Sunday, February 20, 2011

3-3. Extinction.

THE PLOT

Following clues from the Xindi database, Enterprise comes to a planet where the crew discovers an abandoned Xindi shuttlecraft. Archer, T'Pol, Reed, and Hoshi go down to the planet to investigate. However, after only a short time on the surface, the three humans undergo a startling transformation - into an entirely different species!

With the three humans' memories and personalities overwritten, T'Pol finds herself having to deal with what are effectively members of an alien race, obsessed with finding their underground city. Meanwhile, Trip pushes Phlox to find a cure to the virus, the key to which may lie in T'Pol's DNA. But when military vessels arrive, their leader insists that those contaminated by the virus must be destroyed.  Now Trip must find a way to stall these new arrivals until Phlox can deliver a solution.


CHARACTERS

Capt. Archer: Even though it was Trip who lost a family member, Archer is the one who is so far unable to even begin to shake the impact of the attack. As he observed in The Expanse, he now literally has the weight of the world on his shoulders. It may well be that a day or so of being, essentially, unconscious might have done him some good, as he is in desperate need of a moment's relaxation.

T'Pol: As the only one on the planet's surface not affected by the virus, she gets to act as the voice of reason.  She is also effectively the audience stand-in, discovering what drives the aliens the humans are transformed into. She helps them to evade destruction at the hands of the alien "containment" team.

Trip: As time passes, the anger that's marked Trip since the Xindi assault has faded into the background. The Trip we know is once again recognizable in this episode, which is actually something of a relief. As the wound recedes, Trip's normal persona should re-emerge, and it's good to see him offering "fresh Georgia peaches" to T'Pol and falling back on his instinctive loyalty to Archer. Still, Trip isn't quite the laid-back Southern boy of the first two seasons, as we can see when he's forced to take command for the bulk of the episode. There is no uncertainty in him this time, either in deciding to cut short Phlox's advance study of the planet to lead a team in EVA suits directly after the captain, or in his dealings with the alien commander. If Archer were removed from command for a substantial term, at this point Trip seems like he would actually be very capable of taking over for him.


THOUGHTS

Well, it had to happen. Season Three had to have a crappy filler episode sooner or later. With a jungle set that looks like it was recycled wholesale from Rogue Planet and a fairly standard "virus" plotline, this is by far the weakest and most bog-standard episode the new season has seen yet.

On the plus side, it's still a fair bit better than many of the filler episodes in Season Two. The tone set by The Expanse has been maintained thus far, and is still evident even when running through a stock plot in fairly stock fashion. There is focus and energy to the performances, as well as a sense of the characters existing in a more dangerous universe. The episode gets an extra point or two for the ending, which implies that the virus may actually play in at some point in the future.

The transformed regulars have fun discarding their usual personas for very alien ones. Scott Bakula and Linda Park are particularly good at playing the aliens, altering the way they move as well as their tone of voice. Park is downright eerie in the way she speaks and moves, weaving and twitching and turning her head rapidly, almost bird-like, even when standing still. The performances sell the transformation, make us believe that these are completely different entities.  Together with a good make-up job, this boosts the episode considerably.

Unfortunately, this is a bog-standard filler episode. Running around the recycled jungle set and cave sets probably helped pinch a few budget pennies after the doubtless quite expensive previous two episodes. But for the first time since The Expanse, I was very aware that I was watching a Trek spinoff, and not in a good way.


Rating: 5/10.


Search Amazon.com for Star Trek: Enterprise




Review Index

No comments:

Post a Comment