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