The Great Chronological Run-Through

[Deranged Nasat]

"A Night In Sickbay"

AKA Archer throws a tantrum. To be fair, he's tired, the Kreetassans are grinding on his last nerve and his dog is sick. Now, I have a more Phloxian view on Canis familiaris than most, and I personally find many people's intense love for their canine friends to be a little odd. I respect it, but I'm not sure I fully understand it, probably due to my lack of experience bonding with a dog. So the episode is interesting to me in that sense. Yes, he's being difficult and silly but it does highlight the fact that Archer, while explicitly having had diplomatic training, is not a diplomat. I certainly understand why some viewers think the episode goes too far, because Archer really does throw all standards to the wind and pretty much behaves like a child throughout, but then again everyone has a bad day occasionally, and after all, "these people are impossible". I don't mind the idea of this, but I do wish they'd toned it down.

I continue to like the Kreetassans. A people who are perfectly inclined to be friendly and even kind, but who live by a very rigid set of protocols and take umbrage if others don't operate within the same guidelines. Judging everyone by their own standards of courtesy. I'm glad they were brought back. Season three wouldn't allow for it, but had Enterprise gone on longer than it did I would have loved for this to become a running joke - every season, have an episode that begins with the ship at Kreetassa or docked with a Kreetassan ship, and the Kreetassans are storming off in a huff or somehow offended.

Given that the two are played by the same person (our good friend Vaughn Armstrong), the Kreetassan speaking with Hoshi in this one might be the same captain the crew met last time. Perhaps that's how it works on Kreetassa - when you make contact with someone, they become your responsibility, and you're stuck putting up with their rude manners and urinating dogs from there on.

Archer regresses to early season one-style frustration, apparently mostly due to the Kreetassans being even worse than the Vulcans, with the fact that Porthos is ill giving him even more cause and/or an excuse to just let it all out. Again, I don't mind this, but it does perhaps go too far. I also don't buy the sudden sexual tension between Archer and T'Pol. It's not that it doesn't make sense in theory - they have been in space for more than a year, T'Pol is the woman he spends the most time around, she's attractive, all of that's fine - but it comes out of nowhere. The dreams are funny, though.

As to what we learn by spending "a night in sickbay", we get a sense of the impressive credentials necessary to hold a position like Chief Medical Officer on a starship. Phlox's list of accomplishments shows us that you need to be a truly exceptional individual to excel at interspecies medicine. We get more insight into Phlox and his personal background, too, as well as snippets of Denobulan physiology. (Between those fast-growing claw-like toenails and the climbing abilities we'll see later in "The Breach", I'm wondering if Denobulans evolved to live on the face of cliffs or something? Maybe the long tongue is for snaking into gaps in the rock to root out edibles, or to grasp plants - are they prehensile? Or are they for grooming, because the hands are clinging to the rock?) Archer's apology to Phlox for his harsh words (which build on the established difference between Human and Denobulan empathy that we got a feel for in "Dear Doctor") helps him swallow his pride enough to apologise to the Kreetassans, too. Fair enough. The episode's quality is raised a bit by having serious Archer-Phlox dynamics, something we've only seen once before ("Dear Doctor", again).

One interesting point in this episode is that apparently it's normal procedure to transmit a copy of your species' genome to a planet before visiting, for purposes of medical safety. That makes sense, but I do wonder how everyone would be trusting enough to freely share that sort of information. I guess it's not exactly hard to acquire, but still, that seems like something the more paranoid might balk at. Are there people back on Earth having fits because Archer is transmitting the Human genome to everyone? "If the Kreetassans hypothetically wanted to create bio-weapons, using the information, what then?"

Next episode: Kreetassan merchants prove marginally more useful than Tellarite freighters, as Enterprise is directed to a mining town in "Marauders".

 

[Enterpriserules]

^ I have never hated this episode like others have. I found the tension between Archer and T'Pol something that needed to be dealt with at some point. I think for Archer he's been too busy to really think about this part of himself, but with the right dreams, plus all the frustrations going on in this episodes, it comes out. It is a little goofy and slapstick, but not terrible. I enjoyed that they were ok at this point in Star Trek to acknowledge that the characters do have sexuality, it was just a little too juvenile in execution.

