Hatchery

DVD, Enterprise S3 (Hatchery)

What's going on here? No, I'm not talking about Archer's bizarre behaviour (that was obvious to a regular Trek viewer as soon as he got sprayed by the apparently innocuous alien growth), it's Travis getting more than two lines to say and an action scene where he gets to take on Major Hayes during a daring mutiny on the bridge! To balance out this rift in the space-time continuum, Hoshi has practically nothing, but even so, it's a shock to the system. Even Phlox is used reasonably well, autopsy on a Xindi-Insectoid; trying to use the powers vested in him to relieve the Captain (though Phlox never had the force of personality of the other doctors, giving up fairly easily). Add these facts to the good quality alien sets, the really good CGI, and a sleek new ship to be impressed by and you find yourself wondering why this doesn't come together to be one of the best of the season, instead feeling like a bit of a nothing. That is, it begins that way and takes a long old time to get its momentum going, and for a series with such a short running time per episode, I wish it got to the fun part sooner.

The fun part being Archer beginning to lose it, relieving T'Pol of command, sending her to be confined to quarters by MACOs, and becoming increasingly concerned for the enemy's damaged nesting chamber. From then on the story is as fun as that sounds, but I don't know why such a slow reveal was needed before Archer is seen to be off his rocker. Maybe I'm coming to it from the perspective of having seen so many episodes when a crewmember or captain is infected by alien something-or-other, and the crew slowly come to the realisation of what's happened. But think what they could have done with this if they'd subverted expectations and cut almost immediately to the Captain locking down the ship and using MACOs as his private police force? I'm thinking the fast-paced style of the first two episodes of the season, with that energetic storytelling, to make it different to what had gone before.

There are some familiar MACO faces again, including the Major, who gets to have some proper conversations with Reed. There's still an impression of friction between the two, but there isn't the sense that it will boil over into violence again. They got the macho side of it out of their system, it just remained for them to find some common ground, and for the most part this episode gave them the opportunity for that. Not entirely - it's a shame Hayes had to be on the wrong side at just the point in the season where he and Reed were speaking civilly to each other, and it tests them again (and gives Travis a chance to get back at Mr. MACO for any previous harsh treatment in training!), but in the end it gives Hayes more to think about when he realises things aren't always as simple as following orders. It's a good setup to have the MACOs against Starfleet, but I didn't think it was used to full potential. Again, if the mutiny had arrived sooner we could have had more drama between the two camps. If this was another series I'd suggest this incident would likely give reason for Starfleet to regress a little in terms of trusting the MACOs, but I expect this will be the end of that 'tentative allies' stuff that has been in the background occasionally, as they head towards their big goal of Azati Prime.

The MACOs were originally included as muscle to send in to the front line, so I give them credit for at least partially filling them out, but as ever, it could have been furthered. It's also a bit sad that this is a proper Trek episode in that it's all about helping your enemy, but only because of Archer being spat in the face by alien juice. That should really have been as much a part of the story as the mutiny. But as I said, the computer effects were very good, especially the planetscapes, ship views and the baby Xindi-Insectoids (which reminded me of the villains' true form at the end of 'Catspaw'), scuttling over Archer or into dark corners on the floor. It struck me hearing the explanation about them not having a gender and being asexual in reproduction that they're very much like Tribbles. Except there was no talk of being born pregnant! But you never know, maybe the Xindi-Avian weren't the only unknown Xindi race…

Good to hear a little about the Eugenics Wars, when Archer talks about his ancestor (I thought he said his Grandfather, but the dates don't seem right as that would have been about 160 years before), as it's a rare occasion indeed when we get to hear of that 1990s war in which Khan featured so prominently. Another item rarely heard of again are those NX-01 baseball caps the crew used to wear in Season 1. Well, for all those hat-lovers out there, T'Pol wears one in order to infiltrate Engineering and nerve pinch a MACO. Again, she's fine in uniform so why they never let her just wear that instead of the colourful wardrobe she got, well, I do know why, but they should have. It's the same old thing again, but I still get annoyed whenever T'Pol gets annoyed, and she had plenty of pushing the emotional barriers this time. And when Trip has a line like "I know you're upset…" it's wrong on various levels - can you imagine someone saying that to Spock? Trouble is, you can tell she is upset! A smaller irritation is more easily smoothed over: when Archer grabs her by the arm it's because he's been infected, but I never like it when Vulcans touch or are touched because one of the things about them is that they don't like it (to do with easy telepathic connection from contact).

As a whole it's not bad, I like creeping through abandoned alien craft in the dark, even though there was really no horror aspect to the story which could easily have been incorporated with a little more effort. I like seeing the crew work together, and for Hayes and Reed to see eye to eye by the end made for a more satisfying watch than if it had been straight action. I think I'm talking myself round - I liked it, but maybe not as much as I could have with a few tweaks here and there.

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