THE PLOT
When the Earth freighter, the Fortunate, is attacked by Naussican space pirates, the Enterprise diverts to answer its distress call. When they arrive, they discover that the Fortunate was able to fight off the Naussicans alone. The ship's captain is injured, but will recover. Damage is minor and, with a bit of assistance from Trip, repairs proceed quickly.
But the crew of the Fortunate is hiding something. One Naussican was taken captive in the battle, and is being held in the ship's hold, tortured for information that Matthew Ryan (Lawrence Monoson) - the Fortunate's First Officer and acting commander - plans to use to get revenge against the raiders. When Archer discovers this, Ryan lures him into a trap, then leaves Archer and his landing party in a situation where the Enterprise must rescue them, and let Ryan's ship go. Now Archer must catch up to Ryan before Ryan catches up to the Naussicans - or else no particularly dire consequences will ensue!
CHARACTERS
Capt. Archer: His strict moral code will not allow him to stand by while the crew of the Fortunate tortures a prisoner. Confronted with a lack of authority over the space freighter, he shows cleverness by threatening the removal of all the repairs Enterprise completed - something well within his authority. Shows minor progress from earlier episodes in his willingness to negotiate with the Naussicans at the end to avoid a bloodbath.
Mayweather: The most underdeveloped character on the show finally gets an episode devoted to fleshing him out a bit. What do we learn? Well... We learn that Mayweather is a boomer. Which means he was born in space. Space boomer, geddit? Mayweather joined Starfleet for new opportunities, which may have put him at odds with his family. Because boomers need to stick together. Because they were born in space. Space boomers, geddit? Mayweather sympathizes with Ryan, because Ryan is also a boomer. Who was born in space. Space boomer, geddit? To cement their bond, Mayweather gives a tedious, horrible, godawful long speech. I think Ryan may have submitted just to shut Mayweather the heck up.
Anyway, just as Hoshi's character-building episode, Fight or Flight, just reaffirmed what we already knew about Hoshi (she's good at languages and a bit jumpy when it comes to space travel and unfamiliar situations), this episode basically just reaffirms the one thing we already knew about Mayweather (boomer... born in space... you know the rest). If this is Enterprise's notion of a character-building episode, then I'd honestly rather they just stick with the Big Three of Archer, T'Pol, and Trip. Didn't go so badly when TOS did it for Kirk, Spock, and McCoy, did it? And at least we didn't get stuck with "character-building" episodes telling us at length that Scotty is a Scottish engineer from Scotland.
Villain of the Week: Matthew Ryan is effectively the villain of the episode, and as such he manages the not inconsiderable feat of being the least formidable villain yet seen in any of the Trek series I'm reviewing. Ryan's principle character trait (other than being a boomer, like Mayweather) appears to be stupidity. Exhibit A: Even with the Naussican laughing at his torture methods, Ryan never considers for a fraction of an instant that the Naussican may have given him a false code.
Exhibit B: After Archer threatens to remove the repairs, Ryan ambushes Archer and then escapes. Why? The first time the two meet, Ryan tries to decline Archer's offers of assistance, repeatedly insisting that his crew can handle the repairs. Assuming this was true - and we are given no indications otherwise - then all Ryan needs to do to get Acher completely off his back is say, "Go ahead," and then wait for his crew to complete the reapirs that we've already been told they're perfectly capable of completing before going after the Naussicans. But Ryan has to ambush the captain and his crew members, fire at them, and leave them in a potentially fatal situation - all of which are, I strongly suspect, things Starfleet does have some jurisdiction over.
Ryan is a moron. Which is why I think he might be one of the co-writers of this episode.
THOUGHTS
You can probably tell that this was not my favorite Enterprise episode. In fact, I think it was worse than Terra Nova. Focus is given to the series' least-developed character, and yet he does not develop one iota by the end. The only thing different about Mayweather is that now I hope he remains wallpaper, because at least when he has nothing to do, he isn't actively annoying. My least favorite scene was, of course, the speech at the end (I started rooting for the Naussicans). But a close second was his "confrontation" with Archer.
"Those people who shot at you and left you to, potentially die? I think we should leave them to their own business. Boomers look out for their own." Except I don't think Mayweather managed to make his case even that well. Given that Mayweather has no valid point, Archer easily overcomes his arguments and makes a stirring, wave-the-flag type speech that leaves Mayweather worshipping his wise and benevolent captain.
*thunk*
Couldn't the writers at least try to give Mayweather a valid argument, and maybe give Ryan an I. Q. at the same time? Honestly, given that the sum total of negative consequences either way, without Archer's interference, would have been either (a) the deaths of some space pirates; or (b) the deaths of a terminally stupid freighter crew that just collectively committed what was surely a criminal offense against Archer, I'm not entirely sure why the captain didn't just leave them to blow each other up.
Bad and boring. I can honestly think of no redeeming features. We didn't even get a cute Porthos bit.
Rating: 1/10.
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