Captain Archer, who was depicted as a no-nonsense 
man of focus and determination. Above all else, he had to complete this 
mission, and this was well sold by Scott Bakula's performances from the very 
first episode. Bakula's easygoing persona has always been his strong point, 
but he stepped up the intensity for this season and made Archer's steely 
resolve believable (though Archer's line, "This isn't up for debate," was 
used too many times). What might be more interesting, however, is to get an 
idea of what Archer feels about all that has happened. It's been a grueling 
year, and next season it might be good if we got inside the captain's head a 
little more.

Easily the best character arc was Degra's. He started out as this nobody, 
but the writers found him a voice and did a great job of developing it. He's 
a man who signed up to defend his people and ultimately found himself 
doubting the veracity of the cause. What I especially liked was that he 
thought for himself and questioned established beliefs, such as the 
credibility of the Guardians. It's unfortunate that he had to die, because 
he was a compelling character, but his death did serve a worthwhile dramatic 
purpose. The writers would be well advised to develop the regular characters 
as effectively as they did this guest.

Trip's character arc was dealing with the death of his sister in the Xindi 
attack on Earth. This played itself out unevenly, with the silliness of the 
"Vulcan neuro-pressure" which ultimately led to the Trip/T'Pol hook-up. But 
it paid off well in "The Forgotten" when Trip finally faced up to his loss.

As for the aforementioned Trip/T'Pol sexual incident: It just seems so 
pointless to me. Yes, sex *can* be pointless, but pointlessness was not the 
point being made here. There was no point being made. It was a silly 
incident where the writers apparently had no clue why they were even doing 
it, aside to play out the sitcom dialog in "Harbinger." The fact that T'Pol 
consoles Trip in "The Forgotten" is good, but that has nothing to do with 
sex. Any hints that these two may have a relationship in their future are 
played strictly as a will-they-or-won't-they game for the audience. There's 
no evidence that either of them wants a relationship, so what's going on 
here? It's a muddle.

T'Pol's motivation apparently stems from her lack of impulse control because 
of her Trellium addiction, and that's its own problem. T'Pol was a muddle 
for a stretch of the season, apparently because of the drug use, but we 
didn't know about the drugs until "Damage," so we had all this weird 
behavior that until then had no context. I can't say the context makes any 
of her aberrant behavior more interesting in retrospect. T'Pol was all over 
the map and that doesn't service the character. Do we want the Vulcan of the 
ship being assimilated by humanity and having emotions like everyone else? 
I'm not sure. We'll have to see where this goes.

We had Reed and Hayes and their friction that eventually escalated into in 
the "Harbinger" fight, but that's not saying a whole lot. They did have some 
otherwise decent moments and ended up with a mutual professional 
understanding ... at which point Hayes was promptly killed. (Now that's 
clockwork-like structure: Complete your character arc and then get written 
out.)

Phlox and Sato each had a headliner but were mostly relegated to the 
sidelines. As functional supporting characters, they worked. Mayweather, on 
the other hand, is a cog in a wheel (the "pilot guy") who deserves the 
Cipher of the Year Award.

Bottom line: Aside from Degra, this was not a season where the characters 
were the strong point. The characters were okay, but the plot was the 
priority.

LOOKING AHEAD

Overall, the third season of Enterprise gets from me a guarded 
recommendation. While it doesn't have the breadth, depth, characters, or 
consistency of a really good season like DS9's fifth or sixth, the 
single-minded focus on the Delphic Expanse story was an effective step the 
right direction, often depicted with energy and interest. I don't think it 
legitimately ties into Star Trek as a whole, but that's ultimately not a 
huge problem.

Like I said in my review of "Zero Hour," I will be ready for something new 
in season four. The Xindi will apparently not be much of a factor, and 
that's fine with me. Rick Berman and Brannon Braga have turned the reins 
over to new show-runner Manny Coto, and from what I've been reading, I think 
this will be a good thing. Unlike Berman and Braga, who are known for having 
only a limited interest in The Original Series, Coto is a self-described 
Trek fan who wants to play with the elements and tie into the established 
history of the series and do fun things.

There's much talk of using mini-arcs for a much greater focus on tying in 
with classic Trek stories, dealing with the Vulcans in a more direct way, 
wrapping up the Temporal Cold War once and for all, and paving the way for 
the eventual founding of the Federation. In short, the goal of season four 
sounds like it will be to get Enterprise back on track to being the prequel 
Trek series it was designed to be. This is good, reassuring news. Hopefully 
under Coto we'll get some interesting stories that fulfill this series' 
original promise.

That would essentially mean Enterprise's third season was a massive detour. 
That's fine. It was an entertaining detour, and maybe now we can get back on 
the main road.

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

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