"Extinction"

Written by Andre Bormanis
Directed by LeVar Burton


In which Archer, Reed, and Hoshi fall victim to a mutagenic virus, forcing Trip to lead an effort to save them, while unknown adversaries insist that they be destroyed...

Synopsis - Analysis - Memorable Quotes - Observations


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Synopsis

As the episode begins, an unknown creature runs through the brush of an unknown planet, chased by a few humanoids in EVA suits. The creature is chased to a downed vessel, where he is surrounded and incinerated...alive.

Meanwhile, on Enterprise, Trip arrives at T’Pol’s quarters for another neuropressure session. This time, though, he brings her some Georgia peaches to sample. She takes a bite, but doesn’t seem to be interested. In the middle of the session, Archer calls T’Pol to the command center. He shows her the last planet listed on the course log in the Xindi database. The planet is only a day away; Archer orders the crew to set a course.

When they arrive, there’s no sign of humanoid life. However, something metallic is found on one of the islands. Archer decides to take Reed, Hoshi, and T’Pol to the surface. They find the downed vessel, as well as a couple of charred bodies. Archer recognizes the vessel as a Xindi landing craft.

Before much can be determined, however, the four of them begin to experience painful physical changes. The three humans succumb quickly, suffering massive internal alterations. T’Pol, however, only suffers minor effects. She tries to communicate with Enterprise, but the altered humans prevent her from explaining the situation. Within moments, the three humans are fully changed, with no memory of their former existence.

T’Pol is taken prisoner, but the three altered humans can’t decide what to do with her, since they can’t understand her speech. Hoshi seems threatened by T’Pol’s presence, while Archer is fascinated by her. T’Pol manages to convince them to give her the Universal Translator that Hoshi is carrying.

On Enterprise, Trip wants nothing more than to send in the troops. But Phlox warns them that T’Pol’s message might have indicated that the humans underwent a mutagenic change, evidenced by the unknown lifeform readings for the three aliens with T’Pol. Trip decides to continue with the rescue plan, using EVA suits for protection.

Communication more or less established, T’Pol learns that the three are searching for a city called Ur-Quat, where their people are supposed to be. T’Pol tries to get them to contact Enterprise, but when that fails, she prods them to continue on their search for Ur-Quat. On the way, Archer establishes his dominance as Alpha male by beating Reed for his food.

Trip lands in a shuttlepod, prompting the altered humans to attack. In the process, Reed is stunned. Trip realizes that the altered Archer is leading the attack, and T’Pol tells Trip to take Reed back to Enterprise, while she remains with Archer and Hoshi.

On Enterprise, Reed acts like a caged animal. Phlox detects a highly effective mutagenic virus in Reed’s blood. He determines that T’Pol’s genetic profile gives her strong resistance to the virus, but developing a cure would require an active DNA sample. Before they can get any further, two alien ships arrive. The alien in command demands that Trip prepare to be boarded, placing Enterprise under quarantine.

Trip doesn’t take kindly to the idea. The alien commander informs Trip that 60 years of study has failed to yield a cure for the mutagenic virus, so the standing policy is eradication. Trip makes it clear that he is not going to allow the aliens to enforce their policy until Enterprise has a chance to look into options.

On the planet, Archer dreams about Ur-Quat, and sees an underground city of thousands, clearly the product of a strong and vital civilization. Archer tells Hoshi about his dream, and how thousands of Lokek are waiting at the city for them. Despite T’Pol’s attempt to remind Archer of his true origins, he is eager to find the way into Ur-Quat.

On Enterprise, the alien commander is unimpressed by what Phlox has discovered. The alien commander explains that a huge portion of his people had been infected by the Lokek virus, forcing mass eradication as the only solution. The Lokek had been decimated by an unknown incident centuries earlier, eliminating reproduction, and as a result, they created the mutagenic virus as a means of restoring the population by infecting offworlders who came to the planet. The alien commander does not know why the Lokek virus was never deactivated.

When the alien commander learns of the others on the planet, even the knowledge that T’Pol is naturally immune does not prevent him from ordering his people to “contain” those on the surface. Trip recognizes that they cannot get a shuttle to the surface, and the transporters would allow the virus onboard. However, he does remember the peach that T’Pol bit into, which contains her DNA.

Archer finds the way into Ur-Quat. However, unlike his dream, the city is in ruins, the Lokek long since dead. Archer and Hoshi are crushed. T’Pol asks them to return to Enterprise, so they can find out why happened to Ur-Quat together. Archer wonders if T’Pol’s people destroyed the Lokek, but when others arrive at Ur-Quat, T’Pol urges them to run for cover.

The alien containment team sees them run for cover. Their commander orders them to take the Vulcan, but burn the others. The aliens catch up, and Archer subdues one of them. T’Pol stops him from killing the injured alien. Of course, when the other aliens discover that the injured alien’s suit is compromised, they burn him to death.

Once outside, T’Pol, Archer, and Hoshi are surrounded by the aliens. T’Pol is pulled away, but before Archer and Hoshi can be killed, Trip and Reed beam to the surface. T’Pol convinces Archer and Hoshi to follow them to the shuttlepod, where they can go to Enterprise for safety. As soon as the shuttlepod is onboard, Enterprise goes into warp. The alien vessels follow, ready to take down Enterprise to stop the spread of the Lokek virus.

Trip tells the alien commander that Phlox thinks he found a cure, but it takes the appearance of Archer and Hoshi for the claim to be convincing. Trip and Archer offer the cure to the aliens, and manage to stop the “containment” of Enterprise. The altered humans are more or less fully restored, though the process is painful and takes several days.

