“Awakening”
Written by André Bormanis
Directed by Roxann Dawson
Season 4, Episode 8
Production episode 084
Original air date: November 26, 2004
Date: unknown
Captain’s star log. After getting the highlights of “The Forge,” we see Soval appearing before High Command, saying that he concealed his abilities as a melder for the good of Vulcan. V’Las informs him that Stel has been revealed to be a Syrrannite, which Soval finds hard to believe. When V’Las says there’s no excuse for deception, Soval tartly replies that deception is no stranger to this room. He’s relieved of his post, told to turn over all classified data, and reminded that his loyalty oath is still in effect. They don’t actually clip his cufflinks, but it’s implied…
Archer and T’Pol have been taken by Syrrannites. They’re introduced to T’Pau, who assures them that she hasn’t left the Forge in months and couldn’t have set the bomb, no matter what the DNA evidence says.
T’Pau also reveals that “Arev” was really named Syrran, the founder of their movement. His loss is devastating. T’Pol is also reunited with her mother, T’Les, though the reunion isn’t a happy one on T’Pol’s end. T’Pau is annoyed that T’Les led Archer and T’Pol there, but T’Les just wanted her daughter to know she was safe. Archer and T’Pol are put in a cell, with Archer feeling off ever since Arev touched his face before dying.
Tucker is shocked that Soval’s been relieved of his duties. Soval says he can appeal, but V’Las is unlikely to be impressed by it. He also says that High Command is likely to bombard the entire region of the Forge where they think the Syrrannites might be, which is where Archer and T’Pol were headed. Alas, there is no way to contact them…
Archer has a vision of Surak, standing in this same sanctuary, but with a battle happening in the distance. He is seeing the events of eighteen hundred years ago as Surak saw them. Arev/Syrran transferred Surak’s katra to Archer before he died.
V’Las announces that the flying patrols have located the general area of the Syrrannite camp. He intends to destroy it from the air, which disturbs another member of the council, Kuvak, who thinks they should just be arrested. V’Las says order must be maintained and that’s best done if the Syrrannites are wiped out.
Archer informs T’Pau that he’s been granted Surak’s katra. T’Pau wishes to mind-meld to verify this, which Archer isn’t thrilled about, but he agrees. T’Pau melds with him and is shocked to sense Surak’s consciousness within him. Syrran was the keeper of Surak’s katra, and they had thought it lost. T’Pau wishes to extract the katra from Archer. T’Les objects, as it’s a difficult and dangerous ritual that T’Pau has never actually performed. But T’Pau doesn’t see an alternative.
Archer and T’Pol discuss the situation. When T’Pol laments her mother being a Syrrannite, Archer points out that he no longer believes them responsible for the bombing. When T’Pau comes to him with the notion of relieving him of Surak’s katra, Archer agrees—but T’Pol argues against it. T’Pau says they’ll take the katra by force if he doesn’t agree, and Archer tells her that he’ll do it. This doesn’t do much to make T’Pol think well of the Syrrannites…
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System Collapse
Upon being informed that Enterprise is still in orbit, V’Las goes over their heads to Admiral Gardner (who has apparently replaced Forrest), a maneuver that disturbs Kuvak. Tucker, Reed, and Mayweather reinforce a shuttlepod so it can navigate the Forge, and Soval provides a method of bringing down the surveillance satellite so the shuttle can head for the surface undetected. Unfortunately, the patrols still find them, and the shuttle is fired upon and forced to return to Enterprise. V’Las tells Tucker that if he doesn’t leave orbit, Enterprise will be fired upon.
T’Pau tries to extract Surak’s katra from Archer, but it fails—mainly due to Surak himself, who prefers to remain inside Archer’s head, as Vulcans are too wrapped up in their own history. He needs Archer to find the Kir’Shara, which has all the teachings of Surak intact.
Archer is unconscious for some time, and by the time he wakes up, the Syrrannites have observed that the flying patrols are getting closer. They have to evacuate—but Archer now knows where the Kir’Shara is and can lead them to it. Most of the Syrrannites evacuate for their own safety, but T’Pau accompanies Archer and T’Pol to find the Kir’Shara. They do find it, just in time for V’Las’ bombardment to start. Kuvak points out that V’Las is ordering a massacre, but V’Las counters that he’s just eliminating a threat.
