Just last week we discussed how he keeps getting
himself into dangerous situations, and then this week he goes
ahead and gets falsely arrested. What were you and Trip doing
alone on a shuttle pod, light years away from the Enterprise!?
Oh, Captain Archer - will you ever learn?
So Archer
and Trip are tossed onto a prison transport vessel, en route
to Canamar, the reportedly worst penal colony in the quadrant.
Despite the enormous build up it received in the commercials,
and the fact that every character practically shivered at
its name, we never actually got to Canamar.
On their
way there Kuroda (Mark Rolston) stages a prison break and
takes control of the ship. He and his Nausican buddy, played
by Michael McGrady, force Archer to pilot the ship away from
the space police. This is quite a feat for Archer, because
in a matter of seconds he is able to learn an alien language
and decipher the computer's interface. This amazing skill
takes away any uniqueness Ensign Hoshi was holding as the
uncanny linguist.
But who
cares - the show is really only about Archer, Trip and T'Pol.
Right?
This episode
is a great example of the star-trio formula. While Archer
and Trip try to escape, T'Pol commands the Enterprise and
plays diplomat to the Enolians who are responsible for mistakenly
arresting the captain. We've seen her sit in the Captain's
chair so much in the past two years we've forgotten that she
wasn't supposed to be there.
Wait.
Just who was going to be Archer's "Number One?"
Whoever it is must be pissed. Replaced by a non-Star Fleet
officer, in the SECOND HIGHEST position in the fleet. Ouch.
And T'Pol's
odd mannerisms are becoming more and more noticeable. There
are scenes where she stands perfectly still, and stares down
another character. Then there are scenes where she slightly
rocks back and forth, as if her shoes don't fit right. Occasionally
she seems to flutter her eyes uncontrollably when she talks.
Must be her constant inner battle to keep her emotions repressed.
Either that or she's been hitting the bio-resequencers a little
too hard. . .
Canamar
builds to a very suspenseful conclusion with the crew of the
Enterprise evacuating the prison ship, while Kuroda boxes
with Archer. But the episode's last scene leaves us thinking,
"Well, that was odd," when Archer yells at the Enolian
diplomat. He accuses his people of making hasty judgments
and pretty much tells him to take a long walk off a short
plasma manifold.
Yes, the
Enolians where responsible for taking him under custody, but
is it such a good idea to blow up at an alien sheriff? This
is one of those things that will definitely come back to haunt
Enterprise.
But we
won't know for a few more weeks, since the series won't run
a new episode until the 19th of March. Until then let's all
pull out our Star Trek diaries and fill in the new
information we've learned from this week's episode.
Archer:
Great at piloting alien vessels. Hoshi: Less important than ever. Nausicans: The fat ones are green. Enolians: A civilization wound with red tape, and fueled
by passing the blame onto someone else. Canamar: A really scary prison. Someday we may actually
see it. T'Pol: Drinks too many Romulan Espressos. But still
hot.
