'Cease Fire' Impresses Most Reviewers

The first set of reviews for Wednesday night's 'Cease Fire' give a mostly thumbs up verdict, with the return of the Andorians/Vulcan conflict proving to be a popular.

• Karma at Lowerdecks.com gave 'Stigma' the A grade, praising it as "solid, well-written [and] well-acted." In particular the reviewer found the guest actors to be the strength of the episode. "All to often, it seems that one of Enterprise's greatest weaknesses is the acting. Not so with 'Cease Fire', primarily thanks to veteran Trek actors Jeffrey Coombs and Suzie Plakson, who both performed wonderfully ... both Scott Bakula and Jolene Blalock also turned in quality performances." Read more at this page.

• monkee gave the episode 9/10 in her review at monkee's place, in particular praising the episode because it "wasn't all in black and white":

  The Andorians have some legitimate grievances against the Vulcans, but the Andorians are quite violent, and it's clear that they aren't completely blameless either. And although some of them, including Shran, want to find a permanent diplomatic solution to the dispute, others don't think it's possible. What's interesting is that the two sides believe the very worst of each other when they're relying on rumor. The Andorians think it's not impossible that the Vulcans would shoot down their own Ambassador in order to start a war, and the Vulcans think the Andorians are too hot-tempered for diplomacy. It's only when Soval and Shran are face-to-face that they're able to get a true feel for each other.

  Here full review can be found here.

• O. Deus at TrekWeb thought the episode hit the spot, and was a vast an improvement on last week's Stigma. "Between the special UPN promos, two major franchise guest stars and top notch production values in the planetside scenes, the action scenes and gorgeous CGI work on the Vulcan and Andorian ships, 'Cease Fire' seems to have had the benefit of a special push from the producers and the network. More money has been spent on-screen and this time out it's been combined with a fairly good script to make for the best Vulcan\Andorian episode to date." The full review can be found here.

• Julia Houston at About was impressed. "Enterprise is starting to reap the benefits of its plot and character arcs. Shram [sic], who was quite detestable at first, is now developing into someone who doesn't feel completely screwed over by every non-Andorian he meets." She was particularly impressed with the action. "The fighting sequences are also very well-done ... For once, we actually get to see the landing party get pinned down and then find out just where all the players are. Soval's awkwardness with the phase pistol and Archer's comment that he doesn't need to hit anything both work well with Soval's character and the captain's proposed strategy." The full review can be found here.

• ScoopMe's C.J. Carter feels that amount of advertising on television hinders episodes like this, and an "an awful lot of fleshing out of an episode is lost" when you compare the shortened running time to the original series of Star Trek:

  Character complexity is short-changed in deference to plot. Story complexity is short-changed in deference to making the point. While 'Cease Fir' is a very good episode — especially by Enterprise standards — it's shortcomings can largely be blamed on the lack of time to fully flesh out characters and situations. What would have been really great is if a few extra minutes could have gone to setting up some of this future. While T'Pol and Soval got some nice development, many of the larger issues didn't get quite the attention they deserved.

  Carter's full review is available here.

• Giving the episode an C rating, Paul S. Torrez at Section31.com was unimpressed and rather uninterested. "It was pretty dull," wrote Torrez. "My primary qualm with the episode was the stakes; the Vulcans and the Andorians are fighting over a planet and Archer is called in to mediate. But there are no personal stakes, nothing to draw the audience in. Earth is threatened by neither Vulcan nor Andoria, and the characters don't seem all that invested in the problem either. So what is left for the audience to care about? Archer, T'Pol and Ambassador Soval running around a ruined city dodging weapons fire? This is incidental danger, not inherent danger, which really is what 'Cease Fire' needed." The full review can be found here.

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