Let’s do the time warp agaaaaaain. And again. And again….

Shockwave

 

Cast & Crew

Director: Alan Kroeker
Written By: Rick Berman & Brannon Braga

Starring
Scott Bakula as Captain
Jonathan Archer
Connor Trinneer as Chief
Engineer Charles Tucker III
Jolene Blalock as Sub-commander
T’Pol
Dominic Keating as Lt.
Malcolm Reed
Anthony Montgomery
as Ensign Travis Mayweather
Linda Park as Ensign Hoshi
Sato
John Billingsley
as Dr. Phlox

Guest Cast
John Fleck as Silik
Matt Winston as Daniels
Vaughn Armstrong as Admiral Forrest
James Horan as Humanoid Figure
Stephanie Erb as Receptionist
David Lewis Hays as Tactical Crewman

Airdate Information

Originally Aired: May 22, 2002
Season: One (Finale)
Episode: Twenty-six

What
Happened

While entering a Paraagan colony, Shuttlepod One’s plasma vents ignite the
tetrazine gas layer that hovers over the mining station, killing all 3600 colonists.
Despite reassurances from both the sensor logs and Reed (who was piloting the
craft) that the plasma ducts were closed, Starfleet command, at the urging of
the Vulcan High Command, orders Enterprise home. T’Pol and Phlox are
to be transported to a Vulcan ship three days away.

Archer puts up no fight, guilt-ridden over the massacre that he feels is his
fault. The investigation of the shuttle’s hull places even more blame on the
crew. T’Pol urges the captain that he is being illogical, and that he and the
crew were not responsible for the catastrophe. She insists that she will do
her best to convince her superiors and that he should do the same.

Archer goes to bed, but only to wake up in his apartment in San Francisco.
What’s more, it’s now the day before Klang crash lands in Broken Bow, Oklahoma.
Before he can put the pieces together, he receives a visit from Crewman Daniels,
someone he thought dead at Silik’s hands. Daniels explains that the explosion
was never recorded in history. Someone sabotaged the mission and the captain
needs to find out who did it.

Archer returns to his correct time armed with technical information on how
to counter the Cabal’s cloaking devices and schematics. First off they find
a cloaked device attached to the shuttle’s hull. One that started the colony
explosion. They start construction of beacons to help them see the cloaked ship
that has been following them.

In a well-orchestrated attack, Archer and company manage to steal several data
disks from the Suliban cruiser and leave. The disks confirm what they suspected,
the Suliban destroyed the colony, not the shuttlepod. Enterprise heads
back toward the Vulcan ship to hand the evidence over.

Along the way Enterprise‘s warp engines begin acting up, unable to balance
the warp field. Trip and Reed can’t figure it out, but Archer makes a guess.
He orders the ship to red alert and deploys the cloak-proof beacons. The ship
is surrounded by Suliban cruisers. Silik hails Enterprise. He offers
to spare the ship in exchange for Archer. The captain transfers command to T’Pol
and steps off the bridge into the turbolift. Archer doesn’t stay there long,
as Daniels snatches him up and brings him to the 31st century. Silik orders
all his ships to target Enterprise‘s warp core since Archer won’t hand
himself over.

Unfortunately the 31st century isn’t the one that Daniels remembers. Cities
are destroyed, rusting, and collapsing. What’s worse, all the time portals have
been destroyed. He has no way of sending Archer home again.

Review

One thing that Star Trek writers know how to do well is how to write a cliffhanger.
Yes, the continuity problems, time paradoxes, and generally goofiness is going
to give us all a good headache, but then, we’re not supposed to understand advanced
time travel, are we?

It was great seeing the crew work together as a team. A whole team. Everyone
gets a bit of air time to express how they feel about the situation and we get
to see how attached they’ve become to one another.

I will say I am very excited about this episode and wish I didn’t have to wait
till Fall to see how this rounds out. But, good things come to those who wait
(or have time portals).

High Point

T’Pol “cheering” Archer up. It was funny and heartfelt at the same
time. The actors are really getting used to their characters and how the interact
with each other.

Low Point

I know they’re trying to skirt weighty discussions, but a little more information
from Daniels would help us understand the whole temporal mess.

The Scores

Originality: Echoes of “Endgame”
here, but it still had me interested all the way through. 4

Effects: Can I give a 7? Oh well. Some of the best work so far from the atmospheric
explosion to the arcing torpedo shot. 6

Story: Yeah for story consistency! Now let’s see if they can dig themselves
out of this continuity hole. 4

Acting: Some of the best stuff yet. Daniels is much better here, and Silik
is evil as always. 5

Emotional Response: I was pretty wound up by the time the credits rolled. I
have this love-hate thing with cliffhangers, but I’ll demand to see more of
them. 5

Production: While I didn’t like some of the Suliban ship interiors, everything
else looked pretty sharp. Especially the 31st century sets. 5

Overall: Awesome episode. Can’t wait till Fall. Here’s to hoping this intensity
level keeps up. 5

Total: 34 out of 42

Episode Media

• A trio
  of Suliban, ready for action
• The enigmatic
  Daniels: friend or foe?
• A stunned
  Archer surveys a nightmarish scene
• Archer
  and Porthos
• Archer’s
  future takes an unsettling turn
• The Suliban
  return and the Temporal Cold War heats up
• 20-Second
  Episode Preview

From StarTrek.com

Completely Useless Trivia

This is the first time a Star Trek franchise has done a cliffhanger for the end
its first season.

Featured Web Sites

Is time travel possible? The people at the Time
Travel Research Center seem to think so. They must have missed the Vulcan
Science Council’s memo.

Next Time on Enterprise (May 29, 2002)

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The crew comes across an abandoned ship of dead aliens. But things from bad
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sec. Episode Preview]