This is Enterprise's third aired episode following the bottle-episode, 'Fight or Flight.' This is about as un-bottled as it gets; the Enterprise finds a Class-M planet that even the Vulcans haven't explored, an uninhabited paradise with gorgeous landscapes everywhere. Of course, nothing is ever as it seems in a Star Trek episode, because that would be boring.
I like how the episode starts; instead of focusing on the main cast, we meet some of the crew, who we have to remember are the cream of Starfleet's crop themselves; their names weren't drawn out of hats for this mission, after all. So we meet Crewmen Navokovitch and Cutler, who are in the mess doing small talk when the ship comes into orbit around a new world. Then we cut to the bridge where Archer and T'Pol have another debate on the proper way to explore outer space. Vulcans are methodical and patient, letting probes and ship's instruments do all the work. Archer chooses the more direct method, because this place is bloody gorgeous, and humans are impatient and impulsive.
And thus, we get the first chronological instance of the ship's captain taking his buddy on an away mission that neither of them needs to go on. T'Pol, as the science officer, and Mayweather (piloting the shuttle) are obviously going down to the planet, as well as the two crewmembers I mentioned earlier. Trip and Archer tag along, because rank has its privileges.
As the shuttlepod lands, we find out that another crewmember came down as well: Porthos, the captain's beagle. Trip then says one of my favorite lines of the first season, as Porthos disembarks and runs to the nearest tree: "Where no dog has gone before."
The humans are just awestruck at how incredible this new world is, even though it really doesn't look any different than the opening scene of The Sound of Music, minus Julie Andrews twirling and spinning. T'Pol is pretty much just 'been there, done that' about the whole thing, because Vulcan. She does manage to get some snark going, though.
T'Pol and the two crewmembers are scheduled to stay the night to observe the night life; Trip and Mayweather convince Archer to let them stay as well, because camping on an alien planet is what space exploration is all about. More fun ensues as, during a night-time storm, Trip finds a six-inch-long scorpion-bug in his sleeping bag and yells at Mayweather to get him the phase pistol.
The storm is really bad, forcing the campers to head into some nearby caves for shelter; the shuttlepod will come back in the morning to pick them up. But the stranded crew start seeing strange beings emerging from rock, even hearing voices. One of them, Navokovitch, goes nuts and runs out into the storm, getting lost. Archer locates him from orbit, and the Enteprise uses the transporter to get him up to the ship. That doesn't work out too well, as the storm has been whipping up all kinds of twigs and sand, which get mixed in with the hapless crewman's body, and he collapses in shock on the transporter pad.
It turns out that there's a dangerous hallucinogenic compound in some pollen on the mountains, and the away team is in trouble; they'll die if they don't get the medicine in time. However, Trip and the others are convinced that T'Pol is in league with some mysterious 'rock-people', and that she plans to kill off Enterprise's crew to cripple Starfleet's exploration program. Humans and Vulcans really don't get along too well in this time period, do they?
Archer manages to convince Trip to lower his gun long enough for T'Pol to stun him with her own, and the medicine is delivered in time. T'Pol gets to use the Vulcan neck pinch on a delirious Mayweather. This scene passes right by without comment; my son (who never saw any other Trek, remember) didn't even pick up on it. All's well, and the shuttle returns in the morning and everyone lives happily ever after.
So, that's the basic plot; I tend to ramble, I know. I have to say, I liked this episode quite a bit. It's got a great mix of humor (the dog, the bug in the sleeping bag), but it gets real serious as the pollen affects Trip and turns him into a paranoid lunatic, ready to blow T'Pol's head off at a moment's notice. Navokovitch has a similar reaction, screaming in terror and telling Archer to 'go to hell!' over the communicator, but Cutler and Mayweather just basically pass out, like they got the date-rape drug instead of pollen. I suppose different body chemistry gets a different effect, but it felt like they really didn't know what to do with Mayweather and Cutler while Trip was descending deeper and deeper into paranoia, so they just put them to sleep. A bit disappointing, frankly.
The scenes with Trip ripping on T'Pol show his inner feelings about Vulcans; he really, really doesn't trust them in the slightest, especially her (remember, he thought she was a spy in the pilot). Connor Trineer gets to ham it up with gusto here, and he makes the most of it. It's easily the best performance of the season so far (I know, we're only three episodes in). T'Pol, her mind more resistant to the pollen's effects, nevertheless starts to lose control of her emotions, giving her a chance to show some fire and passion in her growing madness.
It would have been nice to at least give Mayweather something similar to do, something that shows his own inner conflicts; this is a guy who literally grew up in space, to whom solid ground is an anomaly, and they didn't even touch on that aspect of his character. Cutler is one step away from a redshirt, so it's understandable that she doesn't get a lot to do, but Mayweather is a main character; do something more with him. Sadly, this would be a common occurrence with Mayweather throughout the series.
Alright, so how do I rate this episode? I'm going to bump it up a bit from Fight or Flight. This one gets a solid 8 out of 10 from me. The cast did a great job of capturing that sense of wonder at discovering and exploring a planet like this. It's totally understandable how Archer, Trip and Mayweather lose track of time just wandering around. The lack of development for Mayweather in particular, as well as Cutler, bring the score down for me. It was a lost opportunity.
Next up: Unexpected, in which Trip learns the hard way about the unintended consequences of interspecies romance.
And, for those interested in science fiction, please check out my own contribution to the genre, Bard Conley's Adventures Across the Solar System, available at an Amazon website near you. It's got action, it's got adventure, it's got all kinds of pulpy goodness. And you'll be supporting Indie publishing, which is the wave of the future. Cheers!
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