Enterprise Season 3, worth it? (1 Viewer)

[Adam Lenhardt]

3x03 - "Extinction"
This episode felt like a "Voyager" episode, and not in a good way. I'm usually a fan of LeVar Burton-directed episodes, but even he couldn't polish this turd.

Clearly they're building toward Trip and T'Pol hooking up. I get it, and maybe even ship it; they have real chemistry together, and there's a fun contrast between the most and least emotionally volatile of our series regulars. But the whole Vulcan massages thing feels like a forced and awkward way to get there.

The whole thing with the mutagenic virus seemed like an excuse to put Scott Bakula, Dominic Keating, and Linda Park into alien makeup and have them dance around like primates. We've seen variations on the theme before, and I wasn't particular enamored with those episodes either.

And then the society that keeps the planet quarantined is used to create an artificial ticking clock. I would have to believe that any viable path to a cure would be of overriding importance, but no; they have to act irrationally overzealous to create drama.

It would have been bad enough during the first two seasons, when Enterprise's stated mission was exploration, but it's even worse here. They visit the planet because it was the last planet the Xindi ship from the previous episode had visited. But then, once the plot is underway, that setup gets completely forgotten. There is no explanation for why the Xindi ship visited the planet, nor why they weren't affected by the virus. Maybe it will be explained in a future episode, but it felt lazy that Enterprise's senior officers didn't at least ask the question.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

3x04 - "Rajiin"
I really enjoyed the density and complexity of the market in this episode; the Delphic Expanse feels densely populated and alive in ways that the Delta Quadrant seldom did. And the Enterprise crew successfully bartering for the formula for liquid Trellium-D by trading Earth spices was a really nice touch; what is mundane and common to us might very well be exotic and rare to someone else from far away.

The title character, who infiltrates Enterprise as a sex slave but turns out to be an intelligence operative for the Xindi, demonstrated that the Xindi are capable of pursuing multiple avenues to achieve their aims. I would have liked greater clarity about how her powers worked; I had assumed that they were innate to her species, but then the scans she delivered at the end of the episode were clearly technological.

The Xindi succeed in getting the information they need to begin work on their bioweapon. But the extraction of Rajiin provides Enterprise with valuable intelligence as well: They have come face to face with both the reptilian and insectoid varieties of the Xindi, and have a Xindi weapon to study and reverse engineer.

The Xindi's fear of humanity is a double-edged sword; it's what driving their aggression, but it's also what's preventing them from taking more decisive action. My sense is that they believe Earth is a lot more powerful than it actually is at this point in the timeline.

3x05 - "Impulse"
The Vulcan zombies episode that I didn't know we needed. It was effectively harrowing, and helped clarify some things that hadn't made sense up until this point: Namely, why Enterprise had been so successful surviving the Delphic Expanse when it had been certain doom for every Vulcan ship that entered it, either disappearing or returning completely insane. The Vulcans have a more sophisticated nuerophysiology, and it is their unique nueral pathways that make them susceptible to Trellium-D -- an essential insulation to protect from the spatial anomalies of that region of space.

It is also indicative of Archer's leadership style that he forgoes utilizing the collected Trellium-D for the sake of one of his officers.

3x06 - "Exile"
This episode has a lot in common with the "Voyager" episode "Alter Ego" (and later the"Strange New Worlds" episode "The Elysian Kingdom"). All three revolve around a powerful being who has become completely isolated by circumstance and latches onto a companion from the starship's crew.

This one is probably the most insidious of the three. For all of its Beauty and the Beast trappings, it owes a greater debt to "It's a Good Life", the Jerome Bixby short story turned "Twilight Zone" episode. Tarquin's power exceeds his restraint. His contact with Sato first involves a deeply invasive intrusion into her mind, followed by a well-furnished imprisonment. It's not a particularly great iteration of the story, but I was interested in the ways that Enterprise's communications officer leveled the playing field and asserted her will against his attempts to covet her.

Elsewhere, we learn that the Delphic Expanse is likely an artificial creation, with the spatial anomalies that plague it created by the forces emitted by dozens of vast spheres that were constructed around the Expanse. The upside is that Enterprise is able to use this knowledge to predict where the spatial anomalies will exist, and hopefully avoid them.

