Enterprise 4,8: "Awakening"
Written by Andre Bormanis
Directed by Roxann Dawson
In which T’Pau and the Syrannites must decide what to do with Archer when they discover that he possesses Surak’s katra, as V’Las initiates a plan to wipe out Syrannite dissent…
Captain’s Log
After a strong beginning by highly talented writers, it was almost inevitable that the second part of the “Vulcan Arc” would be something of a letdown. The same minor flaws from the previous episode carry into this effort, but there are some new problems as well. Many of these flaws can be laid at the feet of writer Andre Bormanis and director Roxann Dawson.
Bormanis in particular has gained the reputation for following a bit too closely in the footsteps of Rick Berman and Brannon Braga. Characters are governed more by the needs of the plot than any previous development, which is always a problem when there are plot/character arc considerations. In this case, the writing staff was clearly looking for a deeper context to the conflicts within the episode, and that context was mostly lost in the shuffle.
The plot is relatively simple, once again, which leaves the quality of the episode in the hands of the characterization. Archer finds that he has been passed the katra of Surak, the father of Vulcan logic from the time of Awakening, and the Syrannite T’Pau wants to take it out of his head. Unfortunately, Surak is of the opinion that all Vulcans, Syrannite or otherwise, have lost their way and need an outside perspective to get them back in line. All of which, it seems, can be accomplished by finding the Kir’Shara.
Meanwhile, V’Las of the High Command, acting very much like a Romulan in Vulcan’s clothing, launches a massive air strike on the Forge in the hopes of wiping out every Syrannite on the planet. Dissent is not valued by the V’Las administration, it seems. It’s not just the fact that the Syrannites stand against the values of Vulcan society as a whole, however; Syrannites are also pacifists, and V’Las has decided to deal with the Andorians once and for all. If the Syrannites gain influence, then the war effort could be stymied. Enterprise is stuck between rescuing Archer and warning the Andorians.
The plot goes a long way towards working out the transition between the Vulcans of Enterprise and the Vulcans of the original series and onward, as well as establishing the necessary trust for the early stages of Federation. There’s also a sense that the writers were looking to rebuke the current US administration for their hawkish brand of international diplomacy, implying that dealing with threats through “proactive measures” is morally indefensible. Of course, that implication is left vague enough to be a subjective interpretation.
Because the plot is so simple, the bulk of the episode relies on the strength of character interaction and development. For the central premise to work, it must be clear to the audience that both sides of the growing Vulcan civil unrest have lost the trust of Surak. It would be easy to see why Surak could deal with Syran/Arev; after 17 years, Arev had come as close to Surak’s way as the Vulcans of the films had come. That doesn’t mean that the Syrannites themselves have learned the same lessons; in fact, it would be hard to imagine how they could.
The Syrannites represent members of the Vulcan society, circa Enterprise, who have recognized that something is wrong with the direction their world has taken. They have slipped back into bad habits, and at least part of that seems to be related to the detachment between Vulcans and the relics of Surak’s time. The point is that the Syrannites have not been raised in the old traditions; rather, they have been attempting to unlearn society’s lessons and find the true path.
As such, the Syrannites like T’Pau and T’Les don’t know the rituals of Surak’s time, beyond what they might have studied in recovered texts or learned from Syran himself. More than that, they are still struggling with the same lack of emotional control that plagues the rest of Vulcan society. Acknowledging the true path is not the same as living it. As a result, T’Pau struggles with the same emotions that rule V’Las in the High Command; both sides of the conflict are too entrenched in the new ways to serve Surak’s goal.
It is this understanding that is necessary for the writers to communicate Archer’s role effectively. Without that context in place, Archer’s retention of Surak’s katra seems forced. Bormanis manages to tell the audience why Surak makes his decision, but the writing and direction doesn’t deliver the same message. Instead, it looks as though everyone is acting as the plot demands they act. The pieces are all there to draw the correct conclusion, but the pieces don’t quite fit together as presented.
