North Star

DVD, Enterprise S3 (North Star)

The first of the season to have nothing whatsoever to do with the Xindi, just a mission taken on out of curiosity, which shows that Archer wasn't so bound up with the mission to save Earth that he couldn't stop by and find out how humans could be living a Wild West lifestyle in the Expanse. The question isn't really how they got there as much as how they live, because this is pretty much a remake of the 'Voyager' story 'The 37's,' only not as deep. Not that that episode was particularly deep, but it was such a similar tale: humans from Earth were abducted by aliens, taken to a planet to be used as slaves, then the human's ancestors rose up to defeat them, basically. Except that one had more character to it, and tied directly into that series' arc, emotively suggesting a new home to settle in. The (quick) draw here is the quirk that these people were taken from the Wild West era and still live that way, though it was three hundred years ago that they first came there. How come they never progressed, even after defeating their oppressors?

The episode attempts to bring about one of Trek's great morality plays, but it's very heavy-handed and doesn't say anything new - guess what, slavery is still bad, folks. I suppose the angle this time is a view of what people can become, between the nasty bullying type of Deputy Bennings, and the more thoughtful minority in MacReady and Bethany. Mac is in control as Sheriff, but chooses most of the time to turn a blind eye to the way the 'Skags' are treated because it's the law he was brought up with, even though he feels it's a little harsh sometimes. If it had been all about the steady persuading of him to take action and deal with people like Bennings in making big changes it would have worked better than the firefight of Archer and the Maco's, blasting in and shooting the bad guys up, then leaving, with everything alright again. It smacks of the simplicity of some of the 'TOS' stories, even though he promises a ship will come back for them eventually. Even that was ripe for exploration, because some would want to stay with the old ways and the life they new despite an offer of a trip back to the almost mythical planet of their origin.

That's not to even mention the Skagarans who have no chance to explain their history, and are merely downtrodden victims, paying the price for their ancestor's cruelty. So many issues, and so little exploration of them. When I first saw this, I was impressed by the look of it all, the high production values, the phaser battle (including the excellent phaser rifle sniper scope that Maco girl uses, the one with no name who usually gets to do some good stunts), though now even that looks somehow sluggish, and Archer's fight in the barn unnecessary. It's the old thing of battering the enemy until you beat them and the real issues are just skirted over at the very end as Archer tells Bethany that things are beginning to change.

It would have been a good idea to go back there and find out how much really did change, after they'd sorted the Xindi out, but Archer's decisions mirrors his mission against the Xindi in the way he takes on the wayward humans: show them you're the stronger (after a little bit of an attempt at mild diplomacy to anyone who'll listen), and then strike in anger, wipe off your hands and feel satisfied with a job well done. It may be the problem of the series and of the era they represent, and if we're being strictly fair it should be pointed out that humans are supposed to be much more in that way than the 24th Century humans we know so well. So it's an accurate representation of humanity's nearly, but not-quite-there progression. Coming after all those 24th Century series' it may have been a bad idea to go back to a simpler time, because it does become less engaging and thought-provoking than we learned to expect. All this from watching a cowboy episode! I never realised this would all come out as I thought about this episode, but there you go.

As a Western it's not bad. As I said, it looks great (I have the feeling this was the first, or one of the first episodes to be shot entirely digitally), but you could have been confused by the teaser which had absolutely no sci-fi element or recognisable Trek characters or situation at all - even the 'Skag' they hang looked human to me, and it wasn't the best way to start an episode. I should applaud them for coming out with the necessary Western that most Trek series' do, even though they were hampered by the Expanse, but it highlights the fact that any ordinary 'Enterprise' episode could easily have been achieved if they felt like it, since the Expanse is just that: an expanse which hasn't been explored. Maybe it was because it came right after 'Twilight' that I took against it a little, but it was the Captain and T'Pol out of uniform again and almost a time travel episode in that they visit a lifestyle from Earth's past. I don't know, I think it was too derivative, I didn't like all the characters much, and as usual some of the crew just aren't used. We don't learn anything new about anybody and the message isn't even allegorical, it's just simple and in your face.

It was fun to see Glenn Morshower looking much older, who'd been in Trek as far back as 'TNG,' as the Sheriff, but there wasn't a whole lot of character to the episode beyond him, and there were a few points that didn't make a lot of sense: the townspeople are remarkably trusting to strangers wandering through; trading a mouth organ and a gun for a horse seemed unbalanced; and there were things that looked like they were going to come to something and didn't - most clearly seen in T'Pol's part. She appears to be unsure with the horse which was ripe for comedy potential, but also makes her look a whole lot less cooler - if you take Mr. Spock's affinity for animals as a Vulcan trait, considering they can mind meld with them. Oh, but I'm forgetting, mind melding was an outlawed practice, but it's another example of the eroding of Vulcan qualities. I was also expecting her to reach up and nerve-pinch the cowboy holding her captive, but instead there's a comic moment where Reed stuns her, and then him! I suppose it was the novelty of the 'Enterprise' cast in a Western that I enjoyed first time round, and now I'm watching the series with hindsight this one sticks out as a bit of a failure in all but the glossiness stakes.

**