Episode Report Card Keckler: B- | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Melded Cheese on Melda Toast
By Keckler | Season 2 | Episode 14 | Aired on 02.04.2003
Anyway, back to 1987 when this sort of episode really would have been cutting-edge and not soddenly late in the game. Quantum wants to know why T'Pol won't explain her unique situation to the Vulcans. "I have my reasons," T'Pol tells him. Considering that he's chewed his way all around T'Pol and he's still hungry, Quantum walks over to Phlox to snack on some more scenery. He wants to know how serious T'Pol's condition is, and Phlox tells him he's managed to keep it in check up until now. "But the symptoms have progressed. That's why I requested the most current research," Phlox explains. "Well, your request was accompanied by a lie," Quantum says, stalking away, "and whatever your reasons might have been, you're no longer welcome at the Conference -- the Vulcans have seen to that." Phlox isn't surprised. Quantum proves he can chew and furrow at the same time as he goes on and on about T'Pol's health being his first priority, and if the Vulcan docs have information that can help her...the camera closes in on Quantum for a Dramatic Tight Shot. "I plan to get it!" Quantum announces.
A sh'pod leaves the ship.
Quantum rocks back and forth in the waiting room of the Vulcan doctor offices in Sim City. I wonder if they have a old copies of Highlights lying around like every other doctor's office. I loved how Goofus and Gallant might as well have been named "Cain" and "Abel." Two of the Vulcan doctors walk out, and I suddenly recognize one as Captain Pushover! Last time I saw him, he was playing a crazy man on the street in an episode of Buffy: The Glorrid Year. Dr. P'sh Over asks Quantum if they kept him waiting. "Actually...you did," Quantum says. Okay, I've been trying since Wednesday night to figure out why exactly Bakula delivered that line the way he did. Is he trying to show Quantum being all in your face with the Vulcans? If he is, it's not like that's any different from how Quantum usually acts with the Vulcans, so why make a point about it here? And if he's trying to get the Vulcans to react, they won't, because they did purposely make him wait. Just him saying, "Actually...you did" isn't going to make either of them go, "Oh, god, really? We didn't mean it. Well, we did initially, but now that you're being so all-fired honest about how you feel, we feel real bad."
Anyway. Quantum explains that he's there to get the information they refused to give Phlox, and he doesn't understand why they would purposely withhold information that could help T'Pol just because Phlox lied. Dr. P'sh Over tells him their reason for withholding has nothing to do with how many deductions they claim. Sorry, wrong set of notes. Basically, this is where Quantum gets to feel all superior to the Vulcans (again) as he learns that their reason for not continuing research on a cure for Pa'nar Syndrome is because they term the sufferers "undesirables" who engage in the "intimate acts" of mind-melding -- a practice they deem "offensive"-- since they prize greatly their ability to contain their emotions and consider sharing them reprehensible.