Archer has to find and rescue Klaang.
I enjoyed the general plot of the episode, with some good action sequences mixed with some insight into the characters. I might well be wrong about T’Pol, as she’s certainly appearing to be a bit more complex than I feared. And Archer is shaping up to be an interesting character, more in the Kirk vein than any of the other previous characters.
The show appears to be trying to mix the episodic and ‘plot arc’ approaches, with quite a few hooks set up for the future here, within a fairly episodic action story. I hope so, because when DS9 did that it worked a lot better than Voyager’s strict episodic approach.
But: the ‘where did we park’ action sequence? The completely unnecessary shirtless decontamination sequence (a variety of ‘sexposition’ – exposition while mostly naked and stroking each other)? And above all, ‘Temporal Cold War’? And above all, the incredibly cliche “fight sequence while the villain exposits” sequence combined with “lead stumbles across the important information while wandering around randomly” bit in the finale? More reasons for concern.
(And the music. I just don’t know about the main theme. It’s certainly new. But I can definitely say that I hate the ‘smooth jazz’ version in the end credits).
More callbacks: Recording the Captain’s Log. The ‘science goggle’ thing on the bridge station. The first phasers (complete with stun). And the transporter (and everyone’s attitude towards it).
639 down, 98 to go.