- Written by Rick Berman and Brannon Braga
- Directed by James Conway
- September 26, 2001
- UPN
- Based on Star Trek created by Gene Roddenberry
Episode Cast
- Capt. Jonathan Archer-Scott Bakula
- Dr. Phlox-John Billingsley
- Sub-Cmdr. T’Pol-Jolene Blalock)
- Lt. Malcolm Reed-Dominic Keating
- Ensign Travis Mayweather-Anthony Montgomery
- Ensign Hoshi Sato-Linda Park
- Cmdr. Charles ‘Trip’ Tucker III-Connor Trinneer
- Silik-John Fleck
- Suliban Sarin-Melinda Clarke
- Klaang-Tommy ‘Tiny’ Lister Jr.
- Adm. Maxwell Forrest-Vaughn Armstrong
- Adm. Daniel Leonard-Jim Beaver
- Henry Archer-Mark Moses
- Ambassador Soval-Gary Graham
- Crewman-Byron Thames
- Vulcan Attaché Tos-Thomas Kopache
- Klingon Chancellor-Peter Henry Schroeder
- Cmdr. Williams-Jim Fitzpatrick
- Klingon Council Member-Matt Williamson
- Humanoid Figure-James Horan
- Suliban Doctor-Joseph Ruskin
- Young Jonathan Archer-Marty Davis
- Alien Man-Van Epperson
- Farmer-Ron King
- Carlos-Ricky Luna
- Crewman Fletcher-Jason Grant Smith
- Alien Mother-Chelsea Bond
- Alien Child-Ethan Dampf
- Dancer-Diane Klimaszewski
- Dancer-Elaine Klimaszewski
Nine decades since the first human warp flight Earth finally launches its first exploratory starship on a mission to return an injured Klingon to his homeworld and comes into conflict with the mysterious Suliban.
I don’t think I’ve seen the Star Trek: Enterprise (then just called ‘Enterprise’) pilot episode Broken Bow since it first aired all those years ago. I’m not keen on prequels and originally I greeted this show nervously. Even then I didn’t feel every question needed answered or a poorly discussed time period explored. Given that this was Star Trek and given that the era in which it was set was supposed to be very dangerous I was nervous that they could not do it justice.
Taking place early in humanity’s relationship with the Vulcans and predating the Federation, this sought to be Star Trek without some of its limits. You can ask how Starfleet can exist without the Federation but the answer is that the organization was simply folded into the UFP like, well, every other planet’s fleet was. Such was stated or implied in a few bits of previous Trek.
We get Vulcans that are condescending towards humanity having clearly been babying humans since the events of First Contact. Capt. Archer (Scott Bakula) has some noticeable bigotry towards Vulcans though that is largely cleared up by the credits. I never thought it was as obvious in the following episodes as it was here. All things considered it should have been AT THE MINIMUM a season long arc.
Sub-Cmdr. T’Pol (Jolene Blalock) is introduced initially as member of the Vulcan delegation to Earth but soon finds herself on the bridge of Enterprise NX-01 as stipulated in an agreement for Earth to get some star maps. In this episode there are moments when T’Pol follows orders and others where she’s just being a jerk and purposely not being helpful such as the scene on Rigel X where Cmdr. Tucker (Connor Trinneer) sees an alien child struggling to breathe and rather than explain things lets him make a scene BEFORE explaining the situation. Her only reaction is a bit like “You did not know but should have.”
Script aside, I need to praise Jolene Blalock’s general performance. What many actors get wrong with their performance of Vulcans is they make them cold and robotic. As stated by Counselor Troi in an episode of TNG, Vulcans are not unemotional. They just suppress their emotions. At heart they are violent in a way that almost destroyed them. Jolene Blalock understood that and kept her character very controlled. She could be rude or condescending as needed but she was never robotic here or later on.
The episode is built around an emergency mission to return a Klingon that crashed on Earth and was injured to his homeworld. This also introduces the Temporal Cold War fought on behalf of future people by a new species called the Suliban which was eventually dumped. The Suliban are species which engage in heavy genetic modification for new abilities.
That previously mentioned trip to Rigel X felt unnecessary. It came off as a moment to show just how not Federation the galaxy of the show was compared to what we are used to than it did a necessary trip to gather information or look for the Klingon which the Suliban under the leadership of Silik (John Fleck) had been taken from sickbay. The Suliban agent Sarin (Melinda Clarke) did little to help the story and events did nothing to further the search for the missing Klaang (Tommy ‘Tiny’ Lister Jr.).
Enterprise tried to sexy things up not only with the hottest looking Vulcan in Trek history but the decon chamber where ‘Trip’ Tucker and T’Pol (as well as others) would regularly slather each other up with gel after missions in an effort meant to predate the bio-filters of the transporter technology which here was still not trusted. The viewer is used to the transporter being almost casually. Other than Dr. McCoy everybody was very okay with it but not here.
Dr. Phlox (John Billingsley) debuted in Broken Bow as part of a medical exchange program and demonstrated a very (I mean VERY) pro-human attitude. He was the positive view of humanity providing the “you can do it” of the episode. He even had a love of egg drop soup. He did provide some exposition and provided knowledge which in any previous show would be more widely known
The climax wasn’t bad. Not great or exciting, but it was good and nicely set up the unique aspects of the Suliban like their sphere ships and the functionality of the time communicator. The weirdness in the chamber was a nice touch though really when the guy warned not to fire the gun in there I expected something a little more disastrous than a concussive force that knocked him around.
Broken Bow isn’t a bad beginning to a show. It held the promise of this would indeed be a relatively dangerous series in comparison to the others. Perhaps a bit too ambitious storyline right off the bat rather than building to it. Can’t complain too much here.
Warren Watched A Movie 