“Cease Fire”
Written by Chris Black
Directed by David Straiton
Season 2, Episode 15
Production episode 041
Original air date: February 12, 2003
Date: unknown
Captain’s star log. For a hundred years, Vulcan and Andoria have fought over a world, which the Vulcans have named Paan Mokar, and which the Andorians call Weytahn. The Andorians colonized it and terraformed (Andoria-formed?) it, but then Vulcan annexed it, and they’ve been fighting over it ever since.
Shran has been assigned to claim Weytahn, and fighting has broken out. Shran has taken three Vulcan prisoners, and has specifically requested that Archer mediate negotiations to return the prisoners. Soval is not thrilled with this demand, but asks Forrest to divert Enterprise to Paan Mokar. Archer is stunned to be asked for help by a Vulcan, though it makes more sense to him when he’s told that Shran was the one who actually requested him.
Soval wants Archer to take Sub-commander Muroc, who is in charge of military forces on Paan Mokar, with him. Archer refuses, as it will weaken his negotiating position to be accompanied by a Vulcan military chaperone. However, he is willing to take T’Pol.
Buy the Book
Wild Massive
They fly to the surface, but between atmospheric interference and Andorian jamming, they’re flying blind and deaf. They’re met by a military contingent, led by Shran’s lieutenant, Tarah. For her part, Tarah has been bugging Shran all along that they should just fight for the planet, rather than talk, all along pointing out how untrustworthy and horrible Vulcans are.
Tarah puts bags over Archer and T’Pol’s heads—for security, allegedly—and brings them to Shran. The Andorians demand that Vulcan leaves Weytahn alone, as they were there first, and only then will they release the prisoners. (Shran and Tarah are also pissed that Archer refers to them as hostages, as Soval had done.) Archer points out rightly that he didn’t need to drag Enterprise off its mission so Archer could pass on Shran’s demands to Soval. There needs to be some actual negotiating. He convinces Shran to let one of the three prisoners go as a gesture of good faith.
Soval is reluctant to agree to meet with Shran, even with the freeing of a hostage/prisoner, but Archer convinces him (barely) with the same argument that he used on Shran: that each side thinks the other doesn’t want to end this fighting, and that this is an opportunity to prove them wrong.
There’s a ticking clock now, too, as three Andorian ships are approaching the system. They have five hours to hammer out some kind of agreement, or it’s going to be war.
Shran orders Tarah to escort Soval and Archer to him, and emphasizes that they are not to be harmed. So of course, when the shuttlepod descends into the atmosphere, it’s shot down.
Soval, who was an intelligence officer on Paan Mokar a century earlier, recognizes the crash site as being a couple of kilometers from a Vulcan outpost, but Archer refuses to go there. He promised to deliver Soval to Shran, and he’s going to do that, dadgummit. Soval thinks he’s insane, but there was so much firepower zipping back and forth, it’s impossible to say who shot them down, plus there’s never going to be peace if the two of them don’t meet. As they move toward where Archer thinks the Andorian base is (their scanners still don’t work), Soval gets shot, and eventually they’re pinned down by an ambush by two Andorians.
In orbit, Muroc informs Tucker that the shuttle has been shot down. Tucker insists on being involved in search-and-rescue operations, which Muroc snidely declines.
Back on the planet, T’Pol and Soval lay down cover fire while Archer sneaks around behind the Andorians. (Soval objects, saying he hasn’t fired a weapon in fifty years; Archer counters that he doesn’t have to hit anything, just fire randomly to cover the captain’s movements.) Archer knocks out one Andorian and takes his rifle, holding it on Tarah to get her to stop. However, Archer loses his footing as he’s escorting her away, and they get into fisticuffs.
In orbit, the Andorian ships arrive and face off against the Vulcan ships. Tucker orders Mayweather to put Enterprise between the two factions. Muroc and the Andorian commander, Telev, warn Tucker off. Tucker, however, not only stands his ground but orders Reed to fire on any ship that makes a move. Tucker wants everyone to keep their metaphorical guns holstered until they find Archer and Soval.
On the planet, Shran eventually shows up, with Tarah insisting that Archer was the aggressor and that the Vulcans set this all up. Archer reminds Shran that the Vulcans wouldn’t shoot down a shuttle with their own ambassador in it. Eventually, Tarah admits that she disobeyed Shran’s orders, because the commander, in her opinion (and, she says, the opinion of others) is weak for capitulating to the Vulcans.
