Enterprise | Season 4

Divergence

Directed By: Dave Barrett
Written By: Judith Reeves-Stevens & Garfield Reeves-Stevens

Rating:

Reviewed on: 8 August 2005
Reviewed by: Michael Axe

In Brief:

Review: (Contains Spoilers)

The second part of this two-part story certainly hits the ground running, with an exciting sequence involving a space-walk between the Enterprise and the Columbia at warp speed to save Enterprise from the Klingon subroutines. Despite the uninspiring cliffhanger at the end of the previous episode, its resolution is surprisingly dramatic, and shows off some very impressive CGI, as well as giving Reed a chance to prove himself and giving Trip an excuse to return to Enterprise .

Once the initial excitement passes, it's backed up by some solid character scenes onboard the ship, as Trip tries to understand why Reed is now under arrest, and T'Pol and Trip continue to dance around each other. These scenes manage to be genuine and touching, and although Trip has only been absent for an episode, they do feel like real reunions.

The main subplot onboard Enterprise , however, concerns Reed's crisis of conscience over whether to follow Archer's orders or those of “Section 31”. Harris may lack the screen presence of Sloan, but then again, one gets the feeling that the Section 31 of this era is not quite as shady as that of DS9's era. Indeed, if it were, Reed would most likely be “disappeared” at the end of the episode, rather than being reintegrated into the Enterprise crew. The Section 31 seen here is described as being a covert ops division, but still a legitimate part of Starfleet, whereas Sloan's Section 31 was an autonomous rogue agency that answered only to itself. However, the seeds of Section 31's fall from grace are clearly sown here, as Archer is unable to find any official records for Harris, and Harris' secret pact with the Klingons falls apart.

Reed is the perfect character for this subplot, as his devout loyalty to Starfleet makes him the ideal recruit for Section 31. However, Reed has obviously grown a lot from the eager-to-please officer that Harris first approached, and as the episode progresses, Dominic Keating makes Reed's decision to question Harris' orders and finally choose Archer over Section 31 believable and realistic. His final scene, where he effectively resigns from Section 31, was a nice way of marking how far the character has come over the last four years. It's just a shame that there wont be further opportunities to deal with the potential fallout of Reed's resignation…

The other major plot thread in this episode of course belongs to Phlox. Once again, John Billingsley excels with the material that touches on morality and ethics, as first Phlox chooses torture over creating Klingon augments, then he puts his life on the line to save the infected Klingons before its too late. Even then, Phlox has to come to terms with playing “Russian roulette” with the four Klingons if he is to save the rest of them. Phlox's reaction to being “rescued” by Archer was entertaining as ever, as once again the Doctor puts the greater good over his own self-interest.

By the end of the episode, the Phlox storyline (unlike in part one) has managed to not only entertain in its own right, but also explain the side-effect of the disease causing human-like appearances without augment-like abilities (or death!). They even managed to avoid the cliché of having the Klingon doctor die finding the cure – instead he becomes one of the first “disfigured” Klingons, and sets about finding a cure for the virus' side-effects.

So while part one simply felt like it was showing off the clever explanation for the Klingons' appearance, this episode also manages to be entertaining and contain some enjoyable character moments. It even finds an excuse to get Trip back onboard … temporarily at least…

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.