Enterprise 4.7: "The Forge"
Written by Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens
Directed by Michael Grossman
In which the Earth embassy on Vulcan is destroyed, and the subsequent investigation reveals a deep schism within Vulcan society, placing Archer’s life in jeopardy…
Captain’s Log
The “Augment Arc” was the first real attempt by the new regime to put together a solid story. “Storm Front”, after all, was just a clean-up operation, fixing the massive plotting bomb that Berman and Braga dropped at the end of the third season. “Home” was transitional, setting up some of the long-term plot and character threads. The “Augment Arc” set the tone for Manny Coto’s storytelling mandate, and while it was an overall improvement, it was essentially the same quality as the end of the Xindi arc, which Coto more or less implemented.
If the “Augment Arc” was notable for its considerable references to the original series episode “Space Seed” and “Star Trek II: Wrath of Khan”, then the “Vulcan Civil War” is already notable for referencing “Star Trek III: The Search for Spock” and “Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home”. The previous arc was hindered by the need to remain within certain boundaries of continuity; the writers respected the past, and therefore could only go so far with the concept. In the case of this plot arc, the intent is to address the vast differences between the Vulcans of the original series and films with the Vulcans of “Enterprise”.
This episode succeeds in that goal to an amazing degree. It’s clear that Manny Coto sat the writing staff down with a copy of every script related to the Vulcans and made them find every possible inconsistency within the “Enterprise” characterization. Furthermore, Coto seems to have understood what many fans had noticed from the beginning: the Vulcans of “Enterprise” needed some kind of societal shift, something to explain how the Vulcans could change the philosophical underpinnings of nearly everything in their culture.
The answer is elegantly simple: like the religions of Earth, there are different schools of thought in terms of interpreting the teachings of Surak. Vulcan society circa “Enterprise” is rather complicated, far more so than Berman and Braga ever seemed to suggest. While the eventual Romulans left Vulcan some 1500 years earlier (a date that doesn’t entirely agree with previous continuity, but one that works well enough), the followers of Surak apparently fell into at least two camps. One embraced certain ideals of logic, but still retained much cultural similarity with the pre-Surak Vulcans and Romulans, including a certain level of arrogance. The other, the Syrannites of this episode, chose the path that is far more familiar to Trek fans: a deeply mystical path.
This makes a great deal of sense, especially if one accepts that the more militant faction had gained dominance of the government by the time the Vulcans took Earth under its repressive wing. If the militant faction had been more involved in interstellar matters, then it could be interpreted by the Syrannites that non-Vulcans were a negative influence on Vulcan culture. By the time of Kirk, the Vulcans respect other races, but they also maintain a certain wall around their culture. This episode, and presumably the rest of the story arc, places that in a wonderfully consistent context.
Not only does this arc already explain a great deal about the Vulcans of “Enterprise”, including their prejudices and distinctly “non-Vulcan” ways, but it goes a long way towards providing a reasonable explanation for every poor depiction of Vulcans throughout the franchise history. Don’t think a guest Vulcan on “DS9” is acting very logical? Well, he’s not a Syrannite!
This kind of retroactive continuity can sometimes be annoying (the Borg continuity is full of it), but in the right hands, it can make years of writing errors seem like a work of genius. Not only does this episode give context to T’Pol’s character (making it clear that she’s not a Syrannite, and therefore more prone to emotional outbursts), but it gives Soval a meaningful character arc. Soval was already being written as more and more sympathetic to Archer and Humanity as a whole, but now he gets to take a stand for a better Vulcan. One of the major flaws of “Enterprise” is now, thanks to this arc, one of its more intriguing plot threads.
Coto demonstrates how much he understands the Trek franchise and fandom by putting two of the best prose Trek writers, Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens, to the task of “fixing” the Vulcans. The Trek novelists as a whole have been interweaving Trek continuity into a strong yet diverse whole for some years now, and Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens have a great deal of credibility when it comes to this sort of work. Their novel “Federation”, for instance, is one of the most revered books in the prose Trek catalogue. In their hands, characters like V’Las and Arev become iconic, clearly of similar philosophy but very distinct at the same time.
