Star Trek: Enterprise (TV Series) Minefield (2002) User Reviews

A Tense and Dramatic Episode

[claudio_carvalho · 8/10 · 6 January 2008]

While having breakfast with the tense and formal Reed, Captain Archer is called from the bridge by T'Pol. The Enterprise finds a Minshara planet with a volcanic hemisphere, and T'Pol waits for further instructions. Suddenly there is an explosion in the hull of the Enterprise, with the destruction of many decks and wounded crew. Archer realizes that the Enterprise is in a cloaked minefield and one mine is attached to the hull. Reed wears an EV suit to disarm the mine, but a sharp device is activated and penetrates his leg, and attaching him to the hull. Meanwhile, an aggressive Romulan ship orders the Enterprise to leave immediately that sector of the space.

"Minefield" is a tense and dramatic episode, with great performances of Dominic Keating and Scott Bakula. The story is engaging, developed in an adequate pace, and has good dialogs between Reed and Archer. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "Campo Minado" ("Minefield")

The Gang Meets the Romulans

[Samuel-Shovel · 7/10 · 29 September 2017]

The Enterprise encounters an uncharted system and decides to investigate. An expedition that originally seems harmless enough quickly sours as the crew finds themselves in the middle of a minefield with a mine attached to the Enterprise hull ready to blow.

The premise for the beginning of this episode was pretty neat. I'm always down for a good suspense-filled bomb-defusal; putting one in space just adds another dimension to the plot. As far as dialogue and directing goes, this episode is also pretty solid. A few questions did arise in my mind however as the episode goes along and we find out that this system is Romulan territory.

Why does T'Pol not know about the Romulans or their language? Why is this system uncharted on the Vulcan database? At least mark it as "Do Not Disturb" or something to that effect so the Enterprise doesn't go bumbling in there. Seems kind of silly. I guess it's privileged information?

The one fault of this one (besides the whole Romulan thing) is the ending. The way they get out of this sticky situation is a bit far-fetched. You think Captain Archer could have figured out a better shield to use for this, maybe land a shuttle on the hull-plating and fly away as soon as Reed was freed. I did appreciate getting some actual Reed backstory besides him being a picky eater that doesn't watch sports or have hobbies. In Season 1, he was the least three dimensional character of the main cast so it's nice to see him getting some screen time. All in all, an above average episode with a bad ending, this seems to be the Season 2 theme so far.

Side Note: Reed seems like he wants to die a martyr's death. In Season 1's "Shuttlepod One", Reed acts similarly when him and Trip are stranded and Reed practically gives up.

Nobody Here But Us Romulans

[Hitchcoc · 6/10 · 16 March 2017]

This is one of those episodes that needn't have been science fiction. It's about disarming a bomb (mine) in a limited time frame. It would have been hard enough, but the Romulans show up (we don't get to see their quilted tops). They are bound and determined to get rid of Enterprise, assuming they are conducting espionage. Malcolm has some sort of porcupine rod through his leg, forcing Archer to go out and disarm the weapon. Like a previous writer, wouldn't a transporter have worked? Anyway, there are all sorts of scientific pitfalls here. Still, it is engrossing and would be during World War II in a different setting. There is some fun interaction between the two men whose personalities are polar opposites.

One of the best of season 2

[mstomaso · 9/10 · 14 November 2006]

This is one of the most well written, well paced and well acted episodes of Enterprise's second season. Unlike the typical episode involving in-house franchise writing, Minefield is story-driven, suspenseful and dramatic. Although it included some of the most annoying and absurd aspects of Enterprise - such as the crew's advanced (pre-Kirk) intelligence concerning cloaking devices - the plot gave the principal cast a rare opportunity to shine. Keating and Bakula do especially well as they work out their personal and professional relationship in the middle of a cloaked Romulan minefield with both of their lives hanging by a thread. Thankfully, the Romulans are not at all rewritten, and are not even seen in person, in this episode. The fact that no Romulan is seen during the episode is important to the fact that Enterprise is supposed to be a prequel for all the other Star Trek series. A lot of story arcs involving the Romulans depend on the relationship between the Romulans and Vulcans being slowly revealed. The Romulans are depicted as belligerent, xenophobic and unreasonable - very consistent with the earlier series.

