Story: Babel One
Written By: Mike Sussman & André Bormanis
Series: Star Trek: Enterprise
Year: 2005
“Babel One” is the first real episode to deal with the beginnings of the Federation of Planets. A story like this SHOULD have been somewhere in Season 2 or 3. I really believe Season 1 should have ended with the attack on Earth, and Season 2 should have been a big war arc...but an Earth-Romulan War arc, not the silly Xindi. Then what Season 4 has been should’ve been Season 3.
Well wherever it is placed in the series, this is a story of the conflicts that the peaceful Federation was born out of. Andorians hate Tellarites and Vulcans, Humans have had a shaky relationship with the Vulcans, Tellarites hate everybody and everything...
But this story really shows how a Federation could be born out of such unhealthy relationships, and with Humans being the one group that manages to have relations with all three other races, it actually makes sense that the Federation would be based on Earth, the newest group of people to enter deep space.
This is the first of a trilogy of stories, and it is a pretty strong start. It has the four main races that founded the Federation, and even features the Romulans as sneaky unseen villains (seen only to the audience). The Romulans have a ship that can mimic different ships, and are using the ship to attack Andorians and Enterprise (with Tellarite Ambassadors on board) in order to throw a wrench in their peace talks and prevent an alliance. It is up to Archer and his crew to solve the mystery of the attacks and prove the ship’s existence in order to continue the peace talks. I even liked the cliffhanger, where it turns out the Romulans aren’t on this ship at all...but are controlling it from Romulus.
It is a solid story with good execution.
NEXT TIME: Cooperation
Written By: Mike Sussman & André Bormanis
Series: Star Trek: Enterprise
Year: 2005
“Babel One” is the first real episode to deal with the beginnings of the Federation of Planets. A story like this SHOULD have been somewhere in Season 2 or 3. I really believe Season 1 should have ended with the attack on Earth, and Season 2 should have been a big war arc...but an Earth-Romulan War arc, not the silly Xindi. Then what Season 4 has been should’ve been Season 3.
But this story really shows how a Federation could be born out of such unhealthy relationships, and with Humans being the one group that manages to have relations with all three other races, it actually makes sense that the Federation would be based on Earth, the newest group of people to enter deep space.
This is the first of a trilogy of stories, and it is a pretty strong start. It has the four main races that founded the Federation, and even features the Romulans as sneaky unseen villains (seen only to the audience). The Romulans have a ship that can mimic different ships, and are using the ship to attack Andorians and Enterprise (with Tellarite Ambassadors on board) in order to throw a wrench in their peace talks and prevent an alliance. It is up to Archer and his crew to solve the mystery of the attacks and prove the ship’s existence in order to continue the peace talks. I even liked the cliffhanger, where it turns out the Romulans aren’t on this ship at all...but are controlling it from Romulus.
It is a solid story with good execution.
NEXT TIME: Cooperation