Day 274: Enterprise, Terra Nova

Show: Star Trek; Enterprise

Episode Particulars: S1EP5, “Terra Nova”

 Summary: The Enterprise crew is excited to come across the planet known as Terra Nova, where a group of colonists disappeared seventy years ago. Upon arriving on the planet and exploring the remains of the colony (which has been irradiated for some time), it soon becomes clear that they’re not alone. Eventually, the away team finds a cave, where two things happen in rapid succession; Malcolm is shot and dragged away, and T’Pol discovers that the beings who did it are human, clearly survivors and descendants of the original colony. When Archer and Phlox return to try to get Malcolm back, they learn that the humans (who call themselves Novans) fled underground when the land became radioactive and have been living there ever since. They also refuse to believe that they’re human, convinced that it was humans who poisoned the land in the first place. Archer’s going to have to tread very carefully if he wants this first contact (or recontact) to end peacefully.

Standalone Thoughts: This is definitely an improvement over the previous two episodes, especially pacing-wise. There’s a hint of mystery in the teaser (though it’s still not exactly dramatic), we have a clear conflict almost immediately, the conflict goes through several twists and turns, and we’re even confronted with a moral dilemma. Granted, that dilemma is mostly discussed for one scene and a third solution presents itself almost immediately, but at least it was addressed.

Looking at the episode on its own, I’d say it’s a decent episode, one that’s probably destined to be somewhere in the middle of the pack when all is said and done but certainly one of the better episodes I’ve seen so far. Archer’s handling of the various situations is overall good (I especially like the offer he makes to Mayweather at the end of the episode), the conflict is interesting, and the whole thing is just generally well-executed. My only quibbles are that the climax takes a turn for the convenient/cliché, some of the word choices of the Novans (i.e. calling the surface “the overside”) can be a bit much of a muchness, and there’s a musical interlude that ultimately serves no purpose. As weak spots go, I’d say those are pretty minor, and the episode overall reaffirms my belief that the show was always better than people at the time gave it credit for. And assuming my memory isn’t clouded by nostalgia, the next episode is going to be even better proof.

How it Relates to the Whole: Yet again, this episode is pretty much a standalone, with no future ramifications that I can recall. Though there is one thing that happens in this episode that unintentionally repeats itself in Season Two, albeit in a very different context. But we’ll talk about that when we get there.

Other: *Nothing really caught my eye today, so onwards to the next episode, I guess.

Badass Malcolm Moment: This isn’t so much one thing as it is an accumulation of things. Basically, from the minute Malcolm gets shot and taken hostage, he accepts the whole situation with surprisingly good humor. The bullet in his leg seems to be more uncomfortable than painful—even his reaction to getting shot seems to be more akin to getting clipped by a small stone—and his comments to Archer seem to be more witty than sarcastic. He even tries to bond with his captors by talking weaponry and armor. If that’s not grace under pressure, I don’t know what is.

After (During) the Fact Update: Enterprise doesn’t have a companion guide the same way DS9 does, but there are sometimes little trivia nuggets on Memory Alpha, which I use to look up actor, character, and species names for each episode. While scanning the page to see if there was a deleted scene that would explain that mostly pointless music scene, I discovered that some people, including producer/creator Brannon Braga, think this is one of the weaker episodes of Season One. My talent for liking episodes most people dislike and vice versa strikes again.

(As to whether or not this will be a semi-recurring thing like it was on DS9…I don’t know. The trivia that’s available is mostly stuff cobbled together from interviews given over the years, unlike the DS9 Companion, which deliberately set out to talk to as many people involved as possible, and may even have been worked on concurrently with the series. I’m just not sure how many insights I’ll get from Memory Alpha. If you’ve got an opinion on this, feel free to weigh in.)