Star Trek Randomized Rewatch: Carbon Creek

ENT "Carbon Creek"

In one of the most memorable moments of "Carbon Creek", Mestral tells his two fellow Vulcan comrades stranded in late 1950s Pennsylvania that he doesn't want to miss I Love Lucy later that night. It's a good joke, but it doubles as a tribute to Lucille Ball, without whom Star Trek would not have been greenlit. When Star Trek was created, its writers did not foresee an episode like "Carbon Creek", a low-stakes tale of advanced Vulcans learning to smell the primitive American roses, with all the edginess of plankton. But that very inoffensiveness is arguably a selling point of the episode as well.

The events are framed as T'Pol telling a story, of her ancestor and two shipmates who crashed on Earth, to Archer and Trip over a dinner celebrating her one year anniversary on Enterprise. Jolene Blalock plays T'Pol and her ancestor T'Mir, the latter with real Beth Harmon energy. The Vulcan character most sympathetic to the humans is Mestral, played by J. Paul Boehmer (who also essayed a sympathetic Borg drone in, er, "Drone").

The small town Carbon Creek setting is established musically by Jay Chattaway. He uses rustic instrumentation, and perhaps anachronistically, a fretless bass most associated with 1990s crooning ballads. In a jarringly racy moment, T'Mir changes behind a cloth, and her silhouette goes even further than Jessica Rabbit in its cartoonish details. I'm surprised it was allowed on cable, but who am I kidding? UPN probably pushed for it.

At its heart, "Carbon Creek" is an immigrant story. The Vulcans are strangers in a strange land. In contrast with the other two surveyors, who are eventually extracted and return to Vulcan, Mestral stays because of his affinity for the people of Earth. Again, the stakes are low, but a hangout feel isn't a bad thing. Yes, there's a cave-in, and T'Mir invents velcro, but "Carbon Creek" is a light episode, light as a cloud. 5/10.

Stray observation:

- In the talk discussing the true first contact between humans and Vulcans, mention is made of the Zefram Cochrane statue in Bozeman, Montana. That statue was first mentioned by Geordi in Star Trek: First Contact.

Star Trek Randomized Rewatch: Demons

 

ENT "Demons"

(Not to be confused with the Voyager episode "Demon".)

"Demons" comes as Enterprise wraps up its metastory of the origin of the Federation, casting as its villains an organized Terran supremacist Make Earth Great Again asshole group. These Terra Prime domestic terrorists have in their charge a baby of pioneering significance, a half-human, half-Vulcan child.  Terra Prime's leader, John Frederick Paxton (Peter Weller), considers the child an abomination and rejects what it represents. As an audience, we know what it represents: the future of Star Trek. *Cough* Spock *cough*. The episode clearly has the advantage of depressingly timely villains, but significant storytelling blunders sabotage it.

Weller in some ways is playing a similar character to his villain Admiral Marcus from Star Trek Into Darkness. Both, totally convinced of their ironclad ideology, turn their xenophobia into terrible action. But while Marcus wants to reclaim a level of militarism that Starfleet lost, Paxton is a hardcore isolationist. Paxton's right-hand man literally says of their bigotry, "We're right", to which Paxton responds, "You're a wise man" - which doesn't speak much to nuance. (This right-hand man happens to be Black, which of course is an intentional touch, similar to Brock Peters as Admiral Cartwright expressing blunt racism against Klingons in Star Trek 6: The Undiscovered Country.)

The theme of the episode is legacy, with attention to who writes history, who will be remembered, and how. Paxton muses how history will remember him, which is appropriate since Weller has a PhD in Art History.

But the aforementioned baby (which is often referred to as simply "the Child" - Baby Yoda, much?) is the center of a major revelation: it is the child of T'Pol and Trip Tucker. Everyone in the episode proves to be incredibly dense in the face of this DNA evidence. There's all this hemming and hawing about whether T'Pol was ever secretly pregnant, which she denies, and who takes her at her word with that, and if so, how could this possibly be? This is science fiction! If these people can't figure out how this seemingly impossible child could exist in the 22nd Century, I don't know what to say. And the episode plays as if it's ahead of the audience on this too. It's not.

Worst of all is the disastrous romantic subplot for Travis Mayweather and a reporter named Gannet Brooks. "Demons" is the episode that finally confirms that Anthony Montgomery is a bad actor. The characters, who are supposed to be old flames who eventually rekindle their passion, have awful chemistry, all down to Montgomery, who gives his scene partner nothing in their scenes together. His answer for how to attempt familiar banter is not to attempt at all.

The editing is also off. As the episode has it, Travis' sex scene is interrupted by him putting Enterprise in touch with a contact who can smuggle Trip and T'Pol onto Terra Prime's mining colony. Travis, who already has an old friend character in the episode, is given another one off-screen. Why couldn't it be Hoshi's contact at the mining colony?

Stray observations:

- That's the Mayor from Buffy (Harry Groener) giving the fancy speeches.

