Review

And season 4 continues to deliver the prequel we've been waiting for. This episode expands on the Romulan aspect of the show, showing us once again that in their early days, they tried to manipulate galactic politics from afar, rather than attempt to directly participate. Again, this is perfect for continuity, because Spock said no one had ever seen a Romulan prior to TOS: Balance of Terror. I also liked the nice reference to Babel, which was also the site of a conference in TOS: Journey to Babel. Bringing back the Andorians; especially Shran, and the Tellarites was a perfect development. Daniels once told Archer that Humans, Vulcans, Andorians, and Tellarites were the initial members of the Federation. And T'Pol told Archer that the Romulans probably fear an alliance between these parties. What they fear is the Federation itself. I wouldn't be surprised if the Earth-Romulan wars were a direct attempt by the Romulans to disrupt the founding of the Federation in 2161, which is six years from this episode and plenty of time to wage such a conflict. The Romulan ship itself was fascinating. Controlling a ship remotely could have several advantages, but many disadvantages as well. If these are the types of ships that will be used during the Earth-Romulan wars, I can see how a stalemate might be possible. Earth might even find a way to jam the transmitters so those ships can no longer receive instructions. That could be why the Romulans eventually abandon the design. There was only one thing that annoyed me... I wish we'd got to see a little bit more of that ship. I want to know how it works and why they designed it like that. It's fascinating. Okay, I was wrong, there was one other thing that annoyed me. Did anyone else catch that Travis was interrupted in the middle of one of his lines? First they give him barely anything to say, now they're not even letting him finish sentences! ;) Anyway, this episode was marvelous, and I'm looking forward to seeing more.