There are two other episodes that have an impact on Trek lore. One is "Regeneration" which brings the Borg into the Enterprise fold, and is a direct sequel to the events of Star Trek: First Contact. Borg are found frozen in the Arctic, but soon enough, they wake up, make some new friends and take off with the Enterprise in pursuit. This episode opens up some potential continuity holes, but it is also interesting to see how this meeting sets up future encounters. The other episode is the season finale, "The Expanse." This episode completely changes the direction of the show and sets up the entire third season. It brings in the real world tale of terrorism into the fictional Trek-verse. It opens with a probe firing a beam that kills millions. It turns out to be a pre-emptive strike from an as yet unknown alien race, this sends Archer and crew into unexplored and unpredictable space.
Watching this season for the second time, and at an accelerated pace exposed a few things to me. One being how mediocre it is, but second how split the characters are in terms of them being interesting and worthy of investing our time with. I find Scott Bakula, as Captain Archer, to be rather dull and lifeless. He is a little too vanilla to pull of a strong captain. When he is trying to be intimidating, it is just that, trying, he isn't an imposing persona. There are also problems with how he is written, for example "A Night in Sickbay" where he is upset over his sick dog, and apparently loses all his ability to negotiate or focus on the big picture. On the opposite side of that is Conner Trinneer as Trip, he seems a much more fully realized character, his delivery and mannerisms just make him come across as a real person rather than an actor playing a part. There also things to enjoy about both Peter Billingsley as Dr. Phlox and Jolene Blalock as T'Pol. Both of them are fascinating in how opposite their characters are, each building up little tics and mannerisms. The rest of the cast is generally a little plain, never standing out to much.
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