- The Coridan ambassador looks like he has a face-hugger from Alien permanently affixed on him.

"Demons" has the right themes in place, and its villains are unfortunately timely, but the twin sins of not respecting the audience's intelligence with the baby twist, and Anthony Montgomery's terrible performance, take the wind out of its solar sails. 4/10.

Star Trek Randomized Rewatch: A Simple Investigation

DS9 "A Simple Investigation"

 "Somebody stop me!" - Jadzia Dax, maybe referencing The Mask?

Of all the Deep Space Nine characters to get a romance of the week episode, Odo is one of the least likely, and "A Simple Investigation' uses that to drive the story, particularly how the rest of the cast minus Worf bemusedly encourage his romance along for his sake. As a setup I guess it's supposed to be vaguely noir - one issue with the episode may be a slightly unmoored tone. Is it space noir? Is it more of an espionage plot? Are the thugs supposed to be comic relief or not?

A woman named Arissa (Dey Young) sparks with Odo in Quark's against the backdrop of trying to get out from under a notorious Orion Syndicate gangster called Draim, who she's been working for as a hacker. Eventually, after Arissa and Odo develop an intense bond, the rug is pulled from under them as it's revealed that the version of Arissa we've been following is a sleeper agent whose memories were voluntarily patched and rewritten for a sting operation on the Orion crime boss.

"A Simple Investigation" is a sexually frank episode, especially for Star Trek. In Arissa's implanted backstory, she was a "net-girl", or remote sex worker. Odo loses his virginity to Arissa (not counting an experience on the Founders' homeworld he describes as ambiguously sexual - that changeling bit of turning to goo with each other that seemingly goes a little beyond the standard "joining"). And in the "morning after" scene, the episode gives us the extraordinary sight of... lovey-dovey flirty Odo?

Part of what contributes to the undercurrent of confusion are the plot revelations. Arissa turns out to be a surgically-altered member of a race we've never heard of called the Idanians, who used her to infiltrate the Draim's organization. Her handler shows up and brags about how he's going to indict Draim. But this is space. Who has jurisdiction? Is the Idanian homeworld part of the Orion Syndicate? Maybe these Idanians are sort of like the Fenris Rangers from Picard.

The b-plot of the episode is a brief, low-budget return to Doctor Bashir's James Bond-esque holosuite program from "Our Man Bashir", which provides a couple laughs. "A Simple Investigation" is a decent if not hugely engaging episode, though the central romance between Arissa and Odo (and the chemistry between Young and Rene Auberjonois) works well enough. 6/10.

Star Trek Randomized Rewatch: We'll Always Have Paris

TNG "We'll Always Have Paris"

"We'll Always Have Paris" blazes a trail for The Next Generation in a couple ways. It's the first "timey-wimey" episode, featuring time distortions (later examples: "Time Squared", "Cause and Effect", etc.). And not counting Beverly Crusher, it's the first Picard's old flame/Picard love interest episode (later examples: "The Measure of a Man", "Lessons", etc.). So cue rote time trickery and Picard wistfully recreating a Paris cafe on the holodeck.

Jenice Manheim, Picard's former lover of 22 years ago, is played by Michelle Phillips, best known from the 1960s rock group The Mamas and the Papas. With all these time distortions, it's a real "Monday Monday" situation, huh? "California Dreamin'"? More like Paris Dreamin'.

... Maybe that doesn't work too well.

The episode runs those two strands in parallel, pioneering their use in the show but in a decidedly workmanlike fashion. One fun aspect of the holodeck program is seeing future production design in the 24th Century French cafe. The Space Fashion Choices for those women scream out the trademark of costume designer William Ware Theiss, lending his talents familiar from the original series to the first season of TNG. It is details like this that make TNG Season 1 an aesthetically liminal transition point between the gaudy TOS and the more austere TNG.

Being a showcase for Picard, he is also seen fencing with an anonymous crew member. Seeing Picard in "dab hand with a cutlass" mode recalls his time as swordmaster Gurney Halleck in David Lynch's Dune - or for that matter, Lord Leondegrance in John Boorman's Excalibur.

Details like that liven up a somewhat routine episode. There is one moment at the episode's close I want to pick out, before a painfully awkward comedy ending. Picard says the Enterprise is due for "much needed" shore leave. Could it be a subtle reference to the loss of Tasha Yar, killed in action in the episode directly prior...?

A decent but unremarkable romance/science puzzle. 5/10.

P.S.: As a Star Wars fan, the Enterprise's trip to Vandor 4 recalls Han Solo and crew's Conveyex heist on Vandor 1 in Solo: A Star Wars Story.

Star Trek Randomized Rewatch: The Perfect Mate

TNG "The Perfect Mate"

A centuries-long war between two planets, coming to an end through an alliance sealed by marriage. An ambassador ferrying the bride on the Enterprise, and said ambassador falls victim to a violent mishap and ends up in sickbay. A romantic connection between the bride and the captain of the Enterprise. If this all sounds familiar, it's because "The Perfect Mate" shares many basic similarities with another episode we've recently covered in this random rewatch: the original series' "Elaan of Troyius"!

