A group of Vulcans boards the Enterprise to help map a gas cloud, but these Vulcans are free with their emotions rather than repressing them, one of them being keen to show T'Pol how liberating it can be.

There's a lot of things that want to come out of this episode, and they don't really do so incredibly well. While I like the idea of seeing where things originally came from and getting a bit of background about some of the classic concepts and tenets of Trek, it's getting a little bit ridiculous now that each week someone has to mention something the long-term fans are familiar with. A few weeks back it was photon torpedoes, now it's a mind meld.

The problem is partly from the fact that Voyager did a story about mind rape, so this episode seems to shy away from the larger ramifications of T'Pol's encounter with another Vulcan which is a shame. The closest we get is Archer telling the Vulcan in question what he thinks of him and throwing him off the ship, getting chucked across his ready room for his trouble. Even Archer's final meeting with T'Pol in her quarters doesn't really make things any clearer and is a missed opportunity to demonstrate the growing bond and respect between the two. You get the idea that the captain cares about his crewman but it's still a bit stilted.

It's a sign of the whole episode really that there are a lot of things that should work better than they do; the idea of emotional Vulcans has been explored in the past, but this is an earlier version of the race we know who aren't so controlled and there's potential in that. Instead we get Trip meeting one with a dying father and wanting to help while T'Pol gets some saucy dreams from another. There should be more background here and explanation; instead it becomes jerky, poorly paced episode that takes quite a long time to get to what is a rather poor explanation of the dangers of Vulcan's letting their emotions reign unchecked. It still has enough good points to earn it any average mark, but only just.

***

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