[7.6/10] Once again, I find myself liking essentially half of an Enterprise episode and feeling like the other half weakens the whole project. “Kir’Shara” delivers some great dealings between the humans, Andorians, and Vulcans on the level of politics and war and diplomacy, and resolves the impending standoff in a reasonably exciting fashion. But it also gives us more nonsense with a Surak-infused Archer in The Forge and an unsatisfying, abbreviated effort to show a change of heart in T’Pol. The former is the sort of thing that Enterprise has almost always done well, and the latter is spiritual vagary mixed with fisticuffs that inexplicably saves the day.
When “Kir’Shara” is dealing with the power struggles and trust scenarios among Trip, Soval, Shran, and the Vulcan Administrator, it’s a blast though. My fear at the end of the last episode, despite the excitement of the Andorian tease, is that our heroes would blaze into Andoria, tell their blue-skinned friends about the invasion, and the rest would be a sot of static space battle where the cavalry arrives right when it needs to. Instead, this episode leaned into the understandable mistrust between Vuclans and Andorians, and earns the fragile alliance and acceptance between Shran, Soval, and Trip that emerges.
It doesn't come easy though. While the performances are outsized (in a good way), it’s hard to watch the neurological torture scenes at times. Jeffrey Combs has nailed the reluctant force of Shran, who is caught between his desire to give people like Archer and Soval the benefit of the doubt given their history, but also his Andorian upbringing and cultural socialization that requires a certain militancy and violence.
At the same time, there’s power in seeing Gary Graham be pained and expressive and emotional as Soval, who’s always maintained his almost supercilious Vulcan stoicisms in all his dealings. Seeing a version of the ambassador who laughs, who pleads, who demands satisfaction, who challenges his torturers with the prospect that they’ll be known as fools whose failings echo throughout history is the highlight of the episode. And the entire, rough encounter has the salve that, in the end, Shran doesn't torture Soval and get key information; he instead respects the fact that a lesser man would have simply told Shran what he wanted to hear.
That ties into the other notable quality of this episode -- it’s markedly topical for 2004. This episode was released not long after the so-called “torture memos” authroziing “enhanced interrogation techniques” became public, and it’s hard not to connect the dots and see Enterprise as trying to make a statement, or at least pull from the headlines here. At the same time, it’s not a stretch to see some contemporary political critique here, with the Vulcan Administrator arguing for a Bush doctrine-esque preemptive strike, founded on the notion that their enemies are building weapons of mass destruction, and misrepresenting intelligence. Regardless of whether it’s a fair depiction, the show does a better job at sublimating these real life analogues into the narrative of the show than its thunderingly obvious 9/11 allegory in season 3.
There’s a similar political and social critique at the heart of the Surak-related material. I’ll admit this one requires more of an extrapolation, but it’s also not hard to read the notion that the Vulcan High Command has turned away from the real teachings of its founder as a critique of the Bush administration’s mantle of religious righteousness. “Kir’Shara” depicts the notion that despite representing the mantle of Vulcan heritage, their people’s leader is out of step with the true principles of their founder, in a way that, right or wrong, suggests the Bush administration’s wars and diplomatic posture were out of step with core, peaceful teachings of Jesus and Christianity. Again, Enterprise isn’t exactly subtle about its point, but it has more subtlety about its analogies, which helps the medicine go down.
Unfortunately, a lot of the Surak material works better as an idea than as a story. For one thing, despite being inhabited by a guy who claims to be the bastion of non-violence, Archer has no qualms about kicking the asses of the Vulcan military officers set to capture him, including by using the trusty nerve pinch, in a cheesy bit of faux-martial arts hand-to-hand combat. For another, the show tries to put a fig leaf on it, but Archer and T’Pao being able to stop the impending war with the Andorians by simply presenting the Vulcan arc of the covenant to the ruling council makes absolutely no sense. You can squint and contort and kind of conclude that it just proves the Administrator is a liar and not to be trusted, but the two things really have nothing to do with one another.
