"Singularity"

Written by Chris Black
Directed by Patrick Norris


In which an encounter with unique radiation from a black hole leaves Archer and the crew helpless against their own obsessions...

Synopsis - Analysis - Memorable Quotes - Observations


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Synopsis

As the episode begins, it is August 14, 2152. As the Enterprise speeds towards a black hole, T’Pol dispassionately gives a report. The rest of the crew appears to be dying. The nearest Vulcan ship is eight days away. It seems likely that the crew will not survive before help arrives, if the ship can even manage to stay together that long. T’Pol continues her analysis on her own, with Dr. Phlox also incapacitated, recounting the events leading to the current crisis for Starfleet study.

Flash back about two days earlier. T’Pol shows Archer and Trip the schematic of a new discovery: a black hole that is part of a trinary star system. T’Pol advises that it will take about two days to reach the minimum safe distance from the singularity. Archer orders her to set the course, and then pulls Trip aside. He asks Trip to take a look at his captain’s chair. Apparently it’s rather uncomfortable.

The next morning, T’Pol brings the duty roster to Archer in his quarters. Reed has some suggestions that he would like to run by the captain. The chef is ill, and so Hoshi has been assigned to the mess for the duration.

Archer takes the chance to ask T’Pol to review the preface he is writing for his father’s biography. That is, if he can ever finish it...his inability to find the right words seems to agitate him. T’Pol is sure that Archer can do it in the two days of travel, but Archer isn’t sure how to condense his father’s life into a single page. T’Pol suggests finding a defining moment that captures his relationship with his father.

Down in the mess, Hoshi decides that she’s going to make an old family recipe for the entire crew...from scratch. In sickbay, Mayweather stops by, complaining about a headache. He’s hoping to get some medication, but Phlox convinces him that an examination is in order. After all, Phlox had been meaning to follow-up with Mayweather to determine if there were any lingering effects from his experience with the alien repair station (“Dead Stop”). But Phlox wonders if it could be something much worse.

On the bridge, Trip labors with his team to refit the captain’s chair...using a very loud and annoying tool. T’Pol, clearly bothered by the sound, asks Trip to complete the job at a later time. Trip points out that he’s working on the captain’s chair, and it takes precedence. T’Pol leaves for her quarters.

Down in the armory, Reed instructs his team through the routine weapons inspections and upkeep. Archer stops by to speak with him about his suggestions, and Reed suggests that the crew response to ship-wide threats is too slow. He suggests that creating a ship-wide alert would be in order, something more comprehensive than “battle stations”. Reed lists all of the incidents during which a lapse in ship-wide alert status allowed the situation to escalate. Archer orders Reed to run the suggestions past the senior officers, get feedback, and then they’ll discuss it again.

Later, in the mess, Hoshi goes from table to table, asking everyone what they think of her concoction. Reed and Trip ask each other’s counsel on their respective projects...with a certain focus on their own needs as well.

Hoshi gets to their table, and notices that Reed hasn’t eaten any of her food. Hoshi offers to get him a fresh bowl, but he’s not interested. She needles him into explaining why he won’t eat it, and he offers that it’s a little salty. She checks it and disagrees, so he admits that it might be his tastes...as he walks away, no longer interested in the discussion.

Down in sickbay, Phlox informs Mayweather that he needs to stay overnight for observation, even though his scans reveal nothing is wrong. Phlox insists that he be given the chance to find whatever might be wrong, regardless of where it may be hiding in Mayweather’s system. In his quarters, Archer struggles over his latest revision of the preface. He even snaps at Porthos as he can’t seem to find the right words.

Trip stops by T’Pol’s quarters, bringing the diagnostic interface she requested. When T’Pol explains that she’s trying to identify some kind of radiation being emitted by the trinary system, Trip gets agitated, and accuses T’Pol of trying to get back at him. He lets T’Pol know that he’s moved the captain’s chair down to engineering, so he doesn’t have time to help T’Pol with her analysis. When T’Pol notes his agitation, she asks if he’s feeling all right, and he launches into a lecture about the importance of keeping the captain comfortable.

Down in sickbay, Mayweather tries to leave. He’s been up all night, and now his shift is scheduled to begin in less than an hour. But Phlox demands that Mayweather lie down, so he can perform a cerebral micro-section. When Mayweather resists, worried about getting a blemish on his record. But Phlox is sure that Mayweather’s brain chemistry suggests some kind of unknown contagion. Mayweather still insists on leaving, so Phlox offers to give him some pain medication. Instead, Phlox knocks him out, and ties him to the biobed.