The writing is only the first step in making the concept work; it repairs some of the bad writing in the early seasons to some extent, but the guest cast is tasked with the job of making the distinctions believable. Robert Foxworth embodies the Vulcans as they have been depicted since the beginning of “Enterprise”: arrogant, militant, and somewhat ruthless. Michael Nouri, on the other hand, plays Arev as a true heir to Sarek and Spock. The deeply mystical culture that fans have come to expect of Vulcans is there, and the contrast is incredible.
Stuck in the middle is Soval, who has come to recognize why the Vulcans of the High Command have labored so hard to keep Humanity under control. It’s not just that Humans have an incredible ability to get into all kinds of trouble. Humans also remind the Vulcans of the High Command of their own people, before the teachings of Surak changed the culture. More to the point, Soval hints to the deeper fears within the Vulcans of the High Command: Humans remind them how little they’ve changed from the old ways. Those Vulcans must secretly recognize that they have not worked out the delicate balance of emotion and logic as well as they might have though, and the swift recovery of Humanity from near-annihilation points out the shortcomings of the dominant Vulcan culture.
As one would expect, Soval is not the only one caught in the middle. T’Pol is also forced to deal with the schism on her own world on a personal level. Fixing the portrayal of Vulcans is one thing; fixing the portrayal of T’Pol is quite another. For all that this episode and arc seems to repair the damage to Vulcans overall, T’Pol is a character that can never be fully redeemed. The writers took her in the wrong direction, time and again, and even if they use the next two episodes to give her something of a Syrannite legacy through T’Les and T’Pau, it doesn’t change the fact that her character made bizarre decisions over the past three seasons, quite apart from any Vulcan philosophy.
The point is that T’Pol could and should be written more consistently after this arc, perhaps exploring the Syrannite ways and finding some direction in terms of her future development. But her characterization in the first three seasons was nothing like the other Vulcans on “Enterprise” or, obviously, the Syrannites; it was unique in a way that pales next to the other Vulcans in this episode. Clearly this has much to do with the writing, which never gave T’Pol the consistency necessary to make the character work.
T’Pol’s character should be addressed in the next two episodes of the arc. While it would place the character in a highly negative light, it would be possible to reconcile T’Pol with the rest of Vulcan society if she were seen as a troubled soul. Episodes like “Fusion” already set T’Pol apart from the Vulcan norm; she was depicted as seeking out emotional experiences and defying cultural restrictions in the process. If T’Pol were depicted as something of a malcontent in the eyes of her people, rejected by both sides of the Vulcan conflict, it would at least make it plain that the writers aren’t trying to sugar-coat the mistakes made with the character.
Unlike the “Augment Arc”, where the Enterprise crew was more or less tangential to the overall story, Archer and Trip are both instrumental to the evolution of the Vulcan culture. Archer’s search for the Syrannites gives him a unique perspective on Vulcan itself, and his experience with Arev and his katra ought to give him an understanding of the Vulcan soul that Humans could not have had to this point in the timeline. This could also be tied into Archer’s overall character arc, tying back into his feelings about Vulcans in general as shown in “Broken Bow”.
Archer’s bond with Soval, depicted in a touching moment by Admiral Forrest’s casket, makes the scenes between Soval and Trip credible later in the episode. Trip continues what Archer started, pushing Soval into making the necessary decisions to uncover the conspiracy against the Syrannites. Archer and Trip become integral to the story, personally involved, and that gives the episode more meaning.
The rest of the cast gets to play a part in the story as well, even if it’s a minor part. Hoshi continues to get the short end of the stick, though it’s not at all bad to see Linda Park all sweaty and flushed. It should just happen under more pleasant circumstances, hopefully something that involves character development. Her experiences at the end of the third season should have left her with emotional scars, and probably more than a few issues with Archer. With Mayweather getting at least some token screen time, if not explicit character development, then why shouldn’t Hoshi get the same?
