“Babel One”

Travis almost gets a line in this one. He says, "they couldn't mask their warp signature, that's why they--" then he gets cut off by someone on the intercom.

Decent storyline this time. I like the ending, but I'm losing hope that this show will live up to its predecessors.

This trilogy had a few good points, but I couldn't get past the total disbelief that Romulans could have this technology in the 22nd century. Flying warships from Romulus? Mimicking any other vessel? If they could do this now, imagine the technology by Picard's time. This simply can't even be canon. The whole trilogy is discarded as far as I'm concerned...it's a puzzle piece that just doesn't fit.

I forgot to mention the self-repair capability. Nope, this is not canon...it can't be.

And that it can zip out of the way of already fired beam weaponry....no, just no.

While I agree with Jay's concerns regarding the verisimilitude of the Romulans' technology, I have to say this was a well-constructed, well-acted, and entertaining episode for me.

I have one comment on the plot, specifically relating to Jammer's annoyance at UPN. I'm currently watching the episodes on DVD (so no "Next week on ST Enteprise" spoiler-previews for me), yet the deduction that the marauding ship was in fact neither Tellarite nor Andorian but rather a third species, one with the technology to mimick other ships, was in fact quite obvious for me from the start. I didn't find this aspect of the story very creative to be honest.

I do agree with Jammer however concerning the ending: I certainly did not see it coming and it adds a nice twist to the trilogy (surpassed only by the twist of the following episode, when it is revealed WHO is in remote control of the marauder ship).

Not sure how Jammer can call the ending here remotely "sensible"...the cheat raises far more canon issues (like those that Jay mentioned) than the one it tries to solve.

Nice subtle nods to TOS's "Journey to Babel" where Kirk & crew were transporting Andorians, Tellarites (and Vulcans, etc.) to Babel for admitting a potential new planet to the Federation....

Three details I must applaud.

The Tellarite makeup was ingenious. They found a way to make it effective and believable by 21st century standards, while still being true to the awful, ill-fitting masks used in TOS. The laughable gap between the mask and the actor's eyes became a creepy "feature" of the modern makeup, and Lee Arenberg knew how to use it to make his character more expressive in a most unsettling way. I thought it was a beautiful and creative "splice" of modern techniques with the wanting techniques of low-budget 1960s television.

A nice twist on the "red shirt" trope: The two red shirts ("MACOs") are beamed to safety first, leaving the stars in jeopardy on the alien ship.

A nice double-twist on the sexy-lady-seduces-clueless-guard trope: The guard doesn't fall for it, but when he reacts quickly to thwart the predictable ambush attempt by the lunging male, the sexy lady turns out to be the one he should be defending himself against, and she kicks his ass herself.

This isn't the best episode of season 4, but if they had kept up this level of quality as a minimum from the first season on, Enterprise would probably still be on the air.

On behalf of the Starfleet Spacesuit Company I wish to say sorry for such a poor design choice when it comes to the oxygen supply. Clearly having the oxygen pipe disconnect so easily from the tank is a design flaw which should have been noticed in testing. In hindsight, a simple locking mechanism similar to an automobile seat belt may have been a wise design choice.

I do understand this is the fourth time this has occurred which has nearly resulted in the death of a crew member.

Once again I must apologize.

Hehehe - I love the "insult each other" culture. Far more amusing than, say, the Ferengi. Should've had these guys in more often!

Called that it'd be a ship that can disguise itself early on, even without the trailer, and Romulans weren't much of a stretch either from a few episodes ago.

Nothing much else to say! Ooh, they're controlling things from FF7's Midgar.

Also, LOL at the comment above about the suits. Very true! The "detachment of oxygen tube" issue is pretty terrible and starting to give the Voyager Shuttle Crash a run for its money!

To the representative from Starfleet Spacesuit Company, while you are redesigning the suits, you might consider also designing them so that the person inside the suit can reconnect the hose himself rather than relying on a nearby colleague.

Not only is it too easy to detach the air supply, why in the hell is it designed so that the air hose loop can catch on something? And why isn't there some sort of check valve that stops the flow when the air is escaping too fast?

For the same reason that the consoles on the bridge explode: It looks cool and adds to the drama.

LOL about the EVA suits and the design flaw. So, so true. And the exploding bridges... Can you imagine a fire inspector giving these flammable bridges the green light? Me neither. Especially when they explode in showers of sparks no matter what part of the giant ship gets hit. Very bad wiring.

I loved this Babel arc. It filled in so much backstory for the original "Journey to Babel." And it has SHRAN!! With antennae that move! And his hot female sidekick, who kicks MACO ass!

The drone thing was cool -- and really timely here in 2014. I agree it's a stretch that Romulans had the tech that early, but they alone had cloaking devices in Kirk's century, so maybe they're just advanced in an ADD way -- develop a new toy, then discard it for the next.

