This double episode is a worthy conclusion to this rather average series. And it also marks the birth of the United Federation of Planets.
The actual events in this episode are rather lame though. The mining facility's weapon is so powerful, you have to wonder why you've never seen anything like it on Starfleet ships before. The whole story about the cloned baby hybrid of human and Vulcan DNA didn't convince me at all either. Firstly, with just one cloned baby you would hardly be able to gain supporters for your racial madness - the current "threat" to people on Earth still seems far too small to me at this point. Apparently it is not the case that Earth is overpopulated by aliens, that humans can no longer find jobs or apartments and that crime and violence have increased (all reasons for comparable arguments in our day when it comes to immigrants). Secondly, this whole exaggerated emotional attachment of Trip and T'Pol to this baby is a bit far-fetched. Yes, the baby is genetically their offspring. But it's also a test-tube baby, a pure clone. From stolen DNA. This emotional connection that they both portray in the episode doesn't seem authentic. T'Pol was neither pregnant with the baby nor was it taken from both of them at an early stage. There wasn't even an act of conception.
And also: Why did this insane human supremacy supporter need DNA from T'Pol and Trip to create a clone? He could have taken any Vulcan or human and created a clone from their DNA. Maybe even an Andorian and a human to make the result even more vivid. Ultimately, it was all about presenting an alleged abomination to his followers in order to further incite their racial madness and stir up hatred and violence.
Mayweather also proves once again in this double episode that he is a really bad actor and was just an extra in the entire series anyway. And this unsympathetic reporter/agent then added fuel to the fire and completely ruined the already boring scenes with him.
This episode also once again shows that the concept of a phaser set to stun is still not understood. With a weapon that doesn't kill or cause injury, you can basically just shoot away. So why do Archer and the others storm the command center of that mining facility and not just take out everyone they find there - no questions asked. Instead, the villain is of course spared and has time to strike back. Typical Star Trek!
And why is Hoshi still an ensign? After all these years and even saving Earth from annihilation, a promotion would have been absolutely necessary. What do you actually have to do in Starfleet to become a lieutenant or commander when apparently even preventing the destruction of Earth doesn't qualify?
The actual events in this episode are rather lame though. The mining facility's weapon is so powerful, you have to wonder why you've never seen anything like it on Starfleet ships before. The whole story about the cloned baby hybrid of human and Vulcan DNA didn't convince me at all either. Firstly, with just one cloned baby you would hardly be able to gain supporters for your racial madness - the current "threat" to people on Earth still seems far too small to me at this point. Apparently it is not the case that Earth is overpopulated by aliens, that humans can no longer find jobs or apartments and that crime and violence have increased (all reasons for comparable arguments in our day when it comes to immigrants). Secondly, this whole exaggerated emotional attachment of Trip and T'Pol to this baby is a bit far-fetched. Yes, the baby is genetically their offspring. But it's also a test-tube baby, a pure clone. From stolen DNA. This emotional connection that they both portray in the episode doesn't seem authentic. T'Pol was neither pregnant with the baby nor was it taken from both of them at an early stage. There wasn't even an act of conception.
And also: Why did this insane human supremacy supporter need DNA from T'Pol and Trip to create a clone? He could have taken any Vulcan or human and created a clone from their DNA. Maybe even an Andorian and a human to make the result even more vivid. Ultimately, it was all about presenting an alleged abomination to his followers in order to further incite their racial madness and stir up hatred and violence.
Mayweather also proves once again in this double episode that he is a really bad actor and was just an extra in the entire series anyway. And this unsympathetic reporter/agent then added fuel to the fire and completely ruined the already boring scenes with him.
This episode also once again shows that the concept of a phaser set to stun is still not understood. With a weapon that doesn't kill or cause injury, you can basically just shoot away. So why do Archer and the others storm the command center of that mining facility and not just take out everyone they find there - no questions asked. Instead, the villain is of course spared and has time to strike back. Typical Star Trek!
And why is Hoshi still an ensign? After all these years and even saving Earth from annihilation, a promotion would have been absolutely necessary. What do you actually have to do in Starfleet to become a lieutenant or commander when apparently even preventing the destruction of Earth doesn't qualify?