Plot – There was an awful lot happening in the previously on teaser that I knew nothing about but it did an adept job of getting me up to speed with what the characters have been through and where they are now. This must be precisely what it is like when people dip into latter DS9.
I really like the idea of the MACOS on Enterprise, a military force that steps on toes of our regulars and brings some much-needed tension on the Ship. I’m not sure how this episode explores that idea (it takes it to the most childish level imaginable – playground shoving) but the idea of injecting some muscle into the ranks and ruffling some feathers is very welcome.
The Xindi arc elements are merely a side issue from all the emotional baggage that is under the microscope but there are some concessions made to assure the audience this is still taking place in the same season.
Character – There’s two schools of thought on the character content of this episode and I think both are perfectly valid. One is that it reduces Enterprise to the level of a high school soap where the boys get into scraps because they both think they’re the toughest and love triangles explode with angst and overwrought emotions. Is this where Star Trek should be? No, and it’s certainly a regression from the more sophisticated characterisation to feature on TNG, DS9 and VOY. On the other hand it is far more entertaining (on a mostly superficial level) than the vanilla characterisation this show flaunted in the first two seasons that as a television viewer I would rather be laughing my head off and peering through my fingers wincing than yawning or falling asleep altogether.
Watching Mayweather handle himself in a fistfight is just about the most impressive thing I have seen him do on this show. Which says a great deal about his character.
Performance – I’m not sure if I’m not very keen on Reed or if it is Dominic Keating’s performance. There is a way to play the scene where Archer tells Reed that his security team will be conducting drills led by the MACOS without looking like he has stepped on his dick, but he doesn’t manage to find that. He looks like a child pouting as he slumps off to do as he’s told. Even worse is when he is making things deliberately awkward for Hayes and spits in his face about defying his authority. Frankly he needs to be brought down a peg or two here and if a swift right hook is the only way to do it, so much the better. The Security Chief should be better than this kind of ridiculous macho posturing. Keating is like a petulant child throughout much of this episode and I was just waiting for the moment where Hayes spilt a little of his blood. Hayes is presented as the reasonable one in this conflict, both in terms of acting and script. Mayweather couldn’t look more like an idiot when he bunches his fist in the corridor ready for round fifteen.
Production – The Reed/Hayes fight scene is very nicely done but it’s strange that all these years later they haven’t quite got the knack of disguising the stunt doubles faces ala TOS. Reed’s double has a completely different haircut which is a huge visual giveaway.
Worst moment – Star Trek trying to be sexy is usually the worst kind of Trek. Remember those outrageously sexist episodes of the Original Series where Harry Mudd used women as commodities or the sex virus episodes of TNG and DS9 that turned the crew into love sick puppies…or even worse the Irish themed VOY episode that featured Janeway making a personalised dildo that walks and talks. It’s often agonising. I can see how they are trying to add an element of lust into this crew that has been oddly missing since the show began (aside from all those decontamination scenes) but they go about that by having long luxurious shots of massage and exquisite lighting falling on exposed flesh. It’s commendably sensual but feels a little exploitative. Especially that gratuitous shot of T’Pol’s butt that made me howl with laughter. I’m not sure where the happy medium is. Star Trek to me isn’t characters grabbing hold of each other and fucking. Perhaps that is my problem and not the show’s themselves.
Sod all is resolved by the end of this episode, terms of the a, b or c plots. Reed and Hayes get a ticking off but still loathe one another, Trip and T’Pol made love but that is brushed under the carpet and who knows what that alien canary was all about. Even within serialised storytelling you have to have some kind of a culmination for the individual pieces. This throws lots of information and emotions up in the air and just lets them drop to the floor.
I wish they hadn’t done that – It’s terribly frustrating in these kinds of episodes when characters don’t simply say what they are feeling for one another and the script writers find awkward plot contrivances to get them talking but not about how they really feel. The whole ‘headache inducing acupuncture’ thread is an absurd way of forcing T’Pol to tell Trip to stop seeing Corporal Cole when she should just say that she has feelings for him and it causing her pain to see them together. Trip isn’t a monster and I’m certain he would respond in kind because it’s clear that ultimately he has eyes for T’Pol. But no, we go on a merry dance for 45 minutes of agonising angst when honesty would have gotten us there a lot smoother. It comes to a point where Tucker expresses jealousy about a clone of himself who has managed to express how he feels about T’Pol and I just wanted to shake them both and tell them to drop the pretence and be truthful.
A reason to watch this episode again – This is essentially a bit of breathing space from the Xindi arc to catch up with the characters and where they are right now. That’s a laudable goal. Presenting the characters focussed on as a bunch of adolescents that can’t keep their feelings under control (be it jealousy, anger, passion) in a professional environment is perhaps not the best way to showcase them. Again I ask – what the hell is the point of Hoshi and Mayweather and why aren’t they being given any of this valuable breathing space? Let’s call this Star Trek 90210 and if you don’t like the idea of that, give it a miss.
** out of *****
Clue for tomorrow's episode:
No comments:
Post a Comment