Well, it didn’t take long for an episode to come along that shows just how incredibly stupid the human race can be.
Now, granted, we’ve made it to space. There are apparently people running around in cargo ships between established worlds, and have been for some time. We’ve run into the Vulcans, who know an awful lot, and are extremely unimpressed by our track record for keeping our noses out of trouble. And we’ve had a Starfleet long enough that officers are trained in all kinds of situations, including scenarios with mind-altering substances.
And yet the first thing that ran through my mind was the scene in “Galaxy Quest” where Crewman #5 screams at the inept actor who’s pretending to be the engineer: “Don’t open that! Hello! Is there even air? Can you breathe it?”
So the Vulcans have an incredibly detailed and admittedly boring process for preliminary exploration of an unknown planet. Well, you see, there’s a reason for that. It’s the same reason that you don’t walk into a room without turning on the lights first, when you’ve never even been in that building before!
But the humans, punch-drunk on the idea of exploring on their own, decide that little things like mission protocols and safety precautions are completely unnecessary, and damned inconvenient. Not only do they jump at the chance to land several people on the first planet with a vaguely similar atmosphere, but the captain brings along his dog and lets a few of the crew camp out for the night!
And then we wonder why the Vulcan keeps rolling her eyes in every scene.
Now, don’t get me wrong. This is the kind of thing that I was desperately hoping for when I heard about this series in development. If they couldn’t make the premise total camp, based entirely on the groovy sets and uniforms (and wonky ethics) of the Original Series, then I wanted to see them go out with all the best intentions and constantly end up over their heads.
Captain Archer is a great character, because his flaws are right there on his sleeve along with his heart. He’s not out there to impress the universe with human morality or take a hand in creating a happy boring galaxy under Federation guidelines. Heck, there is no Federation, no Prime Directive, and no other Starfleet vessels that even come close. This captain is out there to “go find neat stuff”.
Not only that, but he’s surrounded by an entire crew of people with basically the same mindset. Oh, look, an alien with a warrior culture who scares even the Vulcans! Let’s take it home! Fly into a gas giant? Sure, why not! Jump into a ship that’s been gutted? Anything other than staring at those boring white streaks outside the windows! Camp out on a planet with unknown planet and animal life?
Well, we know the answer to that one!
If this were just an episode where the stupid humans got what was coming to them, it would have been “Voyager”. But this episode was also the perfect time to show how the lack of advanced technology changes the usual Star Trek rules. They didn’t need technobabble to explain why they couldn’t beam out the affected personnel. The situation was very simple. Can’t land the shuttle, you’re staying on the planet. End of story!
The main story was more or less predictable, but it was a nice way to allow Tucker and T’Pol to let out their true frustrations. I said after the pilot that I hoped the anger towards the Vulcans would remain unresolved, and so far, that as been the case. The humans don’t like T’Pol, they don’t trust T’Pol, and given a good reason, they would likely toss T’Pol out of an airlock.
On the other hand, I’m beginning to get a better sense of why T’Pol is being played as so obviously disdainful. The Vulcans have only seen us on Earth or in very controlled situations. They see our history, our reactions to the unknown, our volatile passions, and they see themselves as they were. The Vulcans likely feel responsible for giving humanity a reason to go out and explore the galaxy, and seeing who we are, they cannot help but find us wanting. They have no reason to consider humanity as an equal or even a potential force for unity.
The Federation comes into being 10 years from the time portrayed, and so one has to wonder if it’s T’Pol’s exposure to humanity’s better qualities that leads to the trust and respect that emerges between the humans and Vulcans by that point. It’s something to think about.
But I still don’t like the actress who plays T’Pol!
At first I didn’t like the long segment where they were just hanging out around the campfire, because I thought it dragged on too long. But once the episode was over, I saw why they wrote that scene into the episode, and why it was important. Even though these people are dealing with extraordinary circumstances, they are still people. Earth hasn’t been in space long enough for it to have changed the way they think or react. And in the end, that is what makes even the most mundane situations from previous Trek incarnations that much more interesting.
And also, that much more dangerous.
Some other thoughts:
- I’m waiting for a scene between T’Pol and the doctor where they wonder if they will manage to get off the ship before the humans get themselves blown to pieces.
- I like how they didn’t even think to check the weather patterns!
- I also liked how inexperience left them vulnerable to not looking for things in the air that could effect them…which means, of course, we will have the inevitable aphrodisiac episode!
- At the very least, the dog would have served as a warning if it keeled over after running through the grass…
- I love how their shuttle pods are labeled, “Pod #1”. “Pod #2”, etc…
- The more I see of Mayweather, the less I like him. He’s not being played convincingly.
Overall, this was an episode that would have been typically mundane had it taken place on any of the recent Trek incarnations. But it was the fresh and completely unrestrained aspects of the time period in question that made it work.
