THE PLOT
Encountering a distorted area of space directly on their path to Azati Prime, the Enterprise crew have only one option. The crew is placed into a coma to avoid neurological damage. Dr. Phlox, whose Denobulan physiology makes him immune to the effects of this space, is left to run the ship alone during its 4-day journey through the affected area.
The first two days go by easily enough. Phlox is able to catch up on his correspondence. He checks on the crew and the engines regularly. Then he hears a strange sound. At first, he tries to dismiss it. But as the sound recurs, he begins to suspect that someone else is on the ship.
CHARACTERS
Capt. Archer: Well aware of the burdens of command by this point, Archer confesses to Phlox that there are very few people, even among his officers, with whom he would entrust the ship. He then goes on to say that Phlox is one of them. His confidence shows that he has come to recognize the sound judgment and strength of the ship's doctor.
T'Pol: Anything we learn about T'Pol in this episode is subject to a certain skepticism. Still, her claim at Vulcans' preference for solitude, and her statement that a couple of days without the crew around is "a welcome respite" for her, are both statements that ring true. Beyond that, Jolene Blalock does a good job of playing a T'Pol that is (at least initially) close enough to the real thing to make us briefly wonder if she is or isn't real, and then to play a T'Pol who is entertainingly different than the regular one.
Trip: As chief engineer of a ship that is a prototype, it should come as no surprise that Trip is extremely wary of leaving the care of the ship and specifically its warp core to someone with no engineering background. He flatly tells Phlox to wake him if something happens that Phlox can't handle, acknowledging that doing so might kill him, because "if it's a choice between saving (him) and saving the ship..."
Dr. Phlox: Does not react very well to solitude. When talking about his home world with T'Pol, he wistfully recalls what a crowded place it is, not by necessity but by choice. Denobulans are a very social race, and it doesn't take long being alone on the ship for that fact alone to start working on Phlox. John Billingsley is excellent, as usual - probably the only one of the series' regulars who really could carry an episode such as this.
THOUGHTS
I've long since come to look forward to the Phlox-centric episodes. As I've remarked many times, John Billingsley has been the cast standout from very early on and Phlox is a genuinely interesting character even on the page.
This episode is a good one, but it's not a great one. It's very difficult to pull off an episode that is all but a two-hander, and the pace does flag, particularly during the first half. Chris Black's script is well-constructed, though. When T'Pol appears, it's odd, because the first part of the episode seemed to hammer home that Phlox was alone on the ship. But T'Pol's not human, so it seems just barely possible that she would be awake as well and simply keeping to herself and her duties. Then the script has T'Pol feed Phlox (and us) information that directly conflicts with what we had already heard - namely, that T'Pol was meant to check the engines, when we clearly saw Trip showing him the engines and emphasizing how important it was that Phlox wake him if anything went wrong. That in itself forces us to reflect that, if T'Pol was going to remain awake, of course she would be the one monitoring the engines.
From that point on, I was left suspecting that "T'Pol" is some sort of changeling or projection created by invaders. As Phlox investigates the ship, becoming more increasingly certain that the ship has been invaded, his continued confiding in "T'Pol" raises tension even further. When they are investigating a storage area, and T'Pol steps out from behind a container Phlox is about to inspect shaking her head, I was certain that the invaders were hiding right there.
Though this really isn't an arc episode, its plot elements do fit very well with the previous episode. The spheres' makers are creating these distortions, and the distortion fields are growing even as Enterprise gets closer to its goal. At this point, the season is clearly building to a confrontation - but I'm starting to suspect that the major battle won't be against the Xindi.
Rating: 7/10.
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ReplyDeleteQuite liked this one. I _did_ remember Phlox mentioning his species tendency towards hallucinations during stressful situations - but I also remembered Phlox mentioning that he usually couldn't hallucinate. And you know what they say... "Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they aren't after you" - keeping that in mind I didn't dismiss the possibility of Xindi having boarded the ship until very late (the disfigured Hoshi pretty much hammered the point home).
ReplyDeleteI admit I didn't pick up on T'Pol being awake despite Phlox getting instructions to the engines - but looking back at episode 2-18. "The Crossing" both of the non-humans being able to move freely while the humans were incapacitated felt so natural to me that I didn't question it.
It also wouldn't have been the first time for T'pol to stubbornly keep her opinion despite it most likely being wrong ("nanana, the vulcan science council said time travel is impossible!"). I could have believed that the influence of the distorted space resulted in the sort of headless chicken behaviour she developed (and it was fun to see Blalock play a T'pol that is frozen with indecision) - but from the moment she was willing to awake and sacrifice Trip on her behaviour felt out-of character for her. Especially given the fact that she was having problems controlling her feelings - given the close ties between her and Trip I'd have thought he'd be the last one she'd be willing to sacrifice. So I'm glad that _this_ T'pol was just a result of the Doc's imagination.
Gives us a idea how Phlox views Vulcans (Or just T'Pol? No way to tell.) though: A species so fixated on acting logically that they would even sacrifice a partner if it'd seem like the logical thing to do. Not very charming, but to be fair T'Pol _was_ willing to sacrifice crew members before when it seemed like their best option.