Enterprise 4.21: "Terra Prime"

Written by Manny Coto, Andre Bormanis, and Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens
Directed by Marvin Rush

In which Archer races against time to stop Paxton and his Terra Prime movement from destroying Starfleet HQ, while Trip and T’Pol deal with the fact that their child is dying…


Captain’s Log

This episode is likely to be overshadowed by the series finale, which aired immediately after. The oddity is that Berman and Braga wrote the series finale as a sendoff for the modern franchise, not as a finale to “Enterprise” per se. As a result, Manny Coto made sure to use this episode as a kind of pseudo-finale for the series, leaving the final episode itself to its own devices. It works on a certain level, but there are some weaknesses in the Terra Prime story that leave this episode a bit lacking.

Paxton continues with his endgame, warning Earth that unless all aliens are sent packing, Starfleet HQ will be wiped out using the array on Mars. To make his point about the threat to humanity, he broadcasts pictures of the Human/Vulcan hybrid baby, playing on the fears of a population scarred by recent events and a couple of generations of annoyance at Vulcans. Archer is ordered to destroy the array itself and protect Earth, but he wants to attempt a surgical strike.

This gives Trip and T’Pol the chance to meet their child, created using cloned cells from the Enterprise medical lab. Taken in context with Gannett’s claim regarding her position with Starfleet Intelligence, it makes a bit more sense out of the problem of the hybrid’s creation. It might have been more interesting for a linkage to be made between Gannett and Reed’s old friend in this era’s Section 31; as it is, it’s bad enough that her entire interaction with Mayweather was a means to an end, since it doesn’t really make sense. If Gannett wanted on Enterprise to identify the Terra Prime operative, staying in Mayweather’s quarters most of the time would be counter to her mission!

The writers are going for an emotional arc in this episode that doesn’t quite come together. Too many things need to happen in this episode for it to pack the punch that the writers were looking for. The early part of the episode is supposed to establish a bond between parents and child, and yet the only one with any credible connection to the baby is T’Pol. Trip spends most of his time dealing with Paxton and his maniacal plans to forge a bond.

One can look back on the previous episode and conclude, to a certain extent, that it provides more than enough evidence of Trip’s psychological acceptance of the child and his emotional bonds to it. If that was the intention, then it didn’t come across strongly enough to overcome the other concerns of the episode. Perhaps it’s simply that the audience was more focused on the fact that the series was coming to an end, and thus there were thematic concepts in play. Whatever the case, the early part of the episode doesn’t necessarily provide the setup required to make the impact of the second half of the episode equal to the intention.

Baby Elizabeth does allow for an interesting exploration of T’Pol’s psychology, coming from the perspective of the recent loss of her mother. T’Pol tried very hard to fall in line with the changes on Vulcan, but she’s ultimately been forced to accept the fact that she’s not so good at controlling her emotions. That said, she does a very good job of concealing the depth of her pain. She likely thought that motherhood was not an option, given her status in Vulcan society. To lose the past and the future in the space of months is a crushing blow.

T’Pol does, however, get to confront Paxton regarding his medical status. Here, the writers fail to capitalize on a rather obvious connection between the Colonel Green movement and Paxton’s own crusade. Instead of having Paxton’s genetic illness be the result of World War III radiation and the failure of Green’s movement, the writers simply give him a medical condition that requires alien medical technology to keep him alive. It does highlight Paxton’s hypocrisy, but the source of the illness could have had a much more powerful linkage to past racism. (There’s a conceptual through-line between the Eugenics Wars, Colonel Green, and Paxton that is left unaddressed, which is disappointing, to say the least.)

With the final real “Enterprise” episode comes Hoshi’s first try at command, which is an interesting choice coming on the heels of “In a Mirror, Darkly”. Hoshi is placed in an impossible situation. On the one hand, she’s loyal to Archer and his principles in terms of saving lives; on the other, the most expedient solution is a strong offensive against the terrorists, and Samuels is not afraid to press that point of view.

The second act is almost entirely made up of Trip’s attempt to sabotage Paxton and then escape incarceration while Archer and his team use a comet to sneak onto Mars soil. This is a nice CGI sequence, though it sometimes doesn’t live up to expectation; now and then, the shots out of the shuttlepod windows don’t match the exterior shots. It’s actually a rather strong representation of a theoretical “terra-forming” concept: redirecting comets and other objects into polar regions to stimulate climate changes.

