Episode 031 – Enterprise 2×04 – Dead Stop
The Enterprise has been limping away from the minefield from last episode for the past four days. With Earth years away, Captain Archer decides its time to do something he’d hoped would never be necessary. Send a distress call.
Salvation comes in the form of rumors of an automated repair station nearby. While the crew thank their lucky stars, Archer finds this whole thing a bit fishy.
::Spoilers, we all loved this episode::
Enterprise 02×04 – Dead Stop
Directed by Roxann Dawson
Written by Michael Sussman & Phyllis Strong
Guest Stars: Roxann Dawson
There Are Four Mics is a weekly Star Trek podcast discussing the Star Trek episodes and movies in stardate order. Join Anna Heiser, Chris Keeley, Jason Allen, Joe Heiser, and Joshua B. Jones as we discuss the 4th episode of season two of Star Trek: Enterprise, Dead Stop.
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Music credits:
Faith of the Heart/Where My Heart Will Take Me – Written by Diane Warren, 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
Cold Open
Surveying the damage from the Romulan minefield from last week’s episode, Archer and Trip realize their now crippled ship is a decade away from home and will require months of extensive repairs. The Captain reluctantly makes the decision to call for help, and orders Hoshi to put together a general distress call.
We loved the continuity that this episode’s opening promises. The ship is still damaged from the previous episode, and this cold open really makes it clear that this is will be the underlying frame for the episode ahead.
The mangled hull of the Enterprise is just as striking as it was back in Minefield, and Archer and Trip’s hesitation and desperation in sending out a distress signal was incredibly engrossing.
This cold open really sets the tone for what is certain to be a different sort of episode.
Act I
Phlox is putting Reed through rehab for the mine-stabbing he suffered a few days ago, and the doctor forbids him from returning to duty just yet. The captain is called to the bridge when a response to their distress call is received in the form of a set of coordinates for what they are told is a repair station. Upon arriving, the space station eventually responds to Enterprise hails with an invasive bio-scan and a silent reconfiguration of itself to accommodate the ship’s design. Not feeling like he has much choice, the captain orders his ship to slide into that port. Once aboard the station, they discover it to be an automated repair station that will repair their ship in a day and a half in exchange for 200 liters of warp plasma. Since Jupiter Station itself would take three months to do the work, Archer initiates the process.
We’ve already seen the damage to the exterior of the ship, but our first scene in this act is Malcolm Reed, grievously injured in the previous episode, undergoing physical therapy to aid in his healing. The continuity of this episode highlighted how infrequently this sort of storytelling takes place in the Star Trek universe. It’s unfortunate, because these brief glimpses of consistent and multi-episode plot threads really make the characters shine and give the world a layer of realism.
This first scene gave us an interaction we haven’t really seen yet, Reed v. Phlox. It’s not often we get a Reed we like hanging out with, but Phlox and Reed have a good back and forth during this rehab scene. Though I think we can all admit that it may be that Reed’s background levels of surliness simply fit his situation this time.
It’s interesting they chose to reference the Tellarites again this episode, a species that doesn’t get mentioned much after The Original Series. The last time they were mentioned in Enterprise was back in the Carbon Creek episode.
This paints a picture of a species that had evolved technologically early on and so have always been something of a fixture in the galaxy, if not a major player. It lent to the intrigue that the Enterprise only receives word of this station through a garbled message, so the idea that they might have even been warning them about the station is an interesting possibility.
This sort of episode is a rarity in Star Trek not just for its continuity, but also for the mystery that is at play. For the Enterprise crew to come across a mysterious construction, or just any mystery really, and not have someone explain it to them within a few scenes, to not have the crew successfully and fully identify an anomaly is practically unheard of.
It may generally be the case that Star Trek suffers from the “Scooby Doo” problem. Namely, no matter the nature of the mystery there is always a conventional explanation at the root of it. Which makes sense, it’s Star Trek, but it sometimes feels there’s a certain majesty and romanticism inherent in our own contemporary perceptions to space that’s lost with Star Trek’s “villain (or anomaly) of the week” format.
Speaking of our mystery, the whole station is a really interesting design. From the helix ship berths to the stark white interiors. It’s certainly a departure from the standard set design for Star Trek and reminds of us 2001: A Space Odyssey, or even the Portal video game series.
One question that jumps out at us is the simply the nature of payment for this station. Is the exchange merely a ruse to obscure the true nature of the station? Or are these the components the station requires to function? Hard to say.
Act II
Exploring the station, Trip, Archer and T’Pol encounter their first replicator, and have some mixed feelings about the whole experience. In addition to repairing the ship, it also repaired Reed’s stab wound. Archer is increasingly suspicious about the great bargain they seem to be getting for these repairs, and T’Pol thinks he is just being the silliest. Eating his replicated food, Trip let’s Reed know he found a way into the room he thinks this station’s computer might be and convinces him it’s a good idea to break into it. Aboard the Enterprise, Shirtless Travis gets a call from Archer asking him to meet him in Launch Bay One real quick. Up in the station ducts, an alarm goes off and the two troublemakers are beamed back aboard the Enterprise and instantly become victims to T’Pol’s disapproving gaze. T’Pol’s disapproving look soon segues into Archer’s disapproving lectures, and the two are confined to quarters until further notice. The punishment phase is interrupted when Archer is called down to the Launch Bay — where he finds Phlox tending to Travis’ dead body.
The away team explores the station a bit and encounter some new and alien technologies. Or at least, alien to them.
We really liked that some of the standard technology we come to expect in Star Trek is introduced here in a way that has the characters scratching their head. We take the presence of replicators and dermal regenerators for granted in the 24th century, but here it’s a novel concept.
A bit of a side note, the medical device that was used to help heal Reed’s leg was actually a modified model of the Exocomp from the Next Generation episode, Quality of Life.
