Desert Crossing (2)

DVD, Enterprise S1 (Desert Crossing) (2)

I wish 'Enterprise' had embraced its semi-serialised nature more, because that perfect mix of ongoing stories in an episodic structure that 'DS9' benefited so much from, would have been a real advantage to the series. I say this because of episodes such as this one in which Archer's previous actions drive the story: Zobral, the forceful native who (apparently - it was never directly confirmed or discussed), cunningly reels in the good Captain believing the hype that he's not only an explorer, but a great warrior with a reputation for fairness and integrity, the ideal man to help with his planet's rebellion against a corrupt government. And it was all 'thanks' to the Suliban Archer and crew rescued back in 'Detained,' Zobral mentioning the detention camp Archer liberated and who have spread the good news about this champion of justice as they travelled (a bit like Janeway and crew developed a reputation ahead of them in their sojourn across the Delta Quadrant). It was the wrong end of the stick, wishful thinking on Zobral's part, but it was a good stick to grasp, and not entirely without merit since Archer did indeed rescue the captured Suliban and he really is a man of integrity, balanced, open and an all-round good guy. In fact this is another episode that shows him in all the positive light that you want to see a famous starship Captain given: he's all things - a good Captain, a good leader and a good friend, and though it could be said he isn't quite as firm as a Kirk or Picard might have been when such dubious hospitality was pressed upon them, he's also much more willing to engage and discover.

Archer's good actions in 'Detained,' helping the oppressed, ironically mean that had he not gotten involved they wouldn't have been drawn into the situation here (isn't there a Ferengi Rule of Acquisition about no good deed going unpunished?), but they aren't the only events to be directly referred to, as Zobral asks whether they never encountered anything that made them regret their pioneering exploits - we're reminded of 'Silent Enemy' in which they had to return to Earth to upgrade their weapons, except of course they successfully banded together in true Starfleet fashion and solved the problem before they arrived, another proud moment in the season. It adds so much to the reality of the series that events actually meant something and multiplied their experience - it could also be a foreshadowing of the coming return to Earth in disgrace that would come in season finale 'Shockwave,' just as this episode and the previous one were concerned with heading to Risa, a plan that would come to fruition in next story 'Two Days and Two Nights.' I just wish there had been more of that in the series, quite a different prospect from modern Trek and this series' own Season 3 in which everything has to be tied together with almost no room for manoeuvre (except for the occasional Wild West episode or trip to Talos IV!).

Something else this episode shares with modern Trek is the high production values of actually filming in some realistic locations. They didn't actually go to Morocco or wherever it was they filmed the 'DSC' pilot, 'The Vulcan Hello,' but they certainly shot for realism, something that always brings greater enjoyment to Trek rather than always staying in standing sets or set-based alien villages. 'Enterprise' was good at making sure it had location shooting and I think back to 'Strange New World' and 'Terra Nova' as among some of the best outdoor filming this season, though this one is also a contender as we see Archer and his good mate Trip struggle across the dunes of a real desert. The friendship between the pair was not really explored enough across the series, I always felt, but whenever they did give them something to do it was good for the characters. This time they have a manly game of alien lacrosse to show what they're made of, but while this was fun it serves more as a contrast between frivolous machismo and serious endurance and survival that sport often stands in for: the real manly test is when they're on the run from the authorities under a desert sun with only a couple of water packs to keep them going - it shows Archer's leadership qualities at the peak as he not only has to see to his own safety, but that of a quickly deteriorating Trip (probably didn't help that he'd played Geskana on a full stomach - it seems Torothan culture doesn't care about indigestion!).

The Chief Engineer is well at home around his engines (and we get some nice shots in Engineering - I always love when they place the camera at the far end of the Warp Core and point it back to show off the length and power of this Warp 5 starship, and then there was also that shot I don't remember ever seeing before, which had Trip leaning on one side of the platform at the operational console end as the camera moves into alignment at the other side of the platform), but he doesn't do well in heat. We've seen he can have a weaker mental attitude than his Captain and friend in the past - there's the story of how Archer saved his life when they were in zero-g, and wasn't there another story about saving him when they went diving together? And obviously the time when Trip was infected by the planet in 'Strange New World' and his mind was playing tricks, requiring Archer to talk him out of shooting T'Pol! It's not shameful that Trip should be shown to have problems coping with extremes, it's all part of the job, and though it doesn't make him look up to much it does allow Archer to demonstrate his own abilities and endurance, which is all to the good for a series where the impression can be that he's a bit soft compared to later Captains in the timeline. Episodes like these are good reminders that he was more than a starship Captain who was too easily pushed around and whose small ship often fared badly in battle.

