monkee reviews 'Twilight'
First Impression: Wow!
Was it an ultimately pointless episode because it never really happened? Maybe. Was it entirely implausible? Of course. Would the Vulcan Science Directorate approve of this story? They would not. Do I care? I DO NOT. You know why? Because it rocked, that's why! It was a huge, epic story. It unfolded like a novel. It had drama, pain, angst, romance, and suspense. The special effects were top-notch. The acting was outstanding. This monkee enjoyed every single minute of it!
And may the Great Bird have mercy on my soul – I think it might have turned me into an Archer/T'Pol 'shipper. And I really ought to know better by now! I mean, I really, REALLY ought to know better by now. Dammit!
Summary: Well, you know you're in for a wild ride when the Captain arrives on the bridge in his underwear and Earth is BLOWN UP in the first two minutes! That was the teaser, in medias res. The next time we see Archer, after commercial break, he's awakening in a shelter on a planet somewhere, and he's significantly older. A kinder, gentler T'Pol with long hair is bustling about in the kitchen, preparing breakfast. When she spots him, she begins what is obviously a daily ritual, bringing him up to speed with the past. She tells him that twelve years ago, he was hit by an anomaly that, con-veeeee-niently enough, planted a parasite in his brain which rendered him unable to form new long-term memories. This meant that every time he woke up, or even every few hours or so, he'd forgotten what happened since the accident.
Shortly thereafter, Starfleet gave her a field commission, and command of Enterprise. They continued with their mission – to locate the Xindi, and stop production of the weapon – but it didn't go well. After a Xindi ambush slowed them down substantially, they were unable to keep up. They reached the place where the weapon was being made, but it had already been deployed. Earth was destroyed. The Xindi appeared to be set on complete genocide, because they also destroyed Mars, and every other human colony they could find. Only mere thousands of humans remained, and they headed out in convoys to find a remote spot where the Xindi wouldn't be able to locate them. The convoy led by Enterprise was the only one that made it. The planet they colonized was a harsh little place called Ceti Alpha V.
Once they arrived there, T'Pol resigned as Captain, opting to stay on Ceti Alpha with Archer. She felt compelled by guilt (he was injured while rescuing her), friendship, and perhaps something more. As T'Pol sits in the shelter, telling this tale to Archer, twelve years have passed since the accident, and about ten years since Earth's destruction. She's relaying the story with extra care on this day, however, because Phlox is on his way. He thinks he has found a way to destroy the parasite. The procedure requires a warp core, which will be provided by Enterprise, itself, still patrolling the sector under the command of Trip Tucker.
Onboard Enterprise, the first stage of the procedure is successful. Phlox and T'Pol also discover that the parasite, which 'exists outside the normal space-time continuum,' is also not appearing on past scans of Archer's brain. They conclude that destroying the entire parasite may alter the course of history, and set the timeline back to the time of the original accident. They don't get a chance to try, though. Apparently, the Xindi were having Phlox watched by a Yridian, so now they know where the humans are hiding. They attack the ship, then board it. The bridge is destroyed, and the bridge crew along with it. In engineering, unable to complete the medical procedure, Phlox, T'Pol and Archer move to plan B. The parasite will be destroyed in an anti-matter explosion. Phlox and T'Pol are both killed by Xindi weapons fire, and Archer dies, too, but not before he blows up the ship.
It works. Archer wakes up back in sickbay after the accident, with only a mild concussion. No one remembers anything of the alternate timeline. T'Pol gives him a copy of 'Rosemary's Baby,' the movie-night film that he'd invited her to earlier, then, at his request, gives him an extra pillow and dims the lights. He tells her that she'd make a wonderful nurse.
Okay. With that out of the way, let's proceed with...
monkee's 'Twilight' Gush Fest! (monkee cracks her knuckles and takes a deep breath) I'll go ahead and say it again. Wow! This story was wonderful in its own right, and unique, but it contained elements from MANY of my favorite Star Trek episodes of all time. Let's take a look...
So, there you have it. As far as I'm concerned, this episode contained some of the best ever Trek elements, from all the series (even TOS, though I didn't explore any of those here). And I'm sure I missed some, too!