While some of the early scenes appeared to gloss over certain details, subsequent scenes almost always addressed those issues and made every moment worth the time. It might have helped some scenes, however, to have a better score. One of the highlights of the previous arc was the strong score; the final act of “The Augments” was much better for it. This episode’s score didn’t quite fit the material. One of the minor criticisms of this series is the homogenous musical score; nearly every episode sounds the same in the end. Contrast this with shows like “Babylon 5”, where every episode could have a defining theme.
At the very least, an effort could have been made to echo the themes from the referenced films or source material. “The Augments” took elements similar to the score for “Wrath of Khan” and fit them into the television score. Why not take that idea to the natural next step and use the Vulcan-esque themes of “The Search for Spock” for this arc? It would have worked well for the scenes that took place in The Forge.
In general, the effects worked for this episode. The embassy shots and the explosion itself were sub-par, but the wide shots of the Vulcan landscape weren’t too bad. Of course, the effects were a lot less distracting because they weren’t nearly as important as the writing itself. It’s amazing how minor flaws can be overlooked once the basics are covered well!
And the writing quality couldn’t have come at a better time. For the first time in several episodes, the ratings took a dip. It’s not hard to recognize why. “The Augments” was one of the weakest episodes of the season, and the audience responded. Episode ratings are almost always reflective of the episodes that came before it and the competition; if the previous episode was weak and the competition is strong, there’s going to be a loss of viewers. That’s what happened for this episode. If there’s any justice at all, next week’s numbers will be the best of the season.
Final Analysis
Overall, this episode was one of the best of the series. The continuity was strong, and the explanation for the disparate portrayal of the Vulcans is both simple and clever. The writers gave the schism with Vulcan culture a reasonable basis, and even added some character development along the way. If the rest of the arc can maintain this quality, then this will be another step towards the best season of the entire run.
Writing: 2/2
Acting: 2/2
Direction: 2/2
Style: 3/4
Final Rating: 9/10
Season Average (as of 4.7): 7.3
Directed by Michael Grossman
In which the Earth embassy on Vulcan is destroyed, and the subsequent investigation reveals a deep schism within Vulcan society, placing Archer’s life in jeopardy…
Captain’s Log
The “Augment Arc” was the first real attempt by the new regime to put together a solid story. “Storm Front”, after all, was just a clean-up operation, fixing the massive plotting bomb that Berman and Braga dropped at the end of the third season. “Home” was transitional, setting up some of the long-term plot and character threads. The “Augment Arc” set the tone for Manny Coto’s storytelling mandate, and while it was an overall improvement, it was essentially the same quality as the end of the Xindi arc, which Coto more or less implemented.
If the “Augment Arc” was notable for its considerable references to the original series episode “Space Seed” and “Star Trek II: Wrath of Khan”, then the “Vulcan Civil War” is already notable for referencing “Star Trek III: The Search for Spock” and “Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home”. The previous arc was hindered by the need to remain within certain boundaries of continuity; the writers respected the past, and therefore could only go so far with the concept. In the case of this plot arc, the intent is to address the vast differences between the Vulcans of the original series and films with the Vulcans of “Enterprise”.
This episode succeeds in that goal to an amazing degree. It’s clear that Manny Coto sat the writing staff down with a copy of every script related to the Vulcans and made them find every possible inconsistency within the “Enterprise” characterization. Furthermore, Coto seems to have understood what many fans had noticed from the beginning: the Vulcans of “Enterprise” needed some kind of societal shift, something to explain how the Vulcans could change the philosophical underpinnings of nearly everything in their culture.
The answer is elegantly simple: like the religions of Earth, there are different schools of thought in terms of interpreting the teachings of Surak. Vulcan society circa “Enterprise” is rather complicated, far more so than Berman and Braga ever seemed to suggest. While the eventual Romulans left Vulcan some 1500 years earlier (a date that doesn’t entirely agree with previous continuity, but one that works well enough), the followers of Surak apparently fell into at least two camps. One embraced certain ideals of logic, but still retained much cultural similarity with the pre-Surak Vulcans and Romulans, including a certain level of arrogance. The other, the Syrannites of this episode, chose the path that is far more familiar to Trek fans: a deeply mystical path.
