“Proving Ground”
Written by Chris Black
Directed by David Livingston
Season 3, Episode 13
Production episode 065
Original air date: January 21, 2004
Date: December 6, 2153
Captain’s star log. The Andorian battleship Kumari is flying through the Delphic Expanse, trying to find Enterprise. Lieutenant Talas thinks this is a waste of time, as there’s no way the humans could’ve survived in the Expanse, but Commander Shran has faith in Archer and the gang’s ability to navigate the region.
Degra has called a meeting of the Xindi Council. He’s very close to a test run of the weapon. He’s almost ready to test it on a moon, which the weapon should completely destroy, and the test will be livestreamed to the council chambers.
On Enterprise, T’Pol and Sato have been trying to reconstruct the database that D’Jamat deleted last week. But they also have finally picked up the tracker in the kemocite that they put in Gralik’s shipment of same.
Buy the Book
Some Desperate Glory
Unfortunately, the route to the trace involves going through a really really dense anomaly field. They try to go through it, and it’s all fine until two anomalies merge to form an even bigger anomaly, and the entire ship goes blooey.
However, they are then rescued by the Kumari. Archer is rather surprised to see Shran here. Shran says that they came to assist the humans, showing support of their efforts to retaliate against the attack on Earth that the Vulcans sure as heck ain’t showing. Shran also offers his crew’s assistance in making repairs.
Several Andorians come over to Enterprise to assist Tucker and Reed in fixing the ship. Reed and Talas start out sniping at each other, with Reed initially not willing to accept any aid from her, and Talas being snotty when she happens upon him taking his first break in twelve hours, before they finally start acting like professionals and actually work together.
At one point, Archer and Shran have dinner, with the latter gifting the former with several bottles of Andorian ale, one of which they open for dinner. Shran says he volunteered for this mission, as he knows humans better than anyone else in the Imperial Guard, and he says that he’d like this to be the beginning of a beautiful friendship between Earth and Andoria.
Tucker has a conversation with Shran also, in which they bond over siblings lost. In Shran’s case, it was his older brother, who enlisted in the Imperial Guard and died in a border skirmish with Vulcans. Shran agrees to give Tucker one of the Kumari’s fancy-shmancy antimatter injectors, which are way better than the Starfleet ones.
The Kumari navigates them through the anomalies, and they hover outside the Calindra system. While Enterprise’s sensors aren’t good enough to scan that far, Kumari’s are, and Shran orders their sensor telemetry to be shared. They quickly deduce that this is where the weapon is being tested, though they’re too far to determine if the weapon is there yet. They have to get closer.
Under the guise of being a ship from the Andorian Mining Consortium, Shran approaches the moon, asking if they can mine for “Archerite,” a very rare and valuable mineral. Degra tells them to pound sand, and Shran buggers off, chiding them for the lost financial opportunity.
They were there long enough to confirm that there’s a larger version of the weapon that attacked Earth present, though it’s not large enough to destroy Earth. It might be enough to destroy the moon, however.
Shran points out that observing the test will be very useful for everyone, and Archer agrees. From outside the system, via the Andorians’ shared sensor readings, they watch the test—
—as does the Xindi Council from their chambers. It does not go as planned, as it “only” splits the moon in half and has to be shut down before it overloads.
Archer is pleased, as he believes that the kemocite was sabotaged further by Gralik. The Xindi Council is not pleased, as this is not the result they wanted.
Shran is both pleased and not pleased. The weapon is everything they’d hoped, but it quickly becomes apparent, via a communication between him and an Andorian general back home, that their intent is to betray Starfleet and steal the weapon for themselves. Shran questions the general as to whether or not it’s wise to antagonize the humans, who could make valuable allies. The general tells him to shut up and follow orders.
Archer wants to steal the weapon to bring it back to Starfleet. T’Pol says it’s putting out too much radiation for it to be safe to do so at the moment. Shran says that Kumari’s cargo holds have sufficient shielding to be able to safely grab it. Archer agrees, but only if he’s on board Kumari supervising the retrieval. Shran reluctantly accedes to this condition.
