Enterprise discovers a small colony of humans living on a planet in the Expanse. They are living at an Old West level of technology, and oppressing a second race of aliens. To learn how this all came to be, Archer and his crew head in undercover to investigate, and soon run afoul of local politics and police.
"How did these primitive humans get here?" is a pretty classic Star Trek trope, played out many times on the original series out of budget-saving necessity. Enterprise has more money and production capabilities at its disposal to more fully present an Old West town, but the episode doesn't really add to the trope so much as play all its greatest hits. We get horses and stunts. We get gunfights and a city-spanning final showdown. We get crossfades and wipes between scenes. We even get an Ennio Morricone-inflected score.
I suppose we also get another classic theme -- an allegorical look at real-world racism -- woven in around all the action. But it's a pretty shallow effort that feels like it hasn't aged very well. Star Trek is fundamentally idealistic, so I suppose it isn't off-brand to think that you can "solve racism" by removing one particularly virulent racist and exposing everyone else to a larger truth. But watching this episode in 2025, it feels naive more than optimistic to assert that oppression that's this institutionalized can be reversed so simply.
But then, Enterprise has always been stronger at "having fun" than "giving morals" -- and at least it doesn't miss on the fun here. Trip has to barter away his harmonica to "rent" a horse... only to discover that riding a horse isn't as easy as it appears in a John Ford movie. Archer shows he's learned a thing or two from his adventures about blending in. And that final action sequence really is great, full of slow-motion stunts, phaser blasts causing water to geyser from horse troughs, great bullet hits everywhere (including when Archer takes a hit to the shoulder), and Reed finally (!) doing something smart -- when he takes advantage of the fact that with a stun setting, he can shoot a hostage to end a standoff.
And there are solid guest stars here, too. Glenn Morshower (a real working actor, known to many as Agent Pierce on 24) gives the perfect energy as no-nonsense sheriff MacReady. Emily Bergl (who you may recognize from Shameless or The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel) sells optimism as earnestly as possible in this action-oriented script. And James Parks plays a perfect heel as Deputy Bennings.
But don't think too hard here, or you will find no end of nits to pick. This colony has been here 250 years and hasn't advanced technologically at all -- not even with the knowledge of alien capabilities to inspire innovation? Why do communicators ("talking on a box") seem like such a leap in a society which has to at least be familiar with the telegraph? Does this town not have a mayor; why does the sheriff seem to act as the leader in all situations? (Like... are they fascists?)
Other observations:
- There's an interesting theme to be explored here, in what happens when the oppressed turn around and become oppressors -- as humans did against the aliens who abducted them. I just don't think this episode even begins to scratch the surface on the topic.
- Why does Trip go on this mission to the planet? (Aside from the fact that the writers only care about three characters on this show.) Why would you send an engineer to check out the Old West planet and not your tactical officer? Or even your communications officer, for possible language barriers?
"North Star" is well-made, well-acted, and has a final shootout that's totally fun. Yet for all that, it's stale re-heated leftovers, explored at least this well many times over on Trek series past. I give it a B-.
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