The Expanse

Enterprise’s conclusion to its second season The Expanse definitely was a pleasant surprise. A well acted, produced and written episode that was not afraid to try new things while drawing on already established characters and events.

Opening with an epic and visually interesting teaser was an improvement over the boring ones we have seen lately. Having a mysterious weapon slash away at Earth itself beats Trip playing his harmonica (Precious Cargo) or Porthos getting sick (Night in Sickbay) any day. Yet it is not as drama laden as it could have been. A reaction shot from crew aboard an earth vessel (maybe even the captain that was shown later), or Admiral Forrest, could have made it more apparent that this is a very big deal.

The cut to the by now infamous opening credits had the effect of teaming two scenes depicting earth back to back, which could give newcomers the wrong idea about the show.

The first scene after the credits however makes up for what the teaser lacked in character-based drama. A solid scene in which all cast members were grouped up to show their reaction to Archer delivering the bad news. (Bakula in another surprisingly good scene) The use of a handheld camera and lack of cuts managed to put the viewer into the room along with the senior officers very well, but the jerky pan from Archer over to Trip was a bad choice as it pulled me right out of the scene wondering what the camera operator tripped on while filming.

The following scenes give all crewmembers a moment to be reintroduced again and voice their opinion about the upcoming mission. (All but Maryweather that is. No surprise there.)

Especially the exchange between T?Pol and Phlox, and later T?Pol and Archer, were very nicely done. A good way of showing how the crew grew become more than a bunch of people on a ship over the last two years, which was also backed up by Trip voicing regret about T?Pol leaving.

T?Pol has also risen to become more than the ?just another Vulcan science officer? that fans complained she was when the show began. Her bond with Archer is now at least as deep as Spock and Kirk has been, and has the potential to become even more. Some recent newspaper and media coverage of the show have also hinted that a romance between the two could be up for the next season. A couple of episodes ago I probably would have been completely against such a thing, but now I wouldn?t mind seeing it, as long as it was done in a way that did not degrade T?Pol to the captains babe. She is already being degraded to eye candy enough as it is, but a relationship between the captain and his first officer could be interesting if it was done right.

Trip and Reed standing at the site Trip?s sister died could not have been done in a more dramatic fashion and was eerily reminiscent of the craters Borg attacks in TNG?s The Neutral Zone and Best of Both Worlds. (Speaking of the Borg: it is good to see Starfleet now put proper guards around seemingly dead aliens. Apparently they have learned form Regeneration) This and the following scenes take the friendship the two have shared even further.

Trip?s cry for ?getting the people who did this? while not politically correct, is well in character. It also helps if the 9/11 analogy is intended if some of the cast just want revenge and are not afraid of doing really stupid things to get it. (In real life there are plenty of those)

The Suliban and Silik were a well-placed link to the existing Temporal Cold War storyline that Enterprise has been following for its entire run now. The short but effective scene helped found the new plotlines in the old. (How easy it is for them to capture the captain is a bit extreme though)

This was what won me over. This scene put bad memories of Voyager constantly reinventing itself, but never changing, aside. It seems the writers are more interesting in doing what Deep Space Nine did with The Way of the Warrior at the beginning of the shows fourth season and draw on storyline that have been featured before while combining them into a new one.

This revamp of an already good, but somewhat aimless, show helped focus what the show was about without ignoring what good things had been done already. The Enterprise writers seems to realize that they do not need to change everything, but rather build on what has worked. This is definitely a good choice, rather then telling the viewer ?forget the last two years? and then expect them to still tune in regularly.

The inclusion of Duras was also a good hook to things that have gone before while giving enough closure to this episode that it also works as a stand-alone episode at least to some degree. It added some much needed action and suspense to the part of the episode that would otherwise have felt empty. By living up to the action that was practically promised by the epic teaser it did not only work as a good set up piece for the next season, but was also a good story in itself. Interestingly enough the main bridge module of the Bird of Prey he was on was not shown being destroyed. Can we assume he will be back?

Of course we will have to wait and see if the show can actually deliver a story that can live up to the expectation a big set up like this deserves. If producer and writer Braga and Bermans?s comments in recent interviews can be trusted through, they seem to have the plot for the upcoming season at least partially mapped out. Definitely a different approach that hopefully will build an audience by enticing them to come back regularly to watch an unfolding story line rather than hyping only certain ?event? episodes.

There were only minor flaws in this episode. There were some details like the Bird of Prey firing disruptors while being at warp, which has been established as not being possible as light based weapons cannot be fired at more than light speed.

The Vulcan transmission what was shown to Archer to show him what happened to a Vulcan crew that went into the Delphic Expanse was somewhat hokey though. The Vulcans supposedly have mind control techniques vastly superior to humans, so how will Enterprise make it though the Expanse without undermining what has been shown? The ?anatomical inversion? hinted to by Soval is also way over the top. We know that we will never see anything as drastic as this on a show airing on prime time television, so why promise it?

The ?military personal? that is now aboard Enterprise is something I am not sure about. I guess we will just have to wait and see how it goes once we actually see them. It could actually offer another source of conflict on the show, but hopefully it will not be dealt with in the manner that Voyager dealt with the Marquis. Not at all, and forget about it.

A lot can be done with what has been established in this episode. We know now that there are other Starfleet ships and even another NX class ship similar to (the) Enterprise itself is being build. With these new resources for Starfleet to draw on it should only be a matter of time before we see such vessels reappear on the show.

All in all an interesting relaunch of Enterprise. (Literally in a way) Now the writers have to deliver. There is no turning back. It is good to know that they are willing to take chances rather than recycle storylines.

Hopefully they know what they are doing and will succeed.