When Archer is warned about a coming storm, he is informed that only one place on the Enterprise will be safe: inside the heavily shielded warp nacelles. Sadly, the people who brought the warning are fugitives and the Enterprise is about to become a battlefield.

I went into this episode expecting something bad, which is a real shame and rather unfair. Part way through I suddenly though 'Look, at least try to get into the mindset of someone who's going to enjoy the story' and I really tried, but it just wasn't going to happen. Once again we're faced with a story that's mainly utterly predictable. This is , so naturally the visiting aliens can't be nice, loveable ones with no hidden agenda: no, we're back to old 'trying to escape from justice' story.

Then again, this is pretty lucky, as the main plot is otherwise resolved worryingly quickly. When this kicked off and the danger of the storm was revealed, I thought the whole episode was going to relate the story of how the crew manage to weather the storm, and the various problems they have to counteract. As it is, they swiftly relocate to the nacelles, with the only problems being a lack of space (which doesn't really come across when everyone seems to have plenty), and a lack of hygiene, which traditionally doesn't translate that well to TV. All we have, then, is the trouble of a group of people turning up, boarding the Enterprise, and trying to find the people who are stowing away. There are a couple of problems here. Firstly, it's not clear why they can't just scan the whole of the Enterprise and find them. Okay, so the nacelles aren't likely to be the first place they look, but surely a full scan would yield something. They manage to detect a rogue shuttlecraft in the docking bay, but that's it. Surely they can scan for life forms.

There is also a problem in the way they don't realize the Enterprise crew is even still aboard, but the bigger oddity is Archer's reaction to the problem of them turning on the warp engines and trying to steal the ship. Firstly, it's explained that we humans can only survive the radiation for 20 minutes at a time. So how come, when Trip ventures outside to inspect something, he doesn't consider running? He's got limited time, yet he seems to spend ages wandering about. And how come the door he hides from the invaders behind only makes the usual whoosh sound when we can see it? How convenient. Then Archer goes out and about and spends ages trying to convince the intruders that he can fight them off his ship. It's just not likely, and I'm not clear on why he can't just say 'we're hiding out up here, please don't turn on the nacelles'. Okay, so he runs the risk of giving away the hideaways, but they stowed away under false pretences, and can hide anywhere on the ship! Surely they could avoid people for a few hours.

Once more it seems we're at the mercy of writer apathy. If no one on staff can come up with a strong story, why don't they get shot of some writers and bring in some new ones? And if we have one more story where Malcolm stands about and whines about his life, I'm going to write a stiff letter to Paramount. On cardboard.

**

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