Shuttlepod One (2)

DVD, Enterprise S1 (Shuttlepod One) (2)

Two men adrift in the vastness of space. That's essentially the situation, although technically they aren't adrift until near the end when we get to see the engine module ejected from the Shuttlepod, but they may as well have been for all the good impulse power was going to do them - I liked the analogy of snails and turtles (or was it a tortoise), and the impression of how long it takes to travel in the huge emptiness of space if you don't have warp drive, which was made clear. I've always respected this episode, though now I don't think it was quite as strong as I used to. Thing is, and I've come to understand this for a long time now, Trek is generally at its best when it stays true to its intellectual side, the side that was forced to blossom in the days when special effects were hyper-expensive and creative solutions had to be found, stemming from ideas and interpersonal dynamics. In other words Trek episodes are stage plays, and this can be no more evident than in stories in which a couple of characters are stuck together talking in a room for the duration, whether that be puzzling out a solution to survival, making peace with death or past actions, or getting to the bottom of a mystery. I think of episodes such as 'Duet' or 'The Visitor' on 'DS9,' 'The Inner Light' on 'TNG,' and probably some on 'Voyager' that don't immediately spring to mind! You could also add to that 'Starship Down' in which various crewmembers are stuck together in parts of a 'sinking' ship, or 'The Ascent' in which Odo and Quark battle to survive on a hostile planet.

Malcolm Reed and Charles Tucker III aren't Odo and Quark, however. They aren't O'Brien and Bashir. They aren't even Harry Kim and Tom Paris in terms of being great mates. In some ways that affords them the chance to open up a bit and for us to learn a bit more about them, but I think it also highlights a weakness of the series: that it was stripped down and primarily about Captain, First Officer and Chief Engineer. I'm glad this episode exists, and I applaud them for experimenting, but it's a rarity for the series, and that's because, although they did carry the essence of the 24th Century series' in their DNA (Hoshi spending an episode trying to work out Reed's favourite food springs to mind!), they didn't carry enough development through in regard to the characters and their intertwining lives and experiences serving together. There were issues, like T'Pol and her drug dependency in Season 3, but one reason the series never flew high for me, and why (until 'Discovery'), I always considered it the weakest in the franchise, was because they didn't build up steam and form deep friendships, fully exploring the characters, playing up the richness of the galaxy by delving into alien races, and preferring in general to bounce around from planet to planet. Look at some of the races they brought back that hadn't been seen and barely even referenced since 'TOS': Tholians, Tellarites, Andorians, Coridanites, Axanar, Orions, Gorn… But how much did we really learn about these races? They could have played up the galactic politics as I was noting last episode, but preferred to keep things simple for the most part.

This kind of episode just wasn't best suited to a series that favoured fights and action over character studies and personal stories, but for that reason it's a novelty in the series. I'm not saying there was no development for the characters, and certainly in, or by, Season 4 they were achieving much more, and I'm certain that had Season 5 gone ahead it would likely have been the best and most satisfying of all, perhaps followed by an almost as good Season 6, and a mildly disappointing Season 7 (if it followed the pattern of most Trek series'!). But I remember a similar episode in Season 4 when Reed and Trip were once again trapped on a small vessel and had a real rapport of friendship, plus that episode (and the trilogy it was part of), were much more dynamic and meaningful to the bigger picture. 'Shuttlepod One' didn't have the advantage of three seasons of character interactions, and it's much more like 'DS9' Season 2 story 'Armageddon Game,' in which Bashir and O'Brien are trapped together while escaping alien authorities that want to kill them, and find common ground where before they were chalk and cheese. It's not quite the same thing here, just that we learn what makes Reed and Trip tick, just as they're finding out about each other. And we do get a good sense of who they are, although I'd argue we already knew their characters very well since the opening episodes were so effective at setting up the cast.

