Episode 15: Shadows of P'Jem

Okay, so we are back to the "Vulcans are evil" plotlines again and, whaddya know, it's Berman and Braga holding the pen.


B&B wrote the story and Sussman and Strong the screenplay for "Shadows of P'Jem", an episode whose sole redeeming feature is that, at the very least, it attempts to show that the events of one episode have consequences in later episodes.


In this case, the role T'Pol and Archer played in the exposure of the Vulcan listening post beneath the monastery of P'Jem way back in "The Andorian Incident" has an impact on Vulcan-Human relations and T'Pol's future with Star Fleet in "Shadows of P'Jem".


What's amazing is that it took a full eight episodes for those consequences to manifest themselves.


"Shadows of P'Jem" opens with a scene at Star Fleet, where Ambassador Soval angrily blames Archer for the destruction of the monastery and listening post, denounces Archer as Star Fleet's choice as Captain of the Earth's first Warp-Five star ship, then tells Admiral Forrest that all joint fleet exercises have been suspended while he returns to Vulcan to report to the High Command.


Forrest defends Archer but then has the unenviable task of contacting Enterprise to tell the Captain that the Vulcans are sending a ship to retrieve T'Pol, who is being reassigned as a result of her failure to prevent Archer's interference at P'Jem.


In a bizarre and ironic twisting of reality, Archer stops harassing and bullying his Vulcan science officer long enough to tell her that he won't stand for the Vulcan High Command taking such a valuable and valued officer from his crew (!!!!!) and tries to play on her supposed emotional attachment to him and the rest of the Human crew (!!!!) to convince her to try to stay with Enterprise.


Yep, this creative team actually seems to view the past 14 episodes (6 months?) of racist, sexist abuse that T'Pol has endured at the hands of her male Human crew mates as the foundation for a wonderful relationship that she would fight to maintain.


And, of course, because they are the people writing the lines, T'Pol actually ends up fighting to maintain that relationship and remain on Enterprise.


The implications of this point of view for their own personal lives are staggering: do these people honestly believe that a course of harassment and bullying is the path to a long-lasting, healthy relationship? It would seem so.


In the two days they still have together before the Vulcan ship arrives to collect T'Pol, Archer takes her with him on a visit to Coridan, an advanced planet with which Vulcan has a long-standing mining agreement. This is a nice allusion to TOS' "Journey to Babel", by the way, since it is established in that episode that Vulcan wishes Coridan to be accepted into the Federation to protect its mining industry from Tellarite raiders.


The Coridian Chancellor fails to warn Archer that they are in the midst of a rebellion and, inevitably, the rebels shoot down the shuttle pod and take Archer and T'Pol hostage. The rest of the plot is so irretrievably ridiculous that it's almost not worth mentioning. Suffice it to say, Tucker and Reid yell at the leader of the planet, the Vulcans arrive early and heap insults on the Star Fleet crew, and the Andorians, led by Schran, appear out of nowhere to aid in and complicate the rescue.


In the course of all that, Archer and T'Pol are left tied up together, a ridiculous extended scene which is apparently supposed to solidify their relationship while ensuring that T'Pol ends up rubbing her breasts in Archer's face as they try to escape. Thanks B&B, if we didn't know you were involved in writing this episode by that point, this incredibly tasteless and sexist moment bears your unmistakable mark.


The episode's plot is so pathetically ridiculous that I almost feel sorry for Strong and Sussman who were probably left to make the best of the trash their show runners threw at them to fix:

• The opening scene where Soval challenges Forrest over the destruction of P'Jem involves a great deal of anger, suggesting that the Andorian destruction of P'Jem was very recent (i.e. took place a full 8 episodes after the Vulcan listening post was exposed) and yet the survival of the monks, the listening post staff and the Vulcan relics seems to be in question -- knowing that the outpost had been exposed and the Andorians would very likely wish to destroy it, wouldn't the Vulcans have removed the monks and relics at least in the several months between exposure and attack and then station a star ship or two to protect the listening post? Why did they wait until the Andorians arrived and gave them all of three hours to clear out?
• The Vulcan ship is scheduled to take two days to get to Coridan, yet, inexplicably, arrives almost a day earlier, a remarkable feat of engineering that the writers pass off by having the Vulcan captain suggest that the Star Fleet crew had their calculations wrong;
• Tucker and Reid literally shout at the leader of the Coridan government, a severe breach of diplomatic protocol that should, but does not, result in a complaint to Star Fleet and disciplinary action against the two subordinate officers;
• A minor rebellious faction on Coridan has military equipment (a fixed wing aircraft) capable of tracking and shooting down a Star Fleet shuttle?
• Coridan's technologically advanced central government, in the middle of a rebellion and with significant mining interests to protect, doesn't have a sensor grid that blankets the entire planet?
• When greeted by an unknown aircraft that orders Archer to land the shuttle pod, he chooses first to disobey it, then to get into a dog fight with it, rather than simply following its orders on the assumption that it represents the government?
• In the earlier episode "Civilization", Enterprise was able to focus a camera from orbit to the point where it could pick out individual faces on the surface, and focus a microphone from orbit to the point where it could pick out individual conversations, yet in this episode it is incapable of ascertaining whether a metallic mass on the surface is or is not its shuttle pod, or of scanning for conversations in English once they have a pretty good idea of their crew's location on the surface?
• Enterprise in this episode could not even track where its own shuttle crashed?
• The Vulcan ship, with its even more advanced equipment, can't find the bio-signs of the lone Vulcan on the planet from orbit? can't trace the shuttle Reid and Tucker fly from Enterprise to the surface? can't pick out an Andorian ship in orbit or Andorian bio-signs on the surface?
• The Andorians suddenly have stealth technology such that they can follow the Vulcans to Coridan, listen in on their secure communications and land members of the Andorian crew on the planet without the Vulcans knowing anything about it?
• The transporter stopped working? Neither the Humans, the Vulcans nor the Andorians could simply locate Archer and T'Pol and beam them out? EVEN AFTER AN ANDORIAN OPERATIVE PLANTED A COMMUNICATOR IN ARCHER'S FOOD?
• The rebel faction that has fighter planes at its disposal only has eight soldiers available to resist an assault by the Humans, Andorians and finally the Vulcans?
• The Vulcans of this version of Star Trek wouldn't just shoot the Andorians on sight, especially since the Andorians are unwanted visitors to Coridan?
• The Andorians came on a star ship, yet only have two crew members to spare to help Archer escape, and one of them is their Captain?
• The Vulcan captain is the senior Vulcan officer in the quadrant, yet he personally leads a highly dangerous frontal assault on a rebel stronghold on a mission to free a despised Human officer and a disgraced Vulcan?
• Archer, T'Pol and apparently the Vulcan captain actually believe that T'Pol's disgrace with the Vulcan High Command will be corrected because she made an impulsive act in a battle situation?
• The Vulcan captain would actually permit Archer to take an injured Vulcan officer, whom he has arrived to collect, back to Enterprise for treatment when a Vulcan sick bay, complete with a Vulcan doctor, is available on his own ship to treat her?
• T'Pol would actually want to stay on board Enterprise despite the ongoing and unrelenting abuse she has endured from her captain and fellow crewmembers?

I'm sure there's more but my fingers are tired. I think you get the picture. This is a bad, bad episode and one which surely contributed significantly to the continued dive in Enterprise's ratings.