1.12 : Silent Enemy.

[Neo]

Episode 1.12 "Silent Enemy" Spoilers

Episode Title: 'Silent Enemy'
Episode Number: 112
Synopsis: "When Enterprise is attacked by an unidentified enemy ship, the crew must work frantically to get their new phase canons to operate. Meanwhile, Archer realizes that no one knows Reed well enough to give him a personalized birthday gift."
Original Airdate: January 16, 2002

Mysterious attacks and birthdays will be the order of the day when Enterprise returns from reruns this month.
UPN today released its official description for 'Silent Enemy', which has been made available online, courtesy of Psi Phi:
When Enterprise is attacked by an unidentified enemy ship, the crew must work frantically to get their new phase canons to operate. Meanwhile, Archer realizes that no one knows Reed well enough to give him a personalized birthday gift.
'Silent Enemy' was penned by Enterprise staff writer Andre Bormanis, and is his first script for the series. During his tenure as Voyager science advisor, he wrote episodes such as 'Human Error' and 'Imperfection.' The episode was directed by Trek stalwart Winrich Kolbe, whose previous work includes the Voyager pilot, 'Caretaker.'

The guest cast list for the episode was also released:
• Jane Carr as Mary Reed
• Guy Siner as Stuart Reed
• Paula Malcomson as Madeline Reed
• John Rosenfeld as Mark Latrelle

British actress Carr has featured in series such as 'Becker' and 'Murphy Brown' in addition to appearing as Londo's wife Timov in the Babylon 5 episode 'Soul Mates.' Siner is probably best known for his role of Lieutenant Huber Gruber in the long-running British comedy 'Allo 'Allo. He has also had roles in Babylon 5 and Dr. Who.
Malcomson has appeared in the films 'The Green Mile' and 'Artificial Intelligence' in addition to guest roles on Profiler and The Practice. Rosenfeld is the only actor to have acted in Trek before, having played Technician #1 in Voyager's 'Friendship One.' He has also guest starred in episodes of ER and Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
Enterprise star Dominic Keating recently gave his own appraisal of the episode (story). "We've got one episode coming up, 'Silent Enemy,' where we kick some serious butt," he said.
'Silent Enemy' will air January 16 at 8:00pm Eastern Time on UPN.

 

[xst]

Weak plot and even sillier subplot. But a great appearance by Porthos!

And why would a "Starfleet Captain" go to such silly lengths to find out a crew-member's favourite food? Why not just ask the guy? and to "order" another subordinate to "find out the favourite food" is such an abuse of power and not to mention a waste of the valuable time and resources of an important crew member. If I was Hoshi, I would have said "Foul Play! Find out yourself!" Take Malc into your cabin and ply him with a few drinks to loosen his lips ..... and then find out what his fave food was. Sheesh!

 

[Neo]

So u did not like the epy ???????? LOL

 

[xst]

Hi, Neo

I didn't say I didn't like the episode. I said it didn't have much of a plot. I enjoyed looking at Porthos, a better look at the bowels of the ship and the suspense of the alien ship attacking the Enterprise. The episode had its moments. It was not a total loss. I would give it a low rating and not bother seeing it in the re-runs.

In general I'm not a good reviewer because I don't like to write things off completely and I always look for the "silver lining". After all, a great deal of money and effort went into the making of the episode. This episode in particular is of interest because it sets the "new tone" and mythos of the Enterprise ship, ie how they got the cannons and Porthos is cute and Vulcans don't always know all of the dangerous species in the galaxy. But the plot lines (all two of them) were pretty lame. Does that help you to understand my stand?

 

[Lonewolf89]

I loved this episode!! Archer's lines were a bit cliche, but the search for Reed's favorite food was great! This is also the first ep. were we see the engineering crew get into the action.

 

[Neo]

No Spoilers here


Just on of the best episodes i have seen so far.... Tru trek at its best

 

[Highlander II]

missed this one the 1st time around - don't remember why - but taped it this week, and have watched 1/2 of it ---


in response to xst - it wouldn't have made a difference if Archer had asked Reed what his fave food was -- b/c Hoshi asked and he pretty much said he didn't have one --

like i said - i've only seen 1/2 of this, so i can't make a fair assessment --

tho the crew trying to figure out background on Reed is interesting -- i think it's an approach to 'character development' which is sometimes blatantly obvious in Trek - they just center an episode around a character and BOOM! character development - well, in this episode, the plot is the 'silent enemy' and there is a bit of focus on finding out info on Reed --

the subplot of learning about what Reed likes and planning a b-day dinner/party for him, to me, sounds like a way to show that other things are happening on the ship aside from the 'adventures' they face every day ---

one of my fave eps of TNG is 'Data's Day' - it's just a regular day on the ship - the most in the way of conflict is, i think, a transporter malfunction - other than that - nothing big - just Data preparing for the wedding --- simple episode - but nicely done -

this one isn't quite like that, but it's in a similar vein --- (so far - i'll add more when i've seen the rest)

 

[Lonewolf89]

I liked 'Data's Day' too [especially when he was helping Worf pick out a gift. ] 'Silent Enemy' is my favorite episodes, and I like to see a few more like this for some of the other characters.