After retrieving the Kir’Shara, Archer, T’Pol, and T’Pau leave the hidden cave to find the sanctuary destroyed—and also a wounded T’Les, who remained behind out of concern for T’Pol. She dies in her daughter’s arms, though not before saying she’s proud of her.
Three Vulcan ships fire on Enterprise, and Tucker is forced to retreat. Soval has another bombshell: V’Las believes that the Andorians are mounting an attack on Vulcan, using Xindi weapons. Part of V’Las’ reasoning for wiping out the Syrrannites is to eliminate the most prominent group of pacifists on Vulcan as they prepare for war.
Tucker orders Mayweather to set a course for Andoria.
To be continued…
The gazelle speech. While Syrran chose Archer to receive Surak’s katra out of necessity, Surak himself remains in Archer’s cranium by choice, believing that a non-Vulcan is a better choice to find the Kir’Shara, as he won’t be burdened by Vulcan baggage.
I’ve been trained to tolerate offensive situations. T’Pol’s reunion with her mother goes poorly, as all she sees is that her mother joined a dangerous cult.
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Ambassador Pointy. Soval doesn’t believe for a nanosecond that Stel was a Syrrannite, probably because conspiracy theories aren’t logical. Once he’s relieved of his post, he becomes a very dangerous enemy to the High Command, albeit a valuable ally to Tucker.
The Vulcan Science Directorate has determined… When T’Pol tells Archer that katras are mythical—when Archer has a katra bouncing around his cranium—Archer gently reminds her that Vulcans said the same thing about time travel.
Blue meanies. The Vulcan-Andorian conflict is apparently heating up in the wake of Andoria’s obtaining of Xindi weapons tech.
Better get MACO. A MACO joins Reed and Mayweather on their shuttle trip and, true to MACO form, is of absolutely no use whatsoever.
More on this later… T’Pol speaks of katras being mythical, though by the twenty-third century, the rituals involving them will all be restored and katras will be a fact of Vulcan existence, as seen in The Search for Spock.
I’ve got faith…
“Why are you doing this? I never got the impression you cared that much about humans. Seems like you were always finding something new to complain about.”
“I lived on Earth for more than thirty years, Commander. In that time, I developed an affinity for your world and its people.”
“You did a pretty good job of hiding it.”
“Thank you.”
–Tucker and Soval.
Welcome aboard. Back from “The Forge” are Robert Foxworth as V’Las and recurring regular Gary Graham as Soval. Back from “Home” is Joanna Cassidy as T’Les.
Kara Zediker makes her first real appearance as T’Pau, after being seen in a picture last time. The character was previously played by Celia Lovsky in a story taking place a century hence, the original series’ “Amok Time,” and was also played by Betty Matsushita as a holodeck re-creation of the character in Voyager’s “Darkling.”
John Rubinstein plays Kuvak; he previously played a Mazarite in “Fallen Hero” and a displaced human in Voyager’s “The 37s.”
And we have Bruce Gray as the image of Surak in Archer’s head. A re-creation of the character was previously played by Barry Atwater in the original series’ “The Savage Curtain.” Gray previously played Admiral Chekote in DS9’s “The Circle” and TNG’s “Gambit, Part I.”
Foxworth, Graham, Zediker, Rubinstein, and Gray will all be back in “Kir’Shara” next time.
Trivial matters: This continues Enterprise’s second three-parter, continuing from “The Forge,” and to conclude in “Kir’Shara.”
Surak was established as the father of Vulcan logic in the original series’ “The Savage Curtain.” Vulcan’s violent, tumultuous past was first mentioned in the original series’ “Balance of Terror,” and the time before Surak was seen, after a fashion, in Spock’s behavior when travelling back in time through the Atavachron in the original series’ “All Our Yesterdays.”
The concept of the katra was introduced in The Search for Spock, as was the ritual for transferring it to another person.
Andorians got their hands on Xindi technology in “Proving Ground.”
