Enterprise 0112 – Silent Enemy

Originally posted to ScoopMe! on January 16, 2002

LEAD-IN

Silent Enemy : ARCHER BUYS A CLUE

The bloom is off the rose as Captain Pollyanna Archer locks and loads.

SYNOPSIS

While the Enterprise is dropping of subspace radio amplifiers, a mysterious ship drops out of warp. Archer hails them, but to no avail. The ship warps away. Reed reports that sensor detected nothing.

The bridge staff brainstorms about who their visitor could have been, but with no inhabited planets nearby, or any useful information from T’Pol they return to their stations — except for Hoshi who whispers to Archer that she found “them” in Peru.

The “them” turns out to be Reed’s parents, who Archer talks to over subspace. Reed’s birthday is coming up, and he’d like to know his favorite food so that the chef can make a special dinner. Reed’s parents don’t know. Archer then assigns Hoshi the task of finding out Reed’s favorite food — and makes it a priority.

Archer talks with Tripp as Tripp goes about his duties around the ship. Turns out Tripp just got a Dear John. They start to talk about Reed when T’Pol interrupts over the comm saying that the alien vessel has returned.

Back on the bridge, Jon again tries to communicate with the ship. Hoshi detects something just before a painful screeching noise fills the bridge. Everyone except T’Pol clutches their ears. She says that they are being scanned. The alien ship fires on Enterprise before warping away. Reed reports that while the alien’s shields were down he scanned at least fifteen biosigns. T’Pol reports that their DNA isn’t on file.

Tripp reports to Archer and T’Pol that a bulkhead was just barely spared from having been blown out. If it had gone, a lot of crewmen, including him, would have been spaced. Archer concludes that Enterprise just isn’t equipped to handle the firepower of the aliens they keep running up against. He mentions that the ship has ports for phase cannons, but that they weren’t installed. He thinks it’s time that they go to Jupiter station and get the upgrade. Tripp and Reed argue that they can do it themselves. Archer nixes it. He wants the job done in space dock, but Reed and Tripp manage a concession to start the installations to cut down on the time they are out of action.

Turns out that Reed’s and Tripp’s “start” actually meant “complete”. They gather the engineering crew together and give them the “we can do it” pep talk.

Hoshi talks to Reed’s sister, but gets no more information from her than Archer did with Reed’s parents. Hoshi then talks over subspace with a friend of Reed’s who’s even less helpful. Hoshi’s getting frustrated. T’Pol suggests that she just “ask him”.

In the mess, Hoshi joins Reed. She says that she misses cooking. She then asks Reed his favorite food on the pretext that she’d cook something for him in her quarters. Instead of pretext, Reed sees subtext and begs off. Hoshi realizes how her offer could be interpreted and is almost as embarrassed as Reed before making an apologetic, if awkward, exit.

T’Pol reports that the alien ship is following them again. Archer tries to polarize the hull plating, but the Enterprise gets wracked by energy blasts again. Warp and main power go down. A shuttle from the alien ship comes over and a small scouting party boards Enterprise. Two crewmen on damage control work on a panel lit by their flashlights. They spot two figures moving and investigate. Instead, they are ambushed.

Archer and team find the crewmen’s flashlights, and almost immediately after, the crewman — unfortunately, two bipedal, almost humanoid, aliens are hovering over the crewman doing some sort of scan. Archer yells at them and then fires a phase pistol at them. They barely notice. Archer notches up the pistol to high and tries again. The aliens barely notice again, but appear to be done and leave. Archer calls Dr. Phlox. Before the alien ship warps away, it blasts the Enterprise’s port warp nacelle.

In sickbay, Phlox reports that the crewmen were victims of some invasive scans and he’s doing his best for them.

Tripp tells Archer that warp is going to take days to fix, but impulse will be available in a few minutes.

Archer hates the fact that he’s going to have to have the Vulcans rescue the pride of Starfleet. T’Pol reports that there are no Vulcan ships in scanning range, so Archer will have to contact the Vulcan High Command. But he can’t. The Aliens have destroyed the subspace amplifiers. Enterprise is on its own.

