Somebody got detention. Find out how and why!
Detained
Cast & Crew
Director: David Livingston
Story By: Rick Berman & Brannon Braga
Teleplay By: Mike Sussman & Phyllis Strong
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
Dean Stockwell as Colonel Grat
Christopher Shea as Sajen
Jessica D. Stone as Narra
Dennis Christopher as Danik
David Kagen as Major Klev
Airdate Information
Originally Aired: April 24, 2002
Season: One
Episode: Twenty-one
What
Happened
The opening teaser show Mayweather and Archer unconscious in a bare room. Both
look bruised. Mayweather gets up to explore their unfamiliar surroundings. He
looks out the door only to spot several Suliban walking around. Apparently their
shuttlepod drifted too close to a restricted area.
The two men soon learn from Colonel Grat, the detention center commander, that
this is where his people keep the Suliban they capture as the wage war against
the Cabal. Archer also discovers (after an altercation with Sajen, a Suliban
detainee) that these Suliban are not genetically enhanced and want nothing to
do with the Cabal. In fact most of them are just normal people trying to live
a normal life.
Appalled by this revelation, Archer confronts Grat about the problem. While
sympathetic to the Suliban’s plight, he feels he’s doing everyone, including
the Suliban, a favor. His reasoning is that once the Cabal capture these Suliban,
they’ll be brainwashed and altered. He urges Archer to stay out of this and
he and Mayweather will be home in a few days.
Drawing parallels between this situation and the one from United State during
World War II, Archer feels it is his duty to help these people escape. Meanwhile,
Grat discovers information about the Enterprise, most notably their two
previous encounters with Silik and the Cabal (“Broken Bow” and “Cold
Front”). He demands that Archer turn over any information or else they
may “miss” their transport off the planet.
Fortunately, Enterprise, has managed to locate Archer and Mayweather’s
position and are moving in to evacuate their friends. Archer tells Enterprise
to hold back while he and Mayweather execute their plan.
What follows is a high-action rescue operation with Trip using a shuttlepod
to blast the camp’s defenses and Reed, disguised as a Suliban, helping the two
detained crewmembers get the Suliban to their ships. Having succeeded, Enterprise
turns tail and leaves the restricted space.
Review
Not too bad really. Good acting turns from everyone save for Montgomery, who
is still trying to figure out his character. It’s the first season, no sense
on ragging on him. Though I had higher hopes for the character. Something along
the lines of young-but-wise since he’s had so much time in space.
Another nice element to the episode was the amount of information revealed.
We now know that not all Suliban are members of the Cabal. We know that another
race is aware of the “Temporal Cold War.” We also know that the Suliban
have no homeworld, no government. Just a nomadic people trying to integrate
into other cultures. Something they were becoming very good at until the Cabal
surfaced.
All told, good dialogue, nice effects, and (finally) a few answers.
High Point
Great dialogue pieces between Archer and Sajen. Great depth of emotion and
sorrow for the Suliban’s predicament.
Low Point
Maybe it was the hype (fan-generated, not UPN) about Dean Stockwell’s appearance
on the show, but I just didn’t think there was much to the episode for him.
The Scores
Originality: A retelling of Earth’s past. Not really original, but it is a
hallmark of Star Trek. 4
Effects: Cool combat shots of the shuttlepod making a mess of the internment
camp. 5
Story: A good way of moving the story arc along. I’m always for that. 4
Acting: Smart work from just about everyone in the cast. 4
Emotional Response: Nothing too unpredictable, but still a satisfying end to
the episode. 4
Production: The interiors looked all right, but nothing that really stood out.
Excellent work though on Reed’s Suliban make-up. 4
Overall: Good action, gobs of information (by Star Trek standards), and some
standout dialogue and acting. 4
Total: 29 out of 42
Episode Media
- Major
Klev and some Suliban children - Colonel
Grat, in charge of the Tandaran camp - Archer
has to restrain a bloodied Mayweather - Archer
and Mayweather in Grat’s office - Archer
in the Tandaran internment camp
From StarTrek.com
Science Flub of the Week
OK, now I’m just feeling like an ass for creating this section. So far I’m 1 for
3. No noticeable flubs this week.
Featured Star Trek Web Site
Learn more about the Japanese-American Internment camps during World War II:
- War
Relocation Authority Camps in Arizona, 1942-1946 (Univ of Arizona) - Japanese-American
Internment in WWII Photo Exhibit (Univ of Utah) - The Japanese American
Internment (Geocities) - Children of the Camps (Documentary)
Next Time on Enterprise (May 1, 2002)
VoxA strange, symbiotic alien creature boards the Enterprise capturing a few of
the crew members, including Archer and Trip, and cocoons them in its web feeding
off their bodies to survive. With the captured crewmembers’ lives in jeopardy,
Hoshi, under T’Pol’s command, faces her biggest challenge by trying to find
a way to communicate with the lifeform in order to return it to its home planet.
Related Links:
Score
Don’t worry, I’m sure that score will improve when
theangrymob gets around to filling out the “Overall”
section.
Re: Score
D’oh!
About time for some more action
I like this episode quite a bit.
I prefer more action, intrigue, and new ideas.
The only problem I had with it was the extremely poor excuse for why they ended up in the camp. I don’t mind starting the show not knowing, but when explaining time comes, they should do a better job at drawing the line between before and during the show.
Another thing I noticed was the lack of space scenes when Enterprise dealt with the other ships. They launched a torpedo or two and that was pretty much that. I geuss they had no time to show the explosions.
Re: About time for some more action
I see this a lot. It’s a budget cheat. Another trick to watch for (especially in older Treks) is the transporter/replicator often works off-screen. Though, I will say the transporter off-screen effect was a nice piece of cinematography. We knew something was beamed, but what? Cudos to the director.
Enterprise improving…
I’m seeing Archer and Trip emerge as show favorites here, especially after watching the latest show with the web alien.
Hoshi is shaping up too.
Is
So many bad decisions…
… I would have forgotten them, if a friend and I hadn’t started making a list:
The only thing that could have saved the ending would have been the Cabal capturing the Suliban. That would have been so sweet. Maybe we will see them working for the Cabal in a later episode.
Why didn’t they just use the transporter?
What I can’t figure out is why they didn’t just transport everybody out. Would have been a lot quicker, easier and safer.