This is equally true in terms of the role of T’Les. It’s rather clear from the beginning that T’Les plays a major part in the story, and it’s easy to assume that T’Les has standing among the Syrannites. Careful consideration of the episode reveals that this is not the case. T’Pau takes control of the Syrannites in Syran’s absence, and she’s completely out of her depth. She turns to T’Les for aid because there is a family relationship there, and T’Pau logically infers that T’Les could help her understand T’Pol and Archer.
Since T’Pau was still learning Surak’s true path from Syran, she finds it difficult to overcome her ingrained societal prejudices. The legendary Vulcan xenophobia is apparently a holdover from this era, when outside voices were a threat to the security of the Vulcan people in the eyes of the High Command. Archer’s role in bringing Surak’s true teaching back in the limelight can’t help that impression.
At any rate, if Surak wasn’t entirely pleased with Syran after 17 years of overcoming the conditioning of “modern” Vulcan society, T’Pau wasn’t going to work out either. Surak comes to the logical conclusion that someone needs to stand in his place, and it can’t be any of the people without the inherent will to affect deep change. Surak was able to overcome these same emotional drives within the Vulcan people during the Awakening through a combination of personal presence and worldwide self-realization. He needs the same to happen in the present, and none of the current Vulcans within his reach have the necessary point of view.
Having T’Les deal with Archer and T’Pol makes sense if one considers how T’Pau must feel, and it’s simply natural that T’Pau would continue to use T’Les as a resource as the situation unfolds. Once again, the treatment of this by Bormanis makes it look like T’Les is there simply for the sake of giving T’Pol something to work with. That much is true, but it also happens to make sense within the plot.
There are some nicely structured moments where T’Les is forced to deal with the fact that T’Pol’s warped impression of Syrannites is sometimes valid. This gets back to the fact that the Syrannites want to believe that they are what they should be; they don’t quite recognize the fact that they haven’t reached their goal. The mother sees all the reasons why the Syrannites are a good thing for Vulcan, and T’Pol sees all the reasons why Syrannites are a threat.
All of this finally places T’Pol’s character into proper perspective. By the end of the episode, T’Les reveals that she sought out the Syrannites because she wanted to find an answer for T’Pol, a way for her daughter to finally control her emotions. T’Pol, in that instant, becomes the poster child for everything wrong with Vulcan society. T’Pol’s lack of emotional control since the beginning of the series is not an aberration, but rather a glaring symptom of everything that has gone wrong since the Awakening. Just as T’Les turned to the Syrannites to find the answer for T’Pol, Vulcan society must turn back to the true teachings of Surak to find its own answers.
The symmetry is wonderful, and with that realization, it becomes easier to forgive the earlier writers for their apparent mistakes. It would be easy to think that Berman and Braga always had this solution in mind; however, it’s quite plain that this is correcting some overall continuity snafus, not following a grand plan for the portrayal of Vulcans. Just drawing those parallels and making the whole Surak concept work, driving towards the obvious recovery of Surak’s original teachings in the form of the Kir’Shara, would have been enough.
However, there is also the matter of Federation, and this is where the writers pull a clever rabbit out of their hat. V’Las is claiming that the Andorians are building a weapon to use against Vulcan, and that is the justification for launching the pre-emptive strike that the Syrannites would derail. It’s interesting to note that there actually is some evidence to suggest that the Andorians have the will and the ability to build such a weapon. In “Proving Ground”, the Andorian Shran managed to get information about the Xindi superweapon, making it probable that the Andorians might be working on their own version. Sound familiar?
Somewhat overlooked in all the Vulcan madness are two interesting possibilities. More than any other character in the episode, Soval is the most likely to represent the “restored Vulcan”. Soval embraced the strictures of his society for as long as they seemed logical, but he becomes more nuanced and “Spock-like” as the arc progresses. One could easily see him as taking on an important role in the new High Command (or its analogue). For a character that was annoying “wrong” as a Vulcan in the first episode, he has become an asset to the series.
It could also be possible for V’Las and others to be Romulan agents, something that would make a great deal of sense and also explain the Romulan Wars. If the Romulan s want to expand their influence, taking care of their cousins would be a priority. What better way than to destabilize from within? Force the various other powers into submission or wars of attrition, and then take over when the time is right.
