T'Pol's
gone mad. Her face is bubbling green. Archer, who has a very
deep scratch on his face, wrestles her to the medical bed
with the help of Dr. Phlox. They fight to strap her down as
she screams, "You're trying to kill me!"
And then
the happy theme song.
This week's
episode of Enterprise ranks higher on the action scale
than anything this season. It's also the first to fall under
the ghost story genre. After the commercials Phlox and Archer
knock the crazy Vulcan chick out, and roll her into the cat-scan
of the future. Then with the magic of titles we go "One
Day Earlier."
So we
watch the end of the episode first, and then spend the next
50 minutes wondering how they get there. It's kind of dramatic,
but since that opening clip was used as the commercial for
this episode the sort of reverse story telling isn't as potent.
Nevertheless,
in the land of "One Day Earlier," the Enterprise
encounters a popcorn chicken asteroid field with rocks unpredictably
bouncing off each other. Deep inside the meteor jungle they
detect a Vulcan ship. T'Pol instantly recognizes it, and reminds
the crew of its mission. In last season's finale we saw the
Vulcan vessel sent to save this ship. It was full of gory
pointy eared freaks tearing each other apart like a flock
of girls at an Aaron Carter concert.
Could
this happen to T'Pol…?
Only one
way to find out. Load a shuttle pod up and zoom out of range
of Enterprises' aid. Oh, and don't forget to bring T'Pol.
Meanwhile,
Tucker and Reed play Armageddon with shuttle pod two, and
land on a meteor to harvest some Trillium D (see nerd dictionary).
Trillium
D:Noun. 1. The most sought after element in the
expanse, because in its raw liquid form it acts like a lucky
rabbit's foot and wards off all the crazy anomalies plaguing
this section of space. 2. Jadzia Dax's bra size.
Once inside
the Vulcan star ship we see yet another clip from the yet
to be released Star Trek: Enterprise the video game.
This whole
season has been constructed to give the game developers something
more to work with than the usual Star Trek game. In the past,
games consisted of badly constructed away teams exploring
planets. More recently game developers have just invented
story lines that never existed, like Voyager: Elite Force.
Janeway formed a team of elite marines to go on bad ass missions
with super powered phasers. Never happened in the series,
but a decent game. So, now, they just create the elements
needed for the game in the show. (Much like when the "Warp
Core Breach" rum drink made an appearance on Deep
Space Nine to justify its place on the menu at the Star
Trek: Experience in Las Vegas.)
The Enterprise
video game will be filled with the new Star Fleet Marines,
shooting through the 5 distinct Xindi alien lands. And now
you can bet money on it there will be a level on a Vulcan
Zombie ship. It turns out Trillium D makes Vulcans loosen
their tight grip over their emotions. It also makes them walk
and think like The Living Dead. Hoardes of undead Vulcans
limp around the ship swinging pieces pipe and clawing at the
crew as if they were strangely hungry for brains.
The away
team tunnels through the Vulcan ship, trying to escape as
T'Pol quickly becomes as disfigured as the rest of her kind.
She accuses Archer of trying to kill her, of trying to lead
her to this death ship, of trying to cheat at Monopoly by
slipping an extra hotel on his Park Place.
Well,
in the end, all four members of the away team escape - even
the Enterprise equivalent of the red shirt guy makes it out
alive. But since Trillium D makes Vulcans go mad like Raid
kills bugs dead, Archer is forced to abandon his plans of
lining the ship with the rare element. So now it's either
find a plan B… or allow the unpredictable anomalies to
play havoc on the ship.
And even
worse, T'Pol just may be too sick in the head to recover by
next week's adventure. Could this be the first real casualty
of Enterprise…. Or just an excuse to make her
more emotional? Only time will tell.
In next
week's adventure a telepathic madman will contact the crew
and offer an indecent proposal to Hoshi (this is to counter
the complete lack of attention to her character this season).
For crucial information about the evil Xindi all he asks is
for Hoshi's undying love… or something.
On the
Alien Species Scale this episode scores a…
Borg:
This week's creepy undead theme was the closest thing to a
Star Trek zombie since the cyborg clan. If there is any way
to keep these Trillium Vulcans around they'll be a great recurring
villain.
