dmaiyee

[weerd1]

ENT Rewatch Starlog, 18 March, 2024: Episode 3.16 “Doctor’s Orders”

Phlox and Porthos walk through an apparently empty NX-01, stopping to visit Captain Archer who lies asleep with a device on his forehead.

Flash back to a few days before and there is an area of spatial anomaly brought on by the spheres between them and Azati Prime. It would add a lot of time to go around, and if they go through damage the human minds. Phlox suggests that he would not be affected. He’ll put all the human crew into a mental stasis while Enterprise crosses the area of space. 

At first, Phlox is having a fine time, getting caught up on writing to friends, playing with Porthos, occasionally feeding his pets in the nude. But while watching a film, he hears something moving.

Tracking it through the ship he ends up in the shuttlebay, and indeed finds T’Pol—also not sedated—who doesn’t know what he’s hearing. The incidents get worse, and Phlox sees Xindi insectoids on board. T’Pol finds nothing, and suspects Phlox is having some sort of breakdown, possibly based on loneliness considering how social Denobulans are. He insists on checking the ship with a phase pistol, and upon almost blasting Porthos, begins to realize that maybe she is correct. He scans and finds that in fact there is a non-lethal, but potentially hallucinogenic effect in his brain. 

He prepares to put himself under and leave T’Pol in charge since they will be through the region of space in six hours, but she begins to panic, also suffering from the anomaly. Worse, the area has expanded faster than anticipated, and though Tucker said they shouldn’t, the ship will have to warp to escape. Phlox and T’Pol bumble through with her seemingly useless.

They do escape however, and once free, Phlox’s mind is restored. He wakes up Archer, and before going on to the crew escorts T’Pol to her quarters. There he finds the Vulcan sedated; the T’Pol he has been talking to has also been a hallucination. 

A fun episode that makes you feel like it’s falling into the helpless T’Pol trope, but is saved in the reveal that she couldn’t help because she isn’t real.  It does turn out to be a nice exploration of Phlox’s character and a good way to do a bottle show while still getting the overall arc to move along. I do wonder though is Phlox hallucinates almost shooting Porthos; the Beagle forgives him pretty quickly.

Nice callbacks as well to the earlier episode “Dear Doctor” with Phlox’s friend Dr. Lucas getting a letter. We’ll of course get to meet the good doctor in Season 4 during the Augments story arc. 

Also a fun line when Phlox suspects he’s hearing things because the week prior, Trip showed him “The Exorcist.” 

Next Voyage: Archer has to determine whether all his eggs go in one basket after Enterprise finds a Xindi Insectoid “Hatchery.”

(Images taken from the main website for @trekcore; I am happy to remove the images if asked.)

[trekkie-polls]

To be fair you can love someone AND find them annoying. I’m not even sure Q would take it as an insult if he won - more like an acknowledgement of his hard work.

Although more likely there’s someone on this list who you just really don’t like. And if that’s the case please try not to be mean spirited about it. You’re entitled to not like them, that’s your prerogative. Likewise it’s the prerogative of others to disagree.

[floralandfailing]

If I watched Star Trek tos regularly I would have it finished in a month or so, but I am weak and cannot do that to save my life. It's going to take me 5 years at least

[quasi-normalcy]

Which brings us, inexorably, to Picard season three. Here, Section 31—although mostly offscreen—is as evil as it’s ever been depicted: We learn that not only did they engineer a bioweapon for use against the Changelings back during the Dominion War, but they also performed torturous medical experiments on Changeling prisoners of war. The revelations presented are truly heinous—even difficult to watch—and the entire season-long arc largely results from blowback against Section 31’s crimes against sentient life. And yet… the story pairs these revelations not only with complete legitimation of 31 as an organization, but complete acceptance of its crimes on the parts of our ostensible heroes. Worf—you know, the honourable guy? Whose friend, Odo, was deliberately infected with a plague by Section 31 with the intent of using him to wipe out his entire race? That Worf?—even calls them a “critical division of Starfleet Intelligence.” There’s one glorious moment where Picard actually looks sick upon hearing the extent of Section 31’s crimes; but then—arguably in the face of thirty-five years of consistent characterization—he and Dr. Crusher opt to compound them by executing a prisoner of war. This is never mentioned again. Just another day at the office, I suppose. We have, as an official, critical division of our humanist utopia of Starfleet, an organization that openly commits war crimes… and it’s just become part of the setting. It’s not even presented as a reason for Jack not to join Starfleet. One wonders if it was mentioned in the recruitment materials they gave out to the kids on Prodigy.