During the original run of “Babylon 5”, some jaded fans scoffed at the idea of a Mars where people could get away with a respirator and a good winter coat. Even worse were the comments regarding the studio and CGI shots of people on the surface of Mars. Many thought that these issues were simple a sign of a very low budget. Ironically, nearly identical costumes and sets are present in the far better funded “Enterprise” version of Mars, 10 years later! (I guess Mars wasn’t so poorly rendered on “Babylon 5” after all, hmm?)

The confrontation between Archer and Paxton is a bit too staged. By the time it comes along, Terra Prime looks less and less impressive. It starts out as a movement with members in every possible nook and cranny of Human society; that being the case, where are the riots? Protestors outside of embassies should have been a norm since the Xindi attack, if the writers were going for realism, so that’s just more of the same. “Home” put the undercurrent of anti-alien hysteria on the table, so that’s also just more of the same. So beyond his little super-weapon, what else does he have?

Paxton shouldn’t have been a threat, but the big window (mentioned prominently in the first act of the first half of the story; thank you very much, Mr. Chekov) becomes a convenient plot device. By the time Archer took a precise position in front of the window, it was obvious what was going to happen. That stole away some of the dramatic tension of the scene, since it was obvious that Paxton’s plan wouldn’t result in the destruction of Starfleet HQ. Overall, Paxton’s little racist movement was little more than a blip on the historical radar, and hardly as important to Earth history as the events this season on Vulcan or Andor(ia).

The real impact of the episode comes with the revelation that the genetic work conducted by Terra Prime’s scientists included a deliberate flaw, which in turn dooms the child to a rather quick and premature demise. This doesn’t quite match up with the beginning of “Demons”, since technically the scientists weren’t planning to kill the child, so much as let it die of its own genetic shortcomings. But it’s never easy to see a baby with a terminal illness, because they are unaware of how things should be, and thus will never know how happy they could have been. While T’Pol’s frantic desire to save her child is genuine and Trip’s emotions finally show up when he names their doomed daughter Elizabeth, it’s Phlox that delivers the most emotional moment, speaking what the audience is already thinking.

There’s also the somewhat anti-climactic resolution to the subplot about a Terra Prime operative on Enterprise. It might have been interesting if the traitor was some minor character that had been lurking in the background, perhaps even a MACO. Kelby would have been a very good choice, given how his career was messed up big time by Trip’s relationship with T’Pol. Instead, it was a walk-on with terrible acting skills.

The final act does include, however, one of the more stirring speeches by Archer, when he essentially saves the proto-Federation conference. Granted, all the major players were already in the same room, which a cancelled conference wouldn’t imply, but it works on a dramatic level. This scene would have been a nice ending to the regular episodes of the series if the final episode were going to be something really special. But given how the series does end, this just doesn’t give the series a proper send-off. There’s a sense of closure, but it’s not as powerful as the end of “Enterprise” demands.

The final scene starts off very strong, but it quickly becomes awkward. Trip’s emotions overflow, as they should, and the two star-crossed lovers share their grief. But then Trip gets to deliver matters of scientific interest (geared towards tying unfortunate Elizabeth to the future Spock) while weeping. The first time around, it just doesn’t work at all; it gains something in repeated viewing, but it’s still not the best scene to end the episode with.

While the concept is relatively strong and in keeping with the idea of the major worlds of the future Federation evolving into that sociological state, the execution leaves much to be desired. Paxton is not as compelling a villain as he might have been, and part of it is the intentional casting of Peter Weller as a talking point for fans of “Odyssey 5”. The focus on Mayweather also does little more than to highlight his lack of acting skill. More Phlox scenes are a good thing, and the writing is better in this installment, but it’s still not enough to overcome the weakness of the concept.


Final Analysis

Overall, this episode continued the disappointment that began with “Demons”. The terrorists in this episode are not nearly as threatening as the writers want them to be, and that makes the changes on Earth prior to Federation somewhat less involving than the changes on the other critical worlds. The presence of so many writers is felt from act to act; some scenes pack more emotional resonance than others, and the tone varies dramatically from act to act.

Writing: 1/2
Acting: 1/2
Direction: 2/2
Style: 2/4

Final Rating: 6/10

Season Average (as of 4.21): 7.5