Enterprise Pit Stop

You know, I really am liking this season of Enterprise. Last night's episode (which I taped and watched this morning) was the third one in a row that I've actively enjoyed watching, as opposed to the "Well, I'm watching it because it's on, but, damn, isn't it over yet?" reaction I had to a lot of the first season. In case you haven't seen it, the plot of this one is that Enterprise stops at this incredible alien super-science repair station which fixes the ship -- and the injured Malcolm -- up real nice for a bargain basement fee. So, naturally, Archer (and the viewer) spends the whole episode just waiting for the catch... (And, no, I'm not going to tell you what the "catch" is, but there may be other mild spoilers, so be warned!)

Yeah, OK, it's far from a perfect episode. It drags a bit in the middle, and the "catch," when it comes, isn't as startling and shocking as one might hope. It also leaves a lot of unanswered questions: Who built this thing? Why, if the computer has so much processing power, and if the rest of the technology is so frelling incredible, does it seem to be totally incapable of understanding 90% percent of anything anyone says to it? Etc., etc. Actually, though, I'm not too bothered by those. I almost kind of like the fact that the whole thing remains a mystery. And, as for that second question, I find it easy to convince myself that the machine was just playing dumb.

But the concept itself was neat (and visually quite well-realized, although I would have preferred it, I think, if the interior sets had been a bit more alien-looking). The suspense worked pretty well, because (unlike with many Enterprise episodes), I couldn't predict exactly what was going to happen. Even more important than that, though is the fact that the Enterprise writers have finally figured out how to blend characterization and plot into the same story.

I complained last season that Enterprise always seemed to do either characterization-based stories in which nothing much happened, or plot-based stories in which the characters pretty much could have been replaced with any random set of Generic Starfleet Officers and absolutely nothing would have to be changed. This season, though, that seems no longer to be the case, and the improvement, in my opinion, has been vast.

Some random thoughts about this particular epsiode:

I like the fact that last week's events had consequences, and even dictated what the plot was going to be this week. There was a time, back in the Next Gen days, when I would even have gotten really excited about that. Look! Continuity! Wow! I've since been completely spoiled to the point where I now expect that kind of continuity, and get unhappy when I don't see it, but perhaps it's worth mentioning, anyway.

Speaking of continuity, I like the way the Tellarites have now been referred to a couple of times this season. The Tellarites are a species we haven't seen since the days of TOS (understandably, really, because they're obnoxious and look silly), but one got the impression that they were an important part of the Federation, so it's good to see their existence acknowledged, at least.

Back in TOS, the joke was that Kirk always had to go and get his shirt ripped in the fight scenes. Enterprise seems to have gone one better in this regard; there seems to be a rule that at least one crewmember has to get his or her shirt completely off every other episode or so, whether there's any plot reason for it or not. Two weeks ago it was Hoshi, this week, it's Travis. And, judging by the scenes from next week, they're definitely continuing this trend...

I love the comedy team of Malcolm and Trip. It was fun watching them get in trouble together in "Two Days and Two Nights," and it's fun watching them get into trouble together here.

And I am deeply impressed with John Billingsly as Phlox. I don't know how the guy does it, but he manages to take even the most mudane or sheerly expository lines and endow them with a real sense of (if you'll pardon my use of the word) humanity. Phlox gets more solid characterization in one line of technobabble than most of the other characters get in an entire episode, and I think all the credit for that has to go to Billingsly. Phlox rules! I want more Phlox!