And, fortunately, Sato's traumatic experience with Tarquin wasn't entirely in vain; he does provide some important intel about the location of a Xindi colony where an important component of the Xindi weapon is being manufactured.

3x07 - "The Shipment"
But when Enterprise arrives at the colony, its assumptions about the monolithic nature of the Xindi are challenged by Gralik Durr, one of the sloth-like Xindi-Arboreals, who has spent decades as the primary technician overseeing production of kemocite. Kemocite is a highly dangerous mineral that would later be very strictly regulated by the Federation. But it was also a highly versatile substance with many different industrial applications.

It injects some badly needed nuance into this storyline, which had thus far only depicted the Xindi as preemptive aggressors. Gralik ultimately risks his life and his professional reputation to uphold his moral beliefs.

3x08 - "Twilight"
This is an unusual sort of timey wimey episode. It's not really a time travel episode, but the cause and effect don't have the normal linear chronological progression. After being infected with extra-dimensional parasites while within one of the spatial anomalies, Archer loses the ability to create and store new long-term memories. This disability is crippling, and results in him ceding command of Enterprise to T'Pol. Under T'Pol's command, Enterprise suffers crippling engine damage that sets back the ship's search for the Xindi weapon by months. Ultimately, they only make it back to Earth in time to see it utterly destroyed.

The story picks up over a decade later, after the Xindi has waged a campaign of genocide against what remains of humanity, exterminating any they find anywhere. The several thousand survivors of this purge eke out a rough existence on a harsh, remote world. Only the Enterprise and the Intrepid remain from United Earth's Starfleet. This last outpost has only survived because the Xindi don't know its location. Archer lives in a small home built from the remains of a civilian vessel, with T'Pol as his full time caretaker.

Things come to a head quickly when Phlox visits the colony. It took him years, but he has finally found a way to eradicate the parasites in Archer's brain. Archer and T'Pol return with Phlox to Enterprise, now under Trip's command, because the warp engine is needed to power the treatment. Phlox begins cautiously at first, but the first treatment is successful at eradicating the targeted parasites.

Before further treatments can be given, Enterprise faces a new threat: A spy has followed Phlox to the human colony, and sold its location to the Xindi. Trip refuses to permit Phlox to continue the treatments, as that power will be needed for weapons.

But Phlox and T'Pol discover something unexpected: The treatment didn't just eliminate the targeted parasites in the present; they were gone from the prior scans from decades earlier as well. They theorize that the parasites exist outside normal space-time. If they are able to eliminate all of them, Archer may never have been disabled and wouldn't have had to cede command. Perhaps, in that timeline, Enterprise could have stopped the Xindi in time.

But before they can their theory, the Xindi arrive and Enterprise suffers catastrophic damage. The bridge crew gets killed, and Phlox dies in a shootout shortly thereafter. The only other way to destroy the parasites is a subspace implosion, a strategy that had been dismissed out of hand previously because it would kill Archer and anyone else in the vicinity. But with humanity on the brink of extinction, Archer and T'Pol figure a long shot is better than no shot at all. They blow up the ship, and sure enough Archer wakes up shortly after the initial incident, parasite-free. The timeline has been reset.

It's definitely the writers pressing the reset button, since nothing that happens in the episode ultimately comes to pass. But it's a reset button that feels earned. Phlox, T'Pol, and even the afflicted Archer really have to work to give Enterprise that second chance. And it allows for a great two-hander between Archer and his first officer, the depths of the respect and loyalty that they have to each other.

Probably my favorite episode of the season so far.

 

[joshEH]

EDIT: Just noticed that the same post that I responded quite ferociously to was nearly 20 years now old…never mind.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

EDIT: Just noticed that the same post that I responded quite ferociously was nearly 20 years now old…never mind.

I’m sorry I missed whatever it was

I tried rewatching Enterprise at some point last year but through no fault of the show itself, it wasn’t the right time for me. But Adam’s recaps are making me want to jump in again. Of all the Trek shows, it’s been the longest since I’ve cycled through this one - 2013. And given that new live action Trek is months away, now seems as good of a time as any.

 

[Polbroth]

Best of all the Star Treks, but worst of all the Star Trek Opening themes.

T'Pol is the perfection of a character begun with Spock and carried on through Data and Seven.

