Star Trek: Enterprise: Chosen Realm Rewatch
October 14, 2019 8:40 AM - Season 3, Episode 12 - Subscribe
The crew play good Samaritan.
Memory Alpha has the deets:
- Episode writer Manny Coto explained the story; "It's a very rigid theology and Enterprise has broken several taboos and must pay for it. The episode dramatises where the intractability of religious extremism ultimately leads. Fundamentalists of all stripes – it's a rigid belief that's not based on empirical evidence, that's what I'm attacking."
- This episode brought back Conor O'Farrell and Gregory Wagrowski. O'Farrell previously appeared in the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode "Little Green Men" and in the Enterprise first season episode "Rogue Planet" while Wagrowski played Solok in the Deep Space Nine episode "Take Me Out to the Holosuite".
- This episode shares several elements with the original series episode "Let That Be Your Last Battlefield". Both episodes feature two factions of the same species fighting over what seems like an insignificant difference in their faith or physiology. Both of the factions share an immense hatred for the other, the ship is hijacked, and the episodes end with the species' home planets being shown as lifeless, decimated by war.
- D'Jamat talks to Archer about the time where he had to torture a prisoner in the airlock. He refers to Orgoth, whom Archer interrogated in "Anomaly".
- After Archer's "execution", he contacts Phlox with the phrase "Don't feed him cheese" to recognize him, from his advice in "A Night in Sickbay".
"What's wrong?"
"We've just begun this mission, and already, three people are dead."
"And that bothers you…"
"Shouldn't it?!… These people are not our enemy!"
"They are non-believers… that makes them our enemy!"
- D'Jamat and Yarrick
"These people you're fighting… what makes them heretics?"
"We believe the Makers created the Chosen Realm in nine days. They believe it took ten."
"For that, you've been at war for over a century?!"
- Archer and Yarrick
"There'll be an extra helping of snow beetles for you tonight, young lady."
- Phlox, to his pet Pyrithian bat, after the animal distracts the Triannon guard long enough for the doctor to sedate him
Poster's Log:
It wasn't too bad, for an episode that owes a lot to previous Trek installments on this subject; in addition to the aforementioned "Let That Be Your Last Battlefield", it also reused the idea of organic bombs from VOY's "Basics, Part I" (even the activation process was similar), and of course the theme of religions based around natural or artificial space phenomena, which occurs and recurs throughout the entire franchise, being central to DS9, Star Trek V, and ENT's S1 episode "Cold Front." The Triannons seem at first to be one of the benevolent examples, but nope.
I'm actually OK with the holy war being over what would seem like a fairly trivial difference in canon--holy wars have been fought over shibboleths for millenia (that is, in fact, where the term "shibboleth" comes from), and as recently as the Balkan War, people were killed according to how exactly they made the sign of the cross (that determining their particular sect of Catholicism, and therefore their ethnicity), but I think that the ending is a cop-out, and yet one more example of the show not sticking the ending--heck, not even really doing an ending as much as simply stopping the episode. At least TOS' "Let That Be Your Last Battlefield" had Lokai and Bele decide to continue their war on their devastated planet, with the viewer left to decide whether it's simple buttheadedness or because it's all they've got left. Some words from Archer or T'Pol about how their own species had warred with themselves almost to the brink of extinction over causes which now seemed stupid might have been apropos, as well. On the plus side, we inadvertently know a bit more about the Sphere Builders--that they're building the spheres specifically to "terraform" space into something more to their liking--and I don't even mind that part of the effect of this episode is that it sets the ship back in its progress to find out more about the spheres.
Various minor points: I thought that the use of the transporter as a fake suicide booth was clever, although, given that we've now established that even the early transporters can do intra-ship beaming, it brings up the question of why the crew simply didn't beam the cultists, starting with the two flanking the warp core and D'Jamat, out into space. (That's a pretty good question regarding any number of episodes in all the series in which the ship is physically boarded.) It's also yet another episode in which the boarded ship has to be retaken by someone (especially Archer) has to John McClain their way through it. I will give them points for sciencing the shit out of the bomb problem, though. Conor O'Farrell as D'Jamat was pretty good, although Gregory Wagrowski as Ceris was mostly wasted--he was much better used in DS9 as the Vulcan supremacist captain Solok who had his crew learn baseball just to humiliate Sisko.
Memory Alpha has the deets:
- Episode writer Manny Coto explained the story; "It's a very rigid theology and Enterprise has broken several taboos and must pay for it. The episode dramatises where the intractability of religious extremism ultimately leads. Fundamentalists of all stripes – it's a rigid belief that's not based on empirical evidence, that's what I'm attacking."
- This episode brought back Conor O'Farrell and Gregory Wagrowski. O'Farrell previously appeared in the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode "Little Green Men" and in the Enterprise first season episode "Rogue Planet" while Wagrowski played Solok in the Deep Space Nine episode "Take Me Out to the Holosuite".
