Star Trek: Enterprise (TV Series) Shockwave, Part I (2002) User Reviews

To Be Continued...

[Samuel-Shovel · 9/10 · 12 September 2017]

Captain Archer and the gang accidentally start a chemical reaction wiping out a colony upon a nearby planet. Is this the end of Star Fleet? Was it Archer fault?

After the previous episode, we really needed a solid episode to close out the season and ST:E delivered! This went from an above-average episode to one of the best episodes of the season due to the last 10 minutes. Enterprise leaves us on a cliffhanger as we wait to see Archer's fate and the outcome of the Temporal Cold War. This ending actually has me intrigued for what we'll see in Season 2.

What REALLY happened?!

[planktonrules · 9/10 · 25 March 2015]

This episode begins with a shuttle from Enterprise appearing to cause a chain reaction which kills 3600 colonists. The Vulcans are more than ready to say 'I told you so' and push for the Earth's space program to be halted. However, in reviewing the accident, the crew realize that it was NOT caused by them but a cloaked Suliban ship! Those nasty time-traveling jerk-faces are back. What follows is an adventure that brings Agent Daniels (who was assumed killed by Silik) to help Archer to expose the Suliban base and defeat them. But, by the end of the show, the tide has turned against the humans and Archer is about to be captured--and is spirited off the ship by Daniels...to a future that is bleak on a dead Earth!

This is a pretty exciting episode but also only part one of a two parter. It's very enjoyable but also one that is difficult to assess on its own. Very well done, however...and perhaps a bit better than part two.

One of the best episodes of the first season

[snoozejonc · 8/10 · 31 August 2020]

When Enterprise visits a mining colony it apparently sets off an explosion that kills all the inhabitants.

This is the gripping first episode of a strong two part story that ties in several of the bigger story arcs from the series. The Temporal Cold War and the Vulcan/Andorian/Human political situation feature heavily.

Most central characters give a strong contribution to the story as whole, but this first part does end on a bit of a cliff hanger, as per standard practice within the franchise. To get the full effect, both episodes should really be watched back to back if possible.

Trek purists will probably struggle with the episode's franchise continuity once more as the Vulcans (T'Pol aside) are not only portrayed negatively, but in their confrontations with other characters they show too much emotion. Also, the specifics of time travel science are not really addressed by the writers other than to tell us it's complicated.

I don't think the above problems drag this one down too much, because the whole story for me is so entertaining it would feel a bit harsh.

Trapped in the Future

[claudio_carvalho · 10/10 · 21 December 2007]

Captain Archer is invited to visit the matriarchal mining society of the Paraagans, a colony with 3,600 dwellers, and receives instructions with the procedure to be followed to land with the shuttle pod in the hazardous atmosphere of the planet. However, something goes wrong and the shuttle apparently ignites a huge explosion, destroying the colony and killing the entire group of colonists. After the investigation, the crew of the Enterprise finds out that plasma leaking of the shuttle had ignited tetrazine, causing the destruction of the colony. Captain Archer contacts Admiral Forrest and he calls off the mission of the Enterprise. While returning to the Starfleet base with Archer absolutely depressed, the Captain awakes in San Francisco ten months ago, and meets Daniels in his room. The time traveler tells him that the Temporal Accord and the time line that he was supposed to protect had had problems. Further, he guides Archer how to develop technology ahead of time and find evidences of his innocence in a cloak Sulliban cruiser hidden in Paraagan. The skeptical T'Pol does not believe on Archer when he tells that he traveled to the past and Daniels is alive. When Archer meets Silik, he has to take a tough decision.

"Enterprise - Shockwave: Part 1" is definitely the best episode of the First Season of Enterprise. The complex story has a very well developed screenplay, with the most dramatic and surprising situations. Unfortunately, as a common practice of distributors of TV shows, the episode is to be continued and end in the climax of the story. That is the reason why I prefer to watch most of these shows on DVD years later, to avoid the deception of, for example, "Lost". My vote is ten.

Title (Brazil): "Onda de Choque – Parte Um" ("Shockwave: Part One")

A Devastating Blow

[Hitchcoc · 10/10 · 14 March 2017]

The Enterprise is on its way to a planet ruled by women. They are a quickly advancing culture. As the shuttle enters the atmosphere, there is a massive explosion, killing everyone. Archer is devastated, believing the shuttle caused the extermination on the planet. He is called back by Starfleet and the Vulcans, to face the music, possibly ending the mission of Enterprise. All tests show that it should not have happened. That night, Archer is transported back to earth, eight months earlier, where he meets the time traveler. He gives Archer information on what to do and absolves him and his crew of blame. Once again, our old friends the Suliban are in the middle of all this. They carry out a daring raid, but as the episode ends, everything goes wrong.

Archer's hypocrisy

[txriverotter · 10/10 · 5 July 2022]

This is an excellent episode, a lead-in to a second excellent episode at the beginning of season two.

However, I was truly disappointed in how Archer reacted to the initial tragedy, then his immediate 180 when he learned his crew wasn't to blame for that tragedy.