This makes a great deal of sense, especially if one accepts that the more militant faction had gained dominance of the government by the time the Vulcans took Earth under its repressive wing. If the militant faction had been more involved in interstellar matters, then it could be interpreted by the Syrannites that non-Vulcans were a negative influence on Vulcan culture. By the time of Kirk, the Vulcans respect other races, but they also maintain a certain wall around their culture. This episode, and presumably the rest of the story arc, places that in a wonderfully consistent context.
Not only does this arc already explain a great deal about the Vulcans of “Enterprise”, including their prejudices and distinctly “non-Vulcan” ways, but it goes a long way towards providing a reasonable explanation for every poor depiction of Vulcans throughout the franchise history. Don’t think a guest Vulcan on “DS9” is acting very logical? Well, he’s not a Syrannite!
This kind of retroactive continuity can sometimes be annoying (the Borg continuity is full of it), but in the right hands, it can make years of writing errors seem like a work of genius. Not only does this episode give context to T’Pol’s character (making it clear that she’s not a Syrannite, and therefore more prone to emotional outbursts), but it gives Soval a meaningful character arc. Soval was already being written as more and more sympathetic to Archer and Humanity as a whole, but now he gets to take a stand for a better Vulcan. One of the major flaws of “Enterprise” is now, thanks to this arc, one of its more intriguing plot threads.
Coto demonstrates how much he understands the Trek franchise and fandom by putting two of the best prose Trek writers, Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens, to the task of “fixing” the Vulcans. The Trek novelists as a whole have been interweaving Trek continuity into a strong yet diverse whole for some years now, and Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens have a great deal of credibility when it comes to this sort of work. Their novel “Federation”, for instance, is one of the most revered books in the prose Trek catalogue. In their hands, characters like V’Las and Arev become iconic, clearly of similar philosophy but very distinct at the same time.
The writing is only the first step in making the concept work; it repairs some of the bad writing in the early seasons to some extent, but the guest cast is tasked with the job of making the distinctions believable. Robert Foxworth embodies the Vulcans as they have been depicted since the beginning of “Enterprise”: arrogant, militant, and somewhat ruthless. Michael Nouri, on the other hand, plays Arev as a true heir to Sarek and Spock. The deeply mystical culture that fans have come to expect of Vulcans is there, and the contrast is incredible.
Stuck in the middle is Soval, who has come to recognize why the Vulcans of the High Command have labored so hard to keep Humanity under control. It’s not just that Humans have an incredible ability to get into all kinds of trouble. Humans also remind the Vulcans of the High Command of their own people, before the teachings of Surak changed the culture. More to the point, Soval hints to the deeper fears within the Vulcans of the High Command: Humans remind them how little they’ve changed from the old ways. Those Vulcans must secretly recognize that they have not worked out the delicate balance of emotion and logic as well as they might have though, and the swift recovery of Humanity from near-annihilation points out the shortcomings of the dominant Vulcan culture.
As one would expect, Soval is not the only one caught in the middle. T’Pol is also forced to deal with the schism on her own world on a personal level. Fixing the portrayal of Vulcans is one thing; fixing the portrayal of T’Pol is quite another. For all that this episode and arc seems to repair the damage to Vulcans overall, T’Pol is a character that can never be fully redeemed. The writers took her in the wrong direction, time and again, and even if they use the next two episodes to give her something of a Syrannite legacy through T’Les and T’Pau, it doesn’t change the fact that her character made bizarre decisions over the past three seasons, quite apart from any Vulcan philosophy.
The point is that T’Pol could and should be written more consistently after this arc, perhaps exploring the Syrannite ways and finding some direction in terms of her future development. But her characterization in the first three seasons was nothing like the other Vulcans on “Enterprise” or, obviously, the Syrannites; it was unique in a way that pales next to the other Vulcans in this episode. Clearly this has much to do with the writing, which never gave T’Pol the consistency necessary to make the character work.
