monkee reviews 'Damage'
First Impression: The episode was outstanding, but I fear the 'damage' they're doing to the main characters is becoming irreparable.
The Equinox Paradox: In Voyager's 'Equinox,' Janeway encounters a Starfleet Captain who has stepped over the line even farther than Archer does here. She takes him down, but in so doing crosses a line herself. As she descends into darkness, the other Captain begins to return to the light. It was a fascinating study, but many fans believed that it was a turning point for the Janeway character, and not in a good way. We love Star Trek because we love its take on humanity's future. We want to admire our Captains, but when that respect is lost, it's difficult to recover. The Xindi arc has been a tale well told, but in the end, will we like Archer enough to want to watch him for four more years? I almost have the impression that the show's low ratings are now of so much concern, the powers that be no longer care about whether or not we like Archer. They just want to do the best they can in the short term, and that means an edgy, controversial Captain. More on this later.
Lame Cliffhanger Resolution: At the end of 'Azati Prime,' the Xindi council appeared to have lost complete control over the Reptilians, who were beating the proverbial crap out of both Archer and Enterprise. The situation was grim and desperate, yet that only lasted sixty seconds into 'Damage,' at which point the attack on the ship was abruptly halted. The council turned out to have guts after all. They could control the Reptilians. They could halt the attack on the ship. They could arrange for the prisoner, Archer, to be transferred back to their authority. It was all a bit too sudden and tidy, but I shouldn't complain. At least there wasn't a reset button, right? Speaking of which...
Enterprise's Year of Hell: You have to give Enterprise credit for boldly going where previous Treks (with the exception of DS9) refused to go. There's real continuity here, and serious repercussions. Over the course of the past year, the valiant Captain and crew of the Enterprise have changed. As they've drawn closer and closer to their goal, the Xindi encounters have gotten more and more intense, until the ship is literally falling down around their ears, and body bags line sickbay. Fourteen dead this week, and three unaccounted for! They began their mission with righteous fury and determination - they had the moral high ground. Now things don't appear to be as black and white. Their Captain, in particular, has been forced to sacrifice his ideals one by one. He's tortured a prisoner for information, created a clone for body parts, destroyed an unarmed monitoring station, and now attacked a completely innocent ship and crew in order to steal their warp coil. It's downright ugly!
If you think about it, Enterprise could almost BE Equinox right now. Certainly Captain Archer is only a couple of missteps and justifications away from being Equinox's Captain Ransom. Interesting. But again, is this something we want to live with throughout a seven season series?
The Alien Captain: But let's back up for a minute. After the Reptilians break off their attack, Enterprise encounters another ship in distress. It's a ship of explorers - they just wanted to study a nearby red giant, but were taken by surprise by the anomalies, which have damaged their ship. Enterprise assists them with repairs. They have a working warp coil, though, and Enterprise needs one. Archer asks the alien Captain, played by Casey Biggs, if they can have it, but he says no. Without their warp coil, they'll be stranded three years from home, in a dangerous region of space. Understandably, he won't jeopardize his crew in this way.
[monkee's note to Berman and Braga: Do NOT use the talented Casey Biggs as a guest star for a nameless character. That's...that's...well, that's disrespectful is what it is! The alien Captain should have had a name! We'll forgive you, though, if you bring the character back. You really ought to, you know. We should find out what happens to this ship and crew because of Archer's actions. That would be most interesting!]
The Aquatics: Archer awakens on an Aquatic ship. Now this was COOL! Archer is in a cell with a breathable atmosphere, but he can see outside to where Aquatic Xindi are floating around working various controls. He tries to communicate with him, but they sedate him again, then release him in an escape pod. Enterprise retrieves him. Back on Enterprise, Sato finds a message from Degra encrypted into a document found in the pod's computer. Degra wants to meet Archer, and names a time and place. The problem is that without warp drive, Enterprise won't be able to get there.
Captain Jonathan Archer, Space Thug: Archer agonizes over the decision for an almost respectable amount of time, but decides to follow the alien ship they just helped to repair and steal their warp coil. He's desperate and driven by the certainty that Earth will be destroyed if he is unable to complete his mission. He knows he's stepping over a line, but that doesn't stop him. His crew doesn't stop him, either, although they're clearly disturbed. T'Pol confronts him, trying to be his voice of reason, but she backs down.
Yes. She backs down. Why would she do such a thing, you ask? I think, perhaps, it's because she doesn't feel qualified to be anyone's voice of reason anymore.
The Trouble with T'Pol: She's been acting strangely lately. She slept with Trip just for the heck of it a while back - which is understandable from the perspective of a hot-blooded human female monkee such as myself, but hardly the sort of behavior you'd expect from a Vulcan. In Azati Prime, she wept for the Captain, and shouted at Trip. What is up with her? Well, fortunately it's not what I feared, which was that she was just being horribly written. Instead, it turns out, T'Pol has become addicted to Trellium.
