31: The Seventh - Star Trek Enterprise Season 2, Episode 7

Show Notes

https://youtu.be/xs91b-e9n98

Matt and Sean talk about T’Pol’s manipulated past, and possible nefarious action by the Vulcans.

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Host

Matt Ferrell

Host of Undecided with Matt Ferrell, Still TBD, and Trek in Time podcasts

Host

Sean Ferrell 🐨

Co-host of Still TBD and Trek in Time Podcasts

What is Trek In Time?

Join Sean and Matt as they rewatch all of Star Trek in order and in historical context.

Hey, everybody welcome to trek in time. This is the podcast that takes a look at star trek in order and in history. We're watching all the episodes of star trek. In chronological order which means we are currently in the second season of enterprise which are the oldest stories in the trek universe. We're also taking a look at how things were at the time of original broadcast. So we're also looking at things from 2002 which seems like it should. Just a few months ago but here we are 22 years past the change of the millennium. No boy I'm old but who am I I'm Sean Farrell I'm a writer I write some sci-fi I write. Some things for kids and with me is my brother Matthew he is the guru and inquisitor behind the Youtube channel undecided with Matt Ferrell which takes a look at emerging tech and its impact on our lives Matt how are you I'm doing. Okay.
I'm good how you doing.
Trying to hold on as we start a new year before we get started. Don't forget there is ways to directly support the podcast beyond listening and subscribing. You can go to trekintime show. There's a way to support the podcast directly there you can. Also if you're on Youtube. Scroll down below the video and you will find the join button. Whatever way, you're able to support us even if it's just by listening and sharing. We greatly appreciate all of that really does help the channel Matt I understand you've got some listener comments from previous episodes that you want to share.
Yes, yes, I do one from the episode mind field which was referencing our discussion about how Vulcans might not recognize the origins of the Romulans because they came head to head with the Romulans and I asked the question of like how would depall not recognize some of the language commonalities between the 2 And sunspot 42 made this statement many maybe Romulans don't communicate in their native language but in some kind of unicode in part to hide their Vulcan origin origins just because the Vulcans don't know who the rhymy lens really are doesn't mean that the Rhymulans don't know who the Vulcans really are and yeah I thought that was pretty cool because.
I Really like that That's really cool. Yeah.
In all of the Star Trek Rhymeans are portrayed as being very ah distrustful and they're spy oriented and they try to keep themselves like cloaked in the shadows and it's like that kind of fits into that motif of maybe they're fully aware of who the vulcans are because.
Um, yeah, yeah, that's really neat.
They splintered off but they are hiding their true identity to keep the vulcans in the dark. So I thought that was interesting. Yeah, the other comment was about the a night and sick bay which I know Sean really did not like that episode. Um yeah, make makeo put a long.
Yeah I didn't care for it.
Comment talking about all the stupid things that he saw in that episode and there was like a couple of them that kind wanted to call out like 1 of them. It was his stupid things number 3 sitting in a decontamination room and simply applying gel on each other prevents any bacteria virus or etc coming on board the ship unless it's inside the body. But. That never happens and I thought that was so great because it's like I had never even thought about that like they're in a dcon chamber it was lubing each other up and it's like how is this actually stopping anything. It's like if you inhale something and you're sick hello covid um, it doesn't make sense why that is the the means of decontaminating each other. Um. Then the the last thing he mentioned which was along the same lines of both of us on the other hand there is the doctor and his acting which I think saves this episode from being a total disaster. Let's just put this episode aside and hope the next one is better. So he clearly agreed with you on his take on the the episode but I just loved his stupid thing number 3 it never even crossed my mind. It just was I find that whole decontamination chamber intriguing but the way it's executed I just find it distasteful because it's therefore sexing up the show. It's just to see people half naked looping each other up.
Yeah.
Um, yeah.
But I love how he just broke it down and was like this makes 0 scientific sense as to what there's doing.
Yeah, it's like the rubbing each other down and then they step out of the decon chamber just coughing each other's faces and then go their separate ways like like excuse me what? how did that work. So tonight. We're gonna be talking about I'm gonna change that. Because it's not night even as I say that we'll just edit that out. So today. We're gonna be talking about the episode the seventh which is the seventh episode of the season and planned not planned I don't know but. Makes it easy to remember the name of the episode Matt you want to give us a quick synopsis. Yes, it is.
