monkee reviews 'Shuttlepod One'
First Impressions: Not perfect, but a nice character piece.
Summary: See, Rick Berman and Brannon Braga are on this shuttle, and...Wait, that's not right...
I knew without even LOOKING that these two had written this episode! I had to laugh, too, when I confirmed it for myself. Can anyone say Mary Sue? Even in the last shot of Reed and Trip in sickbay, the 'Produced by Rick Berman and Brannon Braga' was superimposed right over them (Braga is Trip, as if that's any big surprise...) Don't get me wrong I liked this episode, but...well, more on this later.
I'll start with my complaints, and get them out of the way, because I mostly really liked this episode.
Apollo 13, the Movie: (Bear with me I'm going someplace with this, honest...) I have read Jim Lovell's 'Lost Moon' dozens of times. I can pick up this true account of the aborted Apollo 13 moon mission, open it to any page, and be completely riveted for an hour. It's an exciting, nerve-racking, and triumphant story. I was disappointed in the Tom Hanks movie, though. It wasn't bad, but it bothered me immensely that the film showed the three astronauts bickering and snapping at each other in the spacecraft, when it simply didn't happen that way. Those men were far too professional to behave like that, and I thought it was a shame that Hollywood felt compelled to do this, when the story was dramatic enough without it.
It bothered me in 'Shuttlepod One,' too. Even though Starfleet is relatively new, I like to think that the men and women who sign on and are good enough to get in have SOME amount of the right stuff. They should be at least as capable and professional as our own shuttle mission crewmembers today, right? Well, you wouldn't find any of THEM behaving like this in a crisis I'm sure of it! Reed and Trip, stranded in a shuttle, and believing the Enterprise destroyed, bicker incessantly, and even shout at each other. It didn't ring true to me, and, again, it simply wasn't necessary. With tighter, subtler writing, they wouldn't have to resort to this sort of forced drama.
Spoiling the Suspense: The teaser to this episode, leading up to Trip and Reed's discovery of the wreckage, was sublime. Unfortunately, the audience learns immediately thereafter that Enterprise has not been destroyed. The wreckage belongs to an alien ship and only a small section of Enterprise's hull ended up on the asteroid, while they were engaged in rescue operations. From a storytelling standpoint, this makes no sense at all! I mean, sure we know that they aren't going to destroy the ship in the middle of the first season, but it would have been fun to be teased for at least a little while! To make matters worse, the story on the ship focuses on Archer and T'Pol's debate about the existence of microsingularities, which, as it turns out, are the cause of the alien ship's destruction and the damage to the shuttle. We don't even get to see the Enterprise crew discover that the shuttle is in serious peril, which is too bad. Reed and Trip talk about how their 'flare' will show up on T'Pol's monitor (nice nod to TOS's 'Galileo 7') , and it would have been neat to actually see that.
I don't mean to go on and on, though. monkee is a big fan of character development, and this episode had it in spades, especially for...
Malcolm Reed: We learn that there's a lot more to him than a cool exterior and a deep desire to blow things up (not that there's anything wrong with that <g> ). We learn that Reed is well read, proud of his British heritage, and that he likes fish after all! We also discover that his family is not quite as dysfunctional as they appeared in 'Silent Enemy,' although he does admit that they aren't all that close. In fact, Reed has never been particularly close to anyone, he tells Trip, until Enterprise. I loved this revelation. Crew-as-family has been an ongoing theme throughout thirty-five years of Star Trek, and I like to see it developing already on this series. We find out that Reed is a pragmatic realist, but he also has a sensitive side a side that, when faced with death, wants to leave messages for loved ones, and 'tie up loose ends.' But the most important thing we learn about him is...
Malcolm LIKES WOMEN: Okay, okay we get it! You don't have to hit us over the head with it, or anything. Sheesh! Just like Berman and Braga, I'm sure, Reed is a real man, a manly man, a powerful and attractive man! In fact, he's been out with half the women in San Francisco, and he lusts after T'Pol. Just in case there was ever any doubt whatsoever, we now have it in official canon that the man is not gay. Fine. Whatever. It's kind of a shame, though. Keating and Trinneer have nice chemistry. It would have been interesting to pursue that, is all I'm saying.
On the other hand, maybe Reed is just in some serious denial. I mean, he was almost making TOO big a deal of his prowess with women. Perhaps Berman and Braga have some issues to work through, hmmm? Oh, I'm kidding. I'll stop. But Enterprise is already turning into the straight and macho white-boys club.
Star Trek really needs a kick-ass, gutsy woman producer to shake things up a bit. Seriously.
Having said all that, I'll admit that some of the macho humor worked for me. How funny is it that Reed has slept with waitress Ruby, the love of Trip's life, more times than he can count? Ouch, indeed!
