monkee reviews 'United'
First Impression: A terrific episode with one annoying flaw.
The Mystery Ship Strikes Again: Trip and Reed are still stranded on the mystery ship, and have made their way to the bridge. They can feel the ship drop out of warp, but they can't prevent it from firing at something. The something being fired upon turns out to be a Rigellian scout ship. The mystery ship gives it just enough time to get off a distress call before destroying it. Included in the distress call the Rigellians send is an image of the ship that attacked them - Enterprise. This sets off yet another diplomatic crisis. The Rigellians demand compensation for their lost ship and seventeen-member crew. Oh, and they want Archer arrested.
Andorians in Love: At the end of last week's episode, we were told that Talas' injuries were superficial. Now, apparently, they're life-threatening - she has developed an infection. This is a cheap trick, but I'm going to let it go since, again, it allows us to see Shran's very appealing softer side. He affectionately banters with his mate about his suspicion that the Denobulan doctor is secretly in love with her, but he can't hide his concern. She makes him promise that, should she die, he will avenge her.
Archer's Plan: The mystery ship, which we will now call 'the marauder,' must be stopped before it can strike again. It is making itself appear as different types of ships to stir up serious conflict in this region of space. T'Pol and Mayweather have figured out how to track it, but a sensor grid is required, and a whopping one hundred and twenty-eight ships will be needed to form the grid. Archer can think of only one way to get that many ships - he will need the help of not only the Vulcans, but also the Andorians and Tellarites.
Tough Sell: You can imagine how well THAT suggestion goes over, especially with Shran, who fears he's going to lose Talas because of her Tellarite-induced injury. Archer tried to sit both factions down at a table, but Shran and Gral take hurling insults to a whole new level! Exasperated, Archer tells them they should both act more like humans, who are better than any other species in the entire universe, apparently, at cooperating with an adversary to face a common threat.
Ugh. Well, I just did the sickening sanctimonious speech rant a couple of weeks ago, so I'll spare you this time. Suffice it to say that I wouldn't have blamed Shran or Gral for kicking his little holier-than-thou Starfleet butt clear over to the next quadrant.
Shran and Gral do get some food for thought when Archer points out that they're lack of cooperation is precisely what the marauder is hoping for. Good point. Eventually, they agree to help. Minister T'Pau is mentioned as well. Between the four species, they will just barely be able to come up with the requisite one hundred and twenty eight ships.
The Thorn(s) in Their Side: Trip and Reed are beginning to annoy the Romulans controlling the marauder. Judging from the way the bridge is set up, the Starfleet officers deduce that the ship was designed for a crew, and is probably a prototype controlled by computer. Trip thinks that might work out in their favor, if they can find an off switch. They can't, but they do begin to figure out where certain systems are located. They restore life support to the bridge and are able to remove their helmets and gain some mobility. And Trip is briefly able to bring the marauder out of warp. Backup propulsion kicks in, though - he must go into an access room off the main bridge to knock that out as well. The Romulans can't see our duo, because those systems are off-line, but they can hear them, and they have heat sensors. Once Trip is isolated in the access room, they lock him in and create a sealant leak. They open communications and tell Trip and Reed that Trip will die in seven minutes unless they stop what they're doing.
A Moment in History: Meanwhile, back on Enterprise, Shran and Archer talk in the ready room. Shran is looking at the pictures on the wall of all the other ships named 'Enterprise,' from sailing ships, to 'nuclear wessels,' to space shuttles. When Archer explains the significance of the photographs, Shran tells him that his recently destroyed ship was named after the first ice-cutter to circumnavigate Andoria. He muses that perhaps future ships will also bear the two names, especially if he and Archer do something historic together.
Damn, what a great scene! This has to be in my top ten Enterprise scenes of all time. First of all, we already know (or at least strongly suspect) that Shran and Archer will do something historic together, and we certainly know that many future starships will proudly bear the name 'Enterprise.' Secondly, it's just so interesting watching these men find common ground. Without beating us over the head with dialog, we can see that both species value tradition and honor. And thirdly, it marks the beginning of some terrific back-story on the planet of Andoria (aka 'Andor'). I didn't know it was such a cold planet. Fascinating.
