Star Trek: Enterprise’s “Twilight” deserves to be seen as a classic

Star Trek: Enterprise’s “Twilight” deserves to be considered a classic.

Star Trek: Enterprise is often seen as the least appreciated and respected Star Trek show from the golden age of Trek. Its prequel origin didn’t help things, and there are some minor things fans have had issues with that are more cosmetic-based and not so much execution-related that bothered people because it wasn’t “Trek enough”. All those things seemed to turn off a lot of fans from ever given Enterpris a fair shot.

Enterprise is a good show. Sure, it has its issues but what Trek show doesn’t? There isn’t a thing as a “perfect” Trek show. Even the Next Generation, Original Series, and Deep Space Nine have issues or bad storylines. Enterprise is no different. It’s just that it’s easier to dunk on Enterprise because it’s “expected” by the fanbase.

Fans are starting to come around on Enterprise and its UPN-sister-show Voyager, however. Despite that, fans still often overlook one of Enterprise’s better episodes in “Twilight” (ranked #53 in our Top 100) and we don’t just mean for the series.

Twilight could easily be one of Star Trek’s best and not just for Enterprise.

The story of Twilight is brilliant. Jonathan Archer gets infected by this other-dimensional parasite that blocks specific pathways in his brain that allows him to create new memories. So every time he wakes up, he resets mentally to where he was the day he got infected. To add an emotional component to all this, Archer gets infected saving T’Pol from a shock wave of sorts. So after he starts developing memory issues, T’Pol remains loyal to him.

Yeah, it’s basically the plot of 50 First Dates, but only not awful. Eventually, T’Pol and Archer take their relationship to the next level and she remains with him for 15 years, taking care of him and loving him, reminding him every morning he wakes up what has happened. Considering Archer admitted to Phlox in an earlier episode prior to this one, his complicated emotions for T’Pol, this was a great payoff to their budding attraction.

Unlike other episodes of Star Trek where the events of the episode were a fantasy, delusion, prison sentence, alternate realities, or holodeck program; the events of Twilight were 100% happening.

Making things somehow worse, Enterprise couldn’t find the Xindi due to Archer not being involved in the search. The Xindi destroy the Earth and nearly cause the human race to go extinct. Honestly, this could’ve been and should’ve been a two-parter to close out a season with that detail alone. It was their “Year of Hell” but was different from that Voyager episode, making it unique.

Eventually, they discover the parasites in Archer’s brain are existing at one point throughout time. So if Phlox destroys them in the present, then they’ll be destroyed in the past as well, meaning that everything that has happened will have never happened.

It’s a brutal finish to the episode because while Archer gets his mind back, and a chance to save the human race; the relationship he had with T’Pol was destroyed in the process.

There’s so much not mentioned in this write-up that happened in the episode and that’s by design. You have to watch this episode if you haven’t seen it before. It can’t just be recapped.

From T’Pol’s attachment and affection for Archer to the way the Vulcans and the Earth handled his memory ailment, to seeing how Archer dealt with the knowledge of his memory each and every day. It was at times heartbreaking to see Archer suffer but so moving to see how T’Pol never wavered in her commitment to him.

It’s one of those episodes that just sticks with you when it’s over. Like a good episode should.