But let's move on...
Clever Continuity: Ceti Alpha V, of course, is where Kirk will abandon Khan and his followers a hundred years hence. I just love it when they toss this stuff in, just to make fans happy! The Yridians, interstellar dealers of information, have been seen and mentioned before, too. It was a Yridian, Jaglom Shrek, who told Worf that his father might be alive, in TNG's Redemption (and it's worth pointing out that James 'Zefram Cochrane' Cromwell played him). I love it that 'General Shran' is the one who provided Enterprise with real shields in the future timeline. But the award for 'delightfully sickest use of continuity in a Star Trek episode' goes to Archer's Zefram Cochrane statuette, here used as a dagger to kill a Xindi intruder! Ewwww!
Future Tense: It's always fun to see future versions of the characters. We only saw them for a short time, but all of the actors did a good job of portraying the older, sadder and wiser crewmembers. They all seemed war-weary, but tough. And I liked Reed with a beard!
Two-Dimensional Xindi: I'm not complaining, because one episode can't do everything, but the Xindi were nothing more than stock villains here. The episode didn't delve into their possible motivations at all – they were just bad to the bone, and relentlessly driven to destroy humanity. I will say one thing, though – the final version of the weapon was one scary-looking sucker! I wonder if there will be a Xindi-Borg connection...
PORTHOS! The fearless space pup makes a token appearance. If you think about it, Porthos was probably the only living thing completely undaunted by Archer's affliction. Kinda gives a whole new meaning to 'man's best friend,' doesn't it? Sniff.
Captain T'Pol: The mission failed, but I don't think she could have done anything differently. I thought she rocked in command. I loved the way she sheared the one Xindi ship off Enterprise's hull by scraping it up against the other Xindi ship. She kind of reminded me of Janeway in 'Scientific Method.' Reckless is an understatement, but what choice did she have? And she looked GREAT in a real uniform. From my perspective, losing the catsuit would be no loss at all. But then, I'm not a twenty year-old male, so what do I know?
Nurse T'Pol: I've seen a lot of very interesting debate on this subject online. As far as I'm concerned, though, T'Pol made the decision to stay with Archer, and didn't seem to consider it that big a sacrifice. Perhaps she didn't want to return to Vulcan because she'd become disillusioned with them, and disliked what they did, and didn't do, for humanity. And whether friendship or love was her motivation, she sincerely wished to help Archer. I'm sure she's come to respect and admire him, and probably considered being his caretaker a noble and worthwhile task. Which it was! The final scene in the episode grated a bit, when Archer requested an extra pillow and told her she'd 'make a wonderful nurse,' but maybe he was just having a little fun with her.
Bakula and Blalock: Outstanding acting from both of them! I've never liked Bakula more! He conveyed Archer's frustration, then anguish, perfectly. Blalock's work was subtler, because, after all, she's playing a Vulcan. But she did a beautiful job with T'Pol's muted emotions – despair, sorrow, affection. And together...the chemistry...well, more on that later.
Character Interactions: Archer and T'Pol's scenes were the big standouts this week, both in the altered timeline and the 'real' one, but again, more on that later. I also enjoyed all of Phlox's scenes – he was compassionate with Archer, and a good friend to T'Pol. I was pleased to see Trip make such a big effort to keep Archer up to speed. And you know, I enjoyed seeing Soval again. I've only just noticed that he's kind of an attractive guy – maybe his antipathy towards Archer is, in part, due to T'Pol's obvious attachment to him. In any case, I enjoyed his scenes this week more than I normally do.
'shipper Watch: I've said over and over again that I don't want to see Archer and T'Pol romantically involved. And I suppose, if you put a phase pistol to my head, I'd have to admit that I still think it's a bad idea. On paper. But, but, but...I think this episode may have made me a convert. They had some serious chemistry going this week. Not the forced 'oh look, T'Pol's breasts are in Archer's face' kind of chemistry, but the 'these are two people who genuinely care about each other and it shows in their every interaction and isn't that NICE' kind of chemistry. To think of the two of them, going through that ordeal every day for a decade down on that planet...Like Archer, I have to wonder just exactly how far the relationship evolved, but I'm glad we don't know for sure. I like to think that, maybe, a few times, at least...