This puts Archer’s place in the current arc into an interesting possible perspective. If Archer, a Human, is the one who unwittingly undermines a Romulan plot to destabilize Vulcan society, wouldn’t that drive the Romulans to do something about Earth? Especially once Archer begins pushing the other powers towards a collective agreement ala Federation?
There’s enough in this episode to make the character development work, had it been handled properly. What’s odd is the tendency within the script to overemphasize the character actions mandated by the plot at the expense of the themes and character arcs at the heart of those actions. Decisions should come from the characters themselves, informing the plot rather than paying service to it. In this case, Bormanis could have accomplished at least the appearance of letting character drive the story with a few small changes in emphasis.
Part of the problem is the performance by the guest cast, which ranges from excellent (Gary Graham) to over the top (Robert Foxworth). As V’Las, Foxworth delivers his dialogue with so much relish that it’s impossible to believe he could have ever been driven by logic. There were other ways to craft the performance to make the same lines work in context, without going too far over the line. Dawson might have wanted it as filmed, and if so, it was a critical error. If not, then she let things get out of hand without explanation.
It’s hard to know who ultimately should have handled it. It’s been established that Vulcan emotions are much stronger than their human analogues, and perhaps that is reflected in the episode itself. But it’s not mentioned in the dialogue, which would have helped to explain this to the uninformed viewer. It becomes another aspect of the episode that could have given the story depth, if the opportunity had been recognized and taken. As it stands, this is still an episode filled with compelling, if imperfect, transition to a brighter future.
Final Analysis
Overall, this episode was not as strong as the first part of the “Vulcan Arc”. Bormanis emphasizes the wrong aspect of the script, subduing the deeper aspects of character conflict under a structure that emphasizes plot over all else. If one ponders the episode closely, however, there are some intriguing and compelling themes within the arc itself.
Writing: 1/2
Acting: 2/2
Direction: 1/2
Style: 3/4
Final Rating: 7/10
Season Average (as of 4.8): 7.3
Directed by Roxann Dawson
In which T’Pau and the Syrannites must decide what to do with Archer when they discover that he possesses Surak’s katra, as V’Las initiates a plan to wipe out Syrannite dissent…
Captain’s Log
After a strong beginning by highly talented writers, it was almost inevitable that the second part of the “Vulcan Arc” would be something of a letdown. The same minor flaws from the previous episode carry into this effort, but there are some new problems as well. Many of these flaws can be laid at the feet of writer Andre Bormanis and director Roxann Dawson.
Bormanis in particular has gained the reputation for following a bit too closely in the footsteps of Rick Berman and Brannon Braga. Characters are governed more by the needs of the plot than any previous development, which is always a problem when there are plot/character arc considerations. In this case, the writing staff was clearly looking for a deeper context to the conflicts within the episode, and that context was mostly lost in the shuffle.
The plot is relatively simple, once again, which leaves the quality of the episode in the hands of the characterization. Archer finds that he has been passed the katra of Surak, the father of Vulcan logic from the time of Awakening, and the Syrannite T’Pau wants to take it out of his head. Unfortunately, Surak is of the opinion that all Vulcans, Syrannite or otherwise, have lost their way and need an outside perspective to get them back in line. All of which, it seems, can be accomplished by finding the Kir’Shara.
Meanwhile, V’Las of the High Command, acting very much like a Romulan in Vulcan’s clothing, launches a massive air strike on the Forge in the hopes of wiping out every Syrannite on the planet. Dissent is not valued by the V’Las administration, it seems. It’s not just the fact that the Syrannites stand against the values of Vulcan society as a whole, however; Syrannites are also pacifists, and V’Las has decided to deal with the Andorians once and for all. If the Syrannites gain influence, then the war effort could be stymied. Enterprise is stuck between rescuing Archer and warning the Andorians.
