Future Tense

The Enterprise finds a pod drifting in the space, and after opening it in Bay Launch 2, Archer discovers a human body. While investigating the interior of the pod, Trip and Reed find a mysterious stairway and conclude that somehow the ship is bigger inside. Meanwhile, Dr. Phlox finds that the DNA of the pilot has Vulcan and other alien genomes. When the hostiles Suliban and Tholian threaten the Enterprise with their warships demanding the deliver of the pod, Archer calls T'Pol and they go to Daniels' cabin. They unravel that the commission of the pod is nine hundred years ahead in the future.

"Future Tense" has interesting concepts and is full of action. The idea of a vessel bigger inside is revolutionary and original, against the existing principles of physics and therefore very intriguing. The reluctance of T'Pol in accepting that the pod is from the future is acceptable based on the logical principles of the Vulcan culture. However, how can she explain or contradict what she saw in Daniels' cabin? My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "Futuro do Presente" ("Future of the Present")

Things get a little dicey when the idea of time travel comes into play. In this episode, a strange space ship that looks pretty much like a chunk of metal, is found with a dead man inside. The Enterprise is first on the scene and pulls it into a cargo bay. It turns out that there are some incredible physical aspects to this ship. Also, the man inside it has an odd combination of DNA that show things that just can't exist at this time. Archer soon suspects that time travel is involved. Soon some old friends show up. The Suliban and the Tholians want their hands on the newly discovered ship. Unfortunately, the Enterprise has a moral obligation to hang on to the ship and they soon come under serious fire. The good thing is that the two attacking parties begin to go after each other. I really enjoyed the way this turns out because it plays well with the realities of time travel.

The time travel episodes are excellent IMHO. Loops happen. We're going to need more time! Say it again. How many times have we done this?

Nice nod to Heinlein's The Number of the Beast.

When the show begins, Enterprise encounters a very odd space capsule. Inside they find a dead man--and he'd been dead for a long time. However, Dr. Phlox's autopsy discovers something that shocks them all--the human has traces of Vulcan DNA! And, later, Phlox also finds evidence of other alien DNA. Slowly they come to realize that the capsule is from another time--1000 years in the future and the dead man inside was a time traveler!

Soon, Suliban ships show up and insist that Archer turn over this capsule. When he naturally refuses, more Suliban ships appear and begin attacking. Enterprise takes off in space and soon finds that their support, a Vulcan ship, has been attacked by Tholians--and now the Tholians want the capsule as well!! Is there any way out of this mess?

This is a pretty exciting episode and I liked the idea of them finding a dead Dr. Who-like being. But the show also suffers from two things--too many occurrences where scenes are repeated again and again due to 'spatial anomalies' and this is quite annoying. Also, by the end of the show, nothing is really accomplished. Worth seeing but a bit weak.

The Enterprise retrieves a small vessel into its cargo bay before the Suliban and Tholians take an urgent interest.

This is a plot driven episode that is excellently paced with exciting, suspenseful action sequences broken up with some nice character exchanges. There are also some pretty cool sci-fi concepts included and nice nods (if not exact continuity) with The Original Series episode 'The Tholian Web'.

There are no really big character moments as most of the exchanges are there to service the plot, although there is a strong scene with Phlox and T'Pol and one moment of slight conflict between Archer and T'Pol.

Rather than spoil any of the plot, I'll just say that I thoroughly enjoyed this one from start to finish and have no complaints.