Star Trek Enterprise: Impulse
01/11/2003 . Source: Evan Braun 

Evan ponders whether this episode indicates that the show's reached a point where a continuing storyline can only go so far before involving the main characters in interesting and personal ways. Why? Well, poor old T'Pol is carted into sickbay, and she's obviously pushed way past the edge of sanity and into the realm of the truly psychotic.

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If I end up talking more about the arc, and less specifically about this episode, it's because I think "Impulse" indicates that we've reached a point where a continuing storyline can only go so far before involving the main characters in interesting and personal ways. "Impulse" does exactly that, at least for one character. Namely, T'Pol.

The show opens with one of the shortest teasers so far. T'Pol is carted into sickbay, and she's obviously pushed way past the edge of sanity and into the realm of the truly psychotic.

Before we can really digest what's happened to her, we're taken back one day, seemingly before all has gone straight to hell. Trip is playing the Neelix-role (Morale officer), pointing out to the captain that the crew is eating irregularly, and that some R&R couldn't hurt. He suggests the reinstitution of Movie Nights, which we first saw back in the first season. Then, in an exchange that's far too coy to be palatable, Trip proceeds to ask T'Pol out . . . to join the rest of the crew for the movie.

The ship detects the Seleya, a Vulcan ship that entered the Expanse nine months ago. The vessel sees to be adrift in an asteroid field rich in trellium ore. T'Pol explains that she served aboard the Seleya for over a year as the deputy science officer. It was her last assignment before coming to the Vulcan Consulate on Earth. The Seleya's mission had been to chart the thermobaric barrier of the Expanse, but all contact was lost after it was supposedly pulled in by a subspace eddy. A second ship was sent on a rescue mission, but that vessel, too, was ill-fated (as we saw in last season's finale).

Archer, T'Pol, Reed, and a MACO named Hawkins take a shuttlepod to investigate. They navigate past the asteroids, which seem to be moving in a chaotic fashion, perhaps due to anomalies in the vicinity. T'Pol offers to take the helm, but Archer, with an attitude similar to Picard's refusal to pass up the Argo's controls to Data in Nemesis, insists he can manage.

Meanwhile, Trip and Mayweather begin efforts to extract trellium from the asteroids. As we've learned from previous episodes, Enterprise will need to be insulated with this material in order to protect it from the region's anomalies. Upon discovering that the material cannot be safely transported aboard, they take the ship's second shuttlepod out to extract the material manually.

Shuttlepod One arrives at the Seleya to find it beaten up pretty bad. Though Archer gets no response from his hails, multiple lifesigns are detected. They board the Seleya, and discover that the crew had been lining the hull with trellium extracted from the asteroid field. They hadn't gotten far before abandoning the effort.

The bulk of the story from this point on consists of the boarding party fighting off insane Vulcans that closely resemble zombies from the sci-fi B-movies of thirty years ago, and T'Pol rapidly degenerating into one of them herself. Phlox is able to determine that her synaptic pathways are being severely damaged by the trellium ore. Archer and company proceed to run from the airlock, to the engine room, to the bridge, then back to the airlock, all the while trying to escape and rescue T'Pol. It comes to the point where T'Pol has to be stunned and physically carried off.

Interspersed with the action aboard the Seleya, Trip and Mayweather have a near-collision with an asteroid while extracting ore. They eventually return to the ship, ore in hand, and set to work repairing their shuttlepod. At about that time they are contacted by Archer, requesting assistance. Trip agrees to come to the rescue as soon as Shuttlepod Two is spaceworthy again.

Everybody makes it back safe, if not entirely sound. Trellium D is a potent neurotoxin to the Vulcan nervous system, and it takes some time for Phlox to properly treat T'Pol.

Now to the meat of the story, the much-anticipated consequences. Trip and Mayweather were able to get over 60 kilos of the trellium ore, enough to line the forward hull. However, Archer orders him to store it in biohazard until Phlox can find a way to permanently inoculate T'Pol from its effects. As a result, T'Pol asks to be left behind on a planet, rather than be the cause of allowing the ship to continue unprotected from anomalies. Unsurprisingly, Archer refuses her request.

A fantastic conflict has now been set up. The ship needs trellium for protection. They find trellium, but can't use it because it will cause a single crewmember to lose her sanity. It's a good first step toward personalizing the ship's mission.

Okay, so let's talk for a bit about what makes a successful arc. There are a number of good ones in science fiction that I can think of, but I'll just address two of my favourites. First of all, we have Babylon 5. The reason that show's arc is so brilliant is because it is (a) planned, and (b) character-driven. We keep watching the show because it matters to us what happens to the characters.

