I am watching the first episode of Star Trek Enterprise, which was originally broadcast in 2001, but I think I must have originally seen it a few years later, since two youngest children were born in 2002 and 2003, and I remember leaving them with my husband while I went swimming before rushing back to see the episodes.
I developed M.E. after giving birth in 2003, but I had briefly bounced back at that time, and I remember aiming for 20 lengths. I haven’t been able to go swimming at all for the last few years, so I look back at the energy levels of that time enviously.
Synopsis of the Episode
[TLDR: The first Mission to explore Strange New Worlds and to Go Boldly Where No One Has Gone Before begins with an injured Klingon, and the introduction to the Suliban and the Temporal Cold War.]
Humans are on the edge of venturing out on their mission of exploration, having waited 100 years since First Contact with the Vulcans, who shepherd their space exploration programme, carefully limiting their access to their knowledge, expertise and technology.
Meanwhile, a Klingon male – Klaang – has been found, in a proverbial corn field, and has been shot by the farmer, and is in a critical state in hospital under the care of Denobulan doctor, Phlox. The Vulcans think that he should be allowed to die, as Klingon culture, like Viking Berserkers, values a heroic death. Captain Archer, son of the Warp 5 Engine designer, reminds them that “he’s not dead yet” and convinces his superiors to allow him to return him to the Klingon Empire, taking Phlox on as Chief Medical Officer.
Captain Archer goes out to convince his chosen communications officer, Hoshi Sato, to join the mission.
We see our first glimpse of the NX-01 Enterprise, and I know people have heavily criticised the series for so many things, but one of the things I always loved about it was the design of the ship, being very basic and obviously less technologically advanced than the original series.
It has been agreed that the Vulcan woman T’Pol will join Enterprise as science officer.
Admiral Forrest announces that the mission will begin, with the Vulcan ambassadors looking on, apparently less than impressed. He plays an excerpt from a video of Zephram Cochrane giving a rousing speech about the future of space exploration, which gave me goose pimples!
What I think nobody realises at this stage is that Klaang was chasing some other aliens, who are not friendly and definitely up to something, and don’t want Klaang to be returned to his people.
There’s a scene where Trip (Chief Engineer) and * (Pilot) are messing about and talk about one particular alien race whose women have 3 boobies, which rather unfortunately sets the tone a bit for how women are treated throughout the series. “You can’t expect us to change overnight”, quips Archer, prophetically.
A little while after they set off, Klaang regains consciousness and Hoshi attempts to communicate with him, with difficulty, but it turns out he’s still delirious. This is another thing I love about Enterprise’s treatment of technology – the Universal Translator technology is in its infancy, and so Hoshi must use all her linguistic expertise to bridge the gap. I think it is very well done.
At this point, the power goes out and Hoshi spots a camouflaged alien on board. One of the aliens is shot and captured, but when the power and lights return, the other has captured Klaang and taken him off the ship.
T’Pol tries to tell Archer that, since they have lost Klaang, the mission is over and they should return home, and Archer tells her in no uncertain terms that he won’t do that.
Dr Phlox does an autopsy on the alien, a Suliban, who has apparently been extensively genetically engineered.
T’Pol goes on to irritate Trip and an argument ensues. She reluctantly tells them they need to head towards the planetary system of Rigel.
Meanwhile, Klaang is being questioned by the Suliban.
On arrival, the crew are confronted with cultures they don’t understanding, including a mother who is attempting to acclimatise her child to an oxygen atmosphere, which Tripp misinterprets as abuse.
Archer and Hoshi are searching for Klingons but find Suliban. Sarin, whose name they recognise from Klaang’s incoherent speech earlier, appears human but is a camouflaged Suliban. She kisses Archer, claiming that she has the ability to measure trust but only through close physical contact. (An ability they never feature again). She tells Archer that Klaang is carrying information crucial to the Klingon Empire, and alerts him to the ‘Temporal Cold War’, which is a theme that runs though the whole series.
A battle ensues, and Sarin is killed by the other, enemy, party of Suliban, and so Archer must try to find Klaang without her help. They eventually make it back to the shuttle and back to Enterprise.
Archer has been injured so T’Pol takes command of Enterprise, and Tripp expects her to take them back to Earth, since she was opposed to his plan, but she manages to track the Suliban ship.
Oh, and an infamous gratuitous sexy nakedness ‘Decontamination’ scene, where Trip and T’Pol have to rub decontamination lotion all over each other, all the while arguing about the mission. We get a few more of these throughout the series. I don’t particularly find them offensive but I do think that it didn’t do Enterprise any favours, as it’s one of the reasons people can’t take the series seriously, and I think it diminishes T’Pol’s acting abilities, as it did in Voyager with Seven of Nine.
We see the Suliban speaking to a shadowy figure, the Temporal Cold War Agent who gives him instructions from the far future, but we never discover who he is or anything much about him.
Enterprise eventually find a Suliban station, and after a brief skirmish, they capture a Suliban shuttlepod so they can get on to the station undetected. Detecting Klingon life signs, the dock as close as they can to where they think he is. They find and release Klaang and manage to communicate that they are there to rescue him. Archer sets a charge which releases all the shuttlepods so they won’t be able to easily detect them leaving, and Trip has to leave with Klaang while Archer stays on the station.
Archer stumbles upon the room in which the Suliban communicate with the future Temporal Agent. The room distorts time, so when the Suliban Silik shoots, Archer is able to move out of the way and after a tussle Enterprise uses the Transporter for the first time to rescue him.
They make it back to the Klingon Empire and return Klaang, so that he is able to bring them impormation stored in his blood which presumably brings the Empire back together.
In light of this, they are given orders to continue their mission of exploration. Phlox is to remain on board, and although T’Pol is expected to return to Earth, she agrees that it would benefit the mission if she stays.
On My Enterprise
So I said in my previous post that I could see medical parallels in Star Trek Enterprise, right from this first episode.
The first thing I can see is the way that the Vulcans are so willing to treat Klaang as if he were dead, assuming that he is going to die anyway. I have often felt as someone with the diagnosis of M.E. that it is such a dreadful diagnosis because you are almost literally left to suffer and die.
The only NHS treatment, of Graded Exercise Therapy, has been proved in many, many cases to be potentially very harmful, leaving people who were only slightly disabled up until that point, in a severely disabled condition afterwards. There are helps and supports available, but unless you know the right things to ask for and the right people to approach, and unless you have an advocate fighting for you, you are very much left to the vagaries of the disease.
The second thing that jumps out at me is Phlox. It took a remarkably unconventional and extraordinary doctor to speak up and reject the received wisdom and medical concensus, and allow Klaang the opportunity to recover under his exemplary care. Oh that there existed more doctors like him!
My current GP is absolutely wonderful, but I had 3 doctors over a period of 10 years who were absolutely dire, and were completely willing for me to suffer while telling me I was ‘depressed’. The GP I had when I got ill actually suggested it looked like M.E. but then proceeded to tell me that she didn’t ‘believe’ in it, and so refused to diagnose it. I don’t currently have the energy to tell you what I think of her.
I am not sure whether or not I have quite managed to do what I set out to do with this episode, but I quite enjoyed it so I hope you at least don’t hate it. I hope to watch and write some more, as energy allows.
If you would like to talk about any of the themes from this episode, or relating to living with chronic pain and illness, I would love to hear from you.
LLAP
Star Trek Therapy 