Breaking the Ice

As we know, the biggest thing in Archer's craw is the Vulcan empire. Even though he is a brave explorer and incredibly knowledgeable, he gets no respect from the Vulcans. Their underlying humorlessness drives him crazy. That which he finds startling and exciting causes the Vulcans to turn up their noses. Earth creatures are like ants to them. It may be that because their race was once violent and lacking in calm, they find the earthlings to be quite without merit. In this one, an enormous comet is discovered and Archer sends two crew members to do a little mining of an interesting ore found on this floating piece of ice. The Vulcans seem to be overseeing their every move. Why do they do this if the humans are so insignificant. T'Pol has a problem that she must solve. She is met with disdain by the Vulcan ship's commander. Archer is forced to make a decision based on expediency, and it leads to some soul searching. There is a good deal of learning going on in the Enterprise crew.

The one thing that always annoyed me with the Star Trek series is the liberties they take with the laws of physics. This episode had me shaking my head with amazement that I felt the need to review something I wouldn't normally take the time to do. Sometimes you suspend your believe system to allow for such things as a properly functioning warp drive, time travel where deemed unavoidable, sound in a vacuum, etc. You want to participate in the fun. In this instance two of the crew are deployed onto a comet with a diameter of about 82 kilometers or so. They went to all of the trouble, for once, to position a nearby star in order for the comet to have a tail - the star is referred to as the 'sun' for some reason though I don't believe they intended THE Sun, and plotted a position of the slowly rotating comet for the shuttle to land to avoid 'the sun'. But then when the crew land they are almost instantly confronted with a very Earth-like gravity field very much not in line with what a comet of that size would have -- which should be virtually none. OK, so let's chalk it up to gravity boots? Somehow they manage to build a snowman!? Hmm. OK...let it slide. But then on the way back to the ship one of the crew falls into a hole with much the same force as if influenced by normal Earth gravity? He hurts his leg and needs to be carried back to the ship and yet his apparent weight causes the going to be slow. Literally, he should weigh next to nothing here. Later, the ship falls into a hole as well with the same 1g results. Very hard. Very abrupt. Sorry, folks. This fails the physics test even if you struggle to construct an assumptive work-around in your head. Even the mining explosion makes a huge noise - which they even warn about prior to the explosion. I notice I neglected to review the actual episode here however. Very well. It was mundane. Nothing special here. I have never watched the Enterprise series previously but noticed it did not have a long stay on the network. So far into the series, for myself, no episode has been memorable - but this one takes the cake to bend the universal laws of common physics in order to establish a story for the fragile blossoming of the human/Vulcan relationship. There were more plausible ways to do it.

The Enterprise crew investigate a large comet whilst being observed by a Vulcan ship.

This episode is mainly about character development, particularly T'Pol and it includes some insight into the relationship between Humans and Vulcans. It has a heavy use of symbolism with its ice theme and pecan pie scene. Nothing of real note actually happens other than a revelation about T'Pol's personal life, which does make her character a bit more interesting from here on.

There is (I hope) one good scene at the beginning where the crew are communicating with Earth children by answering questions about space exploration and the day-to-day functioning of a starship. If this is intentionally awkward, then well done to the crew for making it seem quite authentic.

It isn't a bad episode but it does rely on you having some interest in the characters. I've still got an open mind that the characters will develop in an interesting way, so I am willing to invest the time. It is worth watching though for continuity purposes regarding T'Pol's character.

Not a lot happens in Breaking the Ice but it is a fairly good vehicle for getting to know the crew better while Reed and Mayweather mess about on the surface of an ice comet and Captain Archer attempts to host a dinner with the even more frosty Vulcan.

It opens with a delightful sequence in which the crew answer some questions from a group of schoolchildren about life aboard the Enterprise. This is a very well written piece. Leaving aside the obvious embarrassing poo questions, my favourite reply is Captain Archer's when talking about onboard romantic relationships. He explains that if two people really like each other.....ahem......they have plenty of places to go and look at the stars. Scott Bakula has such a lot of charm it sometimes looks as if he is having difficult achieving the appropriate level of distance that is required of a Captain.

The Vulcan ship's Commander who claims not to have been spying on the Enterprise is played by William Utay. Extremely well know for hundreds of appearances on the TV series Days of Our Lives, he is not a Science Fiction regular at all but gives a faultless performance in this rather odious role. In fact, so memorable was he that it is a surprise to look back and see that he appeared in just this one episode.

The two lads on the surface of the comet are supposed to be on a dangerous and serious scientific mission. Not only do they mess about building a snowman but they never bloody well stop talking. I know we are supposed to be getting to know the crew at this stage but perhaps they shouldn't be introduced to us as such a pair of naughty schoolboys. Anyone worrying too much about the lack of accurate science in their Sci Fi is probably watching the wrong show, but even Bruce Willis's execrable film Armageddon showed a better understanding of the physics involved in landing on a comet.

Senior Trekker scores every episode with a 5.

This is a very mundane episode of "Star Trek: Enterprise". This does not mean it's bad but not a whole lot happens in this one. The Enterprise finds a comet and decides to investigate it up close--so close, in fact, that they land a shuttle on it. However, the Captain is surprised to see a Vulcan ship nearby that just seems to be watching them. Captain Vanik says he's not spying on them, but it sure looks like he is--especially because the Vulcans ALWAYS seem to be doing that! At the same time, a coded letter than T'Pol sends makes some of the crew wonder where her loyalties lie.

This episode just reinforces how sneaky and distrustful the Vulcans are on this series--a major plus for "Star Trek: Enterprise". In the other Trek shows, they are dull and ultra-nice--so it's a nice chance to once again see how duplicitous and nasty they were when they first began interacting with the smelly and stupid humans.