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Enterprise
"Dear Doctor"
Episode 1.13
Written by Maria Jacquemetton & Andre Jacquemetton
Directed by James Contner
First off, an apology. I've been pretty sporadic in regards to my Enterprise reviews lately. By and large it's been because the quality level has been all over the place, and I just haven't had much to say about certain episodes. "Dear Doctor", however, is a pleasant break from the trend. If you missed this one, you did yourself a disservice. But if you did miss it, you probably should stop reading as I'll be discussing the outcome.
The narrative structure of this ep is framed around an audio message the good doctor Phlox is writing to his human doctor friend on Denobula, an interesting device in itself. It also serves an opportunity to feature Phlox prominently in the episode, something that I'd been looking forward to, personally.
As for the basic plot, the Enterprise stumbles across a non-warp vessel drifting in space with two weak lifeforms aboard. They turn out to be two humanoids dying of a mysterious illness, which is slowly wiping out their planet's population. They've been in space for over a year searching for somebody with the medical know-how to help. According to the alien, they've already been in contact with other warp-civilizations, so with cultural contamination issues avoided, Archer & Co. take them home and visit the planet in hopes of finding a cure.
The crew is amazed, however, to find not one but two sentient societies on the planet - one highly technological (although pre-warp) and the other fairly primitive. As one might expect, the advanced race is exploiting the other for labor, while providing them with just enough materials and rations to survive. In the normal course of evolution, a competing humanoid race is usually eliminated (think Cro-Magnons vs. Neanderthals) yet here both survived. Well, for the time being anyway.
It is found that only the advanced race is dying. A chromosomal abnormality has been developing for millennia and will very shortly render them extinct. And while Phlox is able to synthesize a cure for the disease, the ethical question arises of whether or not it is the place of Enterprise's crew to implement such a cure. While Archer's natural instinct is to help them in any way possible, Phlox reminds him that on this planet, the "natural" course of evolution may in fact necessitate the elimination of the advanced species for the sake of the lesser. While Archer finds this rational crazy at first, he comes to realize that although no such "directive" (nice foreshadowing, by the way) is in place for a such a situation, the humans are not there to play God, and he ultimately comes to a compromise of sorts - he gives the aliens some medicine which relieves the symptoms and points them in the right direction.
Now this really was a doozy of an ethical dilemma. Phlox's analogy to Archer was this: what if an alien race had come 35,000 years ago and given an advantage to the Neanderthals? Interesting to say the least. And all this came after the initial dilemma - which was simply should the humans share warp technology with these people so that they could more efficiently search for a solution themselves. That in itself was pretty interesting. Archer was clearly taken aback by the request, and even consulted T'Pol about it. A great moment came when he said to her, "I never thought I'd admit this, but I'm beginning to understand how the Vulcans felt about us." Now that's good stuff.
Aside from all that, there's a potential relationship developing between recurring character crewman Cutler (Kellie Waymire) and Dr. Phlox. While I like the Cutler character a lot, I'm not sure if I really wanna see Phlox getting intimate with anybody... There were also amusing scenes where Phlox reflects on the human capacity to empathize with fictional movie characters and lesser beings. (Porthos, the dog)
So what can I say? I dug this episode, and have pretty much nothing bad to say about it. I'd love it if this becomes the new trend.
Episode Rating: 8 out of 10.
Till all are one
-- Ultra Magnus
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