The episode also doesn't really serve T’Pol especially well. There’s a minor effort to show her changing her mind about her relationship with her mom, and whether the Syrrannites are an extreme fashion, and that major religious and cultural reform are necessary. But it all basically comes down to T’Pao not only doing a mind meld that transmits all this information, but even managing to somehow cure T’Pol’s long-forgotten space AIDS in the process. It’s a shortcut both in terms of plot and character, and that’s disappointing, especially for a story arc that should have the biggest impact on T’Pol. At least we get a noble, poignant scene between her and her sham husband, who releases her from their bond, shows T’Pol some kindness and understanding, and turns out to be a decent guy.
Still, before that can happen, we have a standoff and a skirmish between the Vulcans and the Andorians, with the Enterprise in the middle, until Archer and T’Pao can make it to the Vulcan Council on time. There’s some good tension while the various groups are on the brink of war, and one of the Vulcan councilors is on the brink of mutiny, and the whole thing is a powder keg waiting to explode. But inevitably, Archer walks in with the shiny thing and all is well.
The whole conclusion feels a little too pat in what saves the day, but again, the business between the unlikely alliance of Vulcans, Andorians, and humans that ends up setting the stage for that resolution is roundly enjoyable and even stirring at times. There’s a little too much signposting and summation -- including a suggestion that the evil Vulcan leader was the cause of the strife with the humans, not a lack of alignment between the two cultures that feels like a sop -- but hey, it’s an ending, and that’s enough, even if it comes with an all too easy extraction of Surak’s katra and a “dun dun duuuuun” Romulan tease at the end.
When “Kir’Shara” sticks to the politics and personal implications of all this hard-nosed diplomacy, it’s a blast, especially when we get to see Trip acting as the captain. When it tries to get spiritual and metaphysical with Archer and T’Pol, it falls flat. But when you put the two together, you still get an above average episode of Enterprise, and a solid conclusion to this arc.
Review by Andrew BloomVIP 9BlockedParentSpoilers2019-08-17T18:07:15Z
[7.6/10] Once again, I find myself liking essentially half of an Enterprise episode and feeling like the other half weakens the whole project. “Kir’Shara” delivers some great dealings between the humans, Andorians, and Vulcans on the level of politics and war and diplomacy, and resolves the impending standoff in a reasonably exciting fashion. But it also gives us more nonsense with a Surak-infused Archer in The Forge and an unsatisfying, abbreviated effort to show a change of heart in T’Pol. The former is the sort of thing that Enterprise has almost always done well, and the latter is spiritual vagary mixed with fisticuffs that inexplicably saves the day.
When “Kir’Shara” is dealing with the power struggles and trust scenarios among Trip, Soval, Shran, and the Vulcan Administrator, it’s a blast though. My fear at the end of the last episode, despite the excitement of the Andorian tease, is that our heroes would blaze into Andoria, tell their blue-skinned friends about the invasion, and the rest would be a sot of static space battle where the cavalry arrives right when it needs to. Instead, this episode leaned into the understandable mistrust between Vuclans and Andorians, and earns the fragile alliance and acceptance between Shran, Soval, and Trip that emerges.
It doesn't come easy though. While the performances are outsized (in a good way), it’s hard to watch the neurological torture scenes at times. Jeffrey Combs has nailed the reluctant force of Shran, who is caught between his desire to give people like Archer and Soval the benefit of the doubt given their history, but also his Andorian upbringing and cultural socialization that requires a certain militancy and violence.
At the same time, there’s power in seeing Gary Graham be pained and expressive and emotional as Soval, who’s always maintained his almost supercilious Vulcan stoicisms in all his dealings. Seeing a version of the ambassador who laughs, who pleads, who demands satisfaction, who challenges his torturers with the prospect that they’ll be known as fools whose failings echo throughout history is the highlight of the episode. And the entire, rough encounter has the salve that, in the end, Shran doesn't torture Soval and get key information; he instead respects the fact that a lesser man would have simply told Shran what he wanted to hear.