 

[Christopher]

Many people despise "A Night in Sickbay," but I think it's a pretty solid Phlox episode and a nice attempt at the kind of character study that ENT embraced in its first two seasons, before it was under pressure to be action, action, action all the time. I mean, think about it: In this entire episode, the only character whose life is in any danger is Porthos. After so many character-driven TNG episodes that had technobabble B-plots tacked on to create arbitrary danger (I'm looking at you, "Cost of Living"), it's always refreshing when they're able to do a purely character-driven episode without any fighting or shooting or keeping the ship from blowing up. (Which is one of the things I like about "Dear Doctor" too.)

The thing that drags it down is the poor handling of the "sexual tension" element. And I disagree that it comes out of nowhere. Berman and Braga were trying to create sexual tension between Archer and T'Pol in much of season 1; they just went about it in a hamfisted, juvenile way and it never really worked. (The most blatant instance is when they're tied together in "Shadows of P'Jem" and Archer ends up with his face in her breasts as they're writhing against each other to loosen the ropes. The way they treated T'Pol's sexuality was awful, because they never let her choose to be sexual, just made her the inadvertent object of someone else's turn-on. See also Hoshi losing her top in her escape attempt in "Shockwave Part 2.")

But the merit of the episode on that front is that it brings the sexual-tension arc to a definitive conclusion and we don't see it anymore after this. Perhaps they finally realized that it just wasn't working, that both characters were better served by a mutually respectful friendship.

 

[Enterpriserules]

^ I also think they may have realized the more natural story between T'Pol and Trip that started so well in Breaking the Ice. Too bad they were afraid to fully commit to it throughout the rest of the series.

 

[Christopher]

This is what a lot of shows do -- they test out various possible romantic dynamics between different pairs of characters in order to see who has chemistry, and then develop the most successful pairings while letting the other ones fade away. Which is probably why Voyager gave B'Elanna a crush on Chakotay for one first-season episode and then never mentioned it again.

 

[Enterpriserules]

This is what a lot of shows do -- they test out various possible romantic dynamics between different pairs of characters in order to see who has chemistry, and then develop the most successful pairings while letting the other ones fade away. Which is probably why Voyager gave B'Elanna a crush on Chakotay for one first-season episode and then never mentioned it again.

Thank God

I do with that ENT had fully committed to the Trip/T'Pol romance to flesh out the implications of a human/vulcan romance. Great way to set up TOS and Spock's parents

 

[Deranged Nasat]

Evidently I missed a lot of the earlier sexual tension, then. Or more likely I didn't bother with it and chose to overlook it, since I'm not particularly interested in sexuality and don't pay much attention to things like that. Particularly when it takes the form of moments like the afore-mentioned face-in-breasts silliness . Still, you'll get no argument from me that the handling of the sexual elements is often rather sigh-inducing. One day people will realize that sexiness comes through naturally, and works best blended with other traits, and when you just reduce the character to blatant look-at-the-sexiness you're using that character poorly, as well as detracting from what it is that makes them appealing to begin with.

On a slimly related note, it occurs to me that the probable vast majority of Human productions are, from a Kreetassan point of view, uncomfortably pornographic.

 

[Enterpriserules]

One day people will realize that sexiness comes through naturally, and works best blended with other traits, and when you just reduce the character to blatant look-at-the-sexiness you're using that character poorly, as well as detracting from what it is that makes them appealing to begin with. .

I think you nailed why Jadzia/Worf worked so well, the chemistry was natural, from the first scene they had together. What made Trip/T'Pol sad for me was that Breaking the Ice was the same, great chemistry and would have made a wonderful prequel story of the first inter-species romance. But they just dragged it on like a terrible Ross/Rachel thing and then the show got canceled. At least the books gave us a happy ending for them.

 

[Stevil2001]

Evidently I missed a lot of the earlier sexual tension, then. Or more likely I didn't bother with it and chose to overlook it.

Don't worry, there's nothing to miss.

 

[Deranged Nasat]

"Marauders"

This is Seven Samurai/The Magnificent Seven, of course. I, however, know it best as the children's animated film A Bug's Life, which was a fun if cynical twist on the fable of the ant and the grasshopper. I'd rather watch A Bug's Life again, to be honest.