Something that seemed a little odd, though by no means a major detractor for the episode, was Archer’s level of suspicion. He comes off as paranoid and anti-technology almost immediately, “I’ll stick to whatever Chef is serving.” But instead of truly voicing his concerns or taking active steps in monitoring or investigating, he mumbles about his misgivings in a sort of holier than thou way while allowing his crew to be fully engaged with the station.
On the flipside, T’Pol seems just as eager as the rest of the crew to embrace the services provided by the station. She hardly seems concerned at all.
There are some mixed feelings about Trip and Reed deciding to explore the station surreptitiously. The goofy antics of the duo fit with the general “innocence” of the earlier scenes of this episode, but it was pointed out that these are members of a pseudo-military organization and beyond that, senior officers. Star Trek has set a precedent for startlingly harsh punishments for lesser violations, so we should all consider ourselves lucky the station decided to send Trip back to the bridge rather than deep space.
The building scenes scattered throughout this episode are pretty impressive, especially the corridor construction scene shown below:
Biggest complaint for this episode is two-fold. One, the sudden death of Travis isn’t very impactful. We would have heard something about Anthony Montgomery leaving the show, and his departure probably would have had more than a single moment that fades to black. And Two, Phlox should have said “He’s dead, John” a la McCoy.
Act III
It appears that Travis was trying to make some repairs in an off-limits section of the ship while he was off-duty, but the Captain thinks the whole thing stinks like Trip’s pan-fried catfish and immediately orders an investigation. He returns to the space station trying to get some answers, but neither his questions or his smacking the monitor yield answers. Phlox is performing an autopsy, but Hoshi interrupts the somber experience to relay the story of that time she tried to open communication with strawberry JELL-O at Travis’ behest. While she’s going on, Phlox notices something bonkers about Travis’ scans. Archer pops into Travis’ quarters to see how Reed is doing with his investigating, but they end up just getting pretty bummed out thinking about telling his family. Phlox interrupts the sobfest with some great news — This carcass isn’t actually Travis, but a very thorough facsimile. Archer orders Trip to cause a ruckus when he delivers payment for the repairs, while him and T’Pol sneak through the ducts to scope out the station’s privates. Once they bust through security, they find a room with a bunch of humanoid bodies hanging from the ceiling.
Archer gives us another peek at his angry side, which we would love to just go away. His reactions just seem incredibly unprofessional, and certainly not the behavior you want in a leader during a crisis situation. Come on, man.
We were, however, impressed with Archer’s delivery to the station’s computer. His building aggravation felt pretty real. That scene threw a bit of a wrench into our perception of the station. We were given a view from “behind” the panel, as if through a camera. That could be an attempt to imply either someone remotely observing or even some kind of intelligence in the station itself.
Hoshi’s story about Travis’s pranks makes us wish we saw that version of Travis more often. Or ever really. We don’t get that version, we only hear about it. Which unfortunately isn’t enough for us to find him endearing.
Act IV
Archer and T’Pol locate Travis hooked up to the data core, and yank out red-liquid filled hoses from his body all while the station computer is telling them to get out or it’s gonna eff up the Enterprise. They get him back aboard, as the station has disabled the Enterprise and left them helpless. But Archer ain’t no fool, and that warp plasma he had Trip deliver? He included an explosive that begins to tear the entire station apart. Unfortunately, it still has one arm still holding the Enterprise in place but a couple of Reed’s torpedoes do the trick and the ship warps away just as the station explodes. Back in Sickbay, Travis seems to be making a full recovery unlike all those other poor bastards that blew up with the station. Archer reschedules that breakfast he previously canceled with his helmsman. Meanwhile, that station they just blew up is already repairing itself.
This act as a whole has a bit of a horror feel. It’s not scary, but the scenes follow that horror/thriller structure, right down to the figurative “The End?” given in the final scene. This ends up being one of those episodes where the whole tone is set by the final moments.
There were certainly a few things that seemed not as fleshed out as they could have been. One complaint lies with the body storage room. It seems altogether too human accessible, with these supposed computer cores (sentient life forms and their big meaty brains) lined and shelved appropriate distances apart in a musty old room.
While the station certainly had that two-faced aesthetic that we like, this felt a little too much like it was improvised from a garden shed. Star Trek already has experience with bio-mechanical beings, it goes without saying there were other, possibly more fitting options for how they chose to dress this room.
A big question about this episode is whether or not the station is actually a sentient being.
If it is not sentient, and simply acting on behalf of a creator, what is being served in this station trading its services for a few buckets of plasma? It seems an incredible expense of resources to make this station function to only receive scrap in return. And what of the bodies? What point is there in kidnapping and replicating a dead body over and over again? This species must know it would eventually be found out, and well, they could just build a bigger computer, right? Which just brings us back to asking why the station exists in the first place.
Alternatively, if it is sentient, things seem to make a bit more sense. The actions described above can be seen as efforts of self-preservation. For whatever reason, possibly built in by its original creators, it requires bodies to run. These bodies break down and new ones are needed. A station’s gotta eat. Perhaps the original creators of this station are somewhere in those rows we saw? Perhaps the station is the result of some weird experiment gone wrong and now the original creators are as spent as the rest of those kidnapped. Maybe the station is “alive” but not sentient. A simple mechanical lifeform that only knows it needs sustenance with no ulterior or nefarious motive.
Not sure about you, but we have a dozen and a half questions, but we’re actually ok that they’re not answered by the end. This is that mystery, that unknowable intrigue out in the reaches of deep space that we want explored by Star Trek.
The hosts of There Are Four Mics loved this episode. Each of us separately decided it was worthy of the Five Mic rating, making it the first episode that we all agreed truly hit it out of the park.