The plot goes a long way towards working out the transition between the Vulcans of Enterprise and the Vulcans of the original series and onward, as well as establishing the necessary trust for the early stages of Federation. There’s also a sense that the writers were looking to rebuke the current US administration for their hawkish brand of international diplomacy, implying that dealing with threats through “proactive measures” is morally indefensible. Of course, that implication is left vague enough to be a subjective interpretation.
Because the plot is so simple, the bulk of the episode relies on the strength of character interaction and development. For the central premise to work, it must be clear to the audience that both sides of the growing Vulcan civil unrest have lost the trust of Surak. It would be easy to see why Surak could deal with Syran/Arev; after 17 years, Arev had come as close to Surak’s way as the Vulcans of the films had come. That doesn’t mean that the Syrannites themselves have learned the same lessons; in fact, it would be hard to imagine how they could.
The Syrannites represent members of the Vulcan society, circa Enterprise, who have recognized that something is wrong with the direction their world has taken. They have slipped back into bad habits, and at least part of that seems to be related to the detachment between Vulcans and the relics of Surak’s time. The point is that the Syrannites have not been raised in the old traditions; rather, they have been attempting to unlearn society’s lessons and find the true path.
As such, the Syrannites like T’Pau and T’Les don’t know the rituals of Surak’s time, beyond what they might have studied in recovered texts or learned from Syran himself. More than that, they are still struggling with the same lack of emotional control that plagues the rest of Vulcan society. Acknowledging the true path is not the same as living it. As a result, T’Pau struggles with the same emotions that rule V’Las in the High Command; both sides of the conflict are too entrenched in the new ways to serve Surak’s goal.
It is this understanding that is necessary for the writers to communicate Archer’s role effectively. Without that context in place, Archer’s retention of Surak’s katra seems forced. Bormanis manages to tell the audience why Surak makes his decision, but the writing and direction doesn’t deliver the same message. Instead, it looks as though everyone is acting as the plot demands they act. The pieces are all there to draw the correct conclusion, but the pieces don’t quite fit together as presented.
This is equally true in terms of the role of T’Les. It’s rather clear from the beginning that T’Les plays a major part in the story, and it’s easy to assume that T’Les has standing among the Syrannites. Careful consideration of the episode reveals that this is not the case. T’Pau takes control of the Syrannites in Syran’s absence, and she’s completely out of her depth. She turns to T’Les for aid because there is a family relationship there, and T’Pau logically infers that T’Les could help her understand T’Pol and Archer.
Since T’Pau was still learning Surak’s true path from Syran, she finds it difficult to overcome her ingrained societal prejudices. The legendary Vulcan xenophobia is apparently a holdover from this era, when outside voices were a threat to the security of the Vulcan people in the eyes of the High Command. Archer’s role in bringing Surak’s true teaching back in the limelight can’t help that impression.
At any rate, if Surak wasn’t entirely pleased with Syran after 17 years of overcoming the conditioning of “modern” Vulcan society, T’Pau wasn’t going to work out either. Surak comes to the logical conclusion that someone needs to stand in his place, and it can’t be any of the people without the inherent will to affect deep change. Surak was able to overcome these same emotional drives within the Vulcan people during the Awakening through a combination of personal presence and worldwide self-realization. He needs the same to happen in the present, and none of the current Vulcans within his reach have the necessary point of view.
Having T’Les deal with Archer and T’Pol makes sense if one considers how T’Pau must feel, and it’s simply natural that T’Pau would continue to use T’Les as a resource as the situation unfolds. Once again, the treatment of this by Bormanis makes it look like T’Les is there simply for the sake of giving T’Pol something to work with. That much is true, but it also happens to make sense within the plot.
There are some nicely structured moments where T’Les is forced to deal with the fact that T’Pol’s warped impression of Syrannites is sometimes valid. This gets back to the fact that the Syrannites want to believe that they are what they should be; they don’t quite recognize the fact that they haven’t reached their goal. The mother sees all the reasons why the Syrannites are a good thing for Vulcan, and T’Pol sees all the reasons why Syrannites are a threat.
