“Vox Sola”
Written by Rick Berman & Brannon Braga and Fred Dekker
Directed by Roxann Dawson
Season 1, Episode 22
Production episode 022
Original air date: May 1, 2002
Date: unknown
Captain’s star log. Enterprise’s first contact with the Kreetassans goes very poorly. Sato is having trouble with their language, and she thinks they said they eat like they mate, which confuses the crew. The Kreetassans leave in a huff. As the umbilical separates their ship from Enterprise, a lifeform makes its way onto Enterprise undetected.
Archer is bummed out about the blown first contact. Tucker cheers him up with a video of the water polo match between Stanford and Texas, which cheers him right up, Tucker gamely trying to follow along, as he’s no kind of water polo fan…
Sato is also bummed, and T’Pol’s urging for her to work harder so her next first contact is more successful doesn’t really make her feel any better.
Buy the Book
The City Inside
It’s movie night and they’re showing The Wages of Fear. Mayweather talks Reed into attending by telling him there are explosions.
In engineering, Rostov and Kelly are finishing up some stuff before going to see the movie. However, there’s a power failure in a cargo bay, and Kelly sends Rostov to check it out. Rostov arrives to a darkened cargo bay, and contacts Kelly—but then he’s grabbed by the alien before he can say anything. Kelly, confused by the silent communication, goes to investigate herself.
Instead of The Wages of Fear, the folks attending movie night are treated to security footage from various parts of the ship. Reed tells the bridge that they should fix it. Meantime, Kelly contacts Archer, and as she’s reporting about what happened in the cargo bay, she too is snagged by the alien.
Archer and Tucker immediately contact Reed, and they meet with him and Zabel, one of the security guards, at the cargo bay. Phase pistols prove ineffective against the alien, and Archer, Tucker, and Zabel are also snagged, but Reed manages to escape. He closes the cargo bay door on one of the creature’s tendrils, which is broken off.
Phlox studies the tendril, and he comes up with a solution: the creature seems to be sensitive to EM radiation. T’Pol orders an EM burst, which proves ineffective, as the harm it does to the creature is transmitted to its prisoners, and after several seconds of Archer and the rest screaming their lungs out, they disengage.
Sato has another idea: the creature’s emissions seem to be mathematical—maybe it’s a language. She gets to work on trying to decipher it. Meanwhile, Mayweather is charged with tracking the Kreetassans down—perhaps they’re familiar with this alien.
In the cargo bay, Kelly and Zabel are unconscious. Archer tries to buck Rostov up. After a time, Tucker, Archer, and Rostov start to feel their thoughts commingling with each other.
Reed has been working on a prototype force field, and T’Pol authorizes him to get it ready. Sato continues to work on the language, but is frustrated—eventually, she swallows her pride and asks T’Pol for help.
Mayweather finally tracks down the Kreetassans. In the interim, they have studied the database Enterprise provided, and now can speak perfect English. Sure. They explain why they were offended: humans (and Vulcans and Denobulans) eat in public. To a Kreetassan, that’s just gross. Mayweather very humbly apologizes on behalf of the crew. The Kreetassan captain accepts the apology and provides Mayweather with the coordinates for the alien’s homeworld.
Phlox is concerned by the lifesign readings he’s getting from the cargo bay. He believes that, if things keep going as they are, there will be only one lifeform in the cargo bay instead of the six currently there, as Archer and the rest will be wholly absorbed into the alien being.
Sato and T’Pol have managed to work out what they think is the alien’s language. Reed sets up his force field, and Sato attempts to tell them that they need their crewmates free. The alien responds with coordinates—latitude and longitude. Sato says that they are already proceeding to their homeworld, using the coordinates the Kreetassans provided.
The alien lets Archer, Tucker, Zabel, Kelly, and Rostov go. They arrive at the alien’s planet and take a shuttlepod down, releasing the alien into an area that is filled with the alien—which Phlox says is a single lifeform, with which this bit of the alien is reunited, and which covers pretty much the entire planet.
Can’t we just reverse the polarity? The alien is allergic to EM radiation, which is odd, since that stuff’s everywhere. Then again, maybe that’s why it’s trying to get home so desperately…
The gazelle speech. Archer is a big honking fangoober of water polo, just in case we forgot he was a white guy…
I’ve been trained to tolerate offensive situations. T’Pol is in charge for most of the episode while Archer is captured, and she comports herself quite well, exploring multiple options and working with Sato on the most compassionate of those options.