One of my favorites

[poth · 9/10 · 9 March 2007]

I watched Enterprise from the beginning when it was broadcast. I am now seeing it for a second time on DVD. This is the best episode in the second season.

Malcom and Archer are the focus of the episode, as they are put into a life-threatening situation in an alien minefield and the rest of the crew risks it all to save them.

The special effects were very good, and this episode had all the characteristics that made so many of the other Star Trek series so good - good writing, intelligent back-story and lots of drama. The space sequences were especially convincing.

Great idea with average execution

[snoozejonc · 6/10 · 1 September 2020]

Enterprise is caught in a minefield and Malcolm Reed has to defuse one such device attached to the ship.

This one starts superbly with a great awkward sequence where Archer tries to get to know Reed over breakfast. Archer is pulling teeth trying to get any decent conversation out of Reed and it's probably something most people can identify with who have been in that type of situation. Then we have the set up of a pretty intense situation involving a minefield and the series introduction to the Romulans.

Things go slightly flat from there as we have an instance similar to the episode 'Shuttlepod One' where the writers dump a load of Reed character exposition on us during his interaction with Archer. Again this does not reflect well on Reed's character as it seems to bring out the most annoying traits out in Dominic Keating's performance. It is nowhere near as bad as the previously mentioned episode but it feels like a missed opportunity for he and Scott Bakula to 'right what what once went wrong' (see what I did there) with Reed's characterisation.

It would have been nice if Reed could have just done the job himself without the need to be rescued by Archer during a hissy-fit of bumbling Englishman self-sacrifice that we know isn't necessary because they won't kill off a main character.

There is also likely to be some legitimate complaint from hardcore Trekkers about franchise continuity regarding the Romulans, which might have been overlooked had the episode been better.

What they should have done is focussed more on the potential suspense associated with defusing the mine rather than suck the drama out of it with all the chat.

The ending is terrible but the show is otherwise good.

[planktonrules · 6/10 · 25 March 2015]

When the show begins, Captain Archer is trying to get to know Lt. Malcolm Reed by sharing breakfast with him. However, Malcolm is a very dull guy who is obsessed with protocol (he would make a great match for T'Pol actually). Fortunately, this stiff and uncomfortable breakfast is cut short when the ship hits a mine! If this isn't bad enough, when the lieutenant tries to detach a mine which has attached itself to the ship, it also attached to him! The Captain (inexplicably) goes out himself to try to help--and the two finally get a chance to talk and get to know each other better. But it's not all fun and games, as the mine is still ready to explode AND several Romulan ships have appeared and are ready to blow up these 'spies'.

This isn't a bad episode...until the end when the mine explodes. What happens next is pretty dumb. But the good does more than make up for the bad on this one.

Instead of simply cutting the red wire, rods are rotated counterclockwise for 20 minutes

[tomsly-40015 · 6/10 · 3 March 2024]

This is another one of those episodes that would be over in five minutes if the crew followed some logic and safety protocols. But that would of course be boring for the viewer. In order to create suspense and thrills, as a viewer you have to get the feeling that the main characters are in great danger - which of course they are not. Because none of the main characters will bite the dust. Especially not for such a trivial task as defusing a mine.

Although this episode is certainly amusing, the lack of logic and questionable decisions lead to a rather implausible plot. For example, Enterprise is damaged by a detonation shortly after entering the minefield. But instead of putting the spaceship in reverse and slowly flying back out the same way they came in, Mayweather flies through the entire minefield until they are out again. Or why would a captain risk defusing an explosive mine of unknown technology clinging to the hull when it could easily have been catapulted away from the ship by blowing off a metal plate? Speaking of captain: Which captain would endanger himself, his crew, his ship, his mission and the entire chain of command by getting into an EV suit and defusing the mine himself? I don't even want to know how many Starfleet regulations are broken by such an unnecessary suicide mission! Also: Why would Reed carry out such an away mission alone? If there was the slightest accident, he would be left without help and would end up floating in space.

