In the thirteenth episode of the third season of Enterprise, the crew is offered help from a surprising source. Intrigued? Then it’s time for Mark to watch Star Trek.
So this was good! I certainly didn’t expect to see Shran or the Andorians this far into space, so their surprise appearance kept me on my toes. That’s sort of the point for “Proving Ground,” and given the richly complicated past that Archer has with the Andorians, the audience is meant to question everything we see. Have the Andorians arrived to help, or is there an ulterior motive to their actions?
I’m digging this Xindi plotline because it allows for such complicated stories. We’ve seen how Archer has changed since the beginning of the show, but Shran’s character development is a whole lot of fun, too. But then there’s Talas’s growing friendship with Reed, which… that was real, right? IT HAS TO BE. And that’s fascinating to me, given that there could be a real alliance between the Andorians and the humans. (Though now I can’t remember what happened when the Andorians appeared on The Original Series, so maybe it’s not possible.) This episode comes after a script where someone else tried to relate to Archer, yet both Shran and Talas come to actually do so, even if they’re plotting to double cross Enterprise the whole time.
Again, that’s a significant reason why this episode came off as tense as it did. The opening scene doesn’t clue the audience in to the intentions of the Andorians; all we know is that they’re looking for Enterprise and it’s been quite a challenge. Whatever they want must be important enough that they’d suffer through weeks upon weeks of fruitless searching in order to find these people. Once they do rendezvous with Enterprise, I kept questioning whether or not the Andorians were being sincere. At times, it seemed that way! Sure, there was a natural suspicion on either side, and “Proving Ground” demonstrated that. Both Reed and Talas kept an eye on one another. The same went for Archer and Shran.
However, in hindsight, I’m very intrigued by the gestures of trust exhibited by Shran and Archer. How much of that was necessary for Shran to succeed in his endgame, and how much of it was genuine? See, if it weren’t for that final scene, I think it would be much easier to argue that Shran was just a shrewd and pragmatic leader. Sure, he briefly tried to make a point to his superior that perhaps betraying a possible ally wasn’t a good idea, but it’s not like he stuck with it too much. Yet the final scene of “Proving Ground” is evidence that Shran wants to help. He transmitted those scans of the Xindi weapon prototype via secretive means. He didn’t want his superiors to know he’d done anything to help the humans. So why does he do it? Why supply Archer and Starfleet with that information?
There’s got to be a growing respect there. Shran has to see something in Archer that he values. Or perhaps he wanted to repay the debt of that betrayal! But I suspect that this is hardly the last time we’ll see Shran or the Andorians. They’re too important at this point!
I also wanted to comment on the Xindi council sequences, since that’s another aspect I’m enjoying about this season’s arc. I’m glad we get to see this side of things. First of all, it’s clear that the Xindi still barely tolerate the presence of one another. I’m curious if something might be able to pull these species apart. That would be an easy thing to exploit, right? These people don’t trust one another at all! Degra just failed in a huge way, too, so I am just as curious about the fallout from this. Will they continue to trust him? Is the weapon program delayed at all?
I am eager for the next chapter of this saga!
The video for “Proving Ground” can be downloaded here for $0.99.
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