1x06 Terra Nova

So we learn about great piece of ST history. First human deep space colony went silent after strained communication with Earth. 70 years nobody has heard from them. One would expect that would be their first mission after handling Klaang instead of finding a space slug home or exploring empty planets as everyone seems anxious to find out what happened.

At first it appears deserted and they conclude radiation would have been lethal 70 years ago. But very soon they stumble upon Mad Max people that capture Reed as others make their escape. Turns out these are our missing colonists, 52 of them, wearing face paint but not very friendly. Archer is rightfully concerned that if he can't make first contact with humans he isn't fit for being a captain.

"Novans" as they call themselves believe humans sent poison rain that drove them to the "underside" and now it's down to our crew to convince them they are humans. T'Pol finds crater that caused radiation 70 years ago and they dig up the last transmission from leader of the colony that blames humans for what's happened, as well as requesting that they be sent Vulcan ships to save children, and that's what caused the children to believe humans are the cause.

Additional development is that their water has been contaminated, so they try and convince them to leave. T'Pol is the usual voice of reason and convinces Archer there's nothing to gain by transporting them. They return old lady that they healed but the whole shuttle drops into the cave, they save one of theirs and that totally convinces them to let the crew relocate them to safer caves on the other side of a planet.

Themes: world building, Archer character building
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[5.9/10] This episode, and really this show, is giving me serious Original Series vibes, in which it feels like there’s a healthy dose of installments where I think the idea is outstanding but the execution is questionable. That’s particularly true for an episode like “Terra Nova”, which seems like you could transpose it onto the Kirk/Spock/Bones trio and not have to change much of anything. That’s a good thing for Enterprise as a show trying to keep fidelity to its primogenitor, but maybe not the best thing for a show trying to make compelling, contemporary television in the 2000s.

The plot sees our heroes going to investigate “Terra Nova”, the first human colony in deep space that Earth mysteriously lost contact with seventy-three years ago. When Archer and company find that the Novans’ planet is partly irradiated, and that there are odd, native-esque humanoids who live underground, it’s not hard to guess that that the crew of the Enterprise has found the deep space-exploring humans who seemingly broke contact with their homeworld so long ago (or at least their descendents), who’ve forged a new home and a new culture so far away.

While a little predictable, it’s a neat premise. The descriptions of the Novans’ situation is interesting. They formed a life apart from the Earth after so many years, and don’t want interlopers to join it without their permission just because the team that sent those settlers deems it a success worth repeating. There’s complicated notions of political and social autonomy and self-direction, and the idea of the Enterprise crew figuring out what the consequence of that conflict was creates plenty of intrigue.

There’s also some inherent mystery once Archer and friends meet the present day Novans. While it’s not much of a shock when the underground inhabitants are revealed to be the progeny of the original colonists, the story of how they got there, and what changed things, is still an exciting one.

The problem is that the answer is pretty boring. There was an irradiated asteroid that hit the planet at an inconvenient time, so they blamed it on the interloping colonists or the opposition. The children, who were able to develop an immunity to the radiation, retreated underground and learned to hate the “hyoo-mans” they blamed for the “attack” and conditions, and formed their own subterranean society. It’s a pretty underwhelming reveal (“it was just a space accident the whole time!”) and it doesn't say much of anything about societal relations or community building beyond the old “how quickly and severely we form prejudices” routine that Star Trek has done much much better in prior outings

It also doesn't help that this is an Captain Archer-heavy episode. I want to give Scott Bakula some time to settle in the role before I pass judgment, but it takes a strong performer to hold the center of a Trek show (give or take a Shatner), and thus far he hasn’t quite been able to carry the weight. It also doesn't help that his throughline here is “If I can’t successfully make first contact with other human beings, what good am I as the leader of this expedition?” It’s not the worst psychological motivation for the character, but it’s dramatized in such a faux-tortured, “why can’t I get through to them?” fashion that it comes off as cheesy. Bakula in particular isn’t able to rise above the material and make the frustrations and concerns sound convincing.

I also cannot get past the terrible attempts at native-speak in the episode. Words like “diggers” to mean those armadillo things or “shale” to mean lies are just so damn hokey, and the faux-indigenous vibe with the Frankenstein-speak they’re going for is borderline offensive. I know the show’s trying to convey how far this humans have shifted from the culture they left, but this is stuff pulled right out of the likes of execrable TOS episodes like “The Paradise Syndrome” and “The Omega Glory.” Even a random Novan saying that he’s “leg-broke” just sounds laughable.

Between making the answer to why the Novans became this way something between opaque and irrelevant, the whole beleaguered trust angle between Archer and the Novan leader is no better. The fact that they conveniently end up in a cave with an injured Novan where Archer and the leader have to learn to trust one another and work together is a complete and utter contrivance.

And that’s before it provides the unbelievably convenient solution to a legitimately interesting problem (albeit a familiar one in Star Trek). The Novans are slowly dying thanks to the radiation reaching their water supply, but refuse to believe that when the Enterprise crew tells them that, and refuse to relocate either. Archer having to decide whether to respect these people’s autonomy while letting them die, or violating their agency by taking them away from their homes in order to save them is a tough, interesting decision. The catch is that Archer doesn't actually have to make it, since it turns out the southern hemisphere of the planet is just fine, and there’s an escapade in a cave that teaches the Novans to trust the spacemen at just the right moment. It’s a complete and total copout and utterly unsatisfying.

The few things that I like in this episode (aside from a solid premise done poorly) are the character moments that are mostly apart from Archer or the locals. We get some interesting shading for Reed, who wants to put himself at risk before his captain has to do the same, and keeps a stiff upper lip as a hostage for the greater good of the Enterprise. We get Mayweather’s enthusiasm for aeronautics mysteries and his infectious excitement for having been a small part of solving one. And we have T’Pol talking some sense into Archer, in that his idea to transport the Novans to Earth, even in the same of saving them, would destroy their culture and make it incredibly difficult for them to adapt, in the only place where this native people’s metaphor actually works. None of these is a major part of the episode, but all of them are bright spots on the margins.

The Original Series was a mixed bag, with as many dim bulb episodes as bright spots. But even in most bad episodes, there was the germ of a good idea. Enterprise seems to be following in those footsteps, for good and for ill, here, with an episode that tracks in notions of social cohesion and diverging development and reunion, but which gets caught up in an unaffecting main character and a heap of a hokum. Let’s hope it’s just this series figuring itself out in its first season rather than setting a course it’ll follow for its entire run.