The skeleton of each episode is similar, but thankfully that's where they end. In terms of subtlety, and quality of character work and writing, "The Perfect Mate" is a drastic improvement. Famke Janssen guest stars as Kamala, a "metamorph" whose sole purpose is to tailer herself to the pleasure of their future betrothed. (In a subversive detail, it's mentioned that most metamorphs are male.) Naturally this doesn't sit terribly well with the Enterprise crew (particularly Beverly Crusher), but if Kamala truly derives pleasure from subsuming herself to someone else, the issue isn't as clear cut as one might think.

The episode teases out this dynamic well, articulating multiple sides, and taking unexpected turns in the plot. Alrik, the man Kamala will marry, is established to be rather dismissive of Kamala. In a haunting moment, Picard wonders to Beverly how Kamala will change to accommodate Alrik. The implication is clear: there's a danger that to please a man who doesn't respect her, she will void herself of the sharp intelligence that defines her now, and hollow herself out. There's a small victory in that Kamala makes clear that she will accommodate Alrik, but she won't change for him.

Kamala finds herself imprinting romantically on Patrick Stewart's Picard. This is quite something when you consider that in the X-Men movies, Janssen's Jean Grey is a professor who works for Stewart, who was recruited by Stewart when she was a little girl. Remarkably, Kamala even refers to herself as a mutant, just as Jean Grey and her fellow X-Men are mutants.

There's a notably dirty joke in the episode. After Kamala comes on to a flustered Riker, he calls in and says, "I'll be in Holodeck 4." What he'll be doing in Holodeck 4 is left to the imagination, but this is a true Jayne from Firefly, "I'll be in my bunk" moment.

"The Perfect Mate" is a tender and well-told tale of space romance, and one-ups "Elaan of Troyius" in every way except camp value. 7/10.

Canon connections:
- One of the Ferengi is played by Max Grodenchik, who will in future play the Ferengi Rom in Deep Space Nine.
- Geordi asks the Ferengi if they want to see the dolphins on board. I believe this was a cute detail in the Next Generation Technical Manual, which identified an area for dolphins on the Enterprise-D.
- Kamala's ceremonial line, "I am for you, Alrik of Valt", calls back to Losira's siren words in the original series episode "That Which Survives". She too said ostentatiously "I am for you".

Star Trek Randomized Rewatch: Repression

VOY "Repression"

The raison d'être of the unusual psychological thriller episode "Repression" is to exploit the Starfleet/Maquis conflict at the heart of Voyager's premise. The catch is that this is done the only way the show can: when that conflict is totally due to an outside influence.

In this case, mind control, courtesy of a deranged Bajoran vedek named Teero Anaydis (Keith Szarabajka). In a very brief and disorienting teaser, Teero is introduced, flanked by what looks like Star Trek concept art, chanting in Bajoran, and hatching a plan to brainwash Chakotay's former Maquis crew, including Tuvok (undercover at the time) and B'Elanna.

The whole issue of the collegiate partnership between Starfleet and Maquis crews on Voyager speaks to the writerly problem of Star Trek. The crews must be in harmonious lockstep because of Trekkian idealism, so the only time their tribalism can be a factor is in an extraordinary circumstance like this mind control. Star Trek is being circumvented to take advantage of a major aspect of the show's basic premise. It's a fascinating and convoluted dynamic.

The episode finds levity in a holodeck replica of a Chicago movie theater. At first hosting a relatively small audience, there's a spectacular amount of leg room, but for a packed house, the seating arrangement becomes more packed. In a nice touch, the carpets suggest the basic yellow and black holodeck grid.

The mind control plot is resolved extremely quickly at the end, Tuvok's psychological unrest overcome. "Repression" has issues as a piece of drama, but stands out for its attempt at askew psychodrama. 6/10.

Star Trek Randomized Rewatch: Wolf in the Fold

ST "Wolf in the Fold"

"Wolf in the Fold" doesn't do much by halves. It's an insane episode, and with every passing improbable turn of the plot (like the twist of a stage knife), it becomes even more of a helium-laugh fest.

On the face of it, the premise would be anything but amusing; Scotty is accused of murder, his bloody hands on the murder weapon. There is a thread throughout the episode of, shall we say... exaggeration. Kirk, McCoy, and Scotty are taking their shore leave on a planet home to a "completely hedonistic society", to allow Scotty to get over a recent development in his psychological makeup: a "total resentment of women", because a female engineer was involved in an accident that gave Scotty a head wound.

So from the start, two things are clear. We are in the realm of cartoon psychodrama. And the original Star Trek finds itself once again on shaky misogynistic grounds. Writer Robert Bloch (of the novel Psycho) deploys his big twist late in the game: the murders were in fact carried out by Jack the Ripper, who all these centuries has lived on as a non-corporeal entity! And if that's not enough of a WTF'er, the crew foils Jack's plot while extremely high!