So, Enterprise is once again pestering people to help them replenish the supplies they lost at the Romulan minefield; this time they're after deuterium, the Kreetassans having pointed them toward other victims. They arrive at a ramshackle refinery run by colonists of an unnamed species, whose homeworld is out of range, only to find that they're being pushed around by a gang of outsiders - explicitly murderous outsiders, mind you.

The Klingons - more accurately, a Klingon and his crew - are the antagonist bullies. Now, this is reasonably interesting in that the Klingons of this era do seem to be a raiding culture more than a race of conquerors. It's true that we're only seeing the very outer edge of their society, and clearly distant from any major campaigns, but it still seems that the Klingons have a way to go before they'll be the truly overpowering empire we'll know in the 23rd Century (overextended and half-starved as it always will be, nonetheless). The last time we saw Klingons they were raiding Xarantine - hardly a militant, battle-hardened culture - and here they're picking even easier prey. Outliers they may be, but Korok and his crew seem rather typical of Klingon warparties out in this part of the Beta Quadrant.

What is there to say on this one? It's a dull and clichéd episode without a twist, but it does feature T'Pol fighting a Klingon, which perked up my interest for a moment. It occurs to me that a Vulcan female in good physical health must be a truly formidable opponent. Her raw strength would equal or most likely exceed a male of another race, while she would have the lithe grace and agility of a woman on top of it. We've seen Vulcans in combat once before - a sudden, overwhelming assault back on Coridan - but this is something different, and quite intriguing. Vulcan officers are combat-trained, in an appropriately defensive style (again, unlike Coridan). All of them, or only those who served the security agencies?

Continuity

The best and most subtle continuity moment in this one involves Hoshi giving advice on handling weapons, telling the locals that she used to make similar mistakes to the ones they're making. This is a clear nod to a scene in season one - I forget which episode - in which Malcolm was teaching Hoshi to use a phase pistol. She's been practicing and improving over the months since, it would seem. Reed acknowledges this in a nicely unspoken moment of mutual recognition. The same floating target mechanisms appear here as in that episode.

Archer suggests (I hope without actually meaning it) that he could contact the Klingon High Council about the situation, given that they owe him two favours now (referencing Klaang and the Somraw). Sorry, Archer, that sort of thing works with the Andorians but not with the Klingons. Even if somehow the Council would care what one small band of raiders is doing out on the fringes, you'd rouse their ire terribly by reminding them of the assistance you keep forcing down their throats. Archer, we see, still doesn't understand the Klingons. They are not your friends, Archer.

First Appearances

The D-5, here in a tanker variant that's dismissed as nothing more than a freighter.

Bat'leth are named and used significantly for the first time.

The Klingon transporter; red, like most things Klingon (with the odd exception of ships).

Next Time: On His Rationality's Secret Service, with "The Seventh".

 

[Christopher]

Yeah, "Marauders" is the first of the rather dull, pointless episodes that populate too much of season 2. If I want to watch a sci-fi take on The Magnificent Seven, I'd rather watch Battle Beyond the Stars -- which is no great shakes itself in the story or quality department, but is more entertaining than this and has at least a few interesting ideas (aliens who communicate by heat and can be a living campfire? Awesome!) and some interesting cast members.

Also, I didn't care for the resurrection of VGR: "Demon"'s terrible idea of misrepresenting deuterium as some kind of rare compound that was mined from harsh planet surfaces, rather than an isotope of hydrogen that can be easily found in any ocean, comet, ice moon, gas giant atmosphere, stellar wind, or nebula. I actually do have a fix for it in this case, though, although there's no way to reconcile the inanity of "Demon." I figure maybe this planet might have underground deposits of some exotic radioactive element that produces deuterium as a decay product, so that the deuterium can be mined in pockets of nearly pure gas, which is more convenient than processing hydrogen or water to extract the trace amounts of the isotope within it. That makes it borderline not-idiotic, though it's still a stretch. I wish the producers, both here and in "Demon," had just gone with dilithium, which is more plausible as a scarce material.

A bit of trivia: The Klingon captain who appears in the first scene of Rise of the Federation: Tower of Babel was originally written as Korok, but I later decided that was a gratuitous bit of continuity porn, so I changed it. I had the above explanation of the deuterium mine in my first draft of the scene, but it contributed nothing to the scene and was just there for my own peace of mind.

