Gripes: Nothing of note. Wow! Okay, not enough Trip. Too

much is never enough.

 

Teaser -- An alien is being hunted by two others in protective

suits. They corner him. They ignite their flamethrowers. He

cowers and snarls. They torch him as he screams. Cut to

credits. They *are* getting better at this. 3 for 3 this season.

 

Part One

 

Trip returns to T'Pol's quarters for another "massage" in an

EVEN BETTER T-SHIRT. Wow. This man needs to wear a lot

more navy. Spectacular. Nice, even. (Yes, that kinda nice.)

 

He brings some Georgia peaches - how cute is that? She

declines, being the emotionless non-human that she is. He

insists that she try.

Trip: "C'mon. One bite." <swoon>

She tries, one bite. Where's the snake here? Is Trip the snake?

Suddenly it got all Old Testament. I suspect Archer has the

flaming sword.

T'Pol is business as usual. Which means...

 

OFF COMES THE SHIRT AGAIN. :-O X-P I say, "make it a

regular feature." It's almost a tradition already. So we are

treated to the patented tug-up-the-front-and-over-the-face Tucker

Maneuver, followed by a nicely lit reclining Topless!Trip. YAY!

 

And then, the BEST MOMENT OF THE SHOW (Non-BareChested

Division):

T'Pol: Remove your shoes, Commander.

Trip: My shoes?

T'Pol: Is there a problem?

Trip: Well, I haven't had a shower *all day*. Your sensitive Vulcan

nose wouldn't appreciate it.

...

And...

TRIP!QUOTE #1

I'm a little ticklish. (AAAAAAAAAAAHHHH! Must tickle Trip!!!)

Maybe more than a little. (AAAAAAAAAHHHHH fanfiction scenes

spring to life!!!)

 

HE'S TICKLISH??!??!? OH MY GOD I am having such thoughts right now.

 

T'Pol begins massaging a very nice broad back.

Trip: Are you sure this is safe?

T'Pol: The risk of paralysis is minimal.

Trip: <smirky glare>

 

Archer calls T'Pol to the Command Center (he must have got

wind of what was up!)

He proceeds to show her the Xindi Sloth species from the

recovered data files. She's underwhelmed. Archer knocks back

another quart of coffee in this scene alone. Maybe that's his

problem -- he needs to cut back on the java.

T'Pol's white suit makes an appearance. Bravo, costumers.

That's a hit.

 

They head for a planet with a ship on it. It looks a lot (A LOT)

like

the "Rogue Planet".

 

They ARE Listening Moment #1:

Hoshi finds a dead alien body and DOESN'T scream! YAY

HOSHI!

 

Reed feels hot and sick. T'Pol has lesions. Reed mutates

almost immediately. Archer follows. At this point, the S.O.

interrupts to observe, "It's the Prosthetics Planet." I may have to

slap him one of these weeks. Hoshi has mutated too.

 

They ARE Listening Moment #2: Travis is in charge for the

moment, and doin' good. (Where was Trip?) T'Pol calls up to

tell them the landing party is being altered andzzzzzhhhhspp. No

more communication.

 

MutantHoshi attacks, and all three set off chasing after T'Pol,

speaking their own language.

 

Plus ça change Moment #1: When suddenly, T'Pol trips (over a

tree root, a rock, or her own high heels) *just like a girl* and

falls

flat on her face.

 

Part Two

 

MutantCrew has T'Pol in a net. She gets the UT from them and

they begin to converse in English. Except with odd speech

patterns.

 

On Enterprise, Trip points out the obvious: "These aren't human!

[biosigns]" Trip takes charge, tells Phlox to get going on his

scans and heads to SP2 with Travis. (yeah, Travis in this one!)

 

Plus ça change Moment #2: MutantArcher spends a lot (A LOT)

of time sniffing T'Pol. MutantReed runs up a tree (yes) and gets

some food. Nice, disgusting Star Trek food for aliens, which

means that someone is still funding the mealworm budget.

M-Archer and M-Reed fight like savages. Archer uses Mutant-Fu

to claim his territory and food. M-Reed later cuddles up to

M-Archer and gets to share his coconut-fulla-slimy-bugs.

 

Trip heads in with a full EVA suit on (who *else* could make an

EVA suit look that good? I ask ya!) M-Cap'n takes a swing at him

with a big stick and cracks the faceplate. T'Pol (interestingly

enough) screams "WAIT! Don't you recognize him?" and it works!

He stops, turns to look at Trip, and calms down. Did you think I'd

miss that? Hah!

 

They snag M-Reed but T'Pol chooses to stay behind. Phlox is

observing the raving M-Reed in decon when Trip walks in. "He

didn't even recognize me," he bemoans. (See, everyone gets a

shipper moment in this ep!) Phlox reveals that it's a very

contagious mutagenic virus. They've become an alien race as

their DNA is changed. T'Pol is fairly resistant and could provide

the basis for a cure.

Phlox: Get T'Pol back here.

Trip: I'm doin' my best.

Mayweather: Bridge to Commander Tucker. Two ships

approaching fast.

*yeah, he's in this scene too. Cool huh?

