Now, That's More Like It!

I've spent so much time being critical of Enterprise, on this blog and elsewhere, that it seems only fair of me to offer up praise when the show actually does something right. Let it be known, then, that I in fact quite liked tonight's episode, "The Catwalk." It's no Trekkish classic, to be sure, but it was a good, solid, entertaining episode, and, hey, that's all I really ever asked for from the show.

To begin with, the premise -- which involves the entire Enterprise crew having to retreat to a cramped but heavily-shielded "catwalk" area for a week in order to wait out some kind of radiation storm -- is a pretty good one, with a lot of potential for exploring some interesting character dynamics. And, amazingly enough, it actually does follow through on that potential. The brief scenes between Archer and T'Pol, in particular, do much more to make their relationship feel believable and interesting than any number of episodes like "A Night in Sickbay" -- in which the writers were all but waving their arms around and shouting "Look, there's tension between them! All kinds of tension!" in our faces -- could possibly achieve. Phlox's scenes were also quite good. The bit where he's expressing his distress over the possibility of having to leave some of his critters behind to die ("I am not accustomed to emotional appeals.") is played with an emotional understatedness that's very rare in Trek, and it's nice. And, while Travis still doesn't get much of anything to do, characterization-wise, at least there's one reference to that potentially interesting but never-developed background the writers gave him, so he's better served here than in most episodes.

There were also a couple of really obscure little continuity nods that I greatly enjoyed. Cool Continuity Nod #1: On the catwalk, a crewman is doing a crossword puzzle and needs know know the name of the first Vulcan ambassador to Earth (six letters, ends in "r"). Archer gives it to her: Solkar. In case you haven't happened to watch The Search for Spock lately, Solkar was the grandfather of Sarek and great-grandfather of Spock. It seems those ambassadorial genes really do run in Spock's family! Cool Continuity Nod #2: T'Pol makes a reference to the kaswan ritual, in which Vulcan children are sent into the desert to survive on their own for several days. This comes directly from the animated episode "Yesteryear." Which pleases me greatly because, unlike many or most Trek fans, I've always regarded the animated series as canonical Star Trek. Especially "Yesteryear," which was a darned good episode. (Hmm, I wonder if those are ever going to be released on DVD?)

Sure, the episode was hardly without problems. Once it gets away from the character stuff and into the action bits, it starts to drag a little. And there are a few plot points I really have to wonder about. (Why didn't they just evacuate to the planet? Why didn't the aliens' sensors pick up the life signs of the crew? If the bad guy had access to Archer's logs and was wondering where he went, why didn't he just call up the most recent entry: you know the one that undoubtedly says "We're all going to go huddle in the catwalk to wait out the radiation storm"?) But in an episode that's otherwise entertaining, I can forgive a few loose ends and minor plot holes.

Oh, and, whatever Enterprise's faults (and, yes, they are many), I do have to give it credit for being the first Trek series to admit that even Starfleet's finest do have to use the bathroom occasionally.

OK, Enterprise writers, let's have more like this one and less like last week's! Pretty please?