Florida Man. Florida Man Sucks Up To His Captain With Water Polo Recording.
Optimism, Captain! Phlox gets Reed to slow his roll when it comes to testing his force field on the alien sample in sickbay, as he’s unwilling to torture what might be a sentient being. Reed tries to pull rank, but Phlox pulls it right back, as it’s his sickbay, and only the captain—who’s indisposed—can counter the doctor’s authority there.
Good boy, Porthos! Porthos is the first to detect the alien, but being a dog, is unable to communicate this to the rest of the crew.
More on this later… Reed says that Earth scientists have been working on a force field (or, rather, a “stable EM barrier”), and Reed himself has a working prototype he’s been working on. These force fields are commonplace by the twenty-third century, as seen in the original series and all the other spinoffs so far.
I’ve got faith…
“You don’t think I belong on Enterprise, do you?”
“On the contrary—it would be a great loss to Starfleet if you were not a part of this crew. If you feel I’ve been unfair to you, I apologize. But I hold you to a high standard, Ensign, because I know you’re capable of achieving it.”
–Sato thinking that T’Pol is being mean to her and T’Pol showing that it’s the exact opposite.
Welcome aboard. Vaughn Armstrong shows up again as the Kreetassan captain, having already played a Klingon in “Sleeping Dogs” and having the recurring role of Forrest, not to mention his eight previous roles on TNG, DS9, and Voyager. He’ll be back as a Kreetassan in “A Night in Sickbay,” though it’s not at all clear if that’s the same Kreetassan as in this episode.
Joseph Will and Renee E. Goldsberry play Rostov and Kelly, respectively. Will previously appeared in Voyager’s “Muse” and “Workforce, Part II,” and was a finalist for the role of Tucker. Rostov will return, played by Will, in “Two Days and Two Nights.”
Trivial matters: This episode is the first time that T’Pol is explicitly stated to be the first officer of the ship—she’s always only been referred to as the science officer, though she has also clearly been second-in-command since “Broken Bow.”
The original title of this episode was “The Needs of the One,” before they decided to go all Latin on us.
While this is Kelly’s only appearance onscreen, she also appears in regular rewatch commenter Christopher L. Bennett’s Rise of the Federation novels. Bennett also retroactively established that Onna Karapledeez, mentioned as a prominent Starfleet officer who died under mysterious circumstances in TNG’s “Conspiracy,” was Kreetassan in his Lost Era novel The Buried Age.
It’s been a long road… “As soon as you give up, the game’s lost.” This is a good, solid science fiction story, and also does a very nice job with the characters.
We start with Tucker cheering Archer up with footage of a water polo match, with some fun west-coast-vs.-the-south friendly rivalry between Archer (rooting for Stanford) and Tucker (rooting for Texas). I particularly like how hard Archer and Sato in particular take the failed first contact with the Kreetassans.
It’s also a successful first contact with the alien creature, for all that it takes five kidnappings and some weapons fire to get there. I like that T’Pol keeps her options open, letting Reed try to find some way to combat the alien while Sato tries diplomacy. And I especially like getting to know more of the crew. The friendly banter between Kelly and Rostov is fun, and I wish we got to see more of Kelly, though at least Rostov comes back. But this is the sort of thing we should’ve seen more of, especially since this is the only Earth ship out here, and everyone’s on this important mission.
Plus all the main characters get something to do. While Archer and Tucker are indisposed for most of the episode, they still get some fun bonding moments, both over the water polo game and while captured. T’Pol does brilliantly in charge, as expected, and Sato gets to realize how much she’s actually appreciated by the taciturn Vulcan who gives her a hard time, not because she’s a hardass, but because Sato has proven that expecting greatness from her is not unreasonable.
Plus Reed gets to be all violent and stuff, Phlox gets to remind Reed that it’s his sickbay, thank you very much, and Mayweather gets to sincerely apologize on behalf of the entire crew for their eating in public. And Porthos is the first to detect the aliens, because dogs are awesome.