 

[Deranged Nasat]

Also, I didn't care for the resurrection of VGR: "Demon"'s terrible idea of misrepresenting deuterium as some kind of rare compound that was mined from harsh planet surfaces, rather than an isotope of hydrogen that can be easily found in any ocean, comet, ice moon, gas giant atmosphere, stellar wind, or nebula.

Is it possible that we can add deuterium to the list of things the writers may have forgotten actually existed? Like Rigel or the name Romulus, for those keeping track. Perhaps they thought it was a made-up Trek thing?

 

[Christopher]

Well, we know they were aware it was a gas, because Andre Bormanis has said that the reason his original idea of a dilithium shortage in "Demon" was changed to deuterium was because the producers were tickled by the idea of Voyager "running out of gas." But that seems to be the extent of the thought they were interested in putting into it.

I suspect it's not so much that Berman & Braga didn't know these things were real as that they didn't care. Their standards of plausibility just weren't up to Roddenberry's or, say, Behr & Wolfe's.

Although I certainly have encountered cases of fans or others not realizing deuterium was a real substance. I've seen online posts, and I think a Trek comic book or two, confusing it with the fictional deutronium fuel from Lost in Space.

 

[Deranged Nasat]

Korok was an idiot anyway. His idea for regaining the locals' "respect" was to contemplate killing more of them as another example. Granted, it worked the first time, but you're gutting your own workforce, Korok! That would leave you with less people to work the refinery and/or support the community that's refining your deuterium. What you want to do is abduct the child and tell them that you'll bring him back next season and exchange him for such-and-such an amount of deuterium. Then you can fly off and raid Xarantine or whatever you do for the rest of the year. That's what I'd do.

Hypothetically, I mean. Were I Korok.

"The Seventh"

Having had Archer regress to his troublesome early-season one behaviours after being faced with a threat to Porthos, we now see something similar with T'Pol, driven by a trying, emotionally sensitive situation into resuming some bad habits she's otherwise overcome. The secretive Vulcan with her own agenda, who reveals information only reluctantly and has no qualms hiding that which she doesn't deem pertinent, seems to have come back, and there's a real sense of awkwardness at the group briefing. The crew are uncomfortable, and so was I, but I suppose that's the point.

This episode also sees a return to the various Vulcan themes explored over the course of the first season, in rather a mishmash, though not necessarily an unsuccessful one. We have another angle on Vulcan repression and their struggle with powerful, consuming emotions - the dilemma of whether these can ever be incorporated into a balanced psyche. We have another renegade Vulcan who plays on T'Pol's emotions in attempts to manipulate her, like Tolaris, but who also borrows from this season's Mestral in his choice to abandon Vulcan culture and immerse in an alien society. Finally, Agaron is yet another world falling under Vulcan hegemony. For all their insistence that one shouldn't interfere with other cultures, the Vulcans are quite happy to impose themselves on their junior partners. Agaron has shades of Mazar, in that the interference was directed at rooting out corruption and was likely an overall positive for the world, but also shades of Coridan, in that the Vulcans were setting up the sort of government that they wanted ascendant - here dissolving one rather than keeping the original in power, but it's the same thing.

The string of favours between Human and Vulcan ships continues, though why Forrest couldn't contact Enterprise a second time to pass on the score himself I don't know. Thinking about it, though, I suppose Forrest wouldn't be able to justify using official channels for such obviously unofficial business, so he found another way to pass it on.

Continuity

Menos mentions his doctor on Andoria. Not the first world I would name my ties to while trying to protest my innocence before a Vulcan operative and her allies.

One of the deuterium barrels they brought aboard during "Marauders" has apparently contaminated the ship with a virus. Maybe the refinery folk should have taken a tip from the Xarantine and contaminated the deuterium the Klingons were taking...

The port administrator on the Pernaian moon appears to be a Markalian, in the race's first appearance.

T'Pol purged herself at the monastery on P'Jem.

T'Pol also mentions bribing a Tellarite transport captain when journeying to Risa in pursuit of Menos and Jossen. Tellarites: whenever you need assistance, they'll sort of be there to sort of help.

Next Time: "The Communicator", and then it's the other "T'Pol kills people" story.

