Episode 44: The Crossing

"The Crossing" provides the clearest example so far of the reasons Enterprise failed. Not surprisingly, it was written by our friends Berman and Braga who, I continue to argue, are the authors of that failure.

Enterprise is overtaken and then swallowed up by a massive ship that houses what turns out to be a race of non-corporeal beings capable of taking over the bodies of the Enterprise crew. Although the entities present themselves at first as being peaceful "explorers", T'Pol's superior mental control permits her to discern that the entities' ship is breaking down and they face extinction unless they can take over the crew permanently.

The concept of a more advanced, non-corporeal race requiring corporeal bodies to survive is "borrowed" from TOS season two episode "Return to Tomorrow". Unfortunately, even if the TOS version of the concept is uneven, "The Crossing" is frankly regrettable.

And filled with elements that would likely have driven true Star Trek fans to distraction.

Characterization: As so often happens with episodes written by B&B, the humans respond to the unknown in childish, undignified ways. Archer is suspicious from the beginning, reacting with anger and petulance to the overwhelming superiority of the entities and to their initially peaceful-seeming advances. He wastes not a minute's thought that this encounter might be an opportunity for some true "exploration" and cultural learning.

When it turns out that the entities' behaviour is driven by its own need to survive as the result of the failings of their own ship, Archer fails entirely to consider what any other Star Fleet captain would have immediately considered: making at least some attempt to work with the entities to find a way either to repair their ship or to rescue the entities in some other way. Instead, he shows no hesitation at destroying their ship and murdering them all when he has the chance.

I cannot imagine a single Star Trek fan (by that point in the Second Season, the only people who could possibly have been continuing to watch Enterprise) finding the outcome of "The Crossing" in any way acceptable. Even if we accept that Archer represents a Star Fleet captain in early development, there is imply no way that we can accept that a human being placed in that position could possibly murder these entities in "cold blood" as Archer does here.

The Masturbatory Male: As soon as I saw, in the opening credits, that "The Crossing" was written by B&B, I knew it would feature childish behaviour on the part of the crew and at least one scene involving the hyper-sexualization of T'Pol. I said to myself: "Okay, when and how are they going to get T'Pol into a state of undress in a sexual situation?" B&B played true to form by having the second entity take over Reid and send him on an over-sexed stroll through the ship. He harasses a female crew member in the turbolift and then proceeds, with unerring aim, to T'Pol's quarters where the science officer is, inexplicably during a time of such danger, meditating in her pajamas.

As with the previous turbolift scene, Reid's aggressive approach to T'Pol (in which he demands that she remove her clothes to make sexual contact easier) is played for laughs. It almost seems that B&B expected their viewers to find the scene both exciting and funny.

Again, Star Trek fans are known for their commitment to the dignity of all, to equity and diversity. This scene, as so many others before it, would be viewed with extreme distaste and discomfort by such fans. B&B, as was their wont, ignored what made Star Trek so successful in the past in their desire to attract the immature male viewer.

Plot Holes: Again, as was their wont, B&B didn't seem to wish to waste their time and energy in attempting to construct a logical, rational plot.

Why would a race of non-corporeal entities have such a massive ship with the capacity to swallow up other ships so easily?

It is established late in the episode that the entities cannot survive in space yet, somehow, they can travel through it to invade Enterprise.

If the entities were planning to take over the Enterprise crew, why didn't they do it as soon as they discovered that the humans were suitable and while they had the Enterprise, powerless, within their own ship? And all at once? Why would they release the smaller Earth ship? Why would they permit the crew to carry out repairs?

Why was T'Pol, who requires little rest, off duty in the middle of this crisis?

Why did Archer not issue a ship-wide warning to all crew members as soon as it became clear that the entities were starting to take over individuals?

Why, when Tucker displayed such abnormal behaviour late in the show, did Mayweather not immediately take action to stop him?

Why did T'Pol, who was also relatively immune to the entities, not accompany Phlox on his mission?

Why did the entities, once they found themselves locked in different crew quarters, not leave their then current hosts, float through the walls and find another host who was free? Why did they docilely accept the fact that they were trapped?

I could go on and on.

One of my favourite quibbles is the fact that, in describing for Phlox what he must do to flood the ship with gas and drive out the entities, the human crew (and the Vulcan) tell him to set certain valves at the "3 o'clock" and "9 o'clock" positions. I'm sorry? They are still using old-fashioned clock faces in Enterprise's time? Alien species would understand what "3 o'clock" and "9 o'clock" mean? Not buying it.

"Crossing Over" is an awful episode of Star Trek. It suffers from practically every ill that B&B introduced to the franchise, every insult B&B continued to perpetrate on the dedicated Star Trek fanbase.

If you want to figure out why Enterprise failed to earn and retain an audience, even among the most loyal of Star Trek fans, "Crossing Over" would be a pretty good place to start.