“Fallen Hero”
Written by Rick Berman & Brannon Braga and Chris Black and Alan Cross
Directed by Patrick Norris
Season 1, Episode 23
Production episode 023
Original air date: May 8, 2002
Date: February 9, 2152
Captain’s star log. T’Pol is discussing the fact that the efficiency rating of the ship has dropped. Archer allows as how that’s to be expected after ten months in space, and T’Pol suggests a planet nine days away called Risa as an excellent place for shore leave. Archer sets a course there.
That trip is sidelined by a call from Forrest: there’s a Vulcan ambassador named V’Lar who is being recalled from Mazar. Enterprise is closer to Mazar than any Vulcan ship, and apparently time is of the essence, so Archer diverts.
T’Pol asks Sato to give up her quarters for V’Lar (they don’t have a VIP cabin?), including removing all decorations from it, and also has explicit instructions on how to behave around the ambassador, including not shaking hands.
Upon arriving at Mazar, Archer asks for landing coordinates to send a shuttlepod down to pick V’Lar up, but there’s already a shuttle en route from the surface. Mazar wants her gone as quickly as possible. According to the official Archer speaks to, V’Lar is being expelled from Mazar for “abuse of her position and criminal misconduct.” This surprises the Enterprise crew.
Archer, T’Pol, and Tucker greet V’Lar at the shuttlebay. V’Lar surprises all three of them by offering to shake hands, and later expressing surprise at how Spartan her cabin is. Oops.
V’Lar dines in the captain’s mess, and she even makes a stab at humor—and then admits that she is guilty of what the Mazarites accused her of. T’Pol’s disapproval is pretty heavy, though she denies it, of course. T’Pol later privately reveals to Archer that V’Lar is someone she admired in her youth, having seen a lecture of hers when she was a student, and T’Pol’s vocation as an adult was at least partly inspired by V’Lar. Archer allows as how it can suck when your heroes have feet of clay. T’Pol’s protestation that Vulcans don’t have heroes rings false.
A Mazarite ship shows up, saying they were sent by the government to bring V’Lar back. Apparently the magistrate has had a change of heart and wishes to question her further. Archer says he needs to consult with his superiors—but the Mazarites then jam their communications and fire on them. While their torpedoes have no effect, when Enterprise drops out of warp and fires their phase cannons, it damages the Mazarites enough for Enterprise to put some distance between them.
V’Lar can’t say why the Mazarites—who obviously are not from the government—came after them. It involves her diplomatic assignment, and to say more would put Enterprise in great danger. Archer rather grumpily points out that they’re already in great danger, as they barely escaped the Mazarites with their lives. Archer therefore decides to return to Mazar. V’Lar objects, but since she can’t provide him with a good reason not to, he proceeds—with Forrest’s blessing, though the admiral points out that there will be nasty repercussions with the Vulcans…
T’Pol chats with V’Lar, who does remember T’Pol approaching her all those years ago. V’Lar was impressed with her bluntness then, and now as well. T’Pol insists that Archer is trustworthy, and he already has resentment toward Vulcans because of how they held human development back. (For whatever reason, T’Pol doesn’t mention the specifics of how the Vulcans being parsimonious with scientific aid affected Archer’s father, keeping him from living long enough to see a Warp 5 engine in use.)
V’Lar convinces T’Pol that she will be killed if she returns to Mazar and that they must rendezvous with the Vulcan vessel Sh’Raan. V’Lar committed no crime, but does have evidence of a terrorist group that is trying to overthrow the Mazarite government. T’Pol asks Archer to reverse course, pointing out that she’s never asked him for anything over the last ten months, but she is now. Archer agrees to go back to the planned rendezvous with the Sh’Raan.
