Episode Report Card Keckler: F | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT The Inner Light's Pox-Ridden Bastard Cousin
By Keckler | Season 2 | Episode 10 | Aired on 11.26.2002
Sick Bay. Serving as The Establishing Moment Proving That Hoshi Will Indeed Disappear Like That One Buffy Episode, Phlox doesn't initially hear Hoshi come in and call out for him. Hoshi complains about feeling like she came back wrong to the sort-of-sympathetic doctor. Phlox scans her, doesn't find anything amiss, and assures her she's not about to become "the next Cyrus Ramsey." Here's a fun fact to know: dreamed-up anvils still weigh as much as regular anvils. Hoshi points out that a mole on her face used to be a centimeter lower. Phlox thinks it looks "lovely" in its new home, and recommends she get a good night's sleep. That's the second mention of Hoshi getting sleep. Could it be because she's DREAMING? I hate this episode so much, I'd like to force feed it Brussels sprouts, offal, and head cheese.
Hoshi sleeps until T'Pol comms her to say she's needed on the bridge. Apparently, Hoshi overslept by three hours and missed the beginning of her shift. Well, that kind of thing can happen when what's going on isn't really happening. Hoshi runs onto the Bridge and babbles apologies to a stalking-around Quantum, who tells her that May-Expendable-Even-In-Other-Crewmen's-Dreams and Trip were taken hostage on the planet. "Taken hostage by who?" Hoshi asks. "'By whom,'" Mathra corrects. "The people down there didn't like you disturbing their ruins," Quantum blame-games. This is where I was really convinced that we were being forced to watch an alternate reality television show. I mean, Quantum has been known to get on my nerves now and again, but he's usually not irrationally unfair. At least not to Hoshi "Dream On" Sato. "'People'? There wasn't a bio-sign on the planet!" Hoshi defends herself. "The chambers you and Mr. Tucker photographed contained sacred relics," T'Pol informs her, wanting to get in on the game that is one of blaming. "How could you possibly know that?" Hoshi wants to know. Wait! Wait, I can explain how: Hoshi, you're DREAMING!
More talk about where Trip and That Other Pilot are being held, and then an alien-speake communiqué comes through. Hoshi can't decipher it with the Universal Translator, so Malcolm suggests, "Maybe you should just forget about the UT -- just try and talk to them." Maestro Mathra expounds, "You know what gave this scene away for me? I mean, other than the fact that it was so completely obvious that it was not real? The music was all wrong for a real suspense situation. It was too middling and meandering -- it should have been more 'duh, duh, duh!' with brass and not these namby-pamby strings." Hoshi tries talking back to the aliens, but it doesn't work, so Quantum pulls some redshirt from another part of the bridge and tells him to have a go at it. He orders Hoshi back to her quarters to get some rest. Sleep Anvil Number Three is having its wings de-iced. Hoshi protests, but everyone ignores her. She leaves.