monkee reviews 'Vox Sola'
First Impression: A little cheesy in spots, but a decent outing overall.
The Trouble with First Contact: You just never know, do you? You might well be entertaining a bunch of anal-retentive aliens who think eating is so much like mating it should be done behind closed doors. Taking this bunch to the mess hall turned out to be a bad idea. As the story opens, we see these aliens, the Kreetassins, leaving Enterprise in a huff. The Captain and crew have no idea what they've done to offend their guests, and what Hoshi's getting from the translator ("You eat like you mate.") isn't helping any. The incident leaves Archer in a funk, and Hoshi feeling guilty because she thinks she failed everyone.
What They Left Behind: Unfortunately, the Kreetassins leave something behind as they depart. They had unwittingly picked up an organism, or part of an organism, on a recent trip to a nearby planet. As the two ships separate, this organism slips through Enterprise's air lock.
Daring to be Different: The organism looks like a giant, slimy spider web, with tentacles. And although it's a good thing to see an alien life form that actually looks alien, it can be a risky move. It reminded me a little of the rock that enveloped the pseudo-Kira in 'Heart of Stone,' a well-intentioned DS9 episode that went wrong because the special effects were so cheesy. I know I was supposed to be concerned about Archer and the others, but part of me was distracted by the fact that they looked like they'd just stumbled into a taping of Nickelodeon's 'Slime Time Live.' Still, I'll give them some credit for trying.
Water Polo? Excuse me, WATER POLO? This is the first starship captain's favorite sport? But isn't that just a bunch of guys screwing around in a pool? Ha – no, I'm kidding. It actually looks pretty difficult. It's an unorthodox choice, but that's okay. Picard liked fencing, after all. Maybe we'll all broaden our horizons a little. And it tied in neatly with Archer's 'old water polo injury' from 'Acquisitions,' although I thought he was joking at the time.
Teamwork: Cheesy effects aside, this episode had a lot going for it – mostly the excellent character moments and interactions. Every single character had a good scene or two, even Porthos! And we got to know two new 'lower decks' people, and they didn't even die! It was nice to see the crew bantering back and forth and enjoying another 'movie night' together. I was touched by Reed and Mayweather's attempt to distract a disheartened Hoshi, and Trip's efforts to cheer up his Captain, and friend. And once Archer and Trip were captured, the remaining crew came together nicely to solve the crisis.
T'Pol and Hoshi: Hoshi claims that T'Pol is always looking over her shoulder, just waiting for her to fail. Their scenes may have worked better if we'd seen any evidence of that since the first couple of episodes. As recently as 'Sleeping Dogs,' the two women seemed to be getting along just fine, and were perhaps even bonding a little. Near as I can tell, T'Pol treats Hoshi no differently than she treats anyone else. If Hoshi is misinterpreting T'Pol's actions, it makes her look overly sensitive, and I thought she was moving past all that. Oh well. In any case, she'll move past it now. Once they cleared the air, the two worked quite effectively together. Nice.
Reed and Phlox: Reed wants to experiment on a piece of the organism that got lopped off in the initial 'attack.' Because Phlox has discovered that the appendage is alive, and part of the whole, he won't allow what he says amounts to torture, and insists on a less abusive course of action, which will take longer. Their argument is convincing and well executed, but Phlox has the moral high ground and comes out on top. Reed has some other nice scenes as well – problem solving with T'Pol, and fine-tuning his force field prototype (another landmark – Starfleet's first force field!).
Mayweather Speaks Again! Wow – two weeks in a row! Mayweather is the only senior officer on the bridge when Enterprise locates the Kreetassen ship again, so it falls to him to apologize for the crew's lewd and improper eating in public. Not only does he keep a straight face, but his sincerity also convinces the Kreetassen's that it really was just a misunderstanding.
Archer and Trip: I really enjoyed their male bonding scene over pretzels and beer, and the fact that Trip knew exactly how to reach his burdened and somber Captain. I also enjoyed some of the early banter in the cargo bay with Rostov, while they were all suspended in slime. Things got a little heavy handed later on, though, when Archer and Trip discovered they were sharing thoughts. It was mildly amusing to see Archer force a panicking Trip to think about water polo, but some of the 'life lessons in sports' made me cringe. "As soon as you give up, the game is lost." Oh. That's deep, Archer. [monkee rolls her eyes].
Linguistic Breakthrough: I always find Hoshi's linguistic triumphs gratifying, and in this case, it was even more so because everyone else had contributed in one way or another. It was a real team effort. Communicating with this life form involved both music and mathematics – it reminded me of the way they were attempting to communicate with the Crystalline Entity in TNG, before it was murdered. Only this time, it worked, and worked beautifully.
Home Planet: After communicating with the creature, the crew is able to release it back onto its homeworld at exactly the right coordinates. The organism rejoins the whole seamlessly, and even the lopped off appendage is re-incorporated. And did I see a nice shot of Reed, looking maybe a little humbled? He'd previously had no qualms about torturing the thing – nice to know he might have grown a little. On the planet, the creature didn't look cheesy at all – it was suspended over the surface in an almost cloud-like way. Very cool.
T'Pol Watch: Let's do her instead this week, since she was the one in command most of the time. I thought she did quite well. She correctly chose to go with Phlox and Reed's idea to stun the creature with light at first, because it was clear that the captured crewmembers were in danger. Once that failed, she turned to Hoshi's plan, which she had initially rejected, to try to communicate with the creature. She does a good job in command – she hears people out, and figures out how to best motivate them.
'Shipper Watch: Archer and Trip had some nice scenes together, but under Braga and Berman, it will surely be a friendship as opposed to anything else. When the creature released the crewmembers, Hoshi knelt down beside Trip, and T'Pol actually stroked Archer's head. No, really! And he looked up at her, too, and it was kind of sweet. Probably means nothing, but who cares? Looking for 'shipper moments is fun.
Best Lines:
"How's his mood?" "Now might not be a good time." (Trip and T'Pol)
"Two hours, twenty-four minutes. That seems awfully long for a movie about four men and a truck." (Reed, to Mayweather)
"No, you'll like it. Things blow up." (Mayweather, to Reed)
"Keep watchin' while Texas trounces your sorry California butts." (Trip, to Archer – getting into the spirit of water polo...)
"At some point in the very near future, there won't be six life forms in that cargo bay – there will only be one." (Phlox, ominously, to T'Pol)
"On the contrary, it would be a great loss to Starfleet if you were not on this crew." (T'Pol, to Hoshi)
"When Zefram Cochrane talked about new life and new civilizations – do you think this is what he meant?" (Trip, to Archer) (And yes, I think it was.)
Rating: 8.5/10. I liked it. It reminded me, in a good way, of VOY's 'Nothing Human.' It lacked the intense conflict of that episode, though, and its cheesy effects, and Archer's 'life lessons in water polo' brought it down a little, too.
Next Week: Sigh. I missed the preview(s) again! See, I'm forced to choose between Enterprise's previews, and West Wing's teaser, and the teaser has to get priority! Read the transcripts, though. It seems we get two episodes next week – a Vulcan episode, and yet another terrorism analogy. I have no idea why we're getting back-to-back episodes, but it should be interesting!
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