Enterpise S1E14 - Shadows of P'Jem

T'Pol is recalled to Vulcan after the events of "The Andorian Incident". During her final away mission, she and Archer are kidnapped, leading to a confrontation between Vulcans and Andorians. a pandemic – Wikipedia

The good:

Nice opening shot of Star Fleet command in San Francisco.

I am not forgiving the weaknesses of “The Andorian Incident”, but it is comforting to know that there were serious repercussions to the events at P’Jem. And by the way, the Vulcans totally deserved to have their little sanctuary blasted to bits…at least the Andorians gave them time to evacuate.

Mad props to T’Pol for apparently being the only Vulcan in the universe who can stand being around humans for more than five minutes.

I was very happy with the fairly nuanced and far reaching politics in this episode. Vulcan and Andoria are inches from interstellar war. Vulcans and humans are definitely not besties any more. Should we be philosophically rooting for the rebels? Are the Vulcans actually imperialistic jerks setting up puppet governments to secure mineral rights? Good stuff…particularly since we didn’t get burdened with too many exposition scenes.

The slapstick scene where Archer-T’Pol tried to escape their bonds was predictable but acceptable, primary because the inevitable pratfall resulted in the face-full-o-boob instead of the ever-more-popular man-on-top landing.

Andorians always look cool coming out of the shadows. I have to admit I was not expecting them at all…should have…but didn’t.

No PYITFST! 

Overall I thought this episode was decent story that continued a major plotline, and provided tons of possibilities for future development.

The bad:

I thought Archer was a little trigger happy when the rebels intercepted their shuttle pod. Sure, they had an invite from the chancellor, but I don’t remember Enterprise announcing their arrival or asking permission to land in the Coridan capital city. It was totally plausible that they would be approached by a sentry and ordered to redirect away from restricted airspace. Archer didn’t even try identify or explain himself, he just went to evasive maneuvers and started blasting away. Good thing the rebels wanted him alive, the Coridan military would have been totally justified in blowing him out of the sky.

The “rescue plan” was a bit hammy. An alien walks up to a sentry and offers to share a bottle of booze? I’m pretty sure they cover that scenario in mook boot camp.