See Also: 'The Breach' Episode Guide

The first reviews for last Wednesday night's Enterprise episode, "The Breach", have been posted online. Reviewers praised John Billingsley's emotional performance and the unusual use of a cave set, well-filmed by former Voyager star Robert Duncan McNeill.

• C.J. Carter of ScoopMe, which announced here that it will shut down at the end of this season, found the races-in-conflict storyline familiar yet powerful. "Perhaps it is so effective because it constantly resonates with our own world, and it never ceases to be a cause of concern for us," he wrote. Though Carter felt that the episode was rushed, he thought it raised interesting questions about the Denobulans, about whom we know very little: "Maybe they are indeed conquerors who have rarely, if ever, faced a foe they couldn't defeat. Perhaps they are Trek's answer to Babylon 5's Minbari." More of Carter's analysis is here.

• The notoriously hard to please Keckler of Television Without Pity gave "The Breach" a rare grade of A, saying, "I enjoyed the heck out of this episode. It should surprise no one out there that Billingsley shone in every damn scene he had." Though less impressed with the spelunking plot and Scott Bakula's acting, Keckler still found a lot to enjoy. More details can be found in the full analysis at the site.

• Filling in once again for O. Deus at TrekWeb, Bill Williams said that "The Breach" was Billingsley's "strongest effort to date". Williams praised the script by co-executive producers Chris Black and John Shiban, which he called "tense in all the right places". To find out why he rated the episode 9 out of 10, read the full review here.

• SpiderMonkee of Lowerdecks.com gave "The Breach" a final score of B-, praising the fleshing-out of Phlox's character but complaining that the well-filmed B-plot in the caves was mostly filler. The review noted, "This is the first time since 'Dear Doctor' where Phlox was treated as a character with true depth instead of simply comedy relief." A complete analysis can be found here.

• Matt D. at Trek5.com was pleased to see a "Phlox-centric" episode and praised McNeill's directing, which he likened to independent film rather than standard Trek fare. However, he felt that Archer's scenes were weak, and wondered why minor crewmembers were never sent on dangerous away missions instead of the bridge crew. More notes on the episode can be found in the full review here.

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