This is a very quick synopsis to Paul to Paul is dispatched by the vulcan high command to capture a fugitive who has eluded the authorities for nearly 2 decades succinct. Yes.
Pretty much hits all of the high points. Yes, this episode is directed by David Livingston it was written by Rick Berman and Brandon Braga and it episode.
And it aired on November six two thousand and two I have been telling Matt this week my brain is mush. It has been a long year. It was a challenging holiday season. And as we enter 2022 I find me not think so good me not think so straight so please bear along as I grapple with saying simple sentences like this episode aired on November six two thousand and two Ah had four point eight two million viewers which is down from the previous week which I think is a shame because Spoiler I really like this episode.
Move.
But you're all wondering what was the world like when this episode aired well early November of 2002 we were enjoying underneath it all by no doubt one of the first songs to come up in this podcast that not only do I remember. That it exists but I still occasionally listen to it and still think it's a good song. So interesting little turn of events there. The opposite is true with the movie this week which was the Santa Claus 2 it made $29000000 and ho. Thank you Matt do you still watch your bluray copy of Santa Claus too accept at Christmas right? and this week on cs I watch 27000000 viewers.
I watch it every weekend Sean except at Christmas. Yes.
We're going to have Csi in the most watch category for a while so hold on folks and in the news from the New York Times this episode airing on the Wednesday after election day in the us in 2002 which is the first federal election after 2001's attack on 119 saw the president president Bush gaining control of the senate. The gop retook the senate in a sign of presidential influence at the time there was a really strong. Push behind president Bush the unifying event of 119 gave him a lot of power and the senate control going to him meant that he controlled both houses and along with his election. Governor Pataki a republican won New York and the president's brother Jeb Bush won the governorship in Florida and this to cast an eye much further forward put Jeb Bush on the shortlist of people who. Expected to run for president in the future and potentially would win the presidency in the future. The Bush family was seen at this point as particularly strong politically. So onto the episode the seventh we find out because of a covert message that is sent to to Paul that to Paul is being given a special assignment. And right out of the gate in this episode to Paul shows up after getting this message we see her in her quarters at the beginning of the episode reading what looks like probably poetry or philosophy of some sort. We see some vulcan writing. Thought that was a really nice way of then when she sits down at her computer and she gets the message from the computer and we see the same type of writing of signifying like this is this is from her world. This is not through main channels.
Ah.
And she gets a message to basically say we found him and I really like that The next moment is her going to archer and asking for help in getting to a specific spot in space being given a pilot. And shuttle craft and not being able to talk about it. What did you think about the scene that followed her getting the assignment.
I Thought it was a a really good scene because it was it. It showed the conflict she was having. She's also been a vulcan that we've seen that struggles with her emotions more than other vulcans and so it was nice to see this like struggle she was having with this command she was given and you could tell that she wanted to. Give the captain more information but just really couldn't just didn't want to talk about it necessarily but also was under strict orders not to um and it kind of led into the whole thing of like I don't know how far ahead you want to jump here in the conversation but like the whole.
I Think you should jump as far forward as you need to.
When she actually asks the captain to come along and it's clearly not Authorized. He's not supposed to be there. The captain is basically you know she's basically saying please I Just need you there and he just as a friend is saying to her. Yes I'll go with you and he doesn't even tell Trip. What's going on. Because he knows that this is something That's very serious for Tyal and so he's just going to play along and follow her lead and so he's not even confiding in his best friend as to what they're going there for I Thought there was a really nice. It was a little tension because you could tell trip was hurt like come on why you want you telling me but he says you can tell the captains just.
Um, yeah.
He makes a promise. He's gonna stick to that promise he goes I can't tell you just if anybody tries to find me stall them. Don't tell them I'm with her because like this could get things in a bad situation I just I'd like the way the whole thing was set up of how she knew she needed some kind of emotional support somebody that she could really truly trust and. Leaned on the captain because this is this is where I feel like the whole show has been trying to build is that relationship between the 2 of them show that there's a real true bond that they really trust each other and this was like the first time I think that the show really is paying off on that that friendship that's building between the 2 of them.
