The Augments

The production of the episode reunites fellow Star Trek: The Next Generation alumni Burton as the director and Brent Spiner as Arik Soong.

Most of the guest cast from the previous two Enterprise episodes in the story arc returned for "The Augments"; Mark Rolston makes an appearance as Klingon Captain Magh.

It received mixed reviews from critics, who spoke negatively of Malik's character, but praised the performance of Spiner as Soong and the relationship between T'Pol and Tucker.

Malik objects to Soong's plan, noting that Khan Noonien Singh also ran away on the SS Botany Bay.

Soong releases a hostage on a Denobulan shuttle into a gas giant, forcing the Enterprise to abandon their pursuit and mount a rescue operation.

Scans of the Qu'vat colony reveal three main population centers; the torpedo is armed with pathogens and prepared for deployment.

In custody, he begins to doubt the feasibility of genetically engineering humans and wonders if perfecting artificial life has better prospects for the future.

To celebrate their collaboration, as well as acknowledge the crew members who had remained with the franchise since their series, Burton bought lunch on the final day of shooting for everyone on the set.

Spiner, as well as several other guest stars, resumed their roles from earlier in the story arc, including Alec Newman as Malik, Richard Riehle as Doctor Jeremy Lucas, Abby Brammell as Persis and Adam Grimes as Lokesh.

[5] IGN gave the episode 3.5 out of five, and wrote: "The Augments doesn't deliver as strongly as I'd have hoped, it is still an engaging hour of television that clearly shows Enterprise is going in a new direction.

He criticised Malik, noting that the "crux of the story is reduced to an unremarkable three-character power struggle that is supposed to be a microcosm for the trouble that comes with genetically engineered super-humans, but comes across instead as overly bland and tidy drama.

"[9] Spiner "delivers a good performance under the circumstances", notes Epsicokhan, as his character has to believe that Malik will not overthrow his leadership of the Augments.

I think the writers owed the material more than this.In a review for Big Shiny Robot, Andy Wilson said that the story represented the "personal journey" of Arik Soong from genetic engineering to cybernetics.