Day 271: Enterprise, Fight or Flight

Show: Star Trek; Enterprise

Episode Particulars: S1EP2, “Fight or Flight”

 Summary: Two weeks have passed since the events of “Broken Bow”, and the Enterprise hasn’t encountered anything very interesting, which is frustrating to most of the crew. Hoshi in particular is feeling a bit out of sorts, not feeling comfortable on board and feeling guilty because Archer hand-picked her for his communications officer and she’s not sure if she’s living up to his faith in her. This feeling only intensifies when they finally stumble across a vessel, one that not only turns out to be damaged, but is full of dead aliens. T’Pol suggests they leave the vessel alone, since whatever killed the aliens will probably be coming back, but Archer isn’t sure he can do that in good conscience. When he makes up his mind, he relies on Hoshi to help him out, despite her doubts. This being Star Trek, the question is less “will she come through” and more “when she’ll come through”.

Standalone Thoughts: While the episode backloads most of the typical adventure material to the second half, I still appreciate what the writers were doing. It not only shows us that space exploration is often kind of boring, but it shows that not everything is perfect. There’s still friction between Archer and T’Pol, the ship has some kinks the crew needs to work out, and everybody’s generally trying to figure out the proper protocols. It’s the sort of material you can only really pull off in TV shows and books, when you have more room to breathe, and I’m glad they took advantage of it.

I’m a little less enthusiastic about what the episode does with Hoshi. While she’s following the classic trope of “character uncertain about themselves and their abilities eventually getting the self-confidence they need”, it’s not handled overly well here. She spends ninety percent of the episode feeling out of her depth, and when the time finally comes to prove herself, it only happens because the script demands it. Furthermore, her big moment revolves around speaking in another language…and it’s neither subtitled nor does she ever explain what she said. So we just have to take the episode’s word for it that everything worked out, and therefore Hoshi’s “redemption” doesn’t feel as earned as it could be. Plus, this isn’t just a case of someone feeling unprepared but actually being competent; some of Hoshi’s issues seem like genuine problems that should have disqualified her from being on this mission. Instead of making her sympathetic, the story paints her as someone who never should have gone into space to begin with. This might work if she has a character arc overcoming her difficulties, but if memory serves, that doesn’t exactly happen. I’m willing to wait and see, though.

On a related note, the episode made the decision to be symbolic, but I feel that doing that was completely unnecessary and ultimately detracts from the plot. At the very start of the episode, Hoshi and Phlox are discussing a slug they picked up on a planet who hasn’t been doing well. Later on, after Hoshi has been shown to be struggling, they discuss the matter again, and it becomes blatantly obvious that we’re supposed to be drawing a parallel between the slug and Hoshi. Not only is that not the most flattering comparison, it’s incredibly heavy-handed. And to make matters worse, the resolution of that plot point not only doesn’t feel earned, I kind of take away the opposite impression than what was intended. I can’t entirely explain why, but there it is.

While all the material with Hoshi can be a little irritating, there’s enough balancing it out by the rest of the cast and situations that it’s overall a decent episode. It’s a nice breather after everything the writers threw at us in the pilot, which might have felt a little disappointing during the original run but works fine now, especially if you’re binge watching (in any capacity). I’ll be interested to be reminded what happens in the next episode; will it still be a bit slow, or will they ramp the action up again? If I’m remembering correctly, it may be a little bit of both.

How it Relates to the Whole: While it’s a (semi) direct followup to the pilot, there’s not a lot here that connects to the grand scheme of things. Mostly we get a full dose of Hoshi’s personality and general feeling like she’s in over her head, something which she unfortunately doesn’t really grow out of as far as I can recall. Otherwise, we get a toss-off line about Hoshi being unfamiliar with phase pistols that will be explored in a few other episodes, but again, this doesn’t play a large role in future events. But at least we got something.

Other: *I was reminded by a family member as I started this show that Enterprise didn’t always have the most compelling teasers, and it clearly started early. There’s no crisis, no interesting discovery, no obvious problem with a crew member; all we know is that Enterprise has been exploring for two weeks, the crew is getting a little antsy because nothing interesting has happened, and Hoshi is worried about the health of a slug. Not exactly riveting material, is it?

*I appreciate the subversions that take place during an exchange between Archer and T’Pol, when Archer can hear a squeaking beneath the floorboards that T’Pol can’t. Firstly, the script refrains from making any comment about T’Pol’s ears or hearing; in fact, she can’t hear the sound at all. Secondly, when Archer considers tearing up the floorboards to find the source of the sound, T’Pol responds with “That would be…unfortunate.” The fact that the writers refrained from using the word “Illogical” is oddly satisfying to me.

*As much as I love Malcolm, I must confess that his trigger discipline leaves something to be desired. During the first scene on the alien ship, he not only points the phase pistol right in the direction of both Hoshi and Archer, but he seems to have his finger on the trigger the entire time, even when there’s no threat. I’m going to chalk this up in-universe to Malcolm being slightly paranoid and always on his guard, and out-of-universe to the fact that most Hollywood productions don’t generally display decent gun safety rules. Though this does kind of transition nicely to…

Badass Malcolm Moment: Given that Malcolm had been struggling with getting the ship’s targeting scanners aligned for most of the episode, the fact that he finally managed to accomplish it in the middle of a crisis situation is rather impressive. Or maybe he’s one of those guys who works really well under pressure.