Episode Report Card Keckler: A+ | 89 USERS: B- YOU GRADE IT Twilight in the Garden of Good and Better
By Keckler | Season 3 | Episode 8 | Aired on 2003.11.05
Yes, any alternate universe/timeline/future is going to have similarities to other alternate universe/timeline/future episodes -- it can't help but. However, Earth blew up in this one -- which was awesome -- and the catalyst for the alternate universe/timeline/future (the parasites) also having a joint effect on the timeline was original, inspired, and completely surprising. Best of all? I couldn't predict the method of resolution for this episode, and I loved that! With all the time travel and TCW episodes in the last three years, it was entirely possible to believe that we'd be left cliffhanging at the end of this one. Quantum could have very well been stuck in this other future for quite a few episodes. In fact, making this story a three-parter over sweeps could have worked incredibly well. But I will try not to get too greedy.
Captain T'Pol
Simply? Because she was second-in-command. I've no doubt that Quantum's logs adequately summed up how good she is and how many times he's successfully left her in charge of the ship. I also think it made sense to have a cooler head in charge of the ship when so many of the crew would be anguished over Quantum's condition. In fact, Trip could have had real issues taking over as captain if Quantum was still aboard. As for the argument that no Vulcan was in Starfleet before Spock: First of all, I've never been satisfied as to the source of that fact. TOS even contradicts itself in that, and they are the originators of the idea in the first place! But second, and more importantly, taking emergency command of a ship does not make her a member of Starfleet. It makes her taking command of a ship. In an emergency. When the captain was rendered unfit for duty. Also, since the timeline was reset, she was never captain. Plus, she looked hot in the uniform.
As for the cast and crew…although his hair made him look like a Soval's doppelganger, Bakula was amazing. This is the Quantum Leaper I knew and loved all those years ago! Please sir, can I have another piece of that? In fact, the whole cast was amazing -- May-Dead-Again played a very convincing corpse, and even Hoshi managed to rouse herself and not to look so bored in the face of her race's total destruction. Lastly but never, never leastly, if Sussman and Robert Duncan McNeill (one has to say his whole name, doesn't one?) were here, I would kiss them and feed them Champagne Truffles.