Silent Enemy

Season 1, Episode 12, Aired
EDIT

Episode Summary

Enterprise is attacked by an unidentified enemy ship, the crew must work frantically to get their new phase canons online. Meanwhile, the captain charges Hoshi with finding out Malcolm's favourite food in time for a surprise birthday dinner.

8.5
out of 10
EPISODE RATING: Great
166 votes
  • Your Rating: 10
    "Perfect"
  • Your Rating: 9.5
    "Superb"
  • Your Rating: 9
    "Superb"
  • Your Rating: 8.5
    "Great"
  • Your Rating: 8
    "Great"
  • Your Rating: 7.5
    "Good"
  • Your Rating: 7
    "Good"
  • Your Rating: 6.5
    "Fair"
  • Your Rating: 6
    "Fair"
  • Your Rating: 5.5
    "Mediocre"
  • Your Rating: 5
    "Mediocre"
  • Your Rating: 4.5
    "Poor"
  • Your Rating: 4
    "Poor"
  • Your Rating: 3.5
    "Bad"
  • Your Rating: 3
    "Bad"
  • Your Rating: 2.5
    "Terrible"
  • Your Rating: 2
    "Terrible"
  • Your Rating: 1.5
    "Abysmal"
  • Your Rating: 1
    "Abysmal"
Rate It

Watch Online

TV.com
Free
Netflix
Subscription
Amazon
Buy
iTunes
Buy
Amazon Prime
Free Trial/Subsc...

Cast & Crew

See All EDIT

Fan Episode Reviews (5)

See All

  • Unknown aliens attack Enterprise.

    3.1
    "Bad"
    By timdavis7, Jan 30, 2011 Report Abuse
    This episode can easily be skipped if you are a fan of Enterprise. One of the storylines focuses on what Malcolm's favorite food is. I won't spoil the reveal for those of you who are interested in such things. If you are interested, then this is the episode for you.

    The main storyline talks about a rather boring alien race that you know nothing about from beginning to end. They blow a few things up and that about covers it.

    This was a very boring and unnecessary episode. It seems like they had to have a certain number of episodes to fill a seasonal quota and this one made it by default.moreless

    DO YOU AGREE?

    1 2

  • excellent episode

    10
    "Perfect"
    By sfviewer, Jul 12, 2010 Report Abuse
    Enterpise is attacked by an unidentified alien ship. The crew works to get their phaser canons to work. This episode really takes the show into combat mode. But it's not all about space battles, there's time for comedy as well. Hoshi is tasked by the captain to find out the perfect gift for their weapons officer. It's an excellent episode. The conflict with the unknown alien was the real feature of the episode, it's really exciting. the anticipation of the combat made this show really watchable. It's really nice, the writers surely did a good episode. I'm anxious to see more enterprise.moreless

    DO YOU AGREE?

    1 0

  • Enterprise is attacked by a mysterious enemy, that seems determined to conquer the ship and do something terrible to the crew. Meanwhile, it becomes clear that nobody really knows Malcolm very well, not even his parents...moreless

    7.5
    "Good"
    By Ramesses1962, Apr 16, 2010 Report Abuse
    I quite liked this episode.

    Ik liked the mysterious ship attacking Enterpise. The threat felt very real, and I liked the fact that no explanation was given at all to the reason these aliens behaved as they did. Pity, though, that they did show some of the aliens: I would have preferred it if they had remained totally faceless and mysterious.

    The fact that, when you go strolling through unknown places, far from home, you might encounter some friendly, but also some downright nasty characters is very well brought across here.

    Through improvisation and hard work the crew eventually managed to fend off the bad guys; that was well done too. If you run back home the first time you get into real trouble, you're not cut out to be an explorer.

    A downside to this episode was the B plot, about Malcolm being so inscrutinable that even his own parents didn't know his likes and dislikes; they didn't even know he had been in outer space onboard Enterprise for these last few months!
    Although I suppose these kind of side-plots are vital to the character development, I felt it was not very believable and it broke the tension built up so well in the main plot.moreless

    DO YOU AGREE?

    1 0

  • Strange invaders attack enterprise

    6.0
    "Fair"
    By dregj, Apr 16, 2010 Report Abuse
    this episode
    was quite an odd fish
    an alien vessel repeatedly attacks enterprise and retreats

    archer orders a return to jupiter station
    to complete the installation of the ships
    weapons systems
    Reed and tucker resolve to complete
    the refit before the aliens return.
    3 phase modulated partical cannons.

    The aliens eventually return and order archer to surrender his ship.

    he orders his new weapons to fire to little effect
    the aliens shields are still up
    and still closing on enterpise.

