Captain Archer, Trip and T'Pol visit P'Jem, a Vulcan monastery. They quickly learn that the monks have some unwanted visitors, Andorians. The Andorians claim that the Vulcans have violated their treaty with Andoria by placing long range sensors within the monastery. The Vulcans deny the claim. Captain Archer is forcefully interrogated by the Andorians but he doesn't know anything.
Lieutenant Reed tries contacting Captain Archer. The Andorians smash his communicator along with the others. The Andorians continue to search the monastery while the humans and Vulcans are locked up. The Vulcans take this opportunity to reveal to Archer, Trip, and T'Pol a secret passage to the catacombs. One of the Vulcans leads Trip into the catacombs to an old communicator, the only one in the monastery. Trip is able to fix the communicator and he contacts the Enterprise.
Lietenant Reed beams down with a couple armed crewmen and helps to deal with the Andorians. The fight ends with the reveal that the monks were lying. There is a long range sensor in operation at P'Jem. Archer has T'Pol gather data on the long range sensor and then hands is over to Shran, the leader of the Andorians. The way Archer sees it the Vulcans are the ones in wrong and the only way to set things right is to level the playing field. Shran thanks Archer and leaves.
This is the first of many appearances for Shran, but only two in the first season. The other first season episode to feature an Andorian element is 1.15 (Shadows of P'Jem) which I think I will need to add to my list of episodes to watch. There is just one episode in the second season and two in third season that involve the Andorians but there are several episodes in the fourth season.
This episode felt like one from the original series in a number of ways. The captain and crew unknowingly and with the best of intentions stumble into a conflict. They are forced to take a side even though they are supposed to be there as impartial observers.
I enjoyed this episode quite a bit. From what I can see it plants seeds that will blossom in future episodes. Is it perfect? No, but it works on a number of levels that appeal to me.
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