Complications: Alas, the quiet moment ends all too soon. Archer and Shran are called to sickbay. Talas is dead. Shran's grief is wrenching, from his anguished "No" to his weeping. Later, he asks Archer to admit him into the conference room with the Tellarites. Archer is wary, but Shran just wants to tell them about Talas - about how she came from a privileged family, but chose to serve her people, and about how she could have had anything or anyone, and chose him. He shows them a vial of her blood - tradition dictates that he spill it on the ice of Andoria. He must have another vial somewhere, though, because he spills this one on the hand of the Tellarite who shot her. Doh! Archer was right to be concerned - I knew Shran was far too calm! Shran challenges the Tellarite 'murderer' to combat to the death. It is Andorian tradition, and both the Tellarites and Archer must respect that or he will withdraw his ships from the fledgling alliance.
I wish we could have gotten to know Talas better before she died, but at least we got some detail after her death. I have to give Jeffrey Combs and Molly Brink credit for making me care so much about the relationship in so little time. There was a lot of depth of feeling in their few scenes together.
KaBOOM! Back on the marauder, Trip orders Reed not to cave in to the Romulans demands. But Reed does cave. He restores their warp power, and rushes in to save Trip in the nick of time. Enterprise's security officer didn't just fall off the turnip truck, though. He brings both of their helmets, and doesn't even blink when the Romulans go back on their word and seal BOTH men in the access room. He's left a little surprise for them on the bridge, too. Because the Romulans are still monitoring their communications, he has to inform Trip of what he's done in an underhanded way. The men find another exit out of the access room and attempt to get as far away from the bridge as possible. The Romulans don't figure out until too late that Reed left a phase pistol on overload there. KaBOOM! The explosion puts a serious hurt on the marauder. It has the capacity to repair itself, but clever Reed has certainly slowed them down!
I think this is the first known example of putting a phase pistol on overload. It's a device future Enterprise crews will use frequently. I got a kick out of it, and Reed gets a great line out of it, as you'll see in the 'Best Lines' section...
Archer's Decision: Gral won't allow his fellow Tellarite to fight Shran. According to the rules of the ritual, though, a substitute is allowed. Archer volunteers. He explains the decision to T'Pol. "If I or one of the Tellarites kills Shran, Andoria will pull out. If Shran kills the Tellarite, the Tellarites will pull out. So I'm the only one who can be killed, because Starfleet won't pull out!" Hahaha! How's THAT for reasoning? As Spock once said (will say?) to T'Pring, 'Logical. Flawlessly logical.'
Except it's not, but more on that below. Here's a hint, though. Before Archer sacrifices his life for the good of the universe, he might want to try READING THE RULES of the ritual combat. Just a thought...
To Summon the Future: T'Pol is not convinced of the flawlessness of Archer's logic either. She tells him of a Vulcan saying, "One man can summon the future." She wonders what will happen if that one man throws his life away before his time. Archer is convinced that he's doing the correct thing, however. And he tells T'Pol, as Picard will one day tell Beverly Crusher, that he doesn't think the future is set in stone.
I loved this scene. We've heard that Vulcan saying before, for one thing - the mirror universe Spock says it to Kirk in TOS's 'Mirror, Mirror.' And I like that T'Pol senses Archer's future importance in the grand scheme of things - her respect and admiration for him has certainly come a long way since the first season.
Brainstorming: T'Pol, at least, has the good sense to order Hoshi to check out the information they have on the ritual and look for a loophole, any loophole. Mayweather, who is feeling restless with everything that's going on, joins Hoshi in this late-night endeavor. It's good old Travis, in fact, who decides to READ THE RULES of the actual combat.
Incidentally, it was gratifying to see the two most minor characters get such a nice scene this week. With only a half season of Enterprise left, we're never going to learn as much about these two as we should have, but they do tend to get the 'lower decks' type dialog that help give a series some heart. I enjoyed seeing them sit in the mess hall with coffee, doing something that actually furthered the plot.
