Problems
- Does Malon territory really extend for tens of thousands of light years? I'd have thought that after Voy: Dark Frontier, Voyager would be long through it by now. Though Chakotay does say, "I thought we'd seen the last of them." I wonder if that line was a reference to the poor timing.

Factoids
- The Malon ship had 42 decks. Impressive.

Remarkable Scenes
- The Malon playing with his ship model.
- Torres: "You as a child. Those pointy little ears. You must have been cute." Tuvok: "Indeed."
- Tuvok's meditation session with Torres.
- Torres: "I suppose it's always going to be like this." Tom: "Like what?" Torres: "Me against the galaxy." Tom: "Well the galaxy doesn't stand a chance."
- The tricorder signals causing electrical surges.
- Torres' fighting the disgruntled Malon.
- Voyager altering the Malon ship's trajectory.
- Fesek: "It's an occupational hazard." I like how he said this three times, each for different reasons. :)
- Seeing a sonic shower in action! And boy did Torres need that shower...

My Review
As I pointed out in the problems section, it seems unlikely that the Malon would be out this far away from their territory, but maybe this episode's script was originally intended to be aired earlier in the season. Once you get past this fairly severe problem with the premise though, the episode is quite entertaining. I especially like the insight we get into Malon culture. We get to learn a bit about the personal lives of a few of them and see that they're not monsters, just a little philosophically misguided. Besides the cultural insight, the episode maintains a fairly high and convincing level of tension and action. And of course, it's Torres' episode. She puts up a convincing display as a person struggling to control her emotions, as she always has. Maybe the whole episode might have been more appropriate earlier in the season when the Malon were still around and Torres was still struggling to deal with the deaths of the Maquis, but it's not too far out of place here and I enjoyed it.

Problems
None

Factoids
None

Remarkable Scenes
- The AI commandeering the doctor's program.
- Harry trying to reason with the AI.
- The scene with the guy offering to save Voyager in exchange for the weapon. Janeway sticks to her principles. Hard choice.
- Harry and Torres discovering that the war the warheads were fighting is over.
- Seven of Nine's futile attempt to disarm the weapon.
- Harry convincing the bomb not to complete its mission.
- The bomb: "I am simply completing my mission. Only the target has changed."
- Harry: "I held you up as an example of how an artificial intelligence could exceed its programming. I didn't realize how true that was until today."

My Review
A combination of TNG: Lower Decks, showing us Harry doing a superb job commanding the night crew, TNG: The Quality of Life showing us the doctor's struggle for sentient AI's rights to be observed, and Voy: Dreadnought showing us another devious smart bomb. But not just any smart bomb. This bomb has achieved a true sentience. It takes a while for Harry and Torres to realize and convince the bomb that its war is over and it needs to stand down, but once they do convince it, the bomb sacrifices itself to stop the unenlightened others from committing atrocity. It's ironic that in TNG: The Quality of Life an Exocomp sacrificed itself to save the others whereas in this episode the bomb sacrificed itself to destroy the others. Both sacrifices in the interest of saving as many lives as possible. The parallel is very effective; I wonder if it was intentional? Overall, a very successful episode.

Problems
None

Factoids
- This episode features another ship landing.
- 900 years ago, the Borg had only assimilated a handful of systems.
- The Devore Imperium featured in Voy: Counterpoint occupies former Vaadwaur territory.

Remarkable Scenes
- The "underspace" dispute, the ensuing battle, and the subsequent ship landing.
- Tuvok: "We don't know anything about this species. They could be hostile." Seven: "Most humanoid species are."
- Seven: "The Collective's memory from 900 years ago is fragmentary."
- Neelix researching the Vaadwaur via his Talaxian database.
- Janeway confronting Gedrin about history.
- Voyager's battle with the Vaadwaur.
- The Vaadwaur battling the Turei.

My Review
This episode introduced many complex plot threads, but never sufficiently elaborated them. The subspace corridors were never revisited; I would have enjoyed seeing Voyager acquire a shortcut using them. The Vaadwaur were a great idea for a species, a civilization of conquered conquerors. Much like the Cardassians were on DS9. But we never see them again, despite Janeway's "I doubt we've seen the last of them" line. Overall, it was a fantastic episode, but I must deduct a point for the episode's inability to resolve its own plot threads and the series' inability to revisit these plot threads.

Problems
None

Factoids
- The Qomari city's graphics were a re use of the Zahl homeworld from Voy: Year of Hell.

Remarkable Scenes
- The first scene with the Qomari.
- The recital.
- The doctor: "If you consider the height of the average Qomar, it's obvious that anyone seated in the back five rows will have an obstructed view!" Torres: "You're right. They won't be able to see anything but the top of your head. The glare could blind them."
- Torres: "I'm an engineer, not a costume designer." Not exact, but I'll count it. Count 32 for "I'm a doctor, not a (blah)" style lines, which McCoy was famous for.
- Seven of Nine's red alert scene.
- Seven reading the doctor's fan mail: "What does he do in his spare time? To how many decimal places can he calculate Pi? This one wants to know his favorite quadratic equation."
- The doctor's final performance.
- Seven reading the doctor's fan mail: "Dear Doctor: I regret that your last performance was not as successful as you'd hoped. There are still those who appreciate your unique talents and admire you as an individual. I'll always consider myself your loyal fan." Doctor: "Who is it from?" Seven: "It's signed, 'Seven of Nine, Tertiary Adjunct of Unimatrix Zero-One.'"

My Review
This episode is highly innovative, funny, and entertaining. It's nice to see the extremely talented Robert Picardo get to flex his singing muscles again. It's pretty clear the doctor isn't leaving the show, but the moral dilemma the show presents regarding the doctor beginning to mirror the arrogant, egotistical behavior of the Qomari is genuinely interesting and the the way the doctor falls out of favor with his new fans is pretty sad. I most enjoyed Seven of Nine's part in the story. She had so few scenes, but each was so well used. The episode would have been lacking without her scenes. As such, it was most fitting to have Seven of Nine do the final scene. A nicely done episode.

Problems
None

Factoids
- Dwayne Douglas Johnson plays the people's champion in this episode, otherwise known as wrestling star "The Rock".
- Jeffrey Combs, who plays Penk in this episode, played Weyoun (among others) on DS9.
- J.G. Hertzler, who plays the Hirogen hunter in this episode, also played General Martok on DS9.

Remarkable Scenes
- Torres: "The Borg wouldn't know fun if they assimilated an amusement park."
- Seven: "Two hours, 37 minutes, 13 seconds. That's how long we've gone without verbal communication." Tuvok: "Why is that remarkable?" Seven: "The Doctor encourages me to engage in conversation during awkward silences." Tuvok: "Did you find the silence awkward?" Seven: "No." Tuvok: "Nor did I."
- Chakotay, Kim, Tom, and Torres discussing Tsunkatse.
- The people's champion fighting Seven.
- Seven fighting the hirogen while Voyager fights the "traveling circus" ship.
- Seven of Nine and the Hirogen being beamed away just as Seven's about to kill her opponent.
- Tuvok consoling Seven in the end.

My Review
Good continuity with Voy: The Fight regarding Chakotay's fascination with boxing. I am quite surprised though how excited everyone was, until they saw seven in the pit of course. It's as if the crew has an aristocratic opinion of the whole thing. They're above doing this sort of behavior, but not above watching it. Aside from that admittedly small deficiency, the episode is exciting. I can't say I was all that excited about "The Rock" and his guest appearance, but he didn't play a major role, nor was his role anywhere near as annoying as "real life professional wrestling" is. Though this episode seems to be remarkable guest star central. Two former very important DS9 actors in the same episode along with "The Rock." Very strange casting. Jeri Ryan (and perhaps a stunt double ;)) gave a spectacular athletic performance in this episode. Her acting as also top notch. It's not as if Star Trek (especially TOS) hasn't done "let's make our crew fight for the amusement of others" before in excess, but this particular gladiator rehash was quite well done and remains one of my favorite generic action episodes. It just goes to show how much the little details can sometimes contribute to a meager plot.