After Shran has her taken away, he orders his medics to look to Soval. This is communicated to the Vulcans, Andorians, and Enterprise, and everyone stands down.
With Archer mediating, Shran and Soval work out terms of a cease-fire, with talks to continue on Andoria. Shran proposes a toast and pours some Andorian ale. Soval initially says that Vulcans don’t drink, but then allows as how this is a special occasion, so he, Muroc, and T’Pol join Archer and Shran in toasting their efforts. As T’Pol escorts Soval out, the latter pays Archer something resembling a compliment.
The gazelle speech. Archer spends the entire episode doggedly sticking to the notion of getting Soval and Shran talking over a negotiating table, no matter who gets in his way, whether it’s Soval’s stubbornness, Shran’s single-mindedness, or Tarah’s violent insubordination.
I’ve been trained to tolerate offensive situations. Soval gets to have a private chat with T’Pol, pointing out how her assignment to Enterprise has stalled her career options and that the gratification she says she feels as Enterprise’s first mate is an emotional response, and oh yeah, she’s starting to acquire a human accent, too. He’s a peach, is Soval…
Florida Man. Florida Man Plays Chicken With Warring Factions.
Optimism, Captain! Phlox has to bombard Archer with a type of radiation that will make him resistant to a pathogen in the atmosphere (one that doesn’t affect Vulcans, and presumably doesn’t hurt Andorians, either). This scene is mainly there to (a) justify John Billingsley’s being in the opening credits and (b) have Archer give a clumsy-ass speech about what humans’ mission in space might really mean.
Phlox also warns Archer to be careful, as battlefields are dangerous, which is when we find out that he was a medic in the Denobulan military in his youth.
The Vulcan Science Directorate has determined… The Vulcans are determined to keep Paan Mokar for themselves, as ceding it to the Andorians would give them a position dangerously close to Vulcan space. Their justification for annexing it is so weak as to be nonexistent.
Blue meanies. There is a faction of Andorians—represented by Tarah—that wants all-out war with Vulcan. Luckily, Shran is one of the cooler heads that prevails.
More on this later… Archer makes, as stated above, a clumsy-ass speech about how humans’ mission in space might not just be to explore new worlds and chart new systems, but also to become part of the greater galactic community. This foreshadows the fact that the three species involved in this episode—humans, Andorians, and Vulcans—are among the founders of the Federation.
I’ve got faith…
“I don’t like pushin’ the engines this hard. The injectors are running at a hundred and ten percent.”
“They’re rated for one hundred and twenty.”
“And my underwear is flame-retardant—that doesn’t mean I’m gonna light myself on fire to prove it.”
–Tucker and T’Pol bantering about engine usage.
Welcome aboard. We’ve got three recurring regulars: Jeffrey Combs making his only second-season appearance as Shran, back from “Shadows of P’Jem,” next to be seen in “Proving Ground”; Gary Graham as Soval, back from “Shockwave, Part II,” next up in “The Expanse”; and Vaughn Armstrong as Forrest, also last seen in “Shockwave, Part II,” and who’ll be back in “Future Tense.”
Plus we’ve got two Trek veterans as Andorians. Christopher Shea plays Telev, having played Sajen in “Detained,” as well as Keevan in DS9’s “Rocks and Shoals” and “The Magnificent Ferengi” and Saowin in Voyager’s “Think Tank.” And the great Suzie Plakson, having played Selar in TNG’s “The Schizoid Man,” K’Ehleyr in TNG’s “The Emissary” and “Reunion,” and a Q in Voyager’s “The Q and the Grey,” plays Tarah.
Additionally, John Balma plays Sub-commander Muroc and Zane Cassidy plays another Andorian soldier.
Trivial matters: This episode continues the storyline of the Vulcan-Andorian conflict that was previously seen in “The Andorian Incident” and “Shadows of P’Jem.”
When Muroc assures Tucker that Vulcan High Command has more experience in search-and-rescue operations than Starfleet, Tucker snidely throws the rather violent Vulcan s-and-r in “Shadows of P’Jem” in Muroc’s face.
It’s been a long road… “Join me in a drink to celebrate our mutual dissatisfaction.” One of Enterprise’s best episodes, which is not surprising, given that it continues the Vulcan-Andorian storyline that has been, by far, the best recurring element of the show.