 

[Sam Favate]

I’ve found that each time I revisit Enterprise, I like it more. Original broadcast: I mostly thought “meh” and was disappointed (except for season 4). On DVD: Wow, this show is so much better than I remembered. On Blu-ray: Holy cow, I love this show!

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

3x09 - "North Star"
This felt like the kind of episode the original series would have made when it was running low on money and had access to the sets and costumes of a Western pilot that didn't get picked up to series. That being said, I enjoyed it quite a bit more than I expected to when I first realized the concept.

Part of that is how much I enjoy episodes about isolated groups of humans ending up far from home, and seeing how they've developed in isolation. The Voyager episode "The 37's" had a similar premise, of humans abducted in the past as slaves who then overthrew their masters and seized control of their destinies. But there are a couple key differences: the 37's were abducted later, after several more decades of technological development. And they were able to utilize and even reverse engineer some of the aliens' advanced technology. And significantly more time had passed since their abduction, 434 years versus less than 300 years in this case.

This explains the divergent outcomes: The 37's have a thriving civilization over 100,000 strong with three modern (by our standards) cities. Whereas the humans here have pretty much stagnated at the technology and societal development of the time and place they'd come from.

It's not a Prime Directive conundrum; the Skagarans had already corrupted their culture and exposed them to warp technology when they abducted them. And as fellow humans, Enterprise has a different obligation to them than it has to other species.

I appreciated the ending, too: Enterprise has a vital, time-sensitive mission to accomplish, and it's the only Warp 5 vessel in Earth's fleet. It has neither the time nor the resources to bring these people back to Earth. So instead, they share their knowledge and a better way forward until they can return in a more deliberate way. I would love to see the second contact, and whether the intellectual and cultural seeds that Archer planted ended up bearing fruit.

Best of all the Star Treks, but worst of all the Star Trek Opening themes.

I actually didn't mind it during the first two seasons. Whoever decided that the way to fix it was to remake it as a soft rock song for the third season was sorely mistaken, however.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

3x10 - "Similitude"
This was a deeply uncomfortable episode, revealing the most unlikable side of Archer to date. And yet, it's exactly the kind of story the show should be telling at this moment in its run, because there's no other time this story could be told.

The order Archer gave to create Sim would have gotten him court-martialed and almost certainly imprisoned if he had been a captain in the Federation's Starfleet; the Federation will be famously adverse to genetic engineering of any sort, and for good reason. And I doubt any Federation Doctor would have obeyed that order, as it would fly in the face of Federation ethical guidelines. It is an immensely cruel thing, to bring sentient life into this world, give it just long enough to appreciate all of the possibilities and wonders life has to offer, and then snuff it out in two weeks. Even if everything had gone according to plan, even if Sim had been able to live out his natural lifespan, it would have been cruel.

But the Federation and its rules don't exist yet. Enterprise is humanity's last best hope at preventing its extermination. The ship is alone in a dangerous and remote region of space. It needs a chief engineer who is up to the job. When Archer gives the order, he isn't doing it to save his friend's life, or even the lives of his crew. He's doing it to save his species.

And the beauty of this episode is that when Sim comes into his own, he is smart and kind and decent and selfless. Enterprise doesn't him, and doesn't have any right to demand that he sacrifice his life for humanity. But Archer makes the demand anyway, and insinuates that he'll do a lot more than just demand if he's forced to. What is one life against billions, after all? As Spock would one day opine, "It is logical. The needs of the many, outweigh the needs of the few. Or the one."

But Sim spares Archer from having to give that grotesque order. Ultimately, he consents to sacrificing himself to save Trip. And he does it not because Archer demanded that he do it, or because he thinks Trip's life is more valuable or worthy than his own. He does it because he remembers Trip's sister, loves her like Trip loves her. And he doesn't want anybody else to die the way she died. He makes his own moral judgement, and gives the last full measure of devotion to that cause.

I'd like to think that his burial in space is the first like that, that it established the tradition that would carry on down through the centuries. His sacrifice deserves to echo in that way, remembered in form long after nobody is left alive to remember in deed.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

As my body seems to be making up for lost time with all of the bugs and minor illnesses I managed to skip during the COVID lockdowns, I found myself home sick again today, which meant more Trek binging from the couch:

3x11 - "Carpenter Street"
Another Temporal Cold War episode. There is a lot left unexplained at the end of this one, mainly: Why were the Xindi were sent back to 2004 Detroit to create their bioweapon? And why are the two future factions that were opposed to one another during the first two seasons are now seemingly aligned in wanting to stop the Xindi?

