The Enterprise has been voyaging for long enough that the crew has started to become ever-so-slightly bored and stir crazy. The only new life they have discovered since the Klingon mission is a single slug, whose deteriorating health has Hoshi worried. Reed (previously referred to as British guy) is continuing to try to get the ship's weapons systems properly operational, which results in a moment of excitement when a weapons test nearly results in the Enterprise being hit by its own torpedo. As for the captain? Well, Archer is putting most of his mental energies into trying to track down a squeak in his cabin.
So it is welcome news when they detect an alien vessel, apparently damaged but with vague life signs aboard. When no response is made to their hails, Archer decides to lead a party onto the ship. What they discover is a ghastly sight: the ship's crew have been murdered, the bodies hanging upside-down from the ceiling as fluid is drained from the corpses. When it is pointed out that the attackers will doubtless return, Archer is sufficiently shaken to take T'Pol's advice for once and flee.
It is a decision he regrets almost immediately. When a dinner conversation reminds him that he has "a code of conduct," he insists on turning the ship around and going back, in order to put the dead to rest and send some sort of message to the aliens' homeworld to let them know what happened. Unfortunately for Enterprise, they arrive just in time to be there when the attackers return. Attackers clearly far more technologically advanced than they are...
CHARACTERS
Captain Archer: Continues to be headstrong in resisting sound advice in favor of his own morals. This time, it nearly gets the Enterprise destroyed and his crew turned into meat "in the larder." Only luck saves the ship from utter disaster. Hate to say it, but T'Pol's advice is sound; with a weapons system that isn't quite working, faced with a clearly technologically superior foe, they truly should flee. I continue to want to see an episode where Archer's stubbornness gets him into trouble that he actually has to get himself out of. Even two episodes in, the characterization thus far established seems to beg for such a situation.
T'Pol: Neither better nor worse than in the pilot. The actress is overly arch in her interactions with Archer and Trip and has, thus far, virtually no interaction with anyone else. At least she provides advice that actually seems reasonable this time... which of course means that Archer ignores her.
Hoshi: This is her character-development episode. Unfortunately, her character development continues to be "whiny." To the episode's credit, not everyone is a sympathetic shoulder for Hoshi in her dilemma. Dr. Phlox is outright cold, all but saying that he doesn't think she's suited to space travel and should return to teaching on Earth. Naturally, her ear for languages saves the day at the end. After all, it's her character-development episode. I'd like to see something more to this character, a note other than "whiny" or "unrealistically good at absorbing new languages." Given that she's at the center of this episode, it is unfortunate that she continues to be the second-weakest character.
The Enterprise Crew: Token Black Guy, whose character name I still haven't absorbed, continues to be the weakest character, through no fault of the actor's. The writers just haven't given him any character beats beyond "born in space." Two episodes in, that's still forgiveable in a show with a large cast. Reed, at least, begins to show promise. I enjoyed his disappointment at not getting to use explosives to blow open the airlock. Trip recedes into the background, though his interplay with Archer remains enjoyable. I also appreciated his frustration at not being allowed to go on the initial away mission. The cast is (mostly) starting to gel, which is promising.
THOUGHTS
A reasonably strong second episode. I like that the vastness of space is actually something of an issue. It may not have pleased casual viewers to spend the first act of the show watching characters frustrated at being stuck in a tin can. But it conveyed what was absent in the pilot: that it should take a long time to get anywhere, time the crew will desperately need to fill. Obviously, later episodes won't be able to get away with lingering on such issues - but I hope this sort of thing gets a nod for a while, at least. These people are taking baby-steps into a larger universe. They shouldn't be encountering a new crisis every 10 minutes.
I also like how comparatively weak Enterprise is when the three different races converge at the climax. The ship's weapons systems are obviously far more primitive than either of the other races', making them effectively the weakling caught between two giants. This is also as it should be. I hope it takes a while for them to advance their weaponry too far, simply because being unable to just "fire phasers" to sort out the enemy forces both characters and writers to find other solutions. In this case, communication becomes a priority - even if the short running time forces an unrealistically quick translation to save the day.
Overall, while not perfect (for a character-spotlight episode, it does virtually nothing to advance the character being spotlighted), this is a fairly good episode. I'm starting to feel some hope that Enterprise may defy expectations and turn out to be a decent series after all.
Rating: 7/10.
Previous Episode: Broken Bow
Next Episode: Strange New World
Search Amazon.com for Star Trek: Enterprise
Review Index
No comments:
Post a Comment