Captain’s log: date unknown

Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens who have long had turned out a number of Star Trek novels, including writing with William Shatner for his Shatner-Verse series, pen the first episode up this week, The Forge.

Originally airing on 19 November, 2004, the Enterprise travels to Vulcan after the United Earth embassy on Vulcan is bombed. Among the dead, is series supporting character, Admiral Forrest (Vaughn Armstrong). A faction with the Vulcan culture, the Syrrannites is suspected. Captain Archer (Scott Bakula) and T’Pol (Jolene Blalock) set out to discover them, which includes T’Pol’s mother, T’Les (Joanna Cassidy) among their number.

Using a map that T’Pol has received from her mother, she and Archer set across a dangerous desert, known as the Forge, to reach their enclave.

In terms of continuity, we have a fun moment where the bridge crew are playing a round of basketball together. And there’s a lot going on as we learn more about the Vulcans of Archer’s time, and why they aren’t quite like the ones we get to know in The Original Series and onward.

As Reed (Dominic Keating), Trip (Connor Trinneer) and Phlox (John Billingsley) put their forensic skills to work, they come across evidence that the Syrrannites may not be the ones responsible for the bombing, but they have no way of reaching Archer and T’Pol to let them know…

In other words, they may be leading someone right to them.

This season has some very strong episodes that serve to fill out the tapestry of the Star Trek universe, with background and events that build the foundation of what will come in the 23rd and 24th centuries.

Captain’s log: date unknown

Roxann Dawson directs her final episode of the series, which continues the Syrrannite arc, written by Andre Bormanis. It first debuted on 26 November, 2004, and reveals lots of Vulcan history we didn’t know previous to this.

T’Pol and Archer find the Syrrannites, who are being blamed for the attack, but these Vulcans practice the peaceful philosophy of Surak (Bruce Gray), so we, who know are Trek, know that something is truly amiss here. And the explanations of why the Vulcans in this series are so different from the ones we’ve gotten to know in the rest of the Trek universe – katras, mind melds, all the things we know, and have been shunned by the Vulcans Enterprise has encountered.

Now we learn why as well as hint of what caused the off-branch of Vulcans to leave their homeworld and take up residence on Romulus and Remus, becoming Romulans.

And Archer is sent on a quest, carrying the katra of a Syrrannite Vulcan, to recover the Kir’Shara which contains all the writings of Surak.

And we also see something we thought we’d never see, Vulcan and Earth ships in combat with one another!

Of course the episode spirals into a To Be Continued, and leaves us hanging as it’s revealed that the Vulcan High Command are going to launch an attack on the Andorians.

The Human Adventure continues Thursday as I explore more of the final season of Star Trek: Enterprise – The Complete Series on blu-ray, now available from Paramount Canada. Boldly go…