I think also that it's a pleasure in the age of women being the rising stars of 'Discovery' to see a boys' day out with just the two of them going down to a planet (even if Archer does talk about an 'Away Mission' rather than a 'Landing Party'), at the invitation of the domineering Zobral (played by the great Clancy Brown, best known to me as The Kurgan in the original 'Highlander' film). Good casting makes a huge difference and getting someone from genre that hadn't been in Trek before was a great move. His stature and unique voice made him ideal as this leader of alien rebels/terrorists who are fighting against a society that promised equality for all after the casting off of the caste system, before reneging. He's not entirely trustworthy, as we find out, with the gift of, if not a silver tongue, then certainly a persuasive one, and who sees things very black and white. I was surprised that it was never mentioned that he probably put his own ship into disrepair just so the NX-01 would come along and rescue him and he could invite Archer to his planet, but although he admits that he heard about him from the Suliban Captain and wanted Archer to come and help his people with his powerful ship and battle strategies, we never hear that he forced the meeting in their path. Still, he's shown to be much less of a genial and generous host than he likes to pretend when, upon reaching Enterprise he claims their people aren't his responsibility!

Although T'Pol does raise her voice a few times in the episode, which I didn't like, preferring it when Vulcans retain their assured and calm demeanour, especially in the face of adversity, a trait I greatly admire, she also proves more than equal to the task of being in command in the Captain's absence: she finds the representative of the government in the bureaucratic Chancellor Trelit to be completely unsympathetic to the plight of her Captain and Chief Engineer, to the extent his bad humour and suspicious nature believes them to be assisting the rebels and there's little she can do in that avenue, but when Zobral shows up and proves unhelpful she quickly applies moral pressure to him, even getting him to come along on the rescue mission, which was impressive considering he was such a stubborn and singleminded individual! One thing I don't understand is why Mayweather wasn't piloting the Shuttlepod! He's supposed to be a great pilot and yet Reed fills the role. It could be put down to the fact that T'Pol was leading and with Zobral along there wasn't room for both Tactical Officer and pilot, but I don't recall seeing Travis at all (just as Phlox also goes unseen), which is a missing piece in this case as Travis should always be the go-to guy when it comes to tricky flying, even if Reed was necessary for a potential combat situation.

I quite like the fact that the episode doesn't require any B-plots, the closest they get being the few scenes with T'Pol in command on the Enterprise. It's not always necessary to have a secondary layer of story to cut to, although perhaps that's what was happening: Mayweather had caught some alien disease and Dr. Phlox was treating him, but we just never saw it! That would have made some sense, and they could have simply mentioned this was happening. At least Hoshi had a meaningful point to make when she asks T'Pol why the Vulcans chose Bozeman, Montana as the sight of first contact with the people of Earth. It's a good question, even if the answer is obvious: because it was the home town of film co-writer Brannon Braga, of course! Okay, so that's the real-world production reason, but T'Pol's answer is that this was where the first warp flight originated, but as Hoshi says, it could have been seen as a slight on the other world nations of the time. This is something that's never been explored, mainly because you'd have to tie down too much canon which is something the writers never liked to do in favour of leaving as much open for future writers as possible (even if the current crop tend to throw canon back in the faces of their forebears as if they can't be bothered with all that 'constraint'!). We don't really know what countries existed at the end of World War III and its best to leave that all a mystery, though if Trek goes on for about another thirty years (if it hasn't been run into the ground by the current administration's inability to make it properly!), canon will catch up with real life!

The point of this conversation is to show that Starfleet needs its own rules on how to operate in the unknown galaxy at large - you'd think they'd have already come up with some basic forms before sending out the Enterprise and they must have had other starships before it, even if they weren't as fast (the Franklin, for example, that little knot of canon conundrum from 'Star Trek Beyond' that did as much harm as good in adding texture to early Starfleet space exploration!), so you'd think some of these issues would have cropped up before. But be that as it may, this is another episode that hints at the coming of the Prime Directive, General Order One. I don't think it ever actually came into being during 'Enterprise' (that could have been one of the overarching themes of the series, along with the Temporal Cold War and the Founding of the Federation, if only the series had lasted a few more years), but Archer is certainly in agreement with T'Pol at the end when they discuss non-interference in alien wars, even if he makes the addendum that Zobral's cause seemed just. So it seems that although the principle of not getting involved was right in this case, he wasn't quite ready to ignore his own sense of justice given the right circumstances. In this case he was manipulated into a position where he could have had a decisive effect on the course of that planet's society, but it was in false expectations of his expertise and he wasn't going to drop his mission of exploration to fight someone else's war, no matter how just, in the same way he wasn't going to dedicate the next few years to finding a cure for the dominant race on Valakis in 'Dear Doctor.'

