“Shockwave, Part II”
Written by Rick Berman & Brannon Braga
Directed by Allan Kroeker
Season 2, Episode 1
Production episode 028
Original air date: September 18, 2002
Date: unknown
Captain’s star log. After getting a summary of Part I, we see T’Pol telling Silik to go ahead and board Enterprise to prove that Archer isn’t on board. Tucker objects, but T’Pol points out that there are thirty Suliban ships targeting their warp core. Enterprise’s only chance of survival is to let Silik’s people board.
In the thirty-first century, Daniels is appalled to see that, not only is there destruction all around, and nobody alive, there’s also no monument to the Federation that should be there. Archer, of course, has no idea what the Federation even is…
They go to a library, which, to Daniels’ shock, isn’t filled with electronic records, but rather codex books. Somehow, these books are all in pristine condition despite the build they’re in being a wreck and exposed to the elements. Daniels quickly determines that history is just what he thinks it should be up until 2152, when it all goes to shit. He took Archer out of that moment in history to preserve the timeline, and instead screwed it up.
The Suliban confine the entire Enterprise crew to their quarters and then search every nook and cranny of the ship, but do not find Archer, though they do find a temporal signature in the turbolift. T’Pol confirms that Archer was last seen entering that turbolift.
Silik interrogates T’Pol while hooked up to some manner of torture device. She insists that she has no idea what happened to Archer and that time travel is impossible. Silik eventually decides that she’s telling the truth and dumps her back in her quarters.
In the future, Archer and Daniels manage to cobble together a transmitter, using Archer’s communicator and scanner, that will enable Archer to communicate with the Enterprise in the twenty-second century.
Buy the Book
The City Inside
He manages to communicate with T’Pol, despite her being more than a little loopy following torture. Indeed, it takes her some time to realize that it’s really Archer communicating with her and not Silik asking more questions about Archer, or just a figment of her tortured (ahem) imagination.
Tucker has managed to figure out a way for all the folks in the opening credits to communicate with each other. Sato is the only one who can fit in the crawlspaces between decks, so she gets to squeeze through and go to Phlox’s quarters to obtain a couple of hypos. Then she frees Reed from his quarters, and they then free T’Pol and Tucker. (Why Mayweather and Phlox weren’t also freed, even though they were in on the plan, is left as an exercise for the viewer.)
T’Pol pretends to be completely binky bonkers from the torture in order to lure two Suliban close enough for Tucker and Reed to ambush them with the hypos. They now have two weapons. Reed heads to Daniels’ quarters and removes a device, where he is immediately captured. Reed insists that he doesn’t know what the device does, only that he was instructed to destroy it by Archer right before he disappeared.
Silik immediately takes the device to his ship to the room where he usually hears from Future Dude. His instructions from the latter were to capture Archer, and with Archer missing, he’s at a loss what to do. (His second, Raan, keeps trying to convince him to just destroy Enterprise and be done with it.)
Using Daniels’ device, Silik tries to contact Future Dude, but instead contacts Archer, who uses the portal Silik just opened to travel back in time and sock Silik in the jaw, which was the plan for Reed all along. Taking Silik hostage on a cell ship, he flies back to Enterprise and gets the Cabal soldiers to break off their attack.
Enterprise finally rendezvouses with the Vulcan vessel D’kyr. They report to Soval and Forest. The former stands by his recommendation that Enterprise should be recalled, their mission scrubbed. Tucker, Archer, and T’Pol all argue against. Tucker screams and fulminates, Archer tells a completely random story about gazelles, and T’Pol points out that one of the things Soval is dinging them for is discovering an illegal listening post and that Soval is a big stinky.
The next night, Archer informs T’Pol that their mission will continue, and he thinks it was her argument that put it over the top. (Which isn’t a surprise, since Archer and Tucker’s arguments both sucked.)
Can’t we just reverse the polarity? Apparently, thirty-first-century high school students build time machines in shop class. Sure…
The gazelle speech. This is the episode from which this section title comes from. Archer talks about how gazelles are born and immediately run with the herd flawlessly, but humans aren’t like that, and they need to stumble. It’s, um—not the best metaphor…
I’ve been trained to tolerate offensive situations. T’Pol is tortured, manages to implement Archer’s plan despite being half-out of it when he spelled it out for her, and kicks all the ass and takes all the names. As the cherry on top, she tells off Soval beautifully.