There’s so much to like here, starting with the performances. Standing out in particular is Gary Graham. In far too many of the previous appearances of Soval, Graham has been stiff and unconvincing, but he’s superb in this one, finally finding the “emotional control” button on his acting dashboard instead of regularly pushing the “emotionless” one. In particular, he has absolutely nailed the Vulcan sass. (“Didn’t you hear the captain? The ball is in our court…”)
He’s matched by Jolene Blalock, who provides superlative support throughout. I love how she buries Archer in research material, and Archer gets cranky right up to the part where she explains that she gave him all that stuff because she wants him to prove Soval wrong about his ability to handle this negotiation. And at the end, when Soval pays him a typically backhanded Vulcan compliment (“Captain, your presence here has not been overly meddlesome”), the look on T’Pol’s face is epic, a beautifully restrained Vulcan version of a “holy shit!” expression that she shoots Archer.
Both Graham and Blalock play their one scene alone together very nicely, also, with Soval prodding her and T’Pol giving near-constant pushback on Soval’s attempts to get her to stop fooling around with the humans and come back to work for him like a sensible Vulcan. Chris Black’s script is particularly strong here, with Soval using lots of clever rhetorical tricks to try to manipulate T’Pol, and T’Pol magnificently deflecting all of it. Credit also to Black for having both Soval and Tarah use the same reductive propaganda about each others’ side. (Vulcans always lie and can’t be trusted! Andorians are always violent and can’t be trusted!)
I also really like the way Scott Bakula plays Archer here. The self-consciously-scripted bit where he tells Phlox about how he wants to help found the Federation some day aside, Bakula mostly is just trying to get two stubborn asses to shut up and sit down and talk to each other instead of at each other.
And after prior inept turns in the captain’s chair (I’m looking at you, “The Seventh”), it’s nice to see Tucker comport himself well in his role as acting captain, trying to keep the peace and going so far as to play a very dangerous game of chicken with the six ships that want to blast each other out of the sky.
Then we have two of Trek’s best guest actors in Jeffrey Combs and Suzie Plakson. Combs continues Shran’s combination of snottiness with nobility, as his desire for peace is genuine. Plakson has the more thankless task, as the biggest flaw in the episode is that Tarah’s betrayal is pretty blindingly obvious and played with all the subtlety of a nuclear explosion. The climax where Tarah shoots down the shuttle and chases after the team feels grafted on to up the action quotient, to no real good end. The meat here—as it is in most good Trek stories—is the tension and the characterization. Still, Plakson herself is phenomenal as always. (I was amused to observe that director David Straiton had to use some creative blocking to deal with the fact that Plakson is a good six inches taller than Combs…)
Several things bring the rating on this episode down a couple of notches. One is the obviousness of Tarah’s betrayal. Another is Archer’s clumsy-ass speech to Phlox. Thirdly, as described, the Vulcans are one hundred percent in the wrong here. They basically just barged in and took a planet the Andorians had claimed. It cuts the episode’s tension off at the knees because there’s really no justification for what the Vulcans did a hundred years previous, and no sense—or even expression of the possibility—of regret or remorse or admission of wrongdoing. Nor is there really an accusation of it from Archer, which there really should be. Their claiming of the world—at least as it’s described in the script—is wholly indefensible. The story would be much stronger if both sides had an equally legitimate, or at least equally justifiable, claim to the world.
And, finally, both Shran and Tarah continue to use the racist term “pink-skin” to describe humans. (I hasten to add, the term is a racist one on the part of the writers who coined it and continue to employ it in their scripts, not the characters using it.) Every use of the phrase damages the episode, the series, and the franchise.
Warp factor rating: 8
Keith R.A. DeCandido urges folks to support the Kickstarter for Double Trouble: An Anthology of Two-Fisted Team-Ups. Co-edited by Keith and New York Times best-selling author Jonathan Maberry, this anthology from the International Association of Media Tie-in Writers will feature classic characters banding together: Captain Nemo with Frankenstein’s monster; Ace Harlem with the Conjure-Man; Marian of Sherwood with Annie Oakley; Prospero with Don Quixote; Lydia Bennet with Lord Ruthven; and tons more, including stories by Trek scribes Greg Cox, David Mack, Dayton Ward, Kevin J. Anderson, Rigel Ailur, and Derek Tyler Attico, and TNG screenwriter Diana Dru Botsford. Click here to support it.