Tripp, Reed, and engineers work non-stop to get the repairs made and the phase cannons installed. When Reed gets a shock as a result of a “shortcut” he’s installed, he’s taken to task by Tripp for taking unwarranted risks with the ship. Tripp, pulling rank as chief engineer, insists they install the phase cannons by the book.

Archer confides to Tripp that he fears that it’s his (Archer’s) fault that Enterprise isn’t ready — that his enthusiasm to get into space has put the ship and crew at risk. Tripp assures him that they all knew the risk, and agree that their mission is worth it. Taking this as a cue, Tripp tells Reed to keep his “shortcut” as it’s an acceptable risk, and then lends a hand with getting the phase cannon on-line.

Two days later, and five days faster than what would happen at spacedock, the phase cannons are ready to be tested. They target the summit of a crater peak on a lifeless moon-size body. The two forward phase cannons are positioned and fired. Instead of shaving off a few meters from the peak, the entire mountain is destroyed (and then some). Many ship systems overload and blow out. T’Pol detects an anomalous reading.

Archer, T’Pol, and Tripp discover a device attached to the ship in a landing bay. T’Pol scans it and reports that it’s tied in to the ship’s systems. Archer goes to a panel and gives a speech to the aliens about spying and how humans fight on. Then Archer uses his phase pistol to destroy the device.

Hoshi goes to sickbay. The injured crewmen have been released, but that’s not why she’s there. She asks if the doctor knows what Reed likes to eat. The doctor is of little help until he remembers a nugget from Reed’s medical records. Reed is allergic to a particular plant enzyme that he receive periodic treatment for. The enzyme is found in pineapples. Hoshi leaves very happy.

The alien ship returns and follows the Enterprise. Archer order the ship to come about. The aliens hail Enterprise. It’s Archer’s surveiled speech to the alien’s now spliced so that it’s Archer telling Archer to surrender.

Archer orders Reed to fire, and twin phase cannon beams hit the alien ship. The alien is stunned but not seriously damaged. Archer wants the kind of power that destroyed the mountain in the test. Reed says that it was an effect of the energy overload. Archer wants the overload, even if it means losing a couple of decks — anything but surrender. Tripp technobabbles a solution to the overload problem. The alien ship is getting menacingly close to the Enterprise. Finally, Tripp is ready and once again two phase beams hit the alien ship. Its shields are damaged, and there are some surface overloads. Archer fires two torpedoes which damage an engine so that it vents plasma. The alien ship retreats under impulse.

Since there’s no reason to return to Jupiter station to have the phase cannons installed, the Enterprise continues on its mission.

In Engineering, Archer, Tripp, and Reed relax with some beers. Hoshi comes in with the “component” Archer wanted. It’s a birthday cake for Reed. A pineapple cake. Reed remarks that pineapple is his favorite, and is surprised that they knew. Hoshi and Archer are pleased with themselves.

FADE OUT

ANALYSIS

Maybe I’m just too cynical. Maybe I’ve read too much SF in my life and watched too much TV (is that possible?). So many stories about exploration are cautionary tales about the hubris of mankind leaping before it looks. You’d think that would have sunk in. I mean, how many whuppings does it take to realize that you’re the proverbial ninety-two pound (that’s 41.8kg for the sensible world) sand-eating weakling on the beach?

(Of course, the Vulcan’s could have been more forthcoming to help humans keep from getting their posteriors kicked so badly. Maybe a little mention about how pathetic our weapons were when faced with ships with honest-to-goodness shields would have been nice. Maybe even a bit of a leg up on giving us shield technology as well. I realize that the Vulcans don’t want Earth to become another Andoria, but really.)

Enterprise comes up against ship after ship that has energy shields and powerful beam and plasma weapons, and all Archer has in reply is some lasers and torpedoes that are only a small technological step above a thrown rock. Now, a hundred light years from home, and several skirmishes later, Jon realizes that he’s out-gunned.

Everyone, say it with me…. “Duh!”

