Enterprise 0116 – Shuttlepod One

Originally posted to ScoopMe! on February 13, 2002

LEAD-IN

Shuttlepod One : Lost in Space

One step away from Reed saying “Oh the pain, the pain…”

SYNOPSIS

Tucker and Reed are in a hobbled shuttlepod. They arrive three days early at a rendezvous point in an asteroid field and wait for Enterprise. They discover ship debris on an asteroid as well as a hull fragment from Enterprise.

Enterprise isn’t destroyed. A Tesnian ship was, unexpectedly, and Enterprise took some damage. Archer decides to return the Tesnians home and return for the scheduled rendezvous with the shuttlepod. T’Pol says that the cause could be micro-singularities which Archer dismisses as a Vulcan myth.

Back at the shuttlepod, there are only ten days of air left, navigation and radio are down, and the closest planet is at least several weeks away at impulse. Reed pragmatically accepts they are going to die, but Tucker orders him to set course to the planet — maybe someone will find them.

Reed records a eulogy log entry, much to Tucker’s chagrin. The two men argue about their approaches to their predicament. Reed has a dream of having been rescued, T’Pol talking about his heroism, and the Vulcan smiling at Reed’s repeating the nickname “Stinky” as she leans in for a… Static signals that Tucker got the receiver sort of working, but the transmitter is a goner. The shuttlepod is rocked with the result of two pinhole hull breaches. Reed plugs them with mashed potatoes, but they are now down to two days worth of air.

On Enterprise, T’Pol is pleased to report to the Captain that they can now prove the existence of micro-singularities — a significant discovery. Archer is more concerned about Reed and Tucker.

The two men start some bonding, but Reed remains a gloomy gus. Tucker opens up a bottle of Kentucky bourbon the Captain had hidden in the pod. Soon enough both men are drunk and Reed enthuses about T’Pol’s looks and her “bum”. The receiver picks up a message from Enterprise. The men are happy that their friends are still alive, but disheartened that the new rendezvous is two days away — and they only have one day’s worth of air left.

In order to make their presence more obvious to Enterprise, Reed suggests they jettison the impulse engines and detonate them. Though this goes well, Tucker, still drunk on bourbon, tries to seal himself in the airlock so that Reed will have twice as much air — just about enough for the rendezvous if the engine trick failed to attract attention. Reed threatens him with a phase pistol — if there’s any dying to be done, they will do it together.

Reed wakes up in sickbay in a déjà vu of his earlier dream — except this time T’Pol doesn’t want to suck face.

FADE OUT

ANALYSIS

“We are not gonna do this. We’re not gonna go bouncing off the walls for ten minutes… ’cause we’re just gonna end up right back here with the same problems– tryin’ to figure out how to stay alive!” Jim Lovell, Apollo 13

The worst thing that can happen when you travel in space is being marooned. Not marooned like Apollo 13, which always maintained contact with their home base. They knew they hadn’t been abandoned. No, far worse is being alone in space with no home to go to, and death is certain. How do you face that?

The story of being marooned is at least as old as western literature. From Homer’s The Odyssey, to Robinson Crusoe, to more contemporary fare such as Lifeboat, Marooned, Enemy Mine, and Apollo 13, the story of lost souls is a compelling one.

The central theme in these kinds of stories is, “What makes a hero?” Is it merely surviving the ordeal, or does it take something more?

The cop-out was that Reed and Tucker reacted to their situation very stereotypically. Tucker was the gung-ho, never-say-die American; while Reed was the stiff upper lip pragmatic Brit (what — he never heard of Churchill?). From the outset, Reed is willing to accept the cards he was dealt. Tucker, on the other hand, refuses to believe that there isn’t a way to improve their situation.

Tucker is the person you want to be a squad leader or a chief engineer. If there is any way to improve the outcome of the mission he will find it. Reed is a good soldier. He does what he’s told to do by a higher ranking officer.

Ironically, it’s Reed who actually comes up with the life-saving solutions. It was he who implemented the mashed-potato strategy for temporarily plugging the hull breaches. And it was also Reed who suggested the blowing up of the impulse engines. These should have been solutions found by the chief engineer. Instead, the drunk engineer is trying to crawl into an airlock to give his comrade a better chance to survive.

Even though his actions saved the day, Reed’s still not the hero that his subconscious wants him to be. He did only what was necessary at the time. Tucker is the one who comes off as heroic because his drive was the catalyst that allowed for all of the other good things to happen.

Stories like this generally cause there to be a lot of growth with the characters. On Reed developed to any significant degree, and then only slightly. His bonding with the crew is very significant for this loner, but it’s only a small step. Perhaps if he allows this to grow, so that he has something outside of himself that he’d want to live for, then he’d be more driven to take the actions that heros must.

TIDBITS, IRKS and QUIRKS

• Heh… Stinky … hehehe
• Is it really necessary to objectify T’Pol? First she gets slathered with decontamination gel, later T’Pol’s chest is in Archer’s face, and now T’Pol’s bum is on Reed’s mind. Is this really the right forum?
• If the powers that be want to try and explore a relationship between T’Pol and Reed, then I hope they have the balls (or tits — we aren’t biased ’round here) to see it through (and I’m not talking Buffy/Spike pelvis-grinding, either). If Voyager taught us anything, it was that the constant tease annoys both the cast and the viewers.
• T’Pol’s the ambitious one, isn’t she? So excited about the scientific discovery that she forgets her shipmates. Such a display speaks of the inexperience of the young. She can’t be more than sixty or sixty-five years old, in that case.
• I think Mayweather is turning into our token ensign.
• Is anyone else curious about why that particular area is filled with micro-singularities? Is that why there are asteroids instead of planets? Maybe it’s just me, but I kind of like a little science in my science fiction.
• Reed is a nicer drunk than Tucker.
• Maybe it’s me, but it didn’t seem like there was an Enterprise amount of debris on that asteroid.

As always your comments, rebukes, and other assorted missives on the message board are appreciated. No sharp objects, please.