Enterprise S1E22 - Fallen Hero

Enterprise finds itself under attack while transporting a Vulcan ambassador. – Wikipedia.

The good:

Another segment of the human-Vulcan frenemy soap opera. It was pretty cool when Archer called Ambassador V’lar’s bluff and started to take her back to the Mazarites.

T’pol’s backstory developed a bit more with the revelation that V’lar was an inspiration for her to join Vulcan Star Fleet.

Porthos.

Phlox’s rage-scream when the Mazarites shot up his sick bay was seriously the best acting moment so far in the entire series.

The Vulcan battleship was really awesome, it totally made me respect them more.

Enterprise held it together to hit Warp 5.0.

The bad:

Snooze-fest in general.

The open was really uncomfortable. T’Pol asked Archer and Trip the last time they got some, because she was worried about a three percent drop in efficiency. The suggestion? Go to a beach planet full of whores to blow off some steam. Seriously, it was only made worse by Trip talking about twelve-fingered masseuses later on.

Trip brought a Hawaiian shirt on an interstellar voyage? He probably had room for like two outfits that weren’t jumpsuits and he decides to bring a Hawaiian shirt? They have Hawaiian shirts in the 22^nd century?

What a weak set-up for Ambassador V’lar. T’Pol was so high-strung about the preparations that you just knew that V’lar would be the exact opposite of her expectations.

The entire premise of the episode was underdeveloped. Why should I care about the Mazarites at all? They were not presented as an important race. Hell, V’lar’s big secret was that their leadership was corrupt and she was essentially conducting an internal audit. Whoohoo. I mean, that is important enough, but why all the “need to know” bluster? Obviously her cover was already blown. Who exactly was Archer going to tell?

I don’t envy T’Pol for having to do mental math warp calculations on the rendezvous time with the Sh’Raan, but I’m pretty sure she screwed it up. My understanding is that warp speed increases exponentially. For example, warp 5 is WAAAAAY faster than warp 4.5…but it only cut the time in half when Enterprise put the pedal to the floor. And when the Sh’Raan started to approach at warp 7.0 (WAAAAAAAAAY faster than warp 5), it only cut the time from about an hour to 10-15 minutes? That doesn’t seem right, but it sure does seem convenient.

I know this is SUPER nitpicky, but sometimes I get weary of the big reveal of the plan to the audience. For example, Archer ordered V’lar to sick bay before the Mazarites arrive. She understandably wanted to know why. He complained that there isn’t time for explanations, but then went on a mini-rant about trust. Archer was going to need to take time to explain it Phlox off-screen anyway, why not just have her tell Plox? How about this, “Tell Phlox to pretend to put you in the scanner to buy us a few minutes of time!” 

The ending didn’t make any sense. Enterprise had to keep V’lar safe so she could testify about the corrupt Mazarites. In the process, the Mazarites repeated chased down and fired upon a Federation starship. Wasn’t that an act of war against Star Fleet? Then they sent an armed boarding party onto Enterprise who, as far as they knew at the time, openly murdered a critically injured Vulcan ambassador in front of witness. Wasn’t that an act of war against the Vulcans? But the ah-ha moment is that V’lar was still alive to testify about the corruption charges? Why didn’t Archer just arrest them right there? If he didn’t want to deal with it, why didn’t he turn them over to the Vulcans on the Sh’Raan? Why did they just let them go?