[bardicious]

The way ALL SNW episodes with Jim in them, have been Jim arrives to help the Enterprise crew, I want at least ONE episode where Jim receives the help. PLEASE. 😭😭😭

[thalfbloodloser]

every time lieutenant yar comes back i get so happy even though i know she can't stay...

[ihaveaweirdidea]

"makes the trekkin' world go 'round."

i made a second one for any *non-Queen fans.

[enterprise-bee]

man okay so. i'm on season three of my tng watch and have been so glad to have dr. crusher back but i keep on thinking about dr. pulaski and. man the thing about her is that in a show where she'd had more time and more episodes focused on her i think she could have turned into a character i'd like. in a show where she had like, an arc she could have been so cool. there was potential there! the problem is that the writers decided to make her literally the only "good guy" character in the entire show to be a dick to data and not really apologize for it (literally this is otherwise the single most reliable flag for a character being a villain; do they treat data like a person), have that be her only notable character trait that wasn't shared with dr. crusher for her first two episodes, and then immediately forgot to do anything interesting with her ever again. and it's killing me because if they'd just like... given her a Single Story that i don't think dr. crusher could have done, or explored at all the reasons why she was a technophobe, or even had an episode where she Learns Something and Grows, she could have been good. alas it was tng season two and the only characters they knew how to write so far were data and picard, let ALONE any of the women,

[filmjunky-99]

s t a r t r e k t h e n e x t g e n e r a t i o n created by gene roddenberry Kavis Alpha Binary Star System [evolution, s3ep1] 'Over and over again, the intense gravitational pull of the little neutron star sucks up the star material from the red giant, and it builds up on the surface until it explodes, every one hundred and ninety six years. Like clockwork.' - dr. stubbs

[subrosa03]

Carpenter Street my beloved. Where else can I watch a Starfleet captain and a Vulcan going through a McDonald’s drive thru? I could watch this shit all day. 💜

[xx-dark-dart-xx]

going back to our roots. Gonna find star trek fanfiction tonight methinks. Im on a pilgrimage

[weerd1]

ENT Rewatch Starlog, 25 February, 2024: Episode 3.15 “Harbinger”

Trip is taking what he’s learned from T’Pol’s neuropressure sessions and having his OWN sessions with Corporal Cole of the MACOs. She expresses interest in taking it further, but has also gone to Phlox to mention she’s been having headaches afterward. Phlox informs T’Pol and suggests she try to undo Trip’s missteps with the Corporal. T’Pol gives her very unhappy stoic face.

Meanwhile, Major Hayes of the MACOs has approached Archer about providing combat training to senior Starfleet officers, which Malcolm takes to be an attempt on Hayes’ part to take over ship security. He grudgingly goes along with it, but the sessions prove to be escalating one-upmanship between the Starfleet Lieutenant and the MACO Major. 

While all THAT interpersonal drama is going on, Enterprise discovers an enormous cluster of spatial anomalies equidistant between five spheres.

They pick up a life sign in a small pod just inside the anomaly, and with some dangerous moves manage to retrieve an unknown alien. He claims to have been a prisoner from a different dimension of space who was forced into the pod. Archer begins to think some of those myths about the Sphere Builders returning D’Jamat and his people from “Chosen Realm” discussed might be somewhat true, and this alien may be like a canary in a coal mine to see of the spheres are changing local space to be what those builders need. 

