Space.
It's a pretty scary place. These are the newly re-imagined
voyages of the starship Enterprise. Its new, yet old mission:
to explore strange new worlds, to stop the Xindi from destroying
Earth, to boldly follow in line with every Star Trek
series by defying logic for the sake of story… dun dun
dun dun dun dunnnnnn! -
On Enterprise
we don't get the speech. But we do get stories that sacrifice
common sense for dramatic situations, this week being a really
good example of that really bad trait.
Hoshi
is haunted by a good-looking phantom man, who invites her
to his alien planet pad. He promises her if she comes he can
help find more information about the dreaded Xindi. Once she
convinces herself, and the crew, that she's not crazy, they
make a pit stop at the alien's planet.
They know
practically nothing about this alien. Hoshi's visions tell
her that he's a super smart telepath, living alone on a rigid
planet. But that's all they know. He could be lying. It could
be a trap. So they take a shuttle pod to the alien surface,
armed to the teeth with three whole people! The captain, the
weapons officer and Hoshi. Just the right number of people
for a kidnapping. Or so I've heard.
They let
themselves into the gigantic mansion and wander around. With
no weapons. This makes no sense. At any second they can be
ambushed, but instead they walk around like they're visiting
some old friend's house. Dumb.
Upon meeting
Mr. Telepathy, Hoshi feels the pain so many internet daters
have known. Or so I've heard. He is definitely not as advertised.
Instead of a handsome fit human, he's a squat yellow scaled
fellow in a smoking jacket, with a beetle growing out of his
head.
Instead
of reporting him to Match.com, they discover more about him
and his rare gift. He offers to help them find out more about
the Xindi if they agree to leave Hoshi on the planet with
him.
They
should be worried about Hoshi being attacked, about this unknown
alien using his abilities to harm her, manipulate her, kill
her. Or that the whole thing is a set up from the Xindi. But
instead what they are concerned with is his creepy nature.
That's it.
Sure,
the guy smacks of the nerd on-line who plays EverQuest and
makes love to his microwave burrito. But that's no excuse
for leaving her alone on his planet while he fondles his telepathic
jewels.
But he
doesn't want to kill her, he just wants to freak her out.
He's explored her mind to the point where he can recreate
a hamburger based on her memories of what it tastes like.
He knows her darkest secrets and earliest memories. And all
she knows is he's weird.
Archer
leaves Hoshi to die (or to live uncomfortably with the alien
for a few days, whichever character logic you chose to follow).
He and T'Pol discover the secret behind the crazy anomalies
in the Xindi section of space. There is a second cloaked moon
nearby (the first was in "Anomaly"
earlier this season). The two moons emit magical beams of
energy that somehow make starships' hulls turn to Jell-o.
Trip and
Archer make a quick pit stop on the cloaked base, in their
newly Trilliam-D enriched shuttle pod to take scans of the
orb for T'Pol. This quick cowboy sequence only brings the
action level up a notch. It doesn't help today's episode one
ounce, but will undoubtedly come into play next time. Thanks
to their research T'Pol discovers there are not just two orbs,
but actually over fifty. If they can figure out who built
them they'll be one step closer to the Xindi… Is anyone
else wondering who is No.1?
Back at
the main story, Hoshi takes a midnight stroll around the alien's
mansion in her rather revealing nightie. After an awkward
lesson in telepathy she wanders into the back yard where she
finds four graves. They're the final resting places of four
previous "companions" that have lived with the 400
year old telepath.
It gets
creepier. He tells her that she has no choice but to stay.
She'll learn to love him. He even goes so far as to pretend
to be Archer and tell her to stay on the planet. In a final
act of desperation he commits plagiarism and drains all the
energy from Enterprise making it The Day the Starship Stood
Still.
Hoshi,
being smarter than your average dead girl in a grave, threatens
to smash his telepathic jewel, his only connection outside
his world. Faced with a lifetime of solitude (after she dies),
he gives in and returns her to the ship. Huzzah! But not without
him making one final bedroom visit, to give Hoshi insider
information about the Xindi.
It's really
nice to give Hoshi her own story. She's a fascinating character,
with a rare perspective on space exploration. And her ability
to learn languages in record time makes her incredibly unique.
We don't need her to be a telepath, too.
Next week,
we'll be taking Wednesday night off to enjoy the World Series
on another network. In the mean time we're left to wonder
just how long we'll be hung up on the Xindi without actually
fighting them.
Until
then, on the alien species scale this episode scored:
Betazoid.
NOT because the antagonist is telepathic (although the irony
is fitting), but because the characters made choices - like
leaving Hoshi alone - in the interest of the dramatic story.
Almost as if they could read the writer's minds, instead of
having minds of their own…. Sloppy work, really.
They
should be worried about Hoshi being attacked, about this unknown
alien using his abilities to harm her, manipulate her, kill
her. Or that the whole thing is a set up from the Xindi. But
instead what they are concerned with is his creepy nature.
That's it. 
