Strange New World

episode #3: "Strange New World"

It's deja vu all over again!
Spores + human + Vulcan + catsuit + isolated planet = "This Side of Paradise" + "Resolutions" = T/Tu = "Strange New World"

First Impressions
Ho hum … seen this before.

Second Impressions
Seen this before … but it's not a bad way to spend an hour.

Quick summary
There was once an angry warrior who lived his life in conflict with the rest of his tribe. He took his anger out on the nearest target, thereby gaining some much-needed character growth to be reset in future episodes and fueling a 'shipper movement to be abandoned at the last minute by the uncaring PTB.

The Captain Dude
This isn't really an Archer story, which is good, since I'm still finding him annoying. He continued last week's trend of overreacting, although he wasn't nearly as OTT as he was before.

He's a bit of an asshole, really. I mean, sticking his arm around T'Pol in the photo, for no better reason than it would annoy her … if I were T'Pol, I would have smacked him in his oversized nose.

The Doctor is … Cool
Phlox is quickly shaping up as one of my favourite characters, not because he's particularly original, but damn, he's just so much fun to watch! And we see here that he's fallible, failing to think of an important but unusual treatment until it's almost too late.

I'm gonna say it now: we need a Phlox episode.

T'Pol/Tucker
I was a little dubious about this pairing at first, because the legendary decontamination scene didn't do much for me. (I know, I based my reviews design on it, but that was because I crave attention, dammit.) However, their interaction in "Strange New World" was intriguing enough that I'm letting them share space in the review. Plus, I'm lazy and I can't think of puns for both of them.

Blalock's performance was a little mixed here -- she seemed uncomfortable in the early parts of the episode, almost as if she were trying too hard. Later, though, after the hallucinogenic pollen had taken hold of T'Pol, her performance became more dynamic and interesting. I'm still not a Blalock fan, because she's playing a Vulcan, and therefore needs the skill to be interesting all the time, not just when T'Pol's under mind control. She also lack's Jeri Ryan's presence, and is disadvantaged by the fact that T'Pol isn't nearly as well written as Seven -- T'Pol's voice isn't distinctively Vulcan; she could be any reserved, prissy character. So the jury's still out on Blalock.

It was good to see T'Pol acting as the science officer, doing more than spouting technobabble on the bridge. She's clearly a capable scientist, and I'd like to see her investigating something which sparks her curiosity, something she could be passionate about, if she allowed herself to feel such an intense interest.

Likewise, Tucker became more interesting under the influence of the spores. In fact, he became downright fascinating. The anger he felt wasn't particularly unique, but Connor Trinnear played it well. The usual tension between Tucker and T'Pol became sexual and dangerous, and *much* more sensual than the decontamination scene. The angry, psychotic Tucker wasn't a particularly nice man, but I enjoyed watching him.

I liked the use of the characters themselves in the resolution, rather than simply technobabble -- Archer's friendship with Tucker, Hoshi's knowledge of Vulcan and T'Pol's apparently well developed ability to adapt to new situations. And the Vulcan nerve pinch -- there was no flair in the execution, but it was still fun to see it.

Also worthy of comment
The new recurring characters were interesting, and it was good to see that we're not confined to the regular cast in this series. I can't remember the name of the guy, but I was genuinely surprised to see that he didn't end up with a target painted on his bright red shirt. Elizabeth Cutler, the woman who stole my name and has a crush on T'Pol, was also fun to watch.

Aside from plot echoes of "This Side of Paradise" and visual echoes of "Resolutions", the planet also reminded me of Darkover, the planet seen in Marion Zimmer Bradley's series of the same name. I only read the first book in that series, but there were elements -- isolated humans, spores whipped up by storms -- which seemed familiar.

I liked the scenes in the tents, with the wind blowing up and the bug in the sleeping bags. It was a little hard to watch, but there was a true sense of urgency about the situation.

Tucker trained in hallucinogenic substances at the Academy? Sure, he calls it training *now* …

Smells like teen fanfic
I bet Tucker would like T'Pol to pose for a few pictures on her own…

I've already pointed out that the relationship (or lack thereof) between T'Pol and Cutler is highly slashy.

Where no dog has gone before
Porthos continues to embody humanity's darker impulses, as seen in his need to be first out of the shuttle, and his disregard of traditional manners in order to urinate under a tree. Without a doubt, Porthos is the bad boy of Enterprise -- let's hope he's not completely domesticated, Tom Paris style, by the end of the series.

Overall
I'm gonna call it a B. Most of the Enterprise eps have hovered around that mark, which is to say they're too competent to warrant a C, but lack the flair that would earn them an A. I'll probably start raising standards when season 2 begins, although Trek series generally need a full 3-4 years to find their feet. This took an old plot and executed it well.

One final random thought
I still hate the theme.

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