When the Centauri occupied the Narn Homeworld at the end of the second season, my feelings of grief were two-fold: firstly for the people of that world who had lost their freedom, but more notably it was the anguish of G'Kar, a passionate character, and the character most affected by the cataclysmic turn of events.

On a less epic scale, take a look at Deep Space Nine, which is perhaps a better medium for comparison since it takes place in the same "universe" as Enterprise. The Dominion War was fascinating as a concept, but it was made exceptional by the inclusion of marvelous villains like Gul Dukat, Weyoun, and the Female Shapeshifter. Additionally, we were given even greater reason to care about the conflict not because Earth itself was at stake, but because one of our beloved characters, Odo, was a shapeshifter himself. The pain he felt at fighting against his own people was a cornerstone of that story's success.

Enterprise needs just such a connection. They've tried it once already, but it hasn't been compelling. I'm speaking of the death of Trip's sister. So why isn't it compelling? Why doesn't it move me in the same way that the death of Sheridan's wife moved me on B5? I suppose a part of it lies in the simple fact that Connor Trinneer's performance doesn't hold a candle to Bruce Boxleitner's. But also, the "murder" of Trip's sister was monumentally impersonal. She was only one of seven million casualties.

The powers that be, as well as Scott Bakula, have made a big point of talking about how Captain Archer is a more driven character this year. One of the most obvious examples came in "Anomaly," when Archer was interrogating Orgoth. But what is the source of Archer's transformation? It's an external change, rather than internal. When a character makes a significant development, it has to come from the character itself. That's what differentiates a character-driven show from a plot-driven one. Enterprise is a plot-driven show masquerading as a character piece.

This is the same complaint I have about the blossoming "romance" (perhaps we should leave it with the more ambiguous "relationship") between Trip and T'Pol. There doesn't seem to be any reason for these characters to get together. The writers are contriving the plot to justify it after the fact. The truth is that they're so dead-set on pursuing the relationship that they didn't bother to let it come from the characters themselves. Star Trek is notorious, at least in my books, for doing this: writing and then justifying. As a writer myself, I feel great storytelling should always work the other way around.

And I'm not the only person to think this is a bad idea. Specifically, other reviewers have been complaining just as loudly about Trip and T'Pol. But, more importantly, dissention comes even from the actors themselves. In a recent article published in my local newspaper, Jolene Blalock addressed the question. "They write it, I do it," she said. "I don't see it, personally. T'Pol's a Vulcan-how could she have a relationship? And he's so emotional. My goodness, he's like a nut case. So how are this nut case and this person who has her stuff together going to find common ground?"

Ultimately, what we need is less action, and more reasons for action. So far, this season has offered a great stepping stone for long-running plots. Now that we have the plot, though, it's time to make it personal. And the fact that Earth is at stake isn't enough.

Time for a few quotes from this week.

T'Pol to Hawkins, regarding the Vulcans aboard the Seleya: "There was a time in the past when we [the Vulcans] were an extremely violent race. We almost destroyed ourselves." This is part of T'Pol's explanation to the MACO that Vulcans do have emotions, they just do their damnedest to suppress them. It may seem obvious to people like me who've been watching since The Next Generation, but to newer viewers, this may well be an important distinction to make. Especially since the portrayal of the Vulcans so far in Enterprise has been somewhat inconsistent.

T'Pol to Archer, in her derailed state: "You don't trust Vulcans. You never have." It occurred to me that this is a turnaround of the scenario in "Strange New World" when Trip, Mayweather, and Cutler lost their sanity and proceeded to accuse T'Pol of conspiring against them. This time, it's T'Pol's turn to be paranoid.

Archer to T'Pol, summarizing both the episode as well as Star Trek's more general thesis: "We'll find a way through, but I won't leave anyone behind. Not if I can help it. I can't try to save humanity without holding on to what makes me human." It may be corny, folks, but this is the core of the story they're trying to tell.

7. I really like the effort. The potential conflicts brought up over the need for Trellium D, but T'Pol's reaction to it, is great. Jolene Blalock deserves special credit in this episode for really making T'Pol's descent into madness believable. A lot less credit goes to whoever thought "Vulcans turned zombie-automaton" would be a visual treat.

Not only are they not very scary, but they're also among the most ineffectual bad guys featured on the series so far (perhaps with the exception of the Klingons). Ultimately, though, my thanks go to the writers for not providing any easy answers.

Evan Braun