Captain’s log: 6 May, 2151

Rick Berman and Brannon Braga pen the follow-up episode to the series premiere. Fight or Flight debuted on 3 October, 2001, and despite the promise of an inhabited world that scans picked up at the end of the previous episode, the only lifeform they’ve found is an alien worm, christened Sluggo.

Hoshi (Linda Park) begins to see her own problems reflected in the worm’s existence; she’s not supposed to be in space, she’s not ready for what’s out there. I get that this her arc for the early part of the series, but she’s just a little too wound up, she’s a strong character (and actor) and shouldn’t have quite so many problems as she does. While she struggles with her own personal fears, Captain Archer (Scott Bakula) investigates a derelict spacecraft, only to discover that it is filled with corpses which may have been experimented on before their death.

The crew are still getting used to the ship (Archer is hearing a squeak in the deck plating beneath his Ready Room), and their assignment, not to mention their fellow crew members, T’Pol (Jolene Blalock) and Doctor Phlox (John Billingsley) for example. Reed (Dominic Keating) gets a chance to test the Enterprise’s torpedoes (or at least trying to properly align them).

The ship they come across allows for some exploration (in their EV suits) despite T’Pol’s warnings that they shouldn’t go blundering in where they may not be wanted. She may be right, but Archer is determined to find out what is going on, and what happened to the crew of the derelict ship.

They encounter a new enemy and possibly a new ally, the Axanar, who get mentioned a couple of times, though aren’t seen in The Original Series.

There’s a nice sense of mystery and exploration in this episode, and it’s informative to see how the characters (and actors) are settling. It looks great, and builds the continuity of the series (something that the creators know that the viewers, and fans, will be keeping an eagle eye on).

 

Captain’s log: date unknown

Mike Sussman and Phyllis Strong, making the jump from the Voyager’s writing room, penned this episode from a story by Braga and Berman. It debuted on 10 October, 2001.

An overnight camping trip on an unexplored world causes some problems for the crew as they descend into paranoia during a strange storm that causes them to believe that T’Pol is conspiring against them with a race of rock creatures (a nod to an unrealised concept for Trek V) on the planet.

Of course, this is all just an effect of some of the fauna on the planet stirred up by the storm, but all of them succumb to the effects, and when Trip (Connor Trinneer) confronts T’Pol he reiterates the lack of trust between the species.

Archer tries to keep things calm from orbit until the storm passes and a way to rescue the crew can be found, but can they survive until morning?

This episode marks the final appearance of the ship’s ballcaps and the first appearance of the recurring Ensign Cutler (Kellie Waymire).

The Human Adventure continues Thursday as I delve deeper into season one of Star Trek: Enterprise – The Complete Series on blu-ray, available now from Paramount Pictures.

Boldly go…