Episode Report Card Keckler: F | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Holier ThanThou
By Keckler | Season 1 | Episode 14 | Aired on 01.29.2002
Klingon ship. T'Pol scans with her tricorder and reports, "Nitrogen-oxygen atmosphere. Carbon dioxide levels are high but nothing toxic. It's breathable." Hoshi invites Reed to take off his helmet first. He does, followed by T'Pol. The helmets make a cool click-and-hiss noise as the vacuum seal is unlocked. T'Pol gets a noseful of air and says, "Perhaps we should leave the helmets on," as Hoshi starts coughing from apparent stench. Reed wonders what they're talking about. "You can't smell that?" Hoshi asks. "Do, this dam code," Reed says, suddenly reafflicted with a stuffy nose not present in the shuttle pod scene. Hoshi tells him to consider himself lucky as they set off to explore the ship. The ship's interior is very dark and smoky -- yet another sign that it's a Klingon vessel. Hoshi sees some markings on a bulkhead and tells her team to take a look at it. "It says, 'Deck Two, Red Sector,'" Hoshi translates. "What language?" Reed asks. "Klingon," Hoshi announces, and the three pull out weapons. Now, why are they doing that, exactly? Nothing we've seen has really shown the Klingons to be any more bite than bark. I mean, I applaud them for being way more cautious than their "hail fellows well met" yokel of a captain, but I still have a really hard time regarding the Klingons as truly evil. "I thought you knew Klingon ships," Hoshi accuses T'Pol. "How could you not recognize this one from the outside?" T'Pol says she's not familiar with all their models since they have many classes. Whatever; I recognized it from the outside because it looked very much like the other bird-of-prey-ish ship they encountered in "Unexpected."
T'Pol reports that she's reading three very weak bio-signs ahead, and the search-and-retrieval party presses on. "How weak?" Hoshi asks, rather tremulously, but everyone ignores her. They enter what appears to be the bridge of the ship and examine a few Klingons who are lying about. "They're still alive," T'Pol reports. "We should leave before they regain consciousness." Reed asks, "And what if they don't? The atmosphere's going to crush this ship like an eggshell, pretty soon." Hoshi asks if they shouldn't help them, but T'Pol tells her that the Klingons don't want their help. "How do you know?" Hoshi asks. "They're Klingons. To die at their posts assures them a path to the afterlife. If we rescue them, they'd be dishonored," T'Pol tells her. In the absence of the real thing, Reed feels the need to act like Captain Save-a-Lot, and says, "Well, I for one don't intend to just fly off and let these people die -- honorable deaths or not." T'Pol, sounding way too suspiciously like Phlox in the last episode, tells Reed that compassion is all well and good, but really neither here nor there in this situation, since the Klingons would kill them if they found them on their ship.