Damage

DVD, Enterprise S3 (Damage)

I thought this was directed by David Livingston, for some reason, most likely because of a variety of experimental shots and some well-judged close-quarters action in the piratical incursion at the end, so well done to James L. Conway for keeping the story moving and living up to the first part of the story in 'Azati Prime.' The title didn't show much evidence of creative thought, being one of the duller 'Enterprise' episode titles, but a Director can't be blamed for that - it was a common flaw with the series that they often didn't try to come up with a meaningful moniker, one of the things that made it seem like 'TNG'-lite, as some dubbed it. It isn't light this time, in fact quite the opposite: most of the lights have gone out! This does suit the general mood of (I hate using this overused word), darkness and desperation pervading the NX-01. They have every right to be in that mood, what with being almost pummelled to destruction by the Xindi-Reptilians at the end of part one, and it's only Degra and his fellow council members that call the attack off, get Archer out of Dolim's custody, and reinforce the Xindi council's rules.

I'm not sure why they allowed Enterprise to be free to go on its merry way, especially as they know it's after their weapon, neither am I sure why the Xindi-Aquatics were tasked with delivering him back to his ship, except that they must be on the more peaceful council members' side, against the aggressive stance of the Reptilians and Insectoids. It will all make sense once Enterprise gets to its rendezvous (cleverly encoded with a stardate, something new to the crew!), but at the time I was confused - it seemed to make more sense to take Archer (at least), and the NX-01 (at most), into their protective custody, otherwise the Reptilians are going to be fuming at the ship being allowed freedom in such sensitive space! They didn't even demand a meeting of the council to talk about what's going on, rather Degra and the others convene to talk to their Future Gal (their equivalent of the Suliban's Future Guy), one of the Sphere-Builders. They do find out that these beings have helped the other Xindi races to build bio weapons, but she had a plausible excuse in that she did it to keep them onside and the council together…

I like that these developments are happening in both camps, so we've got Enterprise doing its stuff, and Degra and the other Xindi are beginning to question the future they've been told about, so things are heating up. They're heating up aboard the Starfleet ship too, with Archer turning into Dread Space Pirate Archer, and T'Pol at last revealing her Trellium-D addiction, if still a secret between her and Phlox. And the audience - we get to see why she's been acting strangely and emotionally in recent episodes, rather than becoming ever more stoic and unflappable as the humans around her shout and buzz. If only Tuvok were here, you can bet he'd be keeping a stiff upper ear in the face of such crisis (which is why 'Voyager' is better than 'Enterprise.' Not the only reason, but one good one!). Okay, maybe he'd be affected by the Expanse as much as the next Vulcan, but we find out it's actually T'Pol's own wish for experimentation with emotion that has drawn her into this predicament. For such a relatively well-lived and experienced member of her species she doesn't do herself much credit here, logic obviously not the fulfilling centre of the universe for her that it is for most of her kind. Let's hope her worry she'll be emotionally compromised forever doesn't come true - I don't remember how she acted for the rest of the series, but it wouldn't make that much difference with the way the race was portrayed on it.

At first I was thinking how badly she was coming off, not living up to the captaincy (didn't help that there wasn't much impression of tension in Archer being gone or the ship being left to drift in space, when it should have felt like life or death), then I remembered about the drug-taking, and I gave her a lot more leeway. I expect Jolene Blalock was glad to be allowed to emote a bit more, but even with all the damage, you'd think her crewmates would notice the change in her. They should, except that the way Vulcans are portrayed has been with rippling emotional undercurrents just below the skin, one of my biggest beefs with the series, as I may have mentioned… But now is not the time to slate the bad, but to praise the good. Except that the crew, or specifically Archer, don't prove very fine, upstanding examples of a future Federation! It was rather serendipitous for a ship to be nearby with a tasty warp coil just when Enterprise needed one, especially as they haven't met many other non-Xindi ships for a while. How could the race not have heard of the Xindi? I was expecting it to turn out to be a trap or ploy in some way, but instead they were just ordinary aliens wanting to get home. This didn't make them particularly sympathetic, surprisingly, even though they were captained by Casey Biggs, most famous for his great role of the Cardassian Damar on 'DS9,' which casting was probably meant to provide (at least for the Niners in the crowd), added reason to care about Archer ripping them off.

