Enterprise | Season 4

Daedalus

Directed By: David Straiton
Written By: Ken LaZebnik & Michael Bryant

Rating:

Reviewed on: 7 February 2005
Reviewed by: Michael Axe

In Brief:

Review: (Contains Spoilers)

Without wishing to sound smug, but I don't think there will be many viewers who don't figure out what is going on in this episode pretty quickly. From the start, it's clear that Erickson is hiding something from Archer and the crew, and as soon as the loss of his son is dropped into conversation, it's fairly obvious that Erickson's true goal is to recover his son from the transporter-limbo (presumably, similar to Scotty's limbo existence in “Relics”, the now-classic The Next Generation episode). By the time we learn the truth about Erickson's experiments at the halfway point of the episode, we can guess that it'll all end in tears, and it comes as no surprise that Erickson loses his son when they do finally rematerialise him.

But while it would be all too easy to dismiss the entire episode as predictable melodrama, I think that's a little harsh. Yes, the episode has no real surprises, but there are some sights worth seeing along the way. The relationship between Archer, Erickson and Danika, while being a little clichéd, also provides a nice insight into what life would have been like for Archer, growing up amongst the great pioneers of his era. Equally, the interplay between Trip and Erickson is interesting, if a little reminiscent of previous hero/pupil scenes in Trek before. These relationships also provide the only real surprise in the episode (I retract my earlier statement that “everything” was predictable!), when Trip reports back to Archer about his suspicions about Erickson. I personally expected Erickson to pull the wool over the crew's eyes until later in the episode (given the clichéd way the episode was developing), so I was taken a little by surprise when it turned out that Archer had effectively told Trip to spy on Erickson.

The episode also manages to be quite atmospheric, with the energy-drain problems resulting in darkened rooms and corridors lit only by the odd computer panel. This gives parts of the episode an almost “haunted house” quality – complete with the “ghost” of Erickson's son. Of course, the flipside of this is that it could be said that the episode was trying too hard to be spooky, and than the predictable script failed to create any suspense – but you have to give the lighting guys credit for their technical accomplishments, if nothing else.

For me, however, the saving grace of the episode was the wonderfully played final scene between Trip and T'Pol, where they discuss the effect that the discovery of the Kir'Shara is having on T'Pol. This scene captures T'Pol's sense of uncertainty, as well as Trip's desire to be supportive, perfectly.

All in all, while the episode may have been uninspired and fairly predictable, it was not actually executed badly. The acting from the guest stars and the regular cast was good, and the tone and atmosphere generated was very effective. So while other earlier episodes may have been an example of a good idea executed badly, I think this qualifies as a bad idea executed very effectively. And I'd certainly prefer to watch an uninspired character-driven episode with flashes of brilliance like this, than an effects-driven action-oriented by-the-numbers nonsensical showdown like Storm Front…

Michael Axe is the author of a number of novellas and screenplays, and is a main reviewer for ST Universe. All his reviews are copyright © Michael Axe and are used here exclusively with his permission.