66: Doctor’s Orders - Star Trek Enterprise Season 3, Episode 16

Show Notes

https://youtu.be/b1w6levVWjg

Matt and Sean talk about the first and second rule of Phlox Club. John Billingsley shows why he’s one of a favorite actors and characters on the show. 

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Creators & Guests

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.

In today's episode of Trek and Time, we're gonna talk about the first and second rules of Phlox Club. That's right. We're talking. Season three, episode 16, Doctor's Orders, which originally aired on February 18th, 2003, and here on Trek In Time. What we're doing is we're taking a look at each episode of Star Trek in chronological order.

So we are currently in the third season of enterprise, which puts us also squarely in the year 2000. Not only are we taking a look at the episodes, we're taking a look at what the world was like at the time of original broadcast, and who are we? Well, I'm Sean Ferrell. I'm a writer. I write some stuff for kids.

I write some stuff for adults that's sci-fi. And with me as my brother Matt. Matt 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 doing today?

Doing well. It's a good weekend.

How about. I'm doing well and I'm looking forward to talking about this episode, which features one of the, as far as I'm concerned, one of the best character actors in the show.

It features one of the best characters in the show and does some really fun things with them. Even though, spoiler alert, I felt like I knew the end of the episode before. Yes, we even got out of the teaser. It was just, yes, it was a little bit of a paint by numbers. but raised a level by the acting of, of the, uh, yes.

The main character. So, so we'll get, I agree in a little bit, but before we do, as usual, Matt likes to share some comments from previous episodes. Matt, what did you find for us? I just wanna share a

couple comments from Jeff Halverson, who's clearly been tearing his way through our entire catalog because he's been dropping comments like in sequence, uh, on YouTube, and I wanted to share a couple from him on the episode.

Similar to, which was the one about the clone of trip he dropped. I started off screaming, dumb, dumb, dumb, but loved it in the end, which I think kind of, I think a lot of people would agree with that. Maybe not liking the way it started, but really liking the way it ended. And the second comment I, I picked from his most recent comments were, was from the episode chosen realm, which was about, it was about the, a Xindi, the extremists, about trying to keep religious extremists, trying to keep people away from the, the spheres fears.

It was Sean and I had some choice words about that episode, about how it was depicting religion. Mm-hmm. . And it created big debate on that episode. And he dropped in, in his comment. Reed should be fired if he still can't secure the ship. , which I thought was

very fun. ,

I completely disagree that a middle ground was needed.

The story was about extremism, not religious beliefs. They tried to be tolerant until they hijacked the ship. Archer said diplomatically to pause The conversation then T'Pol offered that mythology often came to be because of some truth. Some element of truth. Mm-hmm. . And so it's, I I thought that was a good comment that he added to the conversation there and.

If you want to go to the comments on that specific episode, there's a , really good, vibrant discussion among people about, uh, religion and

extremism

on that one. Mm-hmm. ? Yeah, please. On all of these episodes, Matt and I are really viewing ourselves as a. Initiating a conversation, but we do not come to any of this with the approach of we have spoken, therefore, yeah, we are right.

Yep. We love talking about this stuff. We love debating this stuff. I enjoy it when people weigh in with a difference of opinion. I enjoy it when Matt and I. Agree on something. I enjoy it when Matt and I disagree on something and we have points to make between those differences. So please jump into the comments.

Let us know what you think. Let us know when you think we get it wrong, and reveal to us those moments of the episodes that we forget about. Cuz sometimes we're gonna talk about A, B, and C and then you show up and you're like, Aha, but what about this D? And we're like darn It. Always forgetting about the rest of the alphabet

but before we move on to the newest episode, we need to cover the synopsis. Matt, do you hear that terrible noise in the background? I, I think it's the read alert. I think it's time for you to read the Wikipedia synopsis, and much like last weeks, I think that you'll find this week's is quite an interesting synopsis.

Oh boy. I'm gonna

have a hard time with this one too. Mm-hmm. . So in the 22nd Century board space,

here we talk. Yeah. When you take, when you take information that you know yes, but put it in weird, in the wrong order. And remove grammar from the equation, it becomes almost impossible, Difficult to read out loud.

Yeah. ?