That's right, McCoy injects the crew with a tranquilizer that has a blissing out effect. Add to all this that the primary human antagonist of the episode and vessel of Jack the Ripper, Hengist, is played by John Fiedler, also known as the voice of Piglet.

"Wolf in the Fold"'s gender dynamics haven't aged well, but the episode is a bonkers laugh riot. I don't know how to rate something like this but on balance we'll go with 6/10.

For a less campy take on Jack the Ripper in the 23rd Century, check out the Babylon 5 episode "Comes the Inquisitor".

Star Trek Randomized Rewatch: The Lorelei Signal

TAS "The Lorelei Signal"

"We must go." "Obstruct them!"

The Randomizer finally brings me to The Animated Series, a charmingly cheap-looking cartoon with an impressively full (though Chekov-less) lineup of original Trek actors... and not many other people. Watching the series, you will easily recognize the scores of secondary characters Nichelle Nichols, James Doohan, and Majel Barrett lend their vocal talents to.

The titular "Lorelei Signal", sent by bewitching alien "sirens", incapacitates the male members of the Enterprise crew, so it is up to the women to save the day. And specifically, for Uhura to take charge. The episode's greatest strength is as an overdue showcase for Uhura the competent command officer.

There's also a Trekkian resolution where the sirens are revealed to be misunderstood, and the crew helps them no longer need to feed off derelict starships. A win-win all around.

A constant baseline of silliness animates this episode, a part-campy, part-consequential SF runaround. There's a quaint and endearing quality to this series: the re-used character articulations, the jazzy music, the abundance of pink. Any future animated stops along the way will be a welcome pit stop.

A fluffy episode that nonetheless laudably spotlights Uhura and Chapel. 6/10.

Star Trek Randomized Rewatch: Conundrum

TNG "Conundrum"

"Conundrum" has a singularly clever premise, as an alien erases the Enterprise crew's memory and inserts himself in the command structure of the senior staff, in order to use the Enterprise's tactical features as weapons of mass destruction against an enemy. By instantly retconning himself into the crew, the alien (MacDuff) becomes an early example of the "Dawn from Buffy" phenomenon. Dawn was also inserted into the cast of the show, and the artificiality of that was a major plot point.

The initial disorientation of the crew is captured by rare handheld camerawork, from director Les Landau. I love how the initial reveal of MacDuff is done subtly; no particular musical sting accompanies his first appearance, and the camera quickly cuts away. Of course, later MacDuff's cover is violently blown.

What saves the day is Federation ethics. Picard has a great scene in the Ready Room with MacDuff, forcefully saying that he requires a moral context for orders that involve killing. Before things turn around, the Enterprise is treated as a warship even by the show itself. Dennis McCarthy's score follows the ship with a percussive martial cue.

Perhaps the episode's biggest flaw is a quick resolution, so common in Star Trek. MacDuff is phasered into submission, and there's only the briefest reflection on what has happened. What's missing, on the nose as it might have been, is a moment of summation.

With Star Trek: Picard hindsight, we have any seed that pays off in that later show. Data speculates that he could hail from a race of artificial life-forms, who live on a home planet they claim as their own. Such a planet directly factors into Picard.

A clever episode that slightly fizzles out at the end. 7/10.

Star Trek Randomized Rewatch: Time's Arrow Part 1

TNG "Time's Arrow Part 1"

"My brother's positronic brain had a type-L phase discriminating amplifier. Mine is type R." 

"Type R?!"

- Data and Jean-Luc Picard

The Enterprise is recalled to Earth by a project manager who seems to know the conventions of television. Instead of telling Picard and Data up front that they've found DATA'S HEAD, he buries the lede and only reveals it for maximum, end-of-teaser, effect.

The evidence points to Data's death after being displaced in time to 19th Century Earth, which Data reacts to with customary unemotional evenness. Not so his crewmates. This leads to a wonderful first act of the episode, where everyone reacts to the specter of Data's apparent inevitable death with unease. In a hilarious moment, Geordi just sighs and says casually, "They found Data's head a mile below San Francisco..."

But for Data, having knowledge of his death at an undetermined future date is strangely comforting, giving him a mortality that brings his life experience closer to transitory humanity. It's profound stuff, and for anyone who's seen Star Trek Picard Season 1, it should sound a massive signal that certain developments in that show have their exact roots right here.

Soon enough, Data is transported back in time, and the episode takes the left turn in stride. He's winning money in poker, connecting with Mark Twain and the Guinan living in San Francisco at the time, and applying Starfleet resourcefulness to period machinery, "City on the Edge of Forever"-style.

The entire rest of the cast, minus Worf, follow Data into the past. Which begs the question, who's helping Worf run the Enterprise? With Worf as acting Captain, I would speculate that we'd have Ro Laren as First Officer, Reginald Barclay as Chief Engineer, Alyssa Ogawa as Chief Medical Officer, and Guinan as Counselor. Would watch.