Talas is looking at the Enterprise sensor array, which surprises Reed. She gives an excuse, which Reed pretends to buy.
Enterprise distracts the Xindi ships long enough for Kumari to swoop in and grab the weapon. However, instead of going to the rendezvous point, Kumari sets course for Andoria. Shran apologizes to Archer, saying their mission all along was to find the Xindi weapon so they themselves could use it against the Vulcans. Archer says that Enterprise will fight for the weapon, and certainly not stand for it being used against their allies. Shran retorts that Talas sabotaged Enterprise’s sensors so they won’t be able to find Kumari. Archer is livid that Shran would sabotage any potential alliance with Earth for this, and socks Shran in the jaw, saying he owed him that. Shran leaves Archer in an escape pod for Enterprise to find.
Enterprise does find him, and Reed has already corrected Talas’ sabotage, so they catch up to Kumari. One thing they got from the sensor telemetry Kumari provided is the startup sequence for the weapon—which Archer activates when Shran refuses to turn the weapon over. Shran orders it ejected from the ship, but he doesn’t do it fast enough to avoid damaging his own ship. However, Shran politely refuses Archer’s offer of assistance with repairs.
Later, Enterprise receives a hidden transmission from Kumari, disguised as subspace static: it’s the full sensor telemetry from the weapon. They may not have the thing, but they know how it works now. Archer smiles and invites T’Pol to join him in a bottle of Andorian ale to celebrate.
Can’t we just reverse the polarity? Andorians have better sensors, better weapons, better radiation shielding, and better antimatter injectors than Enterprise.
The gazelle speech. Archer thinks he’s bonded with Shran—and he has, kinda—and accepts the offer of friendship, but he knows better than to entirely trust him. Not that it helps much in the end…
I’ve been trained to tolerate offensive situations. Shran uses T’Pol’s resignation from Vulcan High Command as a major part of his argument that Earth should dump Vulcan like a bad boyfriend and start dating Andoria instead.
Florida Man. Florida Man Bonds With Alien Captain Over Sibling Death.
Blue meanies. Andoria is solely interested in obtaining the Xindi weapon for themselves to use against the Vulcans in their seemingly endless conflict. Shran is too much a patriot to go against that order, though he does express reservations, and either he or Talas (it’s not clear, as both now have shown admiration for humans) do surreptitiously provide Enterprise with the full sensor data on the weapon in the end.
No sex, please, we’re Starfleet. At one point, Tucker offers the opinion that T’Pol is avoiding him, seeing him only when duty or their neuropressure sessions permit. T’Pol assures him that isn’t the case, which is probably a big fat lie, as she likely feels weird around him after her smooch of Sim before he died.
I’ve got faith…
“The last time I saw weapons like this was during my early tactical training.”
“I’m sorry I wasted your time on our primitive systems.”
“Not at all—I found it nostalgic.”
–Talas and Reed stumbling toward bonding.
Welcome aboard. It’s almost entirely recurring characters this week, one of whom makes her debut: Molly Brink as Talas, who will be back in “Babel One.” In addition, we’ve got Scott MacDonald as Dolim, Tucker Smallwood as the Xindi-Primate councilor, Rick Worthy as Jannar (all three last seen in “Rajiin,” all three next to appear in “Azati Prime”), Randy Oglesby as Degra (last in “The Shipment,” next in “Stratagem”), and, of course, the great Jeffrey Combs as Shran (last in “Cease Fire,” and who’ll be back at season’s end in “Zero Hour”).
In addition, Granville van Dusen plays the Andorian general. He last appeared as a Klingon magistrate in “Judgment.”
Trivial matters: Gralik aided the Enterprise crew in sabotaging and tagging the kemocite Degra uses in “The Shipment.” The Xindi database was erased by D’Jamat in “Chosen Realm.” T’Pol smooched Tucker’s doppelgänger Sim in “Similitude.” Archer owed Shran a punch in the jaw from their first meeting in “The Andorian Incident” when Shran had Archer tortured. Archer first tried Andorian ale in “Cease Fire.”
