Enterprise – “Fight or Flight”

Check out our review of yet another “juicy” episode!

Fight or Flight

Cast & Crew

Directed by Allan Kroeker
Teleplay by Rick Berman
& Brannon Braga

Starring
Scott Bakula as Captain
Jonathan Archer
Connor Trinneer as Chief
Engineer Charles Tucker III
Jolene Blalock as Sub-commander
T’Pol
Dominic Keating as Lt.
Malcolm Reed
Anthony Montgomery
as Ensign Travis Mayweather
Linda Park as Ensign Hoshi
Sato
John Billingsley
as Dr. Phlox

Guest Cast
Jeff Rickets as Alien
Captain
Brett Baker as Crewman #2
Max Williams as Crewman

Original Airdate

October 3, 2001

What Happened

We start the episode with Hoshi worrying about the health of a slug she picked
up on an alien world. Dr. Phlox tries to reassure her that he’s doing everything
he can to get the creature to eat. Meanwhile Reed and Mayweather are trying
to get Enterprise’s torpedo launcher online. Specifically, the targeting
sensors are out-of-balance and can’t hit a precise target. When the captain
checks on their progress, he grants permission for a test firing. The weapons
test goes badly (one torpedo nearly makes debris out of Enterprise) the
captain resumes course, in search of the crew’s first "first contact."

They stumble across a drifting vessel with no response. Against T’Pol’s warnings,
Archer, Reed, and Hoshi shuttle over to see if anyone needs help. What they
find horrifies Hoshi: corpses hung up on hooks and being drained of vital fluids.
Deciding that they can do nothing, and don’t want to risk the wrath of whomever
did this, the Enterprise crew packs up and heads off.

Capt. Archer finds that he can outrun aliens, but not his own conscience. Two
days later the Enterprise returns, this time with a full away team set
on finding out who did this and return the corpses to their own people. Hoshi
struggles with the alien language, but manages to send a "Ship in Distress"
message out on the ship’s communications system. Dr. Phlox identifies what fluids
are being extracted and notes that they are similar to chemicals produced by
humans.

The away mission is abruptly ended by an alien ship’s arrival. A ship with
power signatures matching the fluid draining machine. The away team quickly
abandons ship and heads back to Enterprise. The ship’s engines are damaged
and can’t get away. Also the malfunctioning torpedoes aren’t doing any good.
Enterprise is snagged in a tractor beam and things look bleak until another
ship arrives, this one belonging to the victim’s race. After some tense translation
attempts, Hoshi manages to convince the new arrival to help them and the fluid-gatherers
are destroyed.

Review

Our regular episode shows a little bit of promise, but not much. Hoshi is the
centerpiece of this one and she’s coming to grips with her fear of space travel
and the unknown (an odd fear for an xenolinguist). The pacing is good, but the
plot predictable. It was nice to see Dr. Phlox a little more, as his character
has real potential.

What I’m really looking forward to is more alien interaction, more cultural
relationships established and so forth. I know we are due for some of this (one
future episode is titled "The Andorian Incident"). Everything is new
to this crew, let’s not waste time with irritating personality problems and
get on with the exploration.

High Point

How does one make first contact? The confusion expressed by the crew on what
to do when they get no answer was realistic. This is really what I think space
exploration will be like.

Low Point

":::Sniffle:: I wanna go home!" I said it before, but I’ll reiterate
now: Hoshi is my least favorite character. There’s fear and then there’s sheer
weenieness. I hope she grows up and fast.

The Scores

Originality: Aliens harvesting biological stuff? Anyone remember V? 2

Effects: Pretty good, up to where the alien ship exploded. Kinda cheesy there,
but good stuff otherwise. 4

Story: I know they’re trying to build characters up, but I know we can do better.
3

Acting: Good stuff from Bakula (as usual). Blalock seems to be getting her
Vulcan down, and Reed was passible. Hoshi needs some serious work. 3

Emotional Response: I don’t know why TV series try and scare us with horror-like
elements. We all know the censors won’t let anything that graphic or scary through.
Stick with good drama, fast action, and interesting dialogue if you want us
interested. 3

Production: The interiors of the alien ship were spot on. The production crew
for the Trek shows is one of the few things that has gotten much better with
age. 5

Overall: It’s their second outing so I’ll cut them a break, but Enterprise
doesn’t have much room to screw up considering the standards set by Voyager.
4

Total: 24 out of 42

Stills & Video
(From StarTrek.com)

4 replies on “Enterprise – “Fight or Flight””

  1. Odd writing style
    I think the aspect of this episode that bothered me the most was the dark and foreboding Deep Space Nine to exploring the alien ship, with a light and optimistic Next Generation feel to the Hoshi storyline. The two styles just clashed for me. I do agree with theangrymob on a few things. As much as I liked Hoshi as written for the pilot, I’m not thrilled with her on screen. (I was expecting more of an Ezri Dax character.) The other point is Doctor Phlox. The one thing Star Trek has always been good at is writing an entertaining doctor.

  2. Missing Scores
    Sorry gang. I rushed out for lunch and forgot to add in my scores. They are all in now. Share and enjoy!

    • Re: My review

      I fell asleep during this episode. I’m not what that says about it. :)

      I Think The Elf’s Right, It Was A Bit Slow.

Comments are closed.