Problems
None

Factoids
None

Remarkable Scenes
- Torres beginning to "play along" with her "captor," sending him on a mission chasing after dilithium.
- Kelis to his actor: "They'll realize that beneath your unfeeling exterior is a heart that's breaking. Silently and in more pain than any of us can possibly understand. Because that's what it is to be Vulcan."
- Tuvok snoring in the captain's chair.
- The improvisation at the end.

My Review
Not a very "inspiring" premise... another shuttle crash. One wonders if they crash or damage shuttles more often than they don't. But in this case, it was appropriate. Never have I seen a more captivating shuttle crash story. Torres, rescued by a local alien, discovers her savior is in fact using details from her life as material in his plays. The story's focus remains off of Torres and her shuttle problems; we're shown more instead about Kelis and his troubles maintaining his relationship with his patron. While at this point neither plot thread is all that interesting, Torres does a masterful job walking the line of the Prime Directive, giving her savior just enough information without going too far. I like how she referred to Voyager as a ship on the sea and the Borg as a vast army of soldiers who all think alike. The play plot becomes interesting when Kelis decides he wants to expand the Voyager play to convince his patron not to go to war with his neighbor. He cites his culture's history, claiming that many years ago a play took the place of a ritual sacrifice, saving a single life, and all those who'd have been sacrificed in the future. Kelis asks if a play can stop a murder, why can't a play stop a war? At some point, these words hit home for Torres. For she decides to help Kelis after all, when news arrives that his attempt to quell the war goes badly. To enrich his play, Torres uses transporter technology to "ascend to the heavens." I liked their conversation at the end. They weren't just improvising an act for the crowd, they were actually talking to each other. There may have been symbolism in the words for the play, but Torres at the same time was discussing the nature of inspiration with Kelis. The conversation made clear to me that Kelis knew or at least had some kind of idea what Torres actually was and where she actually lived. But he wasn't half as interested in her advanced culture as he was saving his own. In many ways, he was more enlightened than she. The whole story is true to the spirit of Star Trek and charming to watch. A bonus point for the marvelous symbolism.

Problems
- Iridium is not radioactive.

Factoids
- As of this episode, Star Trek special effects are now done by Eden.

Remarkable Scenes
- The graphics in the teaser.
- Tom and Harry discussing Hockey with Nausicaans. Sounds nasty.
- The idiot EMH on Voyager.
- Janeway's and Tuvok's investigation.
- Janeway professing Tuvok her boyfriend.
- Voyager apprehending Gar.
- The doctor's revenge.

My Review
We've seen the doctor stolen before, but never for the purpose of using him as a doctor. This episode is uniquely remarkable in this respect, and well used he is. We're shown an alien society which has very strict policies on who can be treated in a hospital which is determined by social status. The way these policies are presented makes them seem understandable, even if a bit chilling. It's not until late in the episode that it's revealed that it might all just be Chellick's sick little scheme for using resources more efficiently. In truth, neither is made entirely clear. the most remarkable aspect about this episode is the doctor's use of torture on Chellick to invoke change. The ends most certainly justified the means, but the doctor's methods to me seemed just about as chilling as Chellick's (former?) policies. But then, you're supposed to fight fire with fire, right?

Problems
- "Geodesic radiation" is a pretty annoying term. It would seem to connote radiation generated by gravity.
- We have yet another case of inoculation against the supposed radiation, but we've seen it so many times now that I'm gonna have to just accept that in the 24th century, an injection can do much more than it can today... somehow.
- There's another case of an upload/download term mixup by the writers in this episode.

Factoids
None

Remarkable Scenes
- Holographic Barclay appearing on board.
- Holobarclay telling Seven that on Earth she's famous.
- Barclay's conspiracy theories regarding how his transmission was blocked.
- The revelation that the Ferengi are exploiting Barclay's program.
- Barclay surprising Troi with another counseling session.
- Barclay imitating the crew.
- Admiral Paris interrogating Barclay's ex girlfriend.
- The geodesic pulse.
- Holobarclay attacking Seven.
- Barclay pretending to be Holobarclay.
- Tom and Torres picking on Harry.
- Reprogrammed Holobarclay accosting Troi.
- Rules of Acquisition; 74. Knowledge = profit.

My Review
Not quite as good as Barclay's previous three appearances, but still very good. It's remarkable how personally different Barclay's hologram was compared to the real thing. Holobarclay was so much more confident, even downright arrogant at times. I would assume this was done by Barclay intentionally, and not by the Ferengi. There are some directing issues in this otherwise wonderful episode though. Some scenes are in the wrong order, some are too long, some are too short. It would have been nice to see Holobarclay imitate the crew before we find out he's evil, and the scene when he gets angry at the doctor was just totally unnecessary. The biggest thing redeeming this episode is that it's a continuity goldmine. There are countless connections with TNG, too many to list. But all of them well placed. And finally the plot is amazingly original. The writer really knew his Trek and how to combine previously introduced elements into quite a story. With a little more care, this episode could have been among the top. But it's still quite good.

Problems
None

Factoids
- This episode (both parts) features a myriad of familiar species from all corners of the galaxy. Alpha quadrant humans and Bajorans, beta quadrant Romulans and Klingons, as well as gamma quadrant Jem'Hadar, and delta quadrant Borg.

Remarkable Scenes
- Voyager hiding in the wake of a Hirogen ship.
- Tom regarding following the Hirogen ship's rear end: "Not exactly the scenic route is it?" Chakotay: "We're not here for the view."
- Torres: "It may be the warriors who get the glory but it's the engineers who build societies."
- Iden revealing that he's the center of a religion he created.
- Voyager's sneak attack on the Hirogen.
- The holograms hunting the Hirogen on the surface.

My Review
Okay, so Voyager is a bit more careful about fighting Hirogen ships now. They seem to be a little more threatening too. Maybe the ship Voyager defeating last episode was just a weaker model or something. The issues the first part thoroughly failed to deal with are tackled here. Janeway finally realizes that much of this situation is her fault and the doctor realizes the idiocy of his decision. Additionally, part two loses none of the nice action and none of the nice eye candy. As a result of all this, part two is quite a bit more successful. The only negative aspect to the story is Iden, who turned into a megalomaniac. It would have been a much better episode if Iden and his followers weren't so clearly portrayed as bad guys. And the whole "rescuing the mindless holograms" scene was just unnecessary. The two episode as a whole probably would have been better if it were compressed into a single episode, simply removing the bad elements.

Problems
None

Factoids
None

Remarkable Scenes
- The battle with the Klingons.
- the Klingons blowing up their own ship.
- Neelix and Tuvok becoming bunk mates.
- Neelix: "Good! Because I promise you we're going to have fun, Mr. Vulcan. I learned some Klingon drinking songs."
- Torres meeting with the Klingons.
- Kohlar: "Where are the images of Kahless? Where is your family crest?" Torres: "They clashed with the carpet."
- The doctor authorizing Kim to have sexual relations with the Klingon females. Nice connection with Voy: The Disease ;)
- Tom accepting the Klingon challenge.
- Neelix taking Harry's woman. ;)
- The fight on the bridge.
- The aftermath of Neelix' relationship with the Klingon woman in Tuvok's quarters.

