Storm Front, Part II

Archer and the Mafia conclude the Temporal Cold War against the Alien Nazis.

Again this is one of the most daft concepts in the Trek franchise and I really hope it was their way of having a laugh whilst wrapping up the story arc. It contains some amusing scenes, a good wartime newsreel and one epic line from Archer in response to Trip realising he is not dead, but the best thing about it is that they draw a line under the Temporal Cold War.

Nazis and Aliens v Enterprise and Mafia: That should say enough, without even mentioning the dodgy special effects, particularly the Nazi flag on the White House. Some of the acting is also quite ropey and the less said about the writing the better. When you know a story can only be the characters journey to the reset button you need some major entertainment to get you there. Unfortunately, this at best is moderately entertaining for me.

Most of the actors do their best with the material they have and there are some decent action sequences, but it's a bit uninspiring.

Of all the episodes of "Star Trek: Enterprise", this two-parter is the strangest. I am not sure if it's because the show jumped the shark or they were being really clever. All I know is that it is strange and I could see how fans might be a bit put off by this.

Part one brought the Enterprise to WWII-era Earth. The Nazis, inexplicably, are being helped by aliens!! Because of this, they are kicking American butt! So why would these ugly-faced galactic dudes be on Earth and why would they help the Nazis?! If that isn't strange enough, you'll see Archer team up with mobsters to help defeat them...as well as Silik!!! If you remember, Silik is the time traveler who battles the good time cops! To see how all this works together and actually makes sense, see the show. It's well done but perhaps too goofy for my taste.

After the last three episodes of the third season were basically one long episode in three parts and brought the Xindi plot and the threat to Earth from the weapon of mass destruction to a happy ending, the authors shouldn't have jumped into the next double adventure straight away. Both the crew and the viewers needed some time to breathe deeply and reflect on the events.

Instead, in the final episode of season three, Archer and the crew of the Enterprise were catapulted back in time to World War II, where a strange alien species changed historical events in Nazi Germany's favor. So the fourth and final season begins with a double episode: Changes in history, the Temporal Cold War that has gotten out of control and the Enterprise crew that wants to return to their time.

It's never a good sign when evil Nazis form the core of the plot in time travel stories. But when it is also about Nazi aliens, it usually becomes ridiculous. Unfortunately, that also applies to this double episode. Thanks to the aliens, Germany even managed to invade the USA. With these two episodes, the story about the Temporal Cold War finally and rather abruptly ends. This theme was built up over four seasons and is then presented with a rather sobering resolution to the conflict. All timelines are straight again and the villain has been eliminated. The fact that this whole story made pretty little sense and that we saw this new faction for the first time in the Temporal Cold War, although they seem to be THE central faction that ultimately messes everything up, didn't help the story at all. I'm still wondering how the timeline in which Nazis invaded America was corrected at the end. In the scene with Daniels and Archer, this timeline apparently corrects itself automatically, but that doesn't make any sense.

The whole story seems like a hasty attempt to wrap up the "Temporal Cold War" theme - with no regard for leaving plot holes so big that Enterprise could fit in them five times over. Silik is dead, Vosk is dead, Daniel is alive again, the timeline has been restored and everyone can now devote themselves to new adventures.

I appreciated that this set of events was handled in two episodes. I don't know if I had the staying power to try for 24 episodes to handle the Nazis. Archer must enlist the Suliban commander and the earth people to attack the time machine being built. One problem with the Suliban is their shape shifting which added an element of doubt over who and what was real. The whole business with a bunch of gangsters was a bit absurd. They were able to overcome the Nazi's with nary a casualty. I wasn't as engaged in this one because the villains weren't as well developed.

This two-parter was a lot of fun (though exhausting, binged after the wild ride that was Season Three), had numerous clever and affecting scenes, and several excellent guest actors.