The Enterprise passes through a section of space near to a black hole, and the radiation starts to have an adverse effect on the crew.

The trick with Enterprise seems to be to make it simple; it's the easiest stories that seem to get the most out of the characters and the set-up. This episode is a good example: the crew starts to behave oddly, with only T'Pol unaffected (obviously). Quite reminiscent of original series episodes – and let's face it, this show should be a lot more often – this gives us a chance to see a more irritable crew and allows the chance to see a few upgrades being made to the ship to better cope with what's awaiting them.

While I've laughed at some of the heavy-handed moments in the past where the crew has invented a bunch of things familiar in 'future' series, this time Reed's attempt to streamline the alert systems seems quite reasonable, and the 'Reed alert' joke is rather a good one, which works because at no point does it strike anyone to call the new security protocols a 'red alert'. What is a little puzzling is that T'Pol claims phase cannons take too long to charge, which, considering how little time has elapsed since the alert has gone off, doesn't entirely hold water as Reed is unlikely to have found a way to make them charge instantaneously, just go online.

That aside, we have some good little moments. Phlox's enthusiasm to burrow into Travis's brain is creepy, Trip's obsession with the captain's chair is good fun, and the problems build gradually enough that we get an idea what a grumpy crew looks like without war breaking out. This is one of the things that's missing from many series: very few people get upset with each other or stressed out naturally. Here it takes some strange radiation to force problems to the surface, and it would be nice to actually see some of them snap from time to time. It's only natural, after all.

Otherwise this is an efficient if straightforward episode, and it works well because of it.

****

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