Florida Man. Florida Man Mouths Off At Foreign Diplomat.
Optimism, Captain! Phlox has the material in his quarters to put together a hypo that will render the Suliban unconscious, which makes you wonder why the Suliban didn’t search everyone’s quarters while confining them…
The Vulcan Science Directorate has determined… T’Pol continues to insist that the Vulcan Science Directorate has determined that time travel isn’t possible, even though Archer pretty obviously traveled in time. She’s sounding more and more like Scully on The X-Files at this point…
Ambassador Pointy. Soval stands by his insistence that Enterprise’s mission should be recalled, his primary evidence being the number of armed conflicts they’ve gotten into in general and their actions leading to the destruction of the monastery on P’Jem and freeing of 89 Suliban in particular. When T’Pol reminds him of the illegal listening post on P’Jem, he storms out of the meeting.
No sex, please, we’re Starfleet. We get completely gratuitous shots of T’Pol in a tight tank top and Sato accidentally having her top ripped off while jumping down from a crawlway. Wah-hey?
I’ve got faith…
“The concept of learning from one’s mistakes shouldn’t be difficult for a Vulcan of your wisdom to understand, Ambassador. Our ancestors discovered how to suppress their volatile emotions only after centuries of savage conflict.”
–The opening volley of T’Pol’s verbal bitch-slap of Soval.
Welcome aboard. Back from Part I are recurring regulars John Fleck as Silik, Gary Graham as Soval, Vaughn Armstrong as Forest, and Matt Winston as Daniels. Silik will be back in the season finale, “The Expanse.” Graham and Armstrong will be back in “Cease Fire,” while Daniels won’t return until the third season’s “Carpenter Street.”
Also present is Jim Fitzpatrick for his second appearance as Williams; he’ll be back in “Regeneration.” Keith Allan plays Raan.
Trivial matters: This obviously continues the story begun at the end of last season in “Shockwave.” It continues the Temporal Cold War storyline, which will next be seen in “Future Tense.”
This two-parter was also novelized by Paul Ruditis, and released simultaneously with the second-season premiere. It is the only straight-up work of Trek fiction by Ruditis, though he has written several reference books and coffee table books for the franchise, including The Voyager Companion, A Very Klingon Khristmas, Star Trek: The Visual Dictionary, and many others.
Soval specifically references the events of “The Andorian Incident,” “Shadows of P’Jem,” and “Detained” when outlining why he thinks Enterprise should be recalled.
While in the future, Archer hears the names of two nations that he has had no contact with as yet: the Romulan Star Empire (which Earth will make first contact with in “Minefield”) and the Federation (which we all know is coming along in a decade or so…).
It’s been a long road… “Time travel is not fair.” There’s a lot to like about this episode, which—rarely for a cross-season Trek two-parter—is actually better than Part I. Mostly this is because it eschews a lot (though not all) of the nonsense for a straight-up action storyline that has our heroes being competent.
In particular, Jolene Blalock stands out here. T’Pol pretty much saves the day with the power of her awesomeness. She is able to power through recovering from being tortured to get all of Archer’s message and then implement the plan.
Not that it’s Archer’s plan. While he does kick Daniels into working to come up with a plan, it’s Daniels’ plan, truly, and T’Pol and the rest of the crew are the ones who put it into practice.
Archer’s primary contribution is to give the gazelle speech.
The gazelle speech has become kind of a touchstone for Enterprise. I mean, his predecessors had, “Risk is our business,” and “Let history never forget the name Enterprise,” and “A part of us—a very important part—will always remain here on Deep Space 9,” and “If we turn our backs on our principles, we stop being human.” What does Archer get? “Well, um, I saw these gazelles once, and they were awesome,” and then he proceeds to say that humans are nothing like gazelles, and that’s not how you do metaphors!