 

[Neo]

was a very interesting one

 

[Dave]

The aliens were they actually looked alien, though a little too Species 8472. It's just a pity that we didn't find out anything about them, or why they took offense to those little sub-space beacons 'Echo1' and 'Echo2'. And the big question: why such a technologically advanced race cannot use a Transporter, but have to take shuttles.

Hey! NO CAVES! NO SHUTTLEPODS FALL INTO HOLES! NO ALIENS WHO JUST WANT TO BE GOOD FRIENDS! It can't be all bad!

The was more good character development -- Not the letter from Natalie to Trip, who was she? Not the, Hoshi what does Malcolm eat, stuff; but the Malcolm-Trip and the Trip-Archer interactions.

I have some good news for all the Euro-skeptics in the UK. And for once some excellent continuity. Malcolm's granddfather served in the Royal Navy. That would be the British Royal Navy. His father seemed about 55, so his granddfather must be around 85, 100 years old at maximum. if he joined the Navy from school that would be about 60 - 80 years ago, making it 2070 to 2090. The European Hegemony, a forerunner to World Government ('Up the Long Ladder' TNG) obviously happens later than this, and indeed the episode states that it happened in the 22nd Century!

Quote: "I guess we weren't so uninteresting after all!" -- Archer.

Quote: "I guess we weren't sufficiently entertaining!" -- James T. Kirk.

Do you think that was delibrate? The writer André Bormanis is the science adviser on the show, and a ST buff. It would him responsible for Bromelin being a real substance, which really is found in pineapple, and which is in fact a known allergen, instead of some technobabble that we would otherwise get.

Quote: "I've got a hotplate in my quarters..."(Sato, to blushing Reed) Hmmm! Just a moment while he goes and gets into his Samauri costume.

Cruel Archer and Trip, they take Porthos down to see the aliens, the go back to the bridge and leave him to be eaten.

 

[padders]

I liked the episode, the subplot was not the strongest but as said it did bring out some decent interactions amongst the crey, i liked the "gung ho" bit in enginerring and not wanting to go back to space dock as well.

The aliens, quite cool really, a bit different. Weird that the vulcans don't know who they are and even weirder that they just attack and then retreat lots of times - obviously the element of surprise dosen't feature in their tactical manuals. The lazer weapon looked pretty useful against that moon but if they have to blow up part of the ship each time to use it that is not going to be much use

 

[Lonewolf89]

Well, I guess I'd rather blow up my own ship than have someone else do it for me.

 

[Neo]

Originally posted by padders

The aliens, quite cool really, a bit different. Weird that the vulcans don't know who they are and even weirder that they just attack and then retreat lots of times - obviously the element of surprise dosen't feature in their tactical manuals. The lazer weapon looked pretty useful against that moon but if they have to blow up part of the ship each time to use it that is not going to be much use

I wondered whether the vulcans have told all they know... U reckon we are gonna find out more about this species

 

[Cpt Larraq]

Originally posted by Dave
The aliens were they actually looked alien, though a little too Species 8472. It's just a pity that we didn't find out anything about them, or why they took offense to those little sub-space beacons 'Echo1' and 'Echo2'. And the big question: why such a technologically advanced race cannot use a Transporter, but have to take shuttles.

Maybe they're overzealous when it comes to the protection of their territory. Maybe the beacons pissed them off. About the shuttles: maybe this race didn't devote research to the field of transporter tech.

 

[ray gower]

Originally posted by Neo
Just on of the best episodes i have seen so far.... Tru trek at its best

I agree. Pity it is after Cold Front on the tape. Still.

The sudden invention of the Pulse Cannon is a bit of an oddity. Surely if they had the prototype available. It being potentially more devastating than a torpedo and not using something they were going to run out of any time soon thay ought to have got it rigged a little sooner?

I also liked Hoshi running around desperately trying to find out things about Reed. But it was something of a sudden leap of faith to decide that he liked something he was allergic to, might take some explaining