Date: 6 May 2151
Having been in space for two weeks without any form of contact, the Enterprise comes across an Axanar vessel whose crew have been drained of essential bodily fluids. Although the Starfleet vessel initially retreats, Archer later orders a return to the scene of the crime, only for Enterprise to fall victim to the same alien aggressors.
Summary
Two weeks into their voyage into the unknown, the only first contact that the Enterprise crew have had is with a slug-like creature which they took from its planet and which is now dying. The only source of excitement comes in the form of Reed's weapons tests, which continue to fail dismally as the scanners remain out of alignment. The monotony is clearly getting to the crew, so Archer pounces on a report from T'Pol of a stationary object that appears to be a ship on long-range sensors. Warping to its location, the crew do indeed find a ship, but there's no response to hails. Although T'Pol points out that it may be that they simply don't want visitors, Tucker pushes the viewer in on what initially are taken to be venting ports but which, upon closer inspection, are clearly hull breaches from weapons fire. Archer's concern overrides T'Pol's warnings about violating alien property, and he leads an away team of himself, Reed and Hoshi to the ship. Gaining access, they detect what appears to be blood all over the walls before Hoshi lets out a panicked scream: in a large chamber, a group of fifteen aliens are hung upside-down from hooks, their bodies connected to some sort of hydraulic system which is draining them of fluid.
Returning to the Enterprise, Archer is clearly disturbed, while Hoshi says nothing at all. T'Pol admits that Archer's intention of offering help was admirable, but if Enterprise remains, the crew could be put in danger from the same assailants. Reluctantly agreeing, Archer orders a resumption of the ship's previous course. Hoshi remains perturbed by what she's seen and the fact that she "screamed like a twelve year old girl", and although Phlox kindly reminds her that it goes without saying that she will encounter the unexpected in space, she remains convinced that she needs to return to an environment more suited to her.
At dinner, Tucker's questions about the murdered crew and T'Pol's Vulcan detachment bother Archer so much that he orders a reverse course - back to the alien ship. "Humans have a code of behaviour ... I can't believe I almost ignored it," he berates himself. Once again returning to the alien vessel, he and Phlox identify the material being extracted from the aliens as triglobulin, which Phlox notes is worrying similar to fluids secreted by the human pineal gland. While they work, Tucker and Hoshi get the ship's communications system up and running, Hoshi translating the alien language and sending out a distress call. Hoshi is in the middle of telling Tucker that she's going to ask Archer to take her back to Earth when T'Pol signals: the ship which attacked the aliens has returned, with its weapons charged and ready.
The away team returns to Enterprise - barely - as the aliens open fire and disable the Starfleet vessel's warp drive. The Enterprise's torpedoes have no effect on the alien vessel's shields. After probing the crew with a submolecular bioscan, the aliens lock on a tractor beam and begin to drill into Enterprise's hull. Just then, another vessel arrives - one from the species who were attacked. When the universal translator fails to convince the captain of the new ship who was the guilty party as regards the murder of the first crew, Archer commands Hoshi to talk to him herself. Despite only having seen the basics of the language hours before, the young ensign manages to put across their desperation for help. The alien captain attacks and destroys the real culprits.
After helping the aliens recover their dead crew, the Enterprise crew spend time with their new friends, who call themselves the Axanar. Making a brief diversion, Enterprise finds a compatible world for the slug life-form, and Hoshi releases it into its new environment, commenting, "It's not that hard to adapt; you're gonna do just fine here."
Review
Second episodes of Star Trek television series have by tradition been rather uneven affairs. The original series didn't have a 'second episode' as such - after all there were two pilots. The Next Generation settled for a poor rehash of a TOS episode. DS9's "Past Prologue" was hardly a classic. And Voyager's "Parallax" was a combination of scene-setting and thankless techobabble. It's a welcome change, then, to see a series confident enough in itself to deliver a second episode which is actually bearable.
