We’ve
seen the reruns, and watched backlogged episodes of Stargate
and Farscape. Let’s get into some new stuff.
It’s time to get back on board with the first deep space
crew of Star Fleet. It’s Enterprise time!
Enterprise
kicked off 2005 with “Daedalus,” which was originally
scheduled for late 2004. It’s the first episode of
the season, and really since the second season, that isn’t
connected to multi-episode series. And by the looks of things,
there will only be one more of these before we return to
the three part stories. But for right now, it’s just
a good old fashioned 60 minute space adventure!
“Daedalus”
puts a face on the inventor of the transporter. That face
is Bill Cobb’s (as Emory Erickson). First of all it’s
nice to see that not all of the major contributions to the
future of technology are developed by white men. Star Trek
boasts a multi-racial Earth, where every nation has come
together, and yet we still see the white men getting all
the press. And really, isn’t it interesting that the
inventor of the transporter is a black man and his NAME
has never even been mentioned before this episode?
Setting
down the sociological debate one could also wonder why the
two biggest inventions in the Star Trek universe were each
invented by one person. Zefram Cochrane is solely recognized
as the first human to develop the warp drive. And now Emory
Erickson is the transporter man. Aren’t there any
teams of scientists working in the future?
But meeting the
inventor of the transporter is more dramatic then meeting
a team of inventors. Erickson, and his daughter, convenience
Star Fleet to let them use Enterprise as a testing station
for his new technology; sub-quantum teleportation. Supposedly
it would allow people to beam from planet to planet, ridding
Star Fleet of those pesky star ships.
When
Gene Roddenberry was first developing Star Trek: The
Next Generation, he briefly entertained the idea that
in the next generation they would be beyond star ships and
transporters would allow them to bounce all over the galaxy.
Of course he came to realize that Star Trek without a star
ship would be like Peter Pan without Wendy. You need your
leading lady.
And just as brief
as Roddenberry’s idea of galactic transports lived
in his head, they are quickly dismissed here, too. Which
is a good thing, since Captain Kirk needs to fly in a star
ship and not a transporter.
The
crew learns Erickson’s visit to the test site is to
gather his son, who has been lost for the past 15 years
after a transporter accident. And if you didn’t see
that one coming you weren’t watching the TV. Occasionally,
Enterprise marches so strongly down the general
lines that it stomps through the path cut so deeply by science
fiction writers that viewers can practically write the episode
in their head before the second commercial break (IE “The
Hatchery”).
It’s rather
disappointing to invest your time into an entire episode
when there is no mystery. No surprise. So much for a 60
minute space adventure. Now it’s 60 minutes of I wonder
“What is on next?”
A more
troubling question is, “What is wrong with Archer?”
The captain gets into a shouting match with Trip, his engineer
and best friend. He views Erickson as a second father and
Quinn as sort of a brother (a fact that was never mentioned
before). Naturally Archer would like to see Quinn released
from his transporter purgatory. However, his motives are
never explained. He threatens Trip with an insubordination
charge and then orders him to further put the ship at risk
of blowing up. Maybe Archer is sick of watching people he’s
close to die. Maybe Archer sees a piece of his father in
Quinn. Maybe he’s pissed at Trip. Maybe anything,
but Archer’s behavior is never explained.
Enterprise
sure does love continuity. MAYBE his emotional outbursts
are the seeds of a deeper problem to grow in the months
ahead. Maybe.
Whatever
his motivation, the Enterprise is in serious danger. Quinn’s
ghostly form kills a crew member early in the episode. This
is something of an anomaly for Enterprise. Star
Trek is infamous for sending Kirk, Spock and Ensign
Red Shirt down to some planet, where Red Shirt is killed
in a matter of minutes. The subsequent spin offs also used
this convention to heighten the danger of the staring characters.
However, on Enterprise, usually Red Shirt crewmen
are sent to sickbay and not the morgue. Naturally, during
the end of the third season, when a third of the crew had
been killed in the Xindi strike there were lots of deaths,
but that grew into a nice plot thread (dealing with great
loss).
So “Daedalus”
turned out to be unique on many levels. It’s episode
in a mini-series and it’s not very Enterprise.
Like
the original Daedalus, who flew from danger with his son
Icarus, let us fly away from this unusual episode and into
the safety of next week… when a silicon virus attacks
the crew…
