4x06 The Augments (3)

[7.4/10] The Augments arc has had a pretty clear litmus test. It’s fun and enjoyable when it’s the Arik Soong show, and either dull or hammy (or both) when it’s the Malik show. It’s somewhere in between, as usual, when it’s the Archer show. “The Augments” tries to split that difference, giving us a fair amount of Soong and Malik, and a fair amount of Soong and Archer, and comes out pretty muddled, but occasionally enjoyable, as a result.

The episode flags when Enterprise tries to turn this story into a faux-Shakespearean family tragedy with Soong, Malik, and Persis. The whole father-and-son angle never landed as well as it should, and all the monologues and colloquies about the importance of not killing people or about who should be in charge fall flat with cheesy writing and an especially cheesy performance from Malik.

He’s the biggest weak link here, at least in terms of performance-to-screentime ratio. Malik quickly ascends into cartoon supervillainy with his plan to inflict a devastating pathogen on the Klingons with the idea that they’ll blame Earth, go to war, and keep both sides out of their hair. He also murders Persis when she sets Soong free in something that’s supposed to be big and important but mostly just comes off as melodramatic and inevitable.

There’s not much of a point to any of this, but to give the Enterprise something to do and underscore once and for all that Malik is a bad guy. There’s a not so subtle message in this story arc, about how even when nurtured by well-meaning people, anyone with superior abilities starts to think themselves dangerously superior to anyone not of their ken. You can feel the writers groping around for a message in this pretty generic space adventurism, and the closest they can come is the not exactly daring “ubermensches are bad, or at least bad for humans.”

I don’t know what important or daring life lesson that’s supposed to convey (beyond a “hey, think twice before getting your kid laser eye surgery, they might turn into space Hitler!” warning), but it’s mostly set dressing for the more meat and potatoes Star Trek conflict. Malik is racing to a Klingon colony to let loose the aforementioned pathogen, and the Enterprise has to race to get there and thwart him before Khan Jr. can let it loose on an unsuspecting populace.

There’s some legitimate drama and excitement there, but it’s thrown off by the pacing of the episode. Even with a three episode stretch, Enterprise packs too much into the proceedings here. The episode leaps from plot point to plot point, requiring Archer’s starlogs to be the spackle connecting everything, or otherwise not allowing time for particular story threads to unspool naturally.

Oddly enough, the most engrossing parts of “The Augments” are...the parts that don’t actually involve the Augments. It’s more interesting seeing the Enterprise try to rope-a-dope their way through Klingon space without getting detected or destroyed. Archer using the Universal Translator to pose as a Klingon captain and bluff his way through an encounter with another was some nice amusing but high-stakes quick thinking. And when the Enterprise is legitimately detected by a Klingon ship, the Enterprise’s nifty little grappler/nacelle maneuver made for a nice dogfighting set piece.

But the actual confrontations and Augment-based plot stuff can’t help but feel anticlimactic by comparison. Malik launches his pathogen torpedo, and Archer launches a volley of follow-up torpedos that, wouldn’t you know it, manage to destroy Malik’s missile, apparently without any harm to the people down below. It’s a fair enough action sequence, but nothing to write home about.

The same goes for Malik’s last maneuvers, when he chooses to destroy his own ship and siblings rather than be drawn back to jail. There’s some minor emotional quotient to Soong having to cope with all of his “children” dying at once, but the episode doesn't really dwell on it, and Soong himself seems to take it as a mere failed experiment than any great loss when he reacts to it, which weakens its impact. It doesn't help that the rushed pacing makes Malik’s surprise reappearance and killing by Archer lacks the oomph it might otherwise have if the episode actually let the dust settle for a moment.

There’s supposed to be some sort of epiphany here, where Soong looks on his creations with horror and realizes the error of his ways. But “The Augments” gives that tale the short shrift in favor of an unavailing effort to do a miniaturized version of The Wrath of Khan. Say what you will about Khan, but in both his televised and cinematic outings, he had more interesting motivations than Malik’s “I have greater ability and therefore I’m evil” mentality that Enterprise hopes to carry the day with. The fact that Malik never really seems like a person, just a mustache-twirling supervillain, weakens Soong’s change of heart and face turn and sense of loss over his kids.

Honestly, outside of the first episode in the arc, this is something of a waste of Brent Spiner’s talents. It’s tons of fun to see him playing a bad guy, and he’s shown elsewhere that he has the dramatic chops to pull off bigger, more serious moments. But pairing him up so often with the over-the-top theatrical evilness of Malik or the continued “generic leader guy” routine that is the Archer show for those bits of drama dampens things considerably.

Don’t get me started on the cheesy outro, where Enterprise all but constructs a flashing neon sign that says “Soong’s descendents will build Data someday!” It’s a George Lucas-level bit of prequelitis dialogue, and Enterprise has enough of its own prequel problems without needing to borrow the type from Star Wars.

On the whole, the Augments arc was still enjoyable, and as is usually the case for Enterprise, toyed with some interesting ideas and a talented guest star. But also as usual, it couldn’t quite nail down those themes, or parcel out its story well enough to mix the heady thought-provoking flavor of Star Trek with the raucous space-adventuring side of the franchise. Still, it was nice to see Spiner back in the fold, and to see the show drafting off of Star Trek’s continuity a little, rather than flouting it.