Episode Report Card Keckler: A+ | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Twilight in the Garden of Good and Better
By Keckler | Season 3 | Episode 8 | Aired on 11.04.2003
After the commercial break, P'Tail joins Quantum outside. "We're on the fifth planet in the Ceti Alpha system," she tells him. "It's far from the Expanse." Although it's been said many times many ways, "THIS IS CETI ALPHA FIVE!" the Delighted Dr. Mathra yells, clapping two paper plates to his chest in an attempt to pec-ulate like Montalban. Quantum asks after the crew, and P'Tail tells him most of them are still on Enterprise, which is orbiting the system and patrolling. She explains that all the other people got to Ceti Alpha V by way of ship convoys. "One of them was led by Enterprise," she says as we get a shot of many ships trailing Enterprise. It's a very cool shot -- the fleet reminds me of something out of Star Wars, but better. And living on Ceti Alpha V before it develops dry rot? Brilliant. Kisses.
Bridge in the past. Cpt. T'Pol gets a comm from Ambassador Soval telling her he needs to speak with her. Cpt. T'Pol receives Soval in her Ready Room. "That uniform doesn't suit you, Captain," Soval sneers. He's just disappointed not to see her dinners putting in an appearance. Cpt. T'Pol supposes he didn't come all this way to give her a Fashion Dos and Don'ts lecture. Not in that caftan, he didn't. The upshot is, Soval wants her back on Vulcan. I think he just wants her. Period. Think about it: he's constantly bugging her to come back with him, and now he'd displeased that she's not in her skin-tight catsuit. It all smells like a mid-life Pon Farr to me. Cpt. T'Pol refuses to leave, saying the crew needs her. Soval argues that it's for her safety, as they received a distress call from the Mutara system -- man, Wrath of Khan references all over the place! It's like they knew what I was giving the Delighted Dr. Mathra for his birthday tomorrow! -- but when they reached the coordinates, all they found was debris. The Xindi were to blame. Yeah, yeah, yeah -- dead people aside, was there a nebula? Did they find a nebula? Soval wheedles that Cpt. T'Pol will get her rank back from the High Command. "I won't leave them," T'Pol says. "'Them' or 'him'?" Soval asks. Cpt. T'Pol just stares him down. Soval offers Vulcan specialists for Quantum. "You'd take him too?" Cpt. T'Pol asks. "If you return to Vulcan," Soval says. "Where I can bed you," the Delighted Dr. Mathra adds. Cpt. T'Pol ponders. Sensing a crack in her resolve, Soval rehashes the whole "the stupid humans weren't ready to leave Earth on a warp vessel" argument and that, in addition, the Vulcans owe the humans nothing. Since he can't remember where he left it, Cpt. T'Pol takes Quantum's mouthpiece and says the Vulcans held the humans back for too long, and that instead of doing that, they could have helped them develop faster ships, better defenses, and, in the end, possibly save humankind. "Your emotional attachment to Archer is clouding your logic," Soval snaps. He tells her they'll be around for another day if she should reconsider.
In Quantum's Quarters, Porthos lies on the bed while Quantum stares out the window in the dark. Cpt. T'Pol enters, and Quantum snappishly inquires if her meeting with the Vulcans went well. Cpt. T'Pol wonders how he knew. "There was obviously a reason why I chose these quarters -- you can see a lot from this window. [Including the Weight of the World?] What did they want?" Quantum demands. Cpt. T'Pol tells him. "Oh," Quantum says, and then bravely explains how he thinks he can contribute to the running of the ship. "I can help Trip out in Engineering!" he announces. Cpt. T'Pol carefully explains that they tried that a week ago, but it was uncomfortable for him. Oh, sad. It's like watching someone with early Alzheimer's. Quantum demands to know if he's just supposed to stay in his quarters all the time. Cpt. T'Pol tells him that he takes Porthos for walks and tells the children in the classrooms about their earlier missions. "In other words, just stay out of the way," Quantum says. Cpt. T'Pol just looks at him. P'Tail VOs that they reached Ceti Alpha V a year later, and that theirs was the only convoy to reach it. Everyone else had been destroyed by the Xindi.