Anyone who has been keeping track of my reviews over the course of the season knows that my least favorite character is probably Mayweather. Sure, I have my issues with T’Pol and the actress who plays her, but at least the character is written in an interesting way. Mayweather, on the other hand, either comes across as overly knowledgeable or downright boring.
It has always bothered me that although the Enterprise is supposed to be the first Starfleet vessel engaged in active and deep-range exploration, there were these traders out there that were having all kinds of contact with aliens for generations. For one thing, it takes away from the idea that the Vulcans were doing everything possible to limit human exploration. Also, it takes a little away from the concept if some of the aliens encountered are not as new as they appear.
In this case, an attempt is made to make the entire commercial trading angle a little more sensible, while going a long way towards creating a little bit of tension among the human population. It makes a certain amount of sense that any private commercial conglomerates with generations of experience in deep space would become more than a little agitated by the rising interference of a government-run fleet of ships. As we see here, many of these ships are family ventures with generations of tradition already established, and the existence of this new force threatens to overwhelm those traditions. In the same way, there are codes of conduct that a private and autonomous vessel would have to develop and uphold.
All of this is interesting in its own way, but as the writers realize, this is not exactly the stuff of episodic drama. The format of the series does not engender itself to an in-depth exploration of the dispute between two waves of space exploration, because each situation requires a resolution before the end of the hour. Sure, these conflicts of interest will appear again, but unlike a series such as “Babylon 5”, very little effort has gone into the creation of a detailed background for the universe in which Enterprise takes place.
And so the obvious solution is to make sure that there is a character who can embody the conflict that is being depicted. If the character is well written and well-portrayed, then this can lead to a wonderful scope of drama. If not, then you get something that feels overwrought and more than a little tedious.
This is where the character of Mayweather comes into the picture. Ever since the series began, he has been used for the occasional comment of exposition or the fount of space exploration folklore. As a child of the commercial trading vessels, he has a wider scope of experience in space than most of the crew. It’s amazing how poorly this has been implemented over the course of ten episodes, but there we are. What makes it worse is the flat and uninteresting way that the actor approaches many of the scenes. Even when the scene calls for some real emotion and conflict, the actor delivers the lines with a distinct lack of emotion and inflection. It takes all the charge that should be in such a scene and sucks it dry.
Another problem with this episode is the need for the writers to insert an alien race mentioned here and there in the other recent Star Trek series: the Naussicans. The problem is that the Naussicans shown here are not even remotely the same, in terms of behavior, as they have been depicted before. There is very little of the hair-trigger anger and violence, especially in the hostage. There are plenty of times when the hostage could have attacked one of the humans keeping him bound, and not once did it happen.
Some of these differences might have made sense from the standpoint of when this series takes place in relation to the timeline in which the other appearances were made, but that still points out a number of inconsistencies. The Naussicans here are just as opportunistic as the ones shown in Picard’s time, and they have much better technology. And yet, at the end of the episode, we are led to believe that the teeny missiles of the Enterprise are supposed to convince the Naussicans to back down!
All in all, the plot is quite simple. The commercial traders believe that they have the right to execute someone who attacks them as justice for wrongdoing, without interference from outside authorities. Starfleet feels that it is the law when it comes to human activities in deep space. When the two forces collide, this should mean something.
Unfortunately, due to the weakness of the Mayweather character, and the actor who portrays him, it didn’t feel like something that mattered.
Some other thoughts:
- Neat effect of the football game in the cargo hold, with the low gravity clearly evident!
- The Fortunate showed a lot less damage when the Enterprise showed up than the Naussican attack footage would have suggested.
- I like the idea of the generational commercial trading ships, but given the fact that Cochrane developed the warp drive about 100 years before, it seems there was very little time before those ships would have been out there.
- I liked the continuity of having the Starfleet official from the pilot giving Archer a briefing, nice continuuity.
- On the other hand, even with the nod to subspace relays being distributed to help with communications, there should have been some delay in the transmission.
- Hey, looks like someone finally remembered that Porthos was around!
- Mayweather was trying waaaay too hard to make it sound like Starfleet was paradise compared to the commercial trading vessels. It became annoying to hear that.
- Once again, if the Naussicans have phaser weapons on their fighters, why would they be worried about the dinky missiles on the Enterprise? They never established that the shielding was crappy enough for the missiles to make a difference, after all!
- Also, it was just a little too easy for Archer to convince the Naussicans to play nice at the end.
- It was too convenient to have the commander of the Fortunate to act kindly towards Archer. Having that tension grow between the existing human space ventures and the symbol of Starfleet progress would have been a nice touch.
- I wonder what kind of impression this little mess made with the Vulcans keeping tabs on the Enterprise? Humans taking shots at each other for the sake of vengeance probably didn’t look too good...
Overall, this episode began with a premise that was more or less doomed in the Star Trek franchise, given the lack of cohesiveness that tends to pass for the Star Trek universe. Adding to that Mayweather’s central role in the dramatic proceedings, and it just drags. Definitely not one of the better offerings of the season.