When the ship first interacted with the atmosphere and wiped out the entire colony, Archer went into blame mode. Obviously they needed to find out what had happened to cause this, but he was pointedly accusatory towards his bridge crew, especially Reed.

From that point, when no specific blame was found, he went into what T'Pol most correctly called "feeling sorry for one's self." I am certain he felt grief for the lives lost on the colony, but his reaction was bad for the entire crew of the Enterprise. Rather than sitting around his quarters scrolling thru pictures of the dead over and over again, he should have done as the Admiral told him, and been checking in on his crew, to make sure they were dealing with things and doing okay. Instead he was sullen and petulant, to the point of not even caring when he was informed their mission was officially over.

Then he's transported back in time by Daniels, and it's revealed what really caused the tragedy. Suddenly, Archer's debilitating grief is gone, baby, gone! He's found out who's to blame and now he's on a mission to go get 'em!

His complete and abrupt change in demeanor makes it appear as tho, as long as his crew is not responsible for the tragedy, he's not that upset with what happened. And I don't think that's how the captain would have reacted, not the way his character was developed over the season. His first reaction of self-absorbed grief, then the sudden change made him look weak and uncaring.

I think the writers did a disservice to Archer's character in this episode.

Great cliffhanger! But please let the crew solve the mysteries.

[wwcanoer-tech · 9/10 · 17 November 2021]

A good episode with a great cliffhanger.

You can't think too much or their decisions won't make sense but the episode begins with a good mystery as to why their shuttle ignited the atmosphere of a planet, wiping out a colony of thousands of people, which leads to the Vulcans demanding that Earth stop exploration for 10 or 20 years. (We know that would never happen because there will be more seasons, but that's ok.)

(Given the high risk, surely the colony would have dedicated shuttles to bring visitors though the explosive atmosphere, but let's ignore that too.)

Why do we need to travel in time to detect the cloaked device? The engineers have been all over that shuttle. Wouldn't it be more interesting if we see them working on the shuttle and then Trip feels something that he cannot see? It could be easy or difficult to break the cloak. Even if it's simple, that they can press a button to turn the cloak on or off, it would be a cool discovery. But that would cost more in props, CGI and screen time that "It was right were Daniels told us," which actually violates how much details that Daniels can see.

Really, we don't even need Daniels. Hoshi could recognize the writing on the device as Suliban, so Archer could decide to look into Daniel's sealed room to look for information on how to detect cloaked ships...

But, then need another way to bring Daniels in. Makes the most sense to bring him in immediately after the event that changed time. (Let's ignore that in Voyager, people can only time travel a few times (4?) but Archer and Daniels will surely each take many trips, when really, they typically only need to send messages (devices) back in time, not people.)

So Daniels tells Archer exactly where to find the Suliban and data disks that will prove that Enterprise is innocent. WHY?! Enterprise already has the device that proves it. There's no discussion of the risk. Archer says that Daniels stated that "the Suliban won't follow you" but it's impossible for Daniels to know that because the act of breaking in to get the data disks is a changes the timeline. Even if they won't follow, attacking a ship is a good way to solidify a war with the Suliban. Up until now, Archer was incidental, not an enemy of the Suliban, but this will surely make him an enemy, regardless of what the time controller wants.

It's not explained why the Suliban would have so many small ships in the area. The moon base that we saw only had one ship.

Also, writers, please always state why people can't simply transport into the Suliban ship. You had Enterprise precisely target multiple systems and their shields are down, so what's preventing transport? It only takes one line to explain but be creative.

The Suliban understand time travel, so they should readily believe that Archer has disappeared due to Daniel's interference but would need their own scans of Enterprise to prove it.

Great cliffhanger because there's no obvious solution.

A Senior Trekker writes.......................

[celineduchain · 5/10 · 4 June 2022]

Shockwave rounds out Season One with a number of surprises. Probably the most significant being a sudden upturn in the quality of the writing. Fatigued with what must at times have seemed like an interminable search for new ideas, the show running team of Berman and Braga had definitely allowed things to slide during the last few episodes but all of a sudden...............

........the narrative is eventful, the writing is crisp and everyone has something to do. Additionally, it helps that we have two of our best guest actors: John Fleck as Sillik the Sulliban and Matt Winston as crewman Daniels. We also get an absolutely stunning glimpse of the 31st Century. I've complained more than once that, when viewing Star Trek Enterprise retrospectively, the twenty-year-old CGI can be distracting but whoever worked on that final scene did a bloody good job. It still takes my breath away.

This episode and its follow-up next season are at the heart of the so called "Temporal Cold War". I still struggle to understand what's going on but I'm afraid that's the way with time travel stories. Since it's an entirely fictional construct masquerading as a set of deeply philosophical conundrums, we really shouldn't try so hard. The only important question really is "is this stuff entertaining?" and in the case of Shockwave my answer is a resounding "yes!"

Personally, I rate this as one of the best Star Trek time travel stories throughout the entire canon but I still score every episode with a 5..