Yes. In the 22nd century aboard Spaceship NX oh one Enterprise, two crew members, Dr. Phlox and Commander T'Pol, guide the ship through an area of dangerous space while the rest of the crew are comatose. . Mm-hmm. . The episode is directed by Roxanne Dawson, with a story by Chris Black, An additional music by Kevin Kinner.

Dennis McCarthy, and as a note for myself, why are we pointing out the music on this one? Yes, we've never done that

before. Well, here's a little sneak peek into the inner workings of this podcast. I usually delete that sentence from the synopsis. Oh, there we go. Very often, the synopsis do end with, it was directed by the music, was by it included these guest stars, and I go in and delete that.

In this case, I left it in because if I didn't delete. This synopsis is literally one sentence, one very poorly structured sentence. So episode 16 of season three originally aired on February 18th, 2004, and as Matt mentioned, directed by Roxanne Dawson favor of mine at this point. As as directing, she, of course, we've talked about this before, Belan Torres from Voya.

And she as good as she was in front of the camera, and I really, really did like her as an actress. She clearly, she's a director. Like this is where she, she shines. So she does a great job with this episode as anticipated. And what was the world like when this episode aired on February 18th, 2004? Well, we were finally beyond, Hey.

Yeah, man. And we were into the way you move. And I'm talking about you directly. This is another outcast song. So Outcast replaced themselves at the number one spot, and this song featured Sleepy Brown as well. And at the movie theaters, 51st dates pulled in almost 40 million. This, of course, is the Adam Sandler, Drew Barry Moore Love a story, and surprisingly, I looked to see if this is available for Stream.

It's not really anywhere you have to rent this movie. And it's surprising to me considering this movie kind of stands up as like one of the stronger romantic comedies for both of them, but be that as it may, it originally released in the week before Valentine's Day. No surprises there. And on television on this day in February, what were we watching?

Well, my wife and kids, and it's our relative. We're on ABC getting strong numbers. Between seven and 9 million each 60 minutes. Two was discussing fraud in mutual funds and families that have 25 children. So both very important stories to be discussing. Little bit of a teaser there with the fraud and mutual funds and you know, we're just at this point a few years away from.

The Great Recession hitting us on Phlox. That 70 show and American Idol we're doing very well with 12 million viewers for the first and 22 million for the second. The Apprentice continued to even in repeats, have extremely strong numbers of 7 million viewers. Smallville was getting 5 million and along came Star Trek Enterprise.

This is going to be the constant refrain for us moving forward. It. 3.7 million viewers. So a little bit down from the previous week. They clearly had an audience, but not a growing audience. And in the news, well, at this point, in February of 2004, what were people talking about? Well, one of the things they were talking about was a little story called Gay Marriage San Francisco Mayor Exalts in the move on gay marriage from February 19th, 2004.

This article in the New York Time is by Dean Murphy. Mayor Gavin Newsom, The man behind San Francisco's weak old policy, allowing same sex marriage, sported a wide grin On Wednesday, opponents of the policy had fared poorly in the courts, and the line of gay and lesbian couples waiting for marriage licenses at City Hall remained long and boisterous beneath the smile.

The mayor, 42 days into his job was feeling the weight of his decision to place the city and his young career at the center of a heated national debate in Washington, President Bush told reporters that he was. Troubled by what I've seen in San Francisco. Some of Mr. Newsome's supporters were worried that they had veered off course.

Even some same sex couples in line for marriage licenses questioned Mr. Newsome's motives. This, of course, would be a major step forward. In the pursuit of quality by same sex couples, which just a few short years after this would end in a Supreme Court case that would effectively make same sex marriage, the rule of the land for everybody.

So big changes coming out of San Francisco and. Part of an ongoing debate that continues to this day where we are currently in the midst of a debate about whether there should be a law on the books as opposed to simply relying on a Supreme Court case. So onto this episode in which we find that the enterprise comes across a part of trans dimensional space, which has been created by the Spheres, and it's a very nac.

Version of that space, and they are going to have to either fly around it, which they discover is going to take many, many weeks, or they're gonna have to fly through it. The problem is they already know that this kind of space does not do good things to humans. It will in fact, incapacitate and then kill them.