In general, what’s particularly strong about this episode is that it gives us two genuinely alien aliens. The Kreetassans are the more typical Trek aliens—humans slathered in latex and with one or two weird traits to make them stand out and cause problems—while the alien invaders to the ship are genuinely other. But the crew is still devoted to the still-very-nascent-at-this-point future-Federation ideal of compassion over violence, diplomacy over warfare, talking over fighting. And in the end, everyone lives and the aliens get to go home.
Warp factor rating: 8
Keith R.A. DeCandido is celebrating his 53rd birthday today. Please wish him a happy birthday in the comments and let him know that people actually read the bio…
Happy birthday, Keith!
Skipped this one on my current re-watch, as I didn’t recall the slime creature story being that interesting. Your high score floored me.
So in honor of your birthday, I’ll dial this one up tonight and give it the re-watch it apparently deserves.
Sappy Mirthday! Love your rewatches. keep up the good work.
Happy birthday!
Happy Birthday, KRAD! You’re now the age my maternal grandmother was when I was born—not to make you feel old or anything. In any event, I hope friends give you some Romulan Ale to enjoy the day. Hope it’s a great one!
Perhaps the atmosphere of the aliens planet screens out the specific wavelengths of EM that the creature is allergic to. We’ve seen other examples in Trek of lifeforms that can’t tolerate some types of EM (the flying pancakes in Operation Annihilate were destroyed by Ultraviolet light).
BTW, I’m sure it’s a typo but it’s role not roll for the interaction between Reed and Phlox.
This is probably one of my favorite episodes of Enterprise, basically for the same reasons you listed. I feel like this one is often overlooked, but it’s a solid episode with a memorable alien and good characterization for all of our main cast. Hoshi is possibly my favorite character and I love the little glimpses of the mentor relationship she has with T’Pol. I also enjoy the little prototype versions they build of what will eventually become everyday tech.
I do feel bad for Trineer and Bakula though! They spent most of the episode in what looks like uncomfortable harnesses that were sprayed with white snot.
“Correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t our mission to better understand new forms of life?”
There’s a bit of a feeling of Stock Plot Number Six about this one, but it holds the attention, more from the character work than the actual mystery which is ultimately resolved rather swiftly, with the creature releasing its captives after exchanging a couple of sentences with the crew. Archer and Tucker get a few good buddie moments but they’re unable to play a part in the action for the second half (this must be one of the few times neither of them gets to go down to the planet!), so the spotlight gets to shine on the others. T’Pol has improved her man management but doesn’t quite know how to handle humans, managing to get Sato’s back up. (She’s pretty dismissive of the idea of communicating until brute force fails spectacularly.) Sato’s insecurities come out but she also gets to show she knows what she’s doing. Reed continues his tradition of coming up with everything of worth (this week, inventing forcefields), while Phlox gets to stand his ground with him. And Mayweather proves surprisingly capable, coming up with the idea of contacting the Kreetassans and then handling the communication himself when the other officers are off the deck.
It’s an interesting cultural detail that the Kreetassans view eating in public as a taboo. His role as the Kreetassan captain is Vaughn Armstrong’s last new role in the franchise to date (Forrest’s Mirror Universe counterpart aside), although he’ll continue in his recurring role of Admiral Forrest into Season 4: I’d completely forgotten he was one of the Kreetassans in “A Night in Sickbay” as well. Joseph Will makes the first of three appearances as Crewman Michael Rostov. (I made him Shran’s first officer in the Federation Starfleet.)
Also under information that no-one else cares about, having rewatched 160-odd episodes of Voyager and 20-odd episodes of Enterprise on a clapped out video player, I finally give up on it and replace it with one with decent sound and picture quality when there’s only five episodes left that were actually released on VHS…
Water polo’s a white man’s sport? Teetering on the edge of the cultural divide and trying to work out what the British equivalent would be. Non-water polo?
I liked this episode “it gives us two genuinely alien aliens” but unfortunately it serves to highlight how rarely that happened on Star Trek. This is the same time when Farscape was regularly giving us plenty of weirdness and visually distinctive aliens. Meanwhile Stargate SG1 had by this point given us four seasons of scifi adventure and alien planets that looked like Canada, and mostly human aliens but was a good variety of cultures and different civilizations. Going a little wider Star Trek on UPN was competing with shows like Superman on The WB, and even though the first season of Smallville was monster of the week trash it had potential. I’d argue Futurama was the best scifi on TV at the time, it was certainly my favorite.