My Review
A smart episode. The timing is right, Voyager is over half way home, close enough to encounter a Klingon generational ship. I am just disappointed that they are eliminated at the end of this episode. They're guided to a new home and never seen again. This episode suffers from the same problem that Equinox did in this respect. It would have been nice to keep the Equinox and her crew around. Likewise it would have been nice to keep the Klingon ship and her crew around. The episode bears nice continuity with Voy: Lineage, just two episodes ago. I'm glad the writers found a way to do something with Torres' pregnancy beyond the initial episode. Overall, I thought this episode ended up being much better than and not as silly as it could have been. Sure, it does seem the writers are pouring too much alpha quadrant into the writing lately, but they're being very careful about it.

Problems
None

Factoids
- The reactors on the Quarren planet are said to use Tylium fuel. Another reference to Battlestar Galactica.

Remarkable Scenes
- The doctor outwitting the Quarren ships.
- Remarkable technobabble: "Triaxialating frequency on a covariant subspace band."
- Seven: "More than a hundred skilled employees, most of them the same species, acquired in a single day during a labor shortage?"
- Yerid investigating the conspiracy.
- Ravoc uncovering the conspiracy.
- Voyager coming under attack when they tried to rescue their crew.
- Kim outwitting the Quarren ships.

My Review
Not quite as exciting as the first part as we by now well knew exactly what was going on. Watching Ravoc so slowly (ad nauseam) uncover the source of the conspiracy was the weakest use of time yet displayed in the episode. However, the extensive guest character involvement was also still quite to the episode's advantage. I felt we really got to know Qurren well, and it was nice to see the crew's efforts to rescue their comrades finally begin to show some progress after much trial and error. And like part one, part two manages to display more spectacular graphics. Workforce was an unusual episode on any scale, but definitely a surprisingly nice treat and a gem of season seven.

Problems
None

Factoids
- According to Icheb, Captain Kirk completed his historic five year mission in 2270
- Q and his son Q2 were played by father and son actors as well. Q = John de Lancie. Q2 = Keegan de Lancie.

Remarkable Scenes
- Janeway: "How many more chapters are there?" Icheb: "Thirty four." Janeway: This was supposed to be a twenty minute presentation." Icheb: "I was trying to be thorough."
- Q and Q2 appearing.
- Q2: "I've been through every deck on this ship. And do you know what I've seen? Bipeds pushing buttons. Bipeds replacing relays. Bipeds running diagnostics."
- Q2 removing Seven of Nine's cloths...
- Janeway: "Coffee. Black." Computer: "Make it yourself."
- Q2 having 3 Borg cubes attack Voyager.
- Q getting advice from Janeway.
- Q2: "What was that for?" Q: "What's wrong? You didn't enjoy life as an Oprelian amoeba?" Q2: "No! I was shapeless and slimy. The only thing to eat was paramecia!"
- Q2 asking Seven if he can see her naked again...
- Chakotay making Q2 solve a diplomatic problem.
- Q: "Potential isn't going to be enough for the Continuum." Janeway: "Then what will be enough?" Q: "The boy needs to display nothing less than exemplary Qness." Janeway: "And what exactly is Qness?" Q: "Oh it's impossible for your minuscule mind to comprehend."
- Q2 stealing the Delta flyer and blowing up the door on the shuttle bay.
- The alien Q2 fired upon revealing himself to actually be Q.
- Q rewarding Janeway by taking two years off her journey.

My Review
Marvelously hilarious. It is slightly annoying that the Q are being used for nothing more than comic relief, and this likely being the final Q episode is hardly a good send off. For some reason on TNG Q felt the need to be profound, and on Voyager he felt the need to be funny. With the exception of his first appearance on Voyager in Voy: Death Wish, which was one of Voyager's best episodes, all his appearances on Voyager have been little silly. This episode being absolutely no exception. And even Voy: Death Wish was quite silly compared to some of Q's TNG appearances. (Okay, I guess Q was trivialized on TNG a bit too.) That said, I don't mind it so much, it's just worth pointing out. It was a nice idea to have Keegan de Lancie play as Q's son, seeing as how he's the son of the actor playing Q. It made their interactions that much more realistic. It's interesting to compare and contrast this episode with the last one. Voy: Human Error was a profound character analysis of Seven of Nine. This episode is nothing more than cheap humor with a rather basic lesson in morality. Nevertheless, as fond as I was for Voy: Human Error's basic plot, the ending was quite lacking. Voy: Human Error was a better story for the most part, but this episode was much more entertaining, and lacked the fatal flaw of an anticlimax. Besides, it's fun to laugh, and this episode has lots of humor.

Problems
None

Factoids
- In the future, Harry Kim commands the U.S.S. Rhode Island.
- In the future, Admiral Janeway switches from coffee to tea.
- Some time between Voy: One Small Ship and Voy: Virtuoso on Stardate 53317, captain Janeway was abducted by an alien race called the Kellidians. I wonder why the writers didn't pick some other similar episode to reference instead of this made up occurrence.
- In the future, Naomi Wildman has a daughter, Sabrina.
- In the future, Miral Paris is an ensign in Starfleet.
- In the future, Seven of Nine and Chakotay will both die.

Remarkable Scenes
- Seeing Voyager flying over San Francisco.
- The doctor finally chose a name... Joe. I agree with Mr. Paris. Not the greatest choice!
- The doctor: "You're going to have a very healthy baby. But not tonight." Torres: "Tell me you're joking. You're experiencing false labor, lieutenant." Tom: "Again?" The doctor: "As I explained the last time, it's a common occurrence. Especially among Klingons." Torres: "I want this thing out of me! Now!" The doctor: "Misdirected rage. Another common occurrence among Klingons."
- Icheb defeating Tuvok at Kalto.
- Future Tuvok freaking out about Janeway leaving.
- Janeway arriving at the house of Korath.
- Voyager's near miss colliding with a Borg cube.
- Seven having the doctor eliminate Seven of Nine's emotion blocker first discovered in Voy: Human Error.
- Korath: "You question my honor?" Janeway: "If you were honorable, you wouldn't have changed the terms of our agreement."
- Janeway's heist. That's some shuttle!
- Admiral Janeway traveling back in time.
- Admiral Janeway giving captain Janeway orders.

My Review
Well, in the tradition of TNG: All Good Things and DS9: What You Leave Behind, another relationship between characters is made up on the spot. First it was Troi and Worf, then it was Ezri and Bashir, and now Seven and Chakotay. Granted, they've hinted at this relationship between Seven and Chakotay in Voy: Human Error and almost in Voy: Natural Law. Anyway, Endgame, Part I was a sufficiently entertaining episode. I am only slightly annoyed that Admiral Janeway seems to have no problem breaking all kinds of laws just to get her crew home a little faster. Though it seemed obvious Voyager was going to need some kind of major speed boost to make it home before in time for the finale. The 30,000 light years have to come from somewhere! ;)

Problems
- Picard in TNG: First Contact (the episode, not the movie) said that first contact with the Klingons was disastrous. Okay... Archer makes first contact with the Klingons in this episode and I can't say it was very disastrous. Obviously something is going to go wrong between Earth and Klingons sometime between now and TOS, but sure didn't happen during first contact!

Factoids
- The Suliban weapon did no damage to Archer whilst being transported.

Remarkable Scenes
- Archer: "Even if it is Klang, we're going to have a tough time getting him out of there." Reed: "We could always try the transporting device." Archer: "We've risked too much to bring him back inside out."
- Enterprise stealing a Suliban ship.
- Reed: "They're called phase pistols. They have two settings. Stun and kill. It would be best not to confuse them."
- Trip scraping the hull of the Suliban superstructure, just like he scraped Enterprise in part one. ;)
- Archer and Trip disabling the Suliban superstructure.
- The fight inside the freaky room.
- Archer's reaction to being beamed up.

