This is one of the most well written, well paced and well acted episodes of Enterprise's second season. Unlike the typical episode involving in-house franchise writing, Minefield is story-driven, suspenseful and dramatic. Although it included some of the most annoying and absurd aspects of Enterprise - such as the crew's advanced (pre-Kirk) intelligence concerning cloaking devices - the plot gave the principal cast a rare opportunity to shine. Keating and Bakula do especially well as they work out their personal and professional relationship in the middle of a cloaked Romulan minefield with both of their lives hanging by a thread. Thankfully, the Romulans are not at all rewritten, and are not even seen in person, in this episode. The fact that no Romulan is seen during the episode is important to the fact that Enterprise is supposed to be a prequel for all the other Star Trek series. A lot of story arcs involving the Romulans depend on the relationship between the Romulans and Vulcans being slowly revealed. The Romulans are depicted as belligerent, xenophobic and unreasonable - very consistent with the earlier series.