Enterprise | Season 4

Demons

Directed By: LeVar Burton Written By: Manny Coto

Rating:

Reviewed on: 11 August 2005
Reviewed by: Michael Axe

In Brief:

Review: (Contains Spoilers)

It seems fitting somehow that the final story for Enterprise sees the crew tackling the problems at home that stand in the way of the creation of the Federation. The series has shown the crew exploring the “final frontier”, bringing together alien races, and combating threats to Earth from hostile species … but now the final obstacle to unity is revealed to be human prejudice.

Star Trek, like all good science-fiction, has always been a mirror for society's failings, be it racism, homophobia or religious intolerance. Allegory and allusion allows social comment to be thought-provoking without becoming preachy, and this episode is no exception. In today's climate, where intolerance against “foreigners” is growing, and illegal immigration and asylum are political hot-potatoes, the thought of the world uniting together for the common good seems as far away now as it was during the Cold War, albeit for very different reasons. But just as TOS showed that there was another way, and that Humanity could overcome its current problems, this episode shows that intolerance must be challenged head-on if Humanity is ever going to reach its full potential.

So while some viewers may be disappointed that the final story doesn't see the Enterprise fighting off an alien invasion, or charting unexplored regions of space, I think that having the crew address the problems at home is the perfect way to round off the series, which has always been about how Humanity got to where it was at the beginning of TOS.

Of course, tackling serious issues can be a tricky thing to accomplish, as an unbelievable “villain” can lessen the impact of any point the writer is trying to make. While the writer may want to show how ridiculous a prejudiced point of view may be, if the character becomes uncredible, the episode lacks any realism. In this episode, however, guest star Peter Weller excels in his portrayal as Paxton, the head of the organisation Terra Prime. Weller's presence commands the screen (as always), and lends Paxton the eerie charisma that a xenophobic leader such as he needs. The scene where Paxton is discussing how history has misjudged (the mass-murdering) Colonel Green, and how he wonders if he will be equally misjudged is executed perfectly, and really captures both Paxton's beliefs and his fears. This is not a two-dimensional dictator-figure, this is a believer and a crusader, and he's all the more frightening because of it. Mention should also be made of the excellent speech delivered to the disgruntled miners, which was scarily convincing as a piece of hate-filled rhetoric, and with a few minor tweaks, could have been made by a number of contemporary politicians…

This episode also seems to find storylines for most of the main cast as well. Obviously Trip and T'Pol take centre stage (surprisingly, even having more to do than Archer in this episode), and Reed gets to make good use of his Section 31 connections also. Mayweather gets a fair bit of screentime too, but unfortunately, his storyline is also the weakest, and his girlfriend has “traitor” written all over her. In fact, it would have been a surprising twist if she HADN'T been a spy!

But despite its intelligent premise and its high quality acting, the episode does seem to be a little disjointed in places. We still don't know how or why the baby was created, what really motivates Paxton, or where this hold-the-world-to-ransom plot is going. Hopefully, all these issues will be dealt with in part two, as it would be a pity if such a great idea was executed poorly…

All in all, this is a solid set up which addresses some important issues with maturity, and looks like being a swansong to do the series proud.

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.