Episode Report Card Keckler: C+ | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Doctor's Day
By Keckler | Season 1 | Episode 13 | Aired on 01.22.2002
Valakis. Animation of a futuristic city with a monorail, looking not unlike Epcot. In a hospital ward, Phlox and the Valakian medical chief-of-staff discuss the disease. The Enterprise crew learns that the disease becomes more resistant with each aggressive treatment they try, and the rate of infection is one out of every three Valakians. Quantum shows how good he is with pointing out the bleedin' obvious by saying, "It's a full-blown epidemic." Suddenly I notice how short Bakula is compared to Billingsly and the Valakian chief of staff. Come to think of it, all the ST captains, save Sisko, have been shortish. The Valakian doctor gestures at some oxygen tents and says, "These are in the most advanced stage." Phlox and Quantum walk over to examine the patients. "You're treating them with a synthetic antibody?" Phlox asks. The Valakian doctor explains that they were using one at first, but then the disease mutated and attacked the respiratory system. "There's no way of controlling it, pulmonary failure usually occurs within a few days," the Valakian doctor finishes. During this conversation, Quantum paces around the ward with a furrowed brow. This is his "troubled" look, I gather. Phlox hypothesizes, "Captain, treatment with priaxate should ease the symptoms in the sickest patients, at least temporarily. I can easily show the Valakians how to synthesize as much as they need." Quantum gives permission for him to do so, as T'Pol and Hoshi walk up. Phlox asks the Valakian doctor for the case histories and lab work of all the patients, so he can examine every stage of the disease. The Enterprise entourage meanders through the ward, but Hoshi hangs back a bit. She finds Bumpy's oxygen tent and stops an orderly, asking, "Excuse me, we're the ones who brought him here, can you tell us how he's doing?" The orderly speaks in a foreign tongue to her, which isn't translated. Wait, didn't he just say, "You look pretty, Cassandra," in Cantonese? Guess the UT's on the blink again. Hoshi calibrates it and asks the orderly to repeat himself. If she can't understand him, how can he understand her request?
Elsewhere in the ward, T'Pol suggests to Quantum that they appoint security to guard Phlox and his equipment. "I don't think these people are about to steal anything," Quantum retorts. You didn't think the Praying Mantis aliens were that dangerous either, and we saw how far that got a few of your red-shirts. "Your experience with lesser civilizations is limited, Captain," T'Prudent says. "You might be surprised what a temptation our technology can be." While Quantum takes some time to digest this, T'Pol notices Hoshi and the orderly attempting to communicate, and walks over. Finally, the Captain follows and asks Hoshi what's going on. Hoshi explains that the UT can't seem to translate the orderly's language. The Valakian doctor and Phlox walk over, and the Valakian doctor says something to the orderly in his untranslatable language. The orderly bows and scampers off. "He doesn't speak the same language as you?" Hoshi asks. "No, he's Menk!" the Valakian doctor says, as though that explains everything. When his visitors look confused, the Valakian doctor tells them that Menks aren't as evolved as Valakians, "but they're very hard workers." So, they're slaves. Quantum verifies that the Menks are indigenous to the planet. "Is that so strange?" the Valakian doctor asks. Quantum says, "On most of the planets we've encountered, only one species of humanoids survived the evolutionary process." Valakian asks if T'Pol and Quantum aren't from the same planet. Quantum and T'Pol exchange looks. "No," T'Pol answers. "We may look alike, but the similarity ends there." Phlox comments that he doesn't see any Menk patients, and asks where they're being treated. The Valakian doctor says the Menks haven't contracted the disease. Who's the more evolved species now? I think we can see where this storyline is going. Phlox asks the Valakian doctor if he's researched the Menks' reason for immunity. "Oh, it was one of the first things we pursued, but Menk and Valakian are physiologically incompatible," Valakian Doctor says, repressing a shudder. Phlox comments that it could still be significant, and requests all the Valakian's Menk data as well. "Of course," Valakian doctor says, a bit stiffly.