Yeah, it it feels very much like 1 of the goals of this was to without it being about Kirk and Spock show. How can 2 people from such different cultures forge that kind of trusting relationship and.
Yes.
This episode felt like a huge payoff for a lot of little moments that have happened over the past full season in the first few weeks of season 2 and I think especially in here in season 2 they've they've kind of like cranked it up a little bit to the. The moment that they earned in this episode with right at the beginning archer's response to the request from the vulcans he responds to it with humor. He doesn't respond to it with defensiveness if this episode had taken place in the first season he would have been defensive about it at this point. He's kind of taken on an air of like are you kidding me really like again like we're being kept in the dark again and it all starts with a very humous humorous way of of her revealing she walks in and says later this afternoon. You will get a call from admiral Forrest.
This.
And his response of like how do you know what? I'm going to get later today like how do you come to this moment and him trying to get more information but doing it a way of like let me guess you can't tell me Okay, no problem. Okay dismissed and it's this very kind of.
This is.
Ah, right? I'm a little exhausted by all this. But I'm taking it in stride and then you see the same thing from the rest of the crew I thought in another really well doneseen where they are standing around there. They have that command center which is behind the Captain's chair which they use as they're kind of impromptu. Let's all stand here and talk for a few minutes about what's going on and they've done that in various episodes. They do it here and the captain is revealed to the command crew. We are going to a location in space where we are going to be giving a ship and a pilot to topa she's going to go do something and we are gonna wait and the rest of the crew responds in kind as the captain did with we have questions why won't you share it but we won't push we all know.
This is.
Paul I like the fact that in this moment as opposed to again at this point a year ago early in the series if to Paul was given this kind of secret mission. The crew would have been behind her back going to the captain and saying why are we landing this fucking this vol vulkcan call the shot. But this time they're all looking at it is like the first one to offer up suggestion of how to use downtime as read who says well I could do some work on the weapons systems and trip jokingly says like oh I could polish all the rails in engineering and then at a second moment's thought says.
Which yeah.
Yes. Well though it wasn't a second moment's thought it was this that moment I loved it's the captain just glared at trip like trip knock it off and then trip is like ah okay, yes I could find something to do I did like the moment of but you're talking about where everybody was just kind of like okay they trust to Paul.
I Could do some work on the engines.
Yeah, yeah.
Know this whole Vulcan kind of craziness goes on whatever and they kind of like get but beyond that very quickly and I did like how the captain we've complained about how trip and read in previous episodes have been portrayed and as like Juvenile delinquents at times and episodes and so it's like and there's been kind of um.
Um, right.
Ah, hinted that the Captain's been kind of cracking the whip trying to get them more in line and so I liked the look that he gave trip because it was not a word was spoken. It was just a glare and trip knew I just crossed the line. Let me dial this back and say yes I can do something so I thought that was like a I don't know if it was a deliberate.
Um, right.
Um, yeah.
Choice they made in the episode in the directing and the acting of that scene but that's what I interpreted based on what we've been watching over the course of the past I don't know 6 episodes or so.
Right? Yeah I picked up on that too. It was a very nice moment of like the captain understands that in some cases he's going to have to simply squash conversation and in Reid's conversation in the mind field episode where he said.
This is.
Things are a little too loosecy goosey at times and and this is a moment where the captain is like you're not getting more out of me and you don't need to know more and I don't even know more at this point we're also given some glimpses of to Paul having some kind of flashbacks which. We see images of jungle and we see a face and it's a face that we know is somebody that she has to go find this all leads to to Paul going to archer and basically pulling back a curtain and. At this moment. This is now the second big payoff for me in the episode of her going to him and saying I need somebody I can trust there and his response to be an unequivocal like let me know when I need to leave like it's a demonstration of. Reciprocity from a few episodes earlier where archer had said to to Paul I want your opinion on this because I value you as a sounding board. He didn't want her to leave the ship at the beginning of this season when she was ostensibly being called back to vulcan. And he argued that I need you I value you here and this is that moment of her paying that back I thought that was a very great moment too. So then we're given ah a nice trio I wish mayweather head again I will say this probably every time he shows up on screen I wish me. Weather had a little bit more of a voice in this episode but the fact that he is the main pilot of the enterprise and now he's being taken on this mission is another demonstration of the seriousness with which to Paul is handling this. She probably requested. That may weather be the pilot that she be she be given so the 3 of them plan on going to the location of to Paul's assignment she reveals to the captain we are looking for this individual who was a deep agent from vulcan. Along with several dozen others who were going into a planet to expose corruption and as that corruption was exposed and that government became friendlier to forging an alliance with vulcan those agents were then pulled. But. Back, but there were a handful who refused to come back and to Paul was one of the security agents who was sent in to retrieve these wayward agents. She says all of that very factually.
