Dear Doctor

After a dozen episodes, the Star Trek series "Enterprise" comes into its own with this amazing episode, written by Maria and Andre Jacquemetton (known for their later work producing the great "Mad Men" series. Dealing with the central issue of how a space exploration might interfere with alien races' development, it's dramatized carefully in a very logical and in fact, emotional fashion, to deliver via Archer's final decision a terrific conclusion.

With an insidiously beautiful and subtle musical score, and central character John Billingsley's voice-over narration and bemused acting style, the episode personalizes theoretical issues. His relationship to his human crewmates, especially the platonic romantic interest well-played by Kelly Waymire, makes the notion about interspecies relations more palpable and personal.

Unlike literary science fiction, where concepts are paramount, movie (and TV) examples in the genre tend to be biased in favor of "action movie" cliches & SPFX. This episode is a thinking person's show in the genre, and packs a wallop.

The good thing about Star Trek is its willingness to tackle philosophical concepts and that is what makes this a good episode. Also by combining it with development of the doctor - my favourite character, nonetheless - I think it's the best episode of Enterprise I've seen so far.

I've seen negative reviews on IMDb, perhaps because the reviewers believe the "correct" answer is blatant. However, I would argue that the point is that these concepts should be explored. That the answers are not clear cut and that challenging one's established ideas is good. Each side has merit and the way this is explored is well written and presented convincingly.

This brings this series back to what makes Star Trek great.

Eventually, the Prime Directive became part of the soul of all Star Trek incarnations. This, of course, is the directive that prevents explorers from interfering with the natural evolution of a species. For instance, giving arms to an oppressed group so that they can even a score. Relocating a group to more fertile soil so they can become superior farmers. In this case, there are two species living side by side, one more intellectually evolved than the other, but that species is dying from a genetic disposition. Phlox is asked to come up with a medical treatment but since the "lesser" group is becoming more able, he sees perpetuating the dominant ones as a philosophical dilemma. It' the butterfly effect where everything we do sends waves out to change the fabric of the world. Of course, one could argue that interference is also a part of the natural order of things. It's certainly an interesting topic for conversation. I didn't appreciate the little Archer speech about "someday." It is kind of tacky. It's like Lincoln saying, "Someday, we will be able to talk to each other on devices we carry in our pockets." Kind of dumb.

The Enterprise comes upon a ship where there are a few folks in stasis. When they revive them, the humans learn that these people are from a plague-infested planet and they sent ships to space to look for more advanced species that might be able to help them cure the disease. Unfortunately, Dr. Phlox is having a heck of a time treating the illness. Plus, there is a serious ethical dilemma, as allowing the species to die out might just be in line with what would later be known as the prime directive.

This episode is interesting because it's told from the Doctor's perspective. In addition to the main plot there are some interesting subplots involving romance in the air for the Doc as well as his learning that the Captain is actually a far more capable man than he'd assumed.

I've seen the trope of "a day in the life of... insert main supporting character here" in other series. As with this one, they usually take the form of correspondence being written to an off screen character, recounting the events of the day from that character's perspective.

This, however, was one of the best incarnations of the idea that I've seen. It was interesting to see how well the writers pushed a range of different threads into the doctor's day (or actually a few days, I think), and yet still managed to come up with a coherent story.

The story includes some ethical dilemmas which don't just take the easy, feel good way out, but I won't spoil the episode by going further than that. Better still, it enabled some of the characters to see issues from a different perspective.

The other thing that I enjoyed was the opportunity to let John Billingsley take the lead for the episode. As always Phlox was played calmly and methodically, and yet still managed to put some genuine emotion into the mix.

I've been binge watching Enterprise for the last couple of days and this was probably the best written and interesting episode to date... and it wasn't without competition on that score.