- This episode shares several elements with the original series episode "Let That Be Your Last Battlefield". Both episodes feature two factions of the same species fighting over what seems like an insignificant difference in their faith or physiology. Both of the factions share an immense hatred for the other, the ship is hijacked, and the episodes end with the species' home planets being shown as lifeless, decimated by war.
- D'Jamat talks to Archer about the time where he had to torture a prisoner in the airlock. He refers to Orgoth, whom Archer interrogated in "Anomaly".
- After Archer's "execution", he contacts Phlox with the phrase "Don't feed him cheese" to recognize him, from his advice in "A Night in Sickbay".
"What's wrong?"
"We've just begun this mission, and already, three people are dead."
"And that bothers you…"
"Shouldn't it?!… These people are not our enemy!"
"They are non-believers… that makes them our enemy!"
- D'Jamat and Yarrick
"These people you're fighting… what makes them heretics?"
"We believe the Makers created the Chosen Realm in nine days. They believe it took ten."
"For that, you've been at war for over a century?!"
- Archer and Yarrick
"There'll be an extra helping of snow beetles for you tonight, young lady."
- Phlox, to his pet Pyrithian bat, after the animal distracts the Triannon guard long enough for the doctor to sedate him
Poster's Log:
It wasn't too bad, for an episode that owes a lot to previous Trek installments on this subject; in addition to the aforementioned "Let That Be Your Last Battlefield", it also reused the idea of organic bombs from VOY's "Basics, Part I" (even the activation process was similar), and of course the theme of religions based around natural or artificial space phenomena, which occurs and recurs throughout the entire franchise, being central to DS9, Star Trek V, and ENT's S1 episode "Cold Front." The Triannons seem at first to be one of the benevolent examples, but nope.
I'm actually OK with the holy war being over what would seem like a fairly trivial difference in canon--holy wars have been fought over shibboleths for millenia (that is, in fact, where the term "shibboleth" comes from), and as recently as the Balkan War, people were killed according to how exactly they made the sign of the cross (that determining their particular sect of Catholicism, and therefore their ethnicity), but I think that the ending is a cop-out, and yet one more example of the show not sticking the ending--heck, not even really doing an ending as much as simply stopping the episode. At least TOS' "Let That Be Your Last Battlefield" had Lokai and Bele decide to continue their war on their devastated planet, with the viewer left to decide whether it's simple buttheadedness or because it's all they've got left. Some words from Archer or T'Pol about how their own species had warred with themselves almost to the brink of extinction over causes which now seemed stupid might have been apropos, as well. On the plus side, we inadvertently know a bit more about the Sphere Builders--that they're building the spheres specifically to "terraform" space into something more to their liking--and I don't even mind that part of the effect of this episode is that it sets the ship back in its progress to find out more about the spheres.
Various minor points: I thought that the use of the transporter as a fake suicide booth was clever, although, given that we've now established that even the early transporters can do intra-ship beaming, it brings up the question of why the crew simply didn't beam the cultists, starting with the two flanking the warp core and D'Jamat, out into space. (That's a pretty good question regarding any number of episodes in all the series in which the ship is physically boarded.) It's also yet another episode in which the boarded ship has to be retaken by someone (especially Archer) has to John McClain their way through it. I will give them points for sciencing the shit out of the bomb problem, though. Conor O'Farrell as D'Jamat was pretty good, although Gregory Wagrowski as Ceris was mostly wasted--he was much better used in DS9 as the Vulcan supremacist captain Solok who had his crew learn baseball just to humiliate Sisko.
We might remember D'Jamat as the scientist at the Army base from DS9: "Little Green Men."
In some ways, this is pretty standard Trek fare, which is practically praise for this show at this point. There's some good debating and an ending with some emotional impact.
D'Jamat pointing out the similarities in Archer justifying torture (in "Anomaly") and D'Jamat's sect justifying all sorts of things [...] makes it seem like Coto & Co. are at least aware of criticism of that theme
I suppose so. OTOH, the fact that they do go for the cop-out "ha haaa, you're both screwed" ending is all the more weak because they clearly went for a lot of real-world parallels here. In the West at this time, any episode about suicide bombers and seemingly-endless religious wars was naturally going to conjure the Middle East in our minds' maps, notwithstanding Coto's insistence on universality ("The episode dramatises where the intractability of religious extremism ultimately leads. Fundamentalists of all stripes – it's a rigid belief that's not based on empirical evidence, that's what I'm attacking"). That association may (at the time, and maybe even now) make some segments of the audience dismiss and dislike the Triannons too readily, and likewise become as uninvested in their conflict as they were, and even moreso are, in, say, events in Afghanistan.
The message could, IMO, have been strengthened, maybe by the crew referencing a few more of those other "stripes" in-universe—didn't T'Pol face down some fundies? Surely she could chime in with a lecture about logic and "empirical evidence" there?—and/or offering another path. But I suppose that would have taken time away from People Carrying Phaser Rifles in the Corridors, which is the mental image that may now be most closely associated in my brain with the phrase Star Trek: Enterprise.
