Day 356: Enterprise, Babel One

Show: Star Trek; Enterprise

Episode Particulars: S4EP12, “Babel One”

 Summary: The Enterprise has been tasked with carrying the Tellarite Ambassador, Gral (Lee Arenberg), to a neutral territory so that the Tellarites and Andorians (who apparently butt heads as much as the Andorians and the Vulcans do) can make steps towards peace. On the way to said territory (named Babel One), they pick up a distress call from our old friend Shran, whose ship was destroyed by a Tellarite vessel. Naturally, this causes tensions to run high…until an Andorian ship shows up and attacks Enterprise despite Shran telling them to stand down. Curious, the Enterprise gives chase, hoping to get to the bottom of this. And of course, the situation is far more complicated than anyone expects…

Standalone Thoughts: This episode is somewhere in the middle as far as arc openings go. It lacks the exposition heavy nature of “Borderland”, but also doesn’t have the same intrigue that “The Forge” had. It certainly has its moments, but overall, it’s more mildly interesting than exciting, even though there’s several firefights and a dramatic cliffhanger reveal. This may be because it tried to put several genres together that don’t always mesh. It starts as a humorous culture clash between Humans and Tellarites, then moves to a more serious type of culture clash when the Andorians show up, then becomes a mystery with hints of intrigue, and then has a large stretch that’s kind of a survival story, with horror trappings thrown in. Individually, these elements are decent, but they don’t always flow naturally into each other. So while the episode is certainly watchable, it doesn’t have the same punch that the better Enterprise episodes do.

There are only two other things really worth discussing. One is that Jeffrey Combs is, as always, great to watch. In particular, his last scene in this episode is a delight when it comes to both acting and characterization. The other is unfortunately more negative, and that’s that the episode makes it just a little too obvious that there’s more to the situation with the enemy ship that meets the eye. Maybe I’m saying that with the benefit of hindsight, but I do think that if you’re paying attention and/or are trope savvy, you’ll figure out that aforementioned reveal long before it actually happens. It’s not as bad as other “wait for the plot to catch up” moments, but I do feel like the writers could have done a better job at keeping it in the dark.

Given that the Augments arc started out poor and then got better and the Vulcan arc started out well and then turned into a mess, I have no idea how this arc is going to turn out. I’m just hoping that having Jeffrey Combs around will at least ensure one good scene per episode. Though naturally, I’ll be happy if there’s more to enjoy too. We’ll find out soon enough, though…

How it Relates to the Whole: In addition to obviously setting up the next two parts of this arc, we get a returning character from “Proving Ground” and a callback to an episode from Season Two (I won’t say which one because of spoilers). Had things been a little different, I also suspect this would have served as more setup for stories, if not an entire season-wide arc, in future seasons. Unfortunately, we’ll just have to make do with what we’ve got and wonder what might have been.

Other: *Just one observation today, and it doesn’t even directly have to do with the episode, although now’s a particularly good time to bring it up. Enterprise is the only show in Star Trek (with the possible exception of Discovery, since I haven’t seen it) that uses actual dates instead of the more baffling stardates. The thing is, we actually don’t get official dates all that often. This isn’t noticeable when you’re watching the show proper, but look on the DVD’s, Memory Alpha, or the Wikipedia page for the list of episodes, and you’ll notice that a lot of the dates of the episodes are “Unknown”. Then you look at the show and realize that Archer starts a lot of episodes with “Captain’s Log, supplemental”, instead of giving a date. I’m not sure what their reasoning behind this is, but sometimes it can lead to some oddness, as in the case of this episode. The last official date we got was in “The Augments”, and it was May 27^th, 2154. Then the Vulcan arc happens, and we can assume it takes place over a relatively short amount of time. “Daedalus” states outright that it takes place a week after “Kir’Shara”. Then this episode happens…and the official date is November 12^th. I know we’re supposed to infer that time passes in-between the various episodes, but that’s a pretty large jump. It’s not important in the grand scheme of things, but I just find it odd.

Badass Malcolm Moment: This was a tough one, because Malcolm has a fair bit to do in the second half, but at the same time, there’s nothing particularly noteworthy, good or bad, about his actions. The best I can come up with is that he not only remains calm despite the situation he’s in (and he’s once again the one having the worst time of it; I guess tactical officers just can’t avoid some aspect of The Worf Effect), he instigates casual conversations and even makes a few jokes. It’s not the same grace under pressure that he showed in “The Forge”, but it’s close enough, as least as far as this category is concerned.

After the Fact Update: According to Memory Alpha, it was after this episode aired that the network pulled the plug on Enterprise, but at least allowed it to finish its run. Somewhere in there, however, they cut the number of episodes from twenty-four (which would allow the show to have a hundred episodes) to twenty-two. It’s things like this that make me think Enterprise really got the short end of the stick.