Archer makes reference to Bikini Atoll, the Pacific islands where the United States performed tests of nuclear weapons in the mid-twentieth century.
Ted Sutton originally played the Andorian general, but he was unavailable for reshoots of his scenes, so—since the role was entirely over a viewscreen in any case—he was replaced by Granville van Dusen.
The Andorians’ desire to use the Xindi weapon against the Vulcans will be a plot point in the fourth-season three-parter “The Forge,” “Awakening,” and “Kir’Shara.”
It’s been a long road… “The Andorian Mining Consortium runs from no one.” Sigh. They’re still using “pink-skin,” and it’s a term used, not just by Shran, but by the general, too, so it’s obviously a common term used by Andorians given to us by the still-unthinking, mostly white male writing staff. Yes, I know, I’ve beaten this drum before, and I will continue to beat it every single time it’s used, because it’s that awful.
That’s the bad news. The good news is that it’s the only significant criticism I have of what is easily the best episode of the season so far.
For starters, we have the triumphant return of Jeffrey Combs as Shran. One of the many flaws of season two was only bringing this character (and the Andorians generally) back for one episode (especially since it was one of the season’s better offerings). This story services several of Enterprise’s most compelling threads—the Vulcan-Andorian conflict, the character of Shran, the growing respect between Shran and Archer—and also gives the Xindi storyline that the season is supposed to be about its first significant forward movement since “The Shipment” six episodes ago.
Shran’s sudden-but-inevitable betrayal works mainly because everyone is in character. Most Andorians are likely to view humans as little more than the Vulcans’ pets, even taking the events of “Cease Fire” into account. Shran knows better, and he’s stuck between a rock and a hard place—either betray someone he’s come to respect and sabotage a potential ally, or follow orders. The latter is really the only choice he can makes—if he’s court-martialed and tried for treason, everything will happen the same way anyhow—but at least he mitigates it by helping Archer out at the end.
If it was him. One nice touch is the growing respect between Talas and Reed as they do repairs, as they both have similar backgrounds. We don’t know who sent the sensor data to Enterprise at the end, and it could just as easily have been Talas as Shran who did so. And, by the by, I greatly approve of the fact that Reed and Talas bond over their shared military backgrounds, something that’s usually only reserved for male characters—better still, the two of them are never written as a potential romantic pairing, which is a vanishingly rare treatment of a male and female character thrown together on a TV show. Bravo to writer Chris Black and the producers for that one.
The storyline of the trip to the Delphic Expanse was sold on several concepts, including a change to the status quo, the exploration of a dangerous region of space, and a sense of urgency to forestall a (second) vicious attack on Earth. Too many episodes this season have failed to deliver on that promise, or done so poorly, but this episode accomplishes all of that, and does so in a gripping and compelling manner.
Warp factor rating: 9
Keith R.A. DeCandido’s first Trek fiction in thirteen years will be a DS9 story called “You Can’t Buy Fate” in Star Trek Explorer #7, which will be on sale tomorrow, 18 April 2023, which is also Keith’s fifty-fourth birthday. He is also scheduled to have stories in issues #8 and 9.
“We keep doing each other favours.”
Any episode with Shran in tends to be a highlight and we also have Degra and the Xindi Council popping up to move that plotline forward, with the continuation of several plot strands from ‘The Shipment’ and the new prototype being deployed. The uneasy frenemy relationship between Archer and Shran is once again a highlight. Archer says early on that he trusts Shran, but the rest of the episode suggests that he doesn’t exactly and is quite right to. Shran spends the episode torn between his duty and their friendship: He carries out his orders but also gives Archer as much help as he can, providing Enterprise with parts and scans. (I must admit, it had never occurred to me that it might be Talas who sent the transmission, which is an interesting idea.) Archer is less generous towards Shran, ending with him waiting to see how long it takes Shran to blink. The events here will have repercusions next season.