My Review
I'm really starting to like Silik. He reminds me of Scorpius from Farscape. He even calls the captain by his first name, Jon, the same way Scorpius does to Crichton. :) I wonder if the parallel is intentional. Part two wasn't as exciting as part one, mostly because what happened was largely predictable and some of it redundant. I did like more of the smaller details in part two though. We already got a little bit of the crew's aversion to the transporter when Reed and Travis discussed it in the previous episode. But I rather liked Archer's rather blatant statement of distrust of the transporter in this episode, claiming that it would bring back the user "inside out." A nice irony that Trip would be later forced to use the transporter to rescue Archer. I loved the look on Archer's face after having been transported. The symbolic meaning in Archer's dreams is finally clarified. In part one they didn't seem to serve much of a purpose. Now Archer is recalling his father's advice and applying it to try and quell his natural distrust of Vulcans and to command with no fear. I loved the scene when Henry Archer said "don't be afraid of the wind," showing a picture of T'Pol. The only thing I didn't like about this episode, besides the technical problem listed in the problems section and the things I complained about in part one was the highly inappropriate decontamination chamber scene. What can I say? That was just totally unnecessary. Overall though, I thought the pilot episode was quite good, much better than I thought it would be.

Problems
- Why does the comet have Earth-like gravity?

Factoids
- Trip has only been in three relationships. "They all went bust."

Remarkable Scenes
- The children's drawings.
- The discovery of and landing on the comet.
- Archer answering the 4th grade children's questions.
- Trip: "A poop question, sir?" I almost died laughing.
- Phlox talking too much on the recording.
- Travis and Reed building a snowman.
- The discovery that T'Pol's communications were personal, not malicious.
- Trip apologizing to T'Pol.
- Archer to T'Pol regarding Vanik: "Help me make him go away."
- Reed enhancing the snowman with Vulcan ears.
- Vanik's behavior at the dinner.
- Vanik: "Your inexperience and your arrogance are your enemies, not us."
- Trip advising T'Pol.
- The shuttlepod sinking into the ice.
- Trip trying unsuccessfully to use the grappler to retrieve the shuttlepod.
- Archer finally giving in and accepting the Vulcan ship's help.

My Review
And now for some hardcore character development. This episode was most successful because it didn't involve any alien conflict or phaser fights, but just chronicled the ship as they investigated a comet. Rarely do we get something so mundane in Star Trek done so well. I was worried that Vanik might end up having some silly hidden agenda and that T'Pol might be involved in some kind of Vulcan conspiracy, like was revealed at P'Jem last week. But thankfully I was wrong. Instead, we watch as Trip helps T'Pol bridge her cultural barriers. She accepts his advice to make her own decision instead of letting rigid Vulcan custom determine her marriage and her career. She even tries some of Trip's pecan pie in the final scene. Archer learns to back away from his Vulcan prejudice too when he accepts help from Vanik. I'm just glad Archer didn't ask Vanik a "poop question" at the dinner among is many attempts at small talk. And Reed... well, I think Reed's just happy he found something to blow up again. Although I think he (along with Travis) took just as much perverse pleasure in building the Vulcan snowman with the oversized ears too. One lingering question... why do shuttlepods seem to have a dangerous habit of sinking into whatever they land on? ;)

Problems
- Reed says that the phase cannons have a power output of 500 gigajoules. But that is a unit of energy, not power. Additionally, this number seems way too high when compared to TNG.

Factoids
None

Remarkable Scenes
- Archer contacting Reed's parents.
- The alien ship attacking Enterprise.
- Archer: "Did your people run into as many hostile aliens when they first went into deep space?" T'Pol: "It was a different time." Archer: "How so?" T'Pol: "There were fewer warp capable species." Archer: "This ship just isn't equipped to handle some of the threats we're coming up against."
- Reed and Trip vowing to get the phase cannons online before Enterprise returns to Earth.
- Hoshi trying to figure out what Reed's favorite food is.
- Hoshi asking Reed what his favorite food is, only to have him accidentally take the question as an invitation to romance.
- Archer: "This time we won't be leaving before we're ready." Trip: "Are your ears a little pointier than usual?"
- Reed's test firing.
- Hoshi consulting the doctor about Reed's favorite food.
- Enterprise battling the alien ship, defeating it.
- The celebration at the end.

My Review
Preliminary remark, it's annoying that we're shown a hostile alien of the week that we've never seen before and will probably never see again. However, we aren't told their names. Maybe they were one of the many hostile aliens mentioned in previous Trek series but never shown. Regardless, it would have been a better idea to show the Klingons, Romulans, or even the Suliban, not introduce something new. With so many hostile aliens lurking about, it's a wonder that Earth wasn't wiped out years ago. Maybe the Vulcans protected it. Anyway, the basic idea of the episode is fascinating. I'm glad Reed's concerns in Ent: Broken Bow and in Ent: Fight or Flight about the ship being fairly defenseless are finally being addressed. In many ways, this was entirely Reed's episode. He got to blow some stuff up and he got to eat his favorite food! But I think the episode has a much more profound effect on Archer. At the beginning, he was very excited to make another first contact but as this soon leads to yet another conflict, Archer starts having his first real doubts about his mission and wonders if the Vulcans were right. It's interesting and quite consistent that the only person he could talk about this was Trip. Finally, I thought this musical score in this episode was way above average. If only this episode had featured a familiar alien to give us some valuable backstory, it would have been worth eight points.

Problems
None

Factoids
- This episode establishes that the phase cannons can't be fired at warp. Reed thinks the problem can be solved later though.

Remarkable Scenes
- T'Pol's expression of concern in the teaser.
- V'Lar's strange behavior when boarding Enterprise.
- Trip insinuating that Reed enjoys space battles.
- Archer deciding to outrun the Mazarite ships.
- V'Lar explaining that Earth's World War III was the reason for her mistrust of humans.
- Archer: "Archer to Engineering." Trip: "Please tell me you're ready to slow down." Archer: "Sorry Trip, but we need a little more speed." Trip: "I don't know how much more I can give you!" Archer: "It's called a warp five engine!" Trip: "On paper!"
- Enterprise reaching warp 5.
- The Enterprise crew putting on a performance for the Mazarites.
- V'Lar regarding Archer and T'Pol: "I sense a great bond between you. A bond of trust and respect. But also a bond of friendship. I think it bodes well for the future relations of our two peoples."

My Review
A nicely entertaining action episode with another embedded Vulcan mystery. But unlike episodes like Ent: Breaking the Ice, we get valuable insight into why Vulcans distrust humans so much. It's humanity's history. Having barely survived a global war, Vulcans offer their assistance but remain skeptical that Earth has really learned from its mistakes. Even the nicest Vulcan we've met so far, V'Lar, has trouble trusting humans. But alas, she does. Her giving into her preconceptions symbolizes the "bond of friendship" that humans and Vulcans will one day have.

Problems
None

Factoids
- Suzie Plakson, who plays Tarah in this episode, played Alexander's mother in TNG and the female Q on Voyager.

Remarkable Scenes
- Archer: "Maybe we're not out here just to scan comets and meet new species. Maybe we're out here to prove that humanity is ready to join a much larger community."
- Archer: "No offense but my ears are less likely to draw fire than yours." Soval: "What is their fixation with our ears?" T'Pol: "I believe they're envious."
- Soval laying into T'Pol for not having left Enterprise.
- Soval getting shot.
- Archer wins a fight! Against a girl...
- Trip placing Enterprise between the Vulcan and Andorian ships.
- Shran: "Join me in a drink. To our mutual dissatisfaction."
- Shran: "I think he likes you, pinkskin." Archer: "I wouldn't go that far."

