Captain Archer must explain to Degra everything they've learned in the Expanse, and convince him that the long-term plans of the Sphere Builders will be as devastating to the Xindi as everyone else. Meanwhile, Trip struggles to write a letter to the parents of a crew member who was killed in the recent attack by the reptilian Xindi, and T'Pol continues to struggle with emotion after her use of trellium.
In so many stories, there comes a point where one character has to recount information to another that the audience/reader/listener already knows. A book will often dispatch this with a short sentence: "Jane explained everything to Bob." A movie or television show will often cut away to a scene in a secondary plot. That is the situation where Star Trek: Enterprise finds itself here between Archer and Degra. And yet, persuading a long-time nemesis to actually switch to your side is not the sort of story development that should happen entirely off-screen. So we have to see Archer's attempts to persuade... even if that means walking the audience through back story it already knows.
On the plus side, we are talking about 19 prior episodes of season three -- and if you watched it week-to-week at the time, it unfolded over more than half a year. The audience itself could probably use more of a refresher than a brief "previously on" package can deliver at the start of the episode. On the other hand, this won't be the last "re-cap" of the season; if Archer is successful, all he will get is Degra's promise to take him before the Xindi council... where he will have to explain all of this yet again.
So what this episode really needs is a B-story. Better yet, an A-story that can take up more screen time than what's essentially going to be a massive exposition dump. The writers of Enterprise were smart enough to know this, and also clever enough to seize an opportunity that Star Trek rarely takes: mourning the death of a "redshirt." Thus, after "Damage" (an episode that uncharacteristically shows Star Trek dealing with the physical aftermath of a battle) we now get this episode (which will uncharacteristically deal with the emotional aftermath).
"The Forgotten" opens with a speech from Archer at a memorial service for 18 fallen crew members, and transitions from there into Trip's episode-long struggle to write a letter to the family of one of them, crewman Taylor. It's soon established how little sleep Trip has gotten in recent days, teeing up that he begins to imagine seeing and talking to Taylor. That leads to a strong scene, exploring Trip's guilt as he imagines all the things Taylor would say if she were really there. And the subtext behind it all is well-conceived: that what Trip is really struggling with is not having properly mourned the death of his own sister.
Unfortunately, this scene (and the story line as a whole) is compromised in two ways. First, the sudden concern over crewman Taylor seems hollow; we never met her before she was killed, and it's hard to retrofit emotion onto someone we don't really know. Second, the "previously on" package at the top of the episode gives the game away by reminding us of the death of Trip's sister. We know the whole time what's really got Trip so worked up. So even as the episode takes care to slowly expose the truth through Trip' clashes with Degra and conversations with T'Pol, we know where it's all headed. And when it does get there, and we hear the letter Trip finally writes Taylor's family? It's good for the story, as we can tell he's finally coming to terms with his own loss. But it doesn't feel like it would be much comfort to Taylor's family; it's all about Trip!
Of course, Star Trek: Enterprise has always been on its strongest footing when in action-adventure mode. An episode about exposition and feelings alone isn't going to cut it. So we do get two separate calamities to deal with. First is a plasma leak exploding on the outside of the ship, requiring a spacewalk to repair. The CG figures walking along the hull don't look entirely convincing, but the sequence is otherwise well-realized with good sets and clever lighting effects. Then, a reptilian Xindi ship arrives, and Degra is forced to firmly choose sides and attack his own people. It's unfortunate that the moment Archer finally does persuade Degra is kept off-screen for suspense, but the action that follows plays well.
Other observations:
- Family Guy creator and massive Star Trek fan Seth MacFarlane makes a brief cameo appearance. (With just one line of dialogue, I think?) This didn't scratch the itch. Not only will he appear one more time on Star Trek, but he would go on to create and star in his own Star Trek homage, The Orville.
- The writers never tire of making Reed look terrible. Sure, he lays his life on the line to try to save the day in this episode... but that comes after he can't even do something as simple as open a panel. (I know, it's heat-warped, and that's not his fault. But could they not once have Trip fail to do something?)
- For all the scenes in Trip's story line that are meant to stir emotions, I find the most effective moment to be when T'Pol confesses her envy of humans: they can give in to emotions without being overwhelmed as Vulcans are.
This episode's heart is in the right place, but there's no way around the burdensome exposition it's saddled with. And Enterprise is hard-pressed to excel at character-based drama when it has done so little to build audience empathy for its characters over three seasons. I give "The Forgotten" a B-.
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