[9.3/10] Call it recency bias. Call it coincidence. Call it what you will. But I saw a production of Fiddler on the Roof recently, and it’s hard not to have the themes and melodies of that show floating in the back of my mind while watching T’Pol’s portions of “Home”. Both stories focus on the clash between longstanding traditions and generational changes, on the conflict between collectivist/communal values and growing individualism, on a choice between one parental-approved suitor and one a daughter has found on her own, and on parents trying to do what’s best for their daughters while also honoring the traditions and ideals that have sustained their people.
That’s all a long-winded way of saying that both are very complex, very compelling, and very very good. Much of “Home” is about the aftermath of the Xindi war, the effect it had on the people and institutions the Enterprise left behind. But T’Pol’s story in the episode is different. It’s about the effect that T’Pol’s three-year absence, her growth and development, her choices out in the frontier of space, have had on the life that she left behind.
Enterprise dramatizes that through T’Pol’s shore leave, where she decides to return home to Vulcan to visit her mother, and invites Trip with her. What follows is a nicely small stakes kitchen sink drama, which follows in the proud tradition of Spock’s strained attempt to reconcile his life in Starfleet with his family’s expectations. In the process, T’Pol has to handle her mother’s tsk tsk-ing at a human beau, the reappearance of her once and future fiancée, and most notably, the effect that her choices have had on her mother’s life.
But “Home” also explores the effect that all those adventures had on Archer. After a testy exchange with usual side-thorn Ambassador Soval over the events of “Impulse”, Archer lashes out his point-eared foe and his commanding officer for their questioning. There’s an All Quiet on the Western Front-esque “you weren’t there, so you can’t know what it was like” anger bubbling within him, on top of survivor’s guilt, and worry that the throes of war have curdled his idealism, and a dash of PTSD to sweeten the deal.
I know I’m rough on Archer-focused stories, but this one was quite good. Some of the dialogue is on the nose about what the captain is going through, but it’s a good topic to explore. It’s nice to see the show giving us something of an epilogue to the Xindi business, to the effect of turning the Enterprise from an exploratory vessel to a warship. Archer has to contend with having lived through that, having lost people along the way, having to face the insecurity that all this exploring started this dust-up and put Earth in danger. That’s meaningful territory to explore.
Enterprise the good sense to ground that stories in one individual experience, but also to broaden it to explore the larger societal reaction to the Xindi attack. That takes the form of a general Xenophobia against aliens on Earth, with Phlox as the focal point. There’s genuine fear and danger in the sense where one rowdy lout implicitly threatens the good doctor for drinking with Reed and Mayweather in a bar filled with humans.
The fist fight that follows is a little silly (if righteous), but the show does well to end it with Phlox deploying a (Kif Kroker-esque) defense mechanism that both scares off his attackers and cements him as something other. There are layers of irony to this moment, made tragic by the fact that this one asshole is harassing someone who did as much to help save Earth as almost anyone.
I know I complained about Enterprise not being equipped to handle a post-9/11 allegory, but I actually really like the show diving into this reflection of the contemporary social climate, and how it affects one of the show’s best characters. I hope this season doesn't leave things with Phlox’s laudable but also discomfiting accommodationist stance that Earth’s been through a trauma and will understandably need time to get over it. (Something that seems particularly concerning a decade and a half later when Islamophobia is still very much a problem.) But this is one area where the show addresses the real, unpleasant consequences of its major developments in a realistic, personal way.
I know I’ve also complained constantly about Bakula’s performances, buy by god, he’s actually pretty good here! His break down with Captain Hernandez is good stuff, that deftly conveys the struggle of being a hero in the public eye while also worrying that as much of the bad stuff is your fault as the good stuff is to your credit.
I’ll admit to blanching a bit at the fact that Enterprise dramatizes the recovery from that with a romance, and Hernandez seems basically to exist only to kiss Archer and make him feel better. But it’s nice to see Archer romantically involved with someone who’s his peer, who’s age-appropriate, and who isn’t afraid to call him on his crap when need be. I doubt it’s something the show will pursue forever, but it’s Archer’s best romance so far which, while not an especially high bar, is still something nice to see the show manage.
The show’s overall best romance, on the other hand, has been T’Pol and Trip. That’s why there’s juice to the fact that T’Pol decides to reluctantly end her relationship with Trip and marry Koss, her Vulcan fiancée, in order to use his family’s influence to restore her mother’s position at the Vulcan Science Academy. There are so many fraught layers to that decision, from T’Pol’s plain feelings for Trip, to her friction with her mother over departing from Vulcan norms, to anger at the High Command for punishing T’Pol’s mom on flimsy charges when T’Pol herself was out of the Vulcan government’s reach, to the overarching sense of duty to the place where you were raised and the people who dwell within it.
My hope and expectation is that the decision is neither firm nor irreversible. The show adds layers to that conflict by showing T’Les (T’Pol’s mom) initially bristling at her daughter bringing a human home, but then seeing Trip’s capability, intuiting the depth of their feelings for one another, and eventually seeing the way in which those feelings mirror T’Les’s feelings for her dearly departed husband. There is, in the nuanced interplay of Vulcan traditionalism, human individualism, and T’Pol’s position with a foot in both worlds, a depth to these figures, their dilemma, and the story being told.
It’s a story that, like Fiddler on the Roof, is ensconced in notions of societal change, and the effects, both political and personal, it has when communities collide and old enmities reemerge. But as Soval’s unexpectedly heartening handshake to Archer signifies, even when change is hard, or painful, or rocky to reckon with, it can still end up being for the better, or at least bring satisfaction in ways you might never have expected.
