Star Trek: Enterprise: Hatchery Rewatch

November 17, 2019 2:30 PM - Season 3, Episode 17

Don’t get between Archer and his young.

Let all the details that lurk in the Memory Alpha hatch out:

- The interior of the Xindi-Insectoid shuttle was later revamped to serve as Shran's ship in the series finale of Enterprise, "These Are the Voyages..."

- The Insectoid console with the glass dome is a reuse of the stellar cartography set piece built for Star Trek: The Next Generation.

- An NX-01 ballcap, worn briefly by T'Pol, is seen for the first time since the first season episode "Desert Crossing".


"They may know how to build a weapons system, but these people could learn a thing or two about designing a comfortable chair."
"For an Insectoid, maybe they are comfortable."
- Tucker and Mayweather


"The Xindi are trying to destroy Earth because they heard that Humans are ruthless, this is the chance to prove them wrong."
- Archer


"I don't know much about Vulcan ethics but Humans don't throw morality out the window when things start getting a little rough."
- Archer, when T'Pol suggests Enterprise abandon the hatchery


Poster’s Log:
It’s funny, and probably not deliberate, that most of Archer’s actual arguments in favor of protecting the eggs sound positively Picard-like, except he’s being controlled by alien biochemicals. Presumably, normal-minded Archer would’ve treated the whole crew to Xindi-baby omelettes. Soft on the outside, crunchy on the inside!

I would also like to nominate this episode for Least Imaginative Star Trek Episode Title Ever (though the winner of the more high-profile category Least Imaginative Star Trek Installment Title Ever has already been determined: "Picard").

This is Daniel Dae Kim’s last Star Trek appearance to date.

posted by CheesesOfBrazil (6 comments total)

As another decent entry in the Xindi/Expanse arc, which we know because there was a "previously on..." teaser, I was pretty happy. It's also an entry in another favorite trope of the franchise, The Captain's Gone Cuckoo, which goes back to the first season of TOS, "The Enemy Within", with evil Kirk getting sweaty, dramatically lit, and just chewin' up the scenery more than the usual. Of course, in that one, we knew right from the start that there was another, nastier Kirk running around, and in this episode, we might have been clued in that something was going to happen with Archer getting hit in the face with a goo spew (in the manner of space viruses and space pollen and whatnot)--think of it as Chekov's Earworm, if you will--but it's supposed to be something of a secret to the crew, who seem to be completely oblivious to the captain picking up an amazing amount of bug juice on his uniform, until, thank Vaal, he finally takes a shower. Seriously, folks.

The other thing that alarmed me quite a bit was how the MACOs not only blithely ignored how insane in the spaceframe Archer was getting, but just sort of blithely ignored the fact that none of them seem particularly qualified to run the ship. They were acting more as if it were the Mirror Universe episode already and they were the captain's Praetorian guard or something. I could see having a situation in which the MACOs thought that they needed to take charge or something, but even if they didn't see how irrational the captain was being generally, why would they not object to his plundering the antimatter stores, from a strategic/tactical viewpoint? Not to mention the general absurdity of their being in charge (and locking up most of the senior staff) when the entire mission depended on the crew sciencing some shit up.

Also a pity that they didn't give Daniel Dae Kim more or better to do. I feel like he had a better role on his one appearance in VOY than in his three here.
posted by Halloween Jack at 9:07 PM on November 17, 2019 [2 favorites]

P.S. Left out something from the second para above: There may be some commentary there on US military special forces being put in situations where they really weren't that effective and/or weren't the best people for the job; this would have been too early for the post-9/11 scandals involving SOF, but after the Battle of Mogadishu/Black Hawk Down incident.
posted by Halloween Jack at 9:09 PM on November 17, 2019

If you want a filthy Bakula this is the episode for you. I really wanted to see a redshirt put their helmet back on quickly after Archer got sprayed.

I thought they did an okay job with Archer making some important humanitarian points while also going too far. Too bad it was because he had bug mom sickness :-| Trip drops "we are at war", which they're not right? But still he doesn't get "war crimes" flipped back in his face, which he should.

Now that I'm watching the episodes at a slow pace I notice things I'd learned to ignore, like just how boring the Starfleet uniforms are. Also how the Macos look like they got some real bad hard water stains on theirs.

Also the Enterprise really needs a longboat, or some carrier racks for her shuttle pods.
posted by fleacircus at 6:24 AM on November 18, 2019 [1 favorite]

There may be some commentary there on US military special forces being put in situations where they really weren't that effective and/or weren't the best people for the job

Hmm; if this were season 4, I might speculate similarly. Here, though, I'm inclined to simply attribute it to "the writers really needed more conflict," because as you mentioned:
even if they didn't see how irrational the captain was being generally, why would they not object to his plundering the antimatter stores, from a strategic/tactical viewpoint?
…i.e., they clearly didn't think too far past their story beats.

I expected that I wouldn't be as on the fence as I still am, this far into the rewatch, on whether the inclusion of the MACOs on this series was worthwhile or not. I mean, it gives Reed something to do, and a few of them are compelling actors… but between the overall rah-rah, the pressure that they bring to the writer's room to include more gunplay, and the aforementioned strange motivations in stories like these… I dunno.

Maybe part of my ambivalence comes from my awareness that a certain segment of the Trek fanbase seems to think the MACOs are the best thing ever and should have been in everything, and that segment is…one with which I disagree on various other things.

think of it as Chekov's Earworm, if you will

*headsmack* Perfect. I wonder what song HE had in his head that whole time. Probably something by Chaka Khan.

I really wanted to see a redshirt put their helmet back on quickly after Archer got sprayed.

Hehehe. "Is there brain-altering biochemicals?! You don't know!!"
posted by CheesesOfBrazil at 7:17 AM on November 18, 2019 [2 favorites]

a certain segment of the Trek fanbase seems to think the MACOs are the best thing ever and should have been in everything

Ah, yes, the milSF fans, who miss the point of the franchise so badly (as in, from "The Corbomite Maneuver" onwards) that they're not even worth arguing with.
posted by Halloween Jack at 7:51 AM on November 18, 2019 [1 favorite]

There's MACO fans? Horrifying. I'm not even averse to military stuff, it just doesn't belong in Star Trek and I hate these guys on Enterprise.
posted by fleacircus at 10:10 PM on November 18, 2019 [2 favorites]