I Accept that within the episode. She understands that all to be true archer understands that all to be true, but like me, do you see cracks in that story that depict something more nefarious from the Vulcan high command.
Yeah, of course I mean it's the way it's all portrayed these crazy flashbacks. She's having all that kind of stuff. It's It's clear that her memory of this is clouded or not complete and that there's something else afoot like her memory's becoming dislodged. So. It's like the way the her portrayal of it. The flashbacks all of that stuff sets it up as something This is not as it seems it was pretty clear from the very beginning.
It sounds to me like you're talking about within the confines of the episode I'm talking more about within the bigger picture of this trek universe. At this point I get the sense that this is referencing deeper history of.
Um, it fits.
Were the Vulcans Actually there rooting out corruption or were the Vulcans pulling some strings in order to make a friendlier government.
No, it's it's it's that it's like that this has been set up in this entire show of the vulcans with their spy their listening station that was underneath the the the monk like thing that they had set up.
Yes, that was actually that was actually the pagem monastery which comes back in this episode So we'll talk about that later.
Yes, in this episode. So but but they've been hinting that the Vulcans have been doing a lot of nefarious things that the vulcans do because from a logic point of view. It's like they're trying to protect themselves and make sure that their neighbors are behaving properly so it doesn't it makes perfect sense that the vulcans would be out there.
Right.
Manipulating other races trying to make sure that they were going in a direction that benefited the vulcans. It makes perfect sense. It's gross, but it's clearly they're hinting that the vulcans are just as nefarious as everybody else has been around the galaxy they're not. They don't have a clean history.
Um, yeah.
Right.
Have a dirty history and we're getting a little hint of that.
And to put this into the context of the era in which this episode was produced the original series storylines all reflected a cold war mentality. This episode is produced after Nine eleven during an era in which America's influence around the world was. Not only being called into question but its actions in that influence were being called into question we had had things like Iran -contra where the us government was swapping weapons with friendly countries in order to destabilize certain parts of the world. We had nine eleven itself which was the result of actions from people who decades earlier had been supported by the us in their fight against the soviet union and we had now in 2002 the resurgence of the us concerns around iraq again. Iraq previously an ally in our desire to destabilize iran so at this point in 2002 the showrunners are depicting a close federation. Ally the vulcans. As potentially having had similar actions that the us government had had in the decades post-cold war. So I think that's an interesting aspect to this episode the reconstruction of a vulcan past that is. Not philosophically or ideologically pure. It is shadowy at points. So the person that they're pursuing from to paul's perspective is the sixth and final member. Of the group that she had rounded up and he had been trained in getting into smuggling circles to be able to root out that corruption but he'd become so good at it that he had. It's effectively. This is almost an apocalypse now storyline he he went native.
Yep.
He became the very thing that he was pretending to be and refused to leave because he had actually been able to put together a fairly successful smuggling operation in which he smuggled chemical and biological weapons. So archer to Paul and mayweather. Track the fugitive whose name is meos to an ice moon perney a prime they get to pernay a prime and this is where they step fully into star wars territory I really liked the depiction of.
Him.
Pernay a prime as a place where you don't walk into this place without being prepared for something bad to happen.
It's a Cd outpost there's there's clearly like black market trading going on here. There's it's the low life of the galaxy stop and by making deals.
Yeah, yeah, it's the kind of place where if this was a western they would have been walking through swinging doors and the piano would have stopped playing and everybody would have looked at the door. This.
The piano would have stopped playing and everybody would have gone war.
