This is one of those rare Star Trek episodes that actually presents us with a non-traditional alien. A feat that knocked this episode into Chris’ list of favorites. For the rest of us it felt like a very traditional Star Trek episode, not bad, but also not exactly remarkable.
Memory Alpha: Link
Enterprise 01×22 – Vox Sola
Directed by Roxann Dawson
Written by Rick Berman & Brannon Braga and Fred Dekker
Guest Stars: Vaughn Armstrong, Joseph Will, Renee E. Goldsberry
There Are Four Mics is a weekly Star Trek podcast discussing the Star Trek episodes and movies in stardate order. Join Chris Keeley, Jason Allen, Joe Heiser and Joshua B. Jones as we discuss the 22nd episode of Star Trek: Enterprise, Vox Sola.
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Music credits:
Faith of the Heart/Where My Heart Will Take Me – performed by Russell Watson, Jerry Lubbock, and the New York Trek Orchestra
Archer’s Theme – Dennis McCarthy and New York Trek Orchestra
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Show Notes
Enterprise 1×22 – Vox Sola
Cold Open
The Kreetassans storm off the Enterprise back to their own vessel after getting infuriated by an insult the crew is unable to decipher. As their ship departs, a space creature slips from the exterior of the alien ship into the Enterprise.
We all really liked this cold open, even Jason! It hit all the points you might need in a cold open and even added some Aaron Sorkin walking and talking!
Act I
Hoshi is having a pity party about the difficulty of Kreetassan that keeps getting interrupted by some mysterious interference in the comms system. Trip cheers up Archer’s post-first contact sulking with a finals match that just arrived via subspace as Porthos freaks out about the still undetected space monster climbing through the vents. Just as everyone settles in for movie night, the increasingly broken Enterprise computer instead shows a livefeed of the bridge. A crewman we’ve never seen before is doing some maintenance when he discovers the space monster and is attacked. After he doesn’t return, another crewman we’ve never met before investigates. She interrupts the water polo game Archer and Trip are watching before she, too, goes silent.
A good first act. Joe wasn’t sure how he felt about Hoshi’s continuing super human ability to discern minute sound variation in static or the rumblings of creatures in the walls, but Chris suggests she’s supposed to be the expert–the top of her field, so maybe it’s not that outlandish she might have some incredibly rare gifts. Though we’re all quite tired of the Hoshi v. T’Pol story line.
Overall we all enjoyed the concept Trip and Archer’s interactions during the water polo game, but the interaction felt kind of awkward. It felt like they REALLY wanted us to learn about water polo.
It’s a standard thing in TV and movies that we all accept, but Joe was bothered that upon seeing strange goo, hearing a thump, and seeing a slithering tentacle, our crewman does not recall any of the Alien movies they’ve probably already seen during Movie Night and gets the hell out of there.
Everyone really digs the alien design, Chris especially enjoys when Star Trek mixes it up a bit and goes beyond wrinkly nosed bipeds, citing Bevvox from the Voyager episode, Think Tank, as another of the rare instances of non-traditional alien design.
A minor thing, but we all really enjoyed seeing some of the interactions from non-bridge crew. Makes the Enterprise feel like a real place.
What we liked:
It’s fun to see interactions between regular crewmen. Adds a lot of depth and immersion into the world.
The alien was interesting. Totally non-human is a departure for Star Trek and was welcome!
What we didn’t like so much:
That was a lot of water polo rules discussion. The dialogue for this sequence might as well have been pulled directly from the Wikipedia page.
The animosity between Hoshi and T’Pol seems to have resurfaced? We’re kind of tired of that.
Act II
Archer and Trip head down to the Cargo Bay in their pajamas to see what’s up, but let Reed take point because he’s dressed appropriately. They find the two crewman encased in the white space monster, and it quickly swallows up Archer, Trip and another guy before Reed is able to narrowly escape the room. The bridge crew decides to search for the Kreetassan ship in the hopes they have some details on the space beast, while Phlox’s study of one of its severed tentacles reveals it has a sensitivity to light. The captured crew is exchanging some witty banter when Reed comes in with some buds and blasts the monster with EM radiation. The fact that its hurting the crew as much as the monster makes Phlox realize their nervous systems have been merged. If they don’t separate them quickly, it will be irreversible. All eyes are on Hoshi as she’s ordered to find a way to talk to the space beast.
T’Pol felt a little off this whole episode, and the Hoshi v. T’Pol conflict that was seemingly addressed in Sleeping Dogs doesn’t do much to help that perception. Josh brings up the good point that it’s unfortunate that Hoshi couldn’t have been presented as earnestly doing her best and struggling to meet the demands of the situation, rather than simply showing her getting upset with T’Pol for criticizing her. We know she’s an expert and a professional, let her be one.
It felt that to some degree, T’Pol is a complicated character for the writers to use. She’s meant to be a pacifist and scientist, but she is also expected to take command in emergency situations. In this episode it’s strange how quickly she dismisses Hoshi’s plan to attempt to communicate with it in favor of Reed’s plan to wound or kill it.
What we liked:
The phase-rifle at least SOUNDS different than the phase-pistol. So maybe there actually is something different there beyond the configuration?
