Day 323: Enterprise, Extinction

Show: Star Trek; Enterprise

Episode Particulars: S3EP3, “Extinction”

 Summary: While examining the data Enterprise picked up at the end of “Anomaly”, Archer discovers a nearby planet that was recently visited by a Xindi ship. Upon arriving there and detecting a ship on the surface, he, T’Pol, Hoshi, and Malcolm head down in a shuttlepod to check things out. A few minutes after landing, the three Humans mutate into a different species, while T’Pol also mutates but mostly retains her appearance and memories. The other three regard her with suspicion and say they need to get to a place called Urquat. While she plays along, Phlox eventually figures out that their genetic code is being rewritten by a virus found on the planet, and he has to work quickly if he wants to find a cure and save them. If that wasn’t bad enough, an alien ship arrives and informs them that this virus cannot be allowed to leave the planet…and to them, the only cure is eradication by flamethrower.

Standalone Thoughts: This episode kind of combines the worst of all worlds for me. You’ve got an epidemic plot (though it’s not as bad as other variations of the form), and I’m never fond of Malcolm being ill-treated. Above all, though, this episode gives me a severe case of secondhand embarrassment. I’m sure Bakula, Park, and Keating appreciated the opportunity to play something different than their usual roles (and, let’s be honest, chew on the scenery), but from my perspective, it mostly consists of them moving like they’re doing interpretive dance, making a lot of hissing and clicking noises, and talking in exaggerated accents (Keating in particular seems to have turned Spanish). Maybe this is just a problem unique to me, since I have a more vested interest in (one of) the characters than most, but it really feels awkward to me, and thus makes it hard for me to watch.

It really doesn’t help that this episode feels pretty pointless. What happens to the landing party has nothing to do with the Xindi, and they don’t even stumble across something accidentally like they did in the previous episode to help their mission. As with the first half of “Anomaly”, strip out the few mentions of Xindi and this could just as easily have been a planet/incident Enterprise came across in its travels back in Seasons One or Two. Having a few episodes that only tangentially relate to the Xindi arc is all right in theory, but having one this early in the arc doesn’t fill one with confidence about the ability of the showrunners to pull this story off. I know now that they do manage it, but audiences at the time wouldn’t have had that benefit.

In a probably futile attempt to be objective, I’ll say that the actual core idea behind the episode is interesting, but the overall execution was lacking. Besides the behavior of the “aliens”, the conflict isn’t explored as well as it could be, partly because we spend far too long watching the antics down on the planet instead of bringing in the outside enemy. This material could make for a pretty effective original sci-fi short story—as an Enterprise episode, especially at this point in the show, it’s nowhere near as effective.

How it Relates to the Whole: Like I said, this episode would have fit right in as a standalone in the early seasons, so other than a few references to the Xindi and a reminder of the sleep therapy sessions between Tucker and T’Pol, this episode is mostly forgettable in the grand scheme of things (or is it just that I’d rather forget it…?). That being said, the last minute of the episode offered up such a heavy-handed visual that I swore the first time around that it was some sort of foreshadowing, which turned out not to be the case. Though the writer in me thinks they could have done something dark but interesting with it…

Other: *Just the one observation today. As established in the summary, four people go down to the planet initially. I get the presence of Archer (driven to find out more about the Xindi so would want to go down personally), Malcolm (security), and T’Pol (science), but why is Hoshi there? I guess it would theoretically be if they found something they needed her to read or translate, but all they had to go on was a scan that showed a landing craft, and zero signs of life. Couldn’t they take pictures/scans and let her do it from the ship? Once again, all I need is one line of dialogue and I won’t ask questions like these. Why weren’t they asking these questions in the writer’s room?

Badass Malcolm Moment: Since Malcolm spends most of the episode as a mutant, I don’t really have much to work with. So while it’s not much, I’m going with the fact that he not only takes point on the planet, but he’s doing the smart thing by keeping relatively low to the ground and moving quickly, no doubt to avoid shots and present a smaller target. Given that I prefer not to see him banged up, I’m all for that strategy.

After the Fact Update: I seem to be in good company with this episode; both director LeVar Burton and creator/producer Brannon Braga are ashamed and embarrassed, respectively, to have worked on it. Memory Alpha gives no explanation for this, but at least it’s good to know I’m not the only one who thinks this episode is off.