My Review
Easily the best of the Andorian episodes so far, Ent: The Andorian Incident and Ent: Shadows of P'Jem both had annoying qualities to them which sort of wrecked the chance for some insight into the most canonically neglected Andorian culture. This episode doesn't repeat that mistake. We're given some fascinating trivia regarding the history of the Vulcan and Andorian people. Apparently, the Andorians colonized a planet in the Vulcan planetary system! I rather liked T'Pol's comment about what Earth would do if the Klingon Empire annexed Pluto. ;) It was a good point. And a hard conflict to resolve. I was glad to see that this episode made progress, but didn't totally resolve the conflict. Logically such a conflict should take time to resolve. The episode had a shot at being profound, but the writers decided to waste a great deal of time on the worthless hostage situation. Why does every Andorian episode have to have Vulcans and Andorians shooting at each other? Fortunately it was toned down this time, but not in time to do some real laying down the groundwork for the Federation. Maybe in another episode. Another nice quality is that Shran is becoming more and more a likable character. After only three episodes, I'm already starting to like him just as much as Weyoun from DS9, who was also played by Jeffrey Combs. The actor is just fantastic at playing characters that have a dark side. Finally, Trip placing Enterprise between the Vulcan and Andorian ships before they went to battle was just perfect practically and symbolically.

Problems
- Reed takes temperature measurements in Fahrenheit.

Factoids
- At one time the Denobulans believed that they were the only intelligent life in the galaxy.

Remarkable Scenes
- Trip and Reed discovering that the ship is bigger on the inside than it is on the outside... literally. :)
- Reed: "This gives space exploration a whole new meaning!"
- Phlox discovering that the dead pilot is actually a hybrid of several species, including human and Vulcan.
- Archer: "If a human and a Vulcan did have a child, I wonder if he'd have pointed ears?"
- The Tholians!
- Trip and Reed getting stuck in a time loop.
- Enterprise battling the Suliban.
- The Tholians battling the Suliban.
- Time repeating for Archer and Reed.
- Archer regarding the Vulcan High Command: "I wonder if they'll believe that humans and Vulcans will be swapping chromosomes one day?" T'Pol: "They're more likely to believe in time travel."

My Review
Ent: Future Tense is yet another Temporal Cold War episode which depicts conflict and action without much explanation. Reminds me a bit of Ent: Cold Front. This episode is quite a bit more successful though. The object of the plot itself was most original. The ship itself and the body inside were fascinating. The Temporal Cold War is further aggravated by the appearance of the Tholians. Despite my lack of appreciation of the Temporal Cold War in general, this was a really great use of the Tholians. TOS: The Tholian Web utterly failed to show us anything of significance when it introduced the Tholians. This episode is a continuity goldmine concerning them, and manages not to create any problems too! As exciting as the episode is, I'm only annoyed that we learn nothing new about the Temporal Cold War other than that the Tholians may be working for one of the factions and that they're opposed to the Suliban. So this episode ends up being a grand, albeit exciting, waste of time from a developmental standpoint.

Problems
None

Factoids
- The Denobulans and the Antareans fought a series of wars, which ended 300 years ago.

Remarkable Scenes
- Phlox feeding a tribble to one of his pets...
- Phlox finally breaking after his patient's constant insults.
- Trip and Reed encountering the Denobulan scientists.
- Phlox confronting the Antarean, answering his questions, making the case for anti racism.
- Trip: "If you don't start moving in the next five seconds, I'm gonna take my phase pistol and shoot you in the ass!"
- The Denobulans climbing the slope with ease, using some kind of natural sticky hands or some such.

My Review
Dr. Phlox steals the show in this episode. The backstory we get on the Denobulans and the Antareans is fascinating and the moral dilemma Phlox' character faces regarding his patient's racism is captivating. This obviously is not the first episode to tackle racism in Star Trek, but it does it in an interesting way. The war between the two species was long over. Three centuries had passed, but the hate was still prevalent. You shake your head during the scene when Phlox loses his patients with his patient, but I much enjoyed when Phlox revealed to T'Pol that his shame wasn't due to his outburst but due to the racism his people still feel. After Phlox' bad ethics displayed in Ent: Dear Doctor, I was sure Phlox would end up being racist, just like the rest of his people. But I was pleasantly surprised to find out that not only did he not share those beliefs, but he'd worked to spread the message of anti racism to his children. I was also pleased to see Phlox' message got through to his patient by the end. The racism is beginning to die. The secondary (?) plot with Trip, Reed, and Travis was less successful. Once again, Travis contributes the least, being put out of commission early. It's as if the writers just personally hate the guy. There were a few funny moments with the Denobulans, but ultimately, and I think Captain Archer would agree with me, the climb took way too long. Instead of all the climbing, a better episode would have focused more on showing us a little about this alien culture whose planet was the setting. They weren't sufficiently elaborated upon. As a result, a fairly profound episode is reduced to above average. Still a great ep, but not as good as it could have been.

Problems
- So it seems the Andorians are capable of leaving the expanse. And it also seems Enterprise is able to get messages back to Starfleet. Maybe the Osaarians just didn't know how to get past the barrier while Starfleet and Andoria does?

Factoids
None

Remarkable Scenes
- The teaser, showing us Shran and the inside of his ship!
- Shran's antennae appearing over Archer's head... hah!
- The Xindi testing their weapon.
- Shran: "We are looking for a rare element... Archerite!"
- Shran: "Take us out of the system. But not too quickly. The Andorian mining consortium runs from no one!"
- Talas and Reed starting to get along.
- Archer crediting Gralik (Ent: The Shipment) for the Xindi prototype weapon's spectacular failure.
- The Kumari stealing the weapon.
- Shran betraying Archer.
- Archer threatening to use the Xindi activation codes to blow up the Xindi prototype while it's still aboard Shran's ship.

My Review
Well, my complaint about wasting time that could be used on the Xindi arc with filler has finally been put to rest here. We get to see a new prototype for the planet killer weapon in action, we get to see an Andorian ship strut its stuff, and we get to see humans and Andorians working together, even if there is an ulterior motive for the Andorians. The ulterior motive was actually quite cool. The Andorians were totally in character the whole time and the cameo was more than welcome; this episode was just as good as the last Andorian showing, Ent: Cease Fire. My only complaint was that Shran was too loyal to the corrupt Imperial Guard. I would have liked to have seen a permanent human-Andorian alliance after this episode. Oh well. Hopefully they'll play a role again. I want to see more of Shran! What an awesome character.

Problems
- It seems unlikely that the transporter could be used to remove working components from a starship. I imagine Archer only risked it because he knows what moving parts can be removed on the fly without destroying his ship? Still, a big risk.

Factoids
- Ent: E² is the shortest name for an episode in Star Trek history, beating Voy: Q2 by half a character. ;)
- The NX-02 is called Columbia. A nice homage to the lost space shuttle Columbia.

Remarkable Scenes
- Enterprise meeting Enterprise!
- Archer visiting the other Enterprise and meeting aged T'Pol.
- Reed, Hoshi, and Travis discussing who they married on the other Enterprise.
- Trip and T'Pol arguing about the complications to their relationship that Lorian presented.
- Enterprise battling Enterprise.
- Archer using the transporter as a weapon.
- Archer: "This is captain Archer. Looks like we've got some things that belong to each other. Why don't we call a truce and return our respective property?"
- T'Pol meeting T'Pol.
- Enterprise and Enterprise fighting the Corvallens side by side.
- Archer and T'Pol discussing whether or not the other Enterprise never existed.

