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In “Silent Enemy”, the Enterprise is attacked by an unknown silent enemy. In order to defend the ship, Archer orders the Enterprise to return to the Solar System and have phase cannons installed at the Jupiter Station. It’s a moment of rare reflection for Jonathan Archer – did his leaving Earth early, and thus being under-prepared for the hostilities they’re encountering in deep space, cause undue suffering for his crew? In the B-plot, Hoshi works to uncover Malcolm Reed’s favorite food. It’s one of the strangest plots that any Trek series has ever attempted, both for its sheer lack of any interesting features and for its complete disconnect from anything happening in the main plot. Enterprise is embracing it’s small moments – but are these moments too small?
Wikipedia plot summary for “Silent Enemy”:
“In September 2151, while deploying subspace amplifiers to improve their ability to communicate with Starfleet, Enterprise is approached by an alien vessel. Captain Archer hails them, but the vessel returns to warp. He wonders why: Ensign Sato points out that the Universal Translator is far from perfect; and Sub-Commander T’Pol says that some species have motives that cannot be understood in human terms. Soon, however, the mysterious ship returns and scans the Earth ship, sending a high pitched screech through the com systems, and firing on Enterprise before again jumping to warp.
Archer notes that Enterprise is now encountering more aggressive species than anticipated, and sets course for Earth so that Jupiter Station can finish the weapons refit. Commander Tucker and Reed ask to be allowed to complete the work themselves, but Archer disagrees, though he gives them permission to begin the procedure. While doing so, the alien ship returns and disables Enterprise‘s warp drive and main power. Strange alien bipeds then board the ship, and assault two crew-members. They return to their ship, damaging a warp nacelle before departing again. Mayweather suggests contacting the Vulcan High Command for help, but both subspace amplifiers have been destroyed.
Two days later, Enterprise locates an uninhabited planet for a weapons test, which produces a blast yield 10 times the expected output, due to an unexpected surge. T’Pol traces the anomalous reading to Launch Bay 2, to a device tapped into internal sensors and comm channels. Archer then sends the aliens a message: he does not want a fight but will protect his ship by any means necessary. With that, he destroys the device. T’Pol detects the alien vessel again, which uses a re-edited version of Archer’s earlier message to demand surrender. Archer asks if Reed can intentionally repeat the previous overload of the cannons. Reed complies and damages the alien vessel, knocking out their shields. Reed follows up with two torpedoes before the aliens go to warp.”
In this episode of the podcast, Wes and Clay discuss “Silent Enemy” and whether or not it is succeeding at building a tone unique to Enterprise. Plus! The guys talk about recognizing bananas within a cake, the dark secrets surrounding Reed, and why Enterprise succeeds at being creepy!