1x26 Shockwave (1)

[7.5/10] Seventy-five percent of this episode is pretty darn good, if not great. The first part of “Shockwave” gives us a problem that threatens to not only ground the Enterprise, but to halt human deep space exploration for decades. It offers a solution that the characters don’t expect in a sideways sort of way. And then it presents the crew working as a well-oiled machine, taking the lessons they’ve learned over the past twenty-five episodes to win the day and clear their names.

Is that stretch flawless? By no means. The gaping hole at the center of Enterprise continues to be Scott Bakula as Jonathan Archer. With a full season of adventures and guises under our belts, it’s safe to say that Bakula cannot convincingly play the brooding layabout, or the romantic lead, or the high-minded explorer, or the amiable good old boy at anything above an “eh, it’s fine” level. That means any episode of this show centered around him is going to playing from a deficit, just like Archer’s beloved water polo team, from the getgo.

But the ideas in “Shockwave” are very good, and even some of the nuts and bolts writing and character decisions are strong. While Bakula doesn't necessarily do a great job at selling Archer’s despondence at having potentially grounded Earth’s space flights for years, the magnitude of the loss shines through. Archer’s “mistake” caused 3,600 souls to lose their lives, and led to the diametrically opposite result that this first mission was supposed to achieve.

The Enterprise’s first mission is to make first contact, to “seek out new life and new civilizations,” and instead, our main characters have seemingly destroyed it. The mission is an effort to prove that humanity is ready to join the interstellar community, and instead, this mistake is poised to make the elders of spaceflight confirm their views of terrans as impulsive and not ready. And worst of all, Archer’s mission is supposed to be a vindication of his father, and a thumb in the eye of the Vulcans who’d held human spaceflight back; instead, he appears to have handed the Vulcans the fodder to say that their reluctance toward both Archers was justified.

And yet, this being not only Star Trek, but a season finale at that, the savvy viewers can probably guess that our heroes weren’t responsible for the “oversight” that led to the decimation of the miners, and that the true culprits probably involves the Suliban and some time travel chicanery. Still, “Shockwave Pt. 1” lingers just long enough on the sense of failure, on the crew planning what they’re going to do after Enterprise, to let the weight of the consequences land, even if we can be reasonably sure that those consequences won’t ever actually come (especially considering that there’s 72 more episodes to get through!)

My favorite of these moments comes from T’Pol, who finds herself in a scene that mirrors the one with her and Archer from “Shadows of P’Jem.” This time, it’s her prompting her Captain to fight for his job, to try to show that there were extentuating circumstances, to convince their respective governments that this journey is worthwhile.

There’s a fatalism to Archer’s position, one that reflects human nature but which is no less wrong, to look at the worst of ourselves when things go wrong and be blind to the best of who we are. T’Pol, having been around humans enough to recognize their irrationality, but also to believe in what we’re capable of, encourages Archer to see all the things he did right, all the value he and the Enterprise brought, over the past ten months.

But it takes a visit from Daniels, the time-traveling crewman from the last major scrap with Silik, to fully convince Archer to snap out of his funk and get back to work. In truth, I didn’t necessarily love this portion of the episode, if only because the show spends a lot of time on Archer feelings out the situation of being thrust back in time when it feels perfunctory to longtime Star Trek fans who are used to hops to the past and future. Still, it’s enough to convince Archer than the explosion was the result of Suliban sabotage, and give him the tools to fix it.

What follows next is Enterprise at its team-work and action-y best. Seeing the crew work together to create a device to detect cloaked Suliban ships, keep the comm on the fritz, and stymie their enemies long enough to complete their mission is outstanding. To boot, the sequences where the main trio sneak onto a Suliban ship, stun grenade the baddies, and nab a series of data disks that prove what really happened is as exciting as all hell. It shows the team learning and growing, taking risks, but being good enough at their jobs as Starfleet officers to make sure they work out.

It’s a hell of a thrillride, except for the fact that it basically ends with a giant tease for part two that grinds the episode to a halt. Silik and his ships surround Enterprise and, per the Future Guy’s instructions, Silik demands that Archer turn himself over to them or they’ll blow up Enterprise and everyone on it. So we get this faux goodbye, where Archer peddles some faux wistful nonsense about believing in the impossible, with awful pacing, that culminates in the Captain being transported to a future that is unexpectedly post-apocalyptic. The whole thing feels like a spiritual rip off of “Best of Both Worlds” with half of the charm and execution.

But in the end, the first half of “Shockwave” represents the strengths and weaknesses of the show. It has some good character growth from T’Pol, some well done ensemble work and action sequences to show what the team in front of and behind the camera can do, and it plays with some very interesting ideas about internalizing guilt and the personal weight of expectation and diplomacy. But it also features some questionable acting from its lead character, and a creaky capper to the episode that only serves to remind the viewer of better Star Trek cliffhangers.

If you’d just cut this one off with ten minutes left or so, you’d have one of the standouts of Star Trek’s first season. But forced to not only tell the immediate story, but squeeze in some extra, overdramatized, timey-wimey nonsense, and focus more on Archer, the cracks in Enterprise’s foundation begin to show.

Still, I have enjoyed this first season of the show. Fan sentiment had me fearing the worst, and rest assured, Enterprise has yet to match the heights of its predecessors. But while the show has plenty of stinkers, it also has plenty of shining moments. As the cast continues to gell, and the interesting ideas in the premise continue to be harvested, I have high hopes as we head into the next season, despite the sour taste “Shockwave” leaves in my mouth.