It's just that after this episode I don't have memories of a great friendship coming out of it, and as I say, that time they were stuck in the Romulan drone ship is about the only thing that stands out about their camaraderie, where this episode seemed to promise more for the future. In the same way as Hoshi's efforts to discover Reed's favourite food in 'Silent Enemy,' and his confusion over why she was being so friendly could have created a bond of friendship between them, but didn't particularly, I get the impression that whenever they threw together a couple of the characters into a situation (like Reed, Hoshi and T'Pol in 'Sleeping Dogs'), it didn't really have anything developing from a previous level of understanding between them, or particularly lead to it subsequently in future episodes. At the same time they were doing things to apparently set up characters like Archer and T'Pol, and they succeeded in the sense that he has come to appreciate her so much and she understands her own need to stay on the ship, but such depth was few and far between for the characters. Reed mentions how young Travis and Hoshi were when he thinks they perished with the whole crew on seeing wreckage from the NX-01, and though individually we saw signs of their inexperience or youthful enthusiasm we could have had many scenes between the pair of them, especially as they manned neighbouring stations on the Bridge, yet the ball was dropped and they in particular were incredibly shortchanged as characters.

Reed was one of the middling characters in terms of how much he featured and how many stories he played a role in, and Trip was one of the top three the writers gravitated towards, so it's not like they weren't served, as this episode demonstrates when they get to star in the first completely character-focused drama. Were there any others, though? There probably were, not quite in this vein, but even in Season 2 they continued to do the occasional episode that focused on a character, such as 'Vanishing Point' for Hoshi and 'Horizon' for Mayweather - funny that they should stand out in the mind when those characters were the least used, but then again that's probably why they stick out as they were novelties. This episode was almost entirely a two-hander with the rest of the cast getting little exposure, so much so that I wonder if the story would have been better served had the real reason for Enterprise debris been kept until the end so that viewers didn't know its fate. Instead, quite early on we find out they lost a Shuttle-bay door, lessening the tension significantly. Of course we know the ship hasn't been lost with all hands, unless it was some time related or dimensional twist that's set right at the end, but it's better to be wondering about such things. It would also have allowed the tension in the 'pod to rise quicker if we were trapped within it, rather like the 'Mission: Impossible' episode in Season 3 when Archer is on a 'pod with Degra. Instead they prefer to play it safe and reassure the audience the Enterprise is fine, it's all a mistake on Reed and Trip's part.

It does work in another sense, since the audience is in on the fact that the condemned men have lost hope from believing their ship to have been destroyed, and that really starts the process of emotional turmoil, Reed turning to maudlin 'letters' recorded to everyone he ever knew, while Trip's irritation escalates exponentially. There's a tragedy that these men don't know the truth and the tiny bubble they're trapped in, unable to gain further knowledge, only adds to their uncertainty over their own survival. Maybe it was better to contrast their extreme situation with the ordered calm and routine of the NX-01 going about its business, no one in any concern and yet at the same time Trip and Reed are becoming more and more desperate. We do get a sense of the personalities coming through raw, Trip preferring to keep an optimistic, hopeful mindset - they may not be able to get anywhere that's going to make any difference, but it's always possible an alien ship will run into them. Andorians, Vulcans, Xyrillians, even Klingons would be better than dying from suffocation alone. Reed is already planning his last will and testament and feels the need to spill his guts to all the ex-girlfriends he ever had, as well as his parents who, in a pleasing nod to continuity, he's surprised they never knew he was posted on the NX-01.

The solution they come up with for their predicament harks right back to the first season of 'TOS' - though the Shuttlepod isn't being searched for like a needle in a haystack as the Galileo was in 'The Galileo Seven,' Enterprise isn't in a hurry to get to them so they need to create a flare on the sensors, just as Spock used up the last of his Shuttlecraft's fuel in a desperate, last-ditch attempt to draw his Enterprise's attention, so they cast off their engine and blast it, in both cases saving their lives. It may even have been an homage except that Berman and Braga were well known for not being fond of 'TOS' so I don't know if that was their intention. Whether they knew their forebears well enough is another discussion, but they certainly knew how to write Trek and this is another well-written example of the sub-genre of modern Trek they largely created whether it's the questions we have at the start (how did they manage to lose both sensors and communications, yet the Shuttlepod is still flying around without any problems?), or later (why use a candle when you're trying to conserve oxygen?), which are answered eventually, to the whole ridiculous dream sequence with Reed imagining himself making T'Pol laugh by suggesting he change his name to 'Stinky.' It does go into some weird and wacky parody in that sequence, but it's acceptable because it's all in Reed's head. Then there's the almost as wacky solution to the tiny holes in the hull being temporarily plugged with mashed potato from one of their 'ready meals' Starfleet rations (the mechanics of which were of great interest in themselves - they pop these foil packs in a mini-oven, then it comes out as a ready meal in a tray!).

