Day 285: Enterprise, Fusion

Show: Star Trek; Enterprise

Episode Particulars: S1EP16, “Fusion”

 Summary: Just before the Enterprise arrives at a nebula Archer’s always wanted to visit, the ship is contacted by a Vulcan transport ship that’s in need of repairs. It turns out these Vulcans are ones who are trying to blend logic and emotion, and are therefore much more personable than the Vulcans Archer is used to. Archer is intrigued by this, while T’Pol shows mild disapproval all around. What follows is a lot of exchanges; Starfleet engineering aid for Vulcan sensor aid in charting the nebula, Vulcans learning about human customs and vice-versa, and T’Pol becoming mildly curious about this different philosophy. If you think this is a conflict-free episode, though, you’re in for a surprise.

Standalone Thoughts: This is one of those episodes that’s hard to review on a rewatch, because knowing what happens colors your opinion of events. That said, I think I’d still have a lot of the same opinions even if I was watching it for the first time, so this isn’t as bad as I think “Inquisition” was over on DS9. Although they both share making me uncomfortable in common.

It’s hard to know what to make of this episode initially. There are aspects of it that are being played for comedy, there’s some bits that are supposed to be heartwarming, and the overall feeling is one of mild contentment. It’s perfectly fine material, but it mostly feels on par with “Strange New World” or “Unexpected” in the sense that it’s watchable but doesn’t really seem to be going anywhere, except in the sense that we’re getting a new wrinkle in the Vulcan-Human dynamic. And then we get to the last act.

Simply put, the episode takes a turn for the creepy, and while it was foreshadowed here and there (made especially obvious on a second viewing), it still feels abrupt and unsettling even if you’re prepared for it. Some people might not like this abrupt shift and the very heavy implications of the scene, though I personally am okay with it. I do think it doesn’t entirely mesh well with what came before, but that’s kind of par for the course at this point. Furthermore, it leads to a great moment for Archer, which is probably the highlight of the episode, and I’m glad the writers gave him the opportunity. I just wish we could have seen a bit more follow-through on it in the last few minutes of the episode. Although that being said…

How it Relates to the Whole: In addition to introducing another classic Star Trek trope, this episode will have long term consequences in more ways than one. I know of one plot point that directly develops from this, and I have a suspicion that some of T’Pol’s actions in the third season, as well as a story arc in the fourth, grew out of this story as well. Not bad for something that feels like a one-off.

Other: *The only thing that really caught my attention today was that T’Pol’s dream sequence was very obviously supposed to be aping film noir, from the smoke and shadows to the jazz music. As I’ve mentioned, I love a good noir homage, but this one felt a little too calculated. It’s slightly better in a subsequent scene, but that’s also the really creepy scene, so I don’t necessarily approve of it having that association either.

Badass Malcolm Moment: Malcolm has maybe a dozen lines in this episode, but he does make a memorable entrance at one point, where I was half-convinced he’d deliberately arrived at just the right moment because he was planning on causing some trouble (or in internet parlance, doing a little trolling). Sadly, the episode went in a more conventional direction, but that entrance is still perfectly timed.

After the Fact Update: Memory Alpha doesn’t reveal anything overly interesting about the episode itself, but I did learn something amusing; one of the actors in this episode is a guy named Robert Pine. His son, Chris Pine, would go on to play Kirk in the reboot Trek movies. Funny how things work out sometimes, isn’t it?