It's got to be the first episode of Trek I've seen that depicts contemporary prostitution rather than, like, alien sex slaves or something.

In terms of the larger story, it's important in eliminating (or at least delaying) the bioweapon threat, while giving T'Pol incontrovertible prove that time travel is possible. We also learn that Daniels's future up until this point isn't the Prime continuity future, because the conflict with the Xindi never happened in his timeline. So while the Kelvin timeline is an offshoot of the Prime timeline, the Prime timeline is apparently an offshoot of a timeline we've never seen more than glimpses of.

3x12 - "Chosen Realm"
This feels like a very timely story from the vantage point in which it was written, during the early years of America's "War on Terror". The Triannons seem like an allegory for Islamic fundamentalists, down to an ancient schism into two main sects based on differing interpretations of a core piece of religious dogma.

D'Jamat, the fanatical Pri'Nam of this group of pilgrims, reminded me a lot of Kai Winn -- completely certain of the rightness of his actions, and willing to self-servingly twist the tenets of his faith in pursuit of personal ambitions.

Archer's gambit to fake his own death by portraying the transporter as an execution chamber was clever, and the ending -- when D'Jamat see what his theological war has wrought -- packed a real punch.

Plotwise, however, it only really serves to set the Enterprise back in its mission, but wiping out two-thirds of the data collected to help navigate the Delphic Expanse.

3x13 - "Proving Ground"
I really enjoyed this one, which is consequential both in terms of Enterprise's mission to destroy the Xindi Weapon, and in terms of the evolving relationship between Archer and Shran personally, and the humans and Andorians more generally.

I believed everybody's motivations every step of the way. There's a lot of conflict and drama, but none of it feels artificial. The humans, the Xindi, and the Andorians all just have conflicting agendas.

With that being said, the Xindi suffer a significant setback while the humans and Andorians -- while achieving less than they'd hoped -- still advance their respective agendas. And Archer and Shran find ways to further strengthen their own bond, even as their orders and missions put them at odds with one another. In this episode, you really see Shran understanding the value of Earth as an ally, and that the strategic importance of that relationship longer term might be more valuable than the short-term might of a Death Star-style superweapon. Left unsaid is that Andoria having such a weapon would be an unacceptable strategic imbalance from the Vulcans' point of view, and would more likely initiate an arms race to develop ever more devastating planet killers. Long-term, that's not good for anybody.

And the planted kemocite finally pays off, six months later in story time, while the destruction of the prototype presumably prevents the Xindi from identifying the sabotage.

3x14 - "Stratagem"
This one is basically the show doing a take on 36 Hours, although interestingly putting the crew of the Enterprise in the role of the Nazis, and the Xindi engineer in the role of the hero. It's main importance is giving Archer an opportunity to understand Degra -- the Oppenheimer of the Xindi WMD -- as a person. The information gleaned pays off immediately by conveying the location of the weapon, at long last. But more importantly, Archer gains intel about who Degra is and how he's motivated.

3x15 - "Harbinger"
I wasn't a fan of this one, which is yet another episode in the Xindi arc where Archer behaves in a morally questionable way. But even though it ends up paying off, in the form of the first hints that humanity gets about the motivation for convincing the Xindi to exterminate humanity, it didn't feel earned along the way.

Fetching what appears to be an escape pod from the rapidly expanding anomaly is arguably a humanitarian act. But disconnecting its passenger from the life support system was reckless and probably fatal. And from there, operating on nothing more than a vague hope of valuable intel, Archer basically orders Phlox to torture a man dying an agonizing death. Without greater certainty that he had essential information, I didn't buy Archer giving the order and I didn't buy Phlox carrying it out.

I didn't love the b-plot, either, with Reed getting all territorial about the MACO space marines and their superior equipment and training. I do like Stephen Culp as the major; he's someone who believes in the chain of command and in carrying out his orders to the best of his ability. Whether he likes or dislikes someone is immaterial in the face of that.

Likewise with the c-plot, about the love triangle between Tucker, T'Pol, and Corporal Cole. It all felt stilted and artificial.

