If you're
the kind of Fanboy who enjoys a good Star Trek rerun
then you've been entertained by your share of marathons. And
if that's the case then you know that if a network airs a
two-part episode they always play both halves, back to back,
rather than the random order they might do for unrelated episodes.
When it
comes time to play the Star Trek: Enterprise marathon
the entire third season will have to be played back to back,
to back to back, to back to back, to back to back...
This whole
season has just been one extremely long two part episode.
Hard to imagine, but this time last year the Xindi hadn't
even been introduced to the mythos. And now we're lucky to
make it through one episode without discussing their super
weapon or five racial sects.
Deep
Space Nine was episodic, but at least it dealt with different
issues. The characters cycled through, each fighting their
own personal wars and engaging in their own adventures. This
season has been one plot. Archer bent on saving Earth at the
possible expense of his own humanity, while Trip and T'Pol
get it on.
It's not
like this show is only capable of a two-dimensional plot.
Season Two was laced with Andorians, Denobulans and even Borg.
Some might call them interesting adventures in the prequel
Star Trek Continuum.
It's a
good thing Zero Hour is only six episodes away. "She
can't handle much more of this, Captain."
Every
episode is a BABY step toward saving Earth. This week Enterprise
steals a warp coil from an innocent alien ship. A difficult
choice to make, and very un-24th Century Star Fleet. But 100
years before Kirk and Spock steal a cloaking device it's totally
feasible the first Captain in space would stoop to piracy
in the name of humanity.
The problem
is it took half the episode just to gear up to Archer making
the terrible decision. Meanwhile T'Pol suffers from the effects
of the Expanse. And for an unexplained reason she sneaks into
the cargo hold, liquefies a dangerous element, and injects
it into her blood stream. All VERY confusing. Maybe if you
haven't been watching the show you'd pick up on the fact that
she's suffering from withdrawal, but anyone who knows what
Trillium D is, knows it makes Vulcans crazy.
Backward
story telling it is.
Despite
the Pulp Fiction
structure, there still is the disturbing question, why is
T'Pol addicted to Trillium D? She says she's jazzed on the
emotions. We can only assume this is the Vulcan equivalent
to E(cstasy). First of all, Vulcans deny their emotions. Sure,
they feel things just like everyone else in the galaxy, they
just repress the feelings. Secondly, and more importantly,
a drug episode seems to come out of the blue.
The message
is very heavy handed. It's one step away from Dr. Phlox singing,
"D.A.R.E. - to keep kids off drugs," while a ticker
rolls at the bottom of the screen reading, "T'Pol got
hopped up on Trillium to make fooling around with her boyfriend
more exciting. The only exciting thing that can happen to
her now is withdrawal or death. The choice is YOURS."
So our
heroes aren't perfect. They do drugs and steal warp coils.
And next week we'll see how much lower they can stoop as the
drama continues when Archer and crew attempt to convince top
Xindi officials that the super weapon isn't necessary.
In the
meantime, this week's episode, on the alien rating scale,
scores a…
J'naii The Next Generation had its share of heavy handed episodes.
Riker dealt with space homosexuality. This was right up there
with when the quadrant was up against galactic warming. But
at least no one was on drugs!
