ENT: “Desert Crossing” and “Two Days and Two Nights”

Date: January 13, 2022

Season 1, Episodes 24 and 25

Music Video of the Day:

Interstellar News: Tonight I was on another American Sci-Fi Classics Track panel where I got to babble about The Fellowship of the Ring, since it just turned 20 in December. It’s been very busy at work as a lot of students are testing positive and we need to help them participate remotely.

TL;DR: In “Desert Crossing” they’re continuing onto Risa when they decide to answer a distress call from the man himself, Clancy Brown… I mean Zobral. After fixing his ship, he thanks Archer and Tucker by trying to enlist them in their fight against their oppressors.

In “Two Days and Two Nights” the crew FINALLY makes it to Risa! Archer and Porthos meet a woman, who turns out to by a spy. Reed and Tucker get mugged by shapeshifters. Phlox goes into hibernation only to be pulled out to care for Mayweather, who has an allergic reaction to some alien drugs. Sato has a fling with another language nerd.

Favorite Quotes:

Archer: What about the two weeks we spent in Australia? We had a great time.

Tucker: Survival training in the outback? Drinking recycled sweat and eating snake meat? That’s your idea of a great time?

Tucker has such a way with words.

“Even if I were the warrior you thought I was, that’s not why we’re out here.”: Clancy Brown is a national treasure and he really makes this episode pop. The crew keeps putting out fires, which is eventually what the Enterprise will do regularly in the future, but this one resolves heavily on Archer and Tucker and their lack of shirts. The events of “Detained” have spread through the galaxy – but this episode shows Archer has kind of learned from his past mistakes. He realizes as much as it is a cause worth fighting for, that’s not the purpose of his mission – and he really could have fucked things up for what will eventually be. T’Pol also continues to be the only adult on the crew with wisdom beyond the others. While this may be the standard “someone told us something that wasn’t true and now we’re in the thick of things” episode, you really feel for Zobral and his crew once you learn the whole story. I also really love Clancy Brown and he deserves a Porthos for every member of his crew.

“I appreciate the offer, but it would be best to keep our relationship professional.”: This episode was jam packed with all sorts of subplots. Also, the CGI was TERRIBLE.

My LEAST favorite was Archer and Porthos with the woman who turned out to want to know all about the Cabal. While it moved the macro plot along, and she had a pupper too, it was just strange and didn’t flow really well.

My next least favorite was Reed and Tucker. They were incredibly misogynistic about finding dates for the evening and they deserved everything they got. Okay – no one deserves to be mugged – but they were practically screaming that they were desperate tourists.

My second favorite subplot is Sato. I love that another being was into her because of language and it was just adorable to see them figure out how to communicate. I also enjoyed that she was so open about their relationship and wasn’t the stereotypical damsel taken advantage of.

My favorite subplot was Dr. Phlox. He doesn’t need to sleep very often but he finally feels like he’ll have a few days while the crew is on leave – and Mayweather has to screw it up. Both the physical comedy and the one liners are fantastically delivered, while T’Pol is there to be his “straight man”. If I had a whole episode of Phlox just floundering from being woken up prematurely – it would be wonderful. Instead, it’s only 4 hops to the beach for Porthos… poor boy.

TA Out!