After various shenanigans and awkward discussions between T’Pol, Trip, and Cole, Trip and T’Pol are conducting a neuropressure session where she reveals that Sim—the Trip clone from a few episodes back—told T’Pol that Tucker has feelings for her. After some repartee, T’Pol kisses Trip, and disrobes, and the two have sex.

Meanwhile, Hayes and Reed are in the gym sparing and the testosterone takes over, and it becomes a brawl that spills into the corridor. About that time though, the alien reveals himself able to phase through matter and walks to engineering where he proceeds to reach in and damage the warp core. Fresh from their fight, Malcolm and Hayes manage to tweak the engine to zap him and stop him.

The Alien reveals he was there to stop the NX-01, and when the Xindi destroy Earth, his “people will prevail,” before phasing completely out.

Trip and T’Pol have an awkward coffee together where she says their encounter was basically her just exploring her curiosity about human sexuality, but Trip does think they should continue neuropressure. Archer dresses down Malcolm and Hayes, who seem to have resolved their differences after their own physical session. 

Rare to see a Trek episode that has an A, B, AND C story going on all at once. The parallels between the Trip/T’Pol and Reed/Hayes stories do not however seem coincidental. Yeah, I’m a T&T shipper, though some of T’Pol’s very human jealousy here seems more than a bit forced, I’m not sure the eroticism between those characters was any more dramatic than between Reed and Hayes when they were fighting. Jesus, guys, just kiss already. Archer leaving them in his quarters after his lecture without dismissing them, and neither wanting to leave drives the point that these two are really pretty similar home.

But T&T DOES finally consummate here including a scene that shows about the top third of T’Pol’s bare “bum,” that as I recall was actually edited in some parts of the country; how quaint.  Some of how this all plays out I think does weaken T’Pol’s character a bit, but I guiltily accept it as these two are on my OTP list, so what can I say? 

Meanwhile, there is an age-old Trek foible here that I will never quite understand. What keeps an alien (or flashing back to TNG in the episode “The Next Phase” Geordi and Ro) who is phasing—seemingly uncontrolled as he can’t control his disappearance at the end—from falling through the floor?  Or staying in one point in space while the ship moves around them, since surely gravity and inertia won’t work on them too?  How can he use hands to climb the ladder to get on top of the warp core, but put his hands through the top to reach in a reach havoc? OK- MAYBE in this case he has more control over the process than they indicate so he’s just CHOOSING to have the bottom of his feet only phase for walls and not floors, but…it always makes me shrug. 

Finally, my THANKS to this episode for my all-time favorite Enterprise GIF:

Next Voyage: With the crew sedated, Phlox is home alone in “Doctor’s Orders”!

(Images taken from the main website for @trekcore; I am happy to remove the images if asked.)

[mozart-the-meerkitten]

me, hyped up about Star Trek Enterprise again after finishing my beloved season 3: I wonder if there are any posts about it on tumblr *searches*

me, twenty minutes later, closing the results: ah. I see. it has suffered from fandomification, where fans threw out canon and replaced it with fanon. one hundred and thirty seven polls asking "what was your first/favorite star trek" and it is at the bottom of every one. this between 14million other posts about every other star trek series. some funny memes thrown in for ~flavor~. great. wonderful. I'll just go back into my happy little corner with my parents who unironically enjoy the show with me then.

[scarywardrobe]

[spatulahat]

Starting the workweek versus finishing it.

[alex-guerin]

HELP!

I've put "Archer's Theme" on repeat again for the first time in like 3 years!

I'd forgotten how beautiful and uplifting it is! And just how much it makes me grin like an idiot while also sob like a baby and clutch my own heart.

I'm also staring at a TuckerReed fic I started working on, again, like 3 years ago but never finished. It was only supposed to be a short, self-indulgent, Malcolm is a vampire and Trip has a vamp kink fic...if I can ever get it finished.

Which was why I put Archer's Theme on, cuz it always used to help me write, so I kind of hope it does again, now.

Enterprise, man...I can never escape you, it seems. Like a tsunami, you strike when I least expect you to and suck me back in and under...