Day 282: Enterprise, Sleeping Dogs

Show: Star Trek; Enterprise

Episode Particulars: S1EP13, “Sleeping Dogs”

Note: This episode swapped airdates with the upcoming episode “Shadows of P’Jem”. I’ll check Memory Alpha after I watch that episode to see if there’s an explanation for it.

 Summary: While investigating a class nine gas giant, the Enterprise discovers a damaged ship rapidly sinking into the gas, complete with faint lifesigns. If they don’t do something, the ship will eventually be crushed by the pressure. T’Pol, Malcolm, and Hoshi (who was assigned to the mission, but wanted to go anyway because she has something to prove) go down to investigate, soon discovering that the ship belongs to the Klingons. All of them are in bad shape, with traces of neurotoxin in their system, and aren’t going to be in any condition to help. Not that it matters; not only does T’Pol warn the away team that the Klingons wouldn’t accept or offer help, there turns out to be one female Klingon (Michelle C. Bonilla) who’s still on her feet, and who proceeds to steal their shuttlepod and strand the three of them there. Archer does manage to capture her, but now he has to deal with the problem of rescuing the away team, as the Klingon ship has sunk too far to send the shuttlepod back down. Fortunately, it’s not like the away team is sitting on their thumbs while all this is going on, so if a rescue’s going to happen, it’s going to be a group effort.

Standalone Thoughts: I’d say this is an ok episode, better plotted and paced than things like “Strange New World” but not quite as good all-around as “The Andorian Incident”. Admittedly, though, the main plot of this episode registered less with me than some of the more specific elements did.

First off, this was the episode I was talking about in “Breaking the Ice” when I speculated that the speech Phlox made about germs gave the writers ideas. The problem is, they don’t seem to have entirely thought it through. Making a character sick to show that this is in an era of Star Trek before there were cures for things like colds is fine, but you probably should actually do something with that premise. Instead, we get one scene in Sickbay and a reference to it a little later, but after that, our victim (who just so happens to be Malcolm) seems perfectly fine. There’s no coughing, no weakness (except for one scene, when it isn’t directly attributed to his being sick), and while his voice does get congested, it’s sporadic at best. I wouldn’t harp on this if it wasn’t for the fact that it felt like it was being set up to be a big deal, only for it to go nowhere. SFDebris came up with some interesting possibilities for incorporating it into the episode, and I’ve got one of my own (in addition to my usual advice of “save this for a later episode/give it to another character”). Have the medication Phlox gives Malcolm in the Sickbay scene gradually wear off as the episode goes on, and have it be obvious that Malcolm’s getting worse but fighting against it, only to ultimately collapse and force Hoshi to step up. Since that seemed to be something the writers wanted to explore, it would have killed two birds with one stone.

Speaking of the Hoshi element…I’ll give the writers tremendous credit for trying to continue the character arc set up in “Fight or Flight”. Hoshi has a scene with Archer where she basically volunteers to go on the away mission, saying she’s gained some confidence in herself, and she does pull her weight, even when things go wrong. She even asserts herself near the end. The problem with all this is that it feels like “tell, don’t show”. Hoshi hasn’t been in the spotlight enough for us to be able to tell if she really has improved, or if this is her trying to convince herself as well as the captain (there’s one scene in particular that could be read as her overplaying how much more comfortable she feels). Both of these could be interesting, but it’s not clear which one the writers were going for.

This lack of development also puts a damper on what otherwise could have been a really good scene midway through the episode. Hoshi and T’Pol go to the Klingon mess to try to get some water for Malcolm, who’s suffering from dehydration. The dark room, disgusting foods, and an encounter with live targs freaks Hoshi out despite herself, and she confesses she wishes she were like T’Pol. T’Pol responds with an impromptu meditation session, which allows Hoshi to regain her equilibrium. It’s an excellent character moment for T’Pol, showing that she’s softening towards humans, and in theory, it’s good for Hoshi as well. If we go with the “trying to convince herself” interpretation, then having her façade slip before getting a confidence boost helps make the audience feel like she’s gone through an arc this episode. If we go with the “Hoshi really is improving” interpretation, then having her backslide is true to life and would show that she’s still got a ways to go, opening the door for more material in future episodes. But while I want to be charitable and ascribe one of those interpretations to the episode, all I can think is that it’s a contrived situation to add some character drama to the episode, made worse because a) they don’t really have time for this, b) it was preceded by the two of them wasting time wandering around looking at Klingon food, so it feels pointless by association, and c) they appear to have forgotten entirely about the reason they went to the mess hall in the first place. And given how I feel about that reason, it makes the scene lose some of its impact for me.

If you don’t have the same biases I do (and why would you?), I think you’ll probably have less of a problem with this episode. It’s a good idea with decent execution, and that’s all you can ask for sometimes. As a reviewer and a writer, I just ask for a little bit more.

How it Relates to the Whole: I don’t think anything directly comes of the material with the Klingons, but we do (theoretically) get more development for Hoshi, and we get our first mention of photon torpedoes. Though I’m pretty sure it’s going to be awhile before they become commonplace.

Other: *As the shuttlepod descends into the gas giant, it runs into some turbulence when it hits a pocket of “liquid helium”. I would have found it hilarious if the away team had started talking in squeaky voices for a few minutes afterwards, but I'm guessing that would have broken the mood.

*Speaking of mood, I’m almost positive that the scenes where the away team start exploring the ship, complete with dim lighting and them wearing bulky spacesuits, was supposed to be riffing off Alien. Steal from the best, as they say…

*While I don’t think it’s a perfect example of the form, I think this episode may have been flirting with real-time events. Thirteen minutes into the episode, Tucker tells Archer that the shuttlepod can withstand the pressure of the gas giant for another half-an-hour. The episode is forty-four minutes long, but that includes credits. So while it seems unlikely that everything we see play out from that point happened in about thirty minutes, it’s at least lent an air of plausibility. Points to the writing/editing team for trying.

*Why exactly does the away team strip out of their spacesuits and stick to the long underwear layer? I guess that makes them more maneuverable, but it happens during a cutaway, and we get no explanation for it. And given that they probably wasted a few minutes doing it when time is of the essence, an explanation would be appreciated.

*VAGUE SPOILERS FOR THE END OF THE EPISODE. For that matter, why does the away team have to stay in Decon for a long time, when Archer, who also wound up on the Klingon ship in the end and was wearing less protective gear, appears to have not gone through Decon at all? Yes, they were on the ship longer than he was and went into different areas, but shouldn’t they at least have paid some lip service to Archer being in Decon? What sort of example are you setting, Captain?

Badass Malcolm Moment: It was actually hard to choose one today, because Malcolm winds up doing a lot of impressive things (especially when you factor his illness into the equation). I think I’ll ultimately give the nod to what’s implied to be going on offscreen; while Hoshi and T’Pol are having their meditation moment, Malcolm, despite being sick, dehydrated, and probably burned on one hand, continues to try to repair the engines. Furthermore, once it became obvious he wasn’t going to be able to manage it, he came up with another solution, which I’m guessing he presented to the other two as soon as they got back to the engine room, again before he got any water in him. If this is how he functions when he’s sick, then he’s got to be practically unstoppable at his peak.