Dear Doctor:
I thought using Phlox’s letter to Doctor Lucas as a framing device for the episode was very clever. The movie scene could have been cut by a few seconds, as it didn’t offer anything new except to say the crew’s extremely sentimental, a message that was conveyed several times over. I thought Phlox’s interaction with Elizabeth did a good job at highlighting how adjusting to a human crew is fraught with miscommunication. I’m not sure if it was necessary considering the overall message of the episode was about sentimentality vs. non-interference—not the perils of understanding your human co-workers. I liked Phlox’s interactions with T’Pol. Rarely do we see the two aliens interact with one another in season 1. That said, I thought those scenes, like Phlox and Elizabeth, belonged in a different episode (Phlox’s version of Breaking the Ice in terms of communicating with the crew). It doesn’t match the theme of Dear Doctor at all.
I thought the show could have done a better job at highlighting Archer’s moral dilemma. T’Pol mentions how she was inundated with hails and how the locals thought Enterprise had already come up with a cure. I thought it would have been more effective had the show shown Archer having to deal with all the hails coming in, as it plays upon his innate empathy and makes his position more understandable than—evolution, what evolution. Likewise, I thought the clinic scene could have been more poignant. We see swarms of bandaged patients on hospital beds. However, they’re blurry in the background. They feel abstract. It doesn’t tug at your heartstring. I thought it could have been more effective had we seen the clinic slowly from Archer’s perspective—the horror of so many people ill. Maybe, have a child interact with the party.
I thought the initial bad news scene between Archer and Phlox was well done. Phlox has an extremely expressive face, and the actor effectively uses it to convey his sorrow at his inability to help the local population. Archer’s reaction was under-stated, but you could see the news tearing him up inside. However, the later scenes are disappointing. First, Archer comes off as being willfully blind when he disregards Phlox’s arguments regarding evolution. Second, Archer consistently states how non-interference goes against his personal beliefs, but he doesn’t articulate what exactly his personal beliefs are beyond ‘we don’t let people die.’ Third, the pacing with the arguments were really, really off. I thought Archer’s conversations with Phlox were too late in the episode. They didn’t leave enough room for the last minute change of thinking.
That ending was awful. The fact that Archer used “directive” and “doctrine” in his speech was analogous to being repeatedly hammered with a blunt club. That speech was worded so clunky. We didn’t even see Archer wrestling over Phlox’s argument throughout the night. Archer mentions playing god in his speech. I thought that was a metaphor the show could really play more with / execute better with. On a similar note, Archer’s justification for not giving the locals wrap technology was awful. Saying the locals have no technical expertise should not be your prime reason for not giving away your wrap technology.
Shuttlepod One:
I thought this did a good job at fleshing out Malcolm. The discussion regarding Enterprise being Malcolm’s family after the ‘grim reaper’ comment makes Malcolm seem less emotionally distant. Here is someone who is very British, but he’s willing to step outside of his comfort zone because Enterprise is his safe space. This is where he belongs. I thought the commitment issues (the form letters to ex-girlfriends) re-iterated Malcolm’s desire to belong and fit. No one knows who Malcolm is (see pineapple episode), but his bonding moment with Trip suggests that Enterprise is the place where people might actually find out. I thought Malcolm’s gossiping and dream sequence regarding T’Pol made him sound as if he was actually in his early 30s. It was kind of funny how horrified Trip sounded when Malcolm started talking about T’Pol on the shuttlecraft.
Fusion:
Despite T’Pol’s assault, there were many funny moments in Fusion. During the dinner party, T’Pol was appalled when the Vulcan captain, Tavin, desired chicken. Archer paused dramatically in the midst of passing the chicken upon hearing Tavin calling it, “delicious.” In addition to the dinner party, there were the interactions between Trip and Kov. Kov's litany of Vulcan gossip regarding human behavior was very funny. Kov made sleeping sound salacious. I liked how Trip barely could keep himself from bursting out in laughter. I thought Kov was very earnest, though socially tone deaf. Malcolm walking into the middle of the sex discussion after the cafeteria went dead silent was nice timing.
I don’t know what to think of Archer’s insistence that T’Pol interact with the Vulcans without logic. On one hand, it reflects a genuine desire for T’Pol to remain open-ended. On the other hand, his position seems rash considering he knows nothing about Vulcan culture. Archer sees Vulcans without logic as the first Vulcans he’s encountered who aren’t dismissive to humans. He seems to be enamored with them. Consequently, his interaction with T’Pol seems to reflect a degree of glee—almost as if he’s chiding T’Pol for not losing some of her inhibitions.
I thought Tolaris behaved like a classic predator. Like Archer said, Tolaris prepped T’Pol for the mind meld by playing on her curiosity. I liked Tolaris and T’Pol’s initial scene in the cafeteria. It displayed T’Pol’s wit and emotion without being blatant. Tolaris came off as slightly off. I felt as if I was seeing someone who was very passionate about his position but who also had no conception about boundaries; he consistently invaded T’Pol’s personal space. The dream T’Pol had of the jazz scene was supposed to be surreal, but it came off as super, super bizarre. I’m left confused instead of feeling apprehensive.
The aftermath of the aborted mind meld was well done. I thought the actor who played Tolaris was effective at communicating how Tolaris doesn’t understand what he is doing is wrong. I thought the meeting between Archer and Tolaris was very clever (especially the double meaning behind the comment about tossing and turning last night). Initially, I was somewhat dismayed that Archer’s very cheerful in his interactions with Tolaris. However, the reveal with the stun gun was nicely done. I also thought the ending conversation with Trip and Kov was well done, especially “I already did” in reference to talking with the minister.
I thought the show did a good job contrasting Kov and Tolaris. Here we have someone who is easy going and gets along famously with the human equivalent of himself. I thought that having Kov get rid of his resentment regarding his father was on par with his characterization. Even though it was understandable that Kov was bitter about his last conversation with his father, he overcomes it. By having Kov be someone who is good-natured and kind to the very end, the show does not paint Vulcans without logic with a broad stroke—suggesting that it’s worthwhile trying emotion even though T’Pol suffers greatly for it. Not everyone is crazy Tolaris, after all.
I thought it was interesting the show dedicated significant time to the father-son estrangement. First, it touches upon the explorer theme (following your own path versus staying with the same old) in Enterprise. Second, it bridges the Vulcan-human gap by showing that Vulcans are really not that different. I mean, the concept of Vulcans without logic emphasizes Vulcans’ similarity with humans. But the generational problems Vulcans face shows that some issues are universal.