 

[Christopher]

I totally failed to notice the continuity reference to the deuterium canisters from "Marauders" being the source of the virus. I just wish the continuity follow-through this season were in something more substantial than these throwaway nods.

Overall, I liked this episode, though it was imperfect. It continues the exploration of the Vulcans' morally ambiguous exercise of its power, and is a pretty good Archer-T'Pol story. Bruce Davison is an odd casting choice for someone who was born Vulcan, though. But then, I guess the point is that he was better at being Agaron than being Vulcan. It was interesting to see that idea, that being Vulcan is a demanding thing that not every Vulcan succeeds at. It's surprising there aren't more who opt out.

 

[Deranged Nasat]

"The Communicator"

"When I was in my early twenties on a trip to Sarajevo, I saw a gazelle giving birth. It was truly amazing: within minutes the newborn gazelle had picked up a rifle and assassinated Archduke Ferdinand. It went downhill from there... er, but the point is, we're not like those gazelles, ambassador. It takes us a little longer to start devastating global conflicts. No, wait..."

Right off the bat: Couldn't they have transported the communicator up? I know they tend not to think of the transporter (something I approve of, since it's a new and untrusted technology) but no-one even mentions it. Not even a convenient but acceptable "city built on Kelbonite" comment.

We've entered the doldrums, I'm afraid. After a promising start to season two, this stretch of it probably represents the show at its weakest. Season one I thought was very good, with every episode contributing to a deeper exploration of the themes and ideas established in the pilot. The various adventures strung together thematically and built up a good sense of how the 22nd Century worked. The only truly pointless episodes were "Oasis" and "Acquisition", and the latter was at least a lot of fun. I maintain my belief that Enterprise season one is a good, strong season. Unfortunately, it really does stumble in season two. "The Communicator" isn't really that bad - I think it's one of the better episodes in this part of the season - but it does demonstrate the overall problem with season two: it doesn't have any thematic unity or purpose. It picks up considerably in the final third, but there's a string of rather dull, meaningless episodes coming up, and this one just feels detached and pointless.

Like I said, this one's not too bad. The military/political context - the casual references by the natives to a situation neither we nor the characters fully understand - is entertaining enough, and there's at least a meaningful conclusion to be had here - Archer gets a first hand lesson in how there are multiple ways to leave a mark on another culture. He really should have stuck with the alien story.

This episode then, is taking the conclusion from "Shockwave", about making mistakes as you go, and trying to explore it a bit - T'Pol points out that Archer did "contaminate" the natives even though he retrieved the technology, though she balances that observation with an acknowledgement that he was willing to die in an effort to protect them. In other words, he was trying. This wasn't the crew's finest hour by any means, but hopefully they'll learn from it.

It's a valid and worthwhile idea; I just find it a bit problematic in that I think the depth of the error was greater than the conclusion seemed to suggest. I don't blame Archer given the situation he was in, but I really, really think that they should have stuck to "aliens" even if the natives didn't believe them, rather than confirming all of the general's fears. The ending points out the likely consequences of the episode's events, but I think it's underplayed.

On a somewhat related point, the episode doesn't really judge the natives, not really. I appreciate that. Yes, they're paranoid and quite brutal, but they're definitely "humanized" (for want of a better word). The final shots of the general's reaction to seeing (or not seeing) the cloaked ship leave are memorable and quite effective.

I felt sorry for Malcolm - that sort of mistake would really prey on your conscience.

I like the recurring character joke with Trip wanting to come along only for there to be no reason for his presence, so he doesn't get to come down.

The Suliban cell ship is back! It was there all along but no-one mentioned it until now; a shame given how good the show has generally been about continuity references. I'd have thought Silik and company would have recovered it during the time they controlled the ship and had it docked at their helix, though.

Next Time: Surak's Soul

 

[Christopher]

This is one of the more interesting ones, in the way it shows the crew making a big mistake -- but it disappoints me that they screw up while trying to honor the principle of non-interference. I always hoped that a Trek series set before the Prime Directive would show the characters interfering openly and finding it had harmful consequences, to help explain why the Directive was created.