Admiral Gardner is, presumably, the same person Soval cited as his preferred candidate to captain Enterprise in “Shadows of P’Jem,” established as one of the final four candidates to get that job in “First Flight.” He will continue to be referenced throughout the series as taking over Forrest’s role as Commander, Starfleet, though he won’t be seen in the mainline universe. However, his Mirror Universe counterpart will be seen in “In a Mirror, Darkly, Part II.”
It’s been a long road… “You have a lot to learn about Syrrannites.” I wanted to like this episode a lot more than I actually liked this episode.
Part of it is the comedown from the Reeves-Stevenses—whose resumé includes some great Trek novels as well as episodes of Batman: The Animated Series, Phantom 2040, and The Lost World, among others—to André Bormanis, the writer of “Hatchery,” “Extinction,” “The Crossing,” and “The Communicator.” And while I’m stacking the deck with my examples (the Reeves-Stevenses also wrote for the 1996 Flash Gordon and Mighty Ducks animated series, while Bormanis also wrote or co-wrote “Desert Crossing” and Voyager‘s “Waking Moments” and “Fair Trade“), the greater point holds.
Especially because the writing here is not great. Kara Zediker gives no impression that the character she’s playing will grow old into the grand matriarch Celia Lovsky played in 1967, and while I don’t expect her to act the same—she is a hundred years younger—it still behooved both Bormanis and Zediker to at least give a hint of what she was to become, and we’ve got precisely none of it, just a zealot who is mean to our hero.
The scenes with Surak in Archer’s brain meats are a major disappointment, though Bruce Gray does a good job portraying the historical figure. (Unlike Zediker, he echoes his original series counterpart, and improves on Barry Atwater’s performance.) But this epic look back at pre-Reformation Vulcan is, uhm, two guys standing in a cave looking at distant CGI explosions.
V’Las manages to have even less nuance than he did last week, as the only thing he’s missing is a mustache to twirl. Poor Robert Foxworth does the best that he can, but the character is so cacklingly evil it’s impossible to take him seriously. It’s not aided by wasting an actor of John Rubinstein’s calibre to stand around and look concerned by V’Las psychopathy, but not actually doing anything about it. (And he won’t until way way way too late in the next episode.)
And finally, we have the painfully constructed death of T’Les, which makes nothing like sense—if she was concerned about T’Pol’s safety, why didn’t she just go with them to find the Kir’Shara? Instead, she stays in a blast zone to get killed, and you can just see the strings, both to maximize the pathos for T’Pol, but also to clear the way for Koss to release T’Pol from her marriage next week so we can have the cliché-mandated T’Pol-Tucker relationship to barrel forward for the rest of the season.
The episode isn’t all bad. Indeed, the general story is a good one, it’s just the execution of it that falls down on almost every level. The only exception is the stuff on Enterprise, particularly the Tucker-Soval banter. But overall, it’s far less than it should’ve been.
Warp factor rating: 4
Keith R.A. DeCandido has a story in the newly released eighth issue of Star Trek Explorer magazine, “The Kellidian Kidnapping,” a Voyager tale that dramatizes an adventure alluded to in the series finale “Endgame.” There’s also a DS9 story by David Mack, “Lost and Founder.” You can find it at bookstores and comic shops, or order directly from Titan.
Doesn’t T’Pau’s contempt toward humans count as acting the same as her “Amok Time” version?
I agree that killing T’Les seemed contrived. We’d barely gotten to know her.
It’s interesting — Manny Coto had a reputation for being politically conservative, but here he used the villainous V’Las as a blatant allegory for the Bush administration fabricating claims of Iraqi WMDs to justify an unnecessary war.
Kuvak was rather miscast. John Rubinstein is a perfectly good actor, but he’s too expressive to be a convincing Vulcan. (I feel the same about Gary Graham, but he had more time to learn to rein himself in.) Really, both he and Robert Foxworth were allowed to get way too openly emotional in their scenes in this trilogy. I feel it undermined V’Las as a villain to make him this ranting, uncontrolled figure. Often, the best villains are the ones who are most calm and controlled in their menace, like the War Lord (Philip Madoc) in Doctor Who‘s “The War Games.”
