Terra Nova (2)

DVD, Enterprise S1 (Terra Nova) (2)

Having a checklist of things to do on their explorations helps to keep the NX-01's mission relevant and lessen the impression of being on an aimless wander as it could be sometimes, so I was all for this story filling in some backstory, not just pre-Federation, but pre-22nd Century. So that would be the 21st Century then! Hey, that's our time! The expedition of the SS Conestoga (or is it Comestoga - it looked like an 'M' on the dusty bulkhead they used for habitation), took place, takes place, will take place in 2069 (no, I didn't work it out, I'm reading from the 'Star Trek Encyclopedia,' available from all good Replicators and highly recommended for those that care about in-universe history and canon - so 'Discovery' writers excluded, then…), and I love that we get some sense of not just early space travel, but the first such deep space travel. There is a bit of a question of why Earth never asked the Vulcans, with their more advanced warp ships (don't forget the colonists left in the same decade as Zefram Cochrane actually invented the warp drive for humanity so we were probably still going at Warp 1!), to check up on Terra Nova, but that is well answered during the episode, quite early, in fact, and shows that the writers actually thought about it. Remember when Trek was thoughtful and written by people who thought things through and wanted the audience to think? Seems a long time ago now, doesn't it.

The Vulcans being not such lovely people as we used to think they were (the crowning mistake of 'Enterprise,' but one I learnt to live with because I knew how cool the race becomes in a century, or well, maybe a couple of centuries - though I've not seen 'Picard' yet so maybe they'll be as objectionable even in the 24th Century in the Bad Trek Retcon Extravaganza that's been going on in the Fake Prime Universe), so in that context it makes sense that humans wouldn't want to involve them, especially as this was their first such attempt to make a new life outside of the Solar System. Human independence and pride, and the fact, as Trip says, that favours required too high a price are all good reasons why the colony was allowed to sink into obscurity and remain a mystery for the ages, but there's also the fact that relations between Earthers and Novans soured when the colonists selfishly didn't want to share what appeared to be a huge planet with anyone else. You'd think after all the pulling together after World War III that opinions would have differed, but then again maybe these people were desperate to separate themselves from a planet and people that had come close to imploding. And Earth wasn't in a hurry to check and see if they were doing okay once they effectively seceded or broke off and probably thought they were just being stuck up when there were no further communications.

The sense of history is strong with this one, Mayweather expressing an affinity with such colonists because of his space boomer status and understanding the desire to live off-world. I wouldn't say this was one of the most character-driven episodes, but it still shows how well they were integrating everyone when even Travis gets something meaningful to say or do. He's even allowed on the… I still didn't hear them say Landing Party! Anyway, he goes along and not just as a pilot, and this time it's Trip who's left behind and takes the Bridge. I would have liked a little more command scenes for him to see him in that position because it was always such a joy when someone like Scotty or Sulu were left in charge of the Bridge in 'TOS,' it adds more depth to the protocol-led reality, but there was no B-story this time, it was all concentrated around the Novans and their abandoned colony. The episode had quite a 'Miri' feel to it, the 'TOS' episode in which Kirk and company beam down to a seemingly abandoned settlement and eventually find out only the children are left alive - in this case it's the descendants of the children who were left alive, but it's the same sentiment and explains how they went from 21st Century techies to aborigines with mud plastered on their faces and crude face paint. The other thing that pointed my mind in the direction of 'Miri' (the episode I always consider to have been my first ever exposure to Trek), was finding the remains of a bicycle, because of course the big shock hits when they discover a tricycle in the old episode, so I wonder if it was a deliberate reference for the observant?

I love it when they beam down to a natural environment on Trek, it always adds so much to the realism, much more than the limited city sets they could build or the super-value of the caves that paid for themselves almost infinitely and would be so integral to this very episode. I think especially with the later series', 'DS9' onwards and those darker uniforms, they just look so good being out in natural light, and this dusty, empty town was no exception. But. But, but, but. I do remember thinking this was the first episode that wasn't quite up to the quality of what we'd seen so far on my original viewing. Aside from flashes of drama, or I should say, excitement, such as Reed chasing the native through the woods, or the action-packed exit from the caves when Archer and Reed have to escape the projectile weapons of the Novans (where were they getting their bullets from, I wonder?), it was a much talkier episode. That's not a bad thing, especially when in comparison to 'DSC' every Trek episode that actually feels like Trek (in other words, pretty much anything not 'DSC'), has suddenly come to seem so much more rewarding. I certainly found the quandary at the heart of the story to be of interest, a classic Trek tale of the Prime Directive, but somehow inverted because there isn't one yet and it's all about the question of whether to live in ignorance, fighting change, is better than forcible relocation for your own good.