A FIGHT TO THE DEATH! (Sort of.) Shran and Archer prepare for their fight. They are both given a menacing-looking Andorian ice cutter. A metal glove is clamped onto their other hands, and these gloves are then chained together. Each man expresses remorse that he will have to kill the other. The fighting begins.
As fight scenes go, this one was pretty cool. The fighting is intense. Shran draws first blood, and then second blood. But Archer is hanging in there, and he even tells Shran he's just waiting a while so Shran won't look bad in front of his men. Hee. Eventually, Archer manages get Shran caught up in the chain that connects them. He wraps it around Shran's neck and the Andorian is helpless. Archer raises the deadly weapon, then brings it down.
Everything goes dark. Wow.
After the commercial break, Shran wakes up in sickbay. Well, okay. I didn't REALLY expect Archer to kill him. I thought maybe tri-ox compound might be involved, as it was in Kirk and Spock's famous 'fight to the death' in 'Amok Time.' I was waiting for some clever strategy to reveal itself...
I'm still waiting. There was no clever strategy at all! Because as it turns out, you only have to fight until your opponent is defenseless. Hello? That's NOT a fight to the death, people - that's a fight to defenselessness! All you have to do to win is knock your opponent upside the head and make them unconscious!
And that's the annoying flaw in this episode. It created false drama with a fight to the death that wasn't a fight to the death at all! And I'm left wondering - what, are they all stupid? Surely Shran has read the rules. It's his species' ritual, so what was with all the posturing? It took MAYWEATHER to figure a way out of this mess? Argh!
Anyway. To render Shran defenseless, Archer whacks the top of one of his antennae off. It will grow back in four to nine months, too, so all that's been permanently damaged is Shran's pride. But Shran acknowledges that Archer has respected Andorian tradition and the matter is settled. The alliance goes through.
The Confrontation: The one hundred and twenty eight ships are in place, and the marauder is detected. It tries to pass itself off as a Vulcan ship, but no one's buying it this time, especially after T'Pol finds two human lifesigns onboard, Trip and Reed. The marauder attacks Enterprise, and the ship takes a pounding before some of the other ships arrive to assist. Enterprise can't transport through the marauder's shielding, so Trip and Reed end up having to blow themselves out an airlock into space. This puts them in the middle of all the shooting, until the marauder pulls away. The other ships pursue it, and for a moment, poor Trip and Reed think they've been left behind. Then Enterprise looms up behind them and transports them aboard. It's yet another close call for the engineer and the security chief, but they survive to banter and bond another day.
A New Era: Alas, the Romulan ship gets away. During the battle, however, a Tellarite ship is badly damaged. An Andorian ship rescues their crew. The four different species are beginning to form a REAL alliance now. Shran and Gral shake hands, and Archer, standing between them, says, "Why wait until we get to Babel?" As the ship pulls away from the camera, we see them all through the viewport - sitting down to talk.
And there you have it, folks - the first seeds of the Federation. It's enough to get any hardcore Trekkie's heart to pounding. The sight of all those ships together...
Good stuff. It almost makes up for the fight to the death that wasn't!
Yet Another Revelation: And the episode isn't even over yet! Back on Romulus, the Romulans are relieved. The marauder has re-entered Romulan space without getting caught. The order is given to disconnect the pilot, so we finally get to see the mystery man in the interface suit. It turns out to be...drumroll, please...
A twitchy albino Andorian, of all things! In my speculations on who might be in that suit, never ONCE did I think, 'Gee, maybe it's a twitchy albino Andorian.' Nope, didn't make my list at all! So that should be interesting! And I think we can all agree that it's better than an alien Nazi!
The arc continues next week.
Character Interactions: Shran's interactions with both Talas and Archer head up the long list. Trip and Reed, of course, also had many good scenes. I loved Hoshi and Travis' late-night brainstorming session, and Archer and T'Pol had an outstanding scene as well.
'shipper Watch: I'm sorry to see Talas go because I would have enjoyed seeing more of her relationship with Shran. Shran is my favorite of the Enterprise semi-regulars, and his scenes with her enabled me to see a whole different side of him. A kinder, gentler Shran, if you will.
