Tackles the radical Islam vs. Peaceful Islam issue...
Who’s responsible?
Teleplay is credited to Judith Reeves-Stevens and Garfield Stevens, who contribute their first “Trek” teleplay after authoring a gazillion “Trek” novels, including “Federation,” “Prime Directive,” “Worlds in Collision,” “Captain’s Blood,” “Captain’s Glory,” “Captain’s Peril,” “Spectre,” “The Return,” the DS9 “Millennium” trilogy, “Ashes of Eden,” “Odyssey,” “Dark Victory,” “Avenger,” “Preserver” and “Memory Prime.”
What does TV Guide say?
“The crew joins forces with Vulcan authorities to investigate a deadly bombing of Earth’s embassy, which may be the work of a sect devoted to the logical teaching of Surak, the father of Vulcan philosophy.”
Surak, who got the savage Vulcans to calm the frick down centuries ago, is now inspiring embassy bombings?
T’Pol explains that the Vulcan suspects, the Syranites, are a small group who “follow a corrupted form of Surak’s teachings.”
The big news?
“The Forge” is not only one of the best episodes of “Enterprise” ever aired, it is one of the best episodes of “Star Trek.” The Stevenses demonstrate tonight that they know how to forge a richly compelling storyline and excite “Trek" fans beyond superficialities, and it’s a crime they had to wait this long to be recruited into the TV side of the franchise. Many may grow giddy at the cleverness with which this installment, in the space of 43 minutes, neatly dances around nearly 40 years of Vulcanian inconsistencies. (“The Forge” is, in fact, so much fun I vote its authors be given first crack at the next movie's screenplay!)
The bigger news?
We get a lot of specifics on Vulcan history. By my calculations, it turns out Surak lived around 350 A.D., and that Vulcans invented faster-than-light travel around the time of the American Civil War.
spoilers here...
http://www.aint-it-cool.com/display.cgi?id=18860