But Dr. Phlox has an interesting idea. It's not gonna hurt anybody if those people are comatose. Of course it won't. Why would it?

Well, he's, he's shutting down their brains. Yes. He can't, he can't leave that little nugget out. Yes. Oh. Just shutting down their

brain. He's shutting down their brains. And this episode relies on that kind of magic science babble talk to get like, like, Oh yeah, we can take your brain and we can turn it off in blah, blah, blah, blah.

And then you'll wake up and everything will be fine. We need that to happen in order for the episode to happen at all. Right out of the gate, they just kind of yada yada y of their way through all of that and head straight into here's how we're gonna do it. And of course there's the convenience of Delan will not be affected in quite the same way.

Yeah, of course they won't . Why would they? Yes. Again, we just have to swallow it because the point of this episode is far less the science than revealing more about this character, this. Absolutely focused on Dr. Phlox and effectively a ghost story, a haunted house story? Well, it's,

it's actually, I think this episode should have been titled, Instead of doctor's orders, it should have been titled Solaris.

Hmm. That's basically all this is. Yeah. It's just a man alone on a ship going solely insane because his mind is playing tricks on him. Yes. So it's, it's, that's basically the episode of nutshell. I agree with you. It's like the whole setup is just like a Oh wow. Eye rolling. Wow. Just hand wave everything really quick.

Get into the episode. Oh hey. Phlox is alone. That is actually where the magic happens. It's just like you mentioned, his acting is superb. Yeah. He carries a script that is probably not as good as what AC we actually see. Yeah. And elevates it. He makes it entertaining, gripping, interesting. And even though I knew exactly where this was gonna, And I had, I did not remember the episode from when I originally watched it.

I just, you, you can tell exactly where it's going. I didn't care. I was along for the ride. I love Phlox. I want more Phlox in my life and I love his performance. Yeah. And it's just, it, I just ate this episode up.

Yeah. Instead of Solaris, I started thinking of this as Phlox Club because in spoilers we have, you know, We've had previous episodes where we've talked about, there was a comment in a previous episode where somebody said like, Oh, you're spoiling the shows.

And Matt and I talked about that a bit about like, Please be watching the show before you come in for this discussion. Yes, cuz we are not gonna hold back and revealing stuff. So here we go with that. The moment that. The episode started and Phlox is alone on the ship and he starts hearing something. I'm like, Oh, here comes his Tyler din.

So this is the flight club moment and the moment T'Pol steps out, I'm like, She's not really there. Yeah. That's, this

doesn't make any sense. It's obvious she's not touching anything. Yeah. She never interacts with anything, so it becomes clear as day. Yeah. But this is a figment of its

imagination. She's offered food.

She never touches the spoon. Little things like that, but it's, And she also is Vulcan like, but doesn't fully come across as T'Pol. It's, mm-hmm. . That was one aspect of this that I thought would have been, A little more interesting to explore if Fox's imagination running away with him, presenting him with these constructions, these projected ideas of these people had given us the opportunity to see more of what he sees in the crew.

Yeah. I would've enjoyed if he had recognized I am hallucinating. I am. Like if his. Discovery in literally the last three minutes of the episode happened closer to the halfway mark, and then the ship is presented with a danger. And it is because one of the things that, one of the elements in this episode that I think works really well is they are going through this part of space and their understanding of what's happening is clearly missing.

Some elements. So when that area of space expands, they're not prepared for it, and the doctor discovers that they are going to be still weeks away from getting out of this space. If they travel at impulse, they are going through this space at impulse because Trip is concerned with, Well, we don't know what this area of space we do to the warp engine, so let's just run on impulse.

As a result, Phlox has to effectively teach himself warp theory in order to run the ship. And get it out of this dangerous area of space. And I found myself thinking, what if he understood earlier in the episode that he was hallucinating? It starts with T'Pol. He thinks T'Pol is there, we have a lot of those same moments and then something happens where he recognizes, uh oh, and maybe he does some research into Delan history and finds something, some, you know, archaic.

Records about experiences of debu who were in isolation for extended periods of time, and how completely delusional they can become. As a result of their isolation, they already have him. Within the episode, he is sharing a letter with somebody he's written to in previous episodes. Every time they focus on the doctor, it tends to have this letter writing component.

