2x07 The Seventh

[6.7/10] When I wrote about “Carbon Creek”, I posited that one of the grand themes of Star Trek: Enterprise was bout the gradual softening of relations between humans and Vulcans. But another big idea at the heart of the series, or maybe a sub-theme of that one, is T’Pol slowly but surely starting to question the wisdom and righteousness of her Vulcan elders. From the deception at P’Jem, to the impulse to blame Captain Archer for problems that aren’t his fault, she’s slowly but surely bucked against her upbringing and traditions, and seen from a broader, more skeptical perspective.

That’s where I thought “The Seventh” was headed. The notion that T’Pol used to be a secret agent, that she was sent to apprehend an innocent man, killed someone, and then had her memory of it wiped by her own people is a hell of an interesting one. The episode on P’Jem certainly put the Vulcans in a new light, but this would be a level of deception and harshness that we’d never seen from our pointy-eared, nominally peace-loving friends.

And maybe that’s why “The Seventh” chickens out at the end. Instead of suggesting that the Vulcans have done a serious wrong by T’Pol, or at least made some questionable moral choices in the realm of espionage, the episode basically goes, “Sike! The guy T’Pol was after as evil all along, and Archer was totally right when he told her not to question her orders!” It’s a deeply unsatisfying way to end an episode that plays with noir imagery and moral gray areas, but ultimately settles for the usual black and white morality.

It also crash-lands onto the theme of “Archer and T’Pol truly trust one another” that just feels so unearned and uncompelling. At a nuts and bolts level, that’s a totally unfair impulse, because Archer and T’Pol have been on 30+ episodes’ worth of adventures now, and saved one another’s bacon plenty of times over that stretch. Theoretically, this thing should add up.

But emotionally, it just doesn't. Even setting aside the romantic flotsam that seems very ill-considered, the show is just trying to sell us on a deep bond or friendship between Archer and T’Pol that never seems to materialize into an emotional reality that the audience can feel. There’s potency the idea that with the Vulcans having messed with her memories and emotions, and this fugitive muddying the waters over who she can believe, Archer becomes the signal within the noise, whom she trusts when she’s not sure who else she can trust. “The Seventh”, and Enterprise more generally, just haven’t really earned that yet.

Thankfully, that misfire of an interesting, and pretty serious story, is broken up with the comic relief of Trip being in command in the absence of the Enterprise’s captain and first officer. It’s all pretty brief and comparatively underdone, but I like the idea that Trip’s all set to enjoy the privileges of being captain, but is quickly confronted by the numerous pains in the behind that the captain’s chair entails. Decisions about everything from diarreah-inducing vaccines to shutting the warp drives off to having to deal with prickly Vulcan captains complicate his visions of kicking back and getting to enjoy command. Even his attempt to impersonate Archer for an important Vulcan transmisson, only to discover it’s really just a water polo score, is a worth a solid belly laugh.

But then we’re back to T’Pol interrogating her captive -- a former Vulcan spy who went native, and then went into business for himself as a smuggler to support his new life. Again, there’s something interesting there, in the idea that the Vulcan spy agency sent one of their operatives to infiltrate a rival alien species, only to have him discover that there’s a life beyond logic and emotional repression and want the chance to live it. But “The Seventh” only glancingly explores it, instead falling back on the whole thing being a ruse so that the guy can earn our heroes’ sympathies and continue smuggling his biological weapons.

The ambiguity there, and its effect on T’Pol, ought to at least be good fodder for Jolene Blalock, but she’s not quite up to the challenge here. Blalock has become one of my favorite performers on the show, managing to walk the line between Vulcan restraint and bleed-through emotions that Leonard Nimoy walked so well in the definitive role he played. And in fairness to Blalock, when this episode calls upon her to play someone trying to maintain Vulcan stoicism while tumultuous emotions are rumbling inside, she does quite well.

But “The Seventh” also calls on T’Pol to genuinely break down, become disturbed and unmoored and doubtful, and play on high emotions that the show doesn't usually call on her to convey. Unfortunately, contrary to Nimoy when Spock would break down (which seemed to happen every fifth episode after a while) she’s just not very convincing at it. Part of the impact of this episode is supposoed to come from the normally reserved T’Pol seeming very human and disoriented, and that doesn't play as true or genuine here.

Still, maybe Enterprise could get away with that if it actually stuck to its guns on what it merely gestures toward here. There was something really questionable in The Original Series when Kirk went through his weekly distressing romantic entanglement, and Spock used his psychic powers to make the Captain “forget.” The idea of Enterprise following up on that idea which TOS merely grazed over, and escalating it to the Vulcans wiping away a memory of murder in their operatives because it suits them, would genuinely hit some of that noir ambiguity that the episode hints at with seedy bars and guns brandished amid falling precipitation.

Instead, “The Seventh” doesn't have the stomach to do that. It just falls back on the usual “the seemingly innocent guy was really a villain the whole time” out, and tries to hang the whole thing on the supposedly inviolable friendship between T’Pol and Archer. A good idea done poorly gets you some points in my book for the idea, but also knocks you down a peg or two for all the wasted potential. Enterprise had the chance to do something really cool and daring in this one, and instead settles for the safe and comfortable, and that’s a damn shame.