Absolutely loved this one...

Terrorist hijackings, smug Vulcans, debt-bound Andorians and Archer once again sticking his nose in where the Vulcans really didn't want it.

I love attempts at continuity and story arc, and this is both a sequel to The Andorian Incident and a sort of prequel to the TOS episode Journey to Babel.

The only downside for me was the somewhat excessive "Vulcan Love Slave" bondage scene - if you've seen the episode, you'll know what I mean

From what I've seen on the net, it seems to be just me, but I really like the idea of the Vulcans as not really being the good guys. They lie, they cheat, they use violence, all in the name of "logic." Then they act superior, because they are the most "logical." Their position on terrorism was perfect "we do not negotiate"... except that they were more worried about the "big picture" than the two hostages. Unlike many fans, I certainly don't find this out of character with the Vulcans of TOS, the movies and TNG, all of whom exhibited a "we know best" attitude.

And I really like the Andorians. As a long time Trek roleplay gamer, I've seen several different takes on them, especially as to what was meant by the references to being aggressive and passionate in their debut episode (Journey to Babel). The Andorian Incident seemed to just show them as thugs, but now we start to get an inkling of what fuels that attitude towards Vulcans and their allies. I especially liked the idea that Shran (another interesting performance from Mr Combes) couldn't sleep properly until his debt was discharged.

A few bits of trivia I dug up about this episode and JtB. The latter had the first appearance of the Andorians, and took place around a conference discussing the admission of Corridan to the Federation - this episode was set on Corridan, known among other things for its dilithium mines (which was why the Orions in JtB didn't want the planet in the Federation). The Orion assassin (who tried to kill Sarek) in JtB was disguised as an Andorian - now that we know the Vulcans and Andorians have a long history of dispute over Corridan, that makes more sense. Finally, Corridan operates the fastest starships in Archer's time (Warp 7) - the Orion ship in JtB was clocked at well over Warp 9, much faster than the Enterprise could manage.

I wonder if Braga and Berman were trying to prove they could do research in spite of all the fans' assumptions to the contrary

What did others think?