Star Trek: Enterprise (TV Series) Cold Station 12 (2004) User Reviews

Dispute for the Leadership

[claudio_carvalho · 8/10 · 19 October 2009]

Dr. Soong heads to Cold Station 12 in the Bird of Prey with the Augments to get more embryos. Meanwhile, without any lead, the Enterprise travels to the place where the Augments were raised and they find Smike, who was left behind due to his inferior abilities. Dr. Soong and the Augments lure the security of the station and imprison and torture the scientists trying to force their leader Dr. Jeremy Lucas to disclose the security code to access the embryos. Malik has frictions with his "father" Dr. Soong in the dispute of the leadership of the Augments. Archer, Dr. Phlox and a small crew are beamed to the station to rescue the prisoners and the tension between humans and Augments increases; then the evil Malik releases lethal pathogens in the station.

"Cold Station 12" is a great sequel of "Borderland". The ambitious and cruel Malik confronts the order of the dreamer Dr. Soong that actually wants a pacific life with the Augments. Captain Archer will certainly have great difficulties to defeat such powerful enemy. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "Estação Polar 12" ("Polar Station 12")

This Is Almost Over the Top

[Hitchcoc · 8/10 · 28 March 2017]

Dr. Soong has to find those embryos, to put more of these awful kids into play. By now he should be realizing that he is starting to fall out of the equation. The leader of the augments is psychotic, enjoying what he is doing to people. He is doubting Soong and the others are getting nervous. He kills one of the men in the facility where the embryos are being stored in the most hideous way. They need a code and are trying to extort information from the head of the facility. They will stop at nothing. These guys are really great villains because they have no redeeming qualities. They aren't content to just get their way; they must inflict unnecessary violence. Good episode but incredibly violent.

Spiner steals the show

[Tweekums · 8/10 · 29 May 2010]

Having freed the Augments Dr. Soong heads to Cold Station 12 with them with the intention of getting the embryos of several thousand Augments that are stored there along was other extreme bio-hazards. Soong doesn't want to hurt anybody but Malik has no such worries and is happy to kill anybody who doesn't share his 'perfection'. In order to find where Soong might be he heads to his former base where he finds Smike, an Augment who had been banished by the others as he hadn't acquired the superior abilities of the others. As they near CS12 Soong tells Archer to back off or he will execute the head of the establishment; Archer agrees but just before they are out of transporter range he leads an away team on a raid against Soong and his Augments. This doesn't go well though and Soong escapes with the embryos setting us up for the third and final part of this three episode story.

While the regular cast did a good job the episode was stolen by Brent Spiner who was fantastic as Soong, even though Soong is obviously the villain of the episode Spiner's portrayal of him was sympathetic in a way which meant he wasn't just a typically evil cartoon villain. The Augments were far less sympathetic, especially mullet-haired leader Malik who is a little too keen to kill people.

Friction in the House that Soong Built

[XweAponX · 8/10 · 9 June 2013]

So here, we get to meet other of Dr Flox's race. Odd that they had never been mentioned in TOS or TNG, or in any of the Moovies, Oh well, guess we never saw them, maybe they were always hidden in crowds of aliens in alien bars- Like in ST III, where Bones tries to hire that Blue Mercenary with the Huge Pre-Ferengi Ears.

Dr Soong, after Escaping from Archer, was beamed back up after Archer had some fun with his 22nd Century Handcuffs. But Mullet-Khan-Boy and his gang of ugly kids bust through NX01's security, kicks a bunch of Ent's Crew Arses, then "Proves" to Archer that normal Hoomans are genetically inept.

Ya know, there are two goals: The Goal of the Augments are to get the Foog away from the Hoomans, and the goal of Archer is to never give up chasing them. Kinda dumb, but hey that's the Prime Directive for ya. But ya know what else? "Augments" is not a good word for these Genetic BRATS. A better word, would be "Arguments" - Because that's what they do, they argue with each other, With Dr Soong, with Archer. They are a bunch of Squabbling Testosterone driven, Pimply Punks.

So now, Soong brings these pukes to Cold Station 12, and Dr Phlox has a buddy there. Well, here we have this year's excuse for using 24th century tech phrases: Dr Flox's race is more medically advanced than ANY other Race ever shown in any trek show, ever.

Funny, where were they at Cor Corolli IV? The Phylox Plague? Also they should have been around in TNG S2E1 where the D is transporting all of those Plasma Plague samples.

Put Brats into a Medical Cold Storage, and it is a recipe for at least one hideous death, and of course, as predicted it happened.

So The GenBrats release ALL of the Toxins - Archer gets the Cold Station crew safe in one sealed area, but he has to turn on some Tech Pumps, so he himself is trapped. Thank Ghod the Good Ole NX01 shows up just in time to burn a hole in the dome, releasing Archer into Space, and then transporting him back to the Ent.

Good thing the Ent's Transporters work many times faster than TNG/DS9/Voy transporters. Wonder how that happened? Needless to say, the Brats escape AGAIN.

But Brent Spiner is STILL great.