It’s the most uninspired inspirational speech in Trek history, and it almost brings down the episode—until T’Pol speaks up. As has been the case throughout the show so far, T’Pol is the saving grace of the ship, as she’s competent, sensible, smart, clever, and doesn’t let bullshit get in the way of the work. She’s the only grownup among the “big three,” and it’s brought into very sharp relief in the climactic discussion on the bridge. Tucker pulls his usual yell-at-all-Vulcans act, which has long since grown tired, while Archer babbles about gazelles. It’s up to T’Pol to actually make a convincing argument—though, truly, the result should have been her immediate recall to Vulcan for talking back to a superior. But this is television, where superiors actually listen to their subordinates’ arguments…
The temporal mechanics are mostly ridiculous, and the Easter eggs in the library are as gratuitous as Linda Park going topless and Jolene Blalock in a skimpy tank top (and how the hell were those books in such good shape????), but the action sequences are nicely done, and John Fleck plays Silik’s cravenness nicely.
Warp factor rating: 5
Rewatcher’s note: Today is my mother’s 75th birthday. Her celebrating has been postponed due to a bout with COVID-19 (she’s fine, she’s recovering nicely). Please, everyone, wish her a happy birthday in the comments!
Keith R.A. DeCandido urges everyone to support the Kickstarter for Phenomenons: Season of Darkness, the second volume in the shared-world superhero anthology series published by Crazy 8 Press. The anthology features stories by Keith and fellow Trek prose stylists Michael Jan Friedman (who also created and is the editor of the series), Peter David, Geoffrey Thorne, Ilsa J. Bick, Robert Greenberger, Paul Kupperberg, Aaron Rosenberg, and Glenn Hauman, as well as screenwriter Dan Hernandez and novelists Mary Fan, Michael A. Burstein, Marie Vibbert, Russ Colchamiro, Hildy Silverman, and Alex Segura. Please consider supporting the anthology on Kickstarter!
Happy Birthday, Mama KRAD
Congratulations to Mother krad, Best Wishes for many happy returns of the day and kindest regards to all her Noble House!
Wishing a very happy and healthy birthday to your mother, krad!
Concerning the actual episode, I’m reasonably sure that the ‘Gazelle Speech’ was secretly crucial to the future success of the Federation – because whenever anyone suspected or doubted Captain Archer’s motives, they could listen to that speech again and be stone cold certain this man wasn’t secretly an Evil Genius.
I’m also quite convinced that T’Pol, having willingly endured quite a bit of outlandish nonsense during her service with NX-01, has decided to draw the line at Time Travel for the sake of her sanity – she has to believe that something is impossible or she might start believing EVERYTHING she hears (and we all know how dangerous that can be).
Also, I do have a vague suspicion that Ambassador Soval listened to Captain Archer’s gazelle speech and, after mature reflection, decided he didn’t want the man who made it any closer than a lightyear to his current position: he has more than enough to cope with on Earth without risking ANOTHER speech from Jonathan Archer!
Also, @krad, it’s rather bold of you to assume that Doctor Phlox didn’t cobble together that little medical miracle out of substances no sane species would identify as medical equipment … that does seem rather par for the course when it comes to our favourite Mad Anatomist! (-;
Happy 75th Birthday Grace!
(assuming Keith’s Wikipedia page isn’t lying about her name)
Bob: it’s GraceAnne not Grace.
—Keith R.A. DeCandido
May you have a glorious birthday and a wonderful year!
You mentioned the action sequences. I was wondering. First T’Pol decides that the only sane move is to surrender because the Enterprise is surrounded by enemy ships, and then she concludes it is a good idea to break out of an enemy base. Shouldn’t it be one or the other?
Regarding that interrogation device, torture or lie detector? The Suliban did not hesitate to use punches on Reed.
Was the speechifying at the end aimed at Soval, or at Armstrong to make him override Soval. Was Armstrong looking for an excuse to do that, or did he have to be talked into it?
And happy birthday to your mother.
Happy birthday KRAD’s mom, and may there be many more to come.
Happy Birthday to GraceAnne Andreassi DeCandido! Feel better and celebrate!
KRAD: If you saw the homework I brought home in elementary school, and compared it to the homework my kids bring home from elementary school, you’d be less inclined to knock the idea of a time machine being a 31st century high school shop project!
Happy birthday, krad’s mom!!
qoSlIJ DatIjaj to the matriarch of the House of Krad. Glory to your house.
Happy Birthday GraceAnne DeCandido!
This episode is a bucket of warm spit.
That is all.
If they wanted to do something really bold, they should have revealed that the Vulcans were right, the “Temporal Cold War” was actually a scam, and “Future Guy” was really just pulling a Wizard of Oz bit on the Suliban.