@1 said: Really, both he and Robert Foxworth were allowed to get way too openly emotional in their scenes in this trilogy. I feel it undermined V’Las as a villain to make him this ranting, uncontrolled figure.
I feel a little different about this, given the reveal at the end of the trilogy. To me, V’Las is essentially saying: “Surak? Peace? F*** that noise: it’s Vulcan über alles, baby!” I’ve no doubt he’d look to betray his allies as soon as it would be advantageous for Vulcan’s interests as he saw them. He’s pre-reformation personified and has been able to warp the culture and machinery of government to his point of view.
A couple of thoughts …
Last week, there was some debate in the comments about sending MACOs vs. sending a well-known Starfleet captain to go with T’Pol. I was firmly in the not-a-job-for-Marines camp. This week they are actually asking the very good question, “now that you’ve found us without even a phaser, are you going to arrest us with pointed words?” What, exactly, did Archer have in mind for the expedition?
Did Reed and Mayweather just start a war between Earth and Vulcan? A Starfleet shuttle, firing on Vulcans within the atmosphere of Vulcan …
The Syrranites, supposed pacifists, had a lot of bladed weapons and a ready jail. Well, the jail could bolster their non-violence claim, were the window bars spaced to keep a Vulcan in or a Sehlat out? The High Command could have found the Syrranites by looking for candle smugglers, BTW. How many would they use per week? The lone Vulcan last week at least had a sort of flashlight.
I was disappointed by Soval’s quip about having become fond of Earth. The brewing Vulcan civil war saw humans as pawns, but they could just as well have used a different species with an embassy. What I had hoped for would have been something along the lines of “I’m trying to stop the extremists among my people for the sake of Vulcan.”
I noticed that the warmongering High Command representatives were all male, while the senior Syrranites (after the death of Syrran) were all female. Is that trying to tell us something, or a random throw of the dice?
@1/CLB – I’ve always been confused at the contrast between Coto’s personal politics and what seems a fairly blatant anti-Bush allegory in this story. To be fair, elements of the US government and/or military industrial complex often turned out to be the real bad guys on 24 (which he also showran) as well, so maybe he just felt it made a better story?
Yeah, Foxworth seems to be playing with knowledge of the reveal as opposed to trying to be a traditional Vulcan.
T’Pau as well, they seem to have approached her as, she can’t be a grand dame yet, so we’ll just have her be as mean and uncaring as the lady who let Kirk agree to a death battle without telling him it was a battle to the death. I feel like they had T’Pau in the wrong position as the reputation of a Vulcan who turned down a seat on the Federation Council might fit more if she had Kuvak’s position. Having her on Archer’s side it seems a bit odd since humans have such a pivotal role in this key moment of Vulcan history. Then again she did save Kirk’s career.
Soval and Tucker are a very effective double act here. And that exchange-
“You did a pretty good job of hiding it.”
“Thank you.”
As Classic a Vulcan as you can get.
T’Les really didn’t need to die. Considering how this resolves, Koss’ pressure would’ve crumbled to ash anyway after the Restoration. She was just a really cool lady and it would’ve been nice for T’Pol to have her to bounce off of.
I also like Surak’s, “Nah, I’m good. I kinda like it in here” vibe. It gives the impression that if Surak had gotten to meet humans he would’ve made friends with us, with no ego or condescension. It fits with his legendary status that he’s one of the most humble Vulcans ever depicted.
@2/twels: “He’s pre-reformation personified and has been able to warp the culture and machinery of government to his point of view.”
Yes, obviously, but that doesn’t have to equate to “throwing a temper tantrum.” One can show menace and emotion while still maintaining firm control and poise. Look at most any Vincent Price performance, say. Or Kor or Kang in TOS. The more confident and relaxed a villain is, the more dangerous it feels for the heroes.
I thought this one was pretty good for a middle episode in a trilogy.
“The gazelle speech. While Syrran chose Archer to receive Surak’s katra out of necessity, Surak himself remains in Archer’s cranium by choice, believing that a non-Vulcan is a better choice to find the Kir’Shara, as he won’t be burdened by Vulcan baggage.”