Anyway, it's probably not the worst example of ENT/Trek trying to be edgy and ripped-from-the-headlines-y (and hey, they even mentioned abortion! I guess the scene about file-sharing got left on the cutting room floor). And frankly I don't mind the blatantly TOS-ish finale, despite the real-world connotations I referenced above; without it, this hour might have felt a lot more disposable.
it brings up the question of why the crew simply didn't beam the cultists, starting with the two flanking the warp core and D'Jamat, out into space. (That's a pretty good question regarding any number of episodes in all the series in which the ship is physically boarded.)
There's too much plot interference, Captain!
posted by CheesesOfBrazil at 3:25 AM on October 15, 2019 [1 favorite]
In some ways, this is pretty standard Trek fare, which is practically praise for this show at this point. There's some good debating and an ending with some emotional impact.
D'Jamat pointing out the similarities in Archer justifying torture (in "Anomaly") and D'Jamat's sect justifying all sorts of things [...] makes it seem like Coto & Co. are at least aware of criticism of that theme
I suppose so. OTOH, the fact that they do go for the cop-out "ha haaa, you're both screwed" ending is all the more weak because they clearly went for a lot of real-world parallels here. In the West at this time, any episode about suicide bombers and seemingly-endless religious wars was naturally going to conjure the Middle East in our minds' maps, notwithstanding Coto's insistence on universality ("The episode dramatises where the intractability of religious extremism ultimately leads. Fundamentalists of all stripes – it's a rigid belief that's not based on empirical evidence, that's what I'm attacking"). That association may (at the time, and maybe even now) make some segments of the audience dismiss and dislike the Triannons too readily, and likewise become as uninvested in their conflict as they were, and even moreso are, in, say, events in Afghanistan.
The message could, IMO, have been strengthened, maybe by the crew referencing a few more of those other "stripes" in-universe—didn't T'Pol face down some fundies? Surely she could chime in with a lecture about logic and "empirical evidence" there?—and/or offering another path. But I suppose that would have taken time away from People Carrying Phaser Rifles in the Corridors, which is the mental image that may now be most closely associated in my brain with the phrase Star Trek: Enterprise.
Anyway, it's probably not the worst example of ENT/Trek trying to be edgy and ripped-from-the-headlines-y (and hey, they even mentioned abortion! I guess the scene about file-sharing got left on the cutting room floor). And frankly I don't mind the blatantly TOS-ish finale, despite the real-world connotations I referenced above; without it, this hour might have felt a lot more disposable.
it brings up the question of why the crew simply didn't beam the cultists, starting with the two flanking the warp core and D'Jamat, out into space. (That's a pretty good question regarding any number of episodes in all the series in which the ship is physically boarded.)
There's too much plot interference, Captain!
posted by CheesesOfBrazil at 3:25 AM on October 15, 2019 [1 favorite]
But I suppose that would have taken time away from People Carrying Phaser Rifles in the Corridors, which is the mental image that may now be most closely associated in my brain with the phrase Star Trek: Enterprise.
That's what gets me about a lot of this--even with Coto on board, they fall back on the same action cliches that B&B have been trucking in since they took over VOY. They've got their own Space Marines now, but they're seemingly unable or unwilling to mark certain areas of the ship off-limits to the people that they just rescued, and Captain I'll Throw You Out The Airlock You Just See If I Don't is oddly reluctant to have the rescuees scanned, despite the numerous previous incidents of the ship being taken over by subterfuge (not to mention the Xindi just sort of walking in any old time they feel like it). It's as if someone realized a twist (the transporter trick) that they didn't use during one of their previous McClaining episodes, and they just had to do it all again so that they could use that twist.
posted by Halloween Jack at 7:10 AM on October 15, 2019 [1 favorite]
That's what gets me about a lot of this--even with Coto on board, they fall back on the same action cliches that B&B have been trucking in since they took over VOY. They've got their own Space Marines now, but they're seemingly unable or unwilling to mark certain areas of the ship off-limits to the people that they just rescued, and Captain I'll Throw You Out The Airlock You Just See If I Don't is oddly reluctant to have the rescuees scanned, despite the numerous previous incidents of the ship being taken over by subterfuge (not to mention the Xindi just sort of walking in any old time they feel like it). It's as if someone realized a twist (the transporter trick) that they didn't use during one of their previous McClaining episodes, and they just had to do it all again so that they could use that twist.
posted by Halloween Jack at 7:10 AM on October 15, 2019 [1 favorite]
The most exciting thing about this episode is that I saw Shran in the next episode preview box.
They held up a mirror to Archer, a little, but he doesn't really seem troubled by his actions. Ever, really.
posted by fleacircus at 2:34 PM on November 7, 2019
They held up a mirror to Archer, a little, but he doesn't really seem troubled by his actions. Ever, really.
posted by fleacircus at 2:34 PM on November 7, 2019
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posted by Halloween Jack at 9:30 AM on October 14, 2019 [1 favorite]