That from the guy who labels a section on Andorians ‘Blue meanies’? Where would you sort non-blue Andorians?
I’m quite convinced that language use affects perceptions and perpetuates bias, but when it is necessary for a work of fiction to portray a racist, should racist slurs be banned? And here we have one without the emotional baggage of inter-human epithets …
Regarding the rest of the episode, let me add that I found the Vulcan exchange about the human preoccupation with ears hilarious. And T’Pol got rather emotional denying her emotional attachment.
o.m.: Please explain to me how it’s necessary for Andorians to be racist. Please tell me what it adds to their characterization to make them refer to humans as “pink-skins,” and then explain to me why, if it’s meant to show that the Andorians are racist, nobody ever calls them on it? If “pink-skin” is there because the writers of Enterprise want to show that the Andorians are racist, why is it never a plot point that they are? Why doesn’t Archer ever correct them?
These requests are largely rhetorical, because the point — as I said in my rewatch entry — isn’t that the Andorians say it, the point is that the white writing staff uses it as a default for humans that they expect the viewership to understand, thus furthering the marginalization of people whose skin isn’t pink to the audience. Because the use of it has nothing to do with anything in-story and everything to do with the assumptions of the writing staff.
—Keith R.A. DeCandido
“Pink-skin” is simply the writers’ way of getting a racist slur on network television without the baggage of using an actual slur, such as the Andorians could do with Mayweather or Sato (realistically this would happen). They wanted the edge of an Archie Bunker without fully committing to it, so it plays in an awkward, semi-cowardly middle ground, as network television so often does. Probably would be a different story if this had aired on HBO or some such.
But I do appreciate their attempt at showing a rougher time in Star Trek, before the peaceful coexistence between these species. Of course they would encounter racists. It would be strange if they didn’t. The point is to actually show them evolve into not being racists, just as Bunker gradually did. Evolution is the thing.
The only thing I really remember about this episode is that I tend to get it mixed up with “Shadows of P’Jem.”
“In far too many of the previous appearances of Soval, Graham has been stiff and unconvincing, but he’s superb in this one, finally finding the “emotional control” button on his acting dashboard instead of regularly pushing the “emotionless” one.”
Funny — I always felt Graham’s problem as Soval was that he was too emotional. I didn’t think he really dialed in on how to play a Vulcan well until season 4.
@1/o.m.: “That from the guy who labels a section on Andorians ‘Blue meanies’?”
That’s not analogous, because there are no blue people in real life. Keith’s concern, as he said, is not about what fictional characters call each other, but about what the writers choose to say about humanity. If a writer decides that an alien will describe humans as “pink-skins,” that writer is implicitly saying “humans have pink skin,” which is erasing the very large percentage of humans who do not. Perhaps it would’ve been better if Andorians had called humans “flatheads” or something. At least that’s a term that actually does describe all humans.
Don’t forget that at this point in Trek history, Enterprise may well have been the only Earth Ship to encounter the Andorians. Next, consider the crew makeup of the characters that Shran had likely encountered at this point. Most of the Humans (Archer, Tucker, Reed) that Shran is likely to have encountered at this point are of European ancestry. From his PoV, most Humans ARE “Pink Skins”. Now go forward to the end of Season 4,’ and Pink Skin being used in a derogatory manner makes more sense.
Finally, don’t forget that we’re dealing with the UT. It’s translating Andorians into a language that the crew (and viewers) understand. IF Pink Skin was a derogatory term, I would think that Hoshi would have told Archer what Shran was saying. At a minimum, IF the term was being used in a derogatory term for Humanity in general, I think Archer would have said that the Humans that Shran has encountered to this point only represent a fraction of Humanity. Don’t forget that at least from what we’ve seen with Trek on TV or Movies, Humanity is one of the few Species that’s truly Multiethnic. The Xindi are 5 separate Species and for example ALL Reptilians look pretty much alike (the same for the Arboreal, Aquatics, and Insectoids). The Borg assimilate beings of hundreds of diverse species. The Klingons (short of retcons, ALL look very similar at least in skin tones. Most Vulcans (short of Tuvok) fit the same paradigm as do the Tellarites. We just don’t see much of HOW the Andorians describe species other than Humanity.
@@@@@5 Charles Rosenberg You think William Campbell and Tony Todd have the same skin tone? And Tuvok is definitely not the only Vulcan we’ve seen played by a POC actor, just the first who was a main character
A little more thought might have had the Andorians dropping slurs like “green-blooded” and “red-blooded” or antenna-less pointyeared/roundeared… Mirroring Doctor McCoy would bring in it’s own baggage though. In short writing this stuff is hard.
