ENT: “Fight or Flight”

Date: August 23, 2021

Season 1, Episode 3

Music Video of the Day:

Interstellar News: Tonight I watched Labyrinth with all of David Bowie’s amazingness. Apparently I share a birth day with Jennifer Connolly (Sarah), though we’re 16 years apart! Work was a bit insane and I had my first in-person meeting since early March 2020.

TL;DR: Sato brought a slug back from a mission and it’s not doing well. Reed works on the targeting systems. Archer goes on the first rescue mission that turns into a murder investigation, Sato reconsiders coming on the ship in the first place, and the Enterprise gets itself into a bit of trouble (and also sort of makes a friend). Sato and the slug both adapt to their new homes of a starship and a new planet, respectively.

Favorite Quote:

Dr. Phlox: Have you smelled Ensign Socorro after she exercises? She gives off a fragrance not unlike the adrenal gland of a Nausicaan. And Crewmen Bennett and Haynem over there. Do you see them?

Dr. Phlox: If I’m not mistaken, they are preparing to mate. Do you think they might let me watch?

Tucker: It’s good to see you’re enjoying yourself.

Phlox is the best. He’s got all the wonder of Dr. Bashir without the naivete.

“Come on, Travis. We’ve got to find Mr. Reed something to blow up.”: I like half of this episode. I strongly dislike the bit with Sato having a crisis because it’s typical “I’m the only human woman on the bridge so I have to be panicky and hysterical” and I am not here for it. If they had stuck with her being weary of leaving the safety of the ship… maybe, but that works for Mayweather better as he grew up in ships. I guess it just felt like they wanted to do an episode on Sato that started with her rethinking her life and then being fine in the span of an hour… snooze.

I really enjoyed the Enterprise and Archer’s response about a distress signal. Are they explorers or are they the galaxy’s helpers? It turns out to be gruesome and T’Pol isn’t wrong when she says “assistance is no longer needed”. It might have been a cold thing to say, but she is Vulcan. I like seeing Archer reason things out with both his crew and Porthos and eventually coming to the decision of trying to help. His heart is in the right place and I know this is what leads to Starfleet responding to distress calls in the future. However, Archer needed to give Reed more time to get their weapons online and Sato more time to get the translator running… though he wasn’t really in charge of the timeline, so maybe that’s a bit unfair. I do like that Sato is able to explain, eventually, but it’s still the “clock stopping at 1” moment. It’s 5 “bork borks” for Porthos on this one.

TA Out!