Captain’s log: date unknown

Chris Black and John Shiban pen the teleplay for this episode from a story by Daniel McCarthy. It’s a Phlox (John Billingsley) episode that first aired on 23 April, 2003, and was directed by Voyager’s Robert Duncan McNeill.

Phlox finds himself in an ethical dilemma when the Enterprise is summoned to a planet that has a new xenophobic government to remove some Denobulan scientists. The doctor is asked to help a patient who has racist views towards the Denobulan doctor’s people.

Phlox doesn’t have a Hippocratic oath, and despite Archer’s (Scott Bakula) order to help the alien he declines. It doesn’t help that his species, and the alien’s have a dark and violent history between their peoples.

Meanwhile the b-story sees Travis (Anthony Montgomery), Malcolm (Dominic Keating) and Trip (Connor Trinneer) entering subterranean caves to effect a rescue on the Denobulan scientists who are working far beneath the surface, and need to leave the planet under the new government’s regime.

It’s a solid episode for Billingsley as he shows us just how different Phlox is from his human crew mates, and it examines ethics, and racism. Two big subjects that are always ready to be tackled in science fiction analogy, especially Trek.

Continuity includes a glimpse at a tribble in Phlox’s menagerie.

There are some nice moments in the episode, a couple of action beats, but most of it is centred on Phlox’s story, and him trying to figure out his dilemma. It’s cool to see the doctor in this light, because he’s been so likeable up until now, it lets us see him in a different way. He’s not human, and he has his own ethics and morals.

But he also sees what Archer wants from him, and understands humanity better by the end of the story.

Captain’s log: date unknown

LeVar Burton directs this episode that was written by Rick Berman and Brannon Braga, It debuted on 30 April, 2003.

The downside is that  it’s another Trip and an alien story.

The Enterprise while investigating a hyper-giant star, comes across a new species,Vissians. They are led by Captain Drennik (Andreas Katsulas who played the Romulan Tomalak in The Next Generation).

Archer and the rest are delighted at making these new fast friends, and are intrigued by the realisation that the Vissians have a third gender, known as a Cogenitor. When Trip gets to known some of the Vissians, he meets a Cogenitor (Becky Wahlstrom), who helps in Vissian reproductions, but is troubled to learn that they are treated like second class citizens.

It’s another great episode that shows the differences between people, and species, and how we treat one another, and learn.

The Human Adventure continues Thursday with more episodes from season two of Star Trek: Enterprise – The Complete Series, now available on blu-ray from Paramount Canada.

Boldly go…