Casey Biggs could have been given more to do. I remember when I first saw this, having been excited that he was going to be in it, and then feeling so underwhelmed, both by the race and how much he had to do in the episode. It was problematic that the makeup looked so similar to the Cardassian style, too, with light skin and forehead indentations. Not close to identical, but it did serve to remind me of his better role on 'DS9.' It's another problem of the series that they tended to bring on bland aliens of the week like this, Season 2 a particular offender in this regard, and something Season 3 had tried to avoid by going into the Expanse, so full of wild and weird peoples. Not to say this episode wouldn't have shamed the average Season 2 offering; it would, but they did miss opportunities like this, to make the moral side of the story, the measure of the story, and create an alien of the week that was different, other than slightly different makeup.

I found that, although I wasn't happy with Archer's decision, I enjoyed the warp coil raid, and felt slightly bad for getting into the spirit of it. I would suggest that it stretches credibility a bit that any alien vessel's technology would be compatible with another race's, even if you argued that the essential components are going to be similar enough for warp travel to be possible, but it's only a minor point in service to the story, just as the ship itself being there was due to necessity - do you get the feeling this one wasn't written by Manny Coto? You'd be right. I can see what they were attempting here: an old-fashioned moralistic tale, but with a 21st Century TV series spin. Trouble is, the modern spin is that Archer does the dirty, attacks this innocent ship because it's there, and reasons that he had no choice. The moral is there, but it's distorted, it's unclear whether you're supposed to think this is right or wrong, there isn't enough thinking about the consequences. I know they talk briefly about the other ship; taking three years to get home; leaving supplies; it's just too quick. Certain members of the crew express disapproval (culminating in T'Pol smashing a pad on Archer's desk, a bit like Spock crumpling up a desktop monitor in 'TOS'!), but Archer isn't in the mood to take prisoners, so they don't push it. Thing is, that was his only choice, but other Captains would have found a way around it somehow - circumstances would have given them a dicier, but more correct course of action that was missing from this story.

In spite of all these seemingly negative observations, they sped through the valuable minutes with much goodness, working in T'Pol's addiction, showing the ship totally messed up, something that couldn't be done in an average episode of another season or series, and many of the crew are bruised and bloodied (ponytail MACO lady even gets a name: Parsons). This kind of thing is what sets the episode apart from the pedestrian affairs of Season 2, in which they might have spent a whole episode with T'Pol wandering round the ship trying not to show emotion. The Trip thing was addressed a couple of times - Phlox talks about it with her, and she has a rather full-on 'kissing in shower' scene which wasn't necessary, though I did like the transformation into zombie T'Pol and the earlier impression of things going weird around her as she walks the damaged corridors, her withdrawal from the drug becoming serious. I like that time is found, however little it is, for tiny pin-pricks of character building - a look passes between people which says a lot, and probably couldn't have been done in the first season when these people weren't as developed: Reed shares such a look and a nod with Trip in Engineering; and Phlox with Archer, as well as professing how glad he is to see the Captain back.

Phlox does get to be a prime part of the story thanks to conversations with T'Pol and Archer, though I was surprised that he basically endorsed the Captain's decision to take the warp coil, as you'd think he'd be the sort to take the other stand. The scene with him and Archer talking was perfectly shot to accent the dark for dark business, and this was a good-looking episode, regardless of other shortcomings, with good directing it required to keep up the Season 3 pace and style: Conway has us looking through T'Pol's EVA suit helmet, which I'm not sure had been done before, and there's a quality shot looking in at Archer's pressurised chamber aboard the liquid-filled Aquatic ship - having the most computer-generated creatures part of the story broadens the impression of the Xindi race, although we don't really find out anything more about that particular branch. As I mentioned at the beginning, I was also excited by the phaser battle aboard the Illyrian ship, the action flowing, and the lighting increasing the danger, one of the few times in the episode where real peril was tangible, despite the close quarters and small corridor sets, something missing from most of the episode, which should have emphasised how badly the ship had been torn apart - show, don't tell. But a good continuation of the story in all, not special, but keeping the season moving.

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