Reed has another bonding relationship (possibly vaguely fiirtatious, although they keep it professional) with a female alien counterpart, although they don’t have enough of a camaraderie for him to completely let his guard do. The rest of the crew are a bit wasted, with Phlox absent completely, although T’Pol and Tucker have a few character moments. Tucker seems to have finally accepted that they’re there to stop the weapon, not to get revenge.
Shran has a moment where he starts to refer to humans as “pink skins” but corrects himself to “humans”: From then on in the episode, he only uses the term to refer to Archer, as does the general technically. (Although it doesn’t happen until after he makes the swittch to humans, this episode sees him share a scene with Travis and Hoshi for the first time when he’s on Enterprise’s bridge.) I love his rather goofy act as an Andorian mining captain searching for “archerite” and the visual gag when he appears on the screen and all we see is his antenna poking up above Archer’s head.
The Xindi-Reptillian councillor refers to Degra as a “humanoid”, so it seems both terms were in use during this season. Is that the first time an episode of Star Trek has opened with a “Previously on” sequence consisting of clips from multiple episodes from earlier in an arc, the way pretty much every show does these days?
I’m fairly sure that the Bedroom Voice with which Captain Archer invites T’Pol & Trip to a victory dinner with Andorian ale on the side qualifies for the “No sex please, we’re Starfleet” section, but that might be me reading too much into that smug little expression on the Good Captain’s face. (-;
…
Also, hot diggetty dog but Captain Archer was not bluffing with the Andorians: evidence continues to mount that ‘Average White Captain’ is somebody you do not want to trifle with when he’s a Starfleet Captain.
Other than that, you really hit the nail on the head with this one, @krad: the only thing I have to add is that it’s a great pity that the scene where Shran and Kumari save NX-01 from the ‘Super-Anomoly’ wasn’t the teaser: that shot of the Andorian antennae rising up over Captain Archer’s head (as seen from behind) was one of my favourite parts of the entire episode and quite possibly my favourite shot of the series so far.
Also, I keep wondering (A) Just how many species are serving with the Andorian Guard, years before the Federation and (B) What a Kumari-type starship will look like in Federation livery, come the day.
@1. cap-mjb: So it wasn’t just me! While Lieutenant Reed and his Andorian countpart’s interactions were mostly collegial with an undertone of professional mistrust, their last exchange of compliments definitely tickled my “Flirterers!” antennae (Just a little bit).
I also completely forgot to mention how delightful it was to see how shamelessly bad Commander Shran was at selling his deception to the Xindi – you can almost hear him think “I have a cunning plan!” as he launches into that routine, Bless him (Amusing thought – what if Andorians Love the Arts, LOVE Drama, but are famously bad at acting?).
The diplomatic snark dance between Archer, T’Pol, and Shran was real fun to watch. It worked because Shran does have a point, a rather big one, on the level of Vulcan support Earth had been getting. Or not getting, as the case may be.
Did you notice how T’Pol changed her red civvies for blue civvies after Shran complimented her non-uniform? Then she goes through a few more colors.
Regarding the Tucker-Shran chat, it was interesting how Shran talked about revenge, while Tucker talked about the protection of his homeworld.
The counter-betrayal, counter-counter-betrayal, counter-counter-counter-betrayal was nice, too.
I see Shran in the opening photo.
I think “Ah, this will have been one of the better episodes”
Scroll down to the score. Yep. The Andorians are the best thing “Enterprise” gave us.
And, as mentioned, there is the Reed/Talas bit too sparkling in this episode. As a US army vet, I appreciate it.
My big problem going into this season was that it seemed like a sabbatical from the actual parts of Enterprise that were a prequel to the rest of the franchise, so it’s really nice to see hran and the whole Vulcan-Andorian kerfuffle reintroduced here.