Yeah. Which is a nice way to like, it's a cheat, but it's a nice way to get into the insights of the character. So he's doing that here. I found myself thinking like, what if he was sharing all of that in the letter of like, Dear friend, My people are driven to cluster. Our relationships are not binary. Our families are not nuclear size.

We are people who are driven to being around people. We constantly want that. Urban centers are where we find the most peace, and then he experiences the hallucinations with DePaul. Then he has some kind of breakthrough where he recognizes maybe this isn't really here, does some kind of research and understands like Uhoh like.

The, the difficulty I'm facing is I'm going to be hallucinating and then here's where the metaphors could pair up. His understanding of what's going on in space, they are in this area of space that has grown and he argues the only way around is through what if. Then he has to do that personally and say, Everything I'm looking at indicates the delan in this kind of moment.

Have this kind of mental collapse that involves hallucination. But what, instead of fighting that, what if I move through that and embrace it? Yeah. And what if he has a more, Well, you could where he says, I need to do this thing that's gonna be impossible for me unless I have some kind of help. And then we could have not only T'Pol, he could hallucinate other members of the crew and be relying on them.

And you could. What he thinks of those various members of the crew. He could be weighing in with Mayweather. He could be weighing with Trip. He could be like getting feedback from them, and you could see versions of those characters that would be cartoonish versions of them because they would be reflections of what he thinks of.

Not who they are within the show. For us, it would've character develop.

It would've been character development, not just for him, but it would've been character development of those characters. Because we, one of the things through theater is like you, you learn about characters, not just through what they do, but what others say about them.

Yes. So it would've been, we would've been learning about those characters even though they weren't actually part of the main storyline. I agree with you completely on that. It would've also been fun to have those characters acknowledging were figments of your imagination. Yeah. So it's like you could still had the moment at the end where he's trying to do the warp field and it's failing and he turns to DePaul and he says, Can you turn that thing on?

And she turns and goes, I don't know how to do this. Yeah. Instead of doing that, she could have been saying, Uh, you're forgetting I'm not actually here. Yes. It could have just been something a little more. Like that. Yeah. Where she, it's, it's that fun repe between figments of the imagination that he knows are Figments and him.

Yeah. Versus trying to do the Sixth Senses moment at the end of the episode. It felt like the only reason they structured it the way they did was to have that final moment where he walks in with topa and then turns and looks at her bed and she's there and it's like, Oh my God. She wasn't here the whole time.

Yeah. And it's like, guess what? We knew the whole time. So you didn't surprise anybody. It was, you know. Yeah. It was not a good. So why try? You could have, you could have totally flipped the script, had all the same moments, but just presented it in a slightly different way and had character development for not just Phlox, but for everybody else at the

same time.

Yes, I agree. And it could have, it could have built tension from some other moments as well. I'm thinking about what if in the heat of a moment he's trying to figure out how to do a thing and a figment of his imagination appears. Who would not be appropriate to help in that moment? And he kind. Batters back the like, You're not the one I need right now.

Like, something is happening in engineering and T'Pol is there like, I don't know what to do. And he's like, Why couldn't you be trip? Like, why could you? Yeah. Like, like, you know, Reed could be lurking in the background and his vision of Reed might be one who's curmudgeonly. And constantly skeptical and constantly saying like, We're not ready.

And what if Reed keeps showing up and saying like, You can't do this. And him like, Like Lieutenant, I don't have the time for that. Like, I appreciate your expertise, but right now you're not the one I need. Like you could have had some of these elements that could have played up a little bit of comedy and you could have still had a very touching ending.

Similar to what he had with Tepa. What if at the end of the whole thing he saved the ship? He knows like we're gonna be able to be waking people up. What if he is going to go wake up her or Archer? And having that conversation about, Thank you so much for your help in doing this. While going, knowing this is a figment of my imagination, walking in, there's the person and then he just wakes them up.

Yeah. Like, Captain, you don't know how much it means to me that you stood by me and supported me through the difficulty of all of that. And Archer saying, Yeah, I told you before I knew you were the one to do it. And he's like, Thank you. And then he reaches down and turns off the device on the captain, and the captain wakes up.

