An ancient artifact that will change Vulcan Culture….and Enterprise gets involved with a war… Originally broadcast on December 3, 2004 this is Kir’Shara.
The Episode:
Captain’s Starlog Date Undetermined
The Vulcans are convinced that the Andorians are making a Xindi based weapon so, they attack Andoria. On Vulcan T’Pau, T’Pol and Archer try to get a device called the Kir’Shara to people who can translate it because it is happens to contain the original teachings of Surak himself. Enterprise steps in to help defend Andoria even though they have been ordered back to Earth. In order to help though, they need to find Shran.
To cut a long story short, there is a big battle, Archer, T’Pau and T’Pol get the artifact to their destination and, even though it is authenticated, the leadership want to destroy it. Archer shows Kuvak the holographic recording of Surak and the Vulcan leader calls off the attack. The Vulcan High Command will soon be dismantled with Soval and T’Pau taking the lead. Archer has the Katra of Surak removed and they head back to Enterprise.
In the end it is revealed that one of the High Command, V’Las, was really a Romulan in disguise who was attempting a re-unification of Romulus and Vulcan, only in a more underhanded way.
Is this a ‘Good’ Episode:
The episode itself is a great wrap up of this arc, but it felt a little rushed. I mean, I LOT happens in the course of three episodes. At this point, I kinda wonder if they didn’t know the series was to be cancelled by the end of this season and they are cramming entire seasons worth of story into short multi-episode story arcs. I mean, that’s not a terrible thing but between the whole Augments and the Vulcan/Andorian War story, imagine if these had been more fleshed out as full or half season arcs? Yeah. That would have been great if they could have avoided their mistakes of the previous season…so…it was probably best for them to go with the short form.
Going into this one it was abundantly clear that we would get a satisfying wrap up to the story, seeing that we kinda already know the outcome, but they say it’s not always the destination but the journey that matters. That is really the case with this three part story and, honestly, it’s not bad. Sure, there are some strange ‘action’ moments that feel a little forced, I mean Archer and T’pau sliding down cave tubes to get away from an attacker was kinda sudden but, sure. One other thing that kinda surprised me is that, even though we got an appearance of Shran, who you all know I love, he comes across much more sinister than he ever has. Heck, he even tortures Soval for information only to be all, well, I guess youre being honest anyhow…sorry for the torture. Sure, Archer wasn’t there to balance him but, he was kindof a dick this time around. Okay, fine, we got Jeffery Combs so it’s not a total loss but still, Shran didn’t need to torture anyone, that seemed like a stretch.
Overall, This was a highly predictable, but oddly satisfying episode that really would have been better had it been building longer than just a few episodes. I like space battles like the next geek but, this really needed more build to have the impact it was asking for. The Vulcan High Command going full Imperial Fleet was really a little sudden…
Gleanings and Cool Bits:
- So the Vulcans bombed an Earth location to prevent the location of Surak’s ‘last words’ hmmm, dicks.
- We see T’Pau again….just when she’s a bit older…
- Oh and T’Pol is released from her marriage so…yeah…she can date someone else…maybe?
- Oh yeah….that Romulan at the end…That’s gonna pay off this season right? Right?!
Thanks for reading the Retro TV Review, I look forward to discussing the rest of the series with you, one episode at a time every Monday, Wednesday and Friday! Next Review: Daedalus
more reviews I have a weekly series called Key Movies Of My Life that comes out every Thursday and for more retro TV goodness check out the rest of the Retro TV Reviews here.
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Late To The Game 11/3/2021
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