Day 315: Enterprise, The Breach

Show: Star Trek; Enterprise

Episode Particulars: S2EP21, “The Breach”

 Summary: Phlox receives an urgent message from Denobula; a group of Denobulan scientists are exploring a cave system on a planet that’s recently demanded that all off-worlders leave immediately. Enterprise is the closest ship to hand, and they’ve got three days to find the scientists and get them to safety. While Mayweather, Tucker, and Malcolm go spelunking for them, Enterprise assists a fleeing transport ship in distress. To Phlox’s discomfort, one of the passengers, Hudak (Henry Stram), is an Antaran, a race the Denobulans were at war with centuries ago, creating a rift and dislike that has never healed. Hudak is badly injured and needs a specific medical treatment to save his life, but he doesn’t want to be treated by a Denobulan, and Phlox doesn’t seem all that thrilled about the idea either. Archer, not wanting someone to die on his watch, demands that Phlox work things out, but of course, it’s not going to be that easy.

Standalone Thoughts: Like “Horizon”, this episode is more Season One quality than mid Season Two quality, but I don’t consider that to be a bad thing. In fact, I admire the fact that the episode could once again have gone in a preachy direction with the Phlox plot, but it generally manages to avoid feeling like one. Sure, Phlox’s attitude is just a little too good to be true, especially given all we’ve heard about the tensions between Denobulans and Antarans, and there are some monologues that could definitely be seen as “important messages”. Yet for all that, it never gets too heavy-handed, perhaps because John Billingsley’s tone feels more like Phlox is reflecting rather than declaiming. Whoever’s responsible for keeping the Very Special Lesson vibes down to a minimum, I salute them.

As for the cave plot, it’s ok but nothing too special. Other than one scene at the midway point and a smaller scene at the climax, it’s mostly several people standing or walking around through cave sets, generally in dark lighting that can make it a little hard for the audience to see (I actually brightened the header image slightly so you could actually make out what was going on). The cave does feel like a cave rather than a set—I felt a touch claustrophobic at one point—and the acting is fine, but it’s definitely the lesser of the two plots, even though I suspect it was meant to be seen as the primary plot. That’s just the nature of the beast, though; sometimes, it’s the things deemed less important that wind up having the staying power.

How it Relates to the Whole: Once again, I don’t believe there’s any followup to either of the plots in this episode. That said, we do have some backwards looking continuity in the form of Mayweather being a climber, which was established in “Two Days and Two Nights”, and some forward looking continuity in the form of a tribble. Sometimes, I just have to make do with what few scraps I’m given.

Other: *Again, just one today, and it has to do with the aforementioned tribble. I kind of like the fact that it appears and things don’t wind up going the way most tribble stories go. Some people might have a problem with it, but on a purely subversive level, I approve.

Badass Malcolm Moment: It’s not much, but Malcolm winds up being observant of his surroundings on two different occasions, which gives the group a sense of direction as they’re trying to find the Denobulans. I told you he wasn’t the sort to miss little details.