Day 332: Enterprise, Chosen Realm

Show: Star Trek; Enterprise

Episode Particulars: S3EP12, “Chosen Realm”

 Summary: While mapping another sphere so they can get more information on the anomalies, the Enterprise comes across a ship in distress. Said ship is populated by the Triannons, a race of aliens who believe the spheres were created for some divine purpose. Archer is glad to lend assistance, but in fairly short order, the Triannons take over the ship, as all of them have a device inside their bodies that can blow up strategic areas if the crew doesn’t comply. The Triannon leader, D’Jamat (Conor O’Farrell), is part of a religious sect that’s at war with a different sect, and plans to use the Enterprise to decisively prove his side is right. Which naturally means killing anyone who doesn’t think the same way he does. Even more naturally, Archer and company aren’t going to let him get away with this.

Standalone Thoughts: I have really mixed thoughts about this episode. It starts out well enough, with some interesting and believable worldbuilding. I can absolutely believe that there would be denizens of the Expanse that would build up a religion around the spheres and the anomalies, and the early discussions about it, complete with D’Jamat not entirely believing the scientific explanation, felt real. Unfortunately, once D’Jamat reveals his true intentions, things take a turn for the preachy, with an obvious condemning of religious fanatics that leans dangerously close to being anti-religion in general (certainly the revelation of the reason the two sects are fighting has that feel). I have a sneaking suspicion this may have been a response to current events—this was a little over two years after 9/11, remember—but it’s heavy-handed no matter what the circumstances surrounding it were. And since about half the episode is taken up with this material, it starts to get really grating.

Then, however, Archer pulls off a pretty clever trick, and the episode turns into the best part of “Shockwave, Part 2”, with the crew working to reclaim the Enterprise, complete with decent action sequences and a nice mix of brains and brawn. This material is nicely paced and generally executed well enough that it restores some of my goodwill. As for the actual ending of the episode, it’s not as bad as it could be, but it falls flat, partly because of the obvious message being delivered, but also it just kind of ends, with no real explanation of what exactly the consequences of D’Jamat’s actions are going to be. The showrunners probably wanted to end the episode on a dramatic, impactful moment, but sometimes it’s better if they focus on tying up the loose ends instead. In summary, the episode has some things that work pretty well and other things that don’t work well at all, so I’m not entirely sure how I’d classify it. It’s pretty likely I’d put it in the lower tier of the whole show, though the jailbreak aspects at least keep it from hitting rock bottom.

There’s also one other thing that may retroactively make my opinion of this episode even worse. I’ve decided to try and take a step back, judging each individual episode as it comes instead of being frustrated that it’s not tying into the larger arc. Therefore, the fact that we got no followup from the events of “Carpenter Street” mostly doesn’t bother me. All we need is a future episode to say something along the lines of “I needed some time to examine the tech you brought back” and I’ll consider that a decent justification for why we got no mention of it in this episode. I have one exception to this; in addition to bringing back Xindi tech, Archer also brought back three Xindi. Now, it’s entirely possible that they were dead—Archer had to hit them with the “kill” setting since “stun” had proven ineffective in the past—and in that case, I’ll accept it. But if they turn up alive in later episodes, I’m just going to be left wondering what they were up to during the events of this episode. Xindi, especially this particular type of Xindi, don’t seem to be the sort who would just accept imprisonment. Though I guess we’ll just have to wait and see what the remaining ten episodes bring…

How it Relates to the Whole: In theory, one of D’Jamat’s actions should have big repercussions for Enterprise and her mission, but given the current lack of followup from “Carpenter Street”, I won’t swear to that. And if it doesn’t come up in subsequent episodes, then it’s highly likely that this episode doesn’t bring anything new to the table. Obviously, though, I hope it does.

Other: *It occurs to me after seeing the name of the alien species in print that the Triannons were possibly named after the Grand and Petit Trianon of Versailles. That may just be my love of the whole French Revolution era talking, but given the callbacks to Halloween in the previous episode, it’s possible someone else was a fan and decided to insert a subtle reference to it. Stranger things have happened.

*One of the casualties in this episode is a female crewman who is present when one of the Triannons blows himself up so D’Jamat can prove that his threats are deadly serious. This is all well and good, but my problem is that she just stands there the whole time the guy is doing it. She doesn’t ask what he’s doing, or turn and run, or even move to the nearest comm system to inform Archer about what’s going on. Surely if you saw something unusual like that, you’d have some sort of reaction. And while I’m sure her lack of lines was related to the whole “you have to pay extras more if they speak” rule, the writers/director could at least have used the “turn and run” option. Why they didn’t is just one of those weird mysteries.

*At one point during the plan to take back the Enterprise, Phlox needs to cause a distraction, which he does by setting his bat loose. This is a decent enough idea, but it only works as well as it does through the grace of Admiral Plot Device. The guard is part of a group who sees no issue with killing anyone who stands in their way; realistically, he would have tried to shoot the bat, especially when told it posed a threat. This scenario could and probably should have ended with him causing some damage to Sickbay, but it doesn’t play out that way. I might have accepted this in another episode—with all the other problems I’ve outlined, it just breaks my suspension of disbelief here.

Badass Malcolm Moment: It probably goes without saying that Malcolm’s best bits are during the “fighting back” portion of the plot. If I need to single one out, it would probably be the moment when he engages in some hand-to-hand combat. It isn’t always the most graceful or dignified fight, but I’d say he acquits himself just fine.