Enterprise brings aboard a derelict one-person spacecraft, only to find a host of mysteries inside. It's larger on the inside than the outside. Its dead pilot has genetic markers of an unusual mix of alien species. And ultimately they learn: the ship comes from the future. Soon, Enterprise is pursued by several factions who want to claim the ship for themselves.
This episode is moderately entertaining, but it highlights a few things that I think are problems with the Temporal Cold War story arc as a whole. This doesn't really progress the story; by the end of the episode, everything has vanished and we're basically right back where we started. Temporal Cold War episodes seem to be a "puzzle box" only to be opened and then closed again -- not fiddled with while they're open.
All the characters tend to look extra dumb during a Temporal Cold War episode. T'Pol continues to insist that time travel is impossible, even in the face of her many experiences that demonstrate it isn't; her denial is taking on conspiracy-theorist proportions. When Trip and Reed go exploring inside the impossible alien ship, they almost specifically don't radio their progress up to Archer, so he won't find out the value of the ship for another couple of scenes. And when our heroes head to Daniels' quarters for intel from the future on their current situation, no explanation is offered as to why we aren't in there all the time for answers to our problems -- not even a flimsy moralistic explanation.
Mostly, though, my problem with Temporal Cold War episodes is that (because they don't ever advance their own story), they're pretty much just fan service, a way to get around the restrictions of this being a prequel series and have the characters all but wink straight at the audience. They speculate on whether a Vulcan/human child would have pointed ears. Archer wonders whether they've found the body of Zefram Cochrane, a tiny subplot that's there basically just to elbow fans of the original Star Trek series who know the episode "Metamorphosis."
But if you can just accept this as a roller coaster ride -- right down to the part where you'll end exactly where you began -- then there are a few thrills to take from it. Bringing the Tholians in is a bit of fan service that pays off fairly well; it's nice to use filmmaking techniques of some 35 years later on something the original series attempted. And the idea of temporal radiation causing little time loops is a fun one, and plays well in the climactic showdown (and also, satisfyingly different than The Next Generation's memorable time loop episode).
There are also a few nice character moments too. I like Reed and Trip's discussion of how they might use the ability to time travel. And I really enjoyed Phlox's scene with T'Pol, in which he points out that Denobulans believed they were the only life in the galaxy before they made first contact with aliens.
Other observations:
- When Archer first enters the mysterious ship, it's kind of ridiculous how long it takes him to notice the dead pilot sitting in the command chair -- the only object in the entire empty space.
- Doctor Who fans can feel smug knowing that show got to the idea of a ship that's bigger on the inside way before this.
- I have the memory that once the Xindi story arc began in season three of this series, they began to write Archer more and more like a George W. Bush type of leader. (They were really hitting their allegorical 9/11 nail on the head.) I feel like we get a glimpse of that here, as T'Pol offers valid reasons not to get involved in a (hypothetical) Temporal Cold War, and Archer basically just says "nope, we're doing it." He doesn't have reasons, but he's going to be the "decider." (Rewatching this series today, I long for the days when George W. Bush was the biggest imaginable dipshit in politics.)
"Future Tense" isn't exactly a bad episode, but it doesn't amount to much either. I give it a B-.
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