In September 2151, while deploying subspace amplifiers to improve their ability to communicate with Starfleet, Enterprise is approached by an alien vessel. Captain Archer hails them, but the vessel returns to warp. He wonders why: Ensign Sato points out that the Universal Translator is far from perfect; and Sub-Commander T'Pol says that some species have motives that cannot be understood in human terms. Soon, the mysterious ship returns and scans Enterprise, sending a high pitched screech through the com systems, and firing on them before again jumping to warp.
Archer notes that Enterprise is now encountering more aggressive species than anticipated, and sets course for Earth so that Jupiter Station can finish the weapons refit. Commander Tucker and Reed ask to be allowed to complete the work themselves, but Archer disagrees, though he gives them permission to begin the procedure. While doing so, the alien ship returns and disables Enterprise's warp drive and main power. Strange alien bipeds then board the ship, and assault two crew-members. They return to their ship, damaging a warp nacelle before departing again. Mayweather suggests contacting the Vulcan High Command for help, but both subspace amplifiers have been destroyed.
Two days later, Enterprise locates an uninhabited planet for a weapons test, which produces a blast yield 10 times the expected output, due to an unexpected surge. T'Pol traces the anomalous reading to Launch Bay 2, to a device tapped into internal sensors and comm channels. Archer then sends the aliens a message: he does not want a fight but will protect his ship by any means necessary. With that, he destroys the device. T'Pol detects the alien vessel again, which uses a re-edited version of Archer's earlier message to demand surrender. After the new cannons are ineffective against their attacker, Archer asks if Reed can intentionally repeat the previous overload of the cannons. Reed complies and damages the alien vessel, knocking out their shields. Reed follows up with two torpedoes before the aliens depart.
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There's a subplot in here about Hoshi trying to find a way to surprise Reed for his birthday, but it seems a bit out of place considering the nature of the ship's crisis. Surely the comm officer and Best Linguist in the Galaxy should be focusing her time more on figuring out how to communicate with these strange aliens and find out what the heck they're up to. Still, it does provide a bit of character development for Reed, although it's more like a 'negative' character development, in that we find out that he really doesn't have much of a character. No friends, no special somebody in his life, even his own family doesn't know what he particularly likes. He is a cipher, outside of his duties on board. She eventually finds out through Phlox and some clandestine medical records research, and in the end Reed gets his favorite cake: Pineapple.
As for the main plot, I really liked it. Enterprise is traipsing around in some very dangerous territory, totally on their own with no chance of calling for timely help from anyone. That premise is starkly portrayed here, as the aliens clearly outmatch the Enterprise. This isn't the first time this has happened, either; the second episode, Fight or Flight, had a similar premise, although at least then they had the Axanar to help them out of a jam. This time, the Enterprise crew are on their own.
The aliens are suitably mysterious, never revealing anything about themselves, and they are never seen again after this episode. The tension mounts as Enterprise tries to find a way out of this mess, their communications buoys are destroyed, their weapons are ineffective, and the aliens finally use their own message against them to order Archer to surrender.
Malcolm might suck at interpersonal relationships, but he's an expert at figuring out new ways to blow things up. He and the engineering team manage to assemble the first of the shipboard phase cannons rather than leave it for drydock workers to install, and it works even better than they had planned. In the end, Enterprise gets to drive off the aliens and resume its mission of exploration. And Reed gets cake.
Overall, I like the episode. Chronologically, it actually happens before the previous episode, Cold Front, dated September 1st, 2051 (Cold Front was dated September 12th), and I think this one would have made a better mid-season finale than the prior one. But this one doesn't talk about the Temporal Cold War, which made it unfeasible for what they were trying to do with the series. Anyway, I'll give this one an 8 out of 10 for the creep factor, the genuine alien-ness of the antagonists, and I even like the loose ends: We never find out why these aliens were doing this, which is fine. We aren't always going to understand the rest of the galaxy, and now is as good a time as any to learn that lesson.
If outer space action gets your juices flowing, you might want to check out my own foray into space opera science fiction, Bard Conley and his Adventures Across the Solar System. It's pulpy, it's fun, and there are lots of explosions. Available now in ebook or paperback at an Amazon website near you.
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