Episode Report Card Keckler: F | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Moroners
By Keckler | Season 2 | Episode 6 | Aired on 10.29.2002
In the middle of Trip helping to repair things, Harry Parma Hamlin gets a message that "Korok's ship is entering orbit." Parma Hamlin bitches that they were supposed to have more time, but Leader of the Dust Mites tells him to get everyone inside. "Sum kinda trubble?" Trip wonders. Instead of answering, Parma Hamlin gives orders. Oddly, Trip follows them.
T'Pol questions the reasoning behind the Klingons expecting the Dust Mites to have sole claim on their deuterium, so Leader of the Dust Mites tells her that the Klingons believe they have "an exclusive arrangement." "If they think anyone's been here before them, they get very angry," Nurse Halfaway says pointedly. So it's like a jealous ex-boyfriend visiting his ex-girlfriend once she's taken out a restraining order on him. Leader of the Dust Mites orders Quantum not to get involved. Quantum heaves a hefty sigh -- it's such a difficult thing for him, not messing around with other people's lives -- and comms Reed to keep Enterprise out of Klingon sight. Don't you think the Klingons could have possibly intercepted that transmission? If they're anything like an ex-boyfriend I had in college, they probably tapped the planet's lines as soon as they were within range.
A cool Klingon ship that I don't recall ever seeing before cruises into orbit. A pocketful of Klingons beams down and throws its considerable collective weight around when they find out their deuterium is back-ordered. From a distant see-through tent, T'Pol is able to discern what is being said, and gets a "good ears" comment from Trip. Would that be considered a pointy-ear joke? Seeing them smack both Parma Hamlin and Leader of the Dust Mites to the ground, Trip tries to throw himself into the fray, but Quantum wisely puts a restraining furrow on him. The Alpha Klingon tells Leader of the Dust Mites -- who is rolling on the ground like a dust bunny -- that they could get deuterium elsewhere, but they come to him because they "like" him. Especially when he shows them "hospitality and respect." Harry Parma Hamlin bleeds Type Exposition and says that the Klingons take all they have and still expect respect from them. Alpha Klingon stands over them and says they have four days to get their order together. The gagh-slurpers beam out, and Nurse Halfaway sallies forth to administer Curad. Inside the tent, the E-crew learns that the same band of seven Klingons have been stealing lunch money from the Dust Mites for five seasons, and the one time they stood up to them, it got eight of their people killed. Including Ana-can't's father. Of course -- the kid wouldn't be half as appealing as an innocent sufferer if he had both his parents alive and kicking. Predictably -- and this episode is nothing if not ploddingly predictable -- Quantum furrows that there might be something they can do for them. Leader of the Mites tells him to just take their deuterium and clear out: "If you're here when they come back, they'll kill you." Quantum's deep and wide furrow seems to think otherwise. Deep and wide, deep and wide! Quantum's got a furrow deep and wide! Anyone else go to Sunday school where they sang nonsensical songs?
Doing The Storm-Off Of The Annoyed, Quantum comms the ship. Reed reports that the Klingon ship has warped off, and he's sending a sh'pod down to collect the crew and cargo. Ana-can't watches the humans. It could be T'Pol's disco-suited butt he's checking out, but Trip feels the Innocent One's stare boring into his back. He turns back to apologize for not giving him the tour of Enterprise he promised earlier. The kid decides to give Trip a guilt whine about how he and his crew could have fought and beaten the Klingons, which makes Trip pull out the old chestnut, "It's not that simple."