And then the contact with the Romulans. Enterprise is hailed, no one understands a word, but instead of trying to answer, people simply remain silent. Just because the UT fails on the Enterprise doesn't mean the Romulans don't have better technology and could understand the language. It should have been standard protocol to respond, for example, "We have an emergency. Our ship has been badly damaged. We have no hostile intentions. We accidentally entered your territory and will leave as quickly as possible." Maybe they should have even offered to beam the Romulans onto the ship to show them that Enterprise wasn't carrying out a spy mission. But instead nothing is said at all, which understandably seems suspicious.

By the way, this episode shows once again that Malcom Reed is an absolutely boring character. Already in the episode where Archer wanted to find out his favorite dish, it was clear that Reed simply doesn't have any special characteristics. And in this episode that becomes more than obvious. He has no hobbies, is neither funny nor particularly eloquent. He is also not a typical Star Trek officer who is a specialist in his field and a tech nerd. The only thing that has stuck is that he first starts a pointless away mission to defuse the mine and then wants to sacrifice himself for the crew in order to die a hero like his uncle - which is only up for debate because he put himself in danger with this unnecessary mission in the first place instead of directly blowing the hull plating away.

Just cut the damn leg

[BoromirGandalf · 2/10 · 30 August 2020]

First in a blatant disregard for human life Archer sends lt. Reed (the British guy) to defuse the mine attached to the ship's hull, although there is a perfectly safe option of removing a panel it sits on (which they end up doing anyway). Supposedly the mine can go off any moment, which would seriously damage the ship and possibly cause casualties if not destroy Enterprise altogether. But NO, we need that panel!

The guy gets pinned by a landing strut coming through his leg. Cutting the strut would detonate the mine, but cutting the leg won't (don't even need to amputate, just cut it free). And they don't even consider this option, instead we get to see 30 minutes of Captain and Reed trying to defuse the mine, which at the end they fail to do anyway. Throuhout the whole ordeal Reed volunteers to sacrifice himself on numerous occasions, but apparently isn't ready to sacrifice his limb. After jettisoning the panel the mine finally blows up mere meters away from Archer and the pinned guy, yet they both survive just fine by using shielding of some kind. Why not use this shielding to protect the ship in the first place if it's so great?

This is the worst episode of Enterprise i've seen so far when it comes to logic and plot holes. Also couldn't notice that most people gave it good reviews. Probably shows something about the ST community: they don't care so much about good sci-fi, logical and interesting plot, as they do about needless drama and muh character development. Come on guys, no heartfelt stories about lieutenant Reed's childhood would make me forget and that the whole episode's premise is ridicolous.

So annoying. Blatantly obvious solutions ignored. Ridiculous ending.

[wwcanoer-tech · 2/10 · 18 November 2021]

The plot is an elaborate excuse to learn more about Malcom. Well, not that elaborate, a poorly thought out excuse. Nothing was logical or even reasonable. It's SciFi, we are accustomed to readily accepting implausible and impossible things but so many key things did not make sense.

The Enterprise aims to orbit an M-class planet that has no life but hits a cloaked mine that tears open a significant section of the ship. Many rooms are half-obliterated but yet no one was lost? Why? That makes no sense. And there's no reason not to lose unnamed people.

A second mine attaches itself but does not detonate, so the rest of the episode is trying to dislodge this mine.

From a previous episode, the Enterprise has new equipment that can detect cloaked ships. This reveals a huge closely-spaced minefield for as far as the eye can see. Enterprise slowly moves forward through this. Why? If you just took three steps into a minefield would you continue to run forwards through it or carefully back up? If the mines were that closely spaced, then the ship would have hit more than two of them!

Archer asks if they can jettison the panel that the mine has attached to. Of course they can! This ship is repeatedly beaten up, so it clearly has modular panels that can easily be replaced. Right? No. This panel has important conduits attached to it so it will be a long process and Trip really doesn't want to release it. Ya, ok, we'll ignore that implausible situation.