It must be said of the science fiction concept of the episode: what were they smoking? The Devidian sequence at the end is truly bizarre, as ghostly approximations of alien forms feed on human life force through their foreheads, and there's a creepy snake too for some reason. It's an eerie Doctor Who-esque setup, aliens targeting Earth's history to feed on humanity.

While the clear highlight of the episode is the warm character-driven Act 1, the episode as a whole balances well affability and true strangeness. 7/10.

Star Trek Randomized Rewatch: Broken Link

DS9 "Broken Link"

As a season finale, "Broken Link" doesn't appear to break the budget. It's a character-focused look at Odo facing a reckoning for killing another changeling, an unprecedented act in the species' history. Odo is surreptitiously infected with a virus to draw him out to the Gamma Quadrant in search of a cure from the Founders; the various stages of Odo's sickness are rendered in... extraordinary makeup jobs. At one point Odo's hair looks painted on like a tabletop gaming figurine.

The episode uses Odo as a nexus for his relationships. His infatuation with Kira is addressed briefly. There's a lovely scene with Quark where he sensitively hopes for Odo's safe return without losing face. And there's a lot of material for Odo's friendship with Garak. Friendship is an interesting word for it, considering that about a season ago, Garak agonizingly tortured Odo, but Odo doesn't appear to hold too much of a grudge.

As Garak, Andrew J. Robinson shows the range of the character. He shows Garak's congenial side, his gleefully devious side, and in one showdown with Worf, gives the kind of deranged performance he brought to the Scorpio Killer role in Dirty Harry.

Odo is tried and sentenced in the Great Link of the Founders: he is made a solid, stripped of his shape-shifting abilities. Specifically, he is made human, which seems a bit baffling to me. Why not Bajoran? Odo was raised by Bajorans, his approximation of a humanoid face is based on a Bajoran, and he wears the uniform of the Bajoran militia. To make him human is to equate humanity with solidity, which is an oddly Earth-centric notion.

When Odo identifies Klingon Chancellor Gowron as a changeling duplicate, the even-more-aggressive acts of the Klingon Empire at this point in the show make a lot more sense. But I must question another of the Founders' decisions. If there was a risk of Odo uncovering details of their statecraft, why did the Founders let him go? Now their operation is exposed.

"Broken Link" is a typically effective, though not particularly standout, example of Deep Space Nine's focus on character. 7/10.

Star Trek Randomized Rewatch: Innocence

VOY "Innocence"

Last time the Randomizer visited Star Trek: Voyager, Harry and Tom were trapped in a prison with dangerous convicts. Now, Tuvok is trapped on a planet with three unruly children. After soothing a goldshirt's passing with an admittedly decent bedside manner, Tuvok is set upon by three Drayan kids who ask for his protection from a mysterious monster that has taken a couple of their companions in the night. In the big, absurd twist of the episode, it turns out that Drayan society is one comprised entirely of Benjamin Buttons; the kids are in fact pushing 100, because the Drayan aging process is reversed.

Drayan logic at times is also reversed. Upset that Tuvok has corrupted their holy site, the Drayans demand that Voyager cleans up the mess, but refuses to let a shuttle near the planet. Not to overrun this review with nitpicks, but former Jeopardy! champion Lisa Klink's teleplay is filled with sloppy internal logic (ironic for an episode starring a Vulcan). Tuvok preserves his dead crewmate's body to take back to Voyager, for "proper burial". Burial... on a starship? Janeway learns from the Drayans only that one of the two shuttle crewmen is dead and reacts like she knows it's the trivial supernumerary, when in reality it just as well could be Tuvok. And Tuvok gives a kid a phaser, which as we've just seen in "Elaan of Troyius", you can kill yourself with somewhat easily.

While Tuvok's parenting technique leaves something to be desired, that seems to be the hook of the episode: Emotionless Vulcan must deal with rowdy children. Tim Russ likely asked to be given a musical number, given his singing ability, so he interprets a few bars of epic Vulcan sung poetry.

To the episode's slight credit, the Drayan child catchers are a little creepy. And "Innocence" is clearly trying to land a sensitively-observed episode with a sense of Trekkian diplomacy and a SF twist. Its heart is more or less in the right place, but the episode kneecaps itself (with, among other things, whiny kids) and ends up subpar. 3/10.

Star Trek Randomized Rewatch: Elaan of Troyius

ST "Elaan of Troyius"

"Elaan of Troyius" is a histrionic episode, whose only measure of success comes when viewed as high camp. Elaan (South Pacific's France Nuyen) of Elas is to be married off to the ruler of Troyius to mitigate a war. The trouble is, Elaan is an impetuous and arrogant hurricane of a stateswoman and rages against her arranged marriage. The idea is that Elas is an aggressive warrior culture, but in practice it's more like a series of over-the-top temper tantrums. And because it falls on Kirk to "discipline" the unruly Elaan, the episode moves the needle for crazy sexual politics all over the place.