So again, good episode of Enterprise. I look back on the show more favorably now but I remember there were plenty other choices at the time and why this show was never a must watch for me .
I think Enterprise is at it’s best when it explores problems that would of course be present during Humanity’s first adventure into deep space and meeting new species, instead of trying to do just standard Star Trek plots in a new ship. That’s why I loved the miscommunication subplot – we can’t expect the translator to work all the time, and the idea of a culture where eating in public is taboo is (to my knowladge) rather original and fascinating. And sure, the main plot was good, but we’ve seen the “strange alien intety who just wants to communicate/go home/give birth/mind it’s own buisness and doesn’t realize it’s hurting our heros” plot a bunch of times before; plus, I was very distracted that the tendrils of the thing they were tied up in was rather obviously crumpled plastic wrap covered in slime. And did we really need Reed to invent force fields, a technology that would become incredibly important in all other series? Sure, it falls under the “all interesting aspects of the orriginal work are set up by one group of people in the prequel” trope. But this early in the series as well?
I always like to see a First Contact story where issues can be resolved by learning to communicate with each other. And this is twofer!
(Now, imagine the Kreetassans reaction when someone explains restaurants…)
Happy Birthday! I read your posts all the time, I’m just not much of a comment guy.
Happy birthday, KRAD!
I remember not being overly fond of this episode, aside from its really nice score by Paul Baillargeon. It’s okay, but these low-key slice-of-shipboard-life ones could be a mixed bag.
Plus I liked the actress who played Crewman Kelly, which was why I incorporated her into Rise of the Federation. I also established that she was the sister of Morgan Kelly, the Essex security chief established in TNG: “Power Play,” who eventually showed up in my later ROTF novels.
I have to agree that this is one of the most rock-solid episodes of the show so far; nothing ground breaking but perfectly executed (especially the Alien complication, which is more than creepy & slimy enough to tick the “eek!” box without coming across as utterly malevolent).
I’m especially glad to see T’Pol doing her usual splendid job of being Professional Adult/Big sister, but also loved how vivid the Kreetassians were, the lovely sense of the crew firing on all cylinders and (most amusingly) the continuing inference that Mr Reed is in love with things pyrokinetic.
Basically I see eye to eye with all your remarks (with the only exception being that Porthis was making himself understood very clearly, the only problem was that nobody was there to listen …
Mind you, from what I hear about the Olympic variety, you might want to be more careful what you say about water polo – those boys leave blood in the water!
Crewman Kelly was one of the first on-screen roles for Renée Elise Goldsberry, who has gone on to have considerable success on Broadway. She won the Tony Award for her role on Hamilton. I did not see this episode until I watched all of Enterprise during the pandemic lockdown and was surprised to recognize Goldsberry, whom I had known from her role as Evangeline for several years on One Life to Live. I always enjoy recognizing actors whom I know from one role when I see them in something new and unexpected.
As for “Vox Sola”, the creature CGI looks terrible now, but I can allow for improvements in technology over the years.
Crewman Kelly was one of the first on-screen roles for Renée Elise Goldsberry, who has gone on to have considerable success on Broadway. She won the Tony Award for her role on Hamilton. I did not see this episode until I watched all of Enterprise during the pandemic lockdown and was surprised to recognize Goldsberry, whom I had known from her role as Evangeline for several years on One Life to Live. I always enjoy recognizing actors whom I know from one role when I see them in something new and unexpected.
As for “Vox Sola”, the creature CGI looks terrible now, but I can allow for improvements in technology over the years.
Nice review, and happy birthday!
Happy birthday, Keith! Only the best people are born on April 18. Why, yes, it is also my birthday. Why do you ask?
Charles: no, I meant roll there, not role.
—Keith R.A. DeCandido
Happy Birthday KRAD!
And I know they’re not the main point of the episode, but I love the makeup design for the Kreetassans; so majestic and fierce (helped by the scowling performances of the actors). Based on what we see here and in future episodes, there are also hints of a complex (and non-monolithic) culture if one reads between the lines.
The “not eating in public” thing struck me as odd at the time, but then 2020 happened and all the restaurants here went to take-out/delivery-only. Maybe the Kreetassans went through something similar in their history and it lasted long enough to become an entrenched cultural taboo.