I have no idea how this could be made to make sense.
Happy birthday to your mother!
Not much to say (other than throwing in my birthday greetings with the rest). A mediocre episode. The part I remember most is the gratuitous Hoshi topless scene, typical of the sophomorically inept way ENT’s first couple of seasons handled sexuality by putting people in unintentionally titillating situations like being tied up together or spreading decon gel on each other or accidentally losing their tops, instead of just letting them be sexual by choice, which is much sexier.
The other part that stands out is Daniels’s ridiculous line about kids building time machines in school, which is absurd given the great risks of time travel in the Trek universe. I implied in Department of Temporal Investigations: Watching the Clock that Daniels was something of a blarney artist; he didn’t want to give away too much about the future, so he tended to tell tall tales to obfuscate things.
Happy Birthday Mama DeCandido! We owe you for the brilliant son!
Yeah this is a rare cliffhanger resolution that really ups the whole of the two parter. I just wish it was the end of the Temporal Cold War.
I don’t think the Gazelle speech is that horrible. It’s not the height of Starfleet Captain speeches, not by a long shot, but I got what he was trying to say. I’d like to think that his ineloquence was an intentional writing choice meant to show that Archer while he is the gutsy cowboy type willing to risk life and limb on the final frontier, he’s not really a well developed diplomat. He was making a case for his and humanity’s own imperfection. The failing of the speech is that it didn’t make any point to Soval, it was a statement saying we’re fallible not a rebuttal. So Soval says you’ve made too many mistakes, and Archer says we make mistakes so we can improve I’m sorry you don’t understand that. But Archer didn’t actually finish his point. T’Pol comes in with the knockout blow by pointing out that Enterprise’s mistakes aren’t actually all humanity’s fault, Vulcans are just as fallible, and the fact that the crew had made mistakes and gotten into trouble isn’t sufficient reason to mothball the mission.
It seems to me that they were writing it as a team up without actually making it genuine.
While Hoshi losing her top was gratuitous and unnecessary, Linda Park’s “Gimme a shirt and let’s forget this ever happened” deadpan annoyance was quite delightful.
Thank God for T’Pol. She pretty much single-handedly added an extra star or two to the warp factor rating of every episode of this show.
“Happy Birthday to GraceAnne Andreassi DeCandido!“
That’s her whole name?!?? Wow that’s a great name, It’s so elegant.
Happy Birthday, Momma KRAD.
I found the episode serviceable. I like Enterprise a lot better than many do, but I did find the Temporal Cold War tiresome at best.
Someone needed to give Tucker a “colorful metaphor” during his very embarrassing outburst on the bridge. You have not only junior officers and crewman watching you, but high-ranking Starfleet officials and diplomatic staff watching you, and the best Tucker can do is “You’re pathetic!” You’re kind of making Soval’s case for him. Idiot.
A competent season opener in terms of doing the classic “getting the ship back” plot. Brannon Braga was always good at crafting shipboard action set pieces (and Kroeker just as adept in directing them). Yet again, it proves just how underrated T’Pol’s always been. Jolene Blalock is just as capable of playing the comedy of any given situation by giving us this drowsy version of the character who’s still insanely competent, capable of putting things together and rallying everyone to get the Suliban out.
But it’s still a woefully weak season opener, otherwise, not only it because gives us a lazy reset button to bring Archer back, but it seemingly plays out as if everything is business as usual once the Suliban are driven out. What about the Paraagan victims? Seriously. That explosion happened. That was a character turning point for Archer last season. You can’t sweep those lives under a plot rug like that.
Sadly, this half-hearted approach to wrapping things up is indicative of how a good portion of season 2 will play out.
Also, I guess a happy birthday is in order.
Happy Birthday, KRAD’s mom!
The gazelle speech didn’t work for me not because of what it represented but the fact that a planet was just destroyed. Humanity wasn’t involved so I’m not sure what really the relevance was. It’s sort of a nonsequitor to the question of what benefit humanity gets from being in space and what the people of space get from interacting with humanity.
Happy Birthday, Momma-KRAD. Here’s to a speedy recovery.
Happy Birthday Mommy KRAD!
Yeah, this was more or less the point where I gave up on the show during the original run.
I’d been losing interest throughout Season One and this resolution pretty much killed my enthusiasm.