What we can take from the Vulcan-Andoria storyline, and reinforced by the Sarek through-line in other series, is that Humanity’s greatest contribution is acting as an interlocutor for the Vulcans to the rest of the galaxy. All this time, they just needed someone willing to put up with them.
IIRC, Shran eventually reserves “pink-skin” for Archer alone, and I think it happens when he’s on the bridge of the Enterprise and sees Sato and Mayweather. But I could be wrong.
@5/Charles Rosenberg: “Next, consider the crew makeup of the characters that Shran had likely encountered at this point. Most of the Humans (Archer, Tucker, Reed) that Shran is likely to have encountered at this point are of European ancestry. From his PoV, most Humans ARE “Pink Skins”.”
Which merely underlines the fundamental problem with how the characters were created and cast in the first place.
“IF Pink Skin was a derogatory term”
Again: Not about the characters. It’s nonsensical to worry about the intentions of a nonexistent entity. The point is that Rick Berman and Brannon Braga, two human beings who actually exist, made a thoughtless and ill-conceived creative choice when they decided that the imaginary Andorians’ derogatory term for humans would be “pink-skin.” (EDIT: Oh, and Fred Dekker, who got the teleplay credit for “The Andorian Incident.”)
I have to admit that I only vaguely remember this one. I confess that the Vulcan episodes never fascinated me. But I do remember liking Suzie Plakson in it and hoping she would return in a future episode.
Daniel, the issue ISN’T the complexion of the actor that played a particular character. Look at the overall appearance of almost EVERY Klingon from TNG to Enterprise. Short of the few hybrids (who tend to have a somewhat lighter complexion), the vast majority of Klingons look fairly similar even when the actors playing the part are from diverse Ethnic backgrounds.
With Vulcans, the vast majority that we’ve seen over the last 56 years seem to be from ONE Ethnic Group. That doesn’t mean that Vulcan of other Ethnic backgrounds don’t exist. They just seem to be a relatively small minority.
Honestly we seem to be trying to impose OUR ideals of how an advanced society should act on a Non Human Species. Perhaps we need to see Species like the Andorians as WHO they are rather than WHAT we think they should be (especially in the Pre Federation First Contact era). Are we going to repeat this in Season 4 with the Tellarites?
Charles: You are spectacularly missing the point. Why the Andorians use the term is irrelevant. Trying to justify in-story why the Andorians use the term is irrelevant. What’s relevant is that the all-white writing staff thought it made perfect sense to use “pink-skin” as a catch-all term for humans.
To be clear: at no point anywhere in the show are the Andorians in any way shape or form portrayed as being ignorant or racist or anything like that. “Pink-skin” is used the same way “spoon-head” was used for Cardassians. It’s meant to be a way of describing all members of a species, and it’s one that unthinkingly ignores the majority of the population of that species.
—Keith R.A. DeCandido
Everything is always better with Shran! A great episode, as the show begins to find its legs after some shaky early episodes.
Even just taking Enterprise on its lonesome, this is a crew that includes Mayweather. “Pink” as an epithet doesn’t make a lot of sense. I can sort of see it as “not-blue”, but come on, there has to’ve been a better way to’ve done that.
“Maybe we’re not out here just to scan comets and meet new species. Maybe we’re out here to prove that humanity is ready to join a much larger community.”
It’s simplistic, of course, but at least there’s no immediate end to the problems between the Vulcans and Andorians, just an agreement to start talking. Archer has come in for some criticism in these comments for not being loyal to the Vulcans, but if he hadn’t been willing to follow his own sense of right and wrong where they’re concerned, then he wouldn’t be of use here. Shran knows that Archer isn’t just going to do what the Vulcans tell him, but at the same time Archer isn’t just going to take the Andorians’ side. And we’ve seen his ability to get people to work together out of sheer pig-headedness in the past.