No, it's none of these things that stopped it from excelling, that's purely down to less emphasis on the main characters and maybe too much time spent in the caves. But as I said, even though this was the first not to be working on all levels (and in retrospect I'd say that was just as true of 'Unexpected'), it's still good enough and I wouldn't mark it down. It features another Trek actor in Erick Avari as the main Novan (Jamin), whose Mother is sick, a recognisable face who had appeared in both 'TNG' and 'DS9' (Vedek Yarka is the role I always remember him for), and also in 'Stargate SG-1' as recurring character Kasuf. His role is to constantly play the sceptic and rebuff all Archer's attempts to show that we're both human, we're all one big happy family, and this, I would say, is the first we've seen the Captain get frustrated and angry, perplexed as he is about the people, first with himself for losing his Security Officer when Reed does his job and holds off the pursuers so his Captain can get away, and then when they realise what's happening to this colony and its future. Maybe it does look a little weak of Archer not to go back for Reed and pull him out through the hole in the wall, but Reed shouldn't have said he was fine, and Archer isn't really used to being shot at. You can imagine he's had a comfortable life on Earth, and even with all the preparation for combat and the nightmare scenarios the Vulcans probably laid out, coming under alien fire (correction: fellow human fire), must be a new experience and he was still trying to take in that the Novans had transformed into Gollum.

What works with Archer is that he strives to be diplomatic, reasoning that they looked as strange to the colonists as the colonists did to them, he doesn't lose his temper with the Novans, even with their wilful stubbornness and unwillingness to let go of a narrative of the past that is simply not true, blaming Earth for the 'poison rain' that irradiated the surface so long ago, killing off the adults and leaving the children to fend for themselves. I can imagine there would have been something of a 'Lord of The Flies' situation and a similar one to that of the children in 'Miri,' and that would be a story worth seeing in itself, but this is something much further along where all those children have grown old so they barely remember the true past and all they have are vague memories of resentment towards humans. We see a culture that has developed (or undeveloped really), that if it were alien you can imagine Archer might have let well alone and sealed their fate. Perhaps not, but there were no handy Holodecks to transport the natives unknowingly away to a safe place (as in 'Homeward'), or trick them into leaving (as in 'Insurrection'), and this lack of technology is one of the series' strong points and how it could differentiate it from Treks of yore. T'Pol makes the point that they have developed a culture here and to take them back to Earth to remove their ignorance would be too great a shock. It would be like taking 'The Flintstones' and putting them into the space age - oh, that would be 'The Jetsons'!

I didn't agree with T'Pol's acceptance of the culture as valid and something to preserve because they were living in ignorance, and though they do throw in that lovely moment when they play soothing panpipe music through the skulls of the 'Diggers,' rodents or armadillo-like creatures they relied on for meat (and probably one of the last ever practical effects for a creature in a Trek production), as about the only concession made to their lives having something beyond survival, it's not very optimistic. It's great how the writers thought through what this culture might have been, and though we only see parts of it, it is fascinating - using every part of the Diggers, skins, bones and meat; the face paint, the tools, yet still carrying the 21st Century hand weapons they arrived with (love how Reed knows the history of such things, much like a history buff now would have extensive knowledge of 17th Century firearms, for example). The continuation of 21st Century continuity is something that has permeated through Trek production and was something even 'DSC' got right when they did their extract recording of WWIII in Season 2: every time we've seen soldiers from that time they still use these projectile weapons that are also somehow more advanced than what we use now, and the sound they made when they fired in the cave was impressively futuristic while still fitting in with what we know already.

Even those trusty cave sets get yet another makeover, this time with trailing creepers and symbols painted on the walls, and an impressive well in which a Novan becomes trapped under a heavy tree trunk. It's the usual story of two differing people coming together to rescue someone else or solve a problem and finding common ground through trusting each other, and that's one thing I really did feel worked with the story: that trust wasn't immediate. Archer makes the attempts early on, bravely showing up without weapons and with only his Doctor to accompany him in order to get Reed back. He tries very hard to understand things from their point of view and puts himself out on a limb in order to create trust, but even though a modicum of this trust is accomplished, enough to persuade Jamin and Nadet to travel up to the 'sky ship' so her lung cancer can be treated, it's not enough to prevent Jamin from constantly disbelieving what he's told, always suspecting a trick. It's a beautiful moment when Nadet is shown a photo of herself sitting on her Mother's lap as a child, and remembering her name was Bernadette. The point is that Archer keeps trying, especially when it becomes understood that the water source is poisoned and they won't survive in that part of the planet for much longer, but they can't be removed either. It's sad that these humans won't be able to benefit from the advancements of their race, because even though they wanted to be cut off from their origins I doubt this is what the parents who died would have wanted for their children - to survive scrabbling around underground.

