#Enterprise Rewatch

[weerd1]

ENT Rewatch Starlog, 18 March, 2024: Episode 3.16 “Doctor’s Orders”

Phlox and Porthos walk through an apparently empty NX-01, stopping to visit Captain Archer who lies asleep with a device on his forehead.

Flash back to a few days before and there is an area of spatial anomaly brought on by the spheres between them and Azati Prime. It would add a lot of time to go around, and if they go through damage the human minds. Phlox suggests that he would not be affected. He’ll put all the human crew into a mental stasis while Enterprise crosses the area of space. 

At first, Phlox is having a fine time, getting caught up on writing to friends, playing with Porthos, occasionally feeding his pets in the nude. But while watching a film, he hears something moving.

Tracking it through the ship he ends up in the shuttlebay, and indeed finds T’Pol—also not sedated—who doesn’t know what he’s hearing. The incidents get worse, and Phlox sees Xindi insectoids on board. T’Pol finds nothing, and suspects Phlox is having some sort of breakdown, possibly based on loneliness considering how social Denobulans are. He insists on checking the ship with a phase pistol, and upon almost blasting Porthos, begins to realize that maybe she is correct. He scans and finds that in fact there is a non-lethal, but potentially hallucinogenic effect in his brain. 

He prepares to put himself under and leave T’Pol in charge since they will be through the region of space in six hours, but she begins to panic, also suffering from the anomaly. Worse, the area has expanded faster than anticipated, and though Tucker said they shouldn’t, the ship will have to warp to escape. Phlox and T’Pol bumble through with her seemingly useless.

They do escape however, and once free, Phlox’s mind is restored. He wakes up Archer, and before going on to the crew escorts T’Pol to her quarters. There he finds the Vulcan sedated; the T’Pol he has been talking to has also been a hallucination. 

A fun episode that makes you feel like it’s falling into the helpless T’Pol trope, but is saved in the reveal that she couldn’t help because she isn’t real.  It does turn out to be a nice exploration of Phlox’s character and a good way to do a bottle show while still getting the overall arc to move along. I do wonder though is Phlox hallucinates almost shooting Porthos; the Beagle forgives him pretty quickly.

Nice callbacks as well to the earlier episode “Dear Doctor” with Phlox’s friend Dr. Lucas getting a letter. We’ll of course get to meet the good doctor in Season 4 during the Augments story arc. 

Also a fun line when Phlox suspects he’s hearing things because the week prior, Trip showed him “The Exorcist.” 

Next Voyage: Archer has to determine whether all his eggs go in one basket after Enterprise finds a Xindi Insectoid “Hatchery.”

(Images taken from the main website for @trekcore; I am happy to remove the images if asked.)

[spockvarietyhour]

Hoshi knows exactly what's she doing and she's milking T'Pol on this for all she's worth

[mostly-natm]

Let’s hear it for the oldest surviving Soong brother!

[kyurochurro]

this weeks (and LAST weeks too cos I took forever to finish WHOOPS) uni sketch is from the one with the whales ft. movie spirk taking an ice cream date in the middle of their mission! the consensus from the masses was that Spock would eat mint ice cream >:p

[spirk-trek]

S1E28: The Alternative Factor ⋆.˚ ✧ · ˚⊹ ·

[floralandfailing]

If I watched Star Trek tos regularly I would have it finished in a month or so, but I am weak and cannot do that to save my life. It's going to take me 5 years at least

[odo-apologist]

My dealer: Got some straight gas 🔥😛 This strain is called "Alien Pollen" 😳 You'll be zonked out of your gourd 💯

Me: Yeah whatever. I don't feel shit

5 minutes later: Dude I swear I just saw some rock people talking with T'Pol deeper in the cave

My buddy Trip pacing with a phase pistol: The Vulcans are lying to us

[deltaquadrantbaby]

Trip (who was initially presented as the erratic one) becoming the voice of reason who follows T’Pol and Archer around trying to stop them getting themselves/the entire ship killed is excellent character growth

[walkingstackofbooks]

Watching Enterprise and suddenly - is that ODO??? It is!! Rene Auberjonois, what are you doing in the 22nd century?!

