One of the most exciting aspects of “Enterprise” is the connection between this series and the creation of the Federation. This series is set just before the established year that the Federation was founded, so what we stand to see during the next seven years (potentially) are the forces and events that brought about the historic accord between humans and Vulcans in 2161. But from the very beginning, it was clear that there were larger issues in play, wherein the mission of the Enterprise lay at the heart of future history as well.
When the Enterprise prepares to meet with a colony of miners, they are warned that a by-product of the mining process makes the atmosphere volatile and potentially explosive when exposed to plasma energy. Taking this into account, Archer and his people follow the necessary protocols to the letter. But in a moment of disaster, the atmosphere ignites, killing more than 3600 men, women, and children in the process.
It’s a terrible incident, and when it becomes known to the Vulcans, they place pressure on Starfleet to recall the Enterprise and put off any future plans for long-range independent exploration for 10-20 years. Archer is heartbroken at the thought of canceling the mission and failing to fulfill his father’s dreams, but his guilt leads him to follow orders without question. T’Pol and Trip would rather he fight, but Archer simply instructs them to rendezvous with a Vulcan ship as per orders.
Events take a very strange turn when Archer awakes in what appears to be the past. He is back at home, in his house or apartment in San Francisco, on the night before the Klaang the Klingon will crash outside Broken Bow. He is visited by Daniels, the mysterious crewman that apparently died in “Cold Front”. As in that episode, Daniels explains that he is acting for his faction in the Temporal Cold War. According to Daniels, the mining colony was never destroyed, and the Enterprise was never recalled. To set things right, Archer needs to find those responsible and prove the innocence of the Enterprise crew.
Archer is returned to the future, where he quickly informs the crew about changes to the Enterprise technology and information still secured in Daniels’ old quarters. Despite their misgivings and wonder over some of the changes Archer instructs them to make (some of which are far more advanced than human science for the time), they follow orders precisely when it is clear that they are proving that someone else caused the destruction of the colony.
Following the plan outlined by Daniels, the Enterprise locates a Suliban stealth craft hidden on a nearby planet. They execute a dangerous mission to retrieve specific data storage devices from the Suliban computer, on which they find images that prove Suliban involvement in the incident at the mining colony. It is apparent that the recall of the Enterprise was the goal of a faction in the Temporal Cold War that opposes the faction that Daniels works for, and we soon get confirmation that it is the same faction behind the Suliban Kabal.
To disrupt those plans, the Enterprise has to simply rendezvous with the Vulcan ship and provide the evidence. The mysterious leader behind the Kabal instructs Silik, the apparent leader of the genetically-enhanced Suliban, to retrieve Archer or destroy the Enterprise in return. Before the Enterprise can get to the Vulcans, the Suliban surround the ship with their fighters and demand that Archer be handed over to them. Otherwise, the ship will be destroyed. Reluctantly, Archer agrees to the terms, and places T’Pol in command in his absence.
However, before Archer can enter the Suliban ship that has docked with the Enterprise, he finds himself suddenly in the ruins of an unknown corridor. When Archer does not turn up as expected, Silik indicates that his people are about to destroy the Enterprise as promised. As T’Pol prepares for the attack, which they have little chance of surviving, Archer discovers that he is in the ruins of San Francisco.
Daniels appears, and tells him that they are in what was the headquarters for their faction in the 31st century. But as soon as Archer was pulled into the future to be saved from his fate, everything changed dramatically. Everything became ruins, and all of the technology needed to send Archer back and restore the timeline disappeared. Unless Archer can somehow be sent back to his time, Daniels’ future will remain a wasteland.
As with every Star Trek plot that involves time travel and temporal mechanics, there are some obvious plot contrivances. For instance, if we are to assume that Daniels’ faction is in fact the remains or evolution of the later Federation, based in San Francisco, then we are supposed to believe that the destruction of that timeline would still permit Daniels to be born and exist in that capacity in that place at that exact time. That oddity ought to be explained somehow.
But this does bring up an interesting notion, and this is what I find most appealing about this aspect of the series. On “Voyager”, we saw that the Federation develops in 300-400 years a branch dedicated to preserving and policing the timeline. The time period that Daniels comes from would be a few centuries later, and we see that the idea of policing the timeline has taken on a much more sinister aspect. Several others appear to be challenging the Federation’s goal to keep events as they were. In fact, it would appear that at least one faction has taken it upon themselves to eliminate the threat of the Federation’s faction by preventing its creation in the first place.
