Episode 9: Civilization

The birth of the Prime Directive. Though the Vulcans have already recognised the dangers inherent in the arrival of representatives of more advanced races on a primitive society, Star Fleet doesn't seem to have had even the common sense necessary to recognise they would need at some kind of policy for first contacts prior to sending NX01 on its inaugural voyage of deep space exploration.

Archer and his crew arrive with evident delight at a Menchara Class planet with a pre-industrial civilization. After some discussion of how they should approach this new world, with T'Pol as usual portrayed as the wet blanket trying to dampen their fun, their sensors discover a surprise: an anti-matter power source in the middle of one of the planet's many cities.

When they travel down to investigate, they find an apothecary trying to figure out a new plague that has affected the people in the neighbourhood and an alien disguising himself as a curio shop owner to cover up an illegal mining operation. The Enterprise crew discovers that the mining operation utilizes a highly toxic lubricant on its drills, a lubricant that is being permitted to leach into the local ground water and cause the plague.

Romance and adventure follow and Archer and crew save the day.

We learn that the Enterprise has cameras that can zoom in on individual faces all the way from orbit and microphones that can listen in on individual conversations taking place on the surface. We find out that the crew's communicators can also, once properly programmed, act as universal translators, apparently instantaneously morphing spoken English into the local language, perfectly synched with the speaker's lip movements so that no one notices anything suspicious.

I'm not fond of the way T'Pol is treated when she first suggests that Vulcan first-contact protocols be followed but at least it doesn't take the form of the bullying we've seen in earlier episodes. It is nice to see that a female apothecary is the central force in investigating the plague. And at least Sato takes on an important role in the landing party, which is a refreshing change.

I have concerns about the fact that Archer grabs and kisses the apothecary when his translator starts to act up -- I recognise that the mini-romance in this episode is intended to harken fondly back to Kirk's reputation for having a woman in every port but the fact that Archer's advances are sudden, without consent and without negative consequence is still warrants challenge.

I also hope to goodness that, once the episode comes to an end, Tucker gets thrown into the brig for a spell for his insubordination toward T'Pol in the climactic scenes when he first attempts to stop the bridge crew from obeying her orders, then attempts to order his engineering team to disable the ship rather than follow her commands.

In fact, that last space battle is one of the best in the series. Archer is trapped on the surface, still working to disable the alien's dampening field that is stopping Enterprise from beaming the anti-matter power plant off the planet, and Enterprise is under attack by the alien's much better armed, better defended ship. T'Pol takes command, faces down Tucker's insubordination and comes up with a brilliantly creative way to defeat the alien ship.

It's tightly paced, tense scene and shows Jolene Blalock at her best.

It also brings to a close a pretty good epsiode of Star Trek that features an interesting plot, a dramatic climax and some very impressive sets on the planet.