And it's a hodgepodge I think that the the makeup department was probably working overtime for this episode. There's more aliens of different types in this scene than I can recall seeing in many episodes of star trek. It is a wide array of different. Looks I think they also did a little mixing and mashing where it was a klingon forehead with a cardassian neck. It was ah like they created a bunch of looks that didn't really fit with known species to really create the idea that the enterprise crew when they walk into this room aren't going to and feel safe in any way shape or form. Thought it was extremely effective. They go into this tavern this this cd bar and they begin to scout out where Aminos might be hiding and to Paul literally stumbles face to face with him while a gigantic alien who's. Barreling around the bar hither and yon who he does this with Depal and he also does it with archer stepping in the way just basically to yell at people knocks them to the side. He's an angry drunk. He knocks them to the side and to Paul loses Menos in the crowd.
Yep, he's an angry drunk.
Which leads to archer and mayweather having to help her coordinate and pin him in a corner where they're able to capture him and now we end up with an interesting sequence which is them in the corner. Basically they're told by the the head of this this location who apparently is the closest thing to law enforcement. They might have he looks at their warrant says it's valid but says you got nowhere to go. This is not a Jail I can't help you hold this guy.
They were cleaning. They're doing something with acid but they're doing something with acid on the landing bay so that nobody can go out to their ships to leave so it's like you're you're stuck here until that's done. It's like I thought it was a fun sequence of fun. Ah fun, take to get them to be stuck there for a couple more hours
So they have to go back to the tavern. Yeah.
Yeah, so it's almost the equivalent of them of something from bindite run now waiting in a bus station with somebody handcuffed and having to just literally put in time during this.
That they would have to sit there and just wait. But. Yeah, yeah.
Juliane Blalock's acting I think is really excellent in this episode because she is depicting a to Paul who is quickly falling apart. She is fraying at the edges in a way that depicts some level of stress that she can't even understand herself and she begins to have flashbacks.
Yes.
More and more flashbacks as meos is talking to her about how he is innocent how he has a family he shows them a holograph of his family. He's got children all he does is haul empty empty injection containers from warp cores and reveals that. He's actually sick and dying because of the contaminants in these injection modules I've got a ship full of them. He says to Paul Reaches a point where she appears to be ready to cut the guy's throat. She jumps forward and she's got a blade but she ends up and I thought this sequence was particularly effective cuts the straps off of his jacket so that she can wrap them around her boots and run through the acid to get to his ship to investigate it and when she gets there. She finds nothing but the injection modules. And her breakdown is almost complete at this point.
Yes, yeah, she's clearly lost lost her mind a little bit the way she's rummaging through all the spent casings and she's just she. She's completely unhinged and this is where it's like I think across the entire series I think Julian Blaillock's performance as to Paul. It's one of the best on the show. It's like her and the doctor I just love their performances for their characters and you know that she was cast because she's a beautiful sexy woman that they we talked in the previous episode There are some very disgusting very deliberate jolene blaillock butt shots that were clearly. Just shown to shown off her physique. She is so much more than that in her performance of this character and this episode was a chance where she was able to kind of like really kind of flex her muscles a little bit show up more of her acting chops and the writing I think supported that really well I thought this was a really great portrayal of showing a vulcan.
Yeah.
Who clearly had something done to her that is losing a touch with reality a little bit because things are not alignning in her memory in a in the correct way and as viewers we're not sure is what's going on and for her. She's clearly not sure what's going on but this sequence I thought was great with her just kind of losing her mind willing to risk. Running out on top of acid to go get an answer to this I Also really liked how they were playing with us as viewers and her character at the same time of making you question what's real because he's laying out a case of.
Yeah.
I'm just a guy with a family that's trying to earn a living and I'm spent casings and that's the Vulcan Command has been lying and we know his viewers that the Vulcan Command has been lying So Suddenly it's like what if what if this guy is telling the truth. So We start to actually kind of believe his story as viewers as a possibility because it seems very possible but this guy is not. What he seems and so I thought it was a really nice play on not just the characters but us his viewers.