And it's surprising the crew didn't guess that a holographic projection was taking place when they clearly identified it by its power signature -- obviously it wasn't an Andorian ship that attacked the Tellerites. It's a little disconcerting when the audience is a step ahead of the crew.

I got a deep Trekkie thrill seeing the four original Federation races all gathered together, starting to build an alliance. It would be more perfect if a captain as cool as Picard was involved. I really, really have to suspend disbelief to accept that the hothead Archer has anything to do with bringing the species together.

Frankly, I loved this episode. I thought the action believable, loved that the MaCO didn't fall for Talas and took out Shran himself.:) Loved the pull back at the end. Loved the arguing. And of course, loved Jeffrey Combs.

On the Romulans having this technology...it WAS a prototype, and DID break down in the middle of enemy space AND enemies were allowed to reach the bridge itself. I haven't seen the other episodes yet, but perhaps this design was abandoned becauseit wasn't reliable enough and this was the only time it was used?

@Polt
I second the premise that the remote drone will be viewed as a liability, as we can already see this one has broken down in enemy territory with the bridge in the hands of enemy humans.

That aside, the execution of this episode is well done.

As for the advanced technology-well it seems related to the cloaking device . However the Romulans clearly nicked the idea from the Daleks ( Dr Who-Frontier in Space) when they were trying to foment a war between the Draconians and Earth Empires.
When is the Third Doctor going to turn up ?

For the advanced tech, my thought is simple: the space station where Enterprise had automated repairs had all these advanced technologies, plus some more from near 24th century level.

I am hoping that recent novels will explore the technology more in-depth with what they call the "Ware" in the "Rise of the Federation" series of novels. If the Romulans had done a deal to build ships with similar technology with the race that helped create the automated stations, it would explain the advanced drone ships.

So we're off on another arc. This one did a fairly decent job of keeping the unspoiled viewer off guard - particularly at the final shot - and despite what was fairly well worn territory managed to get some fresh aspects into it (eg the MACO/Andorian fight).

Outside of that we got a lot of shouting, a lot of shooting, and some running round corridors. So it wasn't all good news, but solid enough. 2.5 stars.

I'm tired of the writers having the Andorians continue to call ALL humans Pink Skins. Compete disregard for the diversity of humankind. Has Shran never met Mayweather? Is he not convinced he's human?

Not a bad episode but what really bothers me is the Romulans having such advanced technology -- that completely messes with what the Romulans had in "Balance of Terror" from TOS and even the Romulans a couple of seasons earlier in ENT not to mention more advanced Romulans in TNG.

I'm actually getting a little tired of Shran now. Might as well give Coombs a spot in the opening credits. Shran's better parts, as Jammer said, were with Archer going over the loss of his crew etc. Don't need to see more of Shran the warrior captain in gunfights, taking hostages. Actually don't need to see that in ENT period. Just getting old.

What is good about this episode is the link to "Journey to Babel" one of the best TOS episodes with Andorians/Tellarites trying to settle their disputes. But this episode doesn't come close to being as good as that one.

When starting to watch this episode, I had no idea it was the 1st part of a multi-part episode. Looks like S4 of ENT is all about small story arcs which is not a bad plan.

I'd give "Babel One" 2.5 stars -- I admit it was cool and an interesting surprise at the end to see the Romulan ship being commanded remotely , however it is inconsistent with prior Trek episodes. The Tellarites were portrayed in a manner consistent with 60s Trek although the coincidence that it's Shran's ship that got destroyed is one I think could have been avoided, but the producers want more Coombs (is he the only Andorian captain their Imperial Guard?).

Definitely a watchable hour of ENT although nothing particularly noteworthy.

Yes, yet again Enterprise takes a cool concept and some good ideas and turns them completely into nonsensical canon breaking garbage.

The Romulans didn't have this tech in the 24th, much less the 22nd.

And Trip and Reed should be dead after the first hard maneuver, much less the jump to warp. With no inertial dampers, there would simply be no resisting the inertial forces on the human body from the extreme acceleration in various different directions. They would be chunky salsa inside those suits and the show would have to go on without them.

If they want ed to utilize ridiculously advanced technology like this, they should have set this show in a post-Picard era. If they wanted to do a prequel, they need to keep the technology to the times.

This was akin to George Washington having access to the internet.

Continuity with the Romulans and this advanced technology does seem to be a problem, but I was willing to suspend my disbelief because I enjoyed the story arc.

Loved the your-mama-style insults at the beginning of the episode.

It does feel like Shran is almost another member of the crew. He certainly gets more lines than some of the series regulars. Fortunately for me, I enjoy Combs performances.

I rate this 3 stars.

