Episode Report Card Keckler: C- | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Play Dom Jot, Hu-mon!
By Keckler | Season 1 | Episode 10 | Aired on 11.20.2001
Enterprise mess. Mayberry shows Ryan the way to the food. "Save room for dessert," he says. "Homemade ice cream." Ryan pulls out a plate of steak and baked potatoes from the glassed-in shelves. "Do you eat this well all the time?" he asks. Mayberry tells him their chef's the best in the Starfleet: "Heard the Captain had to call in a lot of favors to get him on board." So, he's the best at reconstituting protein? What kind of degree do you need for that -- some hybrid from Cal Tech and the Cordon Bleu? Mayberry barely gets himself seated before he starts shoveling food into his mouth. "It's good you stayed away from the resequenced meatloaf," he tells Ryan. "They still haven't gotten that right." Why does meatloaf get such a bad rap? My mother made exceptional meatloaf. In fact, it was one of my most requested dishes, and I was a really picky eater as a kid. Just as long as she didn't get all weird and put diced green peppers in it. "Resequenced?" Ryan mumbles through his mouthful. "This tastes real." "That's because it is," Mayberry grins through his mashed potatoes. Oh, I give up on this food thing. Ryan says the last time he had steak was over a year ago. Mmm -- when was the last time I had a nice, juicy steak? Too long ago. "All we got left now are hydroponics and nutripacks," Ryan says. They take a little trip down culinary memory lane; Mayberry recalls eating that kind of crap. "What did we used to call those?" he asks. "Mystery meals!" they say together, and share a jocund moment. Mayberry tells Ryan that his dad could do wonders with those nutripacks. "Whenever it was someone's birthday, my mother would bake a cake, and we knew better than to ask what it was made of," Ryan tells Mayberry. "Didn't stop you from eating it," Mayboomer chortles, getting all hyper with his food. Mayberry asks if Ryan's parents are on the Fortunate. Ryan seems to have some trouble swallowing, and tells Mayberry his parents were on the North Star. Mayberry pauses dramatically before asking, "Were you on board?" Ryan tells him he was one of the survivors, and signed on to the Fortunate after that. "I'm sorry," Mayberry says, looking deep into Ryan's eyes. Ryan shakes his head: "Running freight's dangerous." He keeps shoveling green beans into his mouth and chewing loudly.
Mayberry waits a bit, then asks Ryan if he ever thinks about doing anything else. "You mean join Starfleet?" Ryan asks. "Food's not bad!" Mayberry says goofily. Ryan leans back in his chair, the better to show off his man breasts in his tight grey t-shirt. "Was this premeditated?" he asks, smiling. "Buy me lunch then give me the recruiting pitch." No, he just bought you lunch because he wants to get you into bed. I mean, you got the steak, after all. Mayberry swears his intentions are honorable, "but you've spent more time in space than most Starfleet Captains [hey, didn't I just say that?]. There are three more NX-class ships on the drawing board -- they are going to need experienced people." Ryan asks who's left to do the freight run, if Starfleet cherry-picks all the best crew. Mayberry tells him not to worry, because not everyone's going to go. "You did," Ryan points out. "You think leaving the Horizon was easy for me? That I just took off because I got tired of the food?" Mayberry asks, getting his back up. "That ship was my home." Ryan asks him why he "abandon[ed]" his family. Mayberry drops his silverware and tells him, "Being in Starfleet is the best thing that ever happened to me. My parents weren't happy that I left, but they respected my decision." Ryan asks, "Did they? Or were they just saying what you wanted to hear, so you wouldn't feel guilty?" Mayberry gives him the stink-eye and then looks away, trying not to cry. Ryan stands up and says that Trip should be done with his mechanical doo-hickey by now. "Thanks for lunch," he says to Mayberry -- who doesn't look up -- and leaves.