My only real problem is a point that I made back in the review for “The Shipment,” namely that even the sabotaged version of Degra’s weapon, if deployed against Earth, would still cause the single greatest mass-extinction event ever in geological history, annihilating all terrestrial life above the level of certain forms of extremophile bacteria; and so demanding that it also be able to pound the planet into gravel seems like a ridiculous case of diminishing returns on a weapons investment.
Not much to add. It was a little ironic that, in this season that tried to build a compelling story by taking the characters to a brand-new part of the galaxy with brand-new threats and challenges, they had to bring back guest stars and continuity from previous seasons to produce a really solid episode. Or maybe it’s not ironic so much as evidence that they didn’t really have the whole Xindi thing worked out all that well to begin with (though it will get better). I think I was a bit bugged by the contrivances required to bring the Andorians into the story, but it’s excusable since it’s just the one time.
In rewatching the series as research for writing Rise of the Federation, I noticed that the Kumari bridge had some design features similar to 23rd-century Starfleet bridges — paired consoles in front rather than a single helm station, and consoles oriented with the operators facing outward instead of inward (so the captain can see all the readouts, presumably). This allowed me to suggest that future Starfleet design is an amalgam of different races’ technologies, not just Earth’s. There are so few things in Starfleet design that could be cited as alien-influenced that I had to seize on every scrap I could find. Although I believe this episode also established that Andorians had tractor beams while Starfleet was still using grappling tethers. So they (or the Vulcans) are presumably the source of that technology.
@7. jaimebabb: I wonder if this obsession with the one-hit SUPERKILL Big Gun is a cultural obsession with the Xindi? (It makes sense that a polity created in the wake of a series of wars so drawn out they forced the evacuation of the Homeworld would place uncommonly heavy emphasis on hitting the enemy with a one-hit, one-kill device so Apocalyptic that not only would the original target be destroyed, any friends and neighbours would shrink back from avenging the fallen – I.E. a weapon with the ‘Fat Man/Little Boy’ factor).
Admittedly the Xindi Council have gone overboard, but then back in the day our own Earthly Superpowers invented bombs that could level a city with a single weapon … and then kept on chasing even more juiced up weaponry, in pursuit of Mutually Assured Destruction.
The weapon could split a moon? Well I guess I’m glad the Xindi decided to waste that on testing rather than throw it at Earth, because I’m sure it would have devistated the planet enough to send any survivors back to the stone age at least. Anyway, Jeffrey Combs can make anything more entertaining, so this ended up being one of my favorite Enterprise episodes, at least of this season.
Yes, one of the best ones of the season. The Andorians in general and Shran in particular are always a highlight. I loved all of the double-dealing back-and-forth going on between the Andorians and Enterprise, and the visual gag of Shran’s antennae emerging on the viewscreen from behind Archer’s head was delightful.
this episode was great I just watched it the other day and it never occurred me to that it could have been Talas I always assumed it was Shran
I had assumed it was Shran that sent the data just based on the hierarchy on his ship. He’s the person in charge so the final decision to take an action like that rests with him. If Talas did it on her own then that’s insubordination.
Sending the data could have been Shran or Talas, either at Shran’s suggestion or by her anticipating what he’d want or the like. I’m sure Talas has Shran’s complete confidence; are they lovers yet at this point?
I also like the implication that at some point in the future, when Starfleet becomes the Federation’s military and exploration arm, that tech from more than one of their members is integrated into their systems.
Indeed it’s ironic that it’s the return of a classic character like Shran that ends up taking the Xindi arc to its next chapter. I’ll take this over “Carpenter Street” and Temporal Cold War shenanigans any day. A straightforward but effective character-oriented story of two opposing forces performing a well-crafted dance of competing interests.