Yeah, could've, would've very, very interesting take on the same setup that they had, but done in a way that might've pulled some things out of the characters and out of the story that it was otherwise lacking because it was left to be kind of just a. You know, where we are. Like you mentioned the Sixth Senses Fight Club.

Solaris, like, we've seen this before and it's, it's just, it's familiar territory. They

did kind of do what you're, you're getting at with T'Pol because that is the hallucination that his mind picks. It is doing that with her. It, it is the episode.

So,

and then there was also moments, like it was near the beginning when they show him getting like his rapid fire training before they are gonna be put under, there's a comment he makes, I thought was like, All right, remember Hoshi Mayweather always getting the short, you know, short stick on this episode, on this entire series.

Well, he has a, a throwaway comment that I loved, which was I gained a new respect for Ensign Mayweather. When he's getting training on how to pile up the ship. I thought that was such a nice little moment of like, Yeah, his job's harder than what we probably think it is. Yeah. And he's, I like the fact that he recognized, Okay, I have a new respect for that guy.

Yeah.

Um, the other thing really said about T'Pol, he does have that kind of relationship with Paul in this episode, and they had previous episodes where he clearly views her as a comrade. Just from the perspective of you and I are the only nine humans. So we kind of have to like reflect to each other of like, you know, are we doing okay?

And so like it makes sense that he pulls her as his first companion. I did like that. But

when it comes to Phlox himself, part of the reason I just love his portrayal, Phlox, and I love . I want more Phlox in my life, was just the quirkiness of that character. How there's. I don't think you ever watched Stargate SG one, the show.

No, but I watch. I love that show. I love the Stargate movie, the show, all of it. There was an episode, one of my favorite episodes is there's this, this time loop where they are trying to figure out why the Stargate keeps exploding and it keeps sending them back and they keep having to do it, and the characters get exhausted.

Like, We can't figure this out. Screw it. I'm taking this loop off. And they start doing things are just. So them, and it's like there's a whole sequence in the middle of the episode, which is just hysterical and enlightening about the characters, about what they are choosing to do in each of these loops, which has nothing to do with trying to solve

the problem because they're remaining, they're keeping their awareness of the fact they're caught in a loop.

Yes. They all know they're in a loop. And it's like, at one point there's like this se sequence where the, uh, the major is like the, the main character is standing in front of the Stargate knocking golf balls. He's just through the Stargate and like, it's just like, they're just goofing off and just being them.

Um, there was a mo there were moments of that in this episode where Phlox at one point is walking nude to the. , Why not? Yeah. It's like his, his whole species is like sexuality and being naked is, it's not a taboo. Right. And everybody's asleep, so it's not gonna bite anybody else. So it's like he's just walking naked around the ship.

Yeah. I thought that was a very funny kind of like little thing. And then also he's kind of sloppy. The way he's portrayed. He's always kind of sloppy. And there was this wonderful moment where he's going through the ship with Portos and in one hand he's got like the tri-quarter thing, and the other hand he's eating a sandwich and he comes into, I think it was Mayweather's room.

He just takes it by the sandwich, puts it on his chest, does what he needs to do, and checks things, and then picks the sandwich up and Phlox away. I just thought it was like this, this, this natural, this very. He's just doing his crap and just putting whatever and doing whatever he wants to do. It was just a nice, like little tiny character moments about the way he does it.

Yeah. You can tell he cares. He's intelligent. He you understand why he's here, but then these quirky little aspects of him come out in these nice little like gems of moments.

Yeah. In this episode, I just loved it. We're giving another shot of his toenails, which they've used in previous episodes, which are depicted as being.

Gnarly barnacles that are growing out of his feet were given a nice comedic moment where he says to T'Pol, I'm a doctor, not an engineer. Uh, so it's a callback to the classic McCoy phrasing of like, Why are you asking me to do something I'm not trained to do? I, And I agree with you that the nude scene was, Yeah.

You know, the most recent episode we talked about included at T'Pol new scene where I argued like this is, this is a use of nudity that makes sense within the storytelling. I completely agree this too. It makes sense here too. You were on a ship. If I was on a ship with a hundred other people every day for years, and then one day I knew without hesitation that I would be the only person walking around the ship, I would strip down naked and walk around the ship naked.