T'Pol's Addiction: Yes, Trellium, the same substance that caused the Vulcans in 'Impulse' to become Vombies. T'Pol discovered, when she was affected by the Trellium, she was able to 'access' certain emotions. As she tells Phlox, she simply wanted more. She thought that by limiting her intake to small amounts, she would be able to control her response, and keep herself from harm. She was mistaken. When the crisis erupts, she is unable to get to her supply in cargo bay two, and begins to suffer serious withdrawal symptoms. She nearly dies when her environmental suit opens while she's retrieving some of the ore in the damaged, airless cargo bay. This, coupled with the fact that Archer needs her now more than ever, convinces her that she is in trouble and needs help. She turns to Phlox, who agrees to help her break the addiction, and not tell the Captain about it.
Becoming addicted to a dangerous substance is, of course, highly illogical. It's also irresponsible, as she is in a position of authority on this ship and is not just endangering herself. But then, I suppose addictions seldom are logical or responsible. T'Pol's greater problem is her long-term (remember the jazz music?) fascination with human emotion - it is constantly getting her into trouble. It lead her to her ill-fated experimentation with the mind-meld in 'Fusion,' and now this as well. I think she's just going to have to admit to herself that it's time to give it up, before she gets herself killed!
The Wavering Voice of Reason: When T'Pol tells Archer that rationalizing one misstep just leads to rationalizing the next one, and the one after that, she is speaking from experience! Too bad he doesn't know that. The thing that disturbs me here is that T'Pol's arguments are all sound, and she is DOING HER JOB by voicing them. But then she loses her temper, breaks her PADD on Archer's desk, and shouts "I won't let you DO it!" The shock of her loss of control causes her to back off and even apologize. I can understand her apologizing for losing her temper, maybe even for issuing such an ultimatum, but her concerns needn't have been dismissed so readily. There just HAD to have been other options. Archer barely tried to convince the alien Captain of the importance of his mission - couldn't he have tried harder? Couldn't he have offered the assurance that another Earth ship would be sent to supply them with a replacement warp core as soon as possible? Or why wasn't some effort made to send an encrypted message back to Degra, explaining the predicament? No other options were even considered, and it vexes me!
Patriotism and the 9/11 Trek: T'Pol's subdued "I didn't mean what I said" vexes me more, though. Maybe I'm just overly sensitive about this. I don't agree with everything the president of my country is doing these days, but voicing my concerns tends to get me labeled 'unpatriotic.' In some sense, does Archer's crew feel the same way? The first episode of Enterprise aired about one month after 9/11, and the whole series is being written in the context of these new and uncertain times. Sometimes, the parallels make me uncomfortable. I don't want to see Enterprise become one big commercial for the Bush administration.
Like I said, I'm probably reading way too much into it. And this is a mighty gray area for Archer and company. They do have a serious threat to Earth to consider - the needs of the many, and all that. But I never thought I'd live to see the day when the Starship Enterprise, ANY Starship Enterprise, would board a friendly alien vessel and steal their warp core just because they could, desperate or not. It saddens me.
Moving on...
SHE: The plot thickens. The Xindi Council, sans the Reptilian and Insectoid representatives, has a covert meeting with some sort of holographic projection of the mysterious 'she,' one of the sphere-builders. The sphere builders are the ones who convinced the Xindi that humans were so much of a threat that they had to be eliminated. Archer believes that they are only doing this so they can move from their realm into this region of space without interference, and that they'll eventually destroy the Xindi, too - this is what he keeps trying to tell Degra. Here, 'she' admits to the council members that she DID assist the Reptilians by moving them to the past so they could work on their bioweapon ('Carpenter Street'), but she only did it because she knew the Reptilians and Insectoids were on the verge of splitting off from the council, and she just wanted to appease them. Uh-huh. Sure. 'She' clearly has an agenda of her own.
It's worth noting that 'she' strongly resembles a cross between the female changeling leader from DS9 and the Borg Queen. Even her outfit is almost identical to that of the Borg Queen. What all this means, I do not know!
I'm pleased to see that the Xindi are proving to be complex and their actions have been almost understandable. They are no longer two-dimensional villains. Unfortunately, the role of two-dimensional, intrinsically evil villain has now passed over to the sphere-builders, who seem as unredeemable as Voyager's Species 8472. I just wonder, why does someone always have to be intrinsically evil in Star Trek? It seldom works that way in real life. But perhaps I'm expecting too much from a television show...
Shifting Momentum: The good news is that Archer has gotten through to Degra, who now has more than a reasonable doubt that he's being manipulated by the sphere-builder. Degra, in turn, is convincing the Arboreal and Aquatic Xindi that they might be fighting the wrong enemy. Things are looking up, but will it be enough? The weapon is nearly complete - they are all running out of time.
