Day 365: Enterprise, Terra Prime

Show: Star Trek; Enterprise

Episode Particulars: S4EP21, “Terra Prime”

 Summary: Paxton, having moved his base from the moon to Mars, has taken control of an array used to deflect comets and says that if all aliens haven’t left Earth within twenty-four hours, he’ll fire the array’s beam at Starfleet headquarters. Enterprise heads out to stop him, using one of the previously deflected comets to shield their arrival. Meanwhile, Tucker is forced to work on fine-tuning the array, and T’Pol gets to know her daughter, who’s clearly an innocent in all of this. Even if the characters don’t know it, the audience is aware that the results of this mission will determine the direction the Alpha Quadrant will take for the next two hundred years. And what an interesting direction it will be.

Standalone Thoughts: On its own, the episode is ok, mostly by virtue of the action scenes and the sincerity on display in the last few minutes. As the payoff for an arc…it’s not quite as successful. For a start, neither Samuels or Gannet wind up really being all that relevant. Samuels is basically reduced to “bureaucrat who doesn’t want to rock the boat” , and while Gannet gets a scene suggesting there’s more to her, it’s a classic example of “tell don’t show”. There’s nothing wrong with them in theory, but after the setups they were given in “Demons”, they could have been used a lot better.

(I’m also disappointed that they copped out and assigned a certain revelation to a random character we’d never met. I guess they were trying to keep their options open just in case the studio changed their minds and uncancelled the show, but some of the impact is lost when we have no idea who this character is.)

A second, bigger problem is that I still have no earthly idea what Paxton’s intent was with the baby. He really hates the idea of Humans being corrupted by intermixing with aliens, so he…creates a mixed-species kid? If you’re trying to make a point, wouldn’t it be better to do something like find a way to age the child rapidly, then manipulate her into doing something bad so you can have what appears to be proof of your claims? Just showing people a mixed-species baby doesn’t seem like the most convincing argument. Maybe there’s something I’m just not getting, but that entire subplot/aspect of Paxton’s plan is just baffling to me.

 On the more positive side, the action scenes are well-paced, the plan to get onto Mars is clever, and all the characters are given something to do (though Hoshi’s role is once again a touch Mary-Suesque). I also like the fact that, after spending five Trek franchises seeing what’s going on on other planets, we finally get more of a sense of what Humans have done with the moon and Mars in the Trek universe. It’s nice that the writers aren’t ignoring what’s going on in our own backyard, so to speak. And like I said, the ending (Archer’s speech, Mayweather’s discussion with Gannet, and especially the scene with Tucker and T’Pol) feels genuine and generates some good feelings, even if some of them are bittersweet. It’s not the ideal way to end a show, but it’s an acceptable one. It’s certainly better than the actual ending we got…

How it Relates to the Whole: Had the show continued, I suspect this episode would have been seen as the setup for a relationship between Gannet and Mayweather, the Coalition gradually turning into the Federation, Tucker and T’Pol finally committing to their relationship, and Malcolm having at least one more encounter with Harris. But obviously, this is just speculation. The one thing that’s definitely relevant is the material surrounding Tucker and T’Pol’s child, because it’s obviously meant to pave the way for everyone’s favorite half-Human half-Vulcan, Spock. One last pleasant homage for the road, I guess.

Other: *I mentioned in the previous review that it looked like the writers were setting up more interactions between Malcolm and Harris, even though they were being cancelled. It kind of looks like they were trying to walk that back somewhat today, or at least make things more ambiguous. I’m fine with leaving it open-ended as to whether or not Harris and Malcolm would ever meet again, but with what happened in the last episode and Malcolm outright saying today that he knew Harris would help because “you’d never miss a chance to put me in your debt”, it makes the end of the scene ring a bit hollow. It’s not as bad as it could be, but I wish the writers could have had the courage of their convictions and leave the plot thread dangling instead of inexpertly tying it up.

*For most of the episode, the music has the sort of semi-dramatic sound you’d hear in any Star Trek show; semi-noticeable but not too memorable. The one exception comes at about the halfway point (when Tucker gets thrown into a room and he starts to MacGyver his way out), when the music takes on a synth-heavy, almost 80’s feel. Maybe it was an homage to MacGyver, but it was jarring. A clear example of being memorable for all the wrong reasons.

Badass Malcolm Moment: Malcolm admittedly does not acquit himself very well during the big action scene, but he makes up for it both with a nice moment of authoritativeness later, and in my selection for this category earlier in the episode, when he meets with Harris and makes it clear that he’s no longer under Harris’ thumb. Harris even says that “the student has surpassed the teacher.” Glad you noticed, sir.