Well, it's just, you're gonna do it. You're gonna do it. You're like, nobody's gonna know. Nobody's gonna do anything. There's nobody here. Why do I have to put a towel on? Like, I'm just gonna, So.

I'm also curious for you, this is the, I don't know if this is for you, the kind of personal thing for me watching this episode, I had a, Oh my God, this is too funny.

Just because of you, who you and I are, and the way we were raised with our parents and the kind of movies we were shown, and. I really could not stop laughing watching Court J. Movie playing with the C with the palace has the br. That is true. Yeah. It's like Sean and I grew up watching that movie way too much on television.

It was like on W P I X, like it felt like every Sunday for like 15 years, and we watched it all the time. My parents loved that movie and so the fact that that movie was the one that they chose, it was just like, Oh, this is great. Yeah, I

agree. I agree. That to me also, Very well of his character that he's in that moment, he's watching a human movie.

He's not watching comedy, delan entertainment. He's not doing something that's harkening back to his, his planet and his people. He's still experiencing human culture and he's doing it with something that is truly like, Absolute farce. It is just, yeah, fun for fun sake, slapstick with slapstick humor and witty dialogue and fast paced dialogue, and I love the fact that he's enjoying it as much as he is.

I also thought the episode did a really good job with the creepy elements, the haunted house aspects, him hearing noises, him pursuing them, the fact that he talks nonstop to the dog. Absolutely rang true like anybody who's had a pet and has had something happen where you don't know quite yet what's happening.

If that pet is in the room, you are gonna talk to that pet because that pet is giving you emotional support in that moment. Your heart's racing. You're not sure what that noise was. You're gonna say to the dog, Did you hear that? And then you're gonna, We need more Portos too. Portos plays an important role in this.

Elements that happen where there's tension involved. Mm-hmm. , he has the vision of Hoshi that is horrific. He sees her basically breaking down and it fits within what they know that this area of space does to people. He has just in the previous episode, seen. Somebody prior to discovering that it's actually an alien spy sees somebody whose body is breaking down in a way he doesn't understand.

Mm-hmm. . So his vision of what is happening to, to Hoshi makes sense. He sees her effectively falling apart in a very similar way. Yeah, So as his imagination is unleashed and his fears are manifesting as visions, he sees Xindi invaders and he nearly shoots Portos Portos with a facer in front of his imagined T'Pol.

So here he is. , like he's a danger to himself and others at this point. It's from that perspective, it's a well structured tension. It's just as we've talked about some of the elements that the missed opportunities feel like they could have taken. What is to me feels like a solid b B minus. It could have been a couple notches above that.

It could have been, yeah, a B or a b plus. It could have done some things that would have. Not dissuaded from the actual physical action of the show. The idea of them entering space, which is dangerous, and then discovering that that space has expanded and become more dangerous to them. That I think, Great.

I mean like the, all of that makes sense and even the yada, yada yada at the beginning to get into the like, Oh, we can just turn off human brains. It's no big deal. Even that, I'm like, Yeah, we can leap with you on a big premise like that. We understand that you need to do that in order to tell the story.

You're gonna tell. I just wish they've done more once they got in there, but I agree. John Billingsley playing Phlox in this episode. Dawson's directing in this episode. I think that the two of them did a really great job in elevating the material as much as they could to tell what I thought was still a compelling

story.

It was, it was at this point in the plot of the overarching season, I thought this was a nice ship in the bottle pallet cleanser. Before we get to the, the big nitty gritty parts Yeah. Of the season. I thought it was, I thought it was well placed, Well timed. I agree. The yada yada, yada element of it could have been better.

But as a whole, I really like this episode, and mainly it's because of Phlox himself and the performance.

And I also wanna refer to something you just brought up as a ship and a bottle or a pallet cleanser episode. I really, really appreciated that it was that, and yet it was also still tied in to the long continuing storyline of the season.

Yeah. This wasn't, They found a, And then on that plan, it happened to be a bunch of people who did this thing to them. This is not that at all. This is, yeah, we gotta get through this area of space. Why do we want to do it so quickly? Because the Red Giant, where the weapons facility is, is on the other side.