Of course it's not politically correct to suggest that one way of life is wrong and another right (probably better to suggest that all ways of life are wrong to some degree, but we all have to live in the system we're in and make the best of it), but that is the point of the Federation: that they've solved the problems and are now reaping the rewards with peace and plenty. Maybe that's one reason Trek can't really work in the world we're in now (maybe why Starfleet and the Federation so often come across as the bad guy in modern Trek), because Trek was essentially America going round the galaxy telling other countries how to live, but at the same time, though there are plenty of problems with Western civilisation, it generally comes off better than most areas of the world. It's just that absolute truth and absolute falsehood are being eroded as concepts so that you have to accept that some barbaric custom should be considered as 'right' because 'it's their culture.' Not that the Novans were barbaric (as far as we can tell), but they weren't able to enjoy the fullness of the planet they were inhabiting, and despite their creativeness coming out in cave paintings and skull music, they're still missing out on the opportunities of the NX-01 crew and those back home. The issue of people that don't want to believe something, won't, and fighting ignorance within that mindset is not really addressed, but Archer is able to gain the necessary trust by risking his life and not giving up on these people. In the end it's a fairly happy ending as they're able to transport all the Novans to a clean part of the planet, but it would have been an ideal story to come back to later, perhaps when time had allowed the reality of Earth and humans to sink in, and perhaps some of the 'tribe' might be curious to see where they came from?

I wouldn't have said Levar Burton directed with flair, but he does a good job. Maybe flair was needed to invest the cave set with greater artistic merit, but the environs of what is pretty much a stage play (as Trek mostly is and should be, rather than a big budget empty action serial), are fairly unimportant and the actors carry the can. If there had been more for certain characters to do, or a focus on a particular person, this might have flowed better, but I suppose this is an Archer episode, except because he's so central to every episode it's less noticeable in that regard and is more that everyone else just gets less to do! I think the Captain came off well, I think T'Pol continues to integrate well, and it's good that both Reed and Phlox get to do their specialities. There are plenty of new facts, or old facts reinforced, such as Utopia Planitia had been built on Mars before the colonists left for their nine year journey to Terra Nova (Archer made it sound like it was nine years to get there and another nine years for messages to be relayed back, but that can't be right because communications went back and forth, so there must have been relays that sped up comms). It was so very cool to see Archer cut through the tree trunk to rescue the crushed Novan, I always like it when we see Phasers used as the multipurpose tool they are, not just a weapon (much like the lightsaber, though Phasers are better!), I noticed the coloured computer disks that were similar to those used on 'TOS' (and 'DSC' - they got one tiny thing right, wahey!), and it's nice to see Mayweather join the usual trio at the Captain's table.

On that occasion he mentions other Earth mysteries, including Amelia Earhart, a fun reference considering in 'Voyager,' two hundred years later, they located her in the Delta Quadrant! He also says in the episode that he'd promised his Dad that one day he'd see Terra Nova, a good mention since his Father would be dead the following season. A shame the DVD resolution isn't quite sharp enough to be able to read the bios Travis brings up of the colonists (maybe the Blu-Ray allows it?), but I could see that some of them were born in 2002, which puts things in perspective! Perspective is very important, as is adding to the history, another reason I feel this was a worthwhile entry in the season. Berman and Braga may have been running out of steam slightly, but I prefer to see this episode as a change of pace, a different kind of tale to the dramatic, visceral adventures they'd had before, and they clearly weren't done with great ideas judging by the next episode, one of the best of the series. Since there's so much retconning going on to try and get Trek to fit with the advances in tech in our own world, I wonder if in another thirty of forty years they'll be rewriting Trek canon to say that everything needs to be pushed forward by a hundred years. If Trek survives that far into the future I wouldn't be surprised, but it's not something I'll need to worry about because I probably won't be around then, and if I am, I doubt I'll be that bothered. For now, I love the sense of history uncovered, and that they were still being true to Trek so that it all feels part of the same timeline, something that cannot be said for productions after this series.

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