This was a good flashback at Archer's earlier years at testing a new warp engine. He was clearly someone different in character than he is now. He was a young eager pilot and enthusiastic about getting into deep space. Yet, he was also unrefined as far has making those hard tough decisions that makes a Starfleet captain a captain. Robinson was just the kind of person that Archer needed back then to get him going in the right direction. Nothing like a good swift kick in the butt, or rather, good punch in the nose to knock one in the right direction. I think that Archer finally understood that there was more at stake than a boy fulfilling his father's lifelong dream.

T'Pol was the perfect character for Archer to talk to during his retrospect. In some ways, she played the roll of "ship's counselor" - the perfect "ear" to listen.

In some ways, the NX-Alpha destruction was analogous to Space shuttle tragedies that have happened. After it's destruction, there was doubt if space flight would continue. It took the few with strong passion and perseverance to show that it can happen and safely.

The back drop story of exploring a dark matter nova wasn't much, if any, real story interest other than making sure that there was enough science in a science fiction story.