One of the Elasian guards (who dress like Flash Gordon rejects) apparently kills a redshirt just by... touching his head? And when head guard Kryton kills himself, Kirk and company barely react to his act of desperation and get on with the plot. Emotional realism is not the episode's priority.

Written and directed by John Meredyth Lucas, "Elaan of Troyius" is a rare case study in Star Trek auteur theory. One of Lucas' primary moves is the highly provocative "save money" technique. Multiple times, stock footage of the bridge is used for coverage, so alternatively Sulu and Chekov are replaced by imposters, then switch back to the familiar helmsman and navigator.

Lucas has not hidden his mythological influence for the episode: replace Elaan with Helen and Troyius with Troy. But any "take" on that Iliad story is purely superficial and certainly incoherent. To add tension, Lucas adds a Klingon subplot that pays off with an extended space battle, which is a novelty in the original series. I do have some time for Jay Robinson's guest performance as Troyian Ambassador Petri, who gives the character an officious quality.

The only way to enjoy the episode is to take it as camp. 3/10.

Star Trek Randomized Rewatch: Borderland

ENT "Borderland"

In the opening sequence of "Borderland", two genetically engineered "Augments" take over a Klingon bird-of-prey and kill its crew. Unusually for Star Trek, in addition to shooting their way through, they open a can of martial arts whoop-arse on the Klingons. The Augments are super-strong, super-intelligent, and super-aggressive. Their dress sense is ragged chic, like a tribe of Peter Pan's Lost Boys (and Girls). And they answer to one man.

That is, Dr. Arik Soong, ancestor of Data creator Noonien Soong, again played by returning Trek royalty Brent Spiner. Spiner turns in a charismatic, sarcastic performance, animating this scientist who, unlike his roboticist descendants, specializes in genetic engineering. He gets a rise out of all the characters he interacts with, and even Phlox is uncommonly hostile toward him. One highlight of the episode is a particularly heated argument Soong has with Archer in the brig about the danger and potential of genetic engineering. As seen above, director David Livingston sets up some ostentatious shots foregrounding each actor's face in turn. It's like a Brian De Palma-esque split diopter, but without the actual mechanism separating the two elements of the shot.

Eventually, Soong's hormonal übermensch "children" get the run of Enterprise embarrassingly quickly. Spiner appears to be having fun, and so thankfully balances out what is the first bad guest performance I've identified in this rewatch: Joel West as Augment Raakin. His delivery is unconvincing and his screen presence sophomoric.

While all the Augment material is being set up to continue over the course of a trilogy, most of "Borderland" itself revolves around the misadventure of T'Pol and eight other Enterprise crew members, who are kidnapped by Orion slavers, fitted with a restraining chip, and sold at auction. It helps to keep "Borderland" feel episodic, which fits my purposes, but it's not the most pleasant material.

A good showcase for Brent Spiner and a decent start to the Augments three-parter. 6/10.

Star Trek Randomized Rewatch: Civilization

ENT "Civilization"

"Civilization" comes at a time when the Enterprise crew are still excited to find an undiscovered inhabited planet. Again, the things later Star Trek shows take for granted are unfolding for the first time in Enterprise. Archer and a landing party observe the pre-industrial civilization on the planet, but the situation is complicated by the fact that other aliens have already set up shop there, mining and consequently poisoning the local water.

So the premise of Enterprise crew walking amongst their first new alien civilization takes a left turn into fighting a shadow war against other more exploitative visitors (the Malurians), unknown to most of the indigenous people (the Akaali). I understand that stories need conflict, but making this the focus of the episode turns it from exploration to pulpy punch-the-reptilian adventure. Which is fine, but it makes the episode more generic.

The one Akaali who gets wrapped up in all this is an apothecary named Riann, who is framed as exceptionally intelligent given the context of her society's development. As such, she takes the news of multiple types of aliens interfering in her city in casual stride. That choice reflects her intellect, but it also leads events to seem ho-hum, or not so big a deal.

Stray observations:
- Enterprise represents a pre-Prime Directive Starfleet, though as T'Pol makes clear, the future Directive is based on a Vulcan policy.
- Unlike the Enterprise crew, who get a touch of makeup to look Akaali, the Malurians (Mal - bad, in the Latin) wear Mission: Impossible-esque masks.

A lightweight episode. Without the appealing Riann tagging along, it would be even more of a basic runaround. 5/10.

Star Trek Randomized Rewatch: Accession

DS9 "Accession"

"It's not easy getting used to being a religious icon." - Benjamin Sisko

We finally dock at Deep Space Nine in this randomized rewatch, finding a story with a level of complexity typical for that show. A Bajoran poet, displaced in time after 200 years in the Wormhole, is hailed as the true Emissary of the Prophets, over Captain Sisko. (That sentence will seem bonkers to anyone who doesn't know the show.) The poet, Akorem Laan, at first seems to Sisko like an ideal choice to take the mantle of Emissary, a role that Sisko and his Starfleet superiors are naturally somewhat leery of. But Akorem's agenda threatens to throw the status quo upside down.

