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brabbel123"The Forge" left me with high expectations that this episode here couldn't quite deliver.
the Vulcan High Command: I have never seen a more illogically acting bunch of Vulcans than that. If they had at least somewhat logically argued that wiping out the Syrannites is to the benefit of all the others... but the way V'Lass (sp?) pulled the proverbial trigger without batting an eyelash - not that 3 of his fellow Command-members did, and the 4th merely argued against it instead of actually doing something - was creepy in a very unVulcan way. In fact, only the pointed ears gave some hint to their origin. Okay, we know that we'll deal with very different Vulcans in the future but still - spying on neighbours isn't quite the same thing as wiping out an underground movement...
I'd like to know how the Vulcan political system works. Somehow I gained the impression that the High Command can do what it wants - but it seems quite incredible that in such an advanced culture 5 people can make decisions about wars without at least consulting a kind of parliament or the people itself. I still don't know, though, how V'Lass can be removed from office unless the Syrannites/Soval have more of an influence on the Vulcan military (and thus in preventing the war against the Andorians) than is obvious right now.
It's all well and good that those who are born to lead should lead but someone has to control the leaders. Overall the situation on Vulcan was of course an allusion to modern US politics, beginning with making unbased claims as to the Andorians constructing a devastating weapon, to wiping out all resistance and/or blaming those who think differently for everything that goes wrong. It's somewhat the opposite to season 3 where Earth acted similarly irrationally to the Xindi threat...
Soval - I liked him even more in this episode because quite frankly, he was the only one that acted remotely Vulcan...
T'Pau, T'Less and the Syrannites - Frankly, I couldn't detect much difference between the ordinary Vulcan and the self-proclaimed improved Syrannite version. At least I didn't see how their path is more solidly based on logic than that of V'Lass. I mean, is it very logical to try and remove Surak's katra from Archer just because he's human and not worthy of carrying it??? Small wonder that Arev/Syran chose the mere human - at least Archer knows his failures and doesn't claim to be guided by logic only. As far as I know, Surak teaches to only follow logic and repress the emotions - and the reason why, the memories of the nuclear war on Vulcan, was quite unsettling to say the least. But both T'Pau and T'Less showed and are driven by emotions to quite some degree, not as much as T'Pol (those tears over her mother's death... well... I could have done without that tear-jerker-scene) but still. It's quite interesting that Archer doesn't suffer from Surak's katra as much as McCoy did from Spock's. If I had been Surak's katra I wouldn't have wanted to transfer to T'Pau, either. But somehow he'll have to get rid of the katra, maybe someone more worthy of it will succeed where T'Pau has failed.
Overall, a good and exciting episode that leaves a lot of ground to be covered in the conclusion of this three-parter. But it didn't satisfy my wish to finally see the real Vulcans if a non-member of the Syrannites acts more Vulcan than the supposed followers of Surak's true teachings...
3.5 stars out of 5
the Vulcan High Command: I have never seen a more illogically acting bunch of Vulcans than that. If they had at least somewhat logically argued that wiping out the Syrannites is to the benefit of all the others... but the way V'Lass (sp?) pulled the proverbial trigger without batting an eyelash - not that 3 of his fellow Command-members did, and the 4th merely argued against it instead of actually doing something - was creepy in a very unVulcan way. In fact, only the pointed ears gave some hint to their origin. Okay, we know that we'll deal with very different Vulcans in the future but still - spying on neighbours isn't quite the same thing as wiping out an underground movement...
I'd like to know how the Vulcan political system works. Somehow I gained the impression that the High Command can do what it wants - but it seems quite incredible that in such an advanced culture 5 people can make decisions about wars without at least consulting a kind of parliament or the people itself. I still don't know, though, how V'Lass can be removed from office unless the Syrannites/Soval have more of an influence on the Vulcan military (and thus in preventing the war against the Andorians) than is obvious right now.
It's all well and good that those who are born to lead should lead but someone has to control the leaders. Overall the situation on Vulcan was of course an allusion to modern US politics, beginning with making unbased claims as to the Andorians constructing a devastating weapon, to wiping out all resistance and/or blaming those who think differently for everything that goes wrong. It's somewhat the opposite to season 3 where Earth acted similarly irrationally to the Xindi threat...
Soval - I liked him even more in this episode because quite frankly, he was the only one that acted remotely Vulcan...
T'Pau, T'Less and the Syrannites - Frankly, I couldn't detect much difference between the ordinary Vulcan and the self-proclaimed improved Syrannite version. At least I didn't see how their path is more solidly based on logic than that of V'Lass. I mean, is it very logical to try and remove Surak's katra from Archer just because he's human and not worthy of carrying it??? Small wonder that Arev/Syran chose the mere human - at least Archer knows his failures and doesn't claim to be guided by logic only. As far as I know, Surak teaches to only follow logic and repress the emotions - and the reason why, the memories of the nuclear war on Vulcan, was quite unsettling to say the least. But both T'Pau and T'Less showed and are driven by emotions to quite some degree, not as much as T'Pol (those tears over her mother's death... well... I could have done without that tear-jerker-scene) but still. It's quite interesting that Archer doesn't suffer from Surak's katra as much as McCoy did from Spock's. If I had been Surak's katra I wouldn't have wanted to transfer to T'Pau, either. But somehow he'll have to get rid of the katra, maybe someone more worthy of it will succeed where T'Pau has failed.
Overall, a good and exciting episode that leaves a lot of ground to be covered in the conclusion of this three-parter. But it didn't satisfy my wish to finally see the real Vulcans if a non-member of the Syrannites acts more Vulcan than the supposed followers of Surak's true teachings...
3.5 stars out of 5
