Shadows of P'Jem

The Vulcam ambassador Soval protests with Admiral Forrest, blaming Captain Archer from the destruction of the P'Jem sanctuary by the Andorians after the discovery that the place was a surveillance post. As retaliation, the Vulcan High Command interrupts the joint operation with humans and calls T'Pol back. Archer decides to spend more time alone with T'Pol and assigns her to visit the planet Coridan with him. However, their shuttle pod is attacked by a radical faction of Coridans and they are taken hostage. While Trip and Reed try to rescue their Captain and Sub-Commander, they are surprisingly helped by the Andorian Commander Shran.

"Shadows of P'jem" is another great episode of "Enterprise", with an engaging story full of action and a very satisfactory resolution. Jolene Blalock is excellent in the role of the logical T'Pol that even visibly affect by the human behavior, sustain her roots. I loved the last line when T'Pol says to Captain Archer that she must follow the orders of her physician. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "Sombras de P'jem" ("Shadows of P'jem")

This episode is a follow-up to the earlier one about P'Jem--the Vulcan 'monastery' that turned out to be a spy base! Instead of accepting responsibility for being a bunch of lying jerk-faces, the sanctimonious Vulcans make excuses, blame humans for the destruction of this base by the Andorians and are looking for a scapegoat...which happens to be T'Pol. She is to be recalled back to Vulcan because of her involvement in uncovering this base. But, before this is to occur, the Enterprise goes to visit a planet aligned with the Vulcans. Unfortunately, it turns out to be a bust, as there's a rebel group fighting the Vulcan-backed government and they take Archer and T'Pol prisoner. The Vulcans soon arrive and act like even bigger jerk-faces--demanding they take over any rescue efforts. Unexpectedly, the Andorians also soon arrive--and I got excited because I love these aliens. They were wonderful because although they seemed like warlike idiots, time and again they proved themselves to be far more interesting and multidimensional. Overall, a very worthy follow-up to the earlier show and yet another example for why the Andorians are one of the best things about this series.

I liked this episode a lot. When Archer and the crew went to that monastery, there was damage done. The Andorians have since taken it over and expelled the Vulcan monks who were covering up a bunch of technology. T'Pol, being a Vulcan and participating in the events, has become a scapegoat. The Vulcans, for all their emotional mumbo jumbo, are quite satisfied to play politics and seek revenge. As the Captain and T'Pol are going to a planetary city, they are kidnapped by rebels, bound and threatened. The Enterprise wants to launch a rescue mission but there are other beings involved and they must deal with them. This is another episode where the smug, self-righteous Vulcans show what a pain they can be. The Andorians present the high point of this episode. They are wonderful characters.

Archer and T'Pol are taken hostage on the planet Coridan.

This is another strong episode from the Vulcan/Andorian/Human story arc that began during the 'Andorian Incident'. The Andorians are again good value for their screen time and Archer is great when involved in these politics. As previously this is not the best portrayal of the Vulcans (aside from T'Pol) and is probably not a good one for the Trek purists who like their Vulcans as they were established earlier in the franchise.

It has quite an action packed plot, but also contains good character moments for Archer, T'Pol and Tucker. Archer and T'Pol play off each other well during the intimate moments of captivity and Tucker is excellent facing off against the Vulcans during his time in command.

Things really come to life when the rescue mission gets underway and the fun peaks when Shran arrives. The only bit I struggled with was T'Pol's moment of heroism. I thought to myself, please don't go down that route, but they did. However, that did set things up well for a nice final scene in sickbay.

Bonding between Archer and T'Pol is vividly depicted in this well-constructed episode that covers lots of territory in handling the major theme of how different intelligent species coexist (and battle each other) in the Star Trek universe.

Instead of vast battles and elaborate SPFX, the show relies on fine acting to sustain suspense and illustrate the relationships. T'Pol and Archer are kidnapped by rebel forces on a distant planet and it takes the intervention of Jeffrey Combs, making the most of his screen time as he returns to the show as an Andorian captain seeking to help Archer to join with Enterprise crew members to free them. The high-handed Vulcans are depicted as the bad guys in this context, always ready to order humans and anyone else around with their superior attitude, but of course T'Pol is an exception.

The performances by Scott Bakula and Jolene Blalock are just right to develop this story and the fans get to experience a tantalizing moment of platonic intimacy as they struggle physically to escape from their bonds, tied up together as hostages.