Suliban Cabal leader Silik goes undercover aboard the Enterprise, with an apparent mission to... prevent the ship's destruction? Still, he must be up to no good, asserts a strange new ally named Daniels, who claims to be from the future, fighting for the opposing faction in an elaborate temporal cold war. Archer must decide whether anyone can be trusted.
I feel like The X-Files wasn't just a model for Enterprise in a more sparing use of its overarcing storyline; The X-Files also feels like an inspiration for the notion that "none of this needs to be planned in advance, or make a lick of sense." This is only the second time we're checking in on this Temporal Cold War business, and the storytelling already seems to lack a steady hand at the wheel.
"Cold Front" is peppered with little details that are meant to tease. We see just how much the shadowy "Future Guy" controls the Suliban. We're told that Daniels is from 900 years in the future, and notably only "more or less" human. Daniels claims he's the good guy, yet it's Silik who saves Enterprise from destruction. Daniels gets hit once by weapons fire and basically explodes! We're left at the end of the episode with an ominous locked room, behind the door of which future episodes might spring at any moment.
Yet even with just two data points to pin up on our conspiracy wall -- "Broken Bow" and this -- it's already impossible to consider any of this story without seeming unhinged. Last time, Silik was charged with killing Archer; now his mission is to save his life. How does that make sense? T'Pol points out plot holes in the time travel that aren't actually explained away later. And how do you square any of this with the series' overall ambition to be a compelling prequel? By bringing in future timelines, the series seems to be admitting that being a prequel alone just isn't enough.
But suppose you really do find all this tantalizing, rather than annoying. It's still hard to reckon with the fact that all this material takes up barely half the episode. For some reason, "Cold Front" is also saddled with a story about encountering aliens on a religious pilgrimage to see a solar flare. And this is no minor B plot. Much is made of welcoming these aliens aboard Enterprise and giving them a tour, of Phlox exploring the tenets of their faith, Reed complaining (rightly) about whether they should be allowed into sensitive areas of the ship, Trip "warp-splaining" technology to them they already understand, and more.
And the thing is, all that B plot stuff is the more interesting part of the episode! Because John Billingsley is so strong in his role, Phlox's earnest interest in alien religion is oddly compelling. Because Hoshi Sato and Travis Mayweather have been so underserved as characters, a lengthy scene in which she puts him up to sitting in the captain's chair -- and he is then embarrassingly caught there -- is quite endearing. Give us more character-building scenes like these!
As always, the production values feel sky high. We get a big crowd of alien extras in full makeup. There are fun CG moments surrounding Silik's inhuman flexibility. There's big action, culminating in what amounts to a skydiving escape. It may not make any sense, but it looks great!
Other observations:
- Ultimately, Star Trek: Discovery would, in passing, tie back to all this Temporal Cold War stuff.
- Of all the things they do to make Silik seem villainous, somehow the thing that affects me the most is the way he calls Jonathan Archer "John." It's just so condescending -- and a great performance by actor John Fleck.
"Cold Front" seems to demonstrate that the writers already have no idea where any of this Temporal Cold War stuff is heading. It jams in two story lines, each one feeling like a distraction from the other. It's not an encouraging start for serialized storytelling on Enterprise. I give it a C+.
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