Soon enough, three Mazarite ships are on Enterprise’s ass. Archer tries to outrun them, but even going all the way to warp five doesn’t do the trick. However, they do manage to get close enough before being forced to drop out of warp so that the Sh’Raan is only ten minutes away. They drop out of warp and agree to be boarded by the Mazarites. Archer tells the Mazarites that V’Lar was injured in the firefight and is in sickbay. They go to sickbay to find the imaging chamber occupied, the bio-scan of a Vulcan woman on the screen. Phlox refuses to turn her over or let her out of the imaging chamber, as that would kill her, but then the Mazarites fire on the imaging chamber.
Then the Sh’Raan shows up and fires on the Mazarite ships. The Sh’Raan captain makes it clear that the Mazarites should leave Enterprise or their ships will be destroyed. The Mazarites reluctantly turn over their weapons, and as they’re escorted out of sickbay, they see V’Lar, who was never in the imaging chamber.
The Sh’Raan lets the Mazarites go, which surprises Archer, but V’Lar insists it’s for the best. She also tells Archer and T’Pol that she has seen the bond of friendship and respect between the two of them, and that it bodes well for the future of human-Vulcan relations.
Can’t we just reverse the polarity? Phase cannons can’t fire at warp—the particle discharge would disrupt the warp field and damage the nacelles. Archer doesn’t find this out until he asks Reed to fire on the Mazarites and belatedly learns that means they have to drop out of warp. Either Reed’s writing bad tactical reports or Archer isn’t reading them……
The gazelle speech. Archer is continually frustrated by being forced to operate without sufficient information, but is willing to trust T’Pol enough to go against his instincts and not return to Mazar.
I’ve been trained to tolerate offensive situations. T’Pol goes completely overboard in making sure V’Lar gets the best VIP treatment only to have V’Lar not actually want all that fuss and apparently being a criminal, though the ambassador eventually makes it clear that the latter, at least, is not the case.
Florida Man. Florida Man Thinks A Hawai’an Shirt Will Get Him Laid.
Optimism, Captain! Phlox is adamant that V’Lar not be turned over to the Mazarites, as she’s his patient, and that overrides whatever it is the Mazarites want with her. The Mazarites show that they don’t care about that with a lot of weapons fire.
Good boy, Porthos! When T’Pol goes to Archer to ask him to not return to Mazar, he’s cuddling Porthos, and it’s so cute…
Ambassador Pointy. Forrest promises Archer that he’ll try to get more information from Soval, though the ambassador doesn’t actually appear.
Blue meanies. Among the accomplishments on V’Lar’s CV is negotiating the first territorial accords between the Vulcans and Andorians.
No sex, please, we’re Starfleet. T’Pol believes that a dearth of sexual activity on the ship is responsible for the drop in efficiency, especially given Starfleet regulations about fraternizing. T’Pol also comments that human mating rituals are effective in easing tensions, and Tucker allows as how that isn’t always the case…
More on this later… The pleasure planet of Risa—established as a popular vacation spot in the twenty-fourth century in TNG’s “Captain’s Holiday,” and also seen in TNG’s “The Game” and DS9’s “Let He Who is Without Sin…“—is mentioned by T’Pol. This is the first that humans have heard of the place.
I’ve got faith…
“Ambassador, we’re here at the request of the Vulcan High Command. It would be illogical for you withhold information from us.”
“There are diplomatic matters at stake here which do not concern you. To tell you anymore would put your ship and your crew at greater risk.”
“How much greater could it get? A few more volleys from that ship would’ve ruptured our hull!”
–T’Pol trying to be rational, V’Lar trying to be diplomatic, and Archer being justifiably pissed off as he points out the flaw in V’Lar’s logic.
Welcome aboard. John Rubinstein makes his second appearance on Trek as the Mazarite terrorist, having played a transplanted human in Voyager’s “The 37’s.” He’ll be back in “Awakening” and “Kir’Shara” as a Vulcan.
Michael Flynn also makes his second appearance on Trek as the Mazarite official, having played an Angosian official in TNG’s “The Hunted.” He’ll be back in the “Babel One”/”United”/”The Aenar” trilogy as a Romulan.