About the technology that people say breaks canon:
-The fact that the Romulans have a ship that can disguise itself as other ships doesn't break canon. It's easy to see the Federation figuring out away of adjusting their sensors to see past the disguise sometime between this episode & TOS. (In the same way, a cloaking device from the TOS era might not fool a Federation ship from the TNG era; there is likely a constant technological race where both sides are improving to stay ahead of the other).
-The fact that the Romulans have remote control ships doesn't break cannon. As other's have said this technology may prove to be unreliable. It may also prove easy to jam. Block the signal, and they have no control over the ship. Again, this doesn't need to happen until the time of TOS to avoid breaking canon.

While I'm not going to argue over the defects in Starfleet's space suits, it was clever of the writers to make oxygen a problem for the landing party. They kept expecting to find an atmosphere somewhere. At the end of the episode they (and we) realize that there is a reason there's no atmosphere in the ship: the ship is unmanned.

I don't have much else to add to what Jammer & other's have said. It takes too long for the Enterprise crew to at least guess that there's another power at work here, but this is still a strong episode.

When you're having to come up with bad explanations that the writers didn't even give us, that's the time to realize it's bad writing.

dlpb, I assume that's directed at me.

And the writer's don't need to give these explanations. The complaints aren't justified (you certainly didn't provide 1 bit of reasoning in your 1 sentence dismissal of my "bad explanations").

Complaining that Federation tech decades before TOS couldn't see through Romulan tech decades before TOS somehow violates TOS continuity makes no logical sense. It's like complaining that a WWI story has planes showing up at a battlefield undetected, since we know they have Radar in WWII.

Any sort of holographic system, cloaking device, or weapon is based on technology. Another technological innovation can come along and make a previous technology useless instantly. And there are decades between ENT and TOS.

@ methane: Very well said.

It makes no sense for an episode to include obvious explanations for the reason a piece of technology is abandoned in the future.

Remote control or AI control technology was never or rarely used by "canon" Trek, in order to protect show drama. To go boldly where no man (or his drones) have gone before....
If writes can find a way to make episodes using this technology, they should not be restricted by the lack of imagination of their predecessors.

4 stars.

The Romulans involvement was logical. I saw it coming from the first attack. The advantage of watching the episodes on Netflix is that the facts are fresh on your mind. We saw a Romulan on the Vulcan conspiracy, not a coicidence at all. Classic ST.

I agree with the criticism of the out of place technology in the 22nd century, and the defenses of it are even more absurd.

Technology isn't abandoned, it's perfected. If the Romulans are using ships that can masquerade as anything here, they wouldn't just go back to conventional ships by two centuries later. More likely is that ALL ships in the 24th century would be shapshifting ships, with a "space race" centered on who could out-stealth and out-defeat stealth each other. The Enterprise, -A, -B, -C, -D, -E would all be shapeshifting ships.

Same logic goes for remotely piloted ships. If it could be done here, it would only have been perfected in the two centuries since, not abandoned. By the 24th century, ALL combat ships would be remotely piloted drones.

That's CLEARLY not what he have in the 23rd and 24th centuries.

That this ridiculous stuff could be done in the 22nd century, but a ship than can separate its saucer section and its drive section is state of the art two centuries later, is laughable.

To add to Jammer’s category to weed out pitches: “transporter can only beam back X at a time.” As a footnote to this category, X = fewer people than those in need of the transponder’s services.

Oops - should have typed: transporter’s, not transporter’s, services.

Greattrekker: like your theory on the link between the Romulans and the builders of the creepy repair station.

Jammer, why didn't you just stop watching the UPN trailers? You're going to watch the episodes anyway, so why spoil any part of them with stupid previews?

I enjoyed this one, decent premise, twist at the end. I thought the acting was pretty believable, and it is SciFi, so I was not annoyed that the Romulans had impossibly advanced tech.

2.5 stars

For a big event multi parter wasn’t very exciting. Very formulaic only thing that helps it rise above is the inclusion of the Tellarites, Andorians and Romulans

The Hoshi/archer bickering was fun.

This episode deserves a bit more credit than what I gave it upon its initial viewing. There are a number of nice little tidbits that really make a well-rounded action-adventure show that play into bigger themes. The major issue of canon violations with the Romulans having this remote control capability and ship-mimicking skills still doesn't feel right but I think some handwaving is ok for the sake of an intriguing premise.

Speaking of those little tidbits, there's the bit with Kos formally dissolving the marriage with T'Pol and then Reed asks Trip (when on the Romulan drone ship, no less) what he's going to do about it. I like how these 2 characters are written where they are good buddies even while on the Romulan drone and can talk about women!

Also Archer talking with T'Pol over a meal in the captain's mess about if they are are moving too fast vs. the Vulcans mediating between the Andorians and Tellarites is a good self-reflection that puts into context the extent humanity is getting involved in these galactic geopolitics.

As for Shran, I still wonder how Archer keeps running into him but it makes for good TV, especially when they get into a conversation over Andorian liqueur about Shran's romantic life.