Down in engineering, Reed stops by to let Trip know that he’s come up with his new “tactical alert” protocols. He’s also been working on a new alert signal...several, and all annoying. Trip promises to review the procedures and get back to him. For the moment, Trip is too focused on Archer’s chair.

In the galley, Hoshi labors over her recipe, re-cooking her meal over and over, never satisfied. Unfortunately, she’s also not making everything else, so none of the crew can eat. T’Pol stops by the armory to speak with Reed, but he immediately asks her for a clearance code. He has assigned one to each of the senior crew members. She tries to explain her concerns about Trip, but Reed focuses on her desire to use the sensory array. Then she notes that he’s armed.

When asked about it, Reed explains that all security personnel must be armed at all times while on duty, as part of the new security protocols. T’Pol notes that the captain was supposed to approve the new protocols prior to implementation, but Reed brushes her off. Instead, he rails at the captain’s apparent lack of concern for proper security measures and command authority. Reed intends to go over Archer’s head if his protocols need to be approved.

Archer stops by engineering, and finds Trip dismantling his chair completely. Trip informs Archer that he’s going to build him a chair worthy of the first captain of a warp 5 vessel. While Trip scans Archer’s body to get his exact dimensions, Archer tries out his latest revision of his preface on Trip. When Trip is finished, Archer wants to continue reading...all 20 pages! When Trip comments that it’s long winded for a preface, Archer storms out, insulted.

Down in the galley, T’Pol and Archer ask Hoshi for something other than her recipe, but Hoshi angrily informs them that she doesn’t have time for special orders. He tells Archer to make himself a sandwich. Archer responds by grabbing Hoshi’s pot and taking over. As Hoshi argues with him, Reed’s tactical alert begins blaring overhead.

Archer rushes to the bridge, and demands that Reed explain himself. Reed rattles off his criticisms of the crew’s response to the drill, and Archer counters that he never authorized a drill. Trip arrives and grabs the captain, adamant that he take a look at the new designs for his chair. Reed, disgusted by Trip’s apparent lack of priorities, confronts him and the two men begin fighting. Archer separates them, threatening them both and demanding that he not be disturbed.

Later, T’Pol stops by to tell him that she believes there is, in fact, an emergency. The entire crew, Archer included, appears to be focused on trivial matters. But when she suggests that he have Phlox examine the entire crew, Archer dismisses her. When she persists, he threatens to confine her to quarters if she doesn’t stay away.

She stops by sickbay to talk with Phlox, and finds him preparing Mayweather for exploratory brain surgery. T’Pol tries to communicate the problem to Phlox, but he doesn’t seem to care about the larger problem. When she tries to get him to see reason, he becomes hostile, and she is forced to use the Vulcan nerve pinch to render him unconscious. Then she studies his scan of Mayweather’s brain.

Soon, most of the crew is unconscious as the Enterprise continues on its course to the trinary system. Based on the scan of Mayweather’s brain, T’Pol has been able to determine that the radiation is interacting with the crew, causing their ever-worsening condition. She is able to plot a course away from the radiation, but she determines that she will need someone else to pilot the ship as she determines ongoing course corrections.

She returns to Archer’s quarters and tries to rouse him. When he responds with confusion, she does her best to explain the situation while helping him into his shower. She turns on the water, forcing his system to react. It works, shocking him into thinking more clearly. T’Pol explains what needs to be done, and that Archer needs to pilot the ship. Archer suggests Mayweather, but he’s still sedated. T’Pol sees no other choice.

With Archer’s help, T’Pol begins the difficult task of moving Enterprise through the debris field of the black hole’s accretion disk. Archer struggles to maintain focus, but he manages to keep them mostly on course. But then they find themselves in the path of a large chunk of rock breaking apart, and they can’t get the weapons online in time. As smaller pieces strike the hull, Reed’s tactical alert is triggered. The weapons automatically go online, allowing T’Pol to target and eliminate debris in their path.

As Enterprise clears the radiation field, the crew begins to slowly recover from its effects. As they speed away from the system at warp, Phlox assures them that there are no lingering effects from the exposure. He thanks T’Pol for stopping him from operating on Mayweather.

Archer calls Reed to his quarters, and he explains that the tactical alert was activated during the crisis. Reed apologizes, but Archer thinks that those protocols ought to be made standard procedure...so long as the alarm gets some work.

On the bridge, Trip shows Archer his new chair...which is the old chair, lowered one centimeter. Archer acts as though it’s completely comfortable now, but it’s clearly an act. Waiting until Trip is out of sight, Archer slides out of his chair, and walks over to T’Pol...so he can get her opinion of his latest version of the preface!