Review by Andrew BloomVIP 9BlockedParentSpoilers2019-08-12T01:44:01Z
[9.3/10] Call it recency bias. Call it coincidence. Call it what you will. But I saw a production of Fiddler on the Roof recently, and it’s hard not to have the themes and melodies of that show floating in the back of my mind while watching T’Pol’s portions of “Home”. Both stories focus on the clash between longstanding traditions and generational changes, on the conflict between collectivist/communal values and growing individualism, on a choice between one parental-approved suitor and one a daughter has found on her own, and on parents trying to do what’s best for their daughters while also honoring the traditions and ideals that have sustained their people.
That’s all a long-winded way of saying that both are very complex, very compelling, and very very good. Much of “Home” is about the aftermath of the Xindi war, the effect it had on the people and institutions the Enterprise left behind. But T’Pol’s story in the episode is different. It’s about the effect that T’Pol’s three-year absence, her growth and development, her choices out in the frontier of space, have had on the life that she left behind.
Enterprise dramatizes that through T’Pol’s shore leave, where she decides to return home to Vulcan to visit her mother, and invites Trip with her. What follows is a nicely small stakes kitchen sink drama, which follows in the proud tradition of Spock’s strained attempt to reconcile his life in Starfleet with his family’s expectations. In the process, T’Pol has to handle her mother’s tsk tsk-ing at a human beau, the reappearance of her once and future fiancée, and most notably, the effect that her choices have had on her mother’s life.
But “Home” also explores the effect that all those adventures had on Archer. After a testy exchange with usual side-thorn Ambassador Soval over the events of “Impulse”, Archer lashes out his point-eared foe and his commanding officer for their questioning. There’s an All Quiet on the Western Front-esque “you weren’t there, so you can’t know what it was like” anger bubbling within him, on top of survivor’s guilt, and worry that the throes of war have curdled his idealism, and a dash of PTSD to sweeten the deal.
I know I’m rough on Archer-focused stories, but this one was quite good. Some of the dialogue is on the nose about what the captain is going through, but it’s a good topic to explore. It’s nice to see the show giving us something of an epilogue to the Xindi business, to the effect of turning the Enterprise from an exploratory vessel to a warship. Archer has to contend with having lived through that, having lost people along the way, having to face the insecurity that all this exploring started this dust-up and put Earth in danger. That’s meaningful territory to explore.
Enterprise the good sense to ground that stories in one individual experience, but also to broaden it to explore the larger societal reaction to the Xindi attack. That takes the form of a general Xenophobia against aliens on Earth, with Phlox as the focal point. There’s genuine fear and danger in the sense where one rowdy lout implicitly threatens the good doctor for drinking with Reed and Mayweather in a bar filled with humans.
The fist fight that follows is a little silly (if righteous), but the show does well to end it with Phlox deploying a (Kif Kroker-esque) defense mechanism that both scares off his attackers and cements him as something other. There are layers of irony to this moment, made tragic by the fact that this one asshole is harassing someone who did as much to help save Earth as almost anyone.
I know I complained about Enterprise not being equipped to handle a post-9/11 allegory, but I actually really like the show diving into this reflection of the contemporary social climate, and how it affects one of the show’s best characters. I hope this season doesn't leave things with Phlox’s laudable but also discomfiting accommodationist stance that Earth’s been through a trauma and will understandably need time to get over it. (Something that seems particularly concerning a decade and a half later when Islamophobia is still very much a problem.) But this is one area where the show addresses the real, unpleasant consequences of its major developments in a realistic, personal way.
I know I’ve also complained constantly about Bakula’s performances, buy by god, he’s actually pretty good here! His break down with Captain Hernandez is good stuff, that deftly conveys the struggle of being a hero in the public eye while also worrying that as much of the bad stuff is your fault as the good stuff is to your credit.
I’ll admit to blanching a bit at the fact that Enterprise dramatizes the recovery from that with a romance, and Hernandez seems basically to exist only to kiss Archer and make him feel better. But it’s nice to see Archer romantically involved with someone who’s his peer, who’s age-appropriate, and who isn’t afraid to call him on his crap when need be. I doubt it’s something the show will pursue forever, but it’s Archer’s best romance so far which, while not an especially high bar, is still something nice to see the show manage.
The show’s overall best romance, on the other hand, has been T’Pol and Trip. That’s why there’s juice to the fact that T’Pol decides to reluctantly end her relationship with Trip and marry Koss, her Vulcan fiancée, in order to use his family’s influence to restore her mother’s position at the Vulcan Science Academy. There are so many fraught layers to that decision, from T’Pol’s plain feelings for Trip, to her friction with her mother over departing from Vulcan norms, to anger at the High Command for punishing T’Pol’s mom on flimsy charges when T’Pol herself was out of the Vulcan government’s reach, to the overarching sense of duty to the place where you were raised and the people who dwell within it.
My hope and expectation is that the decision is neither firm nor irreversible. The show adds layers to that conflict by showing T’Les (T’Pol’s mom) initially bristling at her daughter bringing a human home, but then seeing Trip’s capability, intuiting the depth of their feelings for one another, and eventually seeing the way in which those feelings mirror T’Les’s feelings for her dearly departed husband. There is, in the nuanced interplay of Vulcan traditionalism, human individualism, and T’Pol’s position with a foot in both worlds, a depth to these figures, their dilemma, and the story being told.
It’s a story that, like Fiddler on the Roof, is ensconced in notions of societal change, and the effects, both political and personal, it has when communities collide and old enmities reemerge. But as Soval’s unexpectedly heartening handshake to Archer signifies, even when change is hard, or painful, or rocky to reckon with, it can still end up being for the better, or at least bring satisfaction in ways you might never have expected.