Weekend Trek “United”

I didn’t think I needed more of the Romulan drone arc.  Part one worked out fine, more or less, and could have made for a nice episode setting up a long term threat that never materialized.  But given the final season is half over, there’s a good chance this is the last I will see of Jeffrey Combs’s Shran, and possibly of Jeffrey Combs, in this or any other incarnation of Star Trek, so I think I will enjoy it while I can.

The Romulans are trying, from the looks of things, to prevent the different smaller powers in the galaxy to form some kind, I dunno, federation.  The big problem there is, this plan seems to be having the opposite effect.  Archer realizes knows the Romulans have some kind of cloaking technology.  They also have some holographic tech, later revealed, that allows them to disguise their drone as another ship, and they aren’t just using it to attack the Andorians and the Tellarites.  This episode opens with a copy of Enterprise attacking a small Rigelian, and while Archer is wanted by those folks for murder, that plot point disappears rather quickly, and no Rigelian appears on screen anyway.

See, Travis of all people figures out a way to adjust the scanners to find the Romulan ship, which still has Trip and Malcolm stuck onboard.  But to that, they need, like, a little over 120 ships.  The Vulcans have problems of their own and can only send 23.  Earth can’t send too many either.  That means, essentially, convincing the Andorians and the Tellarites to supply the rest, something neither wants to do because Shran, representing his people for some reason–most likely because he was there–is paranoid when dealing with just about everyone, and the Tellarites just like to complain. Archer, tired of seeing everything the way of other cultures, suggests they try to be more like humans by working together against a common foe.

That seems to work…until Shran’s fiancee dies of her wounds from the previous episode, and Shran pours blood on the hands of the Tellarite responsible, essentially challenging the guy to a duel to the death.  The Tellarites won’t do any such thing, so to save the alliance, Archer steps in to the fight, a fight set by Andorian rules using Andorian weapons with an experience Andorian fighter.

I’d be worried if this wasn’t Archer’s show, but he doesn’t execute Shran either, and that’s a good thing because if Shran dies, I get no more Jeffrey Combs.  Instead, Archer just cuts off one of his antenna.  Phlox says it’ll grow back.  It does mean Shran will behave himself, and he and the Tellarite ambassador do exchange a handshake because there’s something big out there that will cause trouble.

Mostly because the Romulan drone got away, Malcolm and Travis’s being rescued at the last minute.

So, that’s the second part in what looks to be a three-part storyline in the final season  There’s only nine more episode of this show left as it is.  I would say I was pleased here, but I also know this is coming to an end for me in the next few weeks.  After that…well, there’s always the Kelvin timeline.