Yeah, for the character to have any growth there has to be change and for a vulcan the idea of change has to be if you're taking a well-adjusted vulcan well what are they going to change to are we gonna. Have a show about a well-adjusted vulcan that becomes maladjusted like that would be terrible as a hero story but like Spock Spock his story wrestles around the duality of his personality. And how does he marry those 2 aspects of himself the human side but the vulcan side and with to Paul we are given at the beginning. What seems like an adjusted Vulcan and we do get a little bit of destabilization to lead to growth of incorporating those harder. Parts of the backstory and this is one such moment as she is having these flashbacks and realizes that meno had a partner There were not 6 people that she was supposed to round up. There was 7 hence the title of the episode the seventh. She actually already killed. And that's part of the flashback. She keeps having the flashback of chasing meos and a partner through the jungle of Risa and when she catches up to the partner. She has a memory of him reaching for a weapon and shooting him. But as she keeps talking to meno and meno keeps hammering on the fact that. All I want to do is be left alone I'm not the criminal they say I am I'm innocent of other crimes other than being a fugitive her memory begins to shift and the weapon that he's reaching for begins to disappear from her memory and she begins to question did I murder an innocent man. And she basically logically deduces that she must have undergone a process called Phlora which is a treatment of outside vulcans. Not just the individual themselves. But outside vulcans helping the.
This.
Vulcan with a memory that is undesirable and causing emotional turmoil to force that memory so deep and hide it so well that it's no longer existent for the the vulcan undergoing this treatment to Paul now realizes she's undergone. This. I think it's a really great callback that she underwent this at pagem which then ties into not only the fact that pogem was the location of the listening station that the vulcans had hidden in order to spy in Andorria but it reveals a little bit more retroactively.
And.
Her response to pagem when they go and visit uninvited. Why is she so somewhat protective about Pegem Pegem has this intense personal relationship to her even at the time even if at the time she didn't recognize why so.
Yeah, yeah.
She is dealing with basically false memory issues. She's unable to trust herself linking right back to her reasons for bringing archer along she needed somebody. She could trust. There's a sequence where Manos is able to get away. He's able to he starts a fire in the the place where they are while archer and to Paul are talking outside about the fact that she is is losing it and archer is showing his concern for meno starts a fire and in the midst of the chaos of the fire. He's able to get away from them but they apparently beat him back to his own ship and they are on his ship looking around when mayweather is told to go into the the pilots area and get life support going because the ship is so cold. And when he does that he identifies something which isn't showing up on their sensors but it's clearly got high energy output and the captain very casually says well, let's see what it does when I turn it off and when he turns it off it turns out there is a hidden smuggling compartment in the ship manos is hiding inside of it. And now we have an action sequence which it's fine like there's nothing about it that stood out as like this is the best part of the episode but definitely like it gets the job done cut to the end of the chase when they are out on the platform to Paul is watching meno's run away.
Yeah, it gets that it it gets the job done. Yeah.
She is still conflicted. She has a shot archer is standing with her and archer says you need not to judge him. You just need to bring him in and she says I no longer trust myself I needed you here because I trust you and he says. Then trust me when I say you need to simply bring him in and she shoots Menos knocking him out. They tie him up and after they've done all of that maywether then finds a storage compartment filled with the biotoxins that it was suspected. Meos was smuggling all along so the stories he's told the emotional manipulation. He's tried to play all of that is as archer claimed like this guy is going to say and do anything in order to get away but all of that is. Turned out to be fraudulent that meno is in fact, the criminal that the vulcan high command claimed he was.
Yeah, this that that whole story line I thought was superb I do want to bring up the B Storyline a little bit with trip. He's yeah and and even though it has issues I did like it because it's trip is clearly going on a.
Yeah, there's a little bit of yeah, there's a little bit of a comedic trombone playing in the background.
Um, yeah.
Power trip. Um, he has he brings Reid and the doctor into the Captain's mess to have a acting Captain's breakfast or lunch. Whatever it is because like you know, bring us our food and he comes in. It's like oh boy, oh trip here's the juvenile delinquent coming out again. But what I liked about it was.
Um, yeah, yeah.
Um, yeah, yeah.
He never got to enjoy his meal. He got a taste of what it like what it's like to be a captain. He keeps having everybody radioing to him or asking him like we need approval on Xy or z and they're big decisions that have to be made and he keeps trying to put it off I thought it was nice of. He is acting a little bit of like oh the Captain's got it easy and it's like well no, you're getting a taste of what it's like to be the captain and I also really enjoyed the moment where he had to basically lie to the vulcans when they showed up the entire sequence I thought was hysterical because the captain is trying to get a hold.
Um, great.
Right? yeah.
