Awakening (Star Trek: Enterprise)

"Awakening" is the eighth episode of the fourth season of the American science fiction television series Star Trek: Enterprise, and originally aired on November 26, 2004 on UPN.

The script was written by André Bormanis and the episode was directed by Star Trek: Voyager alumna Roxann Dawson.

Elements of the plot of the episode were compared by executive producers to the Protestant Reformation with the Vulcan High Command representing the Catholic Church.

Ambassador Soval is summoned before Administrator V'Las and the High Council to face punishment over his use of a mind meld.

Since the act is widely considered to be criminal by the Vulcan authorities, Soval is summarily dismissed from the Ambassadorial service.

Archer begins to see visions of an old Vulcan, and the dissidents determine that he had the katra of Surak transferred into him via mind meld.

He attempts, with assistance from Soval, to send a rescue shuttlepod to "The Forge", but they are intercepted by Vulcan patrol vessels.

On Enterprise, Soval reveals that the Vulcans, despite the recent peace accord, are preparing a surprise attack against the Andorians, and Tucker orders an immediate course at maximum warp.

"Awakening" was the second part of a three-part trilogy of episodes during the fourth season of Enterprise that were created to deal with the differences between the Enterprise-era Vulcans and those seen in series set later in the timeframe of the franchise.

[3] Robert Foxworth reprises his role from the first part of the trilogy as Administrator V'Las, and Joanna Casidy had previously portrayed T'Les earlier in the season in the episode "Home".

[3] Foxworth had been friends with Joanna Cassidy for years, and they had played a married couple on Six Feet Under, but they did not share any scenes or meet on set.

[3] Director Roxann Dawson has previously portrayed B'Elanna Torres in Voyager, and "Awakening" marked the tenth episode of the series that she had directed.

[8] Jamahl Epsicokhan at his website Jammer's Reviews thought that certain elements of the plot didn't follow logical paths, such as how Archer found the Kir'shara in a few minutes when apparently the Syrrannites had been looking for it for two years even though "it sits in a chamber behind a door that practically announces, 'IMPORTANT RELIC INSIDE'?"