3x16 - "Doctor's Orders"
This episode is basically a remake of the Voyager bottle episode "One", with Phlox in the place of Seven of Nine as the sole conscious crewmember aboard the ship, as everybody else has been rendered unconscious to protect them from an environmental hazard.

I thought the Voyager episode did it better, with both a longer period of isolation and a more organic reason for the person remaining to be so ill-equipped for such total isolation.

That being said, it was a nice showcase for John Billingsley as Phlox, who got to indulge in some of his personal quirks with nobody around to judge. I'd probably spend a lot more time in my birthday suit under those conditions, too.

3x17 - "Hatchery"
This episode felt like wheel-spinning to keep us from getting to our destination too soon. A 25-episode arc is hard to sustain at the best of times, and this is an episode where the strain starts to be felt.

As Archer behaves increasingly irrational, it creates an opportunity to highlight the differences between the Starfleet officers and the MACO soldiers. The Starfleet officers have a longer history with Archer and so are better able to judge when his state of mind has been compromised. But it's also the cultural difference between being in NASA and being in the army; both have a command structure, but the nature of the mission is different. Internal debate in a mission of exploration can lead to exciting new ideas and unexpected discoveries. Internal debate in the middle of a battle can get a lot of people killed unnecessarily.

Presumably the MACO soldiers have a duty to refuse an unlawful order, just like the officers and enlisted people of the U.S. military do. But in this case, Archer's compromised state affected his strategic thinking and impaired his ability to prioritize effectively. He wasn't violating the law, necessarily, but his decisions were likely to get everybody killed none the less. By the end of the episode, Major Hayes has learned a lesson -- just like Lt. Reed did a couple episodes back.

3x18 - "Azati Prime"
Finally, at long last, Enterprise reaches the Xindi weapon. And, of course, nothing goes as planned. Archer's moral compromises are weighing on him more and more, and now he's determined to strike a decisive blow despite Daniels' urgent warning from the future.

Fortunately, he gets captured before he can achieve his goal. Left with no other choice, he pursues a diplomatic course of action. One of the weakest points of this whole Xindi arc for me is that the justification for launching a preemptive campaign of extermination doesn't feel certain enough for such a drastic course of action. Basically, they've killed seven million people because a lady from another dimension told them to.

Archer's goal then, armed with the glimpse of the future that Daniels shared with him, is to convince the Xindi of the flimsiness of their rationale for attacking. And he does make some headway.

But while he does, Enterprise is just getting absolutely torn apart by the Xindi-Reptilians. By the end of the episode, the fatalities are piling up and the ship is barely holding together.

Which in turn leads to...

3x19 - "Damage"
This episode is right up there with the DS9 episode "In the Pale Moonlight" for showcasing a blatantly immoral act carried out by a Starfleet captain out of desperation. The fundamental argument here is that the ends justify the means.

To prevent a genocide, Archer is willing to condemn another vessel of peaceful exploration to a likely death. Enterprise stealing that ship's warp coil, stranding them far from home in a dangerous area of space with only impulse power, is at odds with everything that Enterprise was supposed to be about. Archer won't sleep easy after this one, and he shouldn't.

Elsewhere, we learn that the recent displays of emotion from T'Pol are the result of a Trellium-D addiction that she has been quietly maintaining. It reveals a new area of vulnerability for the science officer/XO. It also provides an opportunity for Phlox to just be a good and trustworthy doctor, after his skills were put to less upstanding purposes more than once recently in service of humanity's hunt for the Xindi weapon.

3x20 - "The Forgotten"
As Archer tries to convince the Xindi-Arboreals and Xindi-Humanoids that what he is telling them is true, Trip struggles with exhaustion, the unceasing demands of a badly damaged ship, and his long repressed grief over his sister's presumed death.

Degra, as part of the Xindi delegation hearing Archer's evidence, is forced to confront the consequences of his weapon, and the many lives that it has stolen.

Finally, we understand why the Xindi are so willing to trust the female Sphere-Builder: She was the one who united them as one council after the conflict between the various sentient species destroyed their original homeworld. So Archer has an uphill battle to climb to convince them she's actually their enemy.

Tucker and T'Pol grow closer, and Tucker -- having confronted his grief -- is able to write a condolence letter to the parents of one of the crewmen in Engineering who perished in the Xindi-Reptilian attack a couple episodes prior.

