Archer decides to pop in on a Vulcan sanctuary and see how to meditate the Vulcan way. Going down with Tucker and T'Pol, the group discovers Andorians have captured the local Vulcans to make them reveal spying equipment the Vulcans claim to know nothing about.
The big draw of this episode is evidently meant to be the Andorians, but this story goes some way to demonstrate why they've never been used since the original series. Yes, they're very dull. Warlike, violent, not overly intelligent, the Andorians are only a physical threat and are easily fooled by a couple of Enterprise crew members, which begs the question 'are the Vulcans really thick or what'?
The biggest problem, however, is that nothing at all happens in the episode outside the first and last five minutes. Archer and company discover the Andorians quickly, then spend most of their time sat in a cell trying to work out how they can escape. The fact that they manage to wander off, knock together a radio, communicate with Enterprise and arrange for a back-up away team to come down for a rescue without the Andorians noticing shows just how easy it is to beat them.
Then there's the revelation that the Vulcans have been hiding something from the Andorians, and are using spying equipment in this innocent-looking sanctuary. This is a revelation that should come about mid-way through the episode, leaving time to get reaction from the Andorians, humans and Vulcans and come to some kind of resolution. What we get is a last-minute and frankly very obvious twist, then everyone goes 'well, that's that then' and leaves. Should the Vulcans not be taken to task? Reported? Should the Vulcan council not make some pronouncement on their actions? And more importantly, when did Vulcans get this untrustworthy? I'm sure they were never scheming and conniving bastards before. It just doesn't ring true. There should be a lot more follow-up to an incident like this.
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