My Review
Well, the episode is more filler. But it's up there on the quality level of other Xindi filler such as Ent: Twilight and Ent: Similitude. There's some plot logic in this episode that doesn't make any sense, such as how the future Enterprise could have possibly fouled up their attack on the Xindi probe, or why they made the remarkably stupid decision to not interfere with Earth's timeline. But then again, if they'd done either of those things, it would have brought a most anticlimactic end to the Xindi arc. In short, this episode shouldn't have been done in the manner that it was, because it had reset button written all over it. Ent: Twilight, on the other hand, was a marvelous way to execute such a reset button style episode. This episode tried too hard to be like Ent: Similitude, and failed. That said, if you forgive the problems with plot logic, the episode is exciting and well played. It offers insight into Trip and T'Pol's relationship and as all reset bottom episodes do, offers us a fascinating what-if style episode. There are shades of DS9: Children of Time in this episode, but I like how the ending was open ended. It's fairly certain that the other Enterprise was destroyed, but was it due to their never existing or that they were destroyed? Who knows.

Problems
- Why doesn't Commander T'Pol get a Starfleet uniform? Oh I know why, because she looks sexier with less clothing. (Sigh.)

Factoids
- J. G. Hertzler plays the Klingon captain who dies in the teaser. He's played two other Klingons. Archer's lawyer in Ent: Judgement and Martok on DS9.
- Brent Spiner who plays Arik Soong in this episode played Data on TNG. This is actually a nice homage, because Spiner is playing his own ancestor in a way, for Arik Soong is the ancestor of the man who created Data.
- Henry Archer died very painfully from Clarke's disease, but genetic engineering could have cured him.
- Archer's new chair was actually rescued from a deleted scene from Star Trek X: Nemesis.

Remarkable Scenes
- The augments attacking the Klingon bird of prey.
- Archer meeting with Arik Soong.
- "Jonathan Archer. What brings you here? They naming the prison after you?"
- Enterprise's relaunch.
- The Orions attacking Enterprise.
- T'Pol being auctioned off at the slave market.
- An Orion female being auctioned off at the slave market. The first time we've seen one since TOS: The Cage!
- Archer and Soong invading the Orion slave market freeing all the slaves.
- Soong using the (Klingon?) painstick to disable the transponder that Enterprise was using to track him.
- Archer's clever recapture of Soong.
- The augments saving Enterprise from the Orions.

My Review
I am still annoyed that Enterprise is ignoring its loose threads, such as the Xindi, the Temporal Cold War, Earth's response to the Xindi crisis, and Earth's xenophobia, but I think we can safely assume some things. The Xindi are probably reorganizing their government and probably looking for a new homeworld. Now that their guardians are gone, they probably don't want to attack Earth anymore. Still, it would have been nice to get a post Xindi-arc Xindi cameo to canonize the armistice. We can also safely assume that the Temporal Cold War is over and we'll never see more of it. Can't say that bothers me very much other than the fact that it made very little sense. We can only hope that these loose threads are tied up later. But for now, Enterprise has finally become relevant. What we were shown here in Ent: Borderland is the first real material convincing me of the reasons for a long term conflict with the Klingons. From their perspective, a group of humans stole a Klingon bird of prey and that's all the reason they need to go to war with Earth. There's also quite a bit of foreshadowing in this episode indicating that that may very well happen. Using the augments for this purpose was an extremely clever idea and getting Brent Spiner to play his own ancestor was an equally terrific move. The main plot is a wonderful connection to both TOS and TNG; what marvelously clever writing. I think here Manny Coto is finally flexing his showrunning muscles, as Ent: Borderland was a great way to start a story arc with the augments and the Klingons whilst giving us some fascinating insight into the much speculated about Orion syndicate at the same time. Nicely done.

Problems
- Persis uppercuts a Starfleet security officer and it sends him into a 360 degree backflip. Taking a hit like that would most certainly kill you, but he gets up right after that and keeps on fighting!
- Why did Archer tell Soong that he was going to blow up the station? It gave the augments all the time they needed to prevent it from happening!

Factoids
- Archer's father died when he was 12.
- The diseases stored on Cold Station 12 that were listed on the screen Malik was reading are all references to previous Trek episodes. Xenopolycythemia; TOS: For the World is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky, Synthococcus Novae Type A; TOS: The Way to Eden, Rigelian Fever; TOS: Requiem for Methuselah, Tellurian Plague; TNG: A Matter of Time, Anchilles Fever; TNG: Code of Honor, and Andronesian Encephalitis; TNG: The Dauphin.

Remarkable Scenes
- Finally seeing Dr. Lucas!
- Soong torturing the doctors on Cold Station 12.
- Archer: "Why are you so surprised? Whenever a group of people start believing they're better than everyone else, the results are always the same."
- Enterprise battling the Klingon bird of prey.
- Archer's fight with Malik.
- Malik murdering Smike.
- Dr. Soong and the augments escaping.

My Review
Ent: Cold Station 12 is another good episode moving on with the augments arc. It would seem Dr. Soong is losing control of his "children." Malik seems all too willing to use violence, which in a way is a deficiency of the plot, but it also contributes well to the theme that Soong's repeating the mistakes of history. Brent Spiner continues to fascinatingly and skillfully play Arik Soong. I only wonder why Enterprise is doing such a poor job catching the augments. Two episodes in a row now they've failed to capture the augments because they keep getting overpowered. Maybe this is a sign that Enterprise should call for some help? Maybe from the Vulcans?

Problems
- I would imagine that by now that T'Pol is eating her words about Klingons not using escape pods.

Factoids
- The current Klingon Chancellor is named M'Rek. He likes to head into the Borderland every so often to enjoy the company of Orion slave girls.

Remarkable Scenes
- Archer's decompression beam out trick. I was surprised by the realism.
- T'Pol: "I wasn't aware the doctor discharged you." Archer: "He didn't. What's our status?" T'Pol: "Holding position near the Klingon border." Archer takes his seat. Poor Phlox... always getting ignored. ;)
- Enterprise engaging the Klingon bird of prey.
- Soong dumping the Denobulan shuttle in into the gas giant.
- Archer pretending to be a Klingon captain, bluffing to the other Klingon captain.
- Soong running back to Archer in a Klingon escape pod.
- Archer: "Superior ability breeds superior ambition. One of their creators wrote that. He was murdered by an augment."
- Soong: "How long can we sustain warp 5?" Trip: "As long as the captain wants it. Or until we blow up, whichever comes first."
- Enterprise using the grappler as a weapon on the D5 battle cruiser's warp nacelle.
- Enterprise destroying the bio weapon and engaging the Klingon battle cruiser.
- Soong: "I've been thinking... perfecting humanity may not be possible. Cybernetics... artificial life forms. " Archer: "Goodbye, doctor." Soong: "I doubt I'll finish the work myself. Might take a generation or two."

My Review
This is the best of the three augments episodes. Firstly, there was marvelous continuity. Soong wanted to take his "children" into the Briar patch, which was the setting of Star Trek IX: Insurrection. The scene when Malik dumps the Denobulan doctor and her shuttle into the gas giant is a nice parallel to Eddington's similar move in DS9: For the Uniform. The scene when Malik crawls around on the floor of the bird of prey is also a cute reference to a Star Trek film, in this case Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan in which Khan did the same thing on the Reliant. Finally, Arik Soong at the end of this episode declares that he's now going to study cybernetics and that his work will take generations to complete. Maybe it was tacky, but I liked it. Unfortunately, the episode like the previous two fell short of being profound. Here it was a real missed opportunity. The biggest problem for which I subtract one point is that Malik never succeeded in releasing the bio weapon against the Klingons. Oh how perfect it would have been if he had! Now we'd have a legitimate reason for the Klingons to go to war with Earth. Not that murder and attempted murder of loads of Klingons doesn't work, but it would have been much more believable if Malik had been successful. Additionally, the scene when Malik returns from the dead to try and kill Soong was just petty, forced, and totally contrived. For that I subtract another point. But overall, the arc was pretty nice and it was thoroughly enjoyable.