Regardless of what actually happened between them, there was plenty for the 'shipper to chew on. She was so gentle with him, and she called him Jonathan. And when he'd had enough time to assimilate everything she was telling him, he showed concern for her, too. And when Archer died, he was, appropriately enough, slumped over T'Pol's body. Sniff.
The writers don't have to pursue this any farther, really, although after this, I might not complain so much if they did. It was just nice to see some affection between them this once – to know that it's sort of lurking there, in subtext, and in alternate timelines. And not all of it was outside of reality, either. One of my favorite moments in the episode was the subtly stricken look on T'Pol's face when she's unable to pull Archer out of the path of the anomaly he's just pushed her away from.
To be fair, I have to report that there was a bit of grist for the Trip/T'Pol mill, too. There's some nice tension between them when she's in command and things aren't going well. Trip is frustrated and takes it out on her, but she refuses to stand there and take it. And later, he shows friendly support and sympathy for her, when she decides to resign her commission and stay with Archer.
Archer Watch: I'm liking Archer more and more as the season progresses, which is good. I want to like him! I like that he's starting to show more balance in his dealings with the Xindi, as we saw in 'The Shipment.' In 'Twilight,' we get a good look at just how personal this mission is to him, and how devastated he would be if it were to fail. And whether it turns out to be romantic or not, I like the rapport he's developing with T'Pol. Even in real time, he was still trying to drag her out to movie night, and even teasing her a little bit, the way Kirk always teased Spock.
Best Lines:
"Jonathan, please sit down. I promise I'll answer all your questions. Today is a very important day; I have a lot to tell you." (T'Pol, to Archer)
"You have to get out of here!" "I'm not leaving you!" (T'Pol and Archer. Awwww...)
"How do you feel?" "Like a shuttlepod just landed on my head." (Phlox and Archer. Twice.)
"Captain, I never did express my gratitude for what you did." "I suppose there's not much point in thanking me. A few hours from now, I won't remember." (T'Pol and Archer)
"Since the Captain got sick, this mission's taken one wrong turn after another." "If you believe I've acted improperly, I suggest you contact Admiral Forrest." (angry Trip and not-taking-any-flack T'Pol)
"That uniform doesn't suit you, Captain." "I doubt you came all this way to criticize my attire." (Soval and T'Pol)
"I won't leave them." "Them, or him?" (T'Pol and Soval)
"Our relationship has evolved over the years." "Exactly how...far...has it evolved?" (T'Pol and Archer. We don't get to hear her response.)
"Captain Tucker. I don't think you need to call me 'sir'." "Old habits..." (Archer and Trip)
"It couldn't have been easy for you, telling me the same story over and over again for twelve years." (Archer, to T'Pol)
"I hope I've told you this before, but I'm very grateful for all you've done for me. If this works..." (Archer, to T'Pol, but they're interrupted by that pesky Denobulan!)
"I can only imagine what it must have been like – spending all those years in that house learning so much about him, yet he remembers nothing about you beyond the day he got ill. If we're successful, perhaps things will be different." (Phlox, to T'Pol)
"You could have been seriously injured. I told you to leave me behind." (T'Pol, to Archer)
"Fortunately, I don't take orders from you." (Archer, to T'Pol. Twice.)
Loose Ends: The episode is not perfect. The magic time-trippin' parasites are a REAL stretch, but I'm not going to sweat the details on that. I also wish they'd had time to explore some other options and treatments for Archer. I'd be interested to know exactly what the Vulcans could have done for him. But all in all, I enjoyed the episode too much to quibble.
Rating: 10/10. This one really made an impact on me. It's right up there with 'Carbon Creek' as the best of Enterprise so far.
Next Week: The Enterprise WESTERN! God bless November sweeps! A Western! How cool is that? It looks like it will be a refreshing change of tone. I already love the Trip and T'Pol horse riding scene! Stay tuned!
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