Still, I like it that the episode shows the downside of the Prime Directive. Ultimately Archer and Reed did much more harm by trying to hide the truth than they would've done by revealing it. The point of such a directive isn't just to keep people in the dark about aliens -- it's to minimize the disruption you cause to their society. The former is just a means toward the latter. This is a case where denying their alien identity -- and creating the fiction that the enemy had bred supersoldiers -- created far more disruption than the truth would have. I mean, the natives (and it's inconvenient that they were never given a name -- I had to dance around it when I mentioned this episode in A Choice of Futures) arrived at the conclusion they were aliens on their own. So it wasn't an external idea being imposed on them, it was something they figured out fair and square and were able and ready to accept (well, at least the military was). Archer should've recognized that and fessed up. I commend the episode for having the courage to show its characters fumbling and making mistakes with major consequences, but it's still frustrating to watch Archer missing the point so badly.

The slapstick of Trip's disappearing hand was kind of problematical for me. That's not really how cloaking is supposed to work. But I suppose I could buy it if it's some sort of holographic camouflage, maybe a cloud of nanites projecting a view of what's on the other side. Yeah, that could work.

 

[Deranged Nasat]

Surak's Soul

Of course, this novel covers similar thematic ground to "The Seventh". Luckily, J. M. Dillard was able to incorporate mention of the episode and the death of Jossen into the book. With that safely accounted for, it makes more sense that T'Pol is moved to the decision she makes upon shooting the Oani. Having recently confronted those demons in "The Seventh", it makes it easier for me to swallow her vow here of commitment to total non-violence.

The thing I appreciate most about this one is its exploration of how and why a being defines another creature as sapient, where that person draws the line. The idea of a being that adheres to a pacifistic philosophy but doesn't consider Humans or most other species people is a good one. I'm no expert on zoology or cross-species psychology, but I work on the assumption that great apes, elephants and some cetaceans are sapient, and should be held apart from the majority of animals (that is, to kill them is to murder). But what then of corvids or octopus? European magpie are known to pass the mirror test, or so I've read. What about pigs, which are said to be reasonably intelligent, but whose deaths I encourage by regularly eating pork. Where do you draw the line, particularly when you have to base your decisions on assumption? I would never support the killing of an elephant in anything other than self defence (though good luck with that, I guess) but I condone the mass slaughter of pigs so that I may feast upon their succulent flesh, just as Wanderer kills Oani and Humans for food while holding Vulcans to a separate standard. Vulcans just qualify as sapient, while Humans (and Denobulans, and Oani) are beneath the threshold. Humans are pigs where Vulcans are more like elephants - granted the status of self-awareness but not considered anything worth talking with.

There's also the communication angle, in that the major criterion for sapience Wanderer uses is "a creature with which I can communicate". That too is interesting, and it probes at the self-centred nature of many forms of empathy. They (whomever "they" are) must justify themselves to you, at least implicitly.

The book overall is nothing special, average at best, but I do applaud it for choosing an interesting topic to wrestle with. The small scenes of Vulcan home life and childhood are also welcome - I enjoyed the flashback to T'Pol as a small girl, and those brief insights into the Vulcan child mind. We'll later meet T'Pol's mother, but this is our only glimpse of her father.

Continuity

It's the anniversary of Henry Archer's death. Perhaps this is related to the request Archer's gotten by the time of the next episode, regarding his writing the preface to a new biography of the elder Archer?

We're told that Vulcan is the lingua franca of many of the spacefaring races in the region. It makes sense.

This is the first non-corporeal lifeform encountered. I'll have to pay close attention to "The Crossing" when I get to it, to see if anything there causes problems.

Next Time: "Singularity".

 

[Christopher]

This is the first non-corporeal lifeform encountered. I'll have to pay close attention to "The Crossing" when I get to it, to see if anything there causes problems.

There definitely is. At one point Archer says, "Non-corporeal beings. That's got to be a first for Starfleet."

Is there any way the book could take place after that episode?

 

[Deranged Nasat]

Is there any way the book could take place after that episode?

Possibly - I don't think there's anything that prevents us moving this one around a bit. I prefer having it here to keep it close to "The Seventh", so that T'Pol's somewhat rash and sudden decision to embrace total non-violence makes greater sense to me. Also, I think it should take place before T'Pol learns that she has Pa'nar, since the orderly nature of the Vulcan mind is so relevant to the plot. But I don't think there was anything that made a placement after "The Crossing" incompatible.