Day 276: Enterprise, Breaking the Ice

Show: Star Trek; Enterprise

Episode Particulars: S1EP7, “Breaking the Ice”

 Summary: The Enterprise encounters a comet that contains a large amount of Eisillium, a mineral even the Vulcans haven’t had enough samples to study properly. An away team (consisting of Mayweather and Malcolm instead of science officers for some reason) is sent down to gather some samples, while a Vulcan vessel led by Captain Vanik (William Utay) sticks around to observe, to Archer’s annoyance. His suspicion that the Vulcans don’t trust them is only heightened when Tucker discovers that an encrypted message was recently sent to T’Pol. But that one, at least, may not be as straightforward as it seems.

Standalone Thoughts: I’ll be the first to admit that this episode is disjointed. We basically have three plots that are tangentially related; the examination of the comet, Archer’s irritation with being observed by the Vulcans, and dealing with T’Pol’s message. Each one does intersect with the others, but they’re mostly three separate entities. All of them have potential, but they might have been better served if one had been expanded on, another was relegated to a subplot, and the third held in reserve for another episode.

It doesn’t help that the episode kind of screeches to a halt for a scene where the senior staff (minus Malcolm and Mayweather) answer some questions sent in by fourth graders. It’s an amusing scene and does some worldbuilding, but it ultimately serves no purpose and fragments the episode even more. Again, this should either have been saved for another episode or been tweaked so it would have more relevance. And now I’m starting to wonder if the writers had a bunch of ideas they didn’t have a place for, so they decided to just combine them all. Either that or they ran out of time to write the episode and had to work with what they had.

All that being said, it’s not a bad episode, as long as you kind of compartmentalize them into separate sections. The T’Pol plot shows that the crew (or at least the senior staff) are softening in their attitude towards her, the Vanik plot continues the gradual development of the relationship between Humans and Vulcans in general, and the comet plot provides some humor and drama. More editing could have made this episode better, but what we’ve got is perfectly serviceable. Which is just fine for a Season One episode.

How it Relates to the Whole: While I’m not sure how much of it was intentional at the time, a surprising amount of material here will be brought up again in later seasons. Specifically, the letter T’Pol receives comes back into play, and groundwork is starting to be laid for one of the show’s biggest relationships. And I can’t help but wonder if Phlox’s little speech about germs inspired the writers to prove his point later that season…

Other: *I am vaguely curious about how the crew got actual physical copies of the children’s drawings. I get the impression it was sent by a data transmission, but then how did they get them on paper? Is there a printer on the Enterprise? And why is that thought amusing to me?

*Fanfiction writers, take heart; Archer fields a question about dating, and the concept of fraternization/dating subordinates isn’t addressed. I’m guessing it’s because it’s a hard concept for fourth graders to understand, but you can read into it that the 22^nd century Starfleet is a little more flexible about things like that. God knows I don’t have any room to judge how you interpret things.

*I wonder if Tucker did something to annoy Archer offscreen, given his insistence on Tucker being present for the children’s Q&A and then immediately handing him a bathroom question to answer. I feel like there’s a reasoning behind it that wasn’t shown. Either way, it’s amusing.

*In order to commemorate landing on a comet and one of Mayweather’s rare encounters with snow, Mayweather and Malcolm build a snowman in-between working on extracting the Eisillium. Archer spots them and gently admonishes them, pointing out that they are being observed by the Vulcans. I’m of two minds about this. On the one hand, he’s right that the Vulcans are probably going to see that and disapprove, and it is a bit unprofessional. On the other, what else are they going to do to pass the time? Besides, shouldn’t one encourage people to be enthusiastic and young at heart? Then again, I am slightly biased, given that I’m a silly person myself and given who was involved in building the snowman…

Badass Malcolm Moment: Shortly before landing on the comet, Malcolm and Mayweather have a discussion about whether or not anybody’s ever walked on a comet before. I’m going to presume the answer is no. Therefore, that means Malcolm claims that honor. And while it’s very much stretching the definition of “badass”, you have to admit it’s at least impressive.

(And on a semi-related note, if you needed more evidence that I will sometimes do odd things to indulge my fondness for characters/actors, check out my most recent movie review over on my main blog. I wouldn't have watched that movie if it wasn't for this project, after all.)