Enterprise Flashback: First Flight

One of the foundational stories about the real world space program was Tom Wolfe's The Right Stuff. Enterprise took on a fictional version of that history with "First Flight."

Enterprise receives word from Earth that test pilot A.G. Robinson has died -- news that hits Archer and Trip especially hard, as they worked with him on the Warp 5 engine project years ago. When Archer and T'Pol leave in a shuttlepod to prove the existence of a massive dark matter nebula, Archer passes the time by recounting his time with Robinson in the early days of that test program.

This episode is trying very hard to be The Right Stuff, positioning the Warp 5 program as an analog for the real world Mercury space program. We get dangerous tests, the competition to be first, down time at the local astronaut bar... all the hallmarks.

In the way this gives us some backstory on Archer and Trip, it works very well. I've never been particularly impressed by Archer's captaining, but these flashbacks show us an even greener version to drive home his progress. He has to wrestle with his feelings about his own father, designer of the engine. He must learn to be a more rounded person. We watch his rival Robinson become a friend. And we see why Archer is so bonded to Trip in the present, as all three men go rogue to prove the engine works.

What doesn't quite work for me is this arbitrary competition about being first to travel Warp 2. In the episode, they reference Buzz Aldrin being the second man on the moon, and how people only remember the first thing Neil Armstrong said there. The implication is that breaking Warp 2 will be a milestone to be remembered forever. But that's plainly ridiculous, as the goal of the program is to quickly proceed to Warp 3, 4, and ultimately 5. They're all working as though they're going to be Chuck Yeager, breaking the sound barrier. In reality, they're all jockeying to be the first person to travel Mach 2. (Anybody? I had to Google. A. Scott Crossfield.) If the writers weren't caught up trying to emulate The Right Stuff, they might have realized they had a more appropriate competition already baked right into the story. The flashbacks end with Archer being tapped to command Starfleet's first high warp exploration vessel. That's the path to lasting fame.

Another problem with mimicking The Right Stuff this directly is that some of the antiquated 1960s values come along for the ride. The whole idea that some bartender is going to marry the first guy who can guess the future baby name she has picked out feels sexist and icky. The bar fight that breaks out feels ridiculously over the top -- way more testosterone-fueled than even these prequel-Trek characters ever act.

But there are bright spots in the writing too. The "wrapper" story of T'Pol and Archer's exploration doesn't have to actually do much, yet it cleverly maps a struggle to prove something in the present to a struggle to prove something in the past. It gives T'Pol a chance to demonstrate the empathy she's developed, as she encourages Archer to tell the tale. And it all rather cheekily revolves around a plan to bomb stuff for science.

Guest star Keith Carradine is kind of a "big get" for this episode, and does have some of the swagger you want to see in a trope-tastic test pilot character. He does seem maybe a little old for the role, though. (Though I suppose, alongside a "supposed to be a decade younger" Scott Bakula, it works.)

Other observations:

• This episode gives us another mention of "Mount McKinley." The last time that happened, I noted that the mountain was now called Denali. Since then, some would have us believe it's McKinley again.

• Once again, Star Trek falls flat portraying a bar on screen. This astronaut bar plays the worst tunes, sounding like elevator music in one scene and "on hold" music in the next.

• They solve their warp engine problems by changing their intermix ratio. Trek nerd alert, but the franchise has already established that there's only one workable matter-antimatter ratio -- 1:1. (Though I suppose if they hadn't learned that yet, no wonder they were blowing themselves up.)

• But speaking of franchise history... they've said that Mayweather grew up on a cargo freighter, and that it traveled at warp 2. This episode would have us believe that only around 10 years ago, warp 2 was broken for the first time. Then a whole fleet of cargo ships was rolled out... and then quickly outdated. And that that tiny sliver of time is what Mayweather is talking about when he thinks of "growing up."

• Great production design on the Warp 2 test ship. It looks plausibly like the "fighter jet" evolution of the ship Cochrane flew in First Contact.

I do ultimately appreciate how much this episode puts the focus on characters, and I like how it puts a sci-fi twist on a real world story. But I feel the metaphor is clunky, and that there isn't really a good handle on the future history being laid down. I give "First Flight" a B.