Episode Report Card Sara M: B- | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Degra Dearest
By Sara M | Season 3 | Episode 20 | Aired on 04.27.2004
And I thought I had it bad with my regular show's theme song.
Trip tells Archer that they found all the missing crewmen. Archer reacts to this news by asking if their weapons are working. They are. Archer says they should get going. Trip suggests taking some time off to make some repairs and take a couple showers. T'Pol and Archer say there's no time: Degra is meeting them soon. Trip thinks it's a trap. Archer doesn't care. As Trip leaves, Archer tells him to write a letter to dead Taylor's parents. Trip tries to fob the assignment off on someone else, but Archer's having none of that, even when Trip points out that he's too busy making the ship go to write letters. "It doesn't have to be long!" Archer spits, the corners of his mouth turned way down. Wow, Archer sucks.
T'Pol wanders into Sickbay, then tries to leave. But Dr. Phlox sees her. Phlox monitors T'Pol with a high-tech didgeridoo and says there are only trace amounts of drugs in her system. T'Pol says she's still having a hard time controlling her emotions. Phlox tells a long story about genies that somehow relates to this, then says that T'Pol may never regain full control over her emotions. T'Pol looks like she's about to cry, so I guess she's right about the not-being-able-to-control-her-emotions thing.
On the bridge, the minority cast of the show are given one or two lines each as Archer waits for Degra's ship to approach. Meanwhile, there's a shower of sparks erupting from the wall behind Archer. That's cool. If 7th Heaven had showers of sparks in the back of all of its sets, it would be a much more entertaining show. The ship starts shaking a lot, and T'Pol says they've entered a "dense field." Down at Engineering, lightning bolts come flying out of control panels. Trip runs to a comm panel and yells at Archer, who tells him to shut it. On the bridge, more stuff blows up. Archer gives the command to leave, at which point a ship appears and hails them. It's Degra! The Enterprise follows the Degra ship for a while, then Degra comes onscreen. He orders Archer to come aboard his ship, for they have much to discuss.
Now Archer's on the Degra ship. Degra sits a cool-looking glass table. Some hairy guy stands in the corner. He tells Archer that Degra was able to free Archer from "the Aquatics" and stop the Xindi from attacking the Enterprise. We get a closer look at Degra's hair, and damn! He has got something special going on there. There's like five tufts of hair around his skull, several centimeters in front of his receding hairline, and Degra grew them out and brushed them back to form some kind of quasi-corn-row comb-over. Does he really think he's fooling anyone? Archer says that everything he said is true, but Other Guy won't take his word for it. Archer invites them both to his ship for proof. But first, he wants to know when "The Weapon" is going to be launched. Other Guy says that's up to The Council. Degra says it won't be for several days at least, and they'll do what they can to stop them if Archer is telling the truth.
T'Pol grabs some food from the rations line and takes a seat with Trip. She complains that she's been given pepperoni pizza. I don't know what her problem is with that, but maybe Vulcans can't eat Italian or something. ["I believe they're vegetarians." -- Sars] Whatever it is, Trip is less than sympathetic, because he's got problems of his own: he still has to write a letter to Taylor's family. T'Pol says she's sure they'll appreciate that. Trip says they probably won't, since their daughter is dead. It turns out that Trip hasn't slept in two days, so T'Pol tells him to go to bed. Trip says he doesn't have time to sleep. Then something blows up, and Trip and T'Pol spring into action.