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Observer Effect
Cast & Crew
Director: Mike Vejar
Written By: Judith Reeves-Stevens & Garfield Reeves-Stevens
Starring
Scott Bakula as Jonathan Archer
Connor Trinneer as Charles "Trip" Tucker III
Jolene Blalock as T’Pol
Dominic Keating as Malcolm Reed
Anthony Montgomery as Travis Mayweather
Linda Park as Hoshi Sato
John Billingsley as Dr. Phlox
Guest Cast
None
Episode Information
Originally Aired: January 21, 2004
Season: Four
Episode: Eleven
Production: 087
What Happened
After Hoshi and Trip contract a deadly virus while exploring a planet, two ghostly aliens possess the bodies of various Enterprise crew members to observe humanity’s reaction to imminent tragedy. As the aliens secretly jump bodies to observe, Phlox strives to cure the stricken pair, but with his efforts failing, Archer must make a difficult decision in order to shield the rest of the crew from this growing biohazard.
Review
Not spectacular, but definitely better than last week.
High Point
The revelation of who the “observers” were. Nice touch.
Low Point
I despise these “erase everyone’s memory and start over” endings. Do they not teach “Deus Ex Machina is very bad writing” anymore?
The Scores
Originality: Nothing new about contagious outbreaks, but the overall effect of having observers breaks it up. 4 out of 6.
Effects: Another nearly effect-free episode. 3 out of 6.
Story: Another aptly title episode, but the story ended a little flat. 4 out of 6.
Acting: Well acted. 5 out of 6.
Emotional Response: The ending sucked most of emotional investment out of the episode. 3 out of 6.
Production: Hey look, the decon chamber has a bathroom. But where’s the decon gel? Hmm? 4 out of 6
Overall: A solid episode and a nice nod to the larger body of Trek lore. 4 out of 6.
Total: 27 out of 42
Next Week on Enterprise (January 28, 2004)
Ordered to transport a delegation of argumentative Tellarites to a peace conference with the blue-skinned Andorians, Archer and the crew find themselves drawn into a confusing, dangerous situation when a secret Romulan vessel begins attacking ships on all sides, including Enterprise.
Additional Notes and Comments
If you’re interested in what’s in TheAngryMob’s review queue, check out my What’s Coming page.
Season Finale
I found this picture taken from the location shoot of the series, oops I mean season, finale which will be guest starring Jonathan Frakes and Marina Sirtis.
Re: Season Finale
FANTASTIC!
what did I miss?
I knew there was something to this. I laughed to myself about those damn Vorlons. But, I didn’t get that it was an actual reference. To whom does it refer?
Re: what did I miss?
It’s a spoiler, but look here if you must know.
Re: what did I miss?
I wouldn’t really consider it a spoiler. I’m just not as up on my TOS lore as I am TNG and DS9.
But, two questions: (a) When did they say they’d “check back in”? Wasn’t it a “mere” 500 years? (b) Did I miss the part that said who they actually were, or is this just speculation from vague clues?
Re: what did I miss?
More like 5000, IIRC.
It is mentioned once. (I remember hitting the instant replay button on my ReplayTV: “Did he really just say Organian?”
Re: what did I miss?
That’s actually what I thought, but then, if we are talking about an established Trek race here, it would have to be within 500 years. In all actuality, it would be more like 200 years.
So their appearance in TOS isn’t the "checking in"?
Re: what did I miss?
Right. They’re making a prediction based upon humankind’s expected rate of
development.
We’ve been told time and time again that humans are expanding and
developing much, much faster than anybody expects. This is just more
evidence of that.
Re: checking in
On the future occasion in question, they didn’t check in on us; we dropped in on them.
Also, although they predict the future in that ep, it’s not clear whether they can foresee the future, or are making very accurate predictions based on available evidence. Based on this ep, the latter is the case.