Show: Star Trek; Enterprise
Episode
Particulars: S2EP5, “A Night in Sickbay”
Standalone
Thoughts: As I said, most people think this is the worst Enterprise episode, and while I’ll need
to go through the rest of the show to be sure, I’m somewhat inclined to agree
with them. It doesn’t give me the same “ugh” feeling as other bad episodes I’ve
reviewed, like “The Passenger” on DS9 or
“Last Salute to the Commodore” on Columbo,
but if you’ve been watching the show up to this point, this episode is going to
feel like it was written by someone who had been hired to write for the show
but didn’t watch any of the prior material to get a sense of the characters.
Given that this story was, in fact, written by the creators of the show, this
makes what happens in the episode even more inexplicable.
While a small part of the episode’s failure has to do
with humor that isn’t very funny (primarily bodily function humor and lines
that might work in other contexts but are either inappropriate for the moment
or poorly delivered), the biggest problem with this episode is Archer’s
characterization. Those of you who like Archer the way I like Malcolm are going
to be in for a very rough ride. Prior
to now, we’ve seen that Archer can sometimes be petty and stubborn, especially
where the Vulcans are concerned, but we’ve also seen that he’ll often do what’s
necessary for the good of the crew (remember that speech in “Silent Enemy”?). Here,
he really, genuinely seems to think that the health of his dog takes priority
over getting an important component for his ship. He tries to argue that it’s
not all that important, but he
doesn’t seem to realize that if he’s wrong, his choice will negatively impact
eighty-three lives, including that of Porthos. If the attempt was to give
Archer some flaws, then the writers/creators went about it all wrong. There’s
just enough in Archer’s background and personality that this could have worked, but they went
overboard on it and thus Archer comes off as a caricature of himself.
It also doesn’t help that the whole conflict hinges on
the fact that Archer was monumentally stupid. The last time he ran into the
Kreetassans, they got offended over something nobody was expecting. Why,
therefore, would he think it was a good idea to bring his dog onto their home
planet, given that people having issues with animals is much more common than people having issues with seeing other people
eat? This is in fact brought up by T’Pol at least once, but Archer never gives
a good answer to this, nor does he ever really admit that he made a mistake.
And to top it off, we find out in this episode that Archer is supposedly
trained in diplomacy (something that probably should have been mentioned before
and, I believe, never really comes up again), so he really should have known better. If he really does have some sort of diplomatic credentials, I think they should
be revoked on the basis of his actions here.
There is one thing in this mess that I find interesting,
though. In addition to painting Archer as a bad diplomat and a bad captain, the
episode also tries to suggest a romantic attraction between Archer and T’Pol.
For the most part, this seems to come out of nowhere along with everything
else, but I’d actually say there was some groundwork there. Not only do you
have some classic trope material in having Archer, who starts out disliking
Vulcans, falling in love with one, but there have been a few moments where you
could see potential for a romance (I’m thinking specifically of some lines from
“Fallen Hero”). However, this episode tried to do too much, too fast, and I
think the negative reception wound up torpedoing any future plans. All the more
reason why you need to fully think through plot threads like this instead of
trying to force it, no matter how much you like it. Sometimes, you have to know
when to walk away.
I don’t know if I’d go so far as to pretend this episode
never happened, but it’s certainly one I wouldn’t recommend watching. It’s not
only unessential to the show, but its take on Archer does a lot of harm and
practically no good. There may be a small contingent out there who might enjoy
this on a “so bad it’s good” level, but for the rest of us, better to put it
out of our minds as soon as possible.
How it Relates to
the Whole: Other than bringing back the Kreetassans from “Vox Sola”, I
don’t think this episode winds up having any connection to later events, and if
it does, it’s something related to Phlox and not Archer. The episode does,
however, reveal that the Enterprise has
a gym, which will show up here and there throughout the series. Not exactly the
greatest place to make your debut…
Other: *Archer’s
attitude may be frustrating throughout this episode, but I’ll give him this;
the Kreetassans seemed perfectly content with the apology Mayweather gave them
in “Vox Sola”. Why they therefore made the Enterprise
orbit their planet and spend five more days apologizing for it is baffling,
especially since no mention is made of Mayweather’s earlier apology. As with so
many problems, one line of dialogue would have gone a long way towards fixing
this.
*It’s blatantly obvious that the role of Porthos is
primarily being played by a dummy, and not a very convincing dummy at that. The
digital alien bat in this episode looks more realistic than that thing does.
Given the makeup and effects Star Trek has
been capable of, I’m a little surprised by this. Then again, maybe the effects
department had a feeling about this episode and didn’t put as much effort in as
they could have…
Badass Malcolm
Moment: While Malcolm only appears for a few seconds in Archer’s dream
sequence, I’m pretty sure he contributed to the plot in a small way. After all,
where do you think they got the chainsaw from? Or at the very least, who do you
think taught Archer how to use it?
After the Fact
Update: Astoundingly, this episode was nominated for a Hugo award. Given
its modern reputation, this is just going to be more and more surprising for fans
the more time that passes. Also, there is once again no explanation for the
episode swap.
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