Episode Review - Silent Enemy
Reviewed by Andrew Bailey

Synopsis
We kick off this hour of entertainment with the deployment of Echo Two – the latest communications relay, designed to facilitate long-range communication. Shortly after successful deployment of the probe, an unfamiliar vessel approaches the Enterprise from warp, stopping dead in front of it.  Despite attempts at hailing the vessel, no communication can be made between the vessels.  Scans of the ship show nothing – no bio signs, no propulsion, no weapons – nothing at all.  The crew is left with a small mystery as the alien ship turns and warps away.

Shortly later, Hoshi manages to find a way to contact the parents of Lieutenant Malcolm Reed, using the new communications relay.  Archer opens a comm link with them, attempting to find out more about Enterprise’s Armoury Officer, as part of an effort to prepare a special meal celebrating his birthday – 2nd September.  However, it turns out that his parents are able to offer little advice. His father, a navy man, seems to have some disapproval over Malcolm’s career choice and it appears the Malcolm was brought up in a fairly strict upper class environment.  They ask the captain to “Give Malcolm our best.”

After the less than successful attempt at finding more about Malcolm’s culinary tastes, Hoshi and Archer collaborate quietly on the bridge about the “mission”.  Archer ends up ordering Hoshi to find the necessary information any way that she can, saying that it requires her “finesse”.

Shortly later, the alien vessel returns, approaching so abruptly and at such speed that Mayweather is forced to reverse engines to avoid a collision.  Archer tries to hail the vessel once again, to no avail, until Hoshi reports that she is picking up something.  Soon after, an ear-piercing sound fills the bridge and the alien vessel scans Enterprise and then proceeds to fire weapons, before warping away once more.  Fortunately, the attack did reveal something about the new enemy – whilst firing, their shields went down for around two seconds, allowing scanners to reveal two things.  Firstly, at least 15 lifesigns aboard of a species whose DNA is not in the database.  Secondly, the ship is tough.  Very tough – torpedoes wouldn’t stand a chance at piercing the shielding that the vessel boasts.

Down in engineering, we discover that the alien attack came very close to destroying Enterprise, forcing Archer to take some precautionary measures.  He decides to turn the ship around, taking it back to the Sol system, to have the phase cannons that Enterprise was designed for fitted at Jupiter station.  This is despite objections from Trip, who claims that the Enterprise crew is capable.

The change of course prompts Trip and Reed to decide to hold an inside meeting with engineering staff, discussing their plans for attempting to get the phase cannons built and installed before they reach Jupiter.  Whilst Enterprise was designed to house three of the devices, it has only one, and that’s a prototype. This is due to the rushed nature in which it left spacedock.

Meanwhile, Hoshi’s “mission” continues as she speaks to Reed’s sister, best friend, Uncle Archie and two spinster aunts, all to no avail.  Upon T’Pol’s suggestion, she decides to attempt to extrapolate the information from Reed himself, going to join him for a meal in the Mess Hall.  Upon arriving, she finds him eating, and hopefully asks, “How’s your ravioli?”  Unfortunately, she only gets back an unenthusiastic “fine.”  Undeterred, she goes on to be more explicit, talking about her ability to cook and the hot plate in her quarters, asking, “What’s your favourite food?”  Reed takes it exactly the way it begins to sounds and starts talking about how it might be inappropriate, given that they work together.  Once it finally dawns on Hoshi, she leaves hurried and embarrassed.  

The infamous ship then returns and fires upon Enterprise once again. This time damage is more evident, as internal communications, warp drive, main power and shortly later, even the lights go out.  The aliens open the doors to Launch Bay 2 and board the ship.  Archer goes to find two of the aliens (looking remarkably like some kind of Earth marine life) over a couple of crew members with what looks like some kind of energy transfer going on between them.  He calls to get the aliens away from them, but they do not move.  He fires his phase pistol to no effect.  He changes the setting and fires again, but the aliens do not react.  They then turn and return to their vessel, which soon warps away.

After analysis from Phlox, it turns out that the crewmembers were subjected to invasive scans that could potentially cause some neurological damage.  Despite this, however, they are stabilised for the time being.

Due to the awkward situation that the ship is left in from the attack, Archer reluctantly concludes that the best course of action is to contact the Vulcans for help.  However, Hoshi soon finds herself unable to. The reason: Echo Two has been destroyed by the aliens.