Problems
- While I enjoyed seeing Archer fight so well, and I realize that Surak's katra had quite a bit to do with this, Archer was performing athletic moves that just don't seem possible in air that's so thin.

Factoids
None

Remarkable Scenes
- Soval meeting with Shran.
- T'Pau curing T'Pol of her Pa'nar syndrome!
- Shran torturing Soval.
- Soval: "I'll tear the antennae from your skull!"
- Soval: "Do you know the story of Nurak?" Shran: "What?" Soval: "He was a soldier who lived a long time ago. He was standing watch over the gates of the city of Gaul. He saw a cloud on the horizon moving toward him. He thought it was a sandstorm, so he told no one. It was an army. They destroyed the city. But they let Nurak live. His name now means fool in our language! Just as yours will in Andorian!"
- Archer fighting the Vulcan soldiers.
- T'Pol lying to the Vulcan soldiers cover Archer's tracks.
- Archer Vulcan neck pinching somebody!
- The Vulcans, Andorians, and Enterprise doing battle.
- Archer presenting the Kir'Shara to the Vulcan high command.
- The revelation that V'Las was working with the Romulans.

My Review
Another good episode, but not quite as good as the previous two. Most of the lesser rating stems from the fact that the plot had no major turning points or plot twists other than the ending, which chillingly reminded me of Ent: Zero Hour, except without the alien Nazi silliness. What this episode did do is wrap up several plot threads nicely. T'Pol was cured of her Pa'nar syndrome (Ent: Stigma); it seems the syndrome is actually caused by poorly trained mind melders and the Vulcan high command suppressed the true nature of the syndrome to try and kill off Syrranites and other deviants. T'Pol's marriage was dissolved (Ent: Breaking the Ice, Ent: Home), V'Las was removed from power, and since the leader of the Vulcan high command was a Romulan, or at least a Romulan collaborator, his removal signifies the end of "evil Vulcan syndrome." The ending to the mini arc was satisfactory regarding all things, delivering some nice action and excellent continuity in the process. The Romulan revelation at the end is probably the most interesting detail of the plot, but since it's a cliffhanger, there's not much to discuss about it except for the fact that it seems that the writers are going to continue to honor TOS and never show Romulans onscreen, which pleases me. I'm also pleased that this may be the precursor to the Earth Romulan wars, though I'm not sure how.

Problems
- You've got to wonder why Bashir was so surprised just like O'Brien in DS9: Trials and Tribble-ations. Didn't he study medical history? Maybe he was just playing dumb to put Worf in an embarrassing situation. ;)

Factoids
None

Remarkable Scenes
- The zooming scene just after the teaser. Holy wow!
- The two NX class ships matching course and speed.
- Watching trip climb from one ship to the other.
- Trip doing a cold start of the warp reactor.
- Archer uncovering Reed's connection with Section 31.
- K'Vagh drinking to the bravery of the four Klingon warriors who volunteered to test the various attempts at a cure.
- Enterprise and Columbia battling the Klingon ships.
- Phlox beaming the virus to the attacking Klingons to persuade them to let Phlox cure the virus.

My Review
I must say, that's a damn fine resolution of the Klingon Forehead problem. The only remaining question is why do the "shamed" ridgeless Klingons get so powerful in TOS? It's possible that the virus spreads further and since it only can do "stage 1" it alters ridged Klingons for a hundred years and their cosmetic surgery techniques aren't quite up to the task of fixing the problem until post TOS. That would seem to make sense with why all the ridged Klingons in Star Trek I: The Motion Picture have the same ridges and why post Star Trek I: The Motion Picture productions have progressively better ridges... they were perfecting their cosmetic surgery techniques! ;) Still, you've got to wonder why it would take them 100 years to develop them. But then, given how valued doctors are in the Klingon Empire, it's not all that surprising. Aside from resolving the Klingon Forehead Problem, this episode presents a great action episode at the same time. Trip's leap from Columbia to Enterprise was just the kind of innovative stuff that keeps Star Trek exciting. Phlox bending his ethics with the Klingons added further to the episode's intrigue. Finally, letting the Columbia strut her stuff in battle side by side with Enterprise was just great fun to watch. All in all, a nicely successful episode.

Problems
- When Sarek gets aboard his ship, two large planets/moons are visible in the sky. It's heavily implied that he is departing from Vulcan, which was said in TOS: The Man Trap to not have a moon, though it may be a Vulcan colony on another planet.

Factoids
None

Remarkable Scenes
- That gorgeous shot of a Vulcan city.
- The Vulcan extremist blowing himself up in an attempt to kill Sarek. Interesting that the technology closely resembled Ent: Chosen Realm.
- Burnham's flashback to her past via Sarek's memory.
- Lorca defying orders to stage a rescue of Sarek.
- Cornwell: "You launched an unauthorized rescue mission using a convicted mutineer! Not to mention a POW who has barely had time to recover! Can you even trust this guy?"
- Lorca freaking out at Cornwell and pulling a phaser on her out of nowhere when she touched his scar.
- Lorca: "Don't take my ship away from me! She's all I got. Please, I'm begging you."

My Review
A straightforward, but touching story. The attack on Sarek and his rescue is dramatically compelling, the deeper window into Burnham's backstory with Sarek is intriguing, and the insight into Sarek's conduct as a father not just of Burnham but of Spock also is fascinating. It's nice to see that Vulcans aren't exactly a totally unified society after the events of Enterprise. It always made sense that the nativism the Romulans exploited would've originated as a homegrown phenomenon that the Romulans merely fanned the flames of, rather than something they conjured up from whole cloth. A demagogue can't succeed without some demand for demagoguery. Even a hundred years after the demagogic (for a Vulcan) leader and secret Romulan collaborator V'Las was removed from power in disgrace, those nativist feelings are still simmering on Vulcan. There is still a group which sees humans as inferior, and even views the Federation as a failed experiment. This sentiment apparently extended far enough to deny Burnham a job in the Vulcan Expeditionary Group based entirely and explicitly on race rather than merit. This resentment of outsiders was so intense that it was the reason for the bombing of the Vulcan Learning Center. Burnham was the target of the terrorist attack; the extremists were trying to assassinate her.

Meanwhile, the nature of Lorca's psych issues becomes a bit clearer here in a quite creepy way. Cornwell stages a much needed intervention on Lorca, whose erratic behavior should rightly be a cause of concern for Starfleet. After psychoanalyzing him, she concludes that his behavior is pathological and manipulative. During a particularly chilling scene, she admits that she can't tell whether or not Lorca is being emotionally honest with her or just pretending to feel the things she expects him to feel. And in one of the most chilling scenes yet aired, Lorca jumps at the chance to manipulate Cornwell into taking Sarek's place for the meeting with the Klingons, almost as though he knew she would be captured. Did he know somehow? Or was he just trying to get her off the ship temporarily while he figured out what to do? Or worse yet, did he tip off the Klingons somehow? All to keep Cornwell off his back? These are disturbing things to ponder. Regardless, he is certainly taking advantage of her absence, given that he is now all too willing to drag his feet rescuing her by uncharacteristically (as Saru explicitly makes note of) going through proper (slow) channels to get a rescue mission authorized. Clearly Lorca is in no hurry to see Cornwell again, a person that is supposed to be his friend. Like Harry Mudd, Cornwell is left at the mercy of the Klingons because Lorca is apparently a sociopath. Given all that, Burnham's line, "I'm grateful to serve under a captain like you." was a pretty nice piece of irony.