We're trying to get there as quickly as possible. There's a nice moment when it's revealed how long it would take to fly around this area of space. Archer literally rolls his. Like, Oh my God, are you kidding me? Like, yeah, we need to go do this thing. We don't have time. And that element being there, even though it's just the briefest of references, helps keep this within while being a pallet cleanser keeps it within the season.

And one of the things exactly that I was thinking about most recently in our discussions around last week's episode, and this episode is just for a moment, think back to season one. Season two, when we were in those dry spells where we kept saying they don't know what the show is about, they don't know what their goal is, they're a little bit in the weeds.

They don't know where they're headed. This at this point for this to be the 16th episode of this season. They know what this show is now. This is where they're like, We have figured it out. This is what enterprise is, and it's on display here. When a, when an episode like this where I'm like, This isn't the best one they've had.

I'm still like, but I really liked it. It's a B minus. Yeah. I'm still in it. Like I'm still, I'm still in it. I'm still buying what they're selling, like it's a demonstration of where this sits this season. If anybody is curious about entering this show, you could pretty much start with the episode that focuses on the Xindi attack on Earth, and you can probably jump in right.

As a starting point,

the end of season, what? Isn't that the end of season two? The end of season two. Start the end of season two, and then go forward. Yeah, that's where it gets

good. Yeah. So to all of our listeners and viewers here on YouTube, let us know if you agree with us. Do you think that this is an episode that hits all the notes that it could have, or like Matt May, do you think that there were a few spots where they could have jumped in and also let us know?

Big picture. Do you agree? That the show at this point seems to really know what it is and it's firing on. So on all cylinders, jump into the comments here on YouTube, or you can reach out through the contact information in the podcast description. And before we sign off, Matt, next week we're gonna be talking about the episode hatchery.

Any expectations there? What do you think they're gonna be talking about?

They're probably going to, uh, lay some eggs. Hopefully not a bad episode.

Interesting theory. I think they're gonna be talking about somebody acting a lot like Richard Hatch from Battle Star. Oh, there you go. Yeah. So there you go. I think that's what the episode's gonna be about, but I could be wrong.

I keep an open mind about these things. , before we go, Matt, do you have anything you wanted to point out about what you have coming up on your main channel? What's coming up on undecided? Yeah. Coming out around the

time of this episode is one about how to get solar if you. Own a home and you can't install solar in your roof.

Different technologies that are becoming available for people who live in apartments don't wanna install solar in the roofs. There's a lot of interesting things that, that you can start to look.

So that's what the episode's about. Well, I'm looking forward to that one. Matt and I also have another podcast in which we discuss his episodes.

It's still to be determined and we talk about his main channel. We talk about the episodes and as somebody who lives in an apartment, but would love to be able to benefit or help support alternative energy sources, I think that sounds like one that's actually right up my alley, so I look forward to that one.

As for me in my work, you can check out sean Ferrell dot com or go to your local bookstore, your local library, Amazon, wherever it is, you buy your books. You can find my work there. I've got picture books, I've got some novels, and next year I'll have a middle grade novel coming out for the young readers in your life and family, and I hope you'll check that out.

If you'd like to support the show, please do consider reviewing. You can leave a review on Apple, Google, Spotify, wherever it was you found this podcast. You can go back there, give us a rating, give us a review. All of that really does help. And if you wanna directly support us, you can go to Trek in time.show, click on the Become a Supporter button and throw some coins at our heads.

It leaves welts, but we love those welts all's welt that ends. And when you do that, you also become an Ensign. And when you're an Ensign, well you automatically. Our feed of out of time, which is our spinoff program in which we talk about things that don't fit within this program. Like what you wonder, Sean, what could you possibly talking

about?

What could you possibly

talking about? I'm talking about other star Trek shows, Matt. I'm talking about things like Star Wars. I'm talking about Marvel movies. I'm talking about sci-fi and fantasy. So in recent episodes we've talked about everything from the New Lord of the Rings TV show. The movie Dual where a cloned Karen Gillum has to fight a cloned Karen Gillum.

So things like that, we hope you'll check this out. All of that really does help support the show. Thank you again for your time, for listening, for watching, and we'll talk to you next time.