The great Fionnula Flanagan makes her third appearance on Trek as V’Lar, having played Enina Tandro in DS9’s “Dax” and Data’s Mom Julianna Tainer in TNG’s “Inheritance.”
Plus we have recurring regular Vaughn Armstrong as Forrest.
Trivial matters: Enterprise try to get to Risa again next week in “Desert Crossing,” but will again be diverted, this time by a distress call. They’ll finally make it in the following episode, “Two Days and Two Nights.”
This is the first of two episodes directed by Patrick Norris, who started out as a costume designer, having been nominated for seven Emmys for his costume work. He’s been a full-time director since the mid-1990s, however.
This episode is the first time that Enterprise has gone to warp five, even though it was described from jump as a Warp 5 engine (something Archer points out to Tucker when the latter is reluctant to go that fast).
Scenes in Sato’s quarters show the stars moving from right to left while at warp, indicating that her cabin is port-side, a request she made back in “Fight or Flight.”
It’s been a long road… “Some day, I’d like to walk into a room without it feeling like a state visit.” This episode starts off very much on the wrong foot, as the opening is an incredibly awkward conversation that feels like it was written by a thirteen-year-old boy who hasn’t figured out yet how puberty works. T’Pol’s directness—which becomes a factor later in the episode also—is actually almost amusing, but Archer and Tucker’s adolescent squirming is just painful.
I do like that they set course for Risa and then spend this and the next two episodes getting there. It’s a nice little through-line that gave the show a bit more cohesion than, say, the previous Trek show.
As for the rest of the episode, it improves tremendously once Tucker wanders onto the bridge in his Hawai’ian shirt, which is a visual I will always treasure. I love that Tucker actually believes it will help him get laid, and doesn’t even let T’Pol’s admonition that blinding potential sex partners won’t help him get one slow him down.
Then we get the actual plot, which is perfectly fine. Mostly the value here is in seeing T’Pol fangoober (as much as a Vulcan can fangoober, anyhow) over the expectation of V’Lar being on board before she arrives and be so utterly gobsmacked by the reality of V’Lar when she does. Jolene Blalock nails it, from her calm recitation of all the things Archer and the rest of the crew should and shouldn’t do, to her slow burn as V’Lar appears to have feet of clay, and then that excellent conversation when V’Lar convinces T’Pol to help her.
It helps that Blalock has an actor of Fionnula Flanagan’s high calibre to play off of. Flanagan gives us in V’Lar a lovely character who is still very much a Vulcan, but not the stiff that far too many guest Vulcans do, nor does she go for the deadpan sass that Leonard Nimoy did so well and that Mark Lenard, Tim Russ, and Blalock all emulated. Instead, she shows a diplomat’s curiosity about other cultures—actually embracing IDIC overtly—and also never loses sight of her mission. She has a certain charm while still maintaining the repression of emotions. It’s a fantastic performance, showing a greater range of personality types among Vulcans that has been rare even on this show that has given us so many of them.
I like that the show embraces the lower tech of the era, with Enterprise struggling to reach warp five and failing to maintain it for long, and Archer having to rely on guile to work his way out of it with everyone surviving.
The actual plot is pretty straightforward, but that doesn’t have to be a bad thing, and it isn’t really here. The Vulcans being parsimonious with information actually works here, as there are diplomatic stakes that Starfleet can’t necessarily be read in on.
My only real issue is the clumsiness of the act breaks, as the show continues to go to commercial breaks at moments that don’t really call for a dramatic pause, and it continues to really mess up the flow of the episodes.
Warp factor rating: 7
Keith R.A. DeCandido is writing a graphic novel that serves as a prequel to the Resident Evil: Infinite Darkness animated series on Netflix. Entitled The Beginning, the graphic novel is available for preorder on the Kindle.
Refresh my memory… Where have we heard of the Mazarites before? The name sounds familiar.
