"Anomaly"

Written by Mike Sussman
Directed by David Straiton


In which the Enterprise is raided by aliens within the Expanse, pushing Archer to compromise his principles to recover what was stolen, as well as information on the Xindi...

Synopsis - Analysis - Memorable Quotes - Observations


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Synopsis

As the episode begins, Porthos is disturbed by one of several spacetime anomalies plaguing Enterprise. The animals in sickbay react the same way. The anomalies eventually begin interacting with the engines, forcing the ship out of warp.

A vessel appears within sensor range, and Archer sets a course towards the ship, which is apparently just drifting. There appears to be no sign of what happened to the ship, so Archer and Reed lead a squad of MACOs over to the vessel to investigate. They find dead aliens and evidence of weapons’ fire. However, not all of the aliens were killed by weapons.

After returning, Archer orders Enterprise farther into the Expanse. T’Pol objects to making repairs on the move, but Archer is worried about encountering the ones who attacked the alien vessel. Trip is unable to get the warp engines working, thanks to the odd physics in that region of space. Archer orders Trip to concentrate on weapons first.

Sure enough, another unknown vessel closes on their position. Archer tries to contact the aliens, but there’s no response. Within moments, various squads transport onto Enterprise and begin stealing everything useful from engineering, cargo bays, and the arsenal. In the process, one of the engineering crew is killed. Archer, Reed, and the MACOs work together to repel the invaders, and before all of the raiders can beam away, one of them is knocked out. But in the end, the invaders leave Enterprise stripped down to almost nothing.

Phlox treats the wounded, but Archer is strongly affected by the death of the engineering crewman. Phlox recognizes the captured alien as an Osaarian, a species not native to the Expanse. Trip gives him the bad news; they won’t last more than a month with the resources they have. T’Pol notes that the Osaarian vessel has managed to account for the local anomalies in terms of power and weapons, and suggests letting the Osaarians go in favor of finding another source of supplies. Archer, however, is dead set on finding them.

Archer interrogates the Osaarian prisoner, but he is only mocked in return. The Osaarian, Orgoth, guesses that Archer isn’t willing to do what it takes to extract the location of the Osaarian ship. Orgoth makes it clear that his people were forced into piracy because they were trapped within the Expanse, just like Enterprise is now. The Osaarians learned to take whatever steps were necessary to survive, and Orgoth can see that Archer is not at the same point of desperation.

Using the data from the alien vessel that Enterprise explored, T’Pol determines a means of detecting the ion trail of the Osaarian vessel. As the search continues, Reed takes a break and finds Trip studying physics books in the mess. The weapons are only partially restored, but the dead crewman was the torpedo expert. Trip notes that they’ve been lucky so far to have only started losing people now, and it’s looking like they should expect to lose even more.

Archer is informed when a gap in the ion trail is discovered. Archer orders the ship to the point where the trail seems to end, and the distortions get much worse. A kind of barrier is encountered, which causes growing damage, until the ship is through. Beyond the cloaking barrier, they find a huge metallic sphere. Archer is sure that the Osaarians spent time at the sphere, and looks for a way in. Sure enough, at the one apparent portal, the Osaarians have rigged a lock.

Using a shuttlepod, Archer leads a small team to the portal. They destroy the locking device, and open the portal. Inside, the massive sphere appears to be an artificial environment, with a small grouping of pressurized modules. The team enters the modules, and inside, they find the Osaarians loot. They find almost everything that was stolen, and begin returning it to Enterprise.

During the process, Trip burns his hand, and Phlox is surprised to note that Trip is still suffering from lack of sleep. Trip explains that he only tried the Vulcan neuropressure once, and strongly prefers sedatives. However, Phlox refuses to give Trip more of the drugs, and eventually convinces the engineer that neuropressure is the right solution.

T’Pol believes that the massive sphere and its cloaking shield are at least partially to blame for the spatial anomalies. But Archer is more interested when Hoshi translates an Osaarian vessel manifest, and finds references to a Xindi vessel among the information on the Osaarian vessel.

Archer confronts Orgoth about the Xindi vessel. Orgoth reveals that his captain destroyed the Xindi vessel. When Orgoth doesn’t cooperate, Archer drags him to the nearest airlock, and tosses him in. Against the objections of Reed and the guards, Archer begins decompressing the airlock, threatening to continue unless Orgoth reveals everything he knows. Orgoth agrees to talk at the last possible moment.

