the delphic expanse

Discuss the awesomeness of Future Tense (and the awesome chat we had, too):

Dang, what a great episode!

I especially enjoyed the scenes with Trip and Malcolm (gotta love the Disaster Twins! ). I kind of wish that they had kept the original ending (see Memory Alpha for more info, assuming it isn't still infected), but they were probably already planning to drop the temporal cold war in favor of the Xindi arc.

It's a strong episode in a lot of ways. There's some exciting action, a glorious nod to Doctor Who (which hadn't yet been revived successfully) and a bunch of great character moments. The time loop scenes were done so effectively and simply.

There's great scenes between Archer and T'Pol, Archer and Reed, Tucker and Reed and the great breakfast between the big three there. Also, a very intense and well lit scene between Phlox and T'Pol, each giving their unique alien perspective.

In some ways I am sorry we never truly met the dead time traveler. That would have been fun. Although, it was nice to see the Tholians.

According to memory Alpha, some of what wasn't used in this episode Sussman later used for the MU episode and I think you can see that he must have been thinking of this one when writing that one.

The whole concept of a time loop just has amazing possibilities.

I like that the mystery was never solved, even just for the viewers. They could have filmed some scenes from a different point of view, one that let us in on what the Tholians were up to, who the traveler was, etc. As much as I'd like to know, I'm glad they didn't do it that way. As it is, it leaves the audience in the same place as the characters, just wondering what the whole experience was all about.