Archer is put on trial by the Klingons for harbouring fugitives from Klingon justice, namely a group of alleged rebels trying to escape those who forced them from their colony. If Archer is found guilty, the penalty is death.

I have to admit, I was quite enjoying this episode at the start. The courtroom set looks lovely, very reminiscent of Star Trek VI, and I'm quite partial to the occasional Klingon episode. There are two problems, though. Firstly, I didn't realize this episode actually is Star Trek VI, and secondly, the Klingons simple aren't behaving right.

I mean, okay, so we've learnt a lot more about Klingons and their honour system and so on over the years, but we're seeing them now pre-original series. Leaving aside the ongoing fact that they're apparently going to start looking different and then revert to how they look here, they should still be a much rougher, tougher, bolshier race. Some of the ones Kirk met were quite the charmers, admittedly, but at the end of the day they sought vengeance for every slight and went about determinedly getting their own way. How else could they have built an empire? The ones we see here are more than happy to listen to two arguments, in each case with only the word of the speaker that it's true, and just side with Archer. Why is he somehow more credible than the Klingon captain, Duras? (Oh, and that's another point: enough of this senseless linking back please. Yes, we've met Duras's descendents in TNG, but what difference does it make here?)

While every Klingon in the area is baying for blood, the judge decides he's going to let Archer off without the death sentence. Now, what is going on here? Our justice system doesn't allow other crimes or good deeds to be taken into account during a trial; can Archer just do what the hell he likes now because at one point he exposed a Suliban plot against the Klingon Empire? How many times does the same action buy leniency? And since when did Klingon justice become fair? No one seemed too bothered in Star Trek VI when a guilty verdict came down. I thought the point was that everyone wound up guilty. Indeed, will Klingon justice go downhill rapidly now that the nice defence counsel has been sent to the dilithium mines?

Which brings me back to the Star Trek VI similarities. It's a Klingon court, it's the same premise (only without the cool raising platform Kirk and McCoy got, plus a translation device as the main Klingons seem happy to speak English), and just as you think it's all over, it's the same punishment: a trip to Rura Penthe instead of death. There's a limit to how much you can milk nostalgia. Just because we've seen this penal colony before doesn't mean we want to see it again. It looks the same, except it seems to have fewer guards, although they make up for it by offering the same threat: being dumped outside of an evening. The main difference, though, is that you can just walk out.

Yes, you read that right. You can walk out. What????? Is it just a lack of enthusiasm? A shortage of time? Or did the scripters really think this was the perfect ending? The only good lawyer on Qonos gets left behind in the caves to die while the legal system goes to pot, and Archer and Reed skip happily up the stairs to freedom. Now, firstly I seem to recall something about Rura Penthe being near-impossible to escape from due to shielding. Now, while you can make the case that this hasn't been put in yet, you'd think the Klingons might have, say, posted the odd guard around it. Yet Reed, using only the disguise of a big cloak, can wander in, find the captain and wander out again. They'd be captured or killed! God, Archer's not even hiding under a hood! There were guards zapping him earlier to keep him working; where are they when he's chatting with his defence counsel about an escape? They've got more than enough time to cuff the whole damn lot of them. It's ludicrous, treats the audience with contempt, and caps off a disappointing episode that could have been a massive amount better. Nice to see JG Hertzler back in Klingon make-up though.

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