Archer wants to bring the weapon back to Starfleet, while Shran wants to use it in his people’s vendetta against the Vulcans. Shran can be both manipulative and sincere at the same time, and it goes to show just how far his unconventional relationship to Archer has evolved over the past 3 years. As usual, it’s a credit to Combs and his talents that he’s able to show all these layers: the treacherous bastard side of Shran who still has sympathy and respect for Archer and company, and ends up doing the right thing for his “friend” before it’s all over. With Livingston behind the camera, this ended up being one of Enterprise’s most involving episodes. Tense, brisk and immensely watchable. Chris Black had a good handle on Shran’s character. It’s a pity he took the Desperate Housewives staff job instead the following season. He could have stuck around for season 4, given all the Shran material that came afterwards.
I loved the Andorians, and that’s mostly because of Jeffrey Combs. Such a talented actor. Sometimes I think they over-used him, but other times it feels like they knew they had someone who could wring the best out of a character no matter what makeup they shoved on him. It’s hard to act through prosthetics and massive amounts of makeup, all those normal nuances actors rely on are lost underneath.
Adrian: overused him? To this point, he’s only been in four episodes……..
I mean, yeah, he’ll more than double that by series’ end, but still….
—Keith R.A. DeCandido
@17/krad: I think Adrian was talking about Trek productions in general, not just ENT: “…they knew they had someone who could wring the best out of a character no matter what makeup they shoved on him.”
But it’s true that productions featuring prosthetic characters do tend to reuse a lot of the same actors, because it’s a specialized talent that some are better at than others. Look at how many Trek aliens Vaughn Armstrong played, for instance. And Doug Jones has made a career out of it in various productions.
@16 through 18: Plus, the prosthetics are probably very expensive so if they know they have someone who can re-use that stuff and do a great performance, it’d be financially irresponsible not to re-use them as often as the overall plot provides.
@19/navibc: I don’t think expense is an issue, since prosthetic makeup pieces generally don’t last very long and new ones get made from the same molds fairly often. And people’s proportions change over time, so an old mold wouldn’t necessarily still work on the same actor years later.
But what is an issue is the difficulty of wearing prosthetics for hours on end and going through the lengthy application and removal process. Some actors are ill-suited to it because they get claustrophobia or latex allergies or the like. So if you find someone who takes to it well, that’s a resource you’re going to want to hold onto.
Ohhh yeah. When you see the antenna go up over Archer’s head you knew you were in for a quality episode. Nobody is here for the Temporal Cold War this series is the founding of the Federation, so when you inject the Andorians in, it feels more like the Enterprise we were supposed to get.
Everything really is in character and in plot. The Andorians hear about Earth being attacked by a superweapon, and they want the superweapon. They don’t really have more than a passing acquaintance with humans so saving Earth isn’t a priority. We get to see both the Andorian sneakiness the Vulcans warn of as well as the emotionalism and honor that Andorians say about themselves. It’s just a nice organic story.
I find it interesting with the note that the Andorians have better sensors than the humans, but later on Degra will complement Enterprise’s sensors, and Archer points out that she’s a science ship, and hopefully will be again.
Great episode. More proof that everything’s better with Shran.
@16-19, 22 – Overused Jeffrey Combs? Nah. In fact, I’m a little disappointed that the much talked about fifth season never happened, because of the intention to bring Combs onto the series as a regular, placing Shran on the Enterprise as an advisor.
Now that Star Trek made for TV movies on Paramount+ are a thing, I think an ideal one would be for Enterprise. The Romulan War could finally be realized on screen. Or the series finale could turn out to be a dream with Archer waking up from a bad nightmare and calls Tucker just to be sure. I’m sure the cast would all be up for it.
@20- I think Ron Perlman once credited his getting the Hellboy role at least partially to his reputation for being an easy subject for extensive makeup/prosthetic application in Beauty and the Beast.
I’m a little confused about the Xindi superweapon at this point. If the scale model’s a mooncracker, the need to fine-tune it by going back in time to harvest human blood-types is a little perplexing.
@25/benjamin: Remember that the Reptilians have been advocating the use of a biological weapon as an alternative to Degra’s planet-buster weapon. That’s what “Carpenter Street” was about (and “Rajiin” before it, I think).