Fortunately, in the grand tradition of all starships Enterprise, there is an engineering solution: install phase cannons. While this should require a week-long refit in (a presumably well-stocked) space dock, Tripp and Reed manage to do it in just two days while also having the warp drive repaired and hull reinforced sufficiently so that one or two decks don’t become patios. AND they manage to do this with only one prototype phase cannon while building the other two from scratch. Almost makes Scotty look like a slacker.

I do have to laud kudos on the fact that the round-the-clock engineering jag took its toll. With stubbled faces, disheveled hair, and ripening uniforms you could almost smell, Reed and Tripp (and to a degree, Archer) looked a bit haggard. While what they accomplished is not really believable even in the Trek-verse, at least the crew looked like they put in some hours.

Disbelief aside, I gotta say, that first test was kick-ass. I was almost expecting Tim Allen to pop up and grunt happily at this display of more power.

This of course leads to the first space battle that seemed even remotely even. Those two red beams spitting out of the bottom of the saucer to fry the shields of the enemy was a happy return to the fair fights of old. While the technobabble and solution to the overload problem was annoying (even for me — I don’t usually mind the ‘babble), the sight of the weapons firing took the bad taste out of my mouth.

While I realize that the crew was busy repairing the Enterprise after the attack and boarding, I was amazed that no one thought to search all the areas the aliens had been for signs of sabotage. Doesn’t anyone on the Enterprise crew read any SF or SciFi at all (or watch Star Trek? — but then again the wars of the 21st century probably fried all the copies)? Aliens who don’t talk to you, attack you, board your ship, then invasively scan some crew members probably aren’t worthy of fluffy bunny feelings. You pretty much have to be a tad suspicious. But Archer puts Pollyanna to shame in assuming the good from every species he meets.

Still, not searching the ship was more annoying than the phase cannon thing. Starfleet is supposed to be a military organization. You’d have thought that there was going to be some protocol upon discovering intruders. In the forth movie, the crew of the aircraft carrier U.S.S. Enterprise certainly didn’t have any qualms about investigating Chekov’s invasion of their “wessel”.

And then Archer phase blasts the mysterious globe. He’s been told that it’s hooked into ships systems: communications, sensors, Porthos’ food dish, etc. After seeing and feeling the effects this device had with the first phase cannon test, you’d have thought that the captain would want there to be a little research into the safety in blasting such a device. I mean, what if it was booby-trapped with thirty or forty grams of antimatter? Boom.

But who are these aliens? First impression — Borg wannabes, but without the personality. The CG-ness of them almost made them seem to be related to Species 8472.

Changing gears, I’m still not sure about the subplot of finding out Reed’s favorite food. You have to commend Hoshi, that even with all of the craziness, she followed the order that finding out was high priority.

Reed’s father was really a piece of work. In some ways, he kind of seemed like Sarek. Stiff. Want his son to follow the family line instead of going off on some fool’s adventure. The first comment by the audience at Casa Carter was, “Now we know why he went to space.” Clearly a planet wasn’t big enough.

Dr. Phlox’s breech of confidentiality was uncomfortable. Not so much that he checked Reed’s file, but that he was directly disclosing information. He should have more properly looked at the file, and simply stated the conclusion. Without stating the information it took to reach the conclusion, there’s no breech of confidentiality in this case. But then not only don’t we know the breadth of Phlox’s ethics, it would also have made for extremely boring drama (such as it was).

TIDBITS, IRKS and QUIRKS

Porthos sits on command. Not bad for a puppy.

Reed thinking that Sato was asking him to take the starch out of his shirt and put it someplace else — way too forced.

Something was wrong when Archer & co were searching for the alien invaders. Maybe it was the music, maybe it was the editing. There just wasn’t any suspense.

T’Pol’s “Ask him.” Vulcans are no fun.

You got your ship battered, installed weapons in a third of the time it’s supposed to take, and defeated the bad guys. Now it’s Miller Time.

Twin phase beams are just too cool!

So, what do you think? Who are those aliens? What do they want? Has Archer lost some of his innocence? Does Porthos leave little packages when he goes on one of those walks with Archer and Tripp?

As always, all discussions, speculations, and general rants and raves about the episode are welcome on the message board. Feel free to jump in.