Sisko doesn't bother to ask Akorem what message he intends to spread with his position, so Akorem blindsides everybody by running a hard-line conservative platform. He proposes a return to a strict caste system for Bajorans, one that lifts some families over others and determines pre-determined career paths for each family. This was a caste system that was flattened out, along with most everything else, during the Cardassian occupation of Bajor, and now Major Kira faces the prospect of resigning her military commission for a life as an artist, with aptitude for it or not.

The story creates rich conflict for the characters, as Sisko has seller's remorse with the role of Emissary, and Kira must try to balance her faith with her career. In their respective roles, Avery Brooks and Nana Visitor do fine work, highlighting the strength of this ensemble. Brooks, sometimes so big and over-the-top in the show, gives a performance that benefits from restrained anxiety.

The development of the story from major plot point to plot point is fairly juddery, and puts part of the quick resolution off screen, but the textures brought out by the story redeem these flaws. There's also a sweet B-plot where Keiko finally returns to the station, reveals to Miles O'Brien she's pregnant in a slightly awkward scene, and plays "friend matchmaker" to make sure her husband spends time with Doctor Bashir.

Stray observations:
- Director Les Landau employs a nifty oner in Quark's bar, tracking O'Brien's drink order. It's not exactly Goodfellas, but it's nicely done.
- Molly has a doll with Bajoran ridges.
- In a wonderful nod to continuity, Worf reacts with abject fear when he learns Keiko is pregnant again. He delivered her first child under duress in The Next Generation episode "Disaster"!

An engaging religious and sociopolitical conflict for Bajor services Kira and Sisko's stories. 7/10.

Star Trek Randomized Rewatch: Booby Trap

TNG "Booby Trap"

The Randomizer has been on a Next Generation kick recently. This is the sixth TNG episode so far, and the third from Season 3! Hopefully some variety turns around this disproportionate trend.

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When the Enterprise gets caught in a millennia-old booby trap (which is explained and circumvented in technobabble I can't begin to decipher), two characters' stories are serviced. Geordi, established as permanently unlucky in love, brainstorms a way to save the ship while flirting with a hologram of propulsion designer Dr. Leah Brahms. And Picard, whose boyhood sense of adventure is excited by a derelict ship, must manually pilot the Enterprise to safety in a daring gambit.

Geordi's story kicks off with an awkward date on the holodeck that fizzles to nothing. He speaks with Guinan about it and she once again proves an effective counselor. Throughout the episode, Geordi develops an attraction toward a hologram who duets with him in technical jargon. After the Leah Brahms hologram says of the Enterprise, "Every time you look at this engine, it's me. Every time you touch it, it's me", she and Geordi kiss. So Geordi, Chief Engineer of the Enterprise, makes out with what is coded as an embodiment of the Enterprise itself.

Also on the Geordi dating tip, it's established that he spent a long time finessing the holodeck date program, trying to get every detail exactly right. It seems to me that part of any date, or indeed any social engagement, is not knowing exactly what's going to happen. Going with the flow, and relaxing into it however possible, is probably the way to go, over trying to fine-tune a beat-by-beat "romantic scenario".

The dead ship that the Enterprise investigates is realized with gorgeous model work that's all the more striking on blu-ray. And Ron Jones' score has an appropriate motif for the vessel: a lonely, echoing sentinel horn. Fitting for a ghost ship in the vastness of space. At one point, when danger for the Enterprise is dire, that theme haunts the Enterprise; it represents the fate the crew must avoid.

The technical side of the episode is kind of a wash as far as I'm concerned. The Picard material is overall better than Geordi's. (There's a sweet moment where Deanna and Riker are happy to see the side of Picard who gets excited by things.) A functional, average episode. 5/10.

Star Trek Randomized Rewatch: The Hunted

TNG "The Hunted"

"To survive is not enough! To simply exist is not enough!" - Roga Danar

"The Hunted" is Star Trek does First Blood. The Enterprise travels to Angosia, and this strange world is used to reflect our social issue of veteran treatment. Just like John Rambo, Angosian fugitive Roga Danar was a soldier, programmed and conditioned for war, used by his government and society, but cast aside by the same in peacetime.

And functionally, the episode plays out a bit like the Enterprise vs. an 80s action hero. Actually, the one-man army has the upper hand. The ingenuity of Roga humbles Picard and the crew constantly, and Deanna empathizes with the inhumane plight that the Angosian government has put Roga in.