That's not to say that this is a slam-bang, everything-but-the-kitchen-sink instalment, but it's trying its hardest. It's got character development, a minor space battle, some good old-fashioned tension between senior crew members and it's a vehicle for a couple of the junior members of staff. This is without doubt a Hoshi Sato episode - the two main stories, of the Axanar and "Sluggo", revolve around her - but there are a couple of telling Reed moments as well, which show us he's something more than kust the token Brit in a crew of Americans. Endearingly, he's coming across as rather anally retentive, and at this point it's cute rather than cloying. In time, of course, it'll be necessary for Reed to become something other than merely an explosion junkie, but it'll do for the moment.
For all the attractions of the alien ship, which is a masterful piece of design - if the Vidiians have scorpions on their homeworld, then surely this is what they look like - and the attempt to carry over the action/adventure momentum from the pilot, this episode achieves a balance of characterisation and action which Voyager so often failed to master. From the captain on down (with the exception of Mayweather), there's a scene for everyone. Archer's was in his quarters, recording his personal log. "I can't assume that's the case, can I?" he asks about the Axanar not wanting visitors. The vulnerability in his tone and lack of certainty in private is exactly what I would expect from a captain out on the frontier for the first time, representing the whole of humanity. It contrasts well with his assuredness later in the epiosde when Enterprise returns to the murder scene.
Archer's foil, T'Pol, after being right about the Klaang mission in the pilot, is wrong in this instance. At this stage, her inconsistency is perfectly acceptable; she doesn't know humans and I doubt that she understands everything about quadrant politics. (The Vulcans in this series strike me as a little insular anyway.) At some point, the human impulsiveness for exploration and the need to assist and its contrasting Vulcan philosophy of caution and patience will need to reconciled; a happy medium found. We know that this occurs by the time of Kirk and Spock. I'd expect to actually see a good deal of that progress made in the next few years.
The rest of the principle characters enjoy brief moments of screentime. Reed we've already mentioned. Tucker confused me a little when he leant over the comm station in the Axanar ship right near to a load of blood dripping off the walls and said "I can't get enough of this!", before I realised that he was talking about the away mission. I can't believe that that Southern charm could override the fact that you had alien ammino acids staring you in the face. Phlox gets considerably more attention than in the pilot, and spends much of this episode acting as a teacher or mentor figure to Sato. His story about having to attend to a disaster on a ship orbiting his homeworld, full of corpses, lent him a wise old man air, but he still delivered his lessons with an aloofness which enabled him to maintain a sense of mystery. At times, he seemed to lapse into Neelix territory with his smiles and cheery optimism, but at the moment he's avoiding the dangers to stay on the right side of the line. One line in particular caught my attention: at home, he stated, people would never dream of talking during a meal, thinking it rude. Is Phlox your average Denobulan, or some sort of free-thinker? There's potential there, methinks.
As stated, Hoshi dominates the episode, which builds upon the nervousness she showed while translating Klaang's words in "Broken Bow". Her problems run the full gamut, from being put off by having the stars travelling the 'wrong way' in her quarters to being claustrophobic in the environmental suits to nearly breaking down in tears on the bridge in the middle of the attack on Enterprise. She stayed just the right side of whiny and irritating in those climactic scenes - although I may be biased here, because I happen to think that Linda Park is the most attractive out of the entire cast! - but that sort of behaviour could quickly get very wearing. Let's hope that this first season is deboted to helping her grow out of what seems to be a very adolescent lack of self-confidence. Comparing her to a slug removed from her homeworld wasn't very subtle or flattering, but the metaphor worked. By series' end - and with Phlox's help, perhaps - she should have a little more belief in herself. In the meantime, it's not at all unwelcome to see a crewmember who isn't totally in control of themselves.
One final point for you to chew on. Do you think it's safe or wise for the Enterprise crew to broadcast the location of Earth to aliens they've just met, with no idea as to their intentions or disposition? I know it's supposed to be a charmingly naive move, but it misfires totally. Some elements of Starfleet surely weren't as retro as Hoshi's earpiece (a nice nod to Uhura which I absolutely love). Doesn't Starfleet Security exist during this time period? |
