Star Trek: Enterprise Episode Review
Season 1, Episode 21
Archer and Mayweather are wrongfully imprisoned by militaristic aliens. To their dismay, they find that their fellow inmates are all Suliban.
“Detained” is Enterprise’s first success in the Star Trek tradition of “message shows.” These episodes have an infamous reputation of ham-handedness, perhaps epitomized by the famous black-and-white faces of “Let That Be Your Last Battlefield.” I admit, however, that I’m quite a fan. The earnestness that some find silly I find endearing; one of my favorite aspects about Star Trek, from The Original Series all the way through to Strange New Worlds, is the use of science fiction trappings to comment on pertinent contemporary issues.
Even within the canon of message shows, “Detained” is remarkably unsubtle. It doesn’t take a genius to replace the words “Suliban” and “Cabal” with “Muslims” and “Taliban.” Obvious dialogue is included in the script to ensure that nobody misses the point. This reaches ridiculous levels when Archer explicitly brings up the imprisonment of Japanese Americans during World War II. It’s like the episode is writing its own book report.
Even within the canon of message shows, “Detained” is remarkably unsubtle. It doesn’t take a genius to replace the words “Suliban” and “Cabal” with “Muslims” and “Taliban.” Obvious dialogue is included in the script to ensure that nobody misses the point. This reaches ridiculous levels when Archer explicitly brings up the imprisonment of Japanese Americans during World War II. It’s like the episode is writing its own book report.
However, what “Detained” lacks in subtlety it makes up for in timeliness. By citing Japanese internment camps, the writers craft a stark cautionary tale for America in 2002. This was a time when Islamophobia was at a peak after 9/11, racially-motivated crimes were distressingly common in the news, and war fever was sweeping the nation, so this comparison to one of the uglier moments in American history is apt. It’s admirable of the writers to take such an obvious and firm stance, clearly and saliently pointing out the slippery slope that white Americans were treading by dehumanizing their neighbors.
At the time of this review's editing pass in 2025, I found this episode more chilling and relevant than ever. Trump now wields against Mexican Americans the very same legislation that authorized Japanese American internment -- ironically titled the Alien Enemies Act. Many of the worst aspects of America's immigrant detention facilities are depicted in "Detained" with shocking prescience: family separation, detention of children, indefinite sentences, no consideration given to the wrongfully imprisoned, and a lack of accessible legal defense. This is an episode that still needs to be seen today, at a time when people must learn to treat groups facing racial injustice with compassion, and to be distrustful of the militarized law enforcement holding up the system inflicting that injustice.
On an in-universe note, I appreciate seeing this side of the Suliban. Before now, these aliens have all been generic, creepy bad guys, but "Detained" asks us to think a little more about them. We see Suliban families and non-combatants who are just as much victims of the Cabal as Archer. Star Trek often treats alien cultures as monoliths (e.g. Klingons are Warriors, Ferengi are Greedy), which is mostly fine but can occasionally lead to icky racial essentialism. The franchise is at its most thoughtful when it breaks down those in-universe stereotypes.
Despite these positives, however, “Detained” doesn’t rank among Trek’s very best message shows. In addition to the sledgehammer-subtle dialogue, there are also plot issues. The episode finishes with multiple unaddressed loose ends, offers no closure about Danik's family, and the character of Sajen disappears from the story entirely. This is still an important episode with its heart is in the right place, but it feels like it ends a scene or two early.
Of note to sci-fi fans is the on-screen reunion of Bakula and his Quantum Leap co-star Dean Stockwell, who plays the villainous prison warden. The two clearly have maintained their onscreen chemistry, but these scenes fail to sizzle the way they ought to. Stockwell's character simply isn’t a compelling or nuanced enough villain to let him shine. A few years later, Battlestar Galactica would correct this mistake.
Spoilers ahead for future episodes. Unfortunately, writing decisions in later episodes retroactively undermine this episode's strengths. Later in this season, "Desert Crossing" and "Two Days and Two Nights" criticize Archer for his actions here, cynically undercutting the moral message. Worse, we never meet another sympathetic Suliban in the entire series. The writers would have been wise to tug on this thread rather than focusing every subsequent Suliban episode on time travel.