I’m quite impressed by the Ambassador, especially compared to last week. She actually manages to read other, non-emotion-repressing species, and then tries to meet them more than halfway and to put them at ease. That’s assuming it is all an act, and deep down she is repressing her emotions as usual. And all while keeping the Vulcan habit of oh-so-superior meddling in other species’ domestic affairs.
I wonder about your use of the term ‘terrorists’ for the Mazarites, or the ‘obviously not from the government.’ They way I’d read it, they’re from one faction of the government, involved in vicious power struggle. They had access to armed starships, which are normally not left in an unlocked barn.
bgsu98: This is the first appearance and mention of the Mazarites. It’s also their only actual appearance, though they will be mentioned several more times on Enterprise.
o.m.: I was being literal, as they genuinely terrorized Enterprise…….
—Keith R.A. DeCandido
Yeah, this has always been one of my favorites from Season One — between the kickoff of the mini Risa arc, insight into T’Pol’s background, and Fionnula Flanagan’s performance.
Not much I can add — Flanagan was terrific, and V’Lar was an excellent character, one I wish we’d seen again. I felt she was maybe a bit too warm and expressive for a Vulcan, but as you say, it’s good that the show gave the Vulcans a realistic variety instead of making them all the same.
I’m not sure the Mazarite story really worked for me, perhaps because it was kept so vague for so long. And while the attempt to do a mini-arc about trying to get to Risa was a nice touch, I felt that introducing Risa so early in the timeline was iffy, since it was never mentioned in TOS (Wrigley’s Pleasure Planet seemed to fill the equivalent role). Also, the payoff when they finally get to Risa is so lame it makes “Let He Who Is Without Sin” look good. But we’ll get to that soon enough.
@1/bgsu98: Like you, I’ve always found “Mazarite” familiar and been surprised that this was their only appearance. Maybe we’re thinking of the Sherlock Holmes story “The Mazarin Stone.” Or the Aamaazzarites or Kazarites from Star Trek: The Motion Picture, though both are only named in supplementary materials.
@2. o.m. I’d suggest we compromise by saying that, whether the chasers are or are not from the local Government, they are most certainly gangsters (and for the record, I tend to assume that these ships are at least notionally in Government service; the sheer arrogance of their … I’d call it an attempt to fool the crew of NX-01, if only they were actually trying … definitely comes across as cooked up by someone too aware that they can get away with anything in a way that suggests ‘connections’, firepower and formal authority).
Concerning the episode itself, much as I enjoyed the pre-credits scene (It’s impossible for me not to read Captain Archer & Commander Tucker’s reaction as a mixture of delight, shock and hilarity at the realisation Vulcan Professionalism incarnate is trying to get the whole d*** crew laid*) one feels that the episode might have been somewhat stronger had it concentrated almost exclusively on the ‘Stern Chase’ – perhaps with the Ambassador’s arrival on Enterprise, culminating with the reveal of her ‘crimes & misdemeanours’ as the pre-credits scene?
*With clinical dispassion to boot, which is probably where the lads’ wriggling embarrassment comes from.
In any case this is a good episode that might have been better, but quite possibly not by too much; Heaven knows that it’s fun to observe a Vulcan ambassador who would probably have nearly as much fun toying with Doctor McCoy as Ambassador Spock did (and also amusing to see the captain of that Vulcan battle-wagon all but tip his hat to the camera after he very casually demonstrates the Facts of Life to the local Heavy Mob) and interesting to see T’Pol processing her bad case of Hero Worship & a few serious complications to same.
I am, however, at least a little disappointed we don’t get more of chance to see the Ambassador & Ensign Sato chat (I’d bet that would absolutely adorable).
@5/ChristopherLBennett: According to the Memory Alpha article for “Two Days and Two Nights,” they considered sending them to Wrigley’s Pleasure Planet but decided that the name sounded too much like a human colony, which wouldn’t be in keeping with the era. Personally, I think that they should have sent them to Argelius II.
