One thing I have grown to appreciate about Enterprise (in and of itself an origin story of sorts) is the way it also explores the origins and backgrounds of its characters. This episode, despite being ranked rather obviously in the pantheon of “save the budget” episodes, did a good job of exploring more of Archer’s background and gave us some additional insight into his longstanding friendship with Trip. It was a nice counterpoint to Regeneration’s relentless and frentic action, and I rather enjoyed it–probably in no small part due to the superb direction of series veteral LeVar Burton.
Things got started, as they so often do, with a mission that led to much more than the crew was ready to handle. Turns out the ship might be headed into a nebula full of dark matter, but they aren’t exactly sure just what is out there. Everyone is pretty stoked at the possibility of exploring this in a shuttlepod when Archer gets some bad news that someone named “A.G.” has died. Turns out that A.G. is a longtime friend of both Archer and Trip, and the news of his death immediatly sends the Cap’n into one of his emo moods, which left me holding my breath for another embarrassingly bad show (Hugo Award nominations be darned!).