Happy Birthday!
@10/Ecthelion of Greg: This episode isn’t the first to postulate a society where eating in public is taboo. In Olaf Stapleton’s Last Men in London (a sequel to his famous Last and First Men), one of the species descended from humanity has a similar custom of only eating in private.
It’s also my girlfriend’s birthday. What am I doing here?
Actually, I recall that to at least some extent the ancient Greeks frowned upon eating in public places. The irascible Diogenes the Cynic was known to violate this taboo, and responded to scolding by saying “If taking breakfast is nothing out of place, then it is nothing out of place in the marketplace.” Of course, Diogenes also masturbated in public, so he’s probably not the best model for behavior.
Happy birthday!
By the way, HAPPY BIRTHDAY Dahar Master krad – as my Dad always says, “Don’t act your age, act your shoe size!” (-;
I remember thinking that there weren’t enough genuinely alien aliens to be found on Star Trek by this point in the Berman era, so this one was a nice change of pace, even if the plot did feel (like so much of Enterprise‘s first seasons) a little “paint by numbers.”
Incidentally, I could have sworn that Vaughn Armstrong voiced a character on Lower Decks, but apparently not.
@22. Cybersnark: I have to say that I really do love the Kreetassan make-up design on it’s own merits, but what really makes them something of a favourite is the juxtaposition of that fierce, imposing aspect with a fastidious, even rather prissy culture of acute propriety (and a willingness to be as forgiving as they are demanding, which helps).
Concerning their taboo against the public consumption of food, I wonder if they’re simply applying the sort of squeamishness humans apply to excrement et al to BOTH ends of the digestive process?
@30/ED: In The Buried Age, I had the Kreetassan Onna Karapleedeez use “bolus” (a lump of chewed food) as a profanity.
Happy birthday, Krad!
Perhaps more accurate to say that Vaughn Armstrong hasn’t voiced a character on Lower Decks YET………….
—Keith R.A. DeCandido
Happy birthday!
I’m really surprised that you gave this one an 8, as it didn’t make a huge impression on me. I liked it just fine, though, so it’s not like I totally disagree with you.
Happy birthday, Crewman DeCandido. Good luck reversing the polarity.
Happy birthday, Keith!
What I find puzzling is not the taboo against eating itself, but how provincial the Kreetassans are in applying it. I feel like if the Enterprise crew went on an alien ship and found the alien crewmembers having sex out in the open, they might be put off, but would accept it as the custom of another culture and not start a diplomatic incident over it. How can the Kreetassans be unaware that their taboo is not shared by most spacefaring cultures?
@38/Vulpes: Well, isn’t it generally the hosts’ responsibility to accommodate their guests’ comfort and preferences, not the other way around? For instance, if you were hosting a banquet for a group of vegetarians, it would be rude to serve steak, and they’d be entitled to be upset that you either didn’t respect their customs or didn’t bother to find out about them.
@39/CLB: True, but as a vegetarian I know I have to tell people that I don’t eat meat, and if I don’t I can’t count on being accommodated. The Kreetassans are pretty far out of the mainstream on this issue, and should have said beforehand that they prefer not to be in the presence of people eating. If Enterprise ignored that, then they could be rightfully indignant. As it is, they couldn’t even properly communicate, how could the Enterprise know what the Kreetassans wanted?
Did not know Renée Elise Goldsberry until recently, but when rewatching the show during the plague times I did recognise he from her excellent work on Altered Carbon.
@Vulpes in 38, I agree completely. The Enterprise encounters two supposedly sentient species, and both spectacularly fail to communicate until the humans go the extra mile. Laying the fault for that on the humans is pretty hubristic, I’d say.
Happy birthday krad!
@38. Vulpes: To my mind there are at least three possibilities here – firstly, that the Kreetassans simply don’t have very much experience with other species (after all, if Humanity is still very new to space there’s no guarantee the Kreetassans aren’t at a comparable phase in their societal development); secondly, that the Kreetassans believed that they had clearly expressed their preferences and been understood (only for the subtleties of their language to mislead Ensign Sato’s translation in a way that led to outraged sensibilities on the part of these guests and more than a little alarm for their hosts); three, the Kreetassan commander is a particularly thin-skinned individual and pulled their subordinates along in the wake of their rather high-handed indignation (An interpretation somewhat suggested by the officer Ensign Mayweather being a bit more cool-headed about the whole business than the leader of that particular delegation).