With the crisis over, Phlox offers to destroy the last of the mutagenic virus. Archer, however, disapproves of completely eliminating what represents the last of the Lokek species. The captain feels that they cannot allow that to happen, when they are in the Expanse to save humanity from extinction. He orders Phlox to place the mutagenic virus in stasis for safekeeping.


Analysis

Any attempts to change the direction of a series without also changing the production staff has its growing pains, and this episode is essentially the first real stumble along the way. In fact, it wouldn’t be wrong to say that the episode wouldn’t succeed on any level without the inspiration of the new direction behind it. Too much of the Andre Bormanis script is a retread of a well-worn franchise concept.

“Genetic mutation” episodes have never fared well for the Star Trek franchise, and in fact, they carry with them the stigma of automatic reset button usage. After all, main characters are seldom transformed permanently, and that means that the only question is one of resolution. This episode telegraphs that solution to the problem from the very beginning, so in many ways, the rest of the episode carries the burden of making the episode worthwhile.

That effort would have failed, had it not been for the clearly energized efforts by Scott Bakula and Linda Park. Both sell the alien transformation extremely well, and Bakula makes the yearning of the Lokek compelling. Archer in particular manages to convey the intelligence of the Lokek, after the initial animalistic side effects of the change subside.

Bakula’s performance is important, because the plot itself is lacking. The idea that a human being could be almost instantly transformed in a structural and physiological manner is absurd. The transition itself would be fatal, just accounting for shock and internal trauma. By adding the concept of genetic memory to the mix, it makes the entire premise flimsy at best. Given that weak foundation, it is amazing that Bakula and Park manage to sell the concept so well.

Bakula and Park lend a subtle nature to the Lokek transformation that rises above the basic pack mentality dynamics that are initially portrayed. By the time that Archer dreams of the vast and beautiful Ur-Quat, it’s clear that there is something more than a primal nature to the Lokek. It’s still hard to see how the Lokek managed to build anything, let alone rise as a strong culture, but it works when Bakula expresses loss at the sight of his city in ruins.

Little else about the episode is so subtle. The containment aliens aren’t even given a name, serving only as the heavies in the situation. While they are given a general motivation along the way, they still seem to be too focused and narrow-minded. They exist purely to provide an outside pressure on finding a cure, but in essence, that shouldn’t have been necessary. It might have been more interesting, if ultimately just as clichéd, to depict Phlox racing against time to develop the mutagenic cure to save the affected officers. (At the very least, the acting would have been better!)

Given how weak the main premise was, the benefits of strong continuity make themselves apparent. This episode is neatly tied into the procurement of the Xindi database in the previous episode, and there is a methodical connection made, rather than just an offhand reference. Similarly, enough is made of Archer’s decision to keep a sample of the Lokek virus to suggest that he has plans in mind.

Archer has to be aware, from his own experience and the evidence found on the planet, that the Lokek virus works on at least one species of Xindi. Given his struggles with morality since the attack on Earth, it wouldn’t be outside of the realm of possibility to suggest that Archer might use the virus as a means of eliminating the Xindi species that launched and/or advocated the attack. Of course, the mutagenic virus could be altered to affect only the Xindi species behind the attack, since Phlox was obviously intelligent enough to modify the mutagenic virus to reverse the alterations in the first place.

That brings up another side to the “genetic mutation” problem. It’s one thing to have this virus rapidly alter someone into a Lokek, and have it actually leave that person alive. It’s quite another for Phlox, with almost no advanced medical equipment, tailor a new mutagenic virus to reverse the process over the course of several days. If the creation of the original virus was so remarkable (and once again, it’s hard to see how the Lokek as shown could have accomplished it), then how could Phlox essentially do the same thing in a matter of hours?

The end result, taking all factors into account, is an episode that actually stands about as well as it would have as a “Farscape” or “Stargate” episode. The concept itself is highly flawed, and it all comes down to how the actors manage to sell the conversion. The acting in this episode is well above the average from the second season, and that helps the episode rise above its own logical flaws. Without the strong direction and acting, this would have been a miserable failure.


Memorable Quotes

Nothing memorable this time around, with the exception of that intriguing sound that the Lokek-humans kept making...


Observations

- So they change the title to “Star Trek: Enterprise”...but keep that awful theme music?

- Nice white catsuit this time, but I still like the blue one best!

- Linda Park does those jerking head movements a little too well...

- Also, Keating’s voice is incredibly disturbing!

- It’s hilarious when Archer starts touching T’Pol in an “interested” way...and then just starts purring, while jabbing her oddly with his fingers...it’s totally out of left field...

- Mmmmm...grubs!

- OK, so someone’s been watching the Discovery Channel lately...Pack Dynamics 101?

- Cool looking alien ships...but they looked oddly like something from the latest “Star Wars” prequel...

- The city effects were incredibly unrealistic...the only question was whether or not they were CG or miniatures!

- I can’t help but think that Hoshi is still cute, even as one of the Lokek...

- Archer’s grief is so palpable...the longing and loss sound incredibly real...

- Interesting to see Archer and Phlox switch sides in the eradication argument!

Overall, this episode suffers from the flawed concept at its center. However, the acting more than makes up for it, and the direction steers clear of some of the more obvious mistakes that could have been made. Easily the weakest of the Xindi episodes, but no worse than the bulk of the second season.

I give it a 6/10.


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