Middle Child of an Excellent Story

[fischcj · 27 January 2006]

Star Trek: Enterprise's Augments trilogy is a highlight in the many episodes of Star Trek. The three Episodes "Boarderland", "Cold Station 12" and "The Augments" are among my all-time favorites. The trilogy combines 2 elements of lore that fans will love: The Eugenics Wars and Brent Spiner. Spiner steals the show in all three episodes. Basic plot of this episode: With Aurik Soong (Brent Spiner) now allied with the Augments he helped create, can the crew of the STARSHIP ENTERPRISE save the day before war with the Klingon Empire becomes inevitable? And to what lengths will Soong go to save his "children"?

If you're new to Star Trek, definitely catch this trilogy first

A mixed bag, albeit an entertaining one.

[sogoodlooking · 8/10 · 24 September 2020]

Archer's moral bankruptcy after his time in The Expanse is all too evident in his assertion with regard to Soong, that "he broke the law. That's why he was in prison. And that's why I'm going to make sure he goes back." It's the morality of the least, to state that because the law says x, then x must be correct. It's obscene, frankly.

Meanwhile T'Pol looks like a nervous wreck, while her haircut continues to offend.

Mike Levar directs well. The scene where one of the lab staff is tortured and Soong's guilt becomes evident is particularly affecting, while Archer's unorthodox escape by blasting himself into space is nicely done, the timing impeccable---though that's probably more a tribute to the editor than the director.

Bond Villain-esque Ending

[Samuel-Shovel · 6/10 · 27 February 2018]

In "Cold Station 12", the Augments infiltrate the facility holding the embryos of their unborn brethren using a hijacked Denobulan ship. The Enterprise pursues them with the help of Smike, a "handicapped" Augment who had been left behind by his brothers and sisters. Soong and the Augments take the medical staff aboard the facility hostage as they attempt to steal the embryos and leave the station. Archer and the gang transport in and are quickly captured. The Augments leave everyone for dead and they escape to warp as the episode ends.

Brent Spiner plays the role of Soong "the misunderstood genius who is attempting to better society but his logic if flawed" and he doed it well. His performance is hammy but I think the character needs this against the dark seriousness of the Augments whose almost sadistic approach to violence make them a menacing villain. Despite good character development, the plot leaves some to be desired.

This episode falls victim to the Bond villain trap trope of leaving the hero(es) to die an overly complex death instead of just taking care of it efficiently. There's no reason to give Archer and the others a way out but Malik surely does by releasing all the diseases but on a 5 minute time delay. It felt unbecoming of the hyper-intelligent Augments to make such a mistake.

I really enjoyed the performance of Richard Riehle as Dr. Lucas. He's the best part of this episode in his bit role. He acts all tough allowing his colleague to die instead of giving up the authorization codes but quickly crumbles when they threaten his buddy Phlox. Sometimes you just have to find the right leverage to make people cast aside their ideals.

I have an even better idea. I'm going to place him in an easily escapable situation involving an overly elaborate and exotic death.

[planktonrules · 5/10 · 14 April 2015]

The above quote is from Dr. Evil in the first Austin Powers movie. It's appropriate because this was funny in a comedy...it is NOT good when it's in a sci-fi drama like "Star Trek: Enterprise! This is the reason I see this as a particularly weak episode.

This is a follow-up to the prior episode where Dr. Soong has created a group of augments--humans with heightened physical and intellectual powers but lacking in conscience. In the previous one, Captain Archer STUPIDLY allowed Soong to escape custody (a major weakness in this first episode). Now in part two, Soong and his 'children' (the augments) go in search of a veritable army of augments Soong wishes to incubate. To do this, they take over a medical research station. Archer and his crew arrive but seem pathetically unable to stop them--again because Archer behaves like a wienie.

When the episode begins, the completely amoral and nasty leader of the augments has every reason to kill Archer. However, instead of just phasering his face (and he IS holding a phaser), he gives it to his bud and begins fighting with Archer. What a dumb cliché! Again, however, he could have just squished Archer's head. Instead, he beats him up and leaves him with SOME chance of escape...like Dr. Evil!! All in all this show has too many clichés and weak plot elements--and it SHOULD have been much better given the idea.

Reprehensible Premise

[Vvardenfell_Man · 5/10 · 23 April 2024]

A few ENT episodes have felt atavistic on this rewatch. This one calls back to debates about genetic engineering, abortion, and stem cell research that this show has delved into before. Unfortunately it handles them with the intelligence of a rabid dog. There are hamfisted attempts to comment on the 'grey' area of genetic research, but only enough to let us know that in the end it was good that bioconservatism won out. In an age where this sort of technology is possible, but laws threaten to prevent its use in cases where it could be medically helpful, this episode lands like a wet fart.

Let me be clear: this episode doesn't so much say that CRISPR-type tech, used with the intent of creating a super-race, is bad bad. It does seem to say that attempting to cure genetic disorders is bad. There is something repugnant about this future.

Horrible acting

[chiguy17 · 3/10 · 24 August 2019]

Normally I'm a big fan of this Star Trek, and let me be clear, my issue here is with the guest stars. The writing, and even more so, their acting (the "augments") is so cheesy and over the top, it's like a bad Dr. Who episode.