Once upon a time, there was a little series called Star Trek. This television series was a wonderful campy look at humans in space, where of course, they were the most enlightened and moral species out there. The other species of aliens were mostly cardboard cutouts or caricatures of “evil” human governments: the Vulcans were the cold, dispassionate computers, the Klingons were Russians, the Romulans Chinese, and the less said about the Tellarites, the better. Also among the more memorable creations were the Andorians, a race of extremely paranoid and short-tempered blue people with antennae.
Now, before anyone questions my loyalties, I grew up on a steady diet of Star Trek, and as such, these seemingly laughable details are secured in a special place in my heart. Those who scoff at the original series these days simply cannot understand how something so bizarre and self-contradictory could gain such praise and spawn such a massive franchise. The fact is, even with a smaller budget than your typical college student, the series attracted several top-notch science fiction writers and managed to cast several actors that simply could not have been more perfect for the roles in question.
Getting back to the present, which is more than 30 years later, we have an episode of the latest Star Trek series focusing on the Andorians. No other series since the original has dared such a thing. And to be honest, I can see why. The Andorians only showed up once, and they were created to serve a particular purpose and nothing more. Hence, the cardboard cutout characterization. As it turns out, writing them today is an exercise in making something out of almost nothing. It almost didn’t work.
But humans are stupid.
Humans discover a Vulcan monastery, a place that doesn’t exactly welcome visitors, and figure it’s a wonderful place to practice diplomatic skills. Humans are given strict instructions on how to behave, and break those rules almost immediately. Humans jump feet first into a situation that they don’t fully comprehend, and then decide that the best way to solve the problem is to run roughshod over the cultural mores of their only true “ally”.
It doesn’t matter that the Andorians turned out to be right, or that the behavior of the humans ended up securing another possible ally. Personally, I’m not so sure I’d want the Andorians to be my allies. Half the time, they’d wind up questioning every little comment or suggestion you might make towards your mutual advantage. Sure, the Vulcans already do that, but the Vulcans are unlikely to express disagreement by beating your envoy within an inch of his life.
This episode served to say as much about the Vulcans and their contradictions as it continued portrayal of the human race as far too impulsive and negligent of the care that ought to be taken when dealing with other cultures. The Vulcans are generally seen as the more peaceful, enlightened members of the Federation, the foundation upon which the actions of humanity spring forth. Exploring the pre-Federation relationship between the humans and the Vulcans is a wonderful opportunity to show how that later society came into being.
For instance, we see yet again how thinly veiled the Vulcan contempt for humanity’s lack of restraint is. Even the followers of Kolinahr, which is given a bit of a false generalization in this episode, show a distinct attitude of long-suffering just dealing with humans at all. The “odor of humans” is actually just a metaphor for the human need to make everything a massive, melodramatic production. Usually involving gunplay, which of course, only annoys the Vulcans even more.
Beyond that, however, we see that the Vulcans are not above a little dishonesty about both their behavior and their motivations. Purists, no doubt, would cry foul. And yet we have to remember that this is not the time of the Federation, when humans basically take up the burden of interstellar warfare, so the Vulcans don’t have to deal with it. At this point, humans are confined to Earth or strict trade routes, and the Vulcans need to defend their own space. The pragmatic Vulcans would logically conclude that a system of advanced listening posts is a necessary tool for defense, and that logic dictates that you would conceal your listening posts in a place that your enemies (and allies) would have little reason to suspect. It is probably only the paranoid nature of the Andorians that leads them to suspect the monastery, and without the “help” of the humans, they still would not have discovered the hidden compound.
There are a number of interesting complications that this episode should introduce. The humans have discovered that the Vulcans, already not too popular among the crew, are not as pure of purpose as they might have led humanity to believe. This will no doubt cause the crew to be a bit more demanding of the Vulcans, but similarly, the Vulcans are going to be more likely to attempt to restrict human activities. This should also add tension to the relationship between T’Pol and the rest of the crew.
Unfortunately, this is Star Trek. Not only have the writers had extreme difficulty in maintaining a tight continuity on any of the previous series in the franchise, they do not seem capable of ending an episode well. This episode should have been written so that at least some exploration of the issues the resolution of the conflict raised. Of course, that did not happen.
Some other thoughts:
- Archer and Trip take far too much glee from the fact that the Vulcan star chart is slightly imperfect!
- What, I wonder, do humans smell like, anyway? Do they all smell the same, or are there variations?
- Apparently Archer has a difficult time understanding what “speak when spoken to” and “pause for five seconds” mean…
- “The icon is resting at an odd angle? I’ll call Starfleet Command immediately…”
- Nice how the Andorians’ antennae actually move this time.
- Jeffrey Combs, of course, is now a Star Trek staple from his various roles on “Deep Space Nine”. But his actual list of genre appearances rivals even that of Brad Dourif…including an appearance on “Babylon 5”.
- Since when is Trip educated in ancient Vulcan communications technology? Even engineers know that similar technology does not equal familiarity, if the basis of design is different.
- Once again, the viewers figure out something long before the characters. Would didn’t figure out that the holes at the end of the tunnel were the eyes and mouth of the big Buddha face?
- Rather convenient that the transmitter just happens to be sitting right across the tunnel from the entrance to the reliquary…
- Speaking of the big Buddha face, aren’t the Vulcans going to get a little peeved that the humans blew it up?
- Never mind all of those Vulcan relics down in the basement…
- Where do the logical, intelligent Vulcans hide the super-modern entrance to their listening post? Behind the dusty curtain, of course…
- Is having the Andorians owe you a debt a *good* thing?
- I suppose that the Vulcan monk that argued to go on the retrieval team was actually going to keep the humans and/or Andorians from finding the listening post. Great job!
- Did the logical Vulcan monk actually think that the humans were going to be convinced by his threat to shoot Archer?
Overall, this was a nice gimmick episode, but unless they follow-up on the complications arising out of this incident, it will ultimately be little more than an attempt to get attention.
