Star Trek: Enterprise — 4x06 — The Augments
Synopsis
In defiance of their "father," Arik Soong's Augments devise a heinous plot against the Klingons which will surely lead to interstellar war.
Remarkable scenes
- Archer's decompression beam out trick. I was surprised by the realism.
- T'Pol: "I wasn't aware the doctor discharged you." Archer: "He didn't. What's our status?" T'Pol: "Holding position near the Klingon border." Archer takes his seat. Poor Phlox... always getting ignored. ;)
- Enterprise engaging the Klingon bird of prey.
- Soong dumping the Denobulan shuttle in into the gas giant.
- Archer pretending to be a Klingon captain, bluffing to the other Klingon captain.
- Soong running back to Archer in a Klingon escape pod.
- Archer: "Superior ability breeds superior ambition. One of their creators wrote that. He was murdered by an augment."
- Soong: "How long can we sustain warp 5?" Trip: "As long as the captain wants it. Or until we blow up, whichever comes first."
- Enterprise using the grappler as a weapon on the D5 battle cruiser's warp nacelle.
- Enterprise destroying the bio weapon and engaging the Klingon battle cruiser.
- Soong: "I've been thinking... perfecting humanity may not be possible. Cybernetics... artificial life forms. " Archer: "Goodbye, doctor." Soong: "I doubt I'll finish the work myself. Might take a generation or two."
Review
This is the best of the three augments episodes. Firstly, there was marvelous continuity. Soong wanted to take his "children" into the Briar patch, which was the setting of Star Trek IX: Insurrection. The scene when Malik dumps the Denobulan doctor and her shuttle into the gas giant is a nice parallel to Eddington's similar move in DS9: For the Uniform. The scene when Malik crawls around on the floor of the bird of prey is also a cute reference to a Star Trek film, in this case Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan in which Khan did the same thing on the Reliant. Finally, Arik Soong at the end of this episode declares that he's now going to study cybernetics and that his work will take generations to complete. Maybe it was tacky, but I liked it. Unfortunately, the episode like the previous two fell short of being profound. Here it was a real missed opportunity. The biggest problem for which I subtract one point is that Malik never succeeded in releasing the bio weapon against the Klingons. Oh how perfect it would have been if he had! Now we'd have a legitimate reason for the Klingons to go to war with Earth. Not that murder and attempted murder of loads of Klingons doesn't work, but it would have been much more believable if Malik had been successful. Additionally, the scene when Malik returns from the dead to try and kill Soong was just petty, forced, and totally contrived. For that I subtract another point. But overall, the arc was pretty nice and it was thoroughly enjoyable.