@5. ChristopherLBennett: In all fairness it does make perfect sense that a Vulcan Ambassador would be better able than most to ingratiate themselves with emotive species and quite plausible that this would manifest itself as a greater than usual expressiveness; it’s interesting to wonder if this is an innate tendency of the Ambassador’s or a cultivated finesse.
Also, I have just realised we never got the V’Lar/Shran diplomatic summit we all deserve and am so very sad we’ll never see the Good Ambassador casually drop references that suggests she knows more about his family history than the Andorian does (Presumably because she witnessed it first-hand).
Personally I found V’Lar to be a little too friendly. She wasn’t that different from the V’tosh Ka’tur. I’m willing to believe there are mainstream Vulcans like this, but I would have guessed that they’re considered rather eccentric, and unsuitable for a prominent ambassadorial position.
On the other hand, maybe it’s partly because she’s an ambassador, used to dealing with a species that is less comfortable dealing with purely logical beings. She may have become more demonstrative to put other species at their ease. That would explain why T’Pol didn’t anticipate her desires—when T’Pol met her, her career hadn’t loosened her up yet.
As for the hostile Mazarites, I got the feeling that they were part of an organized crime syndicate that had deep connections to high-level officials.
@7/Iacomina: “Personally, I think that they should have sent them to Argelius II.”
Continuity-wise, that would’ve made sense, but Argelius is probably best avoided in modern Trek, because it was very much a hodgepodge of Orientalist cliches, from the belly dancer to the Middle Eastern-style sets and costumes to the exotic spiritualism. Though maybe there could’ve been a way to reinvent the portrayal of the culture, keep the pacifism and hedonism without the lazy stereotypes.
@8/ED: “it’s interesting to wonder if this is an innate tendency of the Ambassador’s or a cultivated finesse.”
V’Lar is very different from Ambassador Soval, Ambassador Sarek, or Ambassador Spock. T’Pol was Soval’s aide before she joined NX-01, so she’d surely know what’s typical for a Vulcan ambassador, yet she was surprised by V’Lar’s behavior. So the clear intention was that V’Lar is atypical, that her approach to the job is uniquely her own.
@10. ChristopherLBennett: That makes a great deal of sense; it also helps explain why Ambassador V’Lar seems to have done rather better with the Andorians than poor old Soval of Vulcan …
It’s possible Mazarite sounds familiar due to its similarity to Mizarians, seen in TNG‘s “Allegiance.”
—Keith R.A. DeCandido
I agree with CLB that the actress playing V’lar was a touch too warm, but I justified it as her just being very good at her job, which is to deal with highly emotional non-Vulcans. And the actress is wonderful, as she was in all her Trek roles. I also agree with those who say the Mazarites sounded familiar. I guess there are only so many fake alien names you can make up before they start to run together in the brain.
If there’s one thing that makes Enterprise stand out for the better, it’s the renewed focus on Vulcans after so long. Ever since TNG premiered in 1987, there was a conscious effort to move away from TOS elements (a Roddenberry mandate, as I understand), and that unfortunately meant a lot less Vulcans throughout not only TNG, but also DS9 and VOY*. This has been a hallmark of Rick Berman’s tenure as showrunner/head of the franchise – a distinct lack of Vulcans. First Contact was the first step in the right direction back in 1996. Naturally, Enterprise had to tackle the issue head on.
*Yes, we had Tuvok on VOY, and Russ played him beautifully, but a lot of Vulcan stories post-season 2’s Meld mainly dealt with Tuvok losing control and not much else. And once Seven came, he lost a lot of potential screentime.
Not much more I can add either. This was a surprisingly good late season entry – one that takes full advantage of the era the show takes place in. While I remember Flanagan more for her recurring role of Eloise Hawking on LOST, she’s made a good impression on every single of her Trek roles. And V’Lar is one of the most interesting Vulcans. Practical, logical and yet unique. Great chemistry with Blalock, who’s continued to impress (I think Blalock gets an overly unfair rap; she really put in the effort).
