Thankfully, the humans we are used to getting a good laugh at were smart compared to…you guessed it…other humans!
So here’s the general premise, for those who missed this little gem. A little over 70 years before the series, there was this little colony ship that set out for a planet 20 light years from Earth. And since warp technology was very new at the time, it took 9 years to get there. So these humans go to all this trouble to go to this planet, and what happens? An asteroid hits the northern hemisphere right after they land, spreading radioactive material over the whole area and killing off the entire adult population. Being resourceful and apparently much more civilized than most human children, the kids survive underground and actually manage to breed.
And of course, no one on Earth knows this happened, because the Novans told Earth to screw off and leave them alone. Now, all of 2 generations later, the Enterprise comes along to find out what happened.
The episode started out by giving me hope…as is usual for humans at this time, the captain and several top officers fly down to the planet to see what is going on. You know, the guy who commands the ship, the only guy who understands the weapons systems, and so on…apparently, all the nonessential personnel. After one of the stupid humans runs after an unknown lifeform quite a long way from the rest of the team, they wind up exploring some caves. I mean, it’s not as though caves aren’t a great place to set a trap or anything, right?
Then Reed gets shot…yes, shot…and now the captain is forced to figure out what happened to the colonists to drive them into the caves, and what to do about it.
It’s remarkably straightforward from there. The Novans don’t trust humans, and Captain Archer just wants to recover the colonists and make sure they can live nice little human lives. This presents a nice moral debate. Archer makes the typical Western mistake of thinking that it would be so much better for the Novans to rip them out of their culture and environment, such as it is, and toss them into the 22nd century. T’Pol does a very nice job of using logic to smack Archer upside his elitist head and make him understand that if he were to do that, it would end up doing a lot more harm to the Novans than simply fixing their problems on the planet.
Because you see, 70 years after the asteroid hit the planet and contaminated the entire area where the Novans live, that radioactive material is just now beginning to seep into the water supply. So one way or another, if the Novans are going to survive, they need to get out of the hole in the ground where they presently live and get somewhere a little less deadly.
Thus begins the long process of getting the Novans to actually trust the crew of Enterprise. As usual for Star Trek, this takes no longer than the latter half of the episode. Of course, Archer plays the card of showing one of the oldest Novans a picture of her family when she was younger, to prove that the Novans are in fact human and therefore have no reason not to trust them. You know that will work, because causing severe emotional trauma among the elderly is always a good way to engender trust.
I love the final act, if only because there are so many little interesting thoughts that wind up running through your head. Basically, Archer takes the Novans back to the planet’s surface and winds up collapsing several meters of tunnels with the weight of the shuttle pod. This winds up trapping one of the Novans under a big tree trunk in the middle of a puddle of rising water. Recall that the water is contaminated and that they all live underground. All that aside, Archer winds up helping the Novan leader rescue the poor injured guy, and trust is secured.
And finally, at some point, it occurs to “rape the culture” Archer that, hey, the asteroid only contaminated the northern hemisphere…so why not relocate the Novans to the southern hemisphere? Never mind that the audience has been screaming that solution at the screen since the relocation problem reared its ugly head 30 minutes earlier…
It all ends with Trip suggesting that Mayweather, the character practically screaming to wear a red shirt in the next episode, write the report to Starfleet, since he’s so interested in the whole “lost colony” business. Actually, I think it was just a sneaky way to get Archer out of some of that pesky paperwork.
You know, now that I think of it, maybe I was wrong. This episode actually does continue the “humans are stupid” theme! After all, even if the characters aren’t quite as dense as usual, Berman and Braga are always willing to pick up the slack!
Some other thoughts:
- For those still concerned that the producers of Enterprise are running roughshod over continuity, even after last episode’s hilarious re-introduction of the old-style Klingon battle cruisers, then feast your eyes on the design of the colony ship. It’s extremely similar to the designs previously established for the period in question.
- First ghost stories, now lost colonies. Is Mayweather going to justify his existence by being the “folklore” expert now?
- I like how Trip insults T’Pol for not remembering the Terra Nova colony, then portrays that typical American (and perhaps human) ignorance himself!
- It’s nice to know that Starfleet officers are taught to run after unknown beings on their own while in unfamiliar environments.
- So the Novans forget that they are human after only two generations, even though some of the original kids that survived are alive. And yet, those same kids that forgot they were human somehow managed to remember enough survival skills to stay alive this long.
- Oh, and they didn’t remember the big, honkin’ rock that fell out of the sky, either…
- Interesting that the radioactive debris managed to confine itself to the northern hemisphere. Apparently it was the magic debris that doesn’t get carried by ocean currents or weather patterns.
- Then again, this magic debris also takes 70 years to contaminate the ground water!
- How stupid are humans? Learning nothing from thousands of years of Earth history, the Novans plant their colony smack in the middle of a very old flood plain.
- Oh, another oddity…the kids couldn’t remember they were human, didn’t remember the big rock, live underground, and yet manage to remember how to build primitive firearms that fire projectiles that spark when they hit crumbly rock.
- The humans got kinda indignant when the Novans shot at them, but…um…Reed fired first!
- Why did Nadette get all freaked out in the futuristic MRI machine? She’s lived in cramped tunnels all her life!
- Interesting…so the reason they don’t use the transporter is because Reed is too deep to retrieve. To say nothing, I guess, of the really good chance of turning him inside out…
- I nearly spit out my drink when T’Pol suggested collecting the Novans with stun grenades and chaining them in the cargo hold! Nice way to point out Archer’s whopping lack of respect for the Novan culture, though. I guess these things happen when there’s no Prime Directive!
- OK, maybe it’s the engineer in me, but did they really think that the shuttle pod would fall into the ground for that long a time, just to go 8 meters?
- I always wanted to know where those Gregorian chanting monks from Down Below on Babylon 5 went, after “There All the Honor Lies”. Now we know. They taught the Novans “beauty in the dark”, too, hmm?
- How nice of the injured Novan to get himself caught under the huge tree trunk to get hurt at the bottom of a shaft with a conveniently tapered walkway leading from the entrance to the bottom…
- I’m sure the Novan was also very happy to have Archer using his weapon (only stun and kill, remember!) to cut the huge tree trunk in half…right over his body!
- Oh, and after wading in all that contaminated water, I’m sure Archer was just thrilled. I mean, the Enterprise only has that decontamination gel stuff from the first episode, right? Him and those two male Novans, making like Trip and T’Pol…
- Or maybe they made a party of it and Archer decontaminated himself when all of the Novans were presumably treated for exposure. Novan Jello-wrestling in cargo bay 3!
- That might also explain why Trip suggested Mayweather write the report. Archer might have been a very, very tired captain…
Overall, this episode was not quite as impressive as the previous offerings. It reminded me too much of a plot one would have seen during the first season of “Next Generation”. Still, the time period in question opened the door for interesting situations, like the wonderful debate between T’Pol and Archer over the fate of the colonists.
I give it a 7/10.
< -------------------------------------------------------------------------->
Next Episode
Back to Season 1
Back to the Enterprise
Email:
