The Communicator
Mission Date: Unknown
Original Airdate: November 13, 2002
Reviewed By Karma

Summary | Review | Screen Caps | Cast | Guest Cast | Creative Staff

Summary

Our story gets underway with Archer, Reed, and Hoshi returning to Enterprise from a survey mission on a planet sporting a pre-warp civilization. While chatting with Hoshi, Reed discovers, to his consternation, that his communicator is missing. A desperate search of the decon chamber, shuttle bay, and Shuttlepod One turns up nothing, leading our heroes to the conclusion that Reed must have somehow lost his communicator while down on the planet (it's name never seems to get revealed).

In an attempt to locate the missing piece of technology, so as to ensure that there is no contamination of the inhabitants' culture (we never find out what they call themselves, either), Archer and Reed return to the planet. Unfortunately, they are soon captured by the local military, who believe the pair to be spies of a group known as the Alliance. It turns out that tensions between the group holding Archer and Reed and the Alliance are high and that war may break out at any time. In a later interrogation the soldiers find out that there is more to their prisoners than meets the eye, when Archer's prosthesis is damaged and Reed is cut after being hit in the fact with the stock of a rifle - the soldiers are stunned to see that Reed's blood is red.

Back aboard Enterprise the crew discover that something has gone wrong after a failed attempt at contacting Archer. In order to launch a rescue mission without causing further cultural contamination, Tucker suggests using a Suliban cell-ship that he's been working on since season one's "Broken Bow". While working on the ship, Tucker accidentally cloaks his right forearm.

The soldiers then confront Archer with an image of his shuttlepod, taken by a surveillance aircraft. At this, the Captain gives in and admits to being an Alliance spy, and claims that the shuttlepod is in fact an experimental stealth aircraft. The situation is further complicated when the results of a physical examination conducted on the two reveals that their physiology is entirely unlike those of the planet's inhabitants. Thinking quickly, Reed claims that they are genetically engineered and that they, as well as their equipment, are experimental prototypes. The soldiers accept this explanation, but their commander, General Gosis, orders them to be executed and dissected so as to acquire concrete proof.

T'Pol and Hoshii, who are monitoring radio transmissions in and out of the compound where the Captain and Amoury Officer are being held, get wind of the imminent executions, and T'Pol informs Tucker, who is now wearing a long glove over his right arm, that if they intend on rescuing their crewmates they need to do it now, regardless of the fact that the cloak still doesn't work properly. The cell-ship is soon launched, apparently with cloaking device functioning. This, however, doesn't last long, and T'Pol, Tucker, and Mayweather soon find themselves being chased by three alien fighters. To the surprise of the pilots, Tucker is able to re-engage the cloak allowing the trio to escape.

The time for their executions having come, Archer and Reed are dragged into a courtyard of the military compound, where Archer pleads, fruitlessly, with Gosis to let Reed live. Just as the two Starfleet officers are about to be hung the cell-ship lands and Tucker frees Archer and Reed while T'Pol provides cover fire. Realising that their equipment is still in the hands of the soldiers, Reed, Tucker, and T'Pol engage in a firefight with at least a dozen soldiers while Archer retrieves not only their communicators, scanners, and phase pistol, but the x-rays taken during their examinations. Aboard the cell-ship after escaping, Archer is patting his pockets, looking for his scanner, only to have Reed pick it up off the floor. T'Pol later pays Archer a visit and tells him that cultural contamination can occur even if they do not actually leave anything physical behind.

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Review

The Good

The characterisation and acting was very good. Especially Reed, and in a smaller role, Tucker. Tucker's disappointment at being left on the ship (again) was nice to see; and Reed was being typically morbid, wondering what would happen to his and Archer's corpses after they were executed. The way Archer was teasing Reed during the second trip down to the planet's surface was also a good carry over of their interactions from over "Minefield".

It was also nice to see how the writers managed to slip in a little humour in what was otherwise a fairly tense episode. Phlox's amusement with regards to Tucker's "condition" was great, and the conversation between Tucker and Mayweather about the advantages of having an invisible arm was quite amusing.

Probably the best part of the episode, however, was the way Archer comported himself. The man today who was willing to give up his life to prevent the contamination of an alien culture showed no signs of being the same man, who only a few episodes ago, was willing to put the well-begin of his dog over that of his entire ship. The realisation he came to that the Vulcans actually did something right in their relationship with mankind (in not making first contact before humanity was ready) was the right thing to do was a great step for him.

This episode also marked the first time that the idea of what will eventually become the Prime Directive was seen as something other than an inconvenient Vulcan belief being pushed by T'Pol.

The Bad

The opening teaser. The play between Archer, Reed, and Hoshi was good, but it seems unlikely that Reed's missing communicator would be taken as such a sign of doom before a search was even conducted.

The fact that communicators apparently do not have any sort of built in homing beacon, and that the only way to track them is while they are transmitting. Seems as though it would be quite easy to lose a landing party in that case. It was also strange that the alien soldiers were able to understand what T'Pol was saying when she attempted to contact Archer over his communicator.

T'Pol's final line wherein she stated that she hadn't expected Archer to be willing to die to protect an alien culture. While it is doubtlessly true, it seemed like she was telling him "I told you so". Not something one might expect from a Vulcan.

The Ugly

The cell-ship. How is it that Enterprise has been lugging this thing around for almost a year, and Tucker has been working on it for nearly as long, yet we've heard nothing about it before now? And let us not forget about the cloaking device it evidently carries. Aside from further blasting TOS continuity (now not only do Starfleet officers know about cloaking technology, they actually have experience working with it), it messes with ENT's internal continuity. Why did Silik not doing anything with it after he captured Enterprise during the second part of "Shockwave", or even during his visit in "Cold Front"? If Enterprise had been carrying a Suliban ship capable of cloaking, why didn't that get mentioned during their assault on the stealth cruiser during the first part of "Shockwave"?

The Verdict

As science fiction, "The Communicator" was a very good episode, and the attempts made at showing the progression towards the Star Trek that we've come to know were good. But, it is very difficult to ignore the continued manner in which outside continuity, especially with respect to cloaking technology, is ignored. One must also wonder about the way that cloaks have become so prevalent during this second season. It seems almost as though cloaking technology is going to become to ENT what the temporal reset button was the VOY.

In spite of this, "The Communicator" was, with the possible exception of "Dead Stop", probably the best episode yet this season.

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Grade: 7.5/10 C

Cast:
Scott Bakula as Jonathan Archer
John Billingsley as Dr. Phlox
Jolene Blalock as T'Pol
Dominic Keating as Malcolm Reed
Anthony Montgomery as Travis Mayweather
Linda Park as Hoshi Sato
Connor Trinneer as Charles "Trip" Tucker III

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Guest Cast:
Francis Guinan as Gosis
Tim Kelleher as Lt. Pell
Dennis Cockrum as Alien Barkeep
Brian Reddy as Dr. Temec
Jason Waters as Soldier

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Creative Staff:
Director: James A. Contner
Teleplay By: Andre Bormanis
Story By: Rick Berman & Brannon Braga

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