I actually think the reason we have a memorable character like T’Rina on Discovery today is because of the work that was accomplished here. V’Lar has a lot more depth and character than prior female Vulcan characters in similar positions (not counting Saavik, since she was Starfleet).
I noticed Norris as a recognizable name on other shows before (Dawson’s Creek and Marvel’s Runaways, most notably), but I had NO idea where he came from. Costume designers becoming directors is a new one for me. I’m used to seeing actors, line producers, editors, VFX supervisors, DPs and writers make the transition to directing. But a CD is a first for me.
I feel like the whole Warp-5 sub plot would have worked better if it had been brought up more than in the first episode, when the whole point of the ship is that it can go warp 5, then dropped completely, then brought up again here.
#14.
Well, I for one wish they’d bring back that Roddenberry mandate, not just for Vulcans but for every familiar species, ship, space station, food, drink, Khan — the whole dang thing. Because when you put in place those restrictions, and when the familiar elements do inevitably come back in drips and drabs, like Sarek in “Sarek” and the Vulcans in First Contact, then they’re special again.
@15/Echthelion: I dunno… the idea of the “Warp 5 engine” name was that it had the potential to achieve Warp 5, not that it could do so easily or casually. After all, a vessel’s maximum speed is generally well above its normal cruising speed. Since NX-01 was the first ship equipped with the experimental engine, I think it made sense to work up to it gradually, so that when it did finally happen, it was more of an achievement.
“If there was ever a time to start trusting us, this would be it.”
It’s another case of ignore the plot and enjoy the characters. The episode doesn’t even bother to tell us what crime V’Lar’s been accused of, and as it turns out that doesn’t even matter, because it’s just a cover story anyway. And the villains are just generic gangster-types whose fate once they’re out of the orbit of our main characters isn’t worth going into.
But beyond that, we’re again looking at the early days of the relationship between humans and Vulcans, with Archer and T’Pol being the personification of this relationship. Archer still has trouble with Vulcans in general, although his relationship with V’Lar is fairly relaxed when he’s not berating her for hiding things that could get them all killed, and his brief interaction with the Vulcan captain in this episode is probably the most successful he’s ever had with one of them. But while he has one moment of wondering if T’Pol’s keeping something from him, ultimately he’s willing to go ahead with the mission because he trusts her. T’Pol might admire V’Lar but even that’s not enough to shake her loyalty to Archer and she speaks up for him. As V’Lar says, much to their embarrassment, the pair are friends.
Archer gets to play hardball with both the Vulcans and the Mazarites, and Reed smirking every time he lands a zinger is a good character touch. It’s also believable that Archer and Mayweather feel a moment of elation at hitting Warp 5, only to be brought down to earth a moment later. The ending is somewhat lacking in logic: Since the point is that V’Lar isn’t injured or in the treatment chamber, why does Archer tell her to go to Sickbay? So she can hide round the corner to make a dramatic entrance at the appropriate moment?
T’Pol states outright both that Vulcans only mate every seven years and Starfleet regulations forbid “fraternising” with subordinates, both of which seem rather simplistic and reductive assessments of complex issues. Whilst I appreciate the continuity aspect (I’m reminded of early Blake’s 7 taking two episodes to get to Centero), it’s a bit odd that the pre-credits sequence is setting up something that won’t happen for another two episodes: On first viewing, I wondered if it was the wrong episode!
@9/Vulpes, to me some of that came about as forced friendliness. A human actor portraying a Vulcan who pretends to be more like a human than she really is … holding the hand too high and too jerky, things like that.
Mods: This one isn’t showing up on the index page, by the way.
