- We get to see Sato, as an expert, training a group of men in handling a weapon, even if we have to put up with Reed's condescending little smirk and nod of approval;
- We get to see T'Pol, as an expert, training a group of men and women in hand-to-hand combat techniques;
- We get to see that same T'Pol defeat a Klingon warrior using those same combat techniques;
- We get to see a female colonist use her combat training well in defending herself against a second Klingon warrior;
- We are introduced to a humanoid mining community where a woman is the doctor;
- We get to see a humanoid male leader actually admit to feeling fear and the weight of responsibility in keeping his people safe from the Klingon marauders;
- We get to enjoy a very well-written scene wherein Archer talks to the said humanoid male leader about fear and responsibility, about overcoming that fear to fulfill that responsibility;
- We get to enjoy a script that introduces a sympathetic child character, creates a relationship between Tucker and the child, and then manages to avoid the overused trope of having the sympathetic child character do something very stupid at a pivotal moment in an attempt add drama and pathos;
- We get to watch an episode where, despite Archer's unreasonably aggressive and inappropriate approach to T'Pol on the issue of whether or not the Star Fleet crew should intervene, they actually manage to work together (with Reed) to come up with a plan to help the colony while addressing the legitimate concerns T'Pol raises.
While the Star Fleet crew interacts with the colonists, it becomes clear that the colonists are afraid of something -- it also becomes clear that the colony is much poorer off than one would expect after having produced and sold large quantities of this very valuable substance for almost decade.
The mystery is solved when a Klingon ship drops out of warp and into orbit, sending a landing party down to bully and harass the colonists while demanding a large quantity of deuterium. The colony leader explains to the Klingon captain that, with several pumps damaged, the colony is behind in its production. The Klingon leader assaults a colonist, threatens the entire community and declares that he will return in four days for his deuterium, which better be ready or else...
Archer is incensed and wants to intervene. T'Pol quite appropriately advises him that, short of killing the Klingon marauders, any intervention by Enterprise would only have a passing effect and would likely lead to massive retaliation by the Klingons once Enterprise has left the area. Both agree that the extortion must be put to an end but the question is how to do so, in a way that won't result in Klingon retaliation and will last after Enterprise leaves the colony.
Archer visits the colony's leader in the dead of night to talk to him about the prospect of resisting. He learns that the Klingons have been plundering the colony for years and that, when the colonists did attempt to resist, a number of colonists died in the battle or were executed afterward by the triumphant Klingons. The colony's leader does not want a repeat of that slaughter and chooses to endure the Klingon marauders and scratch out a subsistence-level living rather than risk resisting again.
Archer has a heart-to-heart with the leader about overcoming fear and living up to responsibility. He tells the leader that he has decided to follow the old Human axiom, "Give a man a fish, he will eat for a day; teach a man to fish, he will eat for a lifetime", and train the colonists to resist effectively.
With now just three days before the Klingons return, Reed and crew hatch a plan to cap and disguise the deuterium wells and move the colony a short distance away, so as to permit them to lure the Klingons into a trap. Sato, T'Pol and Reed train the colonists in combat skills and tactics while the work to move the colony goes on.
The Klingons arrive and find the colony empty. A series of brief fights (both hand-to-hand and with weapons) takes place as the colonist/Star Fleet force attempts to frustrate and confuse the Klingons while drawing them into the area of the capped deuterium wells. Once the Klingons are in place, Reed sets off explosives planted at the top of a circle of wells, trapping the entire Klingon force in a hell-fire of burning deuterium.
The colony leader then confronts the marauders and tells them that the colonists are now capable of defeating the Klingons so they better leave and never come back. The Klingon commander, in a truly un-Klingon act of cowardice, turns tail and runs.
In most ways, "Marauders" is a fun, well-paced and well-conceived episode. The characterizations are strong and the actor (Larry Cedar) who plays the colony leader does a nice job of conveying the anger, frustration, shame and fear his character is feeling. As I said above, the scene between Archer and the colony leader is especially well written and performed. And it is refreshing to see two male leaders, Archer especially, admit to feeling fear and the burden of responsibility. Kirk was especially good on that count and it's nice to see that someone in the Enterprise creative team recognizes the importance of permitting a Star Fleet captain to be Human.
As usual, however, the episode does have its share of problems, mostly from a plotting and technological continuity stand point.
For example, the Klingon ship doesn't spot Enterprise in orbit around the colony planet when it first arrives. This is a surprising lapse for the ever vigilant, ever aggressive Klingons.
And the idea that the Klingon transporter system wouldn't alert them that the coordinates of the colony itself have changed between their first visit in the episode and their second makes no sense at all. Either the Klingons would have beamed down to the same coordinates, and found themselves inexplicably in an empty field, or they would have scanned before beaming, realized the colony had been moved and been more wary in beaming down. Either way, the game should have been given away immediately upon their arrival.
I also don't get why it was necessary to provide the colonists with all that training (both to improve their accuracy with their weapons and to improve their hand-to-hand combat skills) when their plan to lure the Klingons into the middle of the well-heads appears to have required neither skill. In fact, despite having the advantage of being on higher ground and having a clear shot at the Klingon marauders, the colonists do not appear to hit a single Klingon with their weapons fire. And further, the hand-to-hand combat depicted, while fun and truly satisfying for both the characters and the viewers, also seems completely unnecessary to their plan.
Wouldn't it have been easier (and a heck of a lot safer) just to let the Klingons beam down, stun them all, then place them in them in the middle of the well heads?
With all of that in mind, the idea that a Klingon captain would turn tail and run at the end of the episode is contrary to everything we've learned about Klingons (well, everything we've learned about Klingons from other Star Trek series; Enterprise seems to be trying to rewrite the Klingons as a bunch of cowards). The Klingon captain admits that there are plenty of other sources for deuterium so, based on our knowledge of Klingon conceptions of honour and the warrior mentality, we would expect him to beam back to his ship and attempt to exterminate the colony from orbit as punishment for its resistance.
That, of course, would necessitate Enterprise to intervene openly to save the colony, which is an eventuality Archer was hoping to avoid. But it would be more consistent with Klingon behaviour established in Star Trek lore.
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