Webthoughts

Although I have always frowned on too-much use of time-travel/alternate timeline stories, this one was well done in that it was much more character-driven that some other examples in the...er...past. Although Travis had very little to do in this episode (he is killed off early on in the "alternate" timeline), it was fascinating to get a glimpse at how the others had survived and grown in their travels.

Too many times, alternate-timeline stories (and not just those in Star Trek) show how humanity is torn apart by infighting and the like after some major catastrophe. Granted, it doesn't get much bigger than Earth being destroyed, but what's left of humanity doesn't seem to fall prey to those sorts of problems. Instead, they band together the best they know how. They do the best they can to keep Starfleet afloat and some semblance of normalcy alive (I base this on the continuity we see in the crew of Enterprise--these people have made sure they have stuck together the best they can). So, even here, in the worst possible situation, we see some of the optimism that Star Trek is known for.

Back to the basics, though, this episode was very well acted by nearly everyone involved, especially Jolene Blalock. I am enjoying some of the growth we're seeing in T'Pol this season.

I only have two complaints about this episode, one major and one minor. The minor complaint involves the fact that, once again, the "Voyager" syndrome of resorting to technobabble for solutions has struck again. The entire solution to the problem (how to cure Archer and get things back they way they were) was nothing but pure technobabble. Granted, when you get in areas such as alternate timelines and such, you're bound to have some technobabble, but enough is enough already.

The major problem I had with this episode was that it wasn't long enough. This really should have been a two-part episode. There was so much more they could have done. They could have explored the relationship between Archer and T'Pol in greater depth (there were some fascinating glimpses in the time we were given tonight as it was). They could have looked at what Enterprise herself and her crew had gone through for those twelve years. They could have looked more at life on Ceti Alpha V. Too much to do in one hour, but not for two hours, I would bet.

All in all, I would call "Twilight" definitely one of the best of the season, if not the series so far. This is the type of episode that The Next Generation was known for, in many respects. That's a good thing.