Which is just one more reason why it should have been T’Pol who was at the center of this story, because she would have had to overcome her Vulcan baggage in the process.
“Syrannites believe that Vulcans have strayed from the teachings of Surak.”
We’re beginning to see the first signs of what this trilogy is about: Manny Coto pandering a bit too much to fans whining about how “Vulcans are supposed to be wise and noble, not jerks, you know, like they were in the original series when they tricked Kirk into a fight to the death because of antiquated traditions”, and going “Ah-ha, but see, they’re only jerks because they’ve strayed from Surak’s teachings and now we’re going to show you how they become all wise and noble and oddly accepting of the occasional gladiator combat.”
Ironically, this is achieved by making Vulcans much worse than they were in the first two seasons. V’Las is a worryingly believable portrayal of a corrupt politician determined to force his twisted views on everyone, surrounded by people who either lap up his every word or are too scared (or too much a part of a failing system) to offer any real objection. On the other side, we have T’Pau, who might be more or less on the side of the angels but is still a dangerous fanatic and bigot willing to sacrifice innocent lives to achieve her goal. It’s no wonder that Surak rejects his apparent allies of the Syrannites and relies on Archer to show Vulcans the way.
Tucker and Soval continue to make a surprisingly good team, complete with the old joke about Vulcans taking a jibe as a compliment. It’s interesting, if somewhat inconsistent, that V’Las has moved from denying the evidence against Stel to throwing him to the wolves and framing him as a Syrannite terrorist. On a similar note, V’Las declaring war on Andoria has come out of nowhere somewhat, but it’s consistent with him offering the Andorians up as an alternative suspect for the bombing, planting the idea of them as enemies. T’Pol only gets a brief moment of reconciliation with her mother, a bold move.
Phlox doesn’t appear in this episode. Second and final appearance of T’Les. Soval gets to man science station in T’Pol’s absence. There’s a number of continuity references including to the peace treaty that came from ‘Cease Fire’.
Good banter can raise almost anything.
But I’m a sucker for banter.
I remember very little about this episode to begin with: a few highlights like the Trip-Soval banter aside, it’s a very “meh” episode. I presume that the Syrranities needed as many hands as possible to assist with the evacuation, which is why T’Les remained away from the trio searching for the Kir’Shara.
@1. CLB.
Political conservativism does not necessarily mean that one aligns perfectly with what is championed by the dominant political party. Coto could have hated the Bush administration regardless of whatever his alignment was.
Quoth FRT: “Political conservativism does not necessarily mean that one aligns perfectly with what is championed by the dominant political party.”
It often did in 2004, to a rather appalling degree.
—Keith R.A. DeCandido
I agree that this had the makings of a good episode, but that the execution often meant that the right notes were not played to their fullest potential: For my money a scene which made the implication that V’Las was obliged to work through subordinates who might very well interpret his orders in ways that he did not agree with more explicit (Ambassador Soval’s remark that warning shots were not in the Vulcan tradition suggests to me that at least one Vulcan captain would really, really like to avoid an Earth/Vulcan shootout, orders or no orders) would have helped place the Administrator’s position in a context that helps explain his more and more evident emotions.
That is, he’s a Vulcan who has been obliged to maintain a delicate balance between embodying his people’s values and subverting them for his own convenience coming closer and closer to to toppling off the tightrope, rather than walking his way into now-uncontested Supreme Power: he’s worried about becoming Julius Caesar, rather than Augustus, to use an Old Earth comparison.
At this point, one would like to note that, as previously mentioned, the Ambassador Soval/Trip team-up continues very promisingly (That quote is, indeed, the Vulcan/Human relationship given it’s most delightful summation); That I thought the very bare bones vision of Pre-Reformation Vulcan made perfect sense (Since it makes very plain that there simply wasn’t very much left after a cycle of internecine brutalities), with Surak given a rather intriguingly ‘Everyman’ quality for such a significant figure; Also that I remain deeply, deeply amused that the long-running joke that T’Pol hates time travel just keeps on running (If ‘hates’ is too emotive, substitute ‘wishes very much that time travel did not actually exist’).
