Episode Report Card Keckler: C- | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Friendship 2 1/2
By Keckler | Season 1 | Episode 6 | Aired on 10.23.2001
Phlox addresses him casually, saying, "Are you aware that your, um, mother, is sick?" Old Mud Morlock grabs Chris in the Muddy's hand in fear. "This," Phlox says, holding up the medical tricorder, "is one of the tools the Captain spoke of which can tell me all kinds things about the inside of your body. She has an illness we call 'lung cancer,' but it's easily cured." Quantum explains that Phlox can help Chris in the Muddy's mother (Muddy's Mum) but she'd have to come back to the ship with them. "This is shale," the Mud Morlock who used that annoying term before says. "They want to trap us on the Overside to gut us!" Chris in the Muddy ignores Shale Morlock and asks Quantum, "How long of a day would it take?" Phlox tells him it would only be a few hours. "Hours?" Chris in the Muddy queries. Quantum helps him out, "She'd be back before the sun rises on the Overside." Shaka, when the walls fell, right, buddy? Chris in the Muddy looks down at Muddy Mum, who gives him a hopeful look. "Let us help you," Quantum says, feeling that this is his finest hour. Chris in the Muddy says that they will "track together," but that Reed must stay. Quantum protests that Reed needs treatment as well, but Phlox tells him that Reed should be okay for a few hours. "Don't worry about me, sir, I was just getting used to the place," Reed says, all stiff-upper-lippish. At least he's not like Trip "The All Day Sucker" Tucker, who whined about going home after just five minutes of mind-altering drugs. Twice. Quantum tells Chris in the Muddy to lead them out, and he exchanges another look with Reed, who nods his head to reassure him that he'll be okay.
The shuttle pod approaches the big spaceship in the sky, and Quantum explains to Muddy Mum that it's a lot like the ship that brought them to Terra Nova. "Maybe you were born on board," Quantum suggests, "or were your born after your parents got here?" "My parents were Novans. They came from the Overside," is all Muddy Mum has to say about that.
Later, in sick bay, we can hear Muddy Mum's muffled banging and insistences to be let out. "Open the passage!" Chris in the Muddy commands Phlox, who tells him to wait a few more seconds. Chris in the Muddy gets all Anita's Anger about it (any other Superfudge readers out there in the dark?) while Quantum tries to reassure him. Finally, the CAT scan opens, and Muddy Mum slides out. Phlox apologizes for any "discomfort" she experienced. Chris in the Muddy asks if Muddy Mum is healed. "Not quite," Phlox says. "First I have to determine how far her sickness has spread." Phlox dials up some beeps and shows Muddy Mum her innards on the sick bay viewer. "That is you -- well, the inside of you, anyway," Phlox says. "This picture will tell me what kind of treatment you will require." He reads the data and tells Quantum that the cancer has spread, so she will need a series of cytolytic injections. "Injections?" Chris in the Muddy asks, reading over the Prime Directive Daily. "Medicine," Quantum assures him. "He's just going to give her some medicine." While Phlox synthesizes the required dosages, Quantum tells Chris in the Muddy and Muddy Mum that he wants them to look at some pictures: "They might help you remember what it was like living on the Overside before the poison rain." Some of Mayweather's research appears on the sickbay viewer. "It's human shale," Chris in the Muddy says to his mother. "They're confusing our path. You'll lose your tracks in this." Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra. Quantum tells them he's just trying to show them how they got to Terra Nova. "All I see is Digger filth!" Chris in the Muddy says. "Well, look again, because whether you wanna believe it or not, we're both human," Quantum tells them. "Bury your drawings!" Chris in the Muddy tells him angrily. Zinda! His face black, his eyes red! Quantum turns off the viewer and tells Phlox to keep him apprised of the situation. He leaves sick bay to chop a starlog.