Archer orders the crew to prepare to engage the Osaarian vessel when it returns to the sphere, so they can recover as much as possible from a database stolen from the Xindi vessel pillaged by the Osaarians. As soon as the Osaarians appear, Archer fires on them, and then follows them into the cloaking field. Enterprise suffers damage getting close enough for Hoshi to remotely access the Osaarian computers, using information from Orgoth.

As damage mounts, Mayweather struggles to keep Enterprise near the Osaarians. Archer is forced to take Enterprise out of the field, but only one third of the Xindi database was able to be recovered. Archer orders the crew to destroy the portal into the sphere to draw the Osaarians back to their position. In the ensuing battle, Enterprise is close enough for Hoshi to get about 90% of the Xindi database. That’s enough for Archer, who orders the Osaarians’ engines destroyed.

The battle over, Archer lets Orgoth to return to his ship. Orgoth mocks Archer’s weakness, still quite sure that Archer is too weak to keep his people safe in the Expanse. But Archer is far more focused on what they managed to gain, and immediately begins accessing the Xindi database.


Analysis

Building on the massive amount of exposition in “The Xindi”, this episode finally begins to show the same level of promise as the first half of the first season and a much smaller number of episodes in the second season. The methods employed to reach this level of quality are exactly the same: continuity, characterization, and conflict.

This episode continues the strong continuity that began with the second season finale. The search for the Xindi continues to push characters into interesting new territory. But now there is something more than the expected thematic links. Small details are beginning to come together, one by one, giving shape to a more consistently rendered plot thread.

Questions are answered along the way, sometimes in offhand comments that don’t sound like they should matter to the overall plot concept. The location of the Expanse, a mere 80 light-years from Earth, actually explains why it would have never come up in the any of the other Star Trek series: all of them deal with space far from Earth. After 100 years or more, who would even worry about something so familiar and close to home?

More important, this episode might provide more insight. The discovery of the sphere of completely unknown origin, and its damaging cloaking shield, might eventually lead to a solution to the spatial/gravitational anomalies in the Expanse. Also, the discovery that Trellium-D should be included within the hulls of any ships coming into the Expanse might simply make the anomalies moot. And since Enterprise is likely to find its way out of the Expanse, that little problem should also be dealt with long before Kirk’s era.

For the moment, however, it serves to isolate Enterprise much in the same way that Voyager is later isolated. However, unlike Voyager, there is a direction in which to move forward. It remains to be seen whether or not the writers will be able or allowed to follow that direction, but for now, the isolation plays into the need for Archer to find his own way, without the outside demands of the controlling Vulcan High Command.

Archer has been a character in search of himself, and the Xindi plot thread gives him the opportunity to define what it means to be the captain of an exploring vessel. There has always been an anger within Archer, especially in the face of any impediment laid in his path by the Vulcans. That was never explored as deeply as it could or should have been, but it’s just as well to have established that Archer seldom lets his frustrations come to the surface in a real way.

However, it’s clear that the attack on Earth has pushed Archer to the edge, and failing to make much progress has only increased the tension. Archer is beginning to feel the strain of time running out, and the responsibility that comes with rushing in without proper planning. Archer pressed Starfleet into permitting the mission into the Expanse, against the strong objections of the Vulcans, and now the credibility of Earth is as much on the line as its safety.

Archer knows that the only option for Earth’s future is success, and not only in terms of stopping the next Xindi attack. The Vulcans would use the failure of the Enterprise as a demonstration of humanity’s inability to handle space exploration, and Archer has to know that. He has already fallen into the trap of seeing the Xindi as a faceless and inhuman enemy, unable to be dealt with in a civilized way, and the discovery that his assumptions and supplied intelligence on the Xindi might be very wrong can only drive him farther towards desperate actions.

It’s no surprise, then, that Archer comes to believe that finding the Xindi is his only option, and that he must employ any means necessary to achieve that goal. Orgoth, for all his bluster, tells Archer the one thing that would push him past the point of mercy: that he cannot leave the Expanse. Once Archer finds that the Osaarians have a Xindi database, it’s about more than finding the Xindi for the larger goal of saving Earth; the Xindi obviously also have figured out how to leave the Expanse, or the attack would never have happened.