Analysis

Episodes where the main characters begin to act out of character, because of some kind of exposure to contagion or device, are a well-worn tradition in the Star Trek franchise. Beginning with “The Naked Time” in the original series, and the direct sequel “The Naked Now” for TNG, there have been several episodes for each subsequent series where characters are not themselves.

This episode is the first foray into that plot device for this series, and for the most part, it works. The explanation for the change in the crew’s priorities makes a certain amount of sense, and the progression of that effect follows the logic suggested by that explanation. The driving desire to focus more and more on a single obsession is only the first stage of a degenerative effect.

Unfortunately, as interesting as that explanation might be, the individual obsessions for the crew members don’t always make sense or provide the most interesting material. The best scenes are reserved, as usual, for Phlox. The steady but subtle progression of his more sinister side shines through wonderfully. Reed, Trip, and Hoshi all manage to give life to their character moments. The best of the three has to be Reed, thanks to the level of continuity involved.

Oddly, Archer’s obsession over the preface to his father’s biography carries very little interest. Most of the other characters obsess over something that can be given visual scope, and that lends depth to those scenes. Archer’s obsession, perhaps tellingly, is entirely cerebral, and so it doesn’t carry any weight. Still, even Archer fares better than Mayweather, whose obsession over career is so bare as to not even get noticed the first time around.

Speaking of Mayweather, it has become increasingly clear that the writers have no idea what to do with his character. It’s true that they have been writing him into more episodes, but those moments hold no connective threads or character development. They treat his as the master pilot when the need exists for that sort of character, but just as often, he is used as the generic minor character without a need for a background.

If the writers had any conception of where they were going with Mayweather, his character would have been the one used to pilot the Enterprise in the final act. Instead, a slight bit of writer’s sleight-of-hand is used to place Mayweather out of play so that the more popular and recognizable Archer can take the pilot’s seat.

That said, the ongoing disagreement over command styles between Archer and Reed continues to escalate here, and that’s a pleasant surprise. One might have assumed that the discussion would end with “Minefield”, since most character conflicts only show up in a specific episode or during “sweeps” episodes. To have that argument carry through several episodes is something normally avoided on a Trek series. However, that just serves to highlight the chances missed with Mayweather even more.

There is still room for improvement in other areas. Trip continues to provide some nice comic relief, but if the character isn’t given something more than that role, the result could take something away from future episodes. The same is true for Hoshi. Now that Reed has been given some much needed growth, T’Pol has become a more confidently portrayed role, and Archer’s command style has been given some better command moments, the other characters need to be given their development as well.

For a second season that has been marked with a dramatic drop in the quality of writing, it’s become a matter of finding the good moments hidden within the massive amount of mediocrity. This episode has more good moments than bad, and that is a better balance than has been struck in most episodes this year. There are still some rough patches, as usual with the writing, but if the rest of the season can continue with this measure of quality, then it might be salvaged.


Memorable Quotes

REED: “Just what the captain needs in a crisis...a place to rest his beverage!”

REED: “It’s a chair!”
TRIP: “It’s the captain’s chair...and it’s just as important as your ‘Reed Alert’...”
REED: “Reed Alert? That’s not bad...”

TRIP: “They both sound like a bag full of cats!”

TRIP: “I’m starting from scratch! I’m building you a throne! (Pause.) Stand right there...”

ARCHER: “It’s a good thing you’re an engineer...because you obviously don’t know the first thing about writing!” (Gee...heard that one before...)

ARCHER: “Hey! I don’t care what color the headrest is, or whether it can serve me iced tea! I just want a place I can set while I’m on duty! And if I hear that alarm one more time, I may have you taken out and shot!”


Observations

- Just when I think the teaser can’t get any shorter...I mean, damn, is this one even a minute long? At least it held some actual relevance to the plot!

- Exactly how is that schematic of the black hole supposed to demonstrate that it’s part of a trinary system?

- I wonder if Phlox did something nasty to the chef before starting on Mayweather...

- T’Pol continues to look a bit more Asian than in the past...it’s a good look for her!

- “Reed Alert”!

- I definitely think that the second tactical alert signal was the more annoying of the two...but both would do the job, I think!

- Wow...Hoshi’s even hot when she’s pissed!

- Cool shots of the Enterprise moving through the debris field of the black hole’s accretion disk!

Overall, this episode takes a very standard science fiction plot device and gives it an “Enterprise” spin, and for the most part, that works well. Some of the writing choices continue to be overly convenient and bland, but there are some moments where the characters get to shine through.

I give it a 7/10.


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