The Small Things: Yes, the Xindi arc is big and bold and dramatic, but I swear to you, it's the small things that make me a Trekkie. The little moments between the characters are what give an episode heart, and the Enterprise writers need more of them in general. They did well this week, though. Mayweather and Hoshi, who otherwise didn't have a whole lot to do in this episode, had a wonderful scene together in which Hoshi expresses regret about the things she didn't get around to in her life, and Mayweather offers encouragement and support. "We're getting home," he tells her, sincerely. In another scene, Phlox and T'Pol share a cup of tea in her quarters and talk about her difficulties - it's just another reason that their friendship is one of my favorites in the series. And, of course, we caught a glimpse of Porthos. Phlox returned him to Archer's quarters, and the pup looked around forlornly at the destruction. It's significant that Archer was so anguished, he didn't even acknowledge his beagle, his buddy, his pal. *sniff*
Hot Vombie Sex in the Shower: There's a steamy, passionate encounter between T'Pol and Trip in the shower, but then T'Pol turns into a Vombie - it was all a Trellium withdrawal-induced nightmare. I could have lived without this scene, but at least it had half a reason to be there. It wasn't quite as jarring as, say, the decontamination scene in 'Broken Bow.'
'shipper Watch: And what does it mean, exactly, that T'Pol is having nightmares of this nature? That she's dreaming about having sex with him in the first place is significant; she may also fear that her 'true self' will repulse him. My two cents on T'Pol's love life? I think she's fond of Trip, and attracted to him. But I think she loves Archer. She loves him, I tell you! (Hey, there's no accounting for taste.) She won't act on her 'feelings' because she believes them to be inappropriate while he's her CO, and maybe she doesn't even want to act on them. But she cares deeply for him. And he for her. My very favorite 'small moment' in 'Damage?' Archer, just back from being captured and interrogated, is distressed to learn of Enterprise's casualties. He refuses treatment so Phlox can concentrate on the other injured crewmembers, but is still bleeding and in pain. T'Pol hands him a towel, but because of her withdrawal symptoms, her hand is shaking uncontrollably. Despite everything else that's going on, Archer notices and is concerned. He puts his hand over hers to stop it from shaking. Awwwww! I don't really care who T'Pol ends up with, but I do enjoy these little 'shipper moments!
And the only time I ever even like Archer anymore is when he's with T'Pol. Or Porthos.
Archer Watch: We've been over this. I understand that the man is desperate, and I understand why. I know things are murky and gray. But there's a line that shouldn't be crossed, and he's crossed it more than once this season. T'Pol was right when she said that justifying your first misstep just makes it easier to justify the second one. Before you know it, there's a pattern of behavior that is simply unacceptable. And Archer so much as admits to Phlox that he's EXPECTING to cross the line again later!
Can I ever truly respect and admire this man again? I hope I get a chance to find out. If Enterprise continues for a fourth and fifth season, perhaps we can watch him do some soul-searching and step back into the light. I'd like that very much.
Best Lines:
"My mother always wanted me to take piano lessons. I should have listened to her." "It's never too late. You can start when we get home." (Sato and Mayweather)
"He may not be on our side, but I get the feeling he's starting to question his." (Archer, to Trip)
"I will help you in any other way, but I will not jeopardize the lives of my crew. I'm sorry." (alien Captain, to Archer)
"I'm about to step over a line I never thought I'd cross. And given the nature of our mission, it probably won't be the last." (Archer, to Phlox)
"We need their warp core. They won't give it to us, so we're going to have to take it." (Archer, to Reed)
"Don't summon me again unless every member of the council is present. I won't help fuel your internal bickering." (She, to Degra)
"We are no different than the marauders who attacked us when we entered the expanse." (T'Pol, to Archer)
"We can't save humanity without holding onto what makes us human." (Archer, to T'Pol, in 'Impulse')
"We can't save humanity without holding onto what makes us human. Those were your words to me." (T'Pol, to Archer)
"Once you rationalize the first misstep, it's easy to fall into a pattern of behavior." (T'Pol, to Archer)
"We've had our share of disagreements, but you've never taken it out on my desk before." (Archer, to T'Pol)
"At first, I was able to control the emotions. My interactions with the crew improved." "Commander Tucker, for example." (T'Pol and Phlox, and I got the impression that Phlox doesn't approve...)
"You're stranding us three years from home. Why are you doing this?" "Because I have no choice." (alien Captain and Archer)
"You sought these emotions. Don't expect them to vanish overnight." (Phlox, to T'Pol)
"You did the right thing." "Seems like the more we're out here, the more I have to keep saying that to myself." (Trip and Archer)
Rating: 9/10. I can appreciate 'edgy' even if I don't like it. And the small moments really resonated with me.
Next Week: More Degra. Will this meeting be the one that turns the tide? Stay tuned!
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