My Review- 'Shadows of P'Jem'

WARNING! THE ANDORIANS ARE COMING AND THEY HAVE SPOILERS FOR 'SHADOWS OF P'JEM'

I must admit when I heard about 'Shadows of P'Jem' I was very excited. It is, in effect, a sequel to 'The Andorian Incident' which I must admit I was a tad hard on when I reviewed it. Andorian Incident was clearly one of the best of the season and was wholly enjoyable. But was Shadows?

STORYLINE  

Well from the offset it got of to a good start. We saw Enterprise being blamed for P'Jem's destruction which is what you'd expect, considering no one likes to admit it's their fault. The fact that things from the past were effecting what was happening now with CONSEQUENCES was a definite bonus. This is something Voyager seemed to avoid at all costs, even DS9 did sometimes and TNG was often guilty of it in its later seasons. I can quite happily say I do believe the writers have sat down and said "What went wrong with each of the previous series" and attempted to fix them. Kudos.

The Coridan plot also initially interested me, Im a big fan of continuity and Coridan is in the middle during the TOS ep 'Journey to Babel' which not only had a big Vulcan presence but also had the first appearance of guess which alien. Well I'll give u a clue, they're blue and have antennae. That's RIGHT!  Andorians. So it was definitely interesting to get some kind of idea how Coridan got in this situation. The attack on the Shuttlepod was well done and enjoyable, although the first scenes after the initial kidnapping were ugh. At first it just felt like an excuse to tie up T'Pol and Archer, to help fill ENT's brief of 'Sensuality' as Mr. Braga puts it. When Archer got 'a face full of T'Pol' this only solidified this thought. Frankly, I was not pleased. How blatant could that of been?! However the rest of the plot interested me, but to be frank the references to a corrupt- Vulcan- controlled government didn't please me. Vulcans aren't the type to go setting up corrupt governments on other planets, nor are they the type to come running in, blowing a compound apart. They're supposed to be PACIFISTS. There had better be one hell of a big change in Vulcan society on ENT before it ends and I'll look at these Vulcan characterisation gaffs a little differently, but until then I am not pleased.

Another problem with the plot is that everyone KNOWS T'Pol will stay. She's a regular character, it was hardly likely they'd cart her off halfway through the first season. Instead of worrying about what will happen to her, I got the feeling of 'So what's she gonna do that'll allow her to stay?' obviously jumping in front of Captain Sopek would do it. So, the ship?

THE SHIP  

As I have already said remarkably good scenes with the Shuttlepod attack. I also liked that it was armed with plasma weapons. They seem to be the weapon of choice on lower power craft in ENT. :)

THE CHARACTERS  

First person to guess who came of worst this week gets a cookie. That's right T'POL! Just as I was starting to think they'd sorted the 'T'Pol problem' along comes this. She's just so arrogant, although I enjoyed her annoyance at eating the broth with her hands, she's used as 'Vulcan Babe' more than as a decent character. And when she's not sad about leaving- what were they expecting? A song and bloody dance?! SHE'S VULCAN! It's hard to say what went wrong with T'Pol this time round exactly, just through the entire episode I was left with this feeling that she wasn't doing very well as a character. I no longer lay it at the door of Jolene Blalock, I am starting to believe it may be a good actress with a poorly portrayed character. However the before mentioned change in Vulcan society better come soon.

Shran was great. We didn't get to see him much but he was still great, I thoroughly enjoyed all the parts involving Shran, and I was glad Tholos didn't get to speak much too, seeing as last time his lines consisted of slurs about how sexy T'Pol was. Shran is great, he's the type of guy who'll ally with you, if ur objectives happen to be similar but he isnt the type to make friends. Kudos.

STAR TREK NOTES.  

I appreciated that T'Pol bled green when she was shot.

It doesnt seem like a very Vulcan thing to do- jumping in front of a blast, but I'll let that slip.

I enjoyed the conversation Forrest and Soval had for one main reason. At least someone seems to realise how impulsive and reckless Archer is.

Rating (out of 10): 6/10. Satisfying but not by any means great.