Although the Prime Directive, diplomacy and the sensitivities of galactic relations are only on the fringe of the episode in preference for a tale of survival (which reminded me of O'Brien and Bashir in 'Armageddon Game' - both on the run from authorities that want them dead, both hole up in a bunker, both feature one of them dying…), which the series tended to prefer, I'm glad that these issues are present. They could have done with being a little more present, perhaps cut to more discussion instead of so much time of Archer trying to keep Trip's mind active (I found it quite funny when he asks him to break down the warp engine and Trip, obsessed with his hunger, starts talking about the different parts of a chicken!), especially as it would have been enlightening to hear more about what the Vulcan High Command sets out as its own rules on dealing with planetary conflict, which T'Pol briefly mentions when she says Archer will have to create his own (governments and not starship Captains need to make the decision, she thinks). But even though the action is more important to the series than the ideas, it is presented with such high production values that it remains an attractive and engaging story with both the glaring light of day and the exciting exit from the blasted camp at night, fire all about as Archer and Trip make their escape into the desert. I don't think we'd seen the NX-01 desert gear before, but that looked really good, and we get another first for Trek: Archer says he found a new use for the stun setting of his Phase Pistol (lighting a fire), though sadly we never saw it happen.

Talking of Phasers, we see the Shuttlepod fire bolts instead of beams in the rescue mission, which always annoys me, more because although I know they can do both, in Trek made after this series (or during - 'Nemesis' did it, too), they always use bolts and not beams, and in the same way as I want my Vulcans to be measured and unemotional, this is another of my major bugbears of Trek made in the 21st Century! At least during 'Enterprise' they still mostly had beams, and they also had thought: the reason Archer knows where to go when they're in the desert is because he kept his survival training in mind - always have an awareness of your surroundings when flying into a location. He was a lot more careful and conscientious than Trip who never even thought about it and would have died if not for his Captain being there to guide him! It shows the difference between careful thought and planning as opposed to lazily just winging it which is how Starfleet officers are far too often portrayed in modern Trek. It's a real shame because the qualities of the characters are one of the great draws when so much recent Trek is merely superficial and doesn't give sufficient thought to such things, preferring magical fantasy solutions and contrivances instead of the less 'cool,' but more realistic nuts and bolts of training and improvement through both mental and physical training (leaving aside Ensign Tilly's jogging!). Another thing I like is the crew back on the ship running through their options for saving their crew-mates: they can't use the Transporter because they can't localise the bio-signs, they can't send a shuttle in the midst of an assault…

These things need to be addressed and not just left to imagination, and it is that attention to detail and the other positives I mentioned that once again remind why Trek is so good in the face of current Trek making me lose heart in the franchise's future. I always liked this episode - it has good music, good boy's own adventure, good location shooting, a good guest star and a good moral issue, all tidily jammed into the space of a single episode, touching upon events that had happened earlier and subtly hinting at things still to come in the last two episodes of what has been a strong first season that could claim to be the strongest Trek ever made. It doesn't matter to me that the aliens are very under-designed, almost not designed at all, you might say, with only a chin tattoo to mark them out as different. But the amount of difference between humans and aliens wasn't really that important and not every race they encounter has to be an elaborate forehead or head-piece. The important thing was creating a culture, something else that seems to be missing from modern Trek which isn't much concerned with the kind of details Trek always used to be concerned with. Exploring a culture, even for the space of one episode, and a race we'd never see again, adds richness and depth to the Trek landscape. If they'd concentrated on an elaborate alien design, but left out the cultural details then it would have come across as generic sci-fi, which is what Trek has become with 'DSC,' and I'm so thankful that I had this to go back to and examine, to remind myself why Trek worked in the past, and reassure me that perhaps one day we'll see the like again.

Points of interest: you can see lines down the dunes that appear to be tracks of some kind - since we only saw hover ships such as Zobral's shuttle this must be a production gaffe. Either that or the Torothans enjoy cycling or biking across the desert! I thought I recognised the chair of Chancellor Trelit, and according to Memory Alpha it was one of the Briefing Room chairs from 'Voyager'! Speaking of, Lt. Ayala himself, Tarik Ergin, was also apparently one of the Geskana players, which is fun to realise. It was a small guest cast (credited, anyway, Ergin was one of the uncredited), but Trelit actor Charles Dennis had also been Sunad in 'TNG' episode 'Transfigurations.'

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