I think the building a Time Machine in shop class line is a bit overblown. Yes, we know how time travel has a tendency to mess with reality, but my guess is that at the high school level, it’s building a device that can transport atoms or molecules a limited temporal distance. For example, send a “Buckeyball” back in time a few hours and being able to retrieve it in a controlled environment. Don’t forget that we’re dealing with the 31st century which is roughly 200 years beyond the Timeship Relativity and Captain Braxton. You’ve also got almost 7 centuries of contact with species that either are capable of manipulating the time stream (Krenim) or have a non linear perception of time. That knowledge should have filtered down through society.
Happy Birthday ma! get better soon.
Happy birthday to your Mom! What does she think about Enterprise Season 1?
Live long and prosper GraceAnne
“When I was in my early 20s, on a trip to East Africa, I saw a gazelle giving birth.”
It’s deeply flawed and has something of a “With one bound they were free” feeling to it, as the episode tries desperately to wrap up everything from Part 1 so they can have some standalone adventures next week. But you know what? I enjoy it on a fun romp level. Archer and Daniels’ scenes looking through a library to work out what’s wrong with history have a nice simple feel to them. And it’s great to see the rest of the Enterprise senior staff coming together to fight back against the Suliban, although Phlox is hardly in it and Mayweather is mostly just standing there. Reed takes an awful lot of physical punishment in the name of selling the trick to Silik. And there’s some fun in Silik attempting to interrogate T’Pol and getting stonewalled by Vulcan stubbornness. Daniels MacGyvering together a device to communicate with the past and trick Silik into opening up a portal to bring Archer back takes a lot of good will, but it’s worth it for the supremely satisfying moment when Archer leaps out and surprises him.
It’s not at all clear what happens to Silik, who’s last seen as Archer’s prisoner but is somehow back in charge of the Cabal in the season finale. (The novelisation tries to cover this by saying Archer left him adrift to stop the Suliban coming after them to recover him…but the fact he’s got him as a hostage is the only reason the Suliban stop coming after them anyway!) It’s even less clear what happens to the Suliban knocked unconscious by the Enterprise crew, especially the two Sato is guarding: Did they all get left alone to evacuate? Presumably the disruption caused by Archer being removed from time also erased Silik’s employer, which would explain why he doesn’t touch Enterprise again and even warns them about a threat to Earth in his next appearance.
I was surprised at how little we saw Soval in Season 1, given how far his influence stretched: Just the first quarter of “Broken Bow” and a bit at the start of “Shadows of P’Jem”. Now we get to spend time with him again and…yeah, he’s an ass, who really can’t stop being a bigoted supremacist for long enough to actually look at the facts. (He even knows Enterprise was intercepted by other ships, yet still chooses to blame Archer for everything instead of informing Starfleet.) Not that Tucker does much better, just throwing a tantrum and being told to shut up. So it’s left to the double team of Archer and T’Pol to save the day. As I said back at the start of this rewatch, as fun as it is to joke about Archer sorting things out with a speech about a gazelle, it does actually work in context. And T’Pol pretty much shows the Vulcans up by giving Soval a few home truths, to which the Vulcans’ only response is to storm off in a strop. (And yes, it is T’Pol having the audacity to suggest they’re the same as those smelly humans that causes Soval to throw his toys out of the pram, not Archer telling him to be nicer to humans because they’re not gazelles.) Early on Soval insists T’Pol wouldn’t go along with Archer’s plan and must be being held against her will: It doesn’t even occur to him that a Vulcan might feel loyalty to a human. So it’s quite right that the episode ends on the two of them showing what a team they’ve become.
I said back in the pilot that Commander Williams reappeared that season, which I was completely wrong about. (Either I thought he was in “Shadows of P’Jem” or I got mixed up with another episode.) Note that Soval says Enterprise helped 89 Suliban escape, which would seem to suggest Danik and Sajen got away with the others. Sato’s topless scene will appear positively subtle next to what we get next season…
Oh, and happy birthday, Keith’s mum.
Happy birthday to Keith’s mom.
This episode was a big “meh.” But that’s especially disappointing given the high stakes raised in the finale. Silly sophomoric writing by Berman/Braga in regards to Hoshi’s wardrobe malfunction: “Tee hee hee! Boobies!”
As I recall hearing or reading about, Braga fired all of the season one writing office save for one guy.
