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Enterprise

Episode 2.03, "Minefield"
Written by John Shibon
Directed by James Contner
Air Date: 10.02.02

In "Shockwave, Part II", Archer peruses a library shelf from the future and finds a book entitled The Romulan Star Empire. That was the very first time we'd ever heard of them on Enterprise. "Minefield" now gives us our first real glimpse of them. Well, sort of...

Enterprise drops out of warp when they come across an uncharted solar system with an M-class planet. Seems ideal for a little shore leave, but dammit - there's always a hitch. Turns out there's a gigantic minefield surrounding the planet (somehow they pretty much flew right through it on the way in) and one of them just blew up a sizable portion of the saucer section.

Shortly afterwards, a ship shows up demanding that they leave immediately. The solar system, as it turns out, has been annexed by - you guessed it - the Romulan Star Empire. Good enough start, but this is where the episode took a turn for the painfully banal. Instead of some cool conflict with the Romulans, the main focus of this episode centers around Lt. Reed trying to disarm a mine attached to the hull of the ship. It ends up stabbing him in the leg, though, pinning him down. Archer then has to help him disarm it, because the Romulans are quite insistent that Enterprise leave right away, but leaving Reed behind is obviously unacceptable. (only to Archer, not to me... )

There was a fair amount of tension with this situation towards the end, but damn was it slow for the second and third acts. Ostensibly meant to be an episode that furthers the Reed/Archer relationship, I just ended up being annoyed with Reed and his penchant for melodrama. And again, I thought it was a big missed opportunity to showcase the Romulans. (who we don't even see!) And what's with T'Pol not knowing they're offshoots of her race? Is she withholding info, or does she simply not know? I assume we'll find out.

Not a bad ep, but not the best either.

Episode Rating: 6 out of 10.

-- Ultra Magnus would have left Malcolm's ass behind.

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