[mirabilefuturum]

Trip: would you rather commit suicide or-

Malcolm: I'd rather commit suicide yes

Trip: I didn't finish the-

Malcolm: no worries :)

[dark-elf-writes]

I had no idea that Paramount Plus has like all of Star Trek including the movies in chronological order so about to become unbearable

[weerd1]

ENT Rewatch Starlog, 25 February, 2024: Episode 3.15 “Harbinger”

Trip is taking what he’s learned from T’Pol’s neuropressure sessions and having his OWN sessions with Corporal Cole of the MACOs. She expresses interest in taking it further, but has also gone to Phlox to mention she’s been having headaches afterward. Phlox informs T’Pol and suggests she try to undo Trip’s missteps with the Corporal. T’Pol gives her very unhappy stoic face.

Meanwhile, Major Hayes of the MACOs has approached Archer about providing combat training to senior Starfleet officers, which Malcolm takes to be an attempt on Hayes’ part to take over ship security. He grudgingly goes along with it, but the sessions prove to be escalating one-upmanship between the Starfleet Lieutenant and the MACO Major. 

While all THAT interpersonal drama is going on, Enterprise discovers an enormous cluster of spatial anomalies equidistant between five spheres.

They pick up a life sign in a small pod just inside the anomaly, and with some dangerous moves manage to retrieve an unknown alien. He claims to have been a prisoner from a different dimension of space who was forced into the pod. Archer begins to think some of those myths about the Sphere Builders returning D’Jamat and his people from “Chosen Realm” discussed might be somewhat true, and this alien may be like a canary in a coal mine to see of the spheres are changing local space to be what those builders need. 

After various shenanigans and awkward discussions between T’Pol, Trip, and Cole, Trip and T’Pol are conducting a neuropressure session where she reveals that Sim—the Trip clone from a few episodes back—told T’Pol that Tucker has feelings for her. After some repartee, T’Pol kisses Trip, and disrobes, and the two have sex.

Meanwhile, Hayes and Reed are in the gym sparing and the testosterone takes over, and it becomes a brawl that spills into the corridor. About that time though, the alien reveals himself able to phase through matter and walks to engineering where he proceeds to reach in and damage the warp core. Fresh from their fight, Malcolm and Hayes manage to tweak the engine to zap him and stop him.

The Alien reveals he was there to stop the NX-01, and when the Xindi destroy Earth, his “people will prevail,” before phasing completely out.

Trip and T’Pol have an awkward coffee together where she says their encounter was basically her just exploring her curiosity about human sexuality, but Trip does think they should continue neuropressure. Archer dresses down Malcolm and Hayes, who seem to have resolved their differences after their own physical session. 

Rare to see a Trek episode that has an A, B, AND C story going on all at once. The parallels between the Trip/T’Pol and Reed/Hayes stories do not however seem coincidental. Yeah, I’m a T&T shipper, though some of T’Pol’s very human jealousy here seems more than a bit forced, I’m not sure the eroticism between those characters was any more dramatic than between Reed and Hayes when they were fighting. Jesus, guys, just kiss already. Archer leaving them in his quarters after his lecture without dismissing them, and neither wanting to leave drives the point that these two are really pretty similar home.

But T&T DOES finally consummate here including a scene that shows about the top third of T’Pol’s bare “bum,” that as I recall was actually edited in some parts of the country; how quaint.  Some of how this all plays out I think does weaken T’Pol’s character a bit, but I guiltily accept it as these two are on my OTP list, so what can I say? 

Meanwhile, there is an age-old Trek foible here that I will never quite understand. What keeps an alien (or flashing back to TNG in the episode “The Next Phase” Geordi and Ro) who is phasing—seemingly uncontrolled as he can’t control his disappearance at the end—from falling through the floor?  Or staying in one point in space while the ship moves around them, since surely gravity and inertia won’t work on them too?  How can he use hands to climb the ladder to get on top of the warp core, but put his hands through the top to reach in a reach havoc? OK- MAYBE in this case he has more control over the process than they indicate so he’s just CHOOSING to have the bottom of his feet only phase for walls and not floors, but…it always makes me shrug. 

Finally, my THANKS to this episode for my all-time favorite Enterprise GIF:

Next Voyage: With the crew sedated, Phlox is home alone in “Doctor’s Orders”!

(Images taken from the main website for @trekcore; I am happy to remove the images if asked.)

[spockvarietyhour]

[fargreencountryswiftsunrise]

New Trekkies Finding Out About Starfleet

Image link.

[Caption description: Astronaut meme.

Earth labeled Star Trek with emblem.

First Astronaut: Wait, Starfleet has been prone to corruption in every series?

Second Astronaut with original series Star Trek title over gun: Always has been.]

[setyourphaserstoslutty]

Archer is literally the Reagan of Star Trek

[forfuckssakejim]

I am not,,,, immune to t'pol in a crop top and booty shorts....