The best moment has to be when Trip decides the only way for one of them to survive is for him to go into the airlock and sacrifice himself for his friend, a true Trek selfless act. Of course Reed prevents him and they end up on the booze, sharing and shivering in the freezing cold until waking up in Sickbay. I do feel that because I don't have a strong memory of them going anywhere after this as characters, as opposed to mates like O'Brien and Bashir whose experiences gradually made them very close and best of friends in complete contrast to how they were when they first met, it lessens the impact of the episode. It should have been a launching point for them to be doing things together and this in turn would affect how they worked together, but instead they stayed pretty much the same, just as Trip and T'Pol's deepening connection might well have begun this season, but wasn't recognised and picked out until much, much later. Or Trip and Archer's established friendship was allowed to fade somewhat into the background when it could have been a unique bond between a Captain and his Engineer that we'd never seen before. At least the episode ends in the way that some of the great trying experiences have: with the two friends lying in Sickbay together as the camera pulls away - it's straight out of 'The Ascent,' and probably several other episodes, too, and I've always loved that style of ending.

I should mention that this may be the beginnings of Trek falling into the pop culture trap that has since engulfed the franchise and given us references to The Beatles and Elon Musk, things that are contemporary to us rather than nostalgic - I know The Beatles were from almost sixty years ago, but they're still popular and in the public consciousness. What I mean is that in past Treks they used to reference culture: opera, classical music from hundreds of years ago, classic books or poems and famous figures of history. They wouldn't have spoken about pop culture from thirty years ago (can you imagine Captain Kirk mentioning Flash Gordon, for example?). It gave you a sense of reality because we know these things have already stood the test of time and it's like they were playing up the intellectual quality of people from the future that they haven't forgotten physical books and the momentous achievements of composers. Yet now, with 'DSC' we get these pop culture references about nowadays, stroking the ego of people that like this stuff, saying that these are just as valid as the classical artistries of the past, and will be around far into the future, when in reality such tastes are fickle and always changing, and was probably one reason why Trek appeared to be somewhat countercultural before. That began to change with 'Voyager' I feel (though of course even 'DS9' had a 1950s lounge singer in Vic Fontaine!), with classic films being watched, continuing in 'Enterprise' with their film night, and now we get Trip talking of Superman! A giant leap too far, I think.

It's not snobbery to want Trek to stand apart and not get too bogged down in details that pertain to modern life as we know it, but it is the height of arrogance to assume the things we like today, the now, will be spoken of in Trek's idealised future. It could also be that I've grown older and comic book superheroes are ever less appealing all the time, especially as their bland films have become incredibly popular and successful to the point that Trek itself has tried to ape that style of storytelling to its great and obvious detriment! (And this is coming from someone who loves the first 'Spider-Man' film, from 2002, and the Christopher Nolan Batman trilogy!). One thing I do like when they're discussing history or cultural references is a reflection on historical figures yet to be: in this case it's Reed suggesting that the Vulcans would have been less reticent in helping humanity if Zefram Cochrane had been a European (and essentially British I think he means!), rather than the gung-ho North Americans they made first contact with! It's a great perspective (not least being an Englishman myself!), but it's also a little akin to Chekov saying everything was inwented in Muzza Wussia. Another tribute to 'TOS,' or just a coincidence? It's not quite the same thing as Reed wasn't being a revisionist, just sharing the perspective that European Cochrane would have been a better proposition, but as we have to concede, Zefram was who he was and Trek stands on his shoulders.

As a drama, and a novelty for this series, the episode stands apart as they did very few format-breaking types of stories, but as an instalment in a larger entity it doesn't really have any bearing on anything. The actors reportedly enjoyed the challenge, and it must have been one to do so many scenes with only dialogue to keep it going. One things's for sure, you'll never see an episode like this again in the current crop of superhero Trek serials, which is another reason to look upon it favourably, and I do in the context of itself on its own. At the same time I enjoy the connections and development of characters and a series and if this had led to greater heights, just as 'Cold Front' had the potential to set up all manner of greatness with the Temporal Cold War, I'd probably be thinking of it as one of the better episodes, important for what it began. But it didn't, and even with the excuse of the series being cut short in its prime, they still had many episodes in which to potentially expand on these bonds of friendship, and perhaps if they'd done a better job in that it might have gained more traction and survived.

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