Either that or the Kreetassans are either trained or naturally inclined to be outstandingly punctilious & detail-obsessed (or quite possibly both) in a way that makes dealing with that particular situation something of an exercise in frustration for both parties (Which I must admit is my favourite of the possible interpretations, since it offers the broadest scope for humour and character arcs – as the Kreetassans & their friends have to work with and work around their more obsessive tendencies).
@31. ChristopherLBennett: I remember really liking that bit of business! It’s amusing to wonder if “You’re so stupid you eat with the door open!” or “You masticating exhibitionist!”* would be equally offensive bits of Kreetassan vulgarity?
*Perhaps “masticating” would be an epithet used almost as frequently by Kreetassans as “****ing” when a modifier lending a touch of added vulgarity is required? (and quite often when it really isn’t, going by Humanity’s bad habits).
@44/ED: “Either that or the Kreetassans are either trained or naturally inclined to be outstandingly punctilious & detail-obsessed…”
I think that’s the intent, that they’re just a culture with a very strict sense of propriety and The Way Things Are Done, and have no tolerance at all for the idea that other cultures do things differently. Like your stereotypical prissy Victorian going abroad and just being unable to contemplate the idea that other peoples around the world don’t do things the British way, because that’s simply the way things are done, by Jove. And that certainly wasn’t due to lack of experience interacting with other cultures — simply a stubborn pride in their own rightness.
Many happy returns, KRAD!
@45. ChristopherLBennett: No wonder I find the Kreetassans so entertaining! (It also occurs to me that their aesthetic, their serious-minded attitude towards Ancient Traditions and their veneration of the Natural World – or at least the apparently integral role of certain trees in their public life & rituals – hint at the sort of Deadly Serious depictions of the First Nations found in some of the more painfully earnest Westerns in Hollywood history, the ones so gleefully lampooned by Mr Graham Greene in the 1994 MAVERICK).
On a more serious note, I imagine this Kreetassan respect for Tradition, Ritual & the Proprieties tends to foster a reputation for Regular Conduct amongst other species – in the sense that once one becomes familiar with their customs, one can reasonably expect a Kreetassan to always do what is Proper according to those time honoured, carefully-codified traditions (especially when, accidentally or a-purpose, an outsider transgresses against those customs).
Whether the individual Kreetassan actually lives up to those expectations is, of course, an interesting question that only the individual in question can answer (though one would be terribly, terribly disappointed if their Society completely did away with their tendency to be scandalised by other species – if only because it’s deeply amusing to imagine a Kreetassan Starfleet officer dutifully fulfilling their obligation to compose a confessional, recording the diverse transgressions against Good Form/The Sacred Forms to be encountered while discovering the wider galaxy alongside a crew governed by Starfleet Rules & Regulations rather than the “Done Thing”, then gleefully dispatching all that juicy scandal home for friends & family to gossip about and be scandalised by*).
*Ha! Now there’s a thought – a species so Respectable it has to outsource Scandal!
As I understand, Brannon Braga always started basic story premises from specific visual images in his head. This is one episode where his story process couldn’t be more clear: Archer and company trapped inside alien tendrils.
Thankfully, they managed to craft a respectable slice of classic Trek out of this episode. Very good use of Hoshi. A very clever take on the first contact plot. We actually get to spend time with the lower decks folks. Roxann Dawson getting some good performances out of everyone. T’Pol being her usual hyper-competent professional self, plus some nice tension between Phlox and Reed. Phlox is usually the most laid back of the crew, it’s always a treat to get scenes with him backed up against a wall and showing some metaphorical teeth.
And there are few things in Trek as funny as the reason for the Kreetassans being disgusted by human eating habits. Imagine if they watched one of those food contests where the contestants have to eat 50 hot dogs within 10 minutes! They’d nuke the planet out of spite!
“have no tolerance at all for the idea that other cultures do things differently”
Yeah, because the various Starfleet crews have never shown up on an alien planet, told them what they wee doing was wrong and proceeded to force them to change their ways.
Yeah, never happened.