Regardless, Archer’s struggles to maintain his humanity is a matter of more than momentary defiance. After all, if Archer is aware of what his success means, then he also realizes that human morality and character must prevail in that mission. Success through means of torture and barbarity would only serve the Vulcan philosophy. But faced with the responsibility of responding to the terrorist threat of the Xindi, as well as the safety of his crew in uncharted territory, Archer crosses the line.

This can only be a commentary by the writers on the desires of the fans and on the current geopolitical reality. If the fans wanted more action, then this episode certainly delivers. The irony, of course, is that the action is questionable from a moral point of view, and that plays well into the philosophy of Gene Roddenberry.

In an overall sense, this episode provides another important source of information on the Xindi. Hopefully, the writers will explore Archer’s use of the information. Will he focus entirely on statistics, or will he also explore the cultural information contained in the database? Will he seek only what he needs to destroy, or allow himself to see the Xindi for what they are?

Other intriguing plot threads continue through the episode, beyond the central conflict. Trip’s struggles with the outward expressions of grief and anger could easily push him towards drug abuse. But as an alternative, the prospects of T’Pol and Trip coming together, as a result of a meaningful and realistic journey towards healing, could be done well, if Berman and Braga’s silly notions of “titillation” don’t ruin it.

There’s even a sense of wonder with the discovery of the sphere, and the chance to show Hoshi’s contributions to the mission evolving. The use of the MACOs is quite realistic, though it is a little odd to see them working with Reed without the slightest hint of reservation on either side. Of course, there wasn’t much time to explore that item, but it’s a slight bit of contradiction.

The impact of the episode might only be determined over the course of the season. If the rest of the episodes show Archer working through his internal conflicts as this episode would indicate, then there is a reason to hope. However, if Berman and Braga choose to drop the depth of personal conflict in this episode in favor of empty violence and action scenes without deeper context, then this episode could be just a nice moment of quality.

Only time will tell.


Memorable Quotes

TRIP: “Where’s Isaac Newton when you need him...”

TRIP: “T’Pol’s been trying to help...showing me how to stimulate my neural nodes. It’s not what you think.”
REED: “Oh...I wasn’t thinking anything...”

TRIP: “What am I supposed to do with them?”

REED: “He’ll die!
ARCHER: “Not for another 20 seconds, he won’t!”

ORGOTH: “So...you’ve let your morality get in the way after all. Mercy is not a quality that will serve you well in the Expanse, Captain!”


Observations

- Finally, an episode that wasn’t written by Berman and Braga!

- Nice effect with the coffee, although it’s hard to figure out how the anomalies could actually work...

- Why is it that everything on this series “reverses polarity”? Do the writers even know what that means?

- At least they managed to simply show a little skin in the locker room, without lingering over it like a salivating dog...

- Good effect shot with the shuttlepod, if a little too quickly rendered...

- Great use of sound with the gravity boots, without overlaying music!

- On the other hand, the use of music in this episode is much better than last season...

- Trip isn’t a very good engineer if he expects an equation to be “constant”, and gets surprised when the variables keep changing!

- Why would T’Pol have to order Hoshi to keep the invaders from accessing the ship’s database?

- I don’t hate the red bodysuit, but I liked the blue one better...

- Robert Rusler does an excellent job as the Osaarian captive...a very convincing performance!

- Ah...so the Trellium-D being mined in the previous episode is used to insulate the hulls of vessels from the spatial anomalies...good continuity!

- The shot of the sphere was damned impressive...

- It’s about time that Hoshi’s skills were used for something other than turning on the Universal Translator!

- The use of the hyperkinetic editing during the torture scene was a good way to unsettle the audience even more, adding edge to the situation...

- Not only does Archer begin compromising his own principles, but he actually starts to utilize intelligent tactics!

Overall, this episode delivers a much higher level of quality than “Enterprise” typically exhibits, in terms of characterization and plotting. The parallels to recent history and current events are certainly giving the writers inspiration, and there are plenty of intriguing ways for the season to unfold. The question is whether or not Berman and Braga will allow it.

I give it an 8/10.


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