@18. cap-mjb: Well in all fairness it would be more remarkable if the Vulcans didn’t give out a seriously-bowdlerised version of their mating customs (The better to cover up the fact that their natural impulses are genuinely overpowering and that their mating rituals can be a bit … pulpy); It’s interesting to note that, from the context, Captain Archer & Commander Tucker seem to be under the impression that the seven-year cycle is simply another facet of Vulcan discipline, rather than an urgent biological imperative (An impression I suspect the notoriously-discrete Vulcans would be most reluctant to contradict).
Also, I completely forgot to mention Ensign Mayweather’s “Awwww yeah!” response to that order to “put the pedal to the metal” was another particular delight from this episode (It’s a pity that they didn’t make an abiding fondness for going really, really fast a recurring joke in the same way they deploy Mr Reed’s abiding love of blowing things up in this very episode).
@1 et al: Another possible candidate for “almost Mazarite”: The Nyberrite Alliance mentioned in “The Way of the Warrior”.
The Nyberrite Alliance was why the name seemed familiar to me too.
@22/cap-mjb: I don’t think “Nyberrite” sounds much like “Mazarite” — no more than “Tellarite” does, say. Plus it was only mentioned briefly in passing, not the sort of thing likely to stick in audience’s minds.
For me, at least, I’ve convinced myself that it’s probably due to the similarity to “Aamazzarite,” a name I’ve been familiar with for decades because of the alien photos printed on the inner sleeve of the soundtrack LP to Star Trek: The Motion Picture.
@20: Thanks–should be showing up in the right spot now!
Mazar is Arabic for “shrine” or “tomb” and is the name or part of the name of many places in the Arab world, the largest being Mazar-i-Sharif (sometimes just called Mazar) in Afghanistan. I suppose you could call a resident of there a Mazarite, although the only examples of such use I could find on the internet are a couple of articles in the Guardian from 2001.
@25/Vulpes: I wonder if the capital city of the planet Mazar is called Debi.
@22/cap-mjb: That’s it! For whatever reason, I was remembering the phrase “Mazarite Alliance” and thought it was from DS9, but when Keith wrote that “Fallen Hero” was the first mention of the Mazarites, I figured I was confusing it with something else. Crazy!
Another possibility: Nazirites or Nazarites (Jewish ascetics).
@27/bgsu98: Glad I could help! It just suddenly popped into my head Sisko saying something similar: My first thought was that he said Nazarite Alliance, and when I looked up what it really was I thought “Well…same ending, similar vowel sounds, consonants aren’t too dissimilar if you slur it a bit…”
(And thank you, mods, for fixing the index!)
I loved this episode, Fionnula Flanagan is always a joy to see and I was quite delighted with V’Lar. I wonder if the reason she’s a diplomat is because she’s capable of “loosening up” so that her initial meeting with young T’Pol was the face she presents to her fellow Vulcans, but in actuality she’s much more relaxed in the human sense.
The Warp Five moment was also quite enjoyable and stuck with me.
It was nice to see the Sh’raan show up and give the most, “Why are you picking on my little brother” that Vulcans can muster. A welcome change from either unrelenting snottiness or Archer having to swallow his pride when dealing with them.
@18 I figured she had to go to sick bay to take the scans they used to fool the Mazarites into thinking she was in the chamber? At least, that was my assumption.
@32 Interesting thought, that hadn’t occurred to me. If they had taken a genuine scan of V’Lar, it would have shown her as uninjured, but I guess Phlox could have used it as a baseline to doctor a scan.
If the ambassador was willing to tell the captain what was going on if circumstances demanded it (which she was) him turning the ship around and going back to the Mazarite planet should really have been enough. Presumably the three attacking ships would have had a hard time catching up had the Enterprise not spent a bunch of time going the wrong direction.
But then the plot wouldn’t have worked…
One of the few Enterprise episodes I remember…the story is nice and both the character of the ambassador and Flanagan is great. Rewatching the series is worth for me for episodes like this. :)