Show: Star Trek; Enterprise
Episode
Particulars: S1EP18, “Acquisition”
Standalone
Thoughts: As with most Ferengi-centric episodes, this episode is clearly
meant to be comedic, and on the whole, I’d say it works. There’s definitely
amusement to be had in seeing Tucker run around the ship in his skivvies, and
the various tricks Archer, Tucker, and eventually T’Pol use are predictable but
still fun. Plus, Jeffrey Combs is nearly always fun to watch, and since the
situation, dialogue, and music all make it clear that we shouldn’t be taking
this too seriously, I’m more than happy to go along for the ride. That being
said, there are a few things that make me raise my eyebrows, so while I think
this episode is in the upper middle of the season rankings wise, I’m spending
the rest of this section talking about the flaws.
First up, the writers attempt to be creative kind of
winds up backfiring on them. We’re dropped into the story in media res, with the Enterprise
crew unconscious and the Ferengi boarding the ship. This is a decent
technique and probably would have been fine if that was all there was to it.
However, the writers also made the decision to have the Ferengi only speak in
their native language, because there’s no human with a universal translator
around. This is fine if it’s only for a minute or two, but this goes on for at
least ten minutes, and while we can get the overall gist of what’s going on,
not being able to understand them can get frustrating after a while. A brief
(one or two minute) montage of the Ferengi wandering around the ship stealing
stuff before cutting to Trip being the only one awake might have gone a long
way towards fixing this problem.
Secondly, T’Pol doesn’t quite seem like her usual self
this episode. She not only makes a comment that feels very un-Vulcan like, she
later withholds assistance (though not in a crisis situation) out of what seems
like nothing more than spite. While I’d like to be generous and say that this
may have some connection to what happened in “Fusion”, I’m pretty sure the real
explanation is that the writers (and possibly the director and other
crewmembers) thought the material was funny and included it without thinking of
whether it made sense for the character. The moments are still amusing, but I,
at least, feel like they’re just a little bit off.
Most importantly, the ending is a little anticlimactic.
Why does Archer do what he does, exactly? Granted, we haven’t seen a situation
like this on Enterprise before (and
neither have they, come to think of it), but it doesn’t seem like something
Starfleet would teach their officers to do. Then you have the fact that the
ending isn’t as satisfying as it looks at first glance if you stop and think
about it for a few seconds. Not to mention the fact that the implications made
by Archer at the end don’t exactly mesh with Star Trek lore, at least if my dim memory of The Next Generation serves me right. I’m sure more dedicated fans
than me can come up with some sort of justification for this, but I’ll stay in
the corner with the grumpy continuity hounds on this one.
How it Relates to
the Whole: While the Ferengi (these specific ones or the species in
general) will not be returning to Enterprise,
one thing they say about slave markets may wind up coming back in Season Four,
although my memory’s hazy on that front. Otherwise, take this episode as
intended; a silly one-off. And there’s nothing wrong with that.
Other: *As
evidenced by my header, the outfits the Ferengi wear are relatively sedate,
especially compared to what they were capable of on DS9. Yes, this is an earlier era, but it was still odd to see. And
then this happened…
…And all was right with the world once more.
*One thing I have somehow failed to mention up until this
point (probably because it hasn’t played a large role in the series to date) is
that Archer brought his beagle, Porthos, on the ship with him. I only bring it
up now because when the Ferengi encounter him, he’s awake and pretty alert. I
have no idea how their knockout gas works, but using the same logic as the use
of canaries in coal mines, wouldn’t Porthos have been the first to fall
unconscious, and possibly been out of it for longer? Then again, I’m no expert
on animal physiology, so I could have this entirely backwards. I’ll leave it to
biologists and chemists to sort this one out.
Badass Malcolm
Moment: While there is a very vague hint that Malcolm may have regained
consciousness offscreen at the end of the episode, what we see onscreen doesn’t
fully support that. So I’m just going to have to go with the fact that he’s the
only member of the senior staff who managed to retain his dignity. Phlox passed
out facedown in Sickbay, Hoshi and T’Pol were dragged to a cargo bay and
treated as merchandise, Mayweather was unceremoniously dumped off his chair
(which was then stolen), Archer was handcuffed, beaten, and used as a mule, and
Tucker spends a good chunk of the episode running around in his underwear.
Malcolm, meanwhile, fell unconscious at his station, in a position where he’s
not going to wake up with the imprint of the console on his face, and the
Ferengi never try to get close to him. Maybe they instinctively knew he was a
force to be reckoned with.
After the Fact
Update: Interviews with several writers for the show have them trying to
justify the Ferengi showing up by saying the Ferengi are never mentioned by
name, so nobody knew what race they were and thus preserves TNG continuity, but that’s a copout, and
it appears that producer Brannon Braga knows it, because he called it “an act
of desperation” and said there was “no excuse” for it. I’ll give him some
credit for acknowledging a mistake, though I don’t think it was that bad.
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