Drunken Male Bonding: Trip and Reed find a bottle of Archer's bourbon in the shuttle and get plastered together. Reed reveals that he has a crush on T'Pol and thinks she's pretty, especially her 'bum.' ::rollseyes:: As my niece would say whatEVer! At least he's honest. And speaking of denial, I don't think anyone's buying Trip's blasé 'She's a Vulcan' routine. Tell it to someone else, big guy we know you think she's hot, too! I have mixed feelings for Keating's drunken Reed. It was a little over-the-top for Star Trek, but I enjoyed it anyway because it reminded me of Edina (Jennifer Saunders), who I adore, on AbFab! Ha! Really, look at his face in this scene they could be twins!
Trip Tucker: Oddly enough, we don't learn nearly as much about Tucker in this episode. He gets easily frustrated under pressure, is basically an optimist, and has a low tolerance for people who aren't. Some of those aren't very good qualities in a Starfleet Commander, I'm afraid. As the highest-ranking officer, he's the one who should have been setting the tone in that shuttle, and he didn't do it well. Still, he did seem to learn and grow from the experience, and that's always nice to see. Trinneer's performance was outstanding, too, and I ended up with the impression that Trip's bravado was just a front, and he's a very complex character one that I'll enjoy learning more about in the future.
In fact, kudos to both Trinneer and Keating for their acting, here. Excellent, all the way around. There was real heat in their arguments, and they both did a great job with the subtler moments, too. Watch their faces when they realize what the wreckage is it'll give you goosebumps!
Best Shuttlepod Scenes: It was all good stuff, but several scenes stood out for me. The scene in which Reed tells Trip that he feels closer to the crew of Enterprise than he's ever felt to anyone was quite moving, with nice acting from both of them. I also loved their drunken camaraderie when they received Hoshi's hail there was even a little hug, there! I'm a sucker for Trek hugs! My favorite scene, though, was their argument when Trip announces that he's going out the airlock so that Reed can survive. Again, it was beautifully acted but what I loved about it was that it illustrated how the two men had influenced each other Trip's intentions are utterly practical, but now Reed wants to bank, optimistically, on the tiny chance that both of them can survive. Nice.
Character Interactions: It was Trip and Reed all the way, although I also enjoyed the interaction between Reed and the REAL T'Pol cute! Archer and T'Pol I don't know. It's one step forward and two steps back for these two. He's teasing her a little about the microsingularities, but he's also still too resistant to her suggestions at times and it seems as though that's just because she's Vulcan. Archer still has issues to work through about the Vulcans. That's only fair, I suppose, since the Vulcans have some issues of their own.
'Shipper Watch: Well, we won't see Reed/Trip not because it wouldn't work (it would), but because it won't be permitted to. The writers of this episode and we know who they are have gone to great lengths to show us that it ain't gonna happen on THEIR watch! Too bad. Reed and T'Pol, perhaps? It doesn't seem to be a serious possibility at this point just a little unrequited lust. Their real-time interaction was kind of sweet, though.
Archer Watch: It wasn't his show this week, but he did all right in what we saw of him. Despite initially being too dismissive of T'Pol's theory, he did take her seriously immediately as soon as she had evidence. I'll give him credit for that.
Best Lines:
"Sometimes I think you North Americans read nothing but comic books, and those ridiculous science fiction novels." (HEY!) (Reed, to Trip)
"I'll have you know that Superman was laced with metaphor subtext layered on subtext." (Trip, to Reed)
"See you around, Captain." (Trip, to the wreckage
*sniff*)
"This Vulcan will never ignore Lt. Malcolm Reed again." (Fantasy T'Pol, to Reed)
"Who's Stinky? (Trip, to Reed, who's been talking in his sleep...)
"You know, your treacly optimism is beginning to get just a little bit tiresome." (Reed, to Trip)
"You're a regular grim reaper, Malcolm. Did anyone ever tell you that?" (Trip, to Reed)
"But with the crew of the Enterprise, it was different. I was really starting to feel...comfortable with them. And now the only one who's left thinks I'm the bloody angel of death!" (Reed, to Trip)
"It can giggle all it wants, but the galaxy's not getting any of our bourbon!" (Trip, to Reed)
"What do you think of T'Pol? Do you think she's pretty?" (Reed, to Trip whichever one happens to be in focus, I suppose...)
"Well, I think she's pretty." "Oh GOD!" (Reed, and Trip's response)
"You're so pessimistic! It's not impossible. It's HOSHI!" (Reed, to Trip)
"Great idea! Why don't you climb up into the airlock and seal yourself in?" (Reed, to Trip)
"That's just what I was thinking." (Trip, to Reed)
"I've invested far too much time trying to figure you out, Mr. Tucker. I'm not about to accept that it was all for nothing." (Reed, to Trip)
"Subcommander, isn't there something you're supposed to say to me? Something about heroics?" (Reed, to the real T'Pol)
"Trip? Mind if I call you Trip? Sleep well, my friend." (Reed, to a sleeping Trip)
THE Best Line:
"You know, I'm not a doctor, but I'm pretty sure you use up a lot more oxygen when you SHOUT LIKE THAT!" (Reed, to Trip)
Rating: 9/10. A few flaws, but I'm partial to character episodes, so there you go!
Next Week: Hey! I didn't get a preview! I have no idea what the next episode is. I guess I'll just have to wait and see. Waiting makes me grumpy, so it better be a good one...
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