A Night in Sickbay

[pookha]

Here's the problem with your argument. Archer's conduct in this episode has NOTHING to do with experience or training or having thousands of first contacts under humanity's collective belt.

Forget the Kretassans' sensitivity to "rudeness" and "vulgarity." Nevermind their reaction to seeing humans eat together. Skip right over the whole cultural/social divide.

Even on Earth, you are expected to be a responsible pet owner. You don't bring your dog to visit even close relatives without their consent. There can be allergy issues, sanitation issues, they might simply not like animals.

Anyone with half a brain cell would realize that the genome of a dog doesn't tell the Kretassans WHAT A DOG IS, much less that it's inclined to pee on trees.

I agree completely. He doesn't come across as inexperienced in this episode, he's downright stupid, and when confronted with that stupidity, his response is immature. We get that he loves his dog. That much is obvious. But his behavior in this episode is just terrible.

I would love it if Archer had simply been inexperienced, a bit flawed. But he rarely comes across naturally on the show, partly because the writers had no concept of how to do that with him, and partly because, and this pains me, Scott Bakula's performance failed 95% of the time with this character.

I like Bakula. A lot. He's got a good presence, and charisma... but not when he was on 'Star Trek'.

i agree with the above..
the whole set up with porthos made archer look like an idiot just from the stand point of being a pet owner.
you dont take your dog to a strange place and just let it roam free .
you would think he might be a little more cautious about that after strange new world.

bring the dog down and maybe let him run in special enclosed area but strange planets can be dangerous.
but especially within most cities you dont let a dog just run around unless it is in a special area.


i understand wanting to travel with a pet and i dont see as much a issue with the being in space thing.
hr mentioned sub skippers and earlier then that there has been a tradition in the us navy of ship skippers having dogs.

but..

add in this was a second contact situation when he already knew this was a culture of people easily heavily offended.

i still say it would have been a far better episode done in two parts.
with a far better explanation why porthos was on the planet and why he got lose to do what he did.

they could have even done a comedic rashomon as the story plays out with the serious undercurrent of knowing part of what is playing out is due to archer dealing with all that he has been through.

i had friends who had just started to like archer especially since the second part of shockwave and it took till catwalk to even get them to consider liking him again.

i like archer 90 percent of the time,;certainly spent enough time defending him here and elsewhere.


so this thing if you dont like this episode because you dont like archer is hooey..

 

[pookha]

Um.. yeah. That was the point of the whole episode.

Acher learns a serious lesson in diplomacy in an otherwise light hearted episode.

Which could easily have been done in a different manner that didn't further harm his already strained credibility as Captain.

There was nothing strained about it. He was the first Captain, the prototype. That was the point. This was a big stumble for him and he had to learn from it.

he wasnt the first captain.
for that matter he wasnt even the first captain t have experience with other species.

during this period of time we know earth already has made contact with at least four other alien races if not more.

he was the first to be this far out but i just have issues because he seemed to have learned very little from the earlier encounter.

 

[commodore64]

he wasnt the first captain.

He was the first deep space captain for a species (human) that they showed clearly was inexperienced with dealing with other species (including the Vulcans, which had been on Earth for 100 years).

Number 6 is right. The Star Trek writers made some errors in some of the things they wrote, but what was clear from day one is how inexperienced our Enterprise friends were from the captain on down. For example, T'Pol tells Trip humans need to drop their "provincial attitudes" in order to get along in space. It's why Hoshi cursed out T'Pol on their maiden voyage. It's why Travis, a boomer, was such a novelty.

Over the course of the 4-year program, they showed almost everyone gain experience in other species and learn to be more open minded. It's development.

 

[Anna Yolei]

i like archer 90 percent of the time,;certainly spent enough time defending him here and elsewhere.


so this thing if you dont like this episode because you dont like archer is hooey..

I certainly don't hate Archer with the fury that many in fandom do, but...seriously?I've been here a long time, and I've yet to run across a fan that despises Archer and tolerates this episode as an exploration of human emotions under stress. Were not for TATV, this would have been ENT lowest point for most on this board, hands down.

But, that's veering into warning territory, so I'll leave it at that.

 

[number6]

No. Precious Cargo takes that honor.

 

[commodore64]

^ I don't know. Precious Cargo has stiff competition: Marauders, Fortunate Son ....

 

[Anna Yolei]

No. Precious Cargo takes that honor.

...Oh, GOD, Why'd you have to remind me of that?!

That may be the one Star Trek episode with zero redeeming qualities going for it, and with such universal stinkers like "Profit and Lace" and "Threshold" in the franchise, that's saying a lot.

 

[Admiral Shran]

I don't know what you all are talking about. I liked Precious Cargo.

The only Trek episodes I ever found to have absolutely no redeeming qualities are TATV and Voyager's "The Fight."

 

[commodore64]

TATV

Well, there ya go. I don't hate TATV. It has some redeeming qualities. My biggest nitpick is that T'Pol ends Enterprise totally lost (confused, unsure where to turn and what to do. adrift). T'Pol deserved better. For example, I would've liked to hear she was going to be the new ambassador.

 

[MichaelDornFan]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Star_Trek:_Enterprise_episodes#Season_2_.282002.E2.80.932003.29

Doesn't look like Enterprise ever recovered from this disaster ratings-wise.

 

[commodore64]

By that same logic, Similitude must've been a piece of shit: 4.6 down to 3.7 and waning?

I think what happened to A Night in Sickbay is that the silly advertising for the show promised something that 1) Bakula fans panted to see 2) people who'd watched TOS and were intrigued by the notion of a captain and first officer panted to see or 3) liked Archer/T'Pol panted to see, driving up the numbers.

One more thing -- A Night in Sickbay was nominated for a Hugo. I don't recall Similitude or really many other episodes being nominated.

 

[Hopeful Romantic]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Star_Trek:_Enterprise_episodes#Season_2_.282002.E2.80.932003.29

Doesn't look like Enterprise ever recovered from this disaster ratings-wise.

There was a spirited discussion [thread=110816]not too long ago[/thread] about whether or not there was a direct cause-and-effect between this single episode and the show's overall ratings trouble.