Enterprise Flashback: The Andorian Incident

The pace of network television -- making 20+ episodes a season -- often drives a series to reuse actors and directors who have worked well for them before. Even in its first season, Enterprise could draw on the history of people who had worked on past Star Trek series... and they did so in a big way for "The Andorian Incident."

The Enterprise decides to visit a Vulcan monastery. But they arrive just after a gang of Andorian freedom fighters have attacked the monastery and taken the monks hostage. They claim the Vulcans are operating a secret spy operation from the site, and they'll tear the place apart -- and take the Enterprise landing party prisoner too -- to prove it.

This episode is directed by Roxann Dawson -- yes, B'Elanna Torres from Voyager. Her career as a director was spinning up as Voyager wound down, and continues to this day. Here, she does a great job of staging and pacing, injecting movement into a story that's mostly "a bunch of people held prisoner in one room." There are plenty of unusual camera setups, and good work in getting the best performances from the actors.

Of course, one of those actors is a Star Trek stalwart who seemingly doesn't need help. Jeffrey Combs adds another alien to his collection, in his first of many appearances as Shran the Andorian. Pun not intended, but it truly is a new color for Combs: he's played quiet menace, been obsequious and disingenuous, and has given us more than one distinct takes on "middle management." Here, he's a rage-fueled live wire... but in a way that feels distinct from Klingons. Andorians are a largely blank canvas, despite appearing in the original Star Trek. Why not get Jeffrey Combs to help paint it out?

Vulcans are also "painted out" in this episode, in a way that I think rubbed many Trekkers the wrong way. The monks of this episode lie in ways big and small. They show more emotion than we're used to Vulcan showing (toward the interloping humans). And, of course, in the end, it's revealed that the Vulcans are spying on the Andorians. I'm of two minds about all this. On the one hand, given the premise of Enterprise as "learning how to become Star Trek," we should allow that Vulcans are "learning how to become Vulcan." Just as present-day humans differ from humans of, say, the 1800s, so should the Vulcans of Star Trek: The Next Generation differ from those of Enterprise.

But just as Enterprise so far has made the main characters feel so inexperienced at times as to seem stupid, so these Vulcans seem too clueless. Were any one of them to apply any logic at all (in this episode, or any prior Enterprise episode in which we've seen them), you'd think they'd anticipate the reactions of aliens to their behavior. Yet I suppose empathy is an emotion, and the thesis here is that as conventionally intelligent as the Vulcans are, they're emotionally dumb. We don't really get much of their motivations in this episode, in favor of saving the twist until the last possible moment. Consequently, pun very much intended, the episode doesn't feel entirely logical in the end.

It finally hit me in this episode that the writers really are trying to make a "Captain Kirk" out of Archer (to mixed success at best). He's been kissing alien women, stomping blindly into danger... and now here, he's telling others how to run their society and starting fights (including one where the "plan" is to actually get the crap beaten out of him). It's all very Kirk-like behavior -- though, like the Vulcans, lacking in much of the sense of empathy Kirk had. It might also be another piece in the puzzle of "why I disliked Archer so much" the first time around; this was coming on the heels of Quantum Leap, where Bakula's character (and the entire show) was about empathy, literally putting yourself in someone else's shoes.

Still, there's quite a lot to like here. I continue to love Phlox and John Billingsley; the doctor is chaotically eating food off T'Pol's plate without asking in one moment, and wisely pointing out where human and Vulcan values align in the next. Reed gets a chance to be in command while more senior officers are held captive -- and I have to say, Reed seems like a smarter, more effective captain than Archer has been so far. Little comedic moments hit throughout, from the awkward silence of arriving at the monastery (because Archer has been told not to speak first), to the "I'm all ears... no offense" quip to the Vulcans, to T'Pol's decidedly emotional snatching of the blanket away from Archer.

Other observations:

• While I like the Andorians' brand of aggression generally, one of them is just written as a pig threatening sexual violence on T'Pol most of the episode. Not great.

• The new Andorian makeup is excellent, with puppeteers for the antennae actually contributing to the performance in key moments.

I wouldn't say this is a great episode of Star Trek, but I do think it's the best of Enterprise to this point. (I'd also say it's not a great Jeffrey Combs episode, though it does whet my appetite for more of him as this character in the future). I give "The Andorian Incident" a B.