I finished Live By the Code last night (I would have finished it earlier had I not been sick) and as I suspected it did not end well for the Partnership.

But good tying of elements together and explaining why the Ware (again that self repair station from Enterprise Season 2) isn’t known/remembered much by the 24th century (Given that it operates on a similar basis to the Borg). Most of it works, 31′s corruption, Flint’s obsession with articial life, even most of the Klingon politics (to some degree I kind of glazed over at one point). 

One thing that got a bit grating was the repeated notion that yes, we hear you, Bryce Shumar is assigned to Starbase 12 under Uttan Narsu. yes, we know how that ends from Power Play but one or two references to that is enough, ½ dozen is a bit much.

The Federation’s disastrous approach to the Ware threat convinces Archer that a policy of non intereference should be implement putting him squarely against Shran too and I thought that was well done, bringing round the fact that the Klingons are periphally involved too keeping some contiuity that they were the reason for the Prime Directive in the first place.

There were a lot of nice character moments too, people getting old, Phlox moralizing a lot, maybe a little too much again with Famous Family History (Sam Kirk, Houses of Kor and Ja’roD).

yeah that’s about all I have for now

 (although the title Enterprise is always tenuous at best, the ship has been a museum exhibit for a few years, it’s more about the people involved….and I guess a bit for Vol’Rala, the Andorian ship named Enterprise) 

and we’re taclking the origins of the Ware (the honeypot station from Season 2′s Dead stop) and given all the new races (mostly) that we’ve been introduced as part of this Partnership and that none of them really made it to the other shows I kind of fear for their survival. The early Federation sees the Ware as a threat to be eradicated, a virus, but the Parternship (unlike the Pebru who forced the Ware on any and all) have found a way to benefit from the Ware augmenting their standard of living without compromising much (voluntary service to the Ware for a limited time, limits neurological damage if any in exchange for all the benefits it provides). None of the partnership planet members apparently would have evolved to spaceflight without intervention from the Ware for various reasons (environment, dexterity) and we’ve seen the result one of deadly shutdown by Federation captain on a partnership planet is causing a worldwide cataclysm. 

Anyhoo this is all very interesting in the abstract, a little less so are the Klingons and their endless politics (and recurring names like Ja’rod and Kor who may be fathers or grandfathers of the characters or the actual characters themselves). The Denobulan wedding was also interesting, as are lingering radical factions there. Everyone gets something to do so far and that’s good. One hint I liked is why with the Andorians being one of the founding members of the Federation and being so active in early Starfleet/Andorian Guard roles are seen a lot less in TOS and TNG Era (the reproductive crisis from the post-Destiny era).