Review

This episode outlines Earth's first contact with the Axanar, a species we've heard of before in TOS (mentioned in TOS: Court Martial and in TOS: Whom Gods Destroy). I'm glad the writers didn't repeat the mistake here that they made with the Suliban and the Denobulans. Granted, nobody knows who was in that alien ship that almost tore Enterprise a new rear end, but I don't think that it's very important. Personally I think this episode belongs to Reed and especially to Hoshi. Reed was concerned that Enterprise would do poorly in a fight due to its primitive and improperly configured weaponry, and he was right. Hoshi was concerned that she'd have no grace under pressure, and she was right too... for a while anyway. It's kind of annoying that she doubted her ability right up to the point when Enterprise was about to be destroyed before finally showing some courage. But it was easily realistic and it was nice to watch her character evolve from a scared little girl to a confident young women in the course of a single episode. As a more general analysis, this episode does well to further elucidate the fact that Earth is hardly prepared for exploration. This mission would have hardly been worth a full hour on any other Star Trek show, so the writers are taking full advantage of Enterprise's weaknesses, for they are a strength in terms of writing for a prequel.