Dead
Stop
Cast & Crew
Director: Roxann Dawson
Written By: Mike Sussman & Phyllis Strong
Starring
Scott Bakula as Captain
Jonathan Archer
Connor Trinneer as Chief
Engineer Charles Tucker III
Jolene Blalock as Sub-commander
T'Pol
Dominic Keating as Lt.
Malcolm Reed
Anthony Montgomery
as Ensign Travis Mayweather
Linda Park as Ensign Hoshi
Sato
John Billingsley
as Dr. Phlox
Airdate Information
Originally Aired: Oct. 9, 2002
Season: Two
Episode: Four
Production: 031
What
Happened
The Enterprise, still severely damaged from the Romulan mine, issues
a general distress call. A weak signal from a Tellarite ship sends the crew
to an unmanned space station. In exchange for a few hundred liters of warp plasma,
the station can repair the ship in a day and a half (Trip and company would
take over three months, and that's assuming they had all the parts).
While under repairs, the Enterprise crew are treated to samples of the
stations technology, replicators. But all is not as it seems. Mayweather is
apparently killed while in a restricted area. Upon investigation, Phlox realizes
it's a fake, a body replicated to look just like the ship's helmsman. Archer
and T'Pol break into central core of the station, only to discover its horrifying
secret, sentient lifeforms all connected to a main computer to boost its computing
power. Archer frees Mayweather and they blast the station to bits escaping.
Review
What's most irritating about Star Trek is their propensity for "killing"
off main characters. Do we really fall for this? In the writers defense, Trek
hardly has a monopoly on this concept, but they are the biggest purveyors.
That bit aside, the episode was OK. Nothing too much one way or the other.
Much of it was spent with characters either gawking at all the gee-whiz tech
or Archer brooding about nervously. You know, just once I want a paranoid character
to be let down. Just once.
The extensive use of replicators here may have been a bit much since I don't
think they ever appeared in TOS. Then again, we hardly ever saw the crew doing
anything of a day-to-day nature in that series either.
High Point
The station repairing itself after Enterprise rips it a new one. Echoes
of "Christine." A close second was Phlox/Hoshi during the autopsy.
Low Point
Yeah they're all vegetables, but I'd think Starfleet wouldn't approve of detonating
300 liters of warp plasma inside a station full of innocent bystanders. The
final explanation doesn't do much, in my mind, to absolve the crew.
The Scores
Originality: The finale seem a bit too borgish. 3
Effects: Cool stuff with the station. 5
Story: A nice twist on something that could have been a lame deus ex machina
excuse for repairing the ship. 4
Acting: Noting really special, nothing really bad. One stand up piece was Phlox's
dialogue with Hoshi. 4
Emotional Response: I never thought for a moment that Mayweather was really
dead, so where's the emotion there? 2
Production: The station wasn't that cool, but there was a definite shift in
look and feel from the "public" sections to the "private."
Good use of sets to create mood. 5
Overall: A nice way to move the story forward, especially nice that they kept
the story flowing from one story to the next. 4
Total: 27 out of 42
Episode Media
From StarTrek.com
Completely Useless Trivia
The Tellarites (the ones who sent the message, not who built the site) are
one of the five founding members of the Federation. Except the for the Alpha
Centauians (who are basically human), we've now covered all the original members.
Next Time on Enterprise (Oct. 16, 2002)
A
Night in Sick Bay
Archer spends a fretful night in sickbay with Dr. Phlox after Porthos, Archer's
pet beagle, picks up a deadly virus on an alien planet. Meanwhile, crew members
believe Archer's increased stress level is due to Porthos' illness, but Dr.
Phlox suspects it has to do with Archer's repressed sexual tension and urges
Archer to discuss it with T'Pol.
FYI: I'm out of town next week, so I'm intrusting our already overworked
Fiziko with the review.
TheAngryMob