And do mine eyes deceive me, or was there a wee bit of Archer/T'Pol subtext going on this week? Her concern for him seems to run deeper than a First Officer's concern for her Captain, a friend's concern for a friend, or even a Vulcan's concern for a man who might summon the future. Her "If anything happens to you..." sounded very personal to me. And she grabbed him, and he reacted to the contact. Hmmm. Interesting. I like their friendship, and I enjoyed a lot of the Trip and T'Pol relationship, but thanks to last season's episode, 'Twilight,' I can't say I'd be completely opposed to Archer/T'Pol.
Or maybe I'm reading way too much into it.
Archer Watch: He's really quite adept at diplomacy when two grumpy, squabbling factions are at odds. I have to give him credit for that. I'm not sure what to think of the 'fight to the death.' Naturally, it was stupid of him not to READ THE RULES before he agreed to it, but I'm going to blame the writers rather than the character for that nonsense. There's the larger issue of a Captain sacrificing himself for the good of the many. Yes, an alliance of planets was at stake, and yes, that's a big deal. But T'Pol also had a good point - if he throws his life away when there are things left for him to do, it's a waste. Should he have ordered someone else to do it? On the one hand, a Captain is supposed to be able to order someone to his or her death when necessary. But on the other hand, they're supposed to value the life of each crewmember - captains are responsible for the lives of their crew, so you can understand why they'd be reluctant to order someone to die. It's a dichotomy that all of the Starship captains have faced at one time or another, and they often did go the martyr route. Right or wrong, it seems to be part of the burden of command. And in this case, I doubt Shran would have considered sending someone else to be an honorable enough course of action, so Archer did the right thing.
Mayweather Watch: Well, three cheers for Travis! He designed the sensor grid, AND was the only one smart enough to READ THE RULES of the 'fight to the death.' And that was a sweet scene he had with Hoshi.
Best Lines:
"I think the Denobulan doctor is secretly in love with you. He wants to keep you all to himself." (Shran, to Talas)
"That Tellarite pig." "Is there any other kind?" (Talas and Shran)
"That's enough. She needs to rest." "See what I mean? He can't get enough of you." (Phlox and Shran)
"I'd rather cohabit with Klingon targs than join forces with Tellarites!" "Your personal mating preference is no concern of mine." (Shran and Gral)
"Feel free to strangle each other, but just remember - that's exactly what this marauder wants you to do." (Archer, to Shran and Gral)
"I'm gonna try to cut power to that reactor." "I've got a better idea - make sure you're well away from that door..." (Trip and Reed)
"There's more to this than Talas. I lost my ship, almost my entire crew - if I do nothing to avenge these losses, what kind of leader am I? Why should any soldier ever follow me again?" (Shran, to Archer)
"Vulcans have a saying, 'One man can summon the future.' What happens if that man throws his life away before his time?" (T'Pol, to Archer)
"I'll take your blood to Andoria - to the wall of heroes." "Not today." (Shran and Archer)
"I can't imagine how things can get worse." "I can." (Reed and Trip, before they blow themselves out an airlock)
"They left us! You were right - this is worse." (Reed, to Trip)
"Anyone out there need a lift?" (Archer, to Reed and Trip)
"If you put a reprimand in my file, it could be years before I'm even eligible for promo...you're pulling my leg." "Malcolm, you're just such an easy target..." (Reed and Trip, chuckling)
"So, it's still out there - as you've said...a common threat." "I believe we have more to discuss than trade disputes." (Shran and Gral)
THE Best Line:
"You did all this with one phase pistol?" "You're good at building things. I'm good at blowing them up." (Trip and Reed. Hahaha!)
Rating: I'm torn. The episode deserves a deduction for the fight-to-the-death-that-wasn't-really, but I actually enjoyed the fight itself. And there was a lot of other absolutely wonderful stuff going on - stuff that ties in beautifully with the entire known Trek universe. And besides, I hate to hit a show when it's already been cancelled, for crying out loud. I'll go with 9/10.
Next Week: It looks like we'll learn more about the twitchy albino Andorians! And the birth of the Federation. Should be good!
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