In the twelfth episode of the first season of Enterprise, the ship just can’t catch a break. Intrigued? Then it’s time for Mark to watch Star Trek.Â
This is a bit odd coming after “Cold Front” in the sense that it also is a very ambiguous story. The unnamed species attacks Enterprise, everything is very confusing and upsetting, and we are never given any concrete information on why this happened. We can guess, perhaps, but that’s the best that “Silent Enemy” offers the viewer.
It’s still a tense episode, for what it’s worth, and that’s largely because of how relentless and senseless this feels. It’s a “What If” scenario: What would happen if a species refused to communicate? How would the crew deal with an invasive force they couldn’t negotiate with? The titular silent enemy in this episode does just that, though they do communicate just once late in the story. The silence, then, becomes a part of the thrill. Without any justification for their behavior, the situation feels a million times worse, you know?
I believe you can guess some of their motivations from context clues. That sole moment of communication suggested that the species viewed the Enterprise as inferior, unable to defend themselves, so thus, they were there for the taking. For what? That’s never spelled out, but working backward from that revelation, you could paint a portrait. What if this species was eerily careful about their imperialism or colonization? What if they knew they were technically advanced but refused to take risks? Thus, they observed. They carefully scanned. They tested out an attack. Then they invaded, only to scan a couple people and take that information back to their ship, where they discovered just how advanced they were.
It makes some sort of sense, right? In the end, though, this is the text between the lines, and it doesn’t feel like the point. That part of “Silent Enemy” escaped me a bit. Perhaps this is an episode about how resilient the crew is, how they’re able to survive amidst the weirdness and violence out in the world. The whole subplot with the weapons refit supports this, but it’s not really a major element of the script, is it? Again, I wouldn’t necessarily care about the ambiguity of the script if we hadn’t just went through an episode that was vague about a lot of things we normally get information on.
And then there’s the whole subplot with Reed’s favorite food, which… y’all, how can you introduce so much intrigue around a character only to later abandon it? That scene where Archer spoke to Reed’s parents felt so INCREDIBLY significant because it was heavily implied (or at least I interpreted it as such) that there was a reason Reed hadn’t spoken to his parents in so long. (His sour father is probably a big reason why, JESUS.) And as Hoshi delved deeper into his past, we learned that Reed kept EVERYTHING to himself! No one knew his favorite food, and it was almost comical. But it had to mean something, right?
Nope. His favorite food is pineapple, and Hoshi found it out by having Phlox break doctor-patient confidentiality!!! NO BIG DEAL AT ALL, HOW THE HELL DID THIS SHOW THINK THAT WAS AN OKAY THING TO DO WITH ALMOST NO ACKNOWLEDGEMENT??? I feel like revealing that Reed has a bunch of food allergies is his business, and telling that to someone else is REALLY BAD. What the hell, Enterprise?
So yeah, I was creeped out by this episode, but I kept waiting for it all to be wrapped up, and that never really happened. What a strange story!
The video for “Silent Enemy” can be downloaded here for $0.99.
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