This is an action episode, but the action is built upon a fascinating dynamic. When the Enterprise has Roga in the brig, Deanna, Data, and Picard sympathize with Roga and rue having to turn him over to the local authorities. Roga comes out and says he'll do anything he can to escape that fate. And vis a vis Patrick Stewart's subtle acting, Picard tacitly respects and accepts Roga's vow to tear through the Enterprise for a shot at freedom. So the nominal hero and villain of the episode are in high-stakes conflict with each other, with no malice between them. Each cat and mouse ploy, each reversal, has an undercurrent of respect.

The Enterprise is in the Angosian system because Angosia (headed by James Cromwell's Prime Minister Nayrok) is petitioning for Federation membership. Picard, his eyes open to the Angosian exploitation and disrespect of their soldiers, satisfyingly refuses them. And the Angosian society of bureaucratic philosophers looks like a 19th Century, cod-Wellsian utopia - we see no Angosian women.

Solid social commentary, engaging action, and an antagonist with depth. 7/10.

Star Trek Randomized Rewatch: The Devil in the Dark

ST "The Devil in the Dark"

"The Devil in the Dark" is an iconic, foundational episode. The one with the Horta. With "No kill I". The fairy tale of the monster who isn't really a monster, but instead a mother protecting her young from the human monsters. But it is an episode with feet of clay. I intend not to rag on it, but to honestly appraise it as a piece of dramatic television.

Where it succeeds is its quintessentially Trekkian moral. The misunderstood monster is a sentient form of life that demands respect. The framing is a little off, though. The ultimate message of coexistence is in service of very 20th Century stakes: the mining operation that has encroached on Horta breeding grounds is discussed in terms of its profitability, and the arrangement reached with the Horta at the end of the episode feels a little more exploitative than symbiotic. Still, the power of the twist is best illustrated by the reaction of the miners. They're enraged enough to beat Enterprise officers with lead pipes, but upon hearing that they unwittingly killed Horta children, they are conciliatory.

There are plot oddities. After the Horta kills an Enterprise security officer, Spock successfully accounts for all crew members with his tricorder and then Kirk says "I will lose no more men". A second draft was needed there. Later, Spock says that they have about 100 security personnel (redshirts) searching for the Horta. In other words, a fourth of the Enterprise crew are in these tunnels, and they're all security officers!

The centerpiece of the episode is Spock's mind meld with the Horta. Leonard Nimoy goes in for some textbook "seance" acting here, channeling the anguish of the creature with commitment. I realize for the first time, seeing Spock empathically channeling this creature's emotions and yelling "Pain!" several times, that Spock is starting a legacy for TNG's Deanna Troi to pick up.

The two scenes of humor are off the mark. But the most successful bit of comedy in the episode might come from McCoy scanning a human outline on the ground with a tricorder.

Of course the physical realization of the Horta itself is a cheesy effect, but why should that bother anyone? That said, you can see the fringe of the carpet they're using as part of the creature, which recalls the shambling rug monster of The Creeping Terror, as featured on Mystery Science Theater 3000. As Spock says, "Astonishing that anything of that bulk could move so rapidly."

The legacy of "The Devil of the Dark" rightly lives on in digestible soundbites. The episode itself is a respectable runaround in a series of tunnels, admittedly with a twist that embodies the best of Star Trek. 6/10.

Star Trek Randomized Rewatch: A Matter of Perspective

TNG "A Matter of Perspective"

Yes, this is the episode that features the famous Riker facepalm. (Almost as well-known as the Picard facepalm.) It's one of many moments where Riker is made to squirm, as he is accused of the murder of a Tanugan scientist, and must sit through hostile testimony at a hearing. The hook is, the testimony is dramatized on the holodeck, so the prosecution and defense can powerfully and immersively illustrate their sides of the story.

In Tanugan justice, the defendant is guilty until proven innocent, a familiar idea from Cardassian justice later in the franchise, and indeed already seen in this rewatch: It was also the modus operandi of the mid-21st Century courts from the post-atomic horror, as shown in "Encounter at Farpoint". Of course, by episode's end Riker is exonerated, with Picard and Geordi proving his innocence in a very technical, Trekkian way.

From an optics perspective, it should be noted that on the face of it, the episode features a woman (Manua Apgar, the dead scientist's wife) lying about an attempted rape to stack evidence against a man (Riker). While depicting this tends to be a bad look, there is more to it than that. When Manua's testimony is given, Deanna doesn't sense deception from Manua's perspective. So the truth, between a violently exaggerated version of Riker's womanizing tendencies, to Riker's account of warding off her advances, lies somewhere in between. Understanding is a three-edged sword: your side, my side, and the truth.

Ron Jones' score is instantly more interesting than those for the Season 4 and 7 episodes the Randomizer has recently featured. (That's largely because producer Rick Berman wanted the scores toned down about halfway through the show's run.) A regal motif accompanies an amusing scene where Data the art critic assesses the work of Picard's art class (who are painting a nude model). The episode's main theme is waftingly eerie, though admittedly not very pleasant to listen to.

A novel use of the holodeck makes for an engaging look at space justice. 7/10.