There's some good continuity and character/world building here that adds to the richness of the overall material.

3 stars for "Babel One" -- There's really no downtime in this well-paced opener to a pretty good 3-parter. ENT was pretty damn good in Seasons 3 & 4 -- really wish we could have had another season with the momentum it had going.

Am I the only one who saw the twist coming a mile off? It felt completely choreographed to me. Between there being no life support on the ship, and the Daft Punk meets Lawnmower Man dude in control, I thought it was beyond obvious that it was remotely controlled.

Twist was obvious for me too... there were a few clues like no life support and how they felt acceleration unlike those in the bridge. Maybe I’m used to drones by now whereas back then it was a new idea.

We used to use swords in warfare. Now we rarely use swords, because we use guns. But the precursor to guns wasn't swords, it was bows and arrows. Bows and arrows and swords existed alongside each other, because both were necessary. But then guns replaced both, because only guns were necessary. So yes, you can perfect one branch of technology such that it completely obsoletes any potential advances of a different branch of technology. I can squint enough to see why the technology used by the Romulans here, the theory and strategy behind it, is no longer effective in the 23rd century. At least enough to let it pass. Because what it does, is elegantly provide a way Earth could have fought a war with Romulus without finding out almost anything about them, including even what they look like! I mean think about that, it just doesn't fit with a show where humanity has been Boldly Going. Something needs to be done to reconcile that.

The first time we see a Romulan bridge is in the classic episode Balance of Terror. Unlike most other starship bridges, the Romulan bridge has no obvious "front" direction. Their stations are clustered, and face each other rather than facing the wall.

In this episode, the room that the Romulans are shown to occupy has a similar no-front-direction design, making us believe this is ENT's depiction of a standard Romulan bridge. But this is what helps them hide the ending so well -- because a standard starship bridge would have been much harder to pull back from to reveal a static room on a planet. Brilliant art direction!

On the Romulan technology being too advanced, I agree with those that are saying it is NOT too advanced. After all, they have a simple holoprojector. They fool only *visual* sensors (cameras). Future Enterprises are shown fitted with sensors of hundreds of distinct particles / phenomena, and though holographic technology also does progress (you can touch it by the time of TNG), holographs do not fool future sensors, only eyes. Thus, the camouflage is a primitive idea, and will be impossible to reproduce as sensor technology develops.

Another reason that the technology may become obsolete is that the drone has to be necessarily *smaller* than the ship it is projecting. If unmanned drone tech becomes obsolete in the future only large manned ships will remain, and there will be no larger "skins" to project.

I'm very surprised Jammer didn't see the twist ending coming when it was telegraphed throughout. A guy sat in a 'VR-style unit' clearly controlling the ship td me they weren't on the ship. The dialogue tries to throw you by saying they hope they don't make it to the bridge but that just firmed my belief even more.

I found this very ordinary, like so many Enterprise episodes. 2 stars max.

Great episode. Archer and the Tellerite insulting each other, after Hoshi and Archer do the same as "practice", had me rolling, and as a dog I don't do that often. Even the Porthos jokes were great! Always great to see the First Beagle in Space!
And of course there's Shran. I love watching his antennae twitch according to his emotions! Absolutely one of the best sci-fi effects of all time, on any Star Trek Series.
3 paws and tail wag?

I agree with Neo about this being a good episode.

I really like the Andorians, Tellarites, and Orions - why the heck didn't TNG or DS9 ever make use of these races? They are interesting characters and interesting visually. You would think those shows would have done something with them. Oh, well. Their loss is Enterprise's gain, I suppose.


Random post-script: I've been taking a bunch of screenshots for a photoshop project and while Enterprise has some of the best stunt work in Trek the cuts between the actors and stunt people are still pretty noticeable when you're going through an episode frame by frame. That's not a criticism since it would be very difficult to hide the swaps perfectly.

There is a VERY noticeable (and amusing) switch in the fight scene involving Talas and the MACO. As soon as the fight starts Talas' breasts mysteriously triple in size. And this being UPN when given the choice between making a stunt look realistic or shoving the camera directly into the the stunt woman's big blue boobs there really isn't a choice at all.

I don't know, maybe Andorians are related to Denobulans and they automatically inflate when their fight or flight instinct kicks in.

Need more Porthos!
Good ep!

This, “to be continued” BS is getting a little old, I realize it’s not easy to craft a quality episode each and every week, but really, aren’t you getting a bit lazy by relying on a two-hour episode every other week.mi mean even during the three years of the original Star Trek series they’d throw in a stand alone story most of the time. Everyone conspiring against everyone else etc,etc. what happened to the occasion “Horta” type story?
I think the reason you got cancelled was people simply got burned out on these long story arcs. They too much resembled the real world Cold War and real world national squabbling.