While this episode is overall quite good, there are a few wrinkles in the story. Despite Cornwell's concerns about him, Ash Tyler seems to be coping far too well with his ex-POW status. Aside from his overwhelmingly contrived interruption of Burnham's attempt to reach Sarek seemingly for no other reason than to dispense seasoned veteran advice about how people going through near death experiences dwell on what they wish they would've done differently, Tyler was a picture of good character and perfect conduct, which is not something one generally expects from someone who just spent the better part of a year being tortured. Perhaps the most annoying feature of the episode though was seeing them using the spore drive with impunity now, seemingly without additional costs. At least no costs other than Stamets acting weird again and being oddly cheerful in a creepy way. It's like the annoying cliffhanger from the last episode never happened. This episode doesn't deal with the consequences of having Stamets pilot the spore drive at all, which is a pretty big dramatic oversight. Although Cornwell's remark that Starfleet knows about Stamets' illegal eugenics work is delightfully ominous. As we know from other Star Trek shows, augments are rarely treated well.

Also of note, it is pretty neat to see Kol dolling out cloaking technology in exchange for loyalty oaths. Using new technology as leverage to dominate the other great houses feels very authentically Klingon and it adds a nice piece of texture to Klingon history.

Problems
- How did they know to beam Elnor aboard too along with Picard?

Factoids
- This is the first episode of Star Trek to not show a character wearing a Starfleet uniform.

Remarkable Scenes
- Elnor: "Why don't you like children?" Zani: "Because they're demanding, distracting, and interfere with duty and pleasure alike."
- Elnor: "You told me stories about Data. He had an orange cat named Spot." Picard: "That's right." Elnor: "I've still never seen a cat."
- Elnor: "Why do you need me?" Picard: "Because I'm an old man and you're a young one. And you're strong."
- Picard trampling over the "Romulans only" sign.
- Elnor: "Please my friend, choose to live." Adrev ignores him and is decapitated shortly thereafter. Elnor: "I regret your choice."
- The space battle against the old style Romulan warbird.
- Seven of Nine's appearance. Seven: "You owe me a ship, Picard."

My Review
This episode starts off with a tone straight out of Firefly and closes with a green-blooded Romulan decapitation followed by a space battle featuring an old style Romulan Bird of Prey straight out of TOS: Balance of Terror; cliffhangering with Seven of Nine! Whew! Hopefully we get a good explanation for why she showed up at just the right time. Was she following Picard? In any event, the space battle was one of the best ones featured in Star Trek in quite some time. Yes of course Discovery and the Kelvin films have their fair share of action, but often their action is overkill and not well earned. Unlike those, this dogfight between the La Sirena and the old style Romulan Bird of Prey isn't overwrought in the slightest. It's just the right amount of action we needed to add a bit more fun to an already fairly strong story.

The exchange between Picard and Senator Adrev was also a highlight of the episode as a window into the Romulan feelings of betrayal by the Federation. It's understandable that the excessively secretive nature of Romulan culture would cause many of them to believe that the Federation totally failing to organize a competent relief effort in the face of both overwhelming logistical challenges and internal political turmoil might have been an intentional conspiracy to lull Romulans into a false sense of security so that they would end up in a significantly weakened position by placing undue trust in an ancient enemy, leaving Picard in the unenviable position of exclaiming something to the effect of, "It's not what it looks like!" And having Picard express outrage to Elnor about needlessly killing Adrev when presumably a non-lethal way of subduing him would've sufficed was also a nice and necessary touch. It makes sense that Elnor would do that and that Picard would react to it that way.

There are only a few wrinkles in this episode. Adding "Emmet" to the flock of Rios' holograms further compounds the annoying ambiguity about the status of sentient holograms relative to the ban on androids. Also while the ending of this episode is great fun, the pacing of the episode otherwise drags a bit at times. Even so, this is one of the stronger episodes so far.

Problems
- Tendi discusses using "Cas9 snipping" on the dog, which refers to the real world CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing technique. However, she refers to protein bonds "accepting" the Cas9 snipping, which is a bit incoherent. Gene editing refers to editing DNA, not protein bonds, so it's unclear why the line was written to connect those two things.

Factoids
- The giant newt was very likely a reference to the infamously bad episode Voy: Threshold, which has largely been regarded as dropped from canon. Since the giant newt is just a background detail with no explicit plot relevance and no explicit story reference to Voy: Threshold, there's no reason to believe that this visual gag is at all meant to imply that Voy: Threshold needs to be seen as canon. Instead, it was likely meant to poke harmless fun at a less than proud moment of Star Trek's past.

Remarkable Scenes
- Mariner: "You're just excited to kiss a whole new butt, aren't you?"
- Boimler: "Wait, I'm still all phasey!" Rutherford: "Yeah, but you're not making the sound anymore which was the worst part, right?"
- The Division 14 Medical Specialist's creepy appearance.
- Mariner: "Maybe let's talk like after the giant space emergency?"
- The Division 14 Medical Specialist apologizing for his creepy demeanor.

My Review
This is a strong offering. Everything in the episode was quite endearing except for Tendi's dog plot, which was more weird than funny. One quite distracting detail about that is it further compounds Star Trek's incredibly complicated relationship with genetic engineering, which has long been established to be banned in the Federation and yet we see it used from time to time anyway such as when Voyager's doctor used it to correct a birth defect in B'Elanna's baby though it was strangely not allowed to be used to cure Archer's father of a terminal illness. Tendi uses this banned or perhaps not quite so banned technology to create a brand new life form which aside from the problems of questionable legality based on past canon also raises moral questions as well that the episode doesn't deal with in at all a mature way. It seems at the very least morally questionable for Tendi to just cavalierly create a brand new sentient(!) life form using a nominally banned technology like some mad scientist creating some kind of Frankenstein monster and then just dump it on some random hospital planet because she clearly didn't know what she was doing. This is serious stuff that the episode treats entirely unseriously.

That said just about everything else about the episode was terrific. The main plot exploring Mariner's clear competence but total unwillingness to accept promotions by contrasting her with a former classmate who's the same age who made it to the rank of captain puts Mariner's personal problems into much greater focus. It was both touching and an important piece of character development to have it said out loud that many people expected Mariner would be a captain by now as well as her admission that she still has some stuff to figure out and she's not entirely sure who she wants to be; that she's still finding herself. This was nicely done; indeed there are many people in the world who are still finding themselves even decades after finishing school. Not everyone has a perfect career trajectory with unbroken upward mobility. Many if not most people zigzag all over the place throughout their lives with various ups and downs with their careers, personal lives, and subjective well-being.

Many smaller details were delightful as well. For instance, Captain Ramsey wasn't just a vehicle to deepen Mariner's character, but a charming character in her own right, as was her Vulcan sidekick Durga. The copious references to TNG: Chain of Command were nicely done too and one of the best details of the episode was the introduction of a new character of the same species as Arex from TAS, the tripod alien. The Division 14 Medical Specialist was beautifully animated in a way that there wasn't budget for on TAS. The writing and voice acting for his character were excellent as well, ultimately leading him to be a standout character nearly as strong as Ramsey. All things considered, this is one of the strongest episodes of the series so far. If the writers had avoided the unfortunate Tendi missteps, this could've been the strongest episode so far.