The Enterprise encounters a copy of itself which traveled back in time more than a century. Populated by descendants of the crew we know, they have roamed the Expanse for generations, waiting for the moment they'll catch up with the "present," where they might help their ancestors in their mission to save Earth.
I understand the appeal of a good, old-fashioned time paradox for a science fiction storyteller. I get why Star Trek: Enterprise would want to throw a stand-alone curve ball just as it pulls up on the end of the highly serialized season three. What I don't get is why the writers would attempt to repackage one of the best Deep Space Nine episodes, "Children of Time," without having anything truly novel to contribute. That episode was built around the same premise of Our Heroes meeting their time paradox descendants, but it more deeply explored everyone's personal reactions to that. The commitment seemed deeper, with the Deep Space Nine crew bonding much more with their descendants than anyone seems to here. And crucially, Odo's priorities in that story made for a weightier ending.
There is at least one unique story line that Enterprise highlights in its version of the premise -- the relationship between Trip and T'Pol. An old T'Pol is still alive aboard the duplicate Enterprise (a fact I wouldn't have revealed right away), and she advises her younger self to embrace her emotions and pursue the relationship. The advice comes right as younger T'Pol has decided to pull away from Trip, and is a fun way of swinging to "will they" in long-running "will they, won't they?" between the two.
But then I think the writers make a mistake in understanding what's interesting about this whole concept. Just because Trip and T'Pol's relationship is central, the script makes their son Lorian a central character. The episode cares a lot about his redemption -- how he failed at a chance to end the Xindi threat, and will go to any lengths not to fail again. It's a choice part for guest actor David Andrews, and he plays it well -- but I really don't feel why I'm supposed to care. We don't actually know Lorian, and he will (spoiler, I suppose) cease to exist by the end of the episode. So I can't invest much in his redemption while potential plot threads about the Enterprise crew get short shrift.
We get one scene in which Travis Mayweather and Hoshi Sato speak briefly about what they've learned of their descendants, but it barely gets into why he wants to know so much and she doesn't. Reed is the writers' punching bag yet again, as we learn he has no descendants -- though instead of actually exploring the emotions of that, it's played for a laugh. The implications of Phlox's polyamory barely gets a mention, and we don't explore Captain Archer's feelings at all. Does he regret any actions he took that might have caused this whole mess? Does the loss of his own father factor at all into the way he approaches his descendants? Wouldn't it be nice to explore any of that?
They might have had time to do that, had the writers not felt the need to keep the Xindi threat current. This episode serves up more than one scene of classic villain monologuing between Xindi characters, as they argue about the evidence Enterprise gave them in the last episode. It hardly seems necessary to me; if you're going to have a story diversion, then embrace the diversion, and don't tread water with these extraneous scenes.
Other observations:
- With Spock looming large over the portrayal of any half-human, half-Vulcan character, this episode charts another course. Lorian embraces emotion rather than rejects it, and seems to have found an effective balance.
- Time travel rules in stories can never be airtight, but things feel especially porous here. When the two Enterprises fight each other, wouldn't any damage to the one in the present threaten the existence of the one from the past? And while T'Pol does ask how can they remember the other Enterprise once it ceases to exist, hanging a lantern on it doesn't answer the question.
- Speaking of that battle -- Archer gets the upper hand by using the transporter to beam critical equipment off the past Enterprise to hamper its operation. Seems like this should be a go-to strategy in any ship battle, once the shields are down.
- BIG SPOILER FOR THE ENTERPRISE SERIES FINALE. Lorian reveals that his father Trip died when he was young. The writers seem to have a thing with killing Trip off for an emotional pop.
The story threads about Trip and T'Pol do work here. But I feel the phantom limbs of all the other character stories they might have explored, were they not overly focused on Lorian's arc, or Xindi bickering. I give "E²" a B-.
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