There are at least some very good episodes coming ahead this season, and I would say, better than anything produced in the first season.
Happy birthday, ma’am!
Happy birthday, Keith’s mom!
Thank you, everyone, for wishing my Mom a happy birthday. She texted me earlier to tell me that she is enjoying the birthday greetings mightily, and also to reinforce that her name is GraceAnne, not “Grace.” :)
—Keith R.A. DeCandido
Happy birthday, GraceAnne!
I don’t mind Archer’s speech. I think its clumsiness just reiterated its point: humans have a long way to go, but they are willing. Other than that, I agree with what most points form the review and comments, just want to add, I was happy they gave Hoshi something cool to do (and I liked how she handled the loss of her shirt, even though it was a silly scene).
Happy Day After Her Birthday to krad mater!
Happy belated birthday to GraceAnne.
As for the episode, I do at least remember a lot about it, so it fares better than part one in that respect. I didn’t hate the gazelle speech, but that’s probably because, at this point in my binge-watch, Archer’s mediocrity had worn me down. At least he was trying, I told myself.
So here we are, Season 2, which redefines mediocrity (for the worse). This is, for my money, the nadir of the era that began with TNG.
Have a wonderful belated birthday! Remember to rest and and relax covid 19 is no fun.
I don’t think the gazelle speech is anything particularly bad, but that’s on my personal Archer scale. I think every time he tries to speechify he sounds like a shop teacher talking to a bunch of midde-schoolers. Of all the star trek captains, he has by far the least gravitas.
This episode did what it needed to do to resolve the cliffhanger but it felt more like a reset, backtracking instead of moving the plot forward or expanding and revealing some new story direction. The problem with the Temporal Cold War storyline setting up so many questions is that you have provide interesting answers sooner or later but this episode in particular and the series general in mostly did not. (The temporal shenanigans was an almost total fail for me with The Sphere Builders being the only part that sort of felt like it worked.)
Very much looking forward to next weeks review, Carbon Creek is one of my favorite episodes of Trek. It is amusing, nostalgic, charming, but I must also concede that it stands out for the wrong reasons as an episode of Enterprise that almost entirely ignores the Enterprise crew and does nothing to move the show forward. Will be interesting to see if our intrepid reviewer loves it or hates it, it could go either way.
@42 said: “I think every time he tries to speechify he sounds like a shop teacher talking to a bunch of midde-schoolers. Of all the star trek captains, he has by far the least gravitas.”
I think that’s a feature, not a bug. Archer was always intended to be the prototype of Kirk, Picard and all the other Trek captains we’ve gotten to know over time
@44/twels: I think it’s more that Berman & Braga wanted to make Star Trek: The Right Stuff, so they wanted Archer to be more of a folksy astronaut type than a commanding orator.
Well, it’s not bad. And it is better than part I, but so much of the time travel is deus ex machina from hell. I mean, why is there another time doohickey in the locker below the gym socks? What the hell else is in there? But, I digress.
While I dislike the Temporal Cold War, I do like the actor playing Daniels. He plays the role with a weird mix of anxiety, insecurity, pissed-off-edness, and forthrightness, which is probably right for someone who’s always traveling through time trying to fix stuff the rest of us can’t keep track of.
Which leads me to the idea that I think time travel is an easier thing to pull off in a self-contained book or movie. It’s a pretty unsupportable concept in a serial world (let alone one that spins off and spins off), because it just leaves too open to many convenient plots and a mess of questions. Like how do things even move forward if anyone can just go back and change things willy nilly (except for weird made-up reasons they don’t)?
Finally, I’m really surprised the hostage-taking didn’t factor into the review. Holding a gun to someone’s head, threatening to kill them, and then kidnapping them is a little, well, anti-heroic. The Enterprise crew was so against taking someone else taking a hostage last season. But Archer gets to play pissed-off white guy and take a hostage for good! And then make a terrible speech that people listen to. Really, Archer is so mediocre white guy that he probably has nothing but Russell Watson on his playlist.
A few people have defended the Gazelle Speech, but it’s pretty terrible. The point of using a metaphor rhetorically is to take something the intended audience is familiar with to provide a meaningful example. The gazelle speech is faulty from the get-go. You’re talking about an alien animal. And then on top of that, it’s an alien animal that is a counterexample of the thing you’re trying to prove.