This was a mixed bag if ever one existed.  One one hand there is a strikingly well-written and well-executed plot regarding Archer’s abduction at the hands of a bounty hunter.  It is suspenseful, engaging, and ties into some threads established clear back at the beginning of the series.  Archer  pulls some Picard-style psychological tricks on his captor, busts out with some old-fashioned Kirk-style fisticuffs on some Klingons, and even helps a rather shady character redeem himself.  In short, it was the kind of plot that made Star Trek: TNG so likable in the 1990s.

On the other hand, though, was one of the lamest sub-plots I have seen this season.  Doctor and T’Pol are stuck in the medical quarantine room after contracting some strange microbe on a planet they recently visited (I am weary of this story mechanic.  would that it would change!) and, sure enough, they have to smear that goopy disinfectant gel all over themselves!  Remember that awkward scene in the first episode?  Remember how you nearly ran screaming from the TV?  Yeah, it’s like that…only worse.  As luck would have it, the microbe triggers (what else?) the pon farr.  *sigh*

The rest of the Doctor/T’Pol subplot is a hamfisted attempt at what I can only assume is Berman and Braga’s idea of comedy, as Jolene Blalock makes an idiot out of herself and the Doctor (and all other crew members) try to knock some sense (and a cure) into her.

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