Day 288: Enterprise, Oasis

Show: Star Trek; Enterprise

Episode Particulars: S1EP19, “Oasis”

 Summary: While attempting to barter for supplies with a trader (Tom Bergeron), Archer is informed of a crashed ship in a nearby system that’s loaded with supplies. No one has salvaged it yet because there’s something odd about it. Archer heads over and brings an away team down to check it out, and sure enough, there’s a very distinct impression that they’re being watched. But it’s more than just imagination in this case; T’Pol and Tucker soon discover a group of aliens, the Kantare, living in a subsection of the ship. They’ve been living there ever since they crashed three years ago, and have managed fairly well, all things considered. Archer offers to help them repair their ship, which most of the group reluctantly accepts, but which the youngest, a woman named Liana (Anne Wersching), enjoys, because it allows her to meet new people. However, it very quickly becomes obvious that all is not as it seems. Though when one of your guest stars is best known for having played a changeling, that’s probably inevitable.

Standalone Thoughts: The big thing that stands out to me about this episode is that you can see the twist coming a mile away. You’ll probably figure out what’s going on long before the characters do, leading to that frustrating sensation that you’re just waiting around for the plot to catch up to you. To make matters worse, the camera cuts to a reaction shot at one point pretty early on in proceedings, and it lingers just long enough that the audience knows immediately that something’s up. Even if we know something odd is going on—this is Star Trek, after all, and very few episodes with plots like this end with everything just fine and nothing suspicious going on—there was no need for the episode to be that blatant about it.

I also think the episode has a few shifts in tone that don’t quite gel with each other. The first part of the episode is clearly trying to go for a spooky vibe, then you get a little of the standard “exposure to a new thing” fluff with Tucker and Liana interspersed with the blatant foreshadowing, then you get some dramatic scenes for the climax before ending with something more hopeful (albeit abrupt; it kind of feels like the episode got cut off mid-conversation). There are bits that work in all this, but it does wind up feeling like a mishmash when all is said and done. Toning down the “haunted house” feeling might have been wise here.

Still, the overall quality of the episode is still on par with the rest of Season One. The ending is sweet despite everything, the atmosphere mostly works (aforementioned issues aside), and it’s really nice to see Rene Auberjonois again, even if a part of me is surprised that they let him have a guest starring role on another Trek show. Jeffrey Combs playing multiple roles is one thing, since his roles have always been supporting characters, but seeing Auberjonois as a (different character) guest star after being so used to him as a lead can be a little jarring. You may be glad to see him, but the thought is still there. But since it doesn’t really detract from the episode, it’s relatively easy to overlook and just enjoy getting a little reminder of DS9. Or at least, that’s how it works for me.

How it Relates to the Whole: I don’t think there’s any followup to this, so about the only connection this has to the rest of the series is the references to the incident in “Unexpected”. Come to think of it, it has more in common with that episode than it first appears…

Other: *I can’t help but feel like the crashed Kantare ship looks like a Star Wars star destroyer. Either it was a bit of an homage, or there just are certain ship designs that pop up in every sci-fi franchise. I wouldn’t be surprised by either, honestly.

*We get another title drop/Cinemasins “Roll credits” moment in today’s episode. I wouldn’t comment on this if there hadn’t been a pause before the word, as if the episode itself was drawing attention to it. When you’re that obvious about it, you have to be prepared for a little bit of mockery.

Badass Malcolm Moment: Malcolm’s the one who first notices something amiss and starts to piece together the truth thanks to his scans. Though it’s not too surprising that the reason he realized something was wrong was because there wasn’t any evidence of weapons fire…