T’Pol seems to accept the Vulcan viewpoint over the planet without question, whereas Tucker clearly doesn’t trust their judgement. To be fair, I think they do both make valid points and that Archer can’t just barge in and declare the Vulcans are wrong when he’s got to at least try to be a neutral arbiter, although I also agree that the Vulcans’ justification for forcing the Andorians off a planet they discovered and colonised doesn’t show them in a good light. (But what do I know? There’s probably a Falklands analogy in there somewhere.) Whilst he’s still belligerent towards Archer, this is probably the first time Soval hasn’t been an out-and-out antagonist, which sets up the softening of his character in Season 4. It’s not much of a surprise that Tarah’s behind the attack on Enterprise. The episode does try and add a bit of uncertainty: While neither Shran nor Soval is entirely trustworthy, we can be reasonably sure neither of them’s going to sabotage the peace talk, so they’re both given a rather shady aide. (Playing against this, Christopher Shea, who has one scene on a monitor screen, gets guest star billing while John Balma is just listed at the end despite being in several scenes.)
Tucker gets to engage in some shotgun diplomacy of his own, although he’s lucky he didn’t have to carry through with his threat since a shooting match with either the Vulcans or the Andorians would likely go bad for Enterprise. There’s some great non-verbal acting: T’Pol’s “We’re doomed” expression when Archer admits he doesn’t actually have a plan, her silently following Archer on the surface leaving Soval with no choice but to follow, and her stoically amused look at Archer when Soval gives him the closest he’s ever given to a compliment. And, of course, Soval’s “What the hell’s he talking about?” look at T’Pol when Archer starts getting all metaphorical again. At least he didn’t mention gazelles this time.
Shran’s only appearance of the season. Forrest claims this is the first time the Vulcans have asked for their help: Presumably he’s not counting Archer convincing Kov to contact his father in ‘Fusion’. There are references not just to ‘The Andorian Incident’ and ‘Shadows of P’Jem’ but also to T’Pol going against Soval to support Archer in ‘Shockwave’. It’s mentioned Andorian weapons don’t have a stun setting. I think that’s the first time a “tactical alert” has been ordered since Reed first proposed it in ‘Singularity’? Ambassador V’Lar (from ‘Fallen Hero’) is mentioned in passing.
Forgive me if I’m showing my lack of technical prowess but if the injectors are rated for 120%…what does 100% mean? Archer and co just wander off leaving the shuttle’s hatch open: Was it so badly damaged it couldn’t be closed?
Maybe I’m beating a dead horse here, but It’s right there in the recap The characters aren’t meant to be racist. It’s the choice by the writers that is. Now, I don’t think the writers were making a consciously racist decision, but this is how institutional racism and inherent bias manifest in popular culture and society in general. Indeed, as a white person, I confess that this issue is not something I had ever thought of before reading this recap, but it’s so obvious now that it has been pointed out to me.
It’s less problematic later on, I think, when Shran seems to use it as a term of endearment for Archer specifically. But I don’t think head-cannoning why Shran wouldn’t know the vast majority of humans aren’t “pink” absolves the writers of the reality of their choice. The fact that most humans (or Vulcans) seen in Trek are historically “pink” just takes us back to the original issue. Pointy-eared and green-blooded describe all Vulcans. Skin color never can describe all humans.
@17/cap-mjb: “Forgive me if I’m showing my lack of technical prowess but if the injectors are rated for 120%…what does 100% mean?”
Most systems are designed with some leeway built in for emergencies. 100% means the maximum recommended amount you want to push the system to under normal circumstances, but you can push the system beyond that to a limited extent or for a limited amount of time and probably be okay. It’s like how, in TOS, warp 6 was the normal maximum speed and warp 7 or 8 was emergency speed.
So a saying like “giving 110%” isn’t just hyperbole. Lots of things can operate at more than 100% of their rated or recommended maximum.
@cap-mjb
Presumably it’s some form of “overclock”. Technically, it’s been tested and verified to function at 120%, but the recommendation would be to run at the more stable “100%” for any extended duration. It’s not uncommon when building basically anything to build a buffer into the standard use case, with standard use in this situation being your “100%”, and anything above that (which is may well have been tested for) being above that. See CPU design for an example of that.
I am human, I do not have pink skin, and I hated every time Shran said “Pink skin.” It’s not about the point of view of a fictional species, It’s the choice of the real-life writing staff to include this characterization. It takes away from my ability to enjoy Shran as a character, and is one of many excuses for me to slag Rick Berman and Brannon Braga.
It would have been so easy to fix. One conversation between Shran and Montgomery:
“Pink skin?” Montgomery, with a wry smile on his face, looks himself over. He looks up at Shran: “Nope.”
Shran looks confused, then flustered, then angry, and storms off.