Meanwhile, work on the phase cannons is completed by the crew, pleasing Archer immensely.  A test is carried out on a nearby uninhabited planet. The phase cannons fire correctly, aside from one problem – an energy surge causes the weapons to be immensely over-powered (and also causes some damage to Enterprise’s systems).  The crew then comes to realise that there is a device in Launch Bay Two that caused this problem – an espionage device left by the aliens. Archer is less than amused and activates a visual sensor and talks to the aliens through their surveillance device, telling them that he will defend his vessel, before destroying the device with a phase pistol.

In the mean-time, Hoshi’s mission continues as she goes to ask Phlox what he might know about Reed’s choice of food.  Fortunately, he manages to come up with something.  Reed has a series of allergies, notably to a plant enzyme called bromelyn.  In addition to this, Reed has been taking injections to prevent his intolerance to bromelyn, allowing him to eat foods containing the substance.  One food, particularly rich in the enzyme is pineapple.  Hoshi decides to go with it, enthused about it as her best option.

Then, the alien ship returns once again.  For once, they actually hail, presenting a mutated version of Archer’s earlier message, saying, “You are defenceless.  Prepare to surrender your vessel.”  The crew prepare the phase cannons and fire. There is little effect though. As a result, Archer and Trip decide to intentionally overload the weapons, as before, increasing the power to them. This does the trick, causing explosions on the enemy vessel and bringing their shields down.  Torpedoes are then fired, causing significant damage to the vessel, which turns and flees with a green gas trailing behind it.  Enterprise suffers little damage, save a few blown out plasma relays on B Deck.  Archer decides to cancel the return to Jupiter Station, but the partial return journey has not been a complete waste as it gives the crew an opportunity to drop a new subspace amplifier to replace Echo Two.

To celebrate the victory, Archer, Trip and Reed make a toast in engineering to the efforts of the crew.  Hoshi soon comes in with a “component” for Archer, which turns out to be a pineapple cake for Reed.

“Pineapple.  My favourite.  How on earth did you know?”

Summary
But how did they know?  It seemed just a little coincidental that the fact that he was taking injections for his bromelyn and that pineapple just happened to be his favourite.  A little coincidental that it all worked out, that is, but not beyond the realms of believability, so I have to go with this.  The “mission” certainly made for an interesting bit of entertainment.

All in all, not a bad episode.  The plot in itself didn’t sound that interesting, but the final execution of it was certainly enjoyable.  Occasionally, it felt a bit “oh, here we go again!” but I can’t really criticise on that, because more than anything, it showed background on our aliens.  Persistant.

It was nice to get a bit more background on Reed – we learnt a lot from him  by watching his relatives and what his crew were saying about him.  Just the one niggle – why does all his family have to have a stiff upper lip British accent, looking as though they sit on the lawn drinking tea in their stately home, listening to the wireless for the war news?!  On a similar note, why did the British parents state his birthday as “September 2nd”?  Surely that should be “the second of September” if they are British?

I also liked the continuous perspective on the ship that we’re getting here: nobody really knows what everyone else is doing.  Hoshi’s running around on a secret mission and then there’s Trip and Reed secretly preparing the phase cannons.  It fits with the concept that this is all new, without very well defined procedures, and it worked well.

The aliens were certainly interesting to see, looking like nothing we’d ever seen before.  The power of these things compared to our crew was impressive and it was nice to see that Archer will (if reluctantly) call the Vulcans if needs be – he is looking after the well being of his crew.  A little bit of mystery was left in the episode, in regards to the exactly who and what these aliens were, and what they wanted.  That made viewing throughout exciting, in anticipation of answers.  And surprisingly enough, I wasn’t feeling frustrated at the end when I didn’t find out, either.

I was very impressed by the graphical effects in this episode.  The phase cannons looked outstanding when they were fired and the explosion on the dead planet was absolutely stunning.  The final battle with the alien ship was pretty impressive as well.

I have one problem with Enterprise in general, so far.  Why the obvious episode naming?  “Silent Enemy” was way too explicit about the plot, as have been titles like “Fight or Flight”, “Unexpected”, “The Andorian Incident”, need I go on?  I’ve always been happier with the titles from the earlier series – “Inter Arma Enim Silent Leges”, “Someone to Watch Over Me”, “Ex Post Facto” and “Eye of the Beholder” are all good examples that Enterprise needs to look to.

I’ve not got on with Enterprise episodes a huge amount, so far, given my personal preference for the methods employed in The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine and Voyager, but as Enterprise episodes go, this one was pretty good in my opinion.

Final Opinion
An entertaining, mysterious episode, with just a little hint of a tendency towards repetition.

Rating: 7.5/10