All of this finally places T’Pol’s character into proper perspective. By the end of the episode, T’Les reveals that she sought out the Syrannites because she wanted to find an answer for T’Pol, a way for her daughter to finally control her emotions. T’Pol, in that instant, becomes the poster child for everything wrong with Vulcan society. T’Pol’s lack of emotional control since the beginning of the series is not an aberration, but rather a glaring symptom of everything that has gone wrong since the Awakening. Just as T’Les turned to the Syrannites to find the answer for T’Pol, Vulcan society must turn back to the true teachings of Surak to find its own answers.
The symmetry is wonderful, and with that realization, it becomes easier to forgive the earlier writers for their apparent mistakes. It would be easy to think that Berman and Braga always had this solution in mind; however, it’s quite plain that this is correcting some overall continuity snafus, not following a grand plan for the portrayal of Vulcans. Just drawing those parallels and making the whole Surak concept work, driving towards the obvious recovery of Surak’s original teachings in the form of the Kir’Shara, would have been enough.
However, there is also the matter of Federation, and this is where the writers pull a clever rabbit out of their hat. V’Las is claiming that the Andorians are building a weapon to use against Vulcan, and that is the justification for launching the pre-emptive strike that the Syrannites would derail. It’s interesting to note that there actually is some evidence to suggest that the Andorians have the will and the ability to build such a weapon. In “Proving Ground”, the Andorian Shran managed to get information about the Xindi superweapon, making it probable that the Andorians might be working on their own version. Sound familiar?
Somewhat overlooked in all the Vulcan madness are two interesting possibilities. More than any other character in the episode, Soval is the most likely to represent the “restored Vulcan”. Soval embraced the strictures of his society for as long as they seemed logical, but he becomes more nuanced and “Spock-like” as the arc progresses. One could easily see him as taking on an important role in the new High Command (or its analogue). For a character that was annoying “wrong” as a Vulcan in the first episode, he has become an asset to the series.
It could also be possible for V’Las and others to be Romulan agents, something that would make a great deal of sense and also explain the Romulan Wars. If the Romulan s want to expand their influence, taking care of their cousins would be a priority. What better way than to destabilize from within? Force the various other powers into submission or wars of attrition, and then take over when the time is right.
This puts Archer’s place in the current arc into an interesting possible perspective. If Archer, a Human, is the one who unwittingly undermines a Romulan plot to destabilize Vulcan society, wouldn’t that drive the Romulans to do something about Earth? Especially once Archer begins pushing the other powers towards a collective agreement ala Federation?
There’s enough in this episode to make the character development work, had it been handled properly. What’s odd is the tendency within the script to overemphasize the character actions mandated by the plot at the expense of the themes and character arcs at the heart of those actions. Decisions should come from the characters themselves, informing the plot rather than paying service to it. In this case, Bormanis could have accomplished at least the appearance of letting character drive the story with a few small changes in emphasis.
Part of the problem is the performance by the guest cast, which ranges from excellent (Gary Graham) to over the top (Robert Foxworth). As V’Las, Foxworth delivers his dialogue with so much relish that it’s impossible to believe he could have ever been driven by logic. There were other ways to craft the performance to make the same lines work in context, without going too far over the line. Dawson might have wanted it as filmed, and if so, it was a critical error. If not, then she let things get out of hand without explanation.
It’s hard to know who ultimately should have handled it. It’s been established that Vulcan emotions are much stronger than their human analogues, and perhaps that is reflected in the episode itself. But it’s not mentioned in the dialogue, which would have helped to explain this to the uninformed viewer. It becomes another aspect of the episode that could have given the story depth, if the opportunity had been recognized and taken. As it stands, this is still an episode filled with compelling, if imperfect, transition to a brighter future.
Final Analysis
Overall, this episode was not as strong as the first part of the “Vulcan Arc”. Bormanis emphasizes the wrong aspect of the script, subduing the deeper aspects of character conflict under a structure that emphasizes plot over all else. If one ponders the episode closely, however, there are some intriguing and compelling themes within the arc itself.
Writing: 1/2
Acting: 2/2
Direction: 1/2
Style: 3/4
Final Rating: 7/10
Season Average (as of 4.8): 7.3
posted by John Keegan | 15:38
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