Review: Proving Ground



I was beginning to think I'd never see it again, but the boys were in a scene together! And what a nice scene it was. A beautiful little example of easy interaction between good friends. Light joking. No posturing necessary. I loved the look they shared when Malcolm's Andorian helper, Talas, showed up in the mess, looking for him and making snide remarks. Malcolm was snide right back, and Trip just sat back to watch the fireworks, then beat a retreat when things got uncomfortable. ::snicker::

Speaking of Talas, what's up with Malcolm and women who think his weapons are "quaint" or "nostalgic?" Never mind the fact that they also seem to be markedly taller than he is... Poor boy is going to end up with a complex. Good thing he has Trip to build his self-esteem back up at night. ;)

Anyway, aside from the T/R, I really did enjoy this episode. Probably because I like the Andorians and I really like Jeff Coombs, but the ep seemed pretty solid overall, too. My main complaint lies with the "Previously on Enterprise..." sequence. WTF! Why did we need to waste precious minutes on recapping the entire season? Do they actually believe that they're gaining viewers at this point? The only bit that one might actually have needed explained was Gralik's sabotage, but Archer explained it to Shran, so I don't really see the point.

Archer was kind of a snot with T'Pol and Malcolm over letting the Andorians run around the ship scot-free. The man should be grateful that he has people who are concerned about (and prevent) security risks -- especially after the terrorists last week. Of course, I want to know what was up with Malcolm telling Archer that he was right about the Andorians, and how if he hadn't been watching, it would have taken weeks to find Talas' sabotage. Forgive me, but shouldn't Archer be praising Malcolm for being on the ball, rather than Malcolm patting Archer's head because he himself caught on to Talas even though Archer had been prattling on about trusting the Andorians? Malcolm's never struck me as a brown-noser/ass-licker, so I'm loathe to write it off as currying favour with the boss-man.

I liked Trip's bonding scene with Shran over deceased siblings. If I were Trip, I think I would have been a bit irritated over Shran's analogising his brother, who died serving in the military, with my sister, who died while sitting at home, but if he felt that way, he was wise to contain it. By making a few sympathetic noises and letting Shran empathise with him, he netted some pretty sophisticated improvements for the warp engine. Good for him!

To sum up, I found the episode enjoyable and was more than happy to see not only a lot of Malcolm, but our lads back together again, even if it was only for a short while. Next week, we have a repeat of "Twilight."

~RB





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