Combs would have nailed it.
I can’t see John Balma playing the Vulcan sub-commander Muroc in this episode (and the few other places where he appears as the same character) without remembering that he also played Barney, the super-nerdy accountant, in Parks & Recreation, opposite another Star Trek legend, Adam Scott.
“TED!!!! Get in here!”
@krad, @ChristopherLBennett,
it seems clear to me that the writers were trying to portray Andorians, Vulcans, and the pre-TOS era in general as intolerant. Now, how do you portray a racist jerk if even their slurs are balanced to be all-inclusive of the targeted species? That would make them thoughtful, considerate racists, which is a contradiction in terms.
@26/o.m.: “Now, how do you portray a racist jerk if even their slurs are balanced to be all-inclusive of the targeted species? That would make them thoughtful, considerate racists, which is a contradiction in terms.”
That argument doesn’t make sense, because that’s exactly how racial slurs work — by singling out an attribute that’s intended to be representative of the whole group. The problem is that the writers made the unthinking assumption that aliens would see humanity as a whole as being defined by pink skin. Or more fundamentally, that they gave their show a mostly white cast so that all of the first humans the Andorians met would have pink skin.
As I said, the writers could have chosen a word that wouldn’t feel exclusionistic and hurtful to viewers like Dante, like “flatheads” or something. That would’ve done the job just as well narratively. This is not about rationalizing how the characters do things. It’s about the impact an idea has on its audience. It’s about the responsibility of writers to realize that their audience will include diverse types of people, and to make their creative choices with that in mind.
I suppose this was a good enough episode but generally the political storylines and in particular between the Vulcans and Andorians kind of bored me. Of course it’s shown to see the roots of the Federation gradually forming. Always nice to see Suzie Plakson too.
@ChristopherLBennett in 27,consider the use of ‘greaseball’ as an ethnic slur. That’s not describing the hairstyles of the entire group, it takes a prejudice and generalizes it. I see the case here as more of the same.
There is a very good case to be made that the crew of Enterprise includes too many white men. That’s the diversity problem, not the Andorians reacting to it. Otherwise you’d get a situation like 1950s and 1960s television, where actors say ‘darn’ and ‘dang’ and everybody knows what they really mean.
It’s hard to argue that ENTERPRISE takes a serious uptick when it delves into the murky waters that spawned the Federation – and it’s intriguing to see the Andorians & Vulcans go head to head from a position of relative equality, after the Andorians held the whip hand at P’Jem.
It’s also good to see Our Heroes starting to do what Humanity has tended to do best in STAR TREK: be the man in the middle preventing most other species in the Galaxy from burning each other down.
Bonus points for the immortal lines “What is their fixation with our ears?” “I believe they are envious”.
Definitely one of the show’s better episodes. A tour de force for Bakula, Blalock, Combs, Plakson and Graham. A tense standoff with real stakes that’s been building since Andorian Incident.
With so much history of lies, deception between Vulcans and Andorians, it takes guts and patience for Archer to navigate this finely crafted tale of shuttle crash 101 (but being shot down by extremist war hawks is always a better story device than VOY‘s usual ion storms). And it gives us one of Tucker’s better moments as temporary commander. Tarah’s betrayal was seen miles away, but it still packed a punch when you see Shran’s reaction. It’s a credit to the casting directors that they always put the best guest actors in these roles.
I don’t particularly mind the Andorian’s use of pink skin in their language, for two reasons:
1. Andorians tend to wear emotions close to their sleeve. And in the middle of a tense standoff, they wouldn’t be picky with their use of language.
2. Humanity is still a newcomer to deep space travel. To Shran and the other Andorians, humans are still new – in a sense. Even if there is a racist connotation behind it, they probably don’t even quite realize it, like a young kid who calls out a stranger’s skin color without realizing what that means. Relations between the two races are still too fresh for them to fully embrace respect and diplomacy. This show is about showing the perilous and rocky path that it would take them to sign the Federation charter. Naturally, we can expect some harsh language in the road.
Of course, I understand the nature of the criticism. It generalizes humanity and the fact that it’s made up of thousands of different races. But then again, Shran spends most of his time with Archer, a white person. We don’t the ship’s full complement, but the only non-white faces we see on the bridge crew are Hoshi and Travis. Assuming most of the crew is caucasian, who’s to say Shran didn’t also generalize? But that’s just my rationalization of the fact. Who knows? Maybe Black, Berman and Braga just failed to notice the implications.
