'The Augments' Fails To Augment Spiner Arc

See Also: 'The Augments' Episode Guide

Online reviews for last Friday night's episode of Star Trek: Enterprise, "The Augments", mostly felt the arc ended on a disappointing and predictable note, though they praised Brent Spiner's performance and the special effects.

• Chris of Xenoclone (to whom I apologize profoundly for referring to as "she" last week - I must have had Chris Chapel on the brain) said that although the episode began and ended with a bang, Mike Sussman left a sense of anticlimax. "It is, unquestionably, a well made 42 minutes of television [but] leaves the viewer feeling as empty as Malik after Archer blasts a hole through his chest," he noted. The full review is at Xenoclone.

• Guy Gardener of TrekPulse rated the episode 3 out of 5, two points up from last week's "Cold Station 12". He began to feel sorry for Malik when it became obvious he had no plan beyond survival and found it interesting that Persis, whom he dismissd last week as gratuitous sexuality for the show, saved Soong and suggested that all Augments could evolve as humans.

  The Kids may be good at math but they lack any real creative genius, falling smack into adversarial trends, trundling to self destruction, but still week after week they maintain their perfection even after blowing every encounter with Archer

  He noted that the good scenes made the episode commendable despite its flaws. The full review is at TrekPulse.

• TrekWeb's O. Deus by contrast dropped his rating two points to a 6 overall, calling it "fairly predictable", "bland" and "cliched". He felt the strong continuity and acting were weakened by formulaic writing and the evasion of the tough questions that genetic engineering could have raised: "Everything is nicely resolved even to the extent that Archer never has to confront what should happen to the Augments when Malik conveniently destroys them all." The full review is at TrekWeb.

• Dr. Phlox of Save Enterprise rated the episode a 7 overall and 8 within the arc, wondering what happened to the threat of war with the Klingons and finding Malik a cardboard villain in the end. However, he thought Spiner reached new heights in his performance as Soong and applauded the continuity in the scene between T'Pol and Tucker. The full review is at Save Enterprise.

• Karma of Lower Decks gave the episode a 7.5/10 and had high praise for the guest stars, but found the episode over all disappointing:

  In fairness, "The Augments" isn't a weak episode. It's actually quite enjoyable, and is definitely above average for Enterprise. Unfortunately, both "Borderland" and especially "Cold Station 12" were significantly above above average.

  Persis' death was a highlight for Karma, as was the characterisation of Soong. The full review is at Lower Decks.

• Bill Gordon of Sci Fi Pulse called the ending of the arc "serviceable...but little more", joked about the parallels with The Wrath of Khan and scoffed at the horror movie tradition of Malik popping up on Enterprise. He also found the ending ham-handed in its attempts to tie the generations together, though he enjoyed the arc overall. The full review is at Sci Fi Pulse.

• The Great Link's Michael Marek gave a score of four out of five to "The Augments" for its plot twists, nods to Trek continuity trivia, and "nifty space battle", though he found Malik self-contradictory when after saying he didn't want to run away, he devised a plan to set Starfleet and the Klingons in opposition to allow the Augments to do just that. He enjoyed Archer's impression of a Klingon and Persis' character development. The full review is at The Great Link.

• "ARGH! The impact of an excellent three-part arc is lessened by a LAME ending!", protested Monkee. She found the ending a copout both in terms of the salvation of the Klingon colony and Malik's silly shooting death after his dramatic apparent demise on the Klingon ship. Despite many details that she liked, her review begins with a rant at Monkee's Place.

• Section 31's Erik Dardan Ymeraga admired the fine acting and inspiring moments of "The Augments" but thought this segment let down the building story of the first two parts of the trilogy. He thought the resolution of the cliffhanger was both sloppy and rushed, contributing nothing but the already overstated sense that Malik is evil, and found the homage to The Wrath of Khan with Malik crawling across his bridge more of a ripoff than a tribute. "I understand the executive producer doesn't hold absolute power, but the kind of person I'd thought Coto was wouldn't have let this episode slide past him, and that realization has left me more than somewhat disillusioned," he added. The review is at Section 31.

• Ain't It Cool News' Hercules gave the episode two and a half stars, noting that "much like the season-launching alien-Nazi arc, the Augment storyline rattles close slowly, and with alarming predictability." He loved the CGI and continuity, but found that the latter led nowhere and wondered how we all missed the Eugenics Wars during our lives. The full review is at Ain't It Cool News.

• Sy Fy Portal's Michael Hinman reviewed the entire trilogy, stating that it started strong, but fizzled near the end. He graded "The Augments" a D, compared to a B and B- for "Borderland" and "Cold Station 12".

• Television Without Pity has recapped the episode, describing it as "First Khantact."

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