That ties into the other notable quality of this episode -- it’s markedly topical for 2004. This episode was released not long after the so-called “torture memos” authroziing “enhanced interrogation techniques” became public, and it’s hard not to connect the dots and see Enterprise as trying to make a statement, or at least pull from the headlines here. At the same time, it’s not a stretch to see some contemporary political critique here, with the Vulcan Administrator arguing for a Bush doctrine-esque preemptive strike, founded on the notion that their enemies are building weapons of mass destruction, and misrepresenting intelligence. Regardless of whether it’s a fair depiction, the show does a better job at sublimating these real life analogues into the narrative of the show than its thunderingly obvious 9/11 allegory in season 3.
There’s a similar political and social critique at the heart of the Surak-related material. I’ll admit this one requires more of an extrapolation, but it’s also not hard to read the notion that the Vulcan High Command has turned away from the real teachings of its founder as a critique of the Bush administration’s mantle of religious righteousness. “Kir’Shara” depicts the notion that despite representing the mantle of Vulcan heritage, their people’s leader is out of step with the true principles of their founder, in a way that, right or wrong, suggests the Bush administration’s wars and diplomatic posture were out of step with core, peaceful teachings of Jesus and Christianity. Again, Enterprise isn’t exactly subtle about its point, but it has more subtlety about its analogies, which helps the medicine go down.
Unfortunately, a lot of the Surak material works better as an idea than as a story. For one thing, despite being inhabited by a guy who claims to be the bastion of non-violence, Archer has no qualms about kicking the asses of the Vulcan military officers set to capture him, including by using the trusty nerve pinch, in a cheesy bit of faux-martial arts hand-to-hand combat. For another, the show tries to put a fig leaf on it, but Archer and T’Pao being able to stop the impending war with the Andorians by simply presenting the Vulcan arc of the covenant to the ruling council makes absolutely no sense. You can squint and contort and kind of conclude that it just proves the Administrator is a liar and not to be trusted, but the two things really have nothing to do with one another.
The episode also doesn't really serve T’Pol especially well. There’s a minor effort to show her changing her mind about her relationship with her mom, and whether the Syrrannites are an extreme fashion, and that major religious and cultural reform are necessary. But it all basically comes down to T’Pao not only doing a mind meld that transmits all this information, but even managing to somehow cure T’Pol’s long-forgotten space AIDS in the process. It’s a shortcut both in terms of plot and character, and that’s disappointing, especially for a story arc that should have the biggest impact on T’Pol. At least we get a noble, poignant scene between her and her sham husband, who releases her from their bond, shows T’Pol some kindness and understanding, and turns out to be a decent guy.
Still, before that can happen, we have a standoff and a skirmish between the Vulcans and the Andorians, with the Enterprise in the middle, until Archer and T’Pao can make it to the Vulcan Council on time. There’s some good tension while the various groups are on the brink of war, and one of the Vulcan councilors is on the brink of mutiny, and the whole thing is a powder keg waiting to explode. But inevitably, Archer walks in with the shiny thing and all is well.
The whole conclusion feels a little too pat in what saves the day, but again, the business between the unlikely alliance of Vulcans, Andorians, and humans that ends up setting the stage for that resolution is roundly enjoyable and even stirring at times. There’s a little too much signposting and summation -- including a suggestion that the evil Vulcan leader was the cause of the strife with the humans, not a lack of alignment between the two cultures that feels like a sop -- but hey, it’s an ending, and that’s enough, even if it comes with an all too easy extraction of Surak’s katra and a “dun dun duuuuun” Romulan tease at the end.
When “Kir’Shara” sticks to the politics and personal implications of all this hard-nosed diplomacy, it’s a blast, especially when we get to see Trip acting as the captain. When it tries to get spiritual and metaphysical with Archer and T’Pol, it falls flat. But when you put the two together, you still get an above average episode of Enterprise, and a solid conclusion to this arc.