The Vulcan cab is trying to get a hold of archer and he goes on camera to pretend to pretend to be archer and so he gets gets on camera saying he he? Yeah, he's being very coy about it and when the the Vulcan captain says to him you're younger than I thought you would be I loved his resp response of.
Um, why also not actually saying he's archer. It's well done. Yeah.
Healthy living. He's like uncomfortable not knowing what to say but all of that was just so that the Vulcan captain could deliver the message of ah a sports score from from water Polo on Earth and the the Vulcan captain had no idea what it was about and the trip immediately realizes.
Right.
How this was all a no big deal at all and like it was just a very funny moment about delivering sports scores and his whole charade of being the captain I thought it was it was well done I thought it was fun but not perfect, but it was it was just the right amount of levity that the show needed.
Um, yeah.
Yeah trips trips little breaks give a comedic breathing room that the otherwise the the constant tension of to Paul's breakdown effectively and and discovering that she has had a procedure done.
Yes.
Also like that the aspects of the procedure that were done to her. It's not clear if at the time she was actually fully endorsing having that procedure done. It is a lot of flashbacks that look like torment and torture of.
Right.
These monks working with her to help suppress these memories. But when all of that has now been unleashed archer and she and the episode with another very nice sequence where he says you are going to have to take a page from our book. And simply live with the hurt of this and then move forward from It. You aren't going to be able to simply cover it up and remove it that the turmoil of this is going to affect you and it's going to be difficult. He offers her offers her time away from the ship. She refuses. And then she ends the episode in what I think is an extremely touching line where she says to him if you ever need anybody you can trust you can trust in me that they have now.
Yes.
Started the episode with a stronger relationship than they had a year earlier and have ended the episode with an even stronger relationship than the beginning. So I think that this episode does a great job of depicting what their relationship. What the what the bedrock of their relationship has become.
Even stronger. Yeah.
And I think that's extremely well rendered, especially considering just a few episodes ago. We had an extremely silly and awkward moment of flocks tellinglling archer I think you've got repest sexual desire for toal. And to Paul coming to him and saying it's a good thing. You're my commanding officer. Otherwise we'd be trying to get it on all of that seemed completely out of left field. This is where their relationship is this is the strength of their relationship. So I really appreciated this.
Yeah I meet the same note in my final notes of the episode word I Love that if you ever need somebody. You can trust I Thought that was the perfect way to end the episode because as you pointed out the relationship is now stronger than it was at the beginning and these are the kind of episodes of Star Trek that I really gravitate towards are the ones that have. Really good strong character development and if the plot has plot holes or weirdness about it I can forgive those if it's got a good solid character development and character arc for the characters. We've been growing to love and enjoy watching and for this this episode was well executed had a good plot. Not a ton of Plot Holes. So. On a whole it was well done and then the emotional arc I thought was Excellent. So I thought this was a very very strong episode.
I agree but our listeners and our viewers on Youtube you should all let us know what you think about all of this did you agree that this was a great step forward for the 2 characters was there something in this episode that you thought was missing and I'm interested. Do our listeners agree that this is showing fractures in our understanding of the vulcans and that we see the beginnings of some somewhat nefarious aspects to their governing body. Matt before we sign off is there anything you'd like to remind our listeners about that you have going on.
Um, our other show to check out our other podcasts still to be determined which is follow up episodes to my Youtube channel where we kind of go over user of viewer comments and Sean's own thoughts on the subjects. It's a fun little follow up to my Youtube channel.
As for me, you can check out my website http://seanferrell.com you can also look for my books on Amazon or Barnes and noble or your local library any bookstore near you they should all be available. There. Thank you so much for your interest if you do so. Remember there are ways to directly support the podcast you can visit trek in time show and there's an opportunity there to throw coins at us and if you're on Youtube you can scroll below the video and you'll find the join button and you can become a member there. If anybody has any comments corrections please do reach out. You can find the contact information in the podcast notes on Youtube you scroll directly below the video of course to the comments section please do remember to subscribe and to like the episode Matt next time we're going to be talking about the episode the communicator any predictions. What will be talking about.
We're probably going to be talking about a communicator.
Um, very good. The entire episode is just 48 minutes of looking at a communicator on a table every now and then it beeps how could you be wrong I mean come on.
Eg Exactly I could be I could be wrong I could be wrong, but.
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