Enterprise Flashback: Strange New World

Before there was Strange New Worlds the Star Trek series (but of course, well after there was "strange new worlds," the phrase from Star Trek's opening narration), there was "Strange New World," the episode of Enterprise. (Got all that?)

Enterprise explores a habitable world that's seemingly without intelligent life. But when the crew becomes stranded overnight in a massive storm and takes shelter in a cave, it appears there may be life on the planet after all. And Trip is convinced they're conspiring with T'Pol, who is aware of and helping to hide them.

With this episode, the series continues to pursue its core concept of showing the characters "learning how to do Star Trek." And that continues to be something of a dual-edged sword. On the one hand, you can naturally revisit episode ideas from previous Trek and give them something of a new spin. (Here, an away team hallucinating dangers that aren't there after being exposed to a real medical danger they're unaware of.) On the other hand, the characters really put themselves into deep jeopardy simply by being stupid -- and then, of course, the pathogen they're exposed to only magnifies their stupidity.

Right out of the gate, you have to question why the crew is even stopping to explore this planet. As T'Pol points out (and is, of course, ignored), there doesn't seem to be much scientific value here. Moreover, the humans in the away team don't seem to be doing anything worthwhile; instead, they're spending their time taking photos, letting their dogs crap on the lawn (hopefully Archer cleans up, though I somehow doubt it), and telling ghost stories at the campfire. If the vibe is supposed to be "we've hardly explored any alien planets before," then it seems to me like everyone should be way into the specifics of that rather than treating it as an overnight camping trip.

So no, I don't love how weird the crew is behaving even before the "airborne toxin" Macguffin makes them start acting strange. However, I do like that the writers quickly seize upon the way to tell this story differently than it would have been told on previous Star Trek. These characters are allowed to clash more with each other than even Deep Space Nine allowed, so we get a heaping helping of distrust, raised voices, arguments, and deceptions among the away team.

As a result, the episode does effectively tap into some suspense/horror vibes. The darkly lit cave sets add to the feeling that something might spring from the shadows without warning. And the beamup of Novakovich is delightfully gruesome: he arrives with sticks and leaves halfway embedded in his skin (and later, we see the marks where Phlox had to physically cut them all out)!

A couple of character moments do stand out to me. Hoshi speaking Vulcan to T'Pol, to communicate the ruse that the captain would like to play out, is a nice moment for both characters. When Novakovich takes a bad turn in Sickbay, John Billingsley really crushes a scene where Phlox is ashamed of his own hubris. Unfortunately, this kind of subtle craft is lacking elsewhere in the episode, where Connor Trinneer is coming at T'Pol with "10 out of 10" anger, and Jolene Blalock doesn't have enough experience playing a Vulcan to convincingly give us an "out of sorts" Vulcan affected by the toxin.

This new Star Trek series continues to spend a lot of money in each episode, and trying to make sure you see that on screen. The away mission is shot on a real location, CG fireflies are inserted into the campfire scene for the sake of a minor plot point, and while the rock monsters don't look the most convincing, they are at least trying.

Other observations:

• This almost starts out like a Lower Decks episode: we're in the mess hall with two ensigns we don't know, watching the ship pull up on a planet without having any context.

• For long-time Star Trek fans: we learn that "M-class" planets are named for a Vulcan word defining them. We also see T'Pol deliver her first Vulcan nerve pinch.

• Apparently, the original script called for Ensign Novakovich to die of his injuries, and Scott Bakula objected. He felt that the first death of an Enterprise crewmember should be more of a moment for Archer and the crew. The writers agreed with that instinct (and so do I), and so rewrote a few lines to say that Novakovich recovered from his transporter mishap. (On the other hand, though, it would actually be a long time before an Enterprise crewmember actually died in an episode. Shouldn't this early era of exploration be more dangerous than the Treks we've seen before?)

"Strange New World" does a good job taking advantage of the interpersonal conflict now possible on this new Star Trek show. On the other hand, our heroes continue to look foolish for blindly stumbling into danger. And the performances in the episode are a decidedly mixed bag of good and bad. I give the episode a B-.