Star Trek 640: Silent Enemy

640. Silent Enemy

FORMULA: Fight or Flight + Balance of Terror + a touch of The Shadow and the Light

WHY WE LIKE IT: The character development.

WHY WE DON'T: Don't jerk us around about the Romulans.

REVIEW: Silent Enemy has a strong focus on the characters, but at a price - it leaves too many unanswered questions about the mysterious aliens attacking Enterprise. Again, there is such a thing as too much mystery, and there's far too little closure for my tastes here. I think the creators were trying to tease us with the Romulans' first appearance: green ship, no communication, cloaked vital signs. But no, there's this big reveal when they board the ship. They're actually creepy CGI aliens, probably telepathic (or otherwise non-verbal). Not Romulans then, but they might have had a link to the "vampires" from Fight or Flight - similarly green ship, an interest in probing people - but no mention is even made of a possible connection. Like the vampires, they are never seen again, which tends to stick in my craw. Near Space should be too small to never see an alien race ever again, and their return might have answered a few questions about just what the heck their deal was.

The whole thing with the title Silent Enemy is thus merely background for character development. Silent Enemy is better remembered, I think, as the first episode to focus on Malcolm. He becomes Hoshi's "silent enemy" when Archer gives her the unique task of finding out what his favorite food is. How do you get to know a character whose character quirk is that he's keen on privacy? Hoshi's is a detective's mission. We find out he's had a falling out with his parents, that he's something of a skirt chaser, and that he has several allergies. In fact, the medical way Phlox helps figure out his favorite food is rather clever, and when the cake comes out, Malcolm's reaction actually brings a smile to your face. Best bit is still when Hoshi comes off like she's flirting with him. Great awkward moment.

We already knew Malcolm liked his toys and here he butts heads with Trip. Both have an engineering background and both feel proprietary about weapons modifications. Though Archer admits he had something to prove when he took Enterprise out of spacedock unfinished, Malcolm and Trip aren't too happy about turning tail to get a pit crew to install necessary new weapons, but can they agree on how to proceed? Trip comes off rather well here (for once), giving not just one, but two Kennedy-inspired speeches, inspiring his team and later changing Archer's mind about going back to Earth.

The new weapons pack quite a punch, but only when they overload, and so a controlled overload is the key to defeating the unknown enemy. A bit of technobabble there, but reasonable. Oh yeah, and I've been meaning to say something about the show using DS9's musical cues (as do the DVD menus). It's really distracting...

LESSON: Nothing keeps a man from his favorite food. Nothing.

REWATCHABILITY - Medium: Glad for the character moments, not so glad for the irrelevant villains.