Two Ladies & Their TVs

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ST: Enterprise 4.16 "Divergence"

In the second half of the story arc involving the Klingons and the genetic mutation of their appearances, Dr. Phlox  and the Klingon doctor race to find a cure for the "affliction" that was aluded to in last week's title. Klingons basically had it coming to them because they played around with Human Augment DNA and tried to inject it into their own people. Then one of them catches the flu and the "disease" that alters their appearance became airborn. Likely they did not see it coming, but it was the Warrior Caste that started it, after all. The Warrior Caste never strikes me as being very smart. Seriously, what did they think was going to happen when they inject themselves with human DNA?!  (Side commentary: After watching parts of "The Fly" this afternoon, I'm thinking that whoever thinks about splicing/fusing genes really hasn't thought things through. Of course, it was an accident in "The Fly," but still. You'd think folks in the future would be more knowledgeable.)

Dr. Phlox's idea of a biological weapon was quite clever. The ending was a happy one, and it seems the Klingons will be staying out of our hair for quite a while - probably until Kirk's time, anyway.

Now, the weaker parts -

Tripp conveniently comes back on board Enterprise to "help out for a while" after this encounter with the Klingons, even though he just asked for a transfer in the last episode. The plot device seems a little weak to me; wasn't Tripp dying to transfer? Enterprise has been in worse shape before, and is there really no one else in Starfleet who is as qualified as Tripp? If he is really that qualified, if I were Captain Hernandez of the starship Columbia, I wouldn't let my chief engineer go so easily.

We also learn Malcom's little secret, that he was recruited by Starfleet Security to work on top-secret projects before he went aboard Enterprise. That explains why he and Harrison were going behind Archer's back, but I was really expecting a more profound reason for his lack of loyalty to Archer, i.e. Harrison saved Malcom's life before so Malcolm must pay a "life debt" of sorts to him, or that it was Malcolm's dad's dying wish, or something of similar effect. Still, poor guy, having to struggle with his loyalties, but good for him for telling Harrison to bugger off.

Lastly, I don't know what it was with this episode, but Scott Bakula's acting grated on me a little, especially when he was yelling at Malcolm's character. A bit overdone, perhaps?

With all that, it was still a good episode. Not as compelling as the first part of the arc for me, since they wrapped up the conflict so quickly, but still pretty good for its efforts in continuity of the ST mythos. There isn't an episode for another month, though. How will I live through the dry spell?

Posted by: merserene at 18:01 | link | comments (4)
scifi universe

Comments:

#1  27 February 2005 - 23:04

 

Wow, will it really be a month? That's awful because it is one of the few shows that I try really hard to catch. It's hard for me, too, because I notoriously fall asleep by about 10:30. In fact, I missed the last few minutes of last week's episode (part 1)both Friday and Saturday night so I was left in the dark about how Malcom had been freed from the brig. Fortuntely, it came together pretty well for me.

Yes, the Tripp part has gotten more than silly at this point, and if they take T'Pol any farther out of Vulcan character, they're going to ruin her altogether. Not even Spock was so blatantly human.

I have to wonder why the writers sent Tripp away at all if they were going to turn around and immediately manufacture reasons to bring him back aboard. I will say that the scene with the two spaceships mirroring one another with Tripp following the tether up was a very cool scene visually. I love sci-fi:)

Phlox is one of my favorite characters, and I did enjoy his bit of deviousness at the end. Very effective and sneaky. I like that.

Archer was pissed...no doubt about it. What I wonder is this: even though Malcom's reasons were established and explained, wouldn't it still be mutiny or treason or something like that, and punishable? Maybe a little too pat. I'd have liked it better if he'd been forced in some way that would enable him to be released from the brig and held harmless.

Again I have to say what a shame it is that the series is being cancelled. I think this is the best season so far aside from the first.

Stacy

Anonymous

#2  28 February 2005 - 17:38

 

Yes, I have it marked on my calendar for the day that ST returns in March. I know it's no longer sweeps but these last few episodes seem so precious.

Malcolm was thrown in the brig for treason, after all. But Archer needed a tactical officer eventually and to deal with the Kligon problem, so he allowed Malcolm to redeem himself without reporting him to Starfleet. Malcolm got off easy IMHO. IIRC Tripp has had lesser offenses gone on his record.

The 2 starships sharing the same warp field was pretty cool. :) Though we'll have some parallel universe episodes coming up, and I'm really excited about those!

On your comment to the other post about Rigellians - yes, they are indeed the inhabitants of Rigel (insert whatever number here). I think Deanna Troi mentioned Rigel several times?

merserene

#3  01 March 2005 - 07:05

 

So, let me see if I get this straight: the reason the Klingons of ST: TNG, Deep Space Nine, etc., look different than those in the original ST is because they injected themselves with human DNA, and it altered their appearances?

Cool.

athenawj

#4  01 March 2005 - 16:41

 

Specifically, Human Augment DNA, but basically yes. You should've seen the shows though. :) They've been pretty neat.

merserene

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