What we didn’t like so much:
Reed seemed kinda dumb this episode. Like he was there mostly to give other people the chance to propel the story.
Again, T’Pol v. Hoshi.
The sarcastic time frame offered by Reed is kind of a silly line and feels totally unnecessary and unrelated able for us non-geniuses.
Act III
Phlox says time is running out, and Reed decides to tinker with this EM field theory they’ve been toying around with at Starfleet for a while. Travis located the Kreetassan ship but they aren’t answering yet, so T’Pol occupies herself by hassling Hoshi over her lack of progress in communicating with the monster before they decide to do a language-learning teamup together. The captured crew realize they can read each other’s thoughts and Trip starts panicking until Archer calms him by remembering his old water polo matches.
Reed comes into the medbay wanting to torture the alien limb real quick, but Phlox says no way, Jose. Hoshi and T’Pol are breaking down the alien the language, but also breaking down barriers between them. Travis gets a hold of the Kreetassans and they offer their help if he apologizes for the insult. T’Pol and Hoshi wanna try out their language study on this thing, and tell Reed to hurry up with his little forcefield so they can do it before their crewmates are dead.
The short scene with Phlox and Reed spun us on a huge tangent on the definitions of torture. This scene was a nice addition in the sense that it threw yet another wrench into the crews plans.
Travis really stepped up his game this episode. He reroutes the Enterprise, hails the Kreetassan’s, answers their hails, and takes responsibility for an insult I’m pretty sure he wasn’t even there for. All without receiving orders! At least on screen..
It’s hard to tell what we’re supposed to be feeling about Hoshi and T’Pol. What were the writers goals? Were we supposed to feel that Hoshi is too sensitive? That T’Pol is a hard ass? It seems kind of muddled. And the quarreling between crewmembers seems a little out of place considering later Star Treks — Save for Bones and Spock in The Original Series.
What we liked:
The various approaches the crew had in trying to solve the situation was a neat dynamic and helped keep the episode feel high energy despite two of the main characters locked in place for most of the episode.
What we didn’t like so much:
Jason and Joe are a little annoyed that once again Reed pulls something off that a team of Starfleet’s finest couldn’t and invents a force field.
Why did Trip have to be the one who broke down? Seems like something the near name-less crewman would have been a good candidate for. Josh points out that the writers doubled dipped and once again had Trip as the emotionally unstable one just as he was in Strange New World.
Act IV
Reed’s force field seems to be doing the trick, so Hoshi tries her hand at talking to the thing. The universal translator eventually gets enough to work with, and reveals that the aliens just want to go back to their planet. As soon as that’s revealed, all the captured Enterprise crewmembers start oozing back into freedom and consciousness. Once they reach the planet, an away team takes a shuttlepod down to the planet and releases the life form so it can join the rest of its body.
The resolution was a bit predictable, though not cloying or obnoxious. The exact motivations of the alien creature are somewhat unclear but not distractingly so. Overall a pretty good resolution to the various story lines.
What we liked:
The planet was pretty neat and reminiscent of Odo’s homeworld from Deep Space Nine.
What we didn’t like so much:
The episode ends somewhat abruptly. There wasn’t exactly anything left to resolve, but it would have been nice to come back to Enterprise and see Archer with a bandage on his head petting Porthos or something.
Episode Ratings
Joe: 3.5
This felt like a very traditional Star Trek episode. A hostile situation is de-escalated when we realize we misunderstood each other, and everyone walks away happy in the end. Not bad, but not exactly exciting or new. I did like the side activity throughout the episode though, Movie Night, Archer/Trip hanging out, and the interactions of the crewmen in engineering.
Josh: 4.0
It was an ok episode, nothing wrong with it, didn’t excite me too much. I liked Movie Night, water polo, and I really liked the alien creature.
Chris: 5.0
I really love this episode. It’s one of my favorites so far. I really love the alien creature and how foreign and non-human it was. I also enjoyed the Archer and Trip interactions during the water polo game and the different groups of crew trying to resolve the situation to the best of their individual specialties.
Jason: 3.5
I’m torn. As Joe said it feels like a “Star Trek” episode, but it doesn’t do much new with it. We essentially already know the plot. I did really like the alien design though!
Trivia Questions
Chris
Question: What were Trip and Archer eating while watching water polo?
Answer: Pretzels and two beers. (Josh)
Jason
Question: They were watching a movie; how long was it?
Answer: 2 hours 24 minutes. (No points awarded)
Question: Phlox compares the severed monster limb to what two animals?
Answer: Common earthworm and Neethian cradlefish. (No points awarded)
Question: What was the name of the movie that was playing?
Answer: Wages of Fear (Joe)
Josh
Question: Trip is trying to cheer Archer up; he mentions what Chef has for dinner with real what?
Answer: Horseradish and prime rib (Chris)
Joe
Question: What was the name of the mentioned character of Wages of Fear?
Answer: Yves Montand. (No points awarded, also apparently that’s an actor’s name, not a character)
Question: I want three facts about Archer’s water polo game.
Answer: Down by 2, 1 minute left, they won (Chris)
This week:
Chris +2
Joe +1
Josh +1
Final Tally:
Joe – 23 pts
Jason – 21.25 pts
Josh – 9 pts
Anna – 7 pts
Chris – 7 pts