 

TRIP!QUOTE #2

Aliens are hostile: "You're in restricted space.

Sarcastic!Trip (one of my faves): "Sorry. It wasn't very well

marked."

Alien: "Prepare to be boarded."

Trip: <deathglare>

 

Part Three

 

TRIP!QUOTE #3

No one's comin' aboard unless I say so!

 

Trip gets tough. Very tough. Even more than Ceasefire. It's

NICE.

Commander!Trip in full glory. I can't get enough of this, I don't

know about you...

But a whole long scene follows where he makes it clear to the

bloodthirsty and intransigent (Trip!Vocab) alien hunter that killing

the infected folks isn't an option.

 

M-Archer discovers a huge underground city, beautiful, thriving,

civilized, full of people like him, and....Real Archer! M-Archer

wakes up suddenly from his dream. Hoshi gets a full

conversation (her third in just this ep) - HOORAY!

 

Aliens tell of the Lokek, an early race, creators of the virus, who

faced extinction years ago, and developed it to turn any

humanoid into their species - to repopulate their world.

They also make it clear that eradication is the only option.

 

They ARE Listening Moment #2: Trip doesn't get irrational,

angry, or let his mouth flap. He is serious, stands up to the alien

as much as he can without risking the ship, and keeps his

secret plans secret until the alien is gone.

 

Trip's under pressure to get T'Pol back.

Phlox: Whatever you're going to do, do it now!

Trip: We can't launch a shuttlepod. .... The transporter? .... No.

GOT IT!

Trip then r u n s across the entire ship at top speed, one of the

funnier sequences, into T'Pol's quarters, and digs through her

stuff to find the peach she -- took one bite of. One slippery,

drooly, slobbery bite, and a good thing too! What a smart boy.

 

(Odd parallels to a recent cloning plan in Vegas!)

 

On the planet, M-Archer, M-Hoshi, and Semi-M T'Pol find the

underground city of M-Archer's dreams. It's in ruin, long

abandoned. A dead alien nearby, different race. No fountains,

no others like them.

 

Part Four

 

Bakula gets to do a lot (A LOT) of acting in this one, and honestly,

despite the fairly silly makeup, he's better. He's sensitive,

caring,

aroused, aggressive, desperate, heartbroken, etc. All the things

Archer should be, M-Archer was. I thought this looked bad in the

promos and it wasn't.

 

Alien Hunters find the M-Folks on the planet and chase them

down. M-Archer et al fight back. One alien's suit is ripped. His

cohorts torch him. This is their only method of keeping the

disease at bay. Soon they capture the M-Folks and try to drag

T'Pol off.

 

They ARE Listening Moment #3:

Trip materializes!!! (Who wouldn't want that to happen?)

FINALLY the transporter is used for people and for GOOD

REASON. About time. Trip, ever the quick shot, zaps two aliens,

MACO guy gets the others.

 

T'Pol: You said you'd never use the transporter again.

(huh? when did he say that? after Hoshi's experience? huh? did

I miss this?)

Trip: Believe me, I wish I'd had a choice.

 

They ARE Listening Moment #4:

Hoshi's replacement! An actual crewman!! With LINES!!! And

he's a bit scared of the alien ships bombarding them.

WONDERFUL.

 

Trip leads the alien ships on a chase as he heads off with the

M-folks in Phlox's capable hands. Trying to buy some time, he

ignore their hails. When the aft shields start to fail, he stops.

As

he tries to explain that they are working on a cure, Archer and

Hoshi shuffle on to the bridge, almost fully human again.

 

Archer: Why are you firing on my ship??

Alien: <blah blah hatred of infection blah must incinerate blah>

Trip: Like I said, he just needed a little more time. Trip moves in

very close to Archer as he says this (really! I'm not kiddin'.

Watch

it again. )

 

In sick bay, Archer tells Reed to take the day off.

 

Then, in a surprising move, Archer tells Phlox to keep the last of

the original virus, not destroy it. *I* thought he'd take it along

to

his Xindi friends, but no, he wants to keep it as a memorial "to

preserve a people... They cease to exist if we destroy this. I

came out here to stop the Xindi from destroying Earth. I'm not

going to destroy another race.

 

Close on the sealed box of M-virus on Phlox's shelf.

 

***

 

ARCS - I'm liking this more and more. It's like coming back to a

familiar story - a new focus but the same events, a fairly

negligible passage of time, and some MUCH NEEDED

continuity. Trip's sleeplessness has figured in all three shows

and is likely to continue. I can dig it.

 

So all in all, I liked it. It was far better than the vague trailers

and

silly Archer makeup suggested. It was again an ensemble

show, with roles for all the regulars, and even a few Macos and

crew. And aliens. Someone is listening to what fans have been

saying since Season One and it is appearing in each ep so far.

Better choices all around.

 

Trip-wise, it's a gem. He's tough and commanderlike in the best

ways. He's flirty and open about himself, in the most charming

way possible. He defends the ship and rescues his Capn, and

his crewmates. He takes his shirt off, a g a i n, and leans back

on T'Pol's massage table, very very fetchingly. MMMMM. Lady C,

you'd better have a lot of cushions around you for this one.

 

A4T