All in all I liked this episode, though one can only agree that it’s not the Best version of itself (For my money V’Las’ peculiar failure to insist on NX-01 being destroyed, rather than driven off, is the most bizarre action on his part: it’s possible that he’s taking an ‘out of sight, out of mind’ attitude, on the understanding that there’s not much United Earth can do to hurt him if he can only make Vulcan HIS, but it still seems curiously un-ruthless for a Vulcan willing to bombard his own homeworld with weapons of mass destruction).
Oh, and my assumption regarding the Syrannites’ retention of edged weapons was they were a concession to the fact that they’re in the middle of a howling wilderness: while they might prefer to do no harm, there’s no guarantee that the local predators would be willing to return the courtesy (It’s quite likely that, not being very well acquainted with Humans, they thought it sensible to retain a visible deterrent around Captain Archer in a way that they might not feel necessary where a sensible, safely-outnumbered, Vulcan like T’Pol was concerned).
@13/ED: “…warning shots were not in the Vulcan tradition…”
Except with Klingons, as we later learned.
“…a context that helps explain his more and more evident emotions.”
As I’ve pointed out in other contexts, it’s not just a question of whether what we were given can be “explained” after the fact by in-story logic. It’s a question of whether the people who created the story could’ve made a better choice in the first place, and thereby made a better story. I feel that more restrained performances by Foxworth and Rubinstein would’ve worked better than what we got.
I enjoyed this a bit more than some, but I have to agree that the portrayal of V’Las is far too sinister. I feel like it would be over the top for a human character, let alone a Vulcan.
@15. ChristopherLBennett: When it comes to might-have-beens I try to be philosophical and apply for a ‘No Prize’ instead (Since I am an easy-going man and neither a published author nor a working screenwriter).
To be honest, I feel that making V’Las and at least some of his Inner Circle all propriety in public, but a little too emotive in private would help sell the fundamental hypocrisy of the character and his clique (As very much expressing the more atavistic tendencies of Vulcan civilisation while proclaiming themselves the truest heirs of Surak): I feel the problem is that the episodes fail to deploy such expressiveness tactically, rather than that they deploy it at all.
I liked “Awakening” a bit more. While the death of T’Les can be somewhat contrived, it doesn’t rob the scene of its power. It easily wins me over thanks to the performances of both Cassidy and especially Jolene Blalock. And Roxann Dawson did a fine job framing that scene and bringing out the best from both performers. Given this was also Dawson’s final directing job for Trek, I think she went out on a good note.
That scene is also a reminder of how T’Pol’s emotional control had become compromised since the Xindi arc. At least she gets to react and grieve for her mother without the Vulcan logic circuit breakers kicking in, and in a way deal with it in a way few Vulcans would be able to.
I would never place Bormanis on the same level as the Reeves-Stevenses either, but I also think he’s come a long way as a writer. Given he started his tenure on Trek as a science advisor on late TNG, I find it impressive he was able to make the transition from an analytical job to being able to craft dramatic story beats at all. Even VOY’s “Fair Trade” was a nice example that he was capable of doing the job. For all its flaws, I think “Awakening” pulls off the act 2 emotional low point part of the trilogy well enough.
I think this version of T’Pau works well enough. Not particularly deep, but I still think we get a sense of what person she’ll become in a century or so.
@1/Christopher: Right after Enterprise ended, Coto joined 24 and helped to write a season that had Jack Bauer going up against the Republican POTUS for making deals with Russian separatists, allowing terrorist activity on American soil, and putting world peace at risk (not to mention Gregory Itzin’s character looked a lot like Nixon). Personally, I think that despite his right-leaning tendencies, Coto was always a writer willing to take a story wherever it went, regardless of ideology.
V’Las is totally ridiculous in this episode. OK, evil guy, but this is just purely stupidly evil without clear motivations. OK, he wants to start a war against Andoria, but…why?
And what would the pacifist guys sitting in the desert do about it?
Also, this is now the second episode and we still have learnt NOTHING about the syrannites besides that we are told they are pacifists…geez.
The first episode was good, this one is just very-very meh. I appreciate that Soval is becoming more helpful and friendly, but the change is a bit sudden…