Date: 12-15 December 2153
Returning to the test site of the Xindi's prototype weapon, Enterprise manages to capture Degra. When Phlox suggests wiping the memory of the Xindi-Primate, Archer and crew concoct an elaborate scheme to trick him into revealing the location of the weapon proper.
Summary
Enterprise returns to the site of the test of the Xindi's prototype weapon ("Proving Ground"), and detects a Xindi vessel at the edge of the system. Quickly hiding in amongst the radiation-filled asteroid belt, the Starfleet ship is able to attack and disable the enemy ship - which contains no less a personality than Degra, the designer of the Xindi's weapon of mass destruction. Realising that they are about to be captured by humans, Degra and his two-man crew quickly attempt to delete their computer core.
Hoshi manages to recover some of the data, including navigational logs that show Degra's ship has recently visited a planet called Azati Prime. Archer questions the three Xindi-Primates, but they show no sign of being co-operative. Meanwhile, malfunctions affect the ship due to its proximity to the radiation field. Phlox suggests that it although a truth serum would take too long to synthesize, it may be possible for him to selectively erase some of the Xindi's most recent memory engrams. Swiftly, the crew concoct an elaborate scheme: Tucker and his engineering team will construct a faux shuttlecraft on the hangar deck, the language of which Hoshi will help create. Hydraulics are attached to it which will simulate alien attacks and the anomalies which riddle the Expanse. Phlox wipes Degra's memory, implants a Regulan bloodworm in him (which Archer will claim the Xindi-Insectoids use as a truth serum), tattoos "prison ID" on Degra's and Archer's arms and stimulates their hair follicles, turning them grey.
The end result is that Degra wakes up on a shuttlecraft under attack from Xindi-Insectoids alongside Archer, with whom he has shared a cell for three years. The two have escaped from an Insectoid prison colony. They manage to flee the "ships" and head for a nearby system. Along the way, Archer slowly gains Degra's trust - removing the bloodworm, sharing Andorian ale, and weaving a tale of how, after Earth was destroyed, the Xindi races turned on one another, with the Insectoids emerging triumphant. Degra gradually divulges more and more information, including a secret frequency that Primates use to communicate with one another and the co-ordinates of Azati Prime, a red giant where his family live - 3 weeks away from Enterprise's current position at maximum warp.
All goes well until a malfunction caused by the radiation in the asteroid belt sends the hydraulics attached to the "shuttlecraft" haywire, and the screen projecting space outside the shuttle's window briefly interrupts. Degra puts two and two together and attacks Archer, with the result that the crew have to intervene. Back in the brig, Degra blusters that he has only told Archer exactly what the captain wants to hear. Unwilling to take a 3 week detour if Degra has lied about Azati Prime, the crew puts together a new deception: with turbulence, explosions and warp core fires thrown in, they convince Degra that they have adapted the Xindi's technology for opening subspace vortices and have reached Azati Prime. As guards lead Degra belowdecks, he throws them off and yells at Archer, "You'll never get close to the weapon! Our defence perimeter will destroy you!" Archer smirks at his nemesis and the viewscreen reveals the truth: Enterprise never left the staging ground.
With confirmation that the weapon is being constructed at Azati Prime, Archer has all three Xindi's memories wiped, and rigs their ship so that it appears that a plasma conduit's explosion rendered them all unconscious. As Xindi ships draw near, Enterprise leaves the asteroid field and warps toward Azati Prime.
Review
I've now enjoyed Enterprise for three weeks in a row. It is undeniably building a momentum as it moves past mid-season, and it would be utterly churlish not to say that the third season has been an enormous improvement on what was, in retrospect, a very poor second year. It's no wonder, really, that the network has come close to cancelling the show (indeed, it still might) - but even if it does, it can't be said that the cast and crew haven't fought back. At this point, I can say that I want Enterprise to stay on air.
"Stratagem" follows on directly from "Proving Ground", maintaining that continuity which the show has managed to sustain since "The Expanse". Shran may be hightailing it out of the region, but Degra is still desperately trying to get the kinks in his prototype weapon worked out so that he can appease his impatient colleagues on the Xindi Council. Unfortunately for him, Enterprise won't leave him alone - and once he's been captured, the crew manage to come up with an inventive solution for getting what they want out of him.
