Day 301: Enterprise, The Seventh

Show: Star Trek; Enterprise

Episode Particulars: S2EP7, “The Seventh”

 Summary: T’Pol gets a message from the Vulcan High Command, telling her that they’ve located a man named Menos (Bruce Davison). While she tries to reveal as little as possible to her shipmates, she eventually tells Archer that she used to work for a Vulcan security group that was assigned to bring in undercover agents who refused to return home after their mission was over. She caught all of them except Menos, and now she’s finally getting her chance to complete her mission. She asks Archer to accompany her because she wants someone there she can trust, and the two of them, plus Mayweather as the pilot, head out to apprehend Menos. They do wind up finding him, but he makes a very compelling case as to why he should be left alone. Plus, T’Pol’s starting to remember aspects of her mission that wind up complicating things even more for her. Bringing Archer along, it seems, was absolutely the right call.

Standalone Thoughts: I think I should like this episode more than I actually do. Grey morality is a huge part of the episode, and Jolene Blalock does a great job of showing how the situation is affecting T’Pol, in a way that feels true to life to boot. Plus, Mayweather winds up being the one to keep doing things that move the plot forward instead of just being passive, and I’d say that Bruce Davison plays his part very well. But for all that, I mostly think the episode is meh. It may be because it’s obvious from the start that there’s more going on with T’Pol’s mission, but it takes too long to be explained. Then, when it is explained, it all comes out in a rush and isn’t really explored before things are resolved a little too quickly and neatly. This episode probably didn’t need to be a two-parter, but it definitely should have been paced a little better.

It also should have cut out the subplot about Tucker being in over his head as the acting-captain. On paper, it’s a fun idea that could go one of two ways; the comedic route where Tucker likes the perks and then gets hit with the reality of what being a captain really is, or the serious route where Tucker thinks he’s prepared and then realizes he isn’t, maybe even leading to a nice discussion with Archer about the rigors of command. In practice, we get two scenes, one of which feels like it should have a payoff later but doesn’t, and then the whole thing is dropped. I think this material could have carried its own episode, or at least been the A-plot with an equally light story serving as a subplot. As it stands, it feels pointless, and it distracts from the main storyline as well, thus weakening the material of both. The end result is that this episode is just like the majority of Enterprise episodes so far, decent but nothing too special. And I for one mourn that wasted potential.

How it Relates to the Whole: I’m not sure if this episode will have any connection to later events, so we’ll have to wait and see on that score. The only real connection it has to the show is the fact that T’Pol apparently spent time at P’Jem for meditation purposes. However, this feels awkwardly shoehorned in, because I feel like she probably would have been more affected by what happened to it in Season One, even factoring in her lack of emotions. Sometimes you can try to add connections in after the fact and make it work, but this wasn’t one of those times.

Other: *I do appreciate the fact that everything managed to be arranged so that an episode called “The Seventh” is in fact the seventh episode of the season. I very dearly hope that was intentional.

*In “Breaking the Ice”, Archer and Tucker were very concerned and suspicious when T’Pol got an encrypted message from Vulcan, but neither of them seem to be overly bothered about it today. I don’t know if that’s bad continuity or a sign that they’ve eased up on their worries about T’Pol’s loyalties. I want it to be the latter, but I kind of think it may be the former.

*Why exactly did Tucker invite Phlox and Malcolm to have dinner with him? Malcolm I can maybe understand since the two of them are friends, but why Phlox? He doesn’t seem to have anything he wants to discuss with them, so this particular dinner party makes no sense. Unless you look at it as an excuse to give Phlox some screentime, which I’m guessing was the real purpose. One more reason why this subplot ultimately doesn’t work.

Badass Malcolm Moment: Once again I have to stretch the definition of “badass”, but I appreciate the fact that he’s willing to argue (gently) with his superior officer, even going so far as to question Tucker’s priorities. Why do I get the feeling that Malcolm is more prepared for being a captain than Tucker is…?

After the Fact Update: Memory Alpha says that the fact that this is the seventh episode of the season is a coincidence, though they don’t go into details about how they know this. Ah well, at least it’s still neat that things lined up the way they did.