It's not a very showy episode, but I appreciated how it gave the fallout of prior events real weight. I'm glad they've moved beyond the usual Trek trope of the starship being nearly destroyed in one episode and then back to perfect condition by the start of the next one. Two episodes after the attack, and the Enterprise is still just barely limping along.

As a side note, it was surprising and kind of distracting to see Seth MacFarlane pop up as one of the crewmen working under Trip on repairs.

3x21 - "E²"
I liked this one a lot, even though it wades into the murky waters of predestination paradox. The mostly likely explanation is that the Prime continuity is a further branch off of the original continuity, with the Enterprise that went back in time always having existed from this timeline's perspective, and it got destroyed in battle rather than erased from existence when "our" Enterprise successfully traversed the subspace corridor without traveling through time.

I especially liked how they got a few crucial upgrades from basically themselves, getting to take advantage of the other Enterprise's additional century-plus of exploration and experience. I also liked how subtle differences in set dressing and lighting made the "other" Enterprise feel like a different place, more homey and more suitable to hosting families.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

3x22 - "The Council"
It's a bit late, but this episode further explained the status the sphere builders (called Guardians) have in Xindi society, revered almost as gods.

Degra was an interesting character; he has the blood of millions on his hands, but he stood up and took responsibility and did what he could to make amends. While him and Trip would never have been friends, Trip at least came to respect Degra. Unfortunately, his advocacy for and defense of humanity costs him his life, as the Reptilians (goaded on by the female sphere builder) and the Insectoids break away from the council and launch the Weapon unilaterally.

The episode ends on a pretty bleak note: The away team has lost a member to a weapon inside the sphere (that was oddly reminiscent of GLaDOS from the Portal video games). Sato has been kidnapped by the Reptilians. And the fully functional weapon is on its way to Earth.

But the episode wasn't without accomplishments; some more of the damage to the Enterprise was repaired; Archer locked down the support of the Arboreals and made significant headway with the Aquatics; and the Away Team got away with the data core from the Sphere.

Questions I have after this episode: Why so much focus on the sixth (avian) Xindi race? Did the sphere builders play a role in their extinction? What about the hatchery that Archer protected? Will that sway the Insectoids? What do the Reptilians want with Sato?

3x23 - "Countdown"
This episode further demonstrated Archer's ability to form and hold together productive coalitions during extremely adverse circumstances; he holds onto the support of the Primates and the Arboreals, and manages to bring the Aquatics into the fold.

The Reptilians manage to use some sort of parasite to force Sato to decrypt the third key for the weapon, but they don't get any further use out of her; the MACO soldiers -- finally getting the chance to do what they were stationed on Enterprise to do -- take the fight to the enemy, and rescue her from behind enemy lines. They perform admirably, but at the cost of the major's life.

When the Reptilians are on the verge of failure against the human-Xindi coalition, the sphere builders intervene on their behalf. But it comes at a cost; the Insectoids, seeing that the "Guardians" can control the spheres, realize that Archer was telling the truth. Now it's the Reptilians against all of the other Xindi factions.

3x24 - "Zero Hour"
This would have been a strong and satisfying season finale, if they hadn't gilded the lily with Nazis and time travel. Not every finale needs a cliffhanger, and especially not one that has nothing to do with what has come before it in the episode.

All of the storylines of the season come together, and the outcome depends on everything they've learned and the relationships they've established along the way.

One thing that's interesting is the way Archer insists on being the one to destroy the weapon, even when he is warned by Daniels that taking such a risk threatens the entire future of humanity. There is no strategic reason it should be him, and plenty of reasons why it shouldn't be. But Archer is carrying a lot of guilt over the decisions he's had to make, the moral compromises he's had to strike -- right up through pushing Sato past her limits after she has been through a horrific ordeal. The need to see it through is a personal one, and if someone has to die, he feels like he should be the one who gets sacrificed. He is not thinking clearly; his decision-making is being guided by his trauma rather than by logic.

Elsewhere, the success of Enterprise in destroying Sphere 41 (and by extension, the entire network) explains why the Delphic Expanse isn't this Bermuda Triangle style legend by the time the other series come around; in the Prime continuity, it ceased to exist in 2154.

And Shran coming to Earth's defense will go a long way toward cementing positive relations between Earth and Andoria. For all that the humans owe to the Vulcans, they won't forget that, when the world was ending, it was the Andorians that stood with them as brothers.