In the seventh episode of the fourth season of Enterprise, a terrorist attack on Vulcan puts T’Pol and Archer on a path toward discovering a massive conspiracy. Intrigued? Then it’s time for Mark to watch Star Trek.
Trigger Warning: For discussion of terrorism, consent.
Let me be a broken record before I get into all of the stuff that I really enjoyed here: Hoshi Sato and Travis Mayweather are actual characters on your show. Please give them things to do. I mean, at least Travis got to hold a board while a bomb nearly went off underneath him? Hoshi doesn’t do anything at all! WE ARE FOUR SEASONS IN, OKAY, THIS IS UNFORGIVABLE AT THIS POINT.
And it’s so unfortunate because the other characters are getting such rich and vibrant stories. I have no idea how long this arc will last (and y’all, I’m so impressed that season four is going from arc-to-arc), but it’s a stunning examination of the Vulcan culture that Enterprise has given us. It’s so different from what we see on all of the future series, and so I wonder if we’ll ever get a bridge to those eras. Do these Vulcans ever come to accept mind-melds? Where do the Syrannites fit into the future of Vulcan? And I love that these were the questions I was asking as I watched this episode, which is beautifully shot and acted. It’s a difficult thing to imagine at this point because Vulcan is still in a state of conflict. There’s a lot of talk here of Vulcan’s violent past, but you can’t ignore what happens in the present time!
“The Forge†is absolutely about that reality. When the Earth embassy is bombed on Vulcan (RIP Admiral Forrest, YOU WILL BE MISSED), I found it telling how quickly the Vulcan authorities provided two very believable narratives to Archer about the cause. Granted, he rejected the Andorian connection, but it still counts. The Syrannite possibility is more coherent and possible, and Archers plunges into that lead, all the while unaware of just how constructed everything was. He’s down on Vulcan in the most desolate part of the planet (more on that in a bit) while Phlox, Reed, and Tucker all discover how quickly the Vulcans’ claims fall apart.
Which… yeah, this episode really skims over how that one human – the only real witness to the crime who survived – doesn’t consent to the mind-meld because he can’t. So while I totally understood why it was fucked up that Ambassador Soval was shamed and the evidence hidden, no one seemed to comment on the part he should feel bad for. He went into someone’s mind without their permission! Will that guard even survive what happened to him? I think this would have come across better if Soval could have been scandalized about the stigma around mind-melds and the violation of consent.
I do love everything on Vulcan while Archer and T’Pol try to cross The Forge. I LOVE IT A GREAT DEAL. I am taking a guess here, but I think this episode was filmed somewhere to the north of Los Angeles? Maybe the Antelope Valley or Simi Valley? Regardless, this is one of the most visually stunning episodes in the whole show, and The Forge looks both terrifying and gorgeous. And it has to be! This is a desolate locale on Vulcan, and it needs to give the viewer a sense of isolation. The contrast between the red sky and the whiteness of the desert is haunting, and it absolutely adds to the story.
I love a good mystery, too, and I cannot figure out why Stel was the person who planted the bombs. I cannot figure out why T’Pol’s mother hid the fact that she was a Syrannite from her daughter her whole life. And who are the Syrannites? I got the sense from “The Forge†that they aren’t what the more traditional Vulcans said they were. There’s something else going on here, isn’t there? Arev had to be desperate to mind-meld with Archer and pass along his… soul? That’s my guess. He passed the essence of who he was into Archer, who then guided them to the sanctuary, but WHY? WHAT SECRET ARE THEY HOLDING? There’s gotta be some big secret here!
Anyway, I’m hooked. I have only the tiniest of theories here, which is that the more conservative/traditional Vulcans want to thwart any chance of an alliance with humans. That doesn’t explain everything, of course, but it seemed way too convenient to just blame everything on the Syrannites.
I can’t believe I’m already getting another story arc on Enterprise. WHAT IS THIS SEASON.
The video for “The Forge†can be downloaded here for $0.99.
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