Don't
look now - here's a pretty good episode of Enterprise.
It's not all that surprising. Things have really picked up
for the prequel Trek in the past month.
But most
of the episodes have had some weird structural flaw or continuity
problem. This week had its fair share, but still ended up
being a pretty good episode.
Or maybe
the right word is different.
Usually
on Enterprise we have a short teaser, the title credits,
a commercial break, and then the first act where the whole
episode is laid out. That's a normal story telling structure.
However, this week we had a rather long teaser and an entire
first act fly by. By the second commercial break the audience
was still wondering, "What is this episode about?"
The previews
made us believe it was another wacky sex story in space. The
Enterprise discovers a race of people with three genders,
and Tripp will somehow get caught in the middle - so to speak.
But instead,
we don't see Tripp interacting with the hot trisexual E.T.s.
Even better, there are a couple of curve balls the writers
throw, almost teasing the audience.
Tripp
needs an inoculation to visit the alien's ship. He asks the
Doctor, "How long will the treatment last?"
There's
a slight pause, baiting the audience to expect the usual answer.
Something like, "Four hours," or "two days
- unless you come in contact with some other material."
Instead the doctor responds, "twelve years." Well,
we can assume this episode isn't going to last twelve years,
unless we've suddenly been watching Voyager.
"Do
you like gladiator movies?"
And the
Captain agrees to go on a two man mission with the alien's
Captain. Deep into a hyper-star's wake they go. And at the
first sign of trouble… nothing happens. At the second
sign… nothing happens. The ship is fine, and the Captains
get along GREAT!
So what
the hell is this episode about?
The happiest
nicest aliens in the galaxy meet the humans, and everything
is just fine…
Until...
(You knew there would be an until.)
Tripp's
curiosity brings him to learn the third member of the alien's
tri-gender species is neglected. They don't have names and
can't read. They're swapped between couples like a sex appliance.
Their only reason to live is to procreate.
According
to Tripp, "that's not right." Or maybe he's wondering
where he can sign up.
Now just
last week we discussed how humans are thrusting their views
onto neighboring species. And here we see Tripp teach an it-gender-thing
to read and think for itself. He encourages it to defy its
entire culture, because he thinks it's right.
Well,
maybe Archer read last week's review, because when he comes
back from his little two day with the alien captain, he's
pissed. And in the most realistic scene Enterprise
has had to date, Archer reprimands Tripp for making such a
foolishly stupidly moronic dumb rash decision.
This is
unlike anything I've seen on Trek. Archer's relationship
with Tripp is really damaged. To make matters worse, the alien-it-sex-appliance-thing
commits suicide. Now relations with the happiest nicest aliens
in the galaxy are not so happy, and Tripp is solely responsible
for messing things up. At any moment Archer could've said,
"You're off my ship," and it would've been completely
believable.
Actually,
it's tough to imagine how things are supposed to be next week.
Knowing this show's love for continuity, we can be sure we
haven't seen the last of this.
Haven't
seen the last of this? Those are famous last words. Something
the Borg would say - oh and hey look at that, next week's
episode of Enterprise will feature the Borg.
There
are about a thousand things wrong with that, but instead of
diving into that now, we'll bask in the success and originality
of this week's episode.
