But the best would be something like "Enterprise." No event or special name because this wasn't a very special episode.

Right off the bat they confuse the continuity of the Star Trek timeline, when the Denobulan doctor produces a Tribble, and explains their procreation habits. "The Trouble with Tribbles" is probably the most famous episode of Star Trek EVER. They spend the entire episode trying to figure out how these crazy furballs are reproducing. But if the doctor knew all about them a century earlier then apparently Bones didn't need to do any examinations; he just liked cutting into cute furry things.

Minor nitpicking. Let's talk about some of the bigger problems. Captain Archer for example. Dr. Phlox's patient, an Antaran, refuses treatment from the doctor, because their races have "serious bad blood." Some war between them three hundred years before still burns between their people. Dr. Phlox is an opened minded fellow, but his patient would rather die than have an evil Denobulan touch his body.

According to his medical ethics, Dr. Phlox won't treat any patient who doesn't want to be treated. But Captain Archer insists that if a patient can be helped, then he will be helped - or the doctor will be removed.

So the Captain forces his ethics onto an alien race. Yes, it's his doctor, and yes, in the end everything worked out for the best. But can a captain go around shoving his beliefs onto everyone? Apparently so, because when his crew on the surface receives some heat from a neighboring battle he informs the planet's governor that if they don't back down, he'll start a war.

Again, yes, the Captain should protect his crew. But an alien government has the right to fight its own wars. It's their planet.

OK, so maybe that's a 24th century rule, something Picard would consider. And Enterprise is a show about the pre-Federation days of mankind's fictional history.

But there are some ethical questions that should come to the same conclusion regardless of what century.

Deep inside the planet's crust Trip, Mayweather and Reed spelunk to find three Denobulan scientists. Risking their lives, and a political catastrophe, Trip and crew reach the scientists, only to find they don't want to leave. Their research is more important to them. Yes, it was Trip's orders to crawl through the alien caves, but he does not have the right to bully these scientists into leaving their life's work.

What's the message here? That his three day mission is more important than their six week's research? And just like Archer, Trip threatens to use violence to solve the situation. He would rather hog-tie the Denobulans and drag them to the surface than leave them to their work. Just how moral is that?

Maybe this week's "event" was a display of how humanity must assert itself into the galactic community in order to be heard. After all, in just a hundred years, all the neighboring worlds will pledge alliance to a government founded on Earth by Earthlings. They've got some work to do.

Next week's event takes us to the bizarre world of gender. On The Next Generation we met a race of unisex people. Next week we'll meet a trisexual people. And of course Trip will get involved. He's already been pregnant, why not put him in an out of this world menage a trois?

It should be quite an event.

Kevin Miller