So this is why, at least partly, we have never heard of this Temporal Cold War before. We can assume that they did not succeed in their attempt to dismantle the creation of the Federation, since the future remains intact. However, the question is, how much was changed and altered by the TCW, thus bringing about the conditions we have already learned about? And what other factions might there be, waiting in the wings?
Based on what happened in “Cold Front”, we cannot even assume that the Enterprise brings about the Federation with its success. The situation could be far more complicated.
For instance, to illustrate the idea, we know from DS9 that the Federation mandated the existence of what it later called Section 31. They are a secret organization that is given free reign to do whatever is necessary to preserve the existence of the Federation. Could it be that Section 31 was written in response to knowledge about the TCW? Since Section 31 and its later incarnations were kept under the utmost secrecy, the reasons behind that mandate would likewise be kept highly classified. In turn, it would not have come up in the later series, even when Section 31 was exposed.
We still don’t necessarily know whether or not Daniels’ faction is actually the future remnant or incarnation of Starfleet or the Federation, or even if they are the “correct” side for Archer to assist in the TCW. It might be that Archer could be forced to fight the efforts of Silik and Daniels, in support of the real or better faction. There are infinite possibilities here, because as I’ve commented before, any deviation from canon now can be wiped out later by the mechanisms of the TCW.
That renders the concept’s potential more questionable. It could work extremely well, if used under very strict conditions over the life of the series, but it could just as easily be abused and overdone. So far in this first season, it has been used sparingly, with the related impact on the Suliban and other races being explored more fully. That’s a good way to start, as they work out exactly how pervasive they want to make the concept.
There are some characters that get to show a little growth by the end of season. T’Pol and Archer seem to have gotten to the point where they trust each other and their joint cause more than the desires and prejudices of their respective governments. T’Pol, of course, is much farther along on that path to understanding humanity than Archer is for understanding Vulcans. But since the threat to the mission comes from the Vulcan oversight, I suppose that’s to be expected. Hoshi has grown to the point where she is more than ready to continue with the mission, rather than return to the relative safety and comfort of Earth.
Not many of the others characters see a milestone by the end of this first season, but in realistic terms, that shouldn’t happen so quickly anyway. This is the season where the basic character traits are established. Next season ought to begin the real emphasis on character growth, if it is ever going to happen. By the end of the second season, it was clear that TNG and DS9 were going somewhere, just as it was clear that “Voyager” was never going to grow into its potential.
In retrospect, this season had its ups and downs, as any first season of any series will. Its most obvious weaknesses came in the second half of the season, when too many of the cliches of Star Trek came into the mix: holographic tricks, alien illusions, and completely pointless teasers. The overused plot elements should be avoided as much as possible for the second season, focusing more on the unique political and social aspects of the time period they are exploring. That was the strength of DS9’s run, and that’s why it worked better than most of “Voyager”.
Some other thoughts:
- Finally, a meaningful event happens in the teaser…talk about starting off with a bang!
- “It wouldn’t be very polite to ignite their atmosphere…” Oops!
- So…the one time they follow protocol to the letter, they kill everyone on the planet!
- Can Mayweather get that reassignment to a cargo vessel regardless of what happens? Please?
- I liked Archer’s bachelor pad…very homey for a single guy!
- What benefit was there in taking Archer back to that moment in the past, beyond making it clear to the audience that such a thing could be accomplished?
- “For a cloud of vapor, he’s one wealth of information…”
- Where was all of the torpedo damage on the Suliban stealth craft…you know, the damage that supposedly cleared the lower two decks?
- The way Archer fires his phase pistol makes it look like he’s afraid he’s going to break it…
- “Well, good for the Vulcan Science Directorate!”
- Finally, Archer shows a little awe and wonderment over the idea of time travel! He was just so calm about it in “Cold Front”!
- Nice to see Archer placing the mission over himself…
Overall, this was a great way to end the first season, with a cliffhanger that could literally go anywhere. This is certainly a better beginning than most of the post-TOS Star Trek series have had over the years, and even with this effectively average season as a starting point, there is more than enough reason to think that this could be the fresh start for the franchise that everyone was looking for.