There’s so much to love about this episode and I’m sure it’s all been said by Krad and the other commenters so no point in rehashing all of it. What I particularly loved was the Kreetassans notion of eating in the presence of others as totally inappropriate. It’s completely believable that another culture could exist with that viewpoint.
It amuses me that many people view Kreetassans disgust at human eating habits as something very alien, but it is more human than you might think. Most viewers and commenters do not seem to realise our modern eating habits are quite different from the past. Eating on the go was not the polite thing to do, and in some places such as Japan still frowned upon. https://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowTopic-g294232-i525-k9383483-Eating_in_public_rude-Japan.html Not quite the same level of disgust as the Kreetassans but an exaggeration of something that does existing, which I think is why it works so effectively.
Word of the day: Deipnophobia, fear of eating in public
@48 “As I understand, Brannon Braga always started basic story premises from specific visual images”
I had not heard that before, but I can imagine that would work well for some writers.
In the behind the scenes documentary of this episode Braga does provide as visual reference the book cover H.P. Lovecrafts’s The Tomb:
https://www.michaelwhelan.com/galleries/lovecrafts-nightmare-a/
(article shows the full artwork, you need to click on the thumbnail below to see the book cover)
You can see how it provided inspiration for the webbing and cocooned bodies.
@51/Bob: Japan actually did occur to me, but the difference is that the Japanese have no problem with eating in public places that are intended for eating, like restaurants and cafeterias. The Kreetassans were offended by people eating in the mess hall, so obviously they object to actually being able to see someone else eat under any circumstances.
@53/Vulpes: Also food vending carts, which are abundant from what I’ve seen in Japanese TV and movies — both traditional carts with those restaurant banner things over the front, and more modern food trucks that often have tables and chairs set up around them. I also often see scenes of people eating bento lunches outdoors, or having ice cream or crepes in the park, that sort of thing.
I was more interested by the Kreetassan story than by the tendril-alien story, which didn’t make any sense to me.
Also, if it’s all one organism that covers its whole planet, why did the portion on Enterprise need to give Hoshi specific map coordinates to take it home?
And how did it get separated from its greater mass and removed from its home planet, in the first place? And why didn’t it do to the Kreetassan crew what it was doing to Archer et al.?
And, tangentially, does anyone know what material was used as the alien when it was a practical effect wrapping up the crew members? If I didn’t know when the episode was made, I’d have sworn it was 3D printer filament.
A very, merry unbirthday to you (only a few months late, heh)!
I’m glad so many folks liked this, but to me the wins didn’t feel earned. First the Kreetassans are suddenly speaking perfect English and are pretty civil about asking for an apology, not even from one of the most senior members of the crew. And then the formerly very aggressive tendril alien lets everybody go within moments of Hoshi and T’Pol technobabbling a way into talking with it.
I had this problem too. Yet how many of us have blown up in a certain situation, and then come back with a certain strained civility to the person who offended us? After all, they probably felt a little chagrined once they learned some nuances of the language.
This certainly isn’t Trek’s first foray into communicating with an alien so a ship can bring it back to mama (or, in this case, itself). But I agree with Keith that it is well done, if not very surprising (as soon as it’s suggested this is an intelligent creature). The creatures seems like a Mathew Barney sculpture come to life (self-lubricating plastic, anyone?), but I like the concept, even if the transition between the digital and practical effects show CGI isn’t quite there yet.
I would disagree that T’Pol comports herself well. She seems like certain bosses I have. Belief in someone’s competence is no excuse for nit-pickety micromanagement, particularly when the style of leadership makes the subordinate extremely uncomfortable. It’s a style of management I hate.
One thing not mentioned in the review is the music. The alien theme that plays when the crew is entangled in goop webs is just gorgeous, lead by that solo violin. The whole thing becomes incredibly interesting, sonically, when the screechy language gets involved. It’s like an avant-garde classical piece, something by Richter. I just enjoyed the interplay of sound so much.
I also enjoy how there’s no real resolution as to “why.” One assumes they could have asked it after it had dropped the crew, but maybe the crew was shy of making another faux pas so soon after offensively eating in front of the Kreetassans. I’ll admit I was hoping to discover the latter ate through another oriface. Instead we find out they public mastication is gross, just like Angela from My So Called Life.