654. ShockwaveFORMULA: Cold Front + Relativity + The Enterprise Incident + Quantum Leap
WHY WE LIKE IT: The raid on the Suliban.
WHY WE DON'T: I suppose the Temporal Cold War still leaves me a little cold.
REVIEW: The first season finale starts with a big bang when a shuttlepod's plasma leakage makes a colony's atmosphere explode. Now, more than 3000 colonists are dead and Enterprise has been recalled. It's the finale, so you can bet it's a conspiracy related to the Temporal Cold War, probably aimed at mothballing Starfleet before it properly gets off the ground. Was Enterprise saved by the Suliban in Cold Front exactly for this?
Amusingly, the way Archer finds out the colony wasn't meant to be destroyed, is that he wakes up in his own body BEFORE he took Enterprise out of spacedock. He even gets to ask the immortal question, "Why am I here?" Now let's hope they've finally gotten Quantum Leap out of their systems. Strangely, there's no talk of actually undoing the catastrophe. It's one of those plot holes that inevitably crop up in time travel stories, and a good reason not to do them.
Armed with his own source of information from the future, Archer mounts a bold and well-realized raid on a cloaked Suliban vessel to get data discs that reveal the Suliban actually destroyed the colony. Rapid phaser fights and Suliban crawling all over the walls and ceilings keep the tempo way up, and the Suliban interiors are always full of interesting shapes, levels and lighting. A lot of fun, and a great final bit with the airlock seal breaking and the Suliban tumbling out.
The tension ramps up as a fleeing Enterprise is surrounded by a swarm of cloaked Suliban ships and Archer gives himself up to save his crew. Played like a death sentence, the scene is rather portentous. And then he finds himself transported to the 31st century where history has been disastrously changed. His future in ruins, Daniels can't take Archer back to his time, and the Enterprise has been left in a deadly lurch as a result. It's a good cliffhanger whenever you wonder how they'll get out of it. Enterprise's relative lack of technobabble solutions leaves one with hope that it won't be a cop-out (but check in tomorrow to make sure).
LESSON: One character you know is more important than 3000+ you don't.
REWATCHABILITY - Medium-High: Despite the annoying Temporal Cold War arc, there are enough twists and turns, action and tension, to make this a worthy season finale.
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