@31/Eduardo: “Maybe Black, Berman and Braga just failed to notice the implications.”
Which is exactly what we’ve been explicitly saying all along, over and over again, extremely clearly, yet people keep ignoring us and thinking we’re talking about the motivations of fictional characters in an imaginary universe, which is totally bizarre. Things only happen in a story because of the writers’ choices, so the writers are the only people who can be validly criticized for what happens.
Eduardo: As I keep saying, the problem isn’t that Andorians are using it, the problem is that the scriptwriters are using it, unthinkingly assuming it works as a general term for humans. Your last sentence hit the nail on the head, except I would lop off the word “Maybe” at the start of it.
—Keith R.A. DeCandido
I dunno, I take T’Pol’s statement, “Would you let Vulcans build a base on Pluto?” at face value.
The Andorians built a settlement in Vulcan territory.
C.T.: The Vulcans didn’t declare it to be in their territory until after the Andorians built a settlement there.
T’POL: When the Andorians first arrived a century ago, they began to terraform the planet. Once an atmosphere was developed, they established a settlement.
ARCHER: If it was unclaimed at the time, why would there be a problem?
T’POL: Its sole value is its strategic location near Vulcan space.
ARCHER: They were setting up a military base?
T’POL: It was the only logical conclusion.
TUCKER: Was there any evidence?
T’POL: How much evidence would you need if the Klingons decided to set up a colony on Pluto?
TUCKER: That’s not the same thing.
T’POL: The Andorians refused to let the High Command inspect the colony. So, they annexed Paan Mokar to protect their territory.
The Pluto analogy doesn’t hold up — I’m fairly certain Earth considers everything in Sol’s star system to be theirs. Paan Mokar/Weytahn isn’t in the same star system as Vulcan. As Archer said, it was unclaimed. Vulcan “claimed” it because of its proximity, but they didn’t do that until Andor put a settlement there, which is leaving it a bit late.
—Keith R.A. DeCandido
@krad
I dunno, even with that, I think the fact the Federation doesn’t exist adds a level of moral ambiguity to the issue that needs to be acknowledged. There’s no Federation to register territorial claims with or to enforce diplomatic concessions. The Andorians built a military base just outside of Vulcan territory or at least close enough that the Vulcans considered it a strategic threat and didn’t bother to check with them before doing so. The fact the Andorians have “dibs” because they settled there first seems pretty specious as claims go if their neighbors strongly object.
As we see with the Gorn and Cestus III, claims are also things that can be assumed but unknown.
C.T.: Not buying it. As the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy reminds us, space is big. Really big. If it’s not actually in Vulcan territory, then the Andorians have just as much right to it.
—Keith R.A. DeCandido
But Kudos to T’Pol for even knowing about Pluto, since it’s not even a planet!
And speaking of skin color, to my eye this episode’s makeup artists neglected to do John Balma’s neck—it didn’t have the sallow tone his face had, and I found that very distracting every time he was on screen.
@38/terracinque: Pluto is the first-discovered dwarf planet and the largest (currently known), and thus will no doubt remain well-known, just as Ceres remains well-known more than a century and a half after it was redesignated from planet to asteroid (and more recently to dwarf planet). For that matter, plenty of moons are well-known too. It is nonsensical to suggest that planets are the only astronomical objects that would be widely known. That’s like assuming that people would only be aware of continents and would never have heard of Iceland or Japan.
I was making a joke at Pluto’s expense
@krad I have to say that this problem about using “pink skins” seem to be a problem very heavily based on American culture to be honest. From my Eastern-Central European perspective, they simply met white folks, which might not represent Earth too well, i agree with that, but meh, they happened to have a white captain. When i first saw it (with dubbing) I simply thought it’s a reference to “paleface” from Karl May’s westerns. :)
The episode itself is a good one and I still remember Archer’s sentence about compromises from the first time I saw this episode and I actually often refer to it when trying to reach a compromise at work for instance. :)
My only problem with the episode that it builds very heavily on the luck to have the right individuals at the right place. Of course, in many cases this is super important, but it’s very scary to think about that the agreement is only possible because Shran was at the right time and at the right place, not because the political-economical situation on both Vulcan and Andoria make negotiations necessary or beneficial at least. Because if there’s no real need to reach an agreement, the chances that this would go through is very slim. :)