10 Best Star Trek: Enterprise Episodes Not About The Main Cast
4. Fallen Hero
Fionnula Flanagan had appeared twice before in Star Trek. First, she appeared in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, playing a former lover of Curzon Dax. Then, she appeared as the android version of Julianna Tainer, Data's 'mother'. Here, she appears as Ambassador V'lar.
The episode was an intentional attempt to give the Vulcans in Enterprise a little more depth and to bring them closer in line with how they had been presented in other Star Trek incarnations. On Enterprise, they had been seen as self-serving, deceptive, and actively attempting to stall Humanity's progress. V'lar was an olive branch, so to speak.
She is unlike any other Vulcan they've encountered, openly greeting Archer and Trip with a handshake. The fact that her reputation is in ruins bothers T'Pol immensely, though it is thankfully revealed as a ruse. The episode depends on Flanagan selling the fact that V'lar is a new breed of Vulcan for the series, a feat she manages with skill. The episode also introduces the Surok-class Vulcan ship, designed by Doug Drexler, which would return many times over the course of the show.
In the end, Fallen Hero helps to restore the Vulcans' reputations in the eyes of both Archer and the audience.