So, Malcom has a spacewalk ALONE. Huh? That's implausible, but ok. He of course can scan the mine and easily determine all of the circuits and how to disarm it. Malcom starts working but another strut suddenly shoots out of the mine, through his leg and attaches itself to the deck. He probably should have known to avoid that port, but hey, we all make mistakes, so, ok.

Now, how many ways are there to extract Malcom?

• transporter - not mentioned
• cut off his leg - not mentioned.

• cut through the muscle on one side of his leg (the strut missed the bone, so just cut through his thigh. Surely Phlox is fully able to suture muscles back together. Reconnecting nerves is probably child's play for him too. - not mentioned
• cut a circle out of the hull plate around each strut - not mentioned
• cut the strut - motioned! Yay. We know that is not possible because there's an arming mechanism in the leg.

Malcom needs help, so Archer goes out to play bomb technician. Not either of Malcom's two armory staff that were mentioned early on and probably know more about mines than Archer. Ok, ignore that.

The disarming process feels ridiculous and is tedious to watch.

Archer makes a mistake, the mine starts to prepare to detonate, then Archer reverses his last action and the mine shuts down. Really? Seems implausible, but ok. So Archer has a plan. He now knows that it takes time for the mine to react, so he can cut the strut and have 10 to 20 seconds to get to safety. So now, now would be a good time to use the transporter, right? No, not mentioned.

Archer asks for two shuttle blast doors. The panel is jettisoned. Once far from the ship, Archer cuts the strut, he and Malcom jump off of the panel and then spin around to hold the doors in front of them to protect them from the blast. Um, well, when free floating in space can you reliably twist and move the panel into the correct position? I doubt it. You need to orient yourself and then jump away backwards and if you inadvertently spin.. but whatever, let's believe that you can. The blast doors will protect you from shrapnel, but when the shockwave hits, you're going to get smacked hard in the face by that door! Let's believe that the EV suite will protect you from that hit, but your brain will get slammed into your skull as the worst concussion ever.

The Romulans are full of bluster but actually give the Enterprise a lot of time to respond. There's a terrible lack of discussion throughout it all. Hoshi was injured in the first blast, so she's not available to respond to the aliens' hails. The bridge crew simply don't reply! If they simply talked, then maybe the aliens' universal translator would work, or they would learn! But no. Hoshi repeatedly wants to leave sick bay to help interpret. Only after three attempts do they realize that they have a com system and data pads, so that Hoshi can work from sick bay. (Even though there were many crewmen injured worse than her, so why is she even still in sick bay?)

Why do the Romulans decloak every time that they want to talk? Seems unnecessary, no? Ships typically need to decloak to fire but not to talk.

The Enterprise didn't even learn the extent of Romulan space, so how will they avoid future encounters?

Apparently some people really like this episode but I kept getting knocked out of the episode by the implausible actions.

Uninteresting

[richard.fuller1 · 2/10 · 4 March 2007]

The Brit, Malcolm, is pinned out on the Enterprise by an armed mine set by Romulans.

The good old Romulans play a minor part in this episode.

What is mainly supposed to be the focus is Archer (who ventured out to assist) and Malcolm bonding while the Romlulans loomed nearby.

What I noted most was Trip wanting to help.

Well, since Trip and Malcolm already had their bonding episode, they can't get another one now can they? So it is Archer's turn with Malcolm.

Anyone who has watched endless assortments of Star Trek shows has seen episodes where a handful of crew members are given focus like this (a fave of mine from TOS, tho it did fall short, was when Kirk, Uhura and Chekov were abducted for alien wargames), yet Archer and Mal were hardly spell-binding.

What seemed to be missing was something of the Enterprise itself tearing up, with Trip declaring they can't stay much longer or the warp thrusters or the anti-matter drive will explode if they continue to linger.

With only Malcolm wounded outside the Enterprise and unseen Romulans the threat, the episode wasn't that suspenseful, as have endless ST shows in the past been.

This far into Voyager, when I first watched it, I had favorite episodes.

Hasn't happened here with Enterprise.