Wiping someone's memory obviously has its own implications, although here they're not really discussed - both the time limit of the episode and the urgency of the endeavour don't allow it (in fact, the lack of exposition on the subject reminds me of "Sons of Mogh", when the DS9 crew wiped Kurn's brain without so much as a by your leave). Of course, Degra should consider himself lucky that he wasn't shoved in an airlock, as Archer did to his last (male) prisoner in "Anomaly". Whether this shows that Archer has calmed down in the interim is open to question. Even if Degra had heard that slow whistling of air and been promised his own demise, it's unlikely that he'd have capitulated - and I can say that with some justification, because in this episode we find out more about Degra than in all the other 13 episodes of the season put together.
Until now, Degra hasn't been a part of the guest cast in the same way as Dukat, Weyoun, Nog et al were part of DS9's. He's been a largely two-dimensional extra, brought on screen when there's been a need for some piece of exposition or for the Xindi to growl at one another. Now all that is beginning to change. As noted in the F.Y.I. (boxout, left), Rick Berman has compared Degra to J Robert Oppenheimer, and while that's a comparison that's been made before in Trek (Voyager's "Jetrel" comes to mind), this time it's half way believeable. "Seven million lives extinguished before my eyes, and I asked myself ... how many of them were children?" Degra wonders to himself while Archer tries to resist throttling him. Randy Oglesby is given plenty to do in this episode. He plays the full range of emotions, from murderous rage to desperation to fear to drunken melancholy. And he does it brilliantly. It's often overlooked just how good the casting is on Trek - always has been. Oglesby is key to the Xindi arc being resolved in the minds of the viewers, because it's obvious that his nagging conscience will be one of the factors that Archer will hope to turn to his advantage. If the Xindi Council divides, as it has looked likely to do for weeks, then Degra may well be instrumental in that division.
Degra also helps to humanise the Xindi, who collectively remain mysterious and villainous. Gralik in "The Shipment" began the process by showing that the Xindi-Arboreals, at least, have some sense of decency. But here, Degra takes it a step further. Azati Prime is a "diverse community". Families are paramount; work pales beside them. The children are any individual's real legacy. It is more and more evident that the Insectoids and the Reptilians (who, remember, took the initiative to tamper with the timeline in "Carpenter Street") are the real villains of the piece, although, of course, it's still not clear who from the future is giving the Council its information. Curiously enough, some of the information that Archer gets out of Degra contradicts that which we already know - for example, Degra states that the Reptilians would never allow the Insectoids to attack the other species, but the Reptilians have always seemed among the most aggressive. Could it be that the Reptilians are more than simple Bad Guys? (Or is it just lazy writing?)
Maybe I'm just naive (or really good at suspending my disbelief), but the second deception the crew pulled off had me tricked. I suppose I wasn't paying enough attention, because on watching the episode back it's pretty obvious. Still, the crew pulls together and does some pretty impressive acting. And Mayweather gets a line! Shock of shocks. Anthony Montgomery truly has been paid short shrift by this series - especially seeing as Hoshi now has quite a large role and is visibly very involved in the anti-Xindi effort. Anyway, the deception is very much a team effort - and it's rounded off by Randy Oglesby's final rant, plus Archer's weary relief. As Enterprise warps off towards Azati Prime, you get the feeling that there's at least a chance that the weapon can be stopped, but that time truly is running out for humanity. It's a credit to the show this year that I'm feeling that tension, and want to see where the arc goes next.
So, kudos to the cast and crew for this one - and to Scott Bakula, who once again proves that the decision to cast him was a wise one, even if his character used to be a bigoted hothead. In the scenes in the simulator, Archer visibly struggles to control himself when he probably wants to beat the living daylights of the murderer sitting opposite him. Degra describes watching as the telemetry from the probe came in to the Council, and Bakula's face wrenches through several emotions before settling on quiet fury. I like Archer, and I'm not afraid to say it any more - and that's largely down to Bakula's work over the past year.
So, an episode that advances the arc, moves us a step closer to the final confrontation with the Xindi - and introduces some shades of grey to a threatening alien species that were hitherto viewed in black and white terms. For all the criticising of Enterprise I've indulged in in the past, I simply can't bring myself to be churlish when a Star Trek series under threat of cancellation is giving me the best season since Voyager, year 4. As far as this webmaster is concerned: roll on the second half of the season. |