    Archer orders an overload to increase the yield
    of the cannons this rips the attackers shields apart
    and they quickly retreat.
    the senior staff celebrate by drinking beer in the amoury


    okay
    i grew up watching the 90s star trek
    i kinda assumed that it would turn out
    to be a missunderstanding like in darmok
    i guess
    the world has changed since then
    i was certain right up until the cake at the end that they would explain the aliens motivation.
    I kinda felt wrong footed
    i suppose the "caring 90s" where we had to understand our enemy (tng the wounded)left a deep impression on me.

    the aliens were just jerks and they got what was coming too them i suppose everytrek reflected the era it was made inmoreless

    DO YOU AGREE?

    1 0

  • A bit of an insight into Lt. Reed....

    10
    "Perfect"
    By Rhadeya, Apr 16, 2010 Report Abuse
    The first real character development for Lt. Malcolm Reed comes in pretty much from the start of this episode. When Archer contacts Reed's parents, it's obvious from the outset that parents and child don't have much in the way of communication. It seems Mrs Reed cares more about her son than her husband does, but it's obvious that Malcolm didn't say much (if anything) about his posting onboard Enterprise. It does seem he's a little closer to his sister, although even she doesn't know what his favourite food is. Maybe he didn't have one when he was growing up? We learn he suffers from allergies, so maybe he wasn't able to eat certain things back then that he can now? It's also funny to see Hoshi's attempts to engage Reed in conversation (so she can find out his favourite food) and the embarrassing moments when he thinks she's making a (rather subtle) pass at him.

    What is interesting is that in this episode, Reed doesn't appear to be as 'pessimistic' as he's made out to be in other episodes (Minefield for example). The obvious distance between him and his father is brought up again in Minefield (when Archer mentions they didn't know much about his assignment on Enterprise) and in the season 4 arc episodes Affliction and Divergence (when Archer asks how Malcolm's father would feel about his son being court-marshalled).

    All in all, a very good character building episode for Malcolm. We learn a bit about his background and his time before he joined Enterprise, a little about his family and family history, and he gets to be a bit of a hero by getting the phase cannons built and installed with his armoury (and Trip's engineering) crew.moreless

    DO YOU AGREE?

    2 0
 

Trivia, Notes, Quotes and Allusions

See All

  • Trivia

    ADD TRIVIA
    • It is stated that Reed dislikes fish. However, in the first-season episode "Shuttlepod One", where Tucker and Reed are stranded aboard a shuttlepod, Reed's first choice of emergency ration is sea bass. Edit
    • Trivia: The aliens in this episode are never identified, either visually or in dialogue, nor in any other Star Trek series. Edit
    • Mission Date: 01 September 2151 Edit

  • Notes

    ADD NOTES
    • International Airdates United Kingdom: 18 March 2002 on Sky One Edit

  • Quotes

    ADD QUOTES
    • Archer: You're sure there's nothing down there? T'Pol: Yes, Captain. Archer: Not even a microbe? I don't want to blow up something that could evolve into a sentient species in a couple of billion years. Edit
    • Travis: Maybe they checked us out and decided we weren't very interesting. Reed: Us? Not interesting? Edit
    • Archer: You missed T'Pol's latest bout with chopsticks. Trip: Damn. Dinner and a show. Edit

  • Allusions

Show Forums

See All
Last Activity
Replies

Watch Star Trek: Enterprise Full Episodes

See All

Related Shows

Season 1 Episodes

See All
Ep 26
Shockwave (1)
Ep 25
Two Days and Two Nights
Ep 24
Desert Crossing
Ep 23
Fallen Hero
Ep 22
Vox Sola
Ep 21
Detained
Ep 20
Oasis
Ep 19
Acquisition
Ep 18
Rogue Planet
Ep 17
Fusion
Ep 16
Shuttlepod One
Ep 15
Shadows of P'Jem
Ep 14
Sleeping Dogs
Ep 13
Dear Doctor
Ep 12
Silent Enemy
Ep 11
Cold Front
Ep 10
Fortunate Son
Ep 9
Civilization
Ep 8
Breaking the Ice
Ep 7
The Andorian Incident
Ep 6
Terra Nova
Ep 5
Unexpected
Ep 4
Strange New World
Ep 3
Fight or Flight
Ep 2
Broken Bow (2)
Ep 1
Broken Bow (1)

Contributors

Become a contributor
More
Less

TV Listings

Full Listings
BROWSE | Shows | Videos | News | Listings | Forums | People | Photos | TV.com Blog

CBS Entertainment | About TV.com | About CBS Interactive | Jobs | Advertise

© 2012 CBS Interactive Inc. All rights reserved. | Privacy Policy | Ad Choice | Terms of Use