T’Pol’s character should be addressed in the next two episodes of the arc. While it would place the character in a highly negative light, it would be possible to reconcile T’Pol with the rest of Vulcan society if she were seen as a troubled soul. Episodes like “Fusion” already set T’Pol apart from the Vulcan norm; she was depicted as seeking out emotional experiences and defying cultural restrictions in the process. If T’Pol were depicted as something of a malcontent in the eyes of her people, rejected by both sides of the Vulcan conflict, it would at least make it plain that the writers aren’t trying to sugar-coat the mistakes made with the character.
Unlike the “Augment Arc”, where the Enterprise crew was more or less tangential to the overall story, Archer and Trip are both instrumental to the evolution of the Vulcan culture. Archer’s search for the Syrannites gives him a unique perspective on Vulcan itself, and his experience with Arev and his katra ought to give him an understanding of the Vulcan soul that Humans could not have had to this point in the timeline. This could also be tied into Archer’s overall character arc, tying back into his feelings about Vulcans in general as shown in “Broken Bow”.
Archer’s bond with Soval, depicted in a touching moment by Admiral Forrest’s casket, makes the scenes between Soval and Trip credible later in the episode. Trip continues what Archer started, pushing Soval into making the necessary decisions to uncover the conspiracy against the Syrannites. Archer and Trip become integral to the story, personally involved, and that gives the episode more meaning.
The rest of the cast gets to play a part in the story as well, even if it’s a minor part. Hoshi continues to get the short end of the stick, though it’s not at all bad to see Linda Park all sweaty and flushed. It should just happen under more pleasant circumstances, hopefully something that involves character development. Her experiences at the end of the third season should have left her with emotional scars, and probably more than a few issues with Archer. With Mayweather getting at least some token screen time, if not explicit character development, then why shouldn’t Hoshi get the same?
While some of the early scenes appeared to gloss over certain details, subsequent scenes almost always addressed those issues and made every moment worth the time. It might have helped some scenes, however, to have a better score. One of the highlights of the previous arc was the strong score; the final act of “The Augments” was much better for it. This episode’s score didn’t quite fit the material. One of the minor criticisms of this series is the homogenous musical score; nearly every episode sounds the same in the end. Contrast this with shows like “Babylon 5”, where every episode could have a defining theme.
At the very least, an effort could have been made to echo the themes from the referenced films or source material. “The Augments” took elements similar to the score for “Wrath of Khan” and fit them into the television score. Why not take that idea to the natural next step and use the Vulcan-esque themes of “The Search for Spock” for this arc? It would have worked well for the scenes that took place in The Forge.
In general, the effects worked for this episode. The embassy shots and the explosion itself were sub-par, but the wide shots of the Vulcan landscape weren’t too bad. Of course, the effects were a lot less distracting because they weren’t nearly as important as the writing itself. It’s amazing how minor flaws can be overlooked once the basics are covered well!
And the writing quality couldn’t have come at a better time. For the first time in several episodes, the ratings took a dip. It’s not hard to recognize why. “The Augments” was one of the weakest episodes of the season, and the audience responded. Episode ratings are almost always reflective of the episodes that came before it and the competition; if the previous episode was weak and the competition is strong, there’s going to be a loss of viewers. That’s what happened for this episode. If there’s any justice at all, next week’s numbers will be the best of the season.
Final Analysis
Overall, this episode was one of the best of the series. The continuity was strong, and the explanation for the disparate portrayal of the Vulcans is both simple and clever. The writers gave the schism with Vulcan culture a reasonable basis, and even added some character development along the way. If the rest of the arc can maintain this quality, then this will be another step towards the best season of the entire run.
Writing: 2/2
Acting: 2/2
Direction: 2/2
Style: 3/4
Final Rating: 9/10
Season Average (as of 4.7): 7.3
posted by John Keegan | 18:21
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