Episode Report Card Keckler: B+ | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT The Naked Then
By Keckler | Season 2 | Episode 9 | Aired on 11.19.2002
Sickbay. Phlox is ominously dressed in his surgical greys as he toys with some ominous-looking instruments and acts ominously. T'Pol walks in just as he's about to insert something sharp into May-Lobotomy-Bay's temple. "Oh, you're just in time, Sub-Commander!" Phlox greets her cheerily. "There's a surgical gown in the compartment by the microscope. This is a rare opportunity to explore the human brain." T'Pol asks in disturbed tones if May-Lobotomy-Bay was injured. "Headache!" Phlox tells her happily, and shows her the chemical imbalance in May-Lobotomy-Bay's prefrontal complex on the graphic scan. "I'm going to begin by extracting the first twelve millimeters of his parietal lobe," Phlox explains. Well, whew -- it's not like that will make much of a difference. I mean, we're talking about Mr. Loboto here. T'Pol steps in front of Phlox and tells him he might want to delay the brain hack because the entire crew is ill. Phlox thinks for a second and says, "They'll have to wait!" Phlox goes back to May-Lobotomy-Bay's head with his small poking device. T'Pol grabs his arm and tells him he's been affected as well. "Please remove your hand," Phlox says in a voice of deadly calm, and clicks his scalpel so it sings a bit. I'm not sure what it did visually, but it had the sound effect of being threatening. He tells her he won't ask her again. T'Pol releases him and disappears behind his shoulder. I'm thinking bringing out the Vulcan Nerve Pinch would be in order here. Phlox tells T'Pol that he'll let her know when he has completed the surgery. NOT! He falls backwards to the ground as T'Pol pinches him, and get this -- I start clapping! I'm thinking she should pass among the whole ship and administer nerve pinches to one and all. Would that be obsessive-compulsive? "What I really want to see is the guy who keeps locking his door over and over again, or Line Cook checking and rechecking that the ovens are turned off -- that's where the drama is!" Mathra comments, carefully making sure not to step on any cracks on our hardwood floor while pulling out clumps of his hair.
Scene of T'Pol walking through the corridors and checking the vital signs of collapsed -- or nerve-pinched -- crewmen. T'Pol darts into the galley and observes Iron Chef Hoshi slumped over a counter. In the background, the stock pot boils over. I don't think she's going to win this week's challenge and have her cuisine reign supreme. T'Pol VOs having a really bad feeling about all of this, but that Phlox's obsession with Loboto-May's headache provided her with the information that the radiation from the trinary -- "TERNARY!" -- system is responsible for the crew's sickness. You know she's really thinking, "Stupid fallible humans!" Something on T'Pol's computer beeps, and she reports that her findings indicate the obsessive-compulsive radiation extends really far in every direction but one. "If I can chart a course between the stars, we could escape the radiation before the crew succumbs. But I won't be able to pilot the ship alone!" T'Pol tells her log firmly. Why doesn't she just go all Silkwood on them and hose everyone down?