Fortunate Son
Date: April. 16, 2151
Original Airdate: November 21, 2001
By Shadowfyre
The Story
Captain Archer is awoken in the early morning hours to accept
a communication from Admiral Forrest. It seems a distress call
from an Earth freighter was received and the Enterprise is only
a day and half away from the origin point of the signal. The
admiral orders Archer to turn around and render what aid they
can once they make the rendezvous.
The Enterprise soon encounters the Earth Cargo Ship Fortunate,
an old Y class freighter with a top speed of warp 1.8. The ship
is currently under the command of the first officer, a man named
Matthew Ryan, who explains that the Captain was injured during
a Nausicaan pirate raid. He seems reluctant to accept assistance
from the Starfleet crew and tells them they need not bother.
Archer persuades him to let them help and they set about making
repairs, with Phlox administering medical aid to the injured.
Mayweather bonds with Ryan, as he once lived the life of a space
boomer and they have many things in common, yet Ryan questions
why Travis left his family to join Starfleet, implying that he
had abandoned his family by doing so.
During the repair operations, T'Pol uncovers the reason
for the Fortunate crew's unease – a captured Nausicaan
being held in one of the cargo holds. It seems Ryan is determined
to get some tactical information from the alien and is willing
to beat him to get it. Archer demands to see the captive and
when he, T'Pol, Phlox and Reed journey to the Fortunate
to see him, Ryan and members of his crew attempt to kill them.
A brief shoot out occurs, but Ryan ends up sealing them in the
cargo pod and ejecting it from the ship. The Fortunate exchanges
a few shots with the Enterprise and then warps away.
After retrieving the Captain and the others, the Enterprise tracks
the Fortunate to find them in a fire fight with several Nausicaan
ships. It seems once Ryan obtained the information he wanted,
he used it to launch an attack on the Nausicaans, uncovering
their pirate base in the process and getting himself and his
crew in over their heads. The Nausicaans soon board the freighter
to rescue their comrade.
Enterprise arrives and Archer is able to stall the Nausicaans
with some tough talk, allowing Travis enough time to speak to
Ryan and convince him that his quest for revenge will only end
up hurting other freighter crews in the future. Ryan releases
his captive and the Nausicaans leave. The injured Captain of
the Fortunate, Keene, soon recovers and reduces Ryan is rank,
telling Archer that they take care of their own and that taking
him to Earth is unnecessary.
Review
In this story we get to see that Humanity isn't the great
big, happy family that they appear to be in later centuries.
Instead, we see that the small group of people who crew the slow
freighters that cross the gulfs between stars – or Boomers
as they are called, seem to have established their own unique
ways and at times frown upon outsiders, even Starfleet. While
it's refreshing to see some conflict between Humans, who
have been portrayed as being too perfect in the past, this story
came off as a bit dull and unexciting. I wasn't sure which
conflict the script was trying to highlight more – the
one between the pirates and the boomers, or the one between the
latter group and the Starfleet crew. Neither seemed to take a
dominant role, nor were either that engaging.
At the heart of this story is Mayweather, who's former
life as a Boomer comes to the forefront when dealing with the
Fortunate's crew. Developing his character is long overdue
and while no great secrets are revealed about him, we get to
see him stumble through this story. His bonding moments with
Ryan are almost requisite in such a story, setting things up
for the eventual conclusion. Still, it was nice to see him "showing
off" the Enterprise's features, from the transporter
to the culinary choices. His enthusiasm really sparkles here
and you can see his delight at being aboard the ship. Delight
which is temporarily short lived once Ryan grills him on his
choice to leave his Boomer family behind and join Starfleet.
The Boomer sub culture prides itself on it's self reliance,
and Mayweather's departure is seen by Ryan as an abandonment
of his family.
The "wasted opportunity moment" comes when Travis
goes to the Captain to express his opinions on the whole scenario.
He tries to offer up a Boomer perspective, trying to help Archer
understand the motives and reasoning behind Ryan's desire
to strike back against the Nausicaans. Instead of being a great
opportunity at highlighting the vastly different upbringing Travis
has had in comparison to his crewmates, and setting up possibilities
for further conflicts over his heritage and desire to remain
in Starfleet by having him adhere to his beliefs, we get a short
speech by Archer after which Travis nods his head, smiles and
accepts everything the Captain says. It just seems to convenient
for story telling purposes to have Mayweather give in so easily.
Naturally at the end, it's the same ideas imposed upon
him by Archer that prods Travis into addressing Ryan and convincing
him to release his Nausicaan captive. This outcome was rather
anti-climatic as it was a quite predictable sequence of events
from the very beginning. I couldn't help but wonder why
Archer allowed Travis to walk around the bridge talking, while
the ship shook around him from the Nausicaan attack, instead
of ordering him back to his station during such a serious moment.
Archer himself gets a few good spots, most notably his opportunity
to talk tough to the Nausicaans. For once he's not outgunned
by the opposing side and takes pride in letting that fact shine
through. Even Reed manages a sparkle in his eye when he announces
that the Enterprise is more than a match for the Nausicaan ships.
Archer may take some heat for not doing more to eliminate the
threat posed by the Pirates, but it seems to be that what he
did was within not only his own thinking but within the purview
of his command. He and the others are on a mission of exploration,
not to police the galaxy. Besides, destroying the pirate base
may have only made matters worse by inciting a war.
The remainder of the regular cast takes a backseat here and
sees little development, aside from some personality reinforcement – Phlox's
skill and devotion to healing, Reed's obsession with weapons,
highlighted best by his inquiring as to what type of weapons
the Fortunate may carry as well as his instinctive reactions
when the shoot out in the cargo hold breaks out. Tucker's
pride in his warp 5 engine is displayed briefly in addition to
his short turn at command. Phlox has been sorely underused to
date in this series and is in desperate need of a story focusing
on him, while Hoshi has had little opportunity to show herself
to be growing out of the whiny thing we saw in "Fight or
Flight."
This series' strength has always been it's characters.
Sadly, the long overdue chance to broaden Travis only makes him
look even more bland than before, as he's given the opportunity
here to struggle with his Boomer heritage and sympathies against
his loyalties to Starfleet. Sadly, he seems to do very little
wrestling and moves through the story being pushed along by others
rather than helping to advance it himself.
The Good:
Travis notes that there are three more NX class ships on the
drawing boards, which is backed up by Archer's words to
the Nausicaans when he tells then to expect to see similar ships
in the future. It's nice to know that the fleet is growing.
Travis's words to Ryan about the re-sequenced meatloaf,
stressing again that despite outward appearances, they are not
replicators.
The moment between T'Pol and the children. It served no
purpose in advancing the story, but it was a nice scene to see.
The FX. Once again we see that this series has the best visuals
that money diverted from developing original scripts can buy.
Admiral Forrest. A nice touch of continuity as well as the poor
resolution to the image, reminding us that the technology in
this era is still developing.
Porthos is back!
The Bad:
Once again, a misleading promo in which we are led to believe
that Archer's line about having his orders questioned were
directed at Travis in a moment of internal conflict. Instead,
it's delivered almost as a joke after a brief conversation
which sees Mayweather's whole outlook change once Archer
convinces him with a few short words.
The Nausicaans. Add them to the races that look different in
the twenty-second century than what they do in the twenty-forth.
Not only that, but here they are positively diplomatic and calm
compared to the "thugs" they are portrayed as being
two hundred years later.
Questions for the future:
What was the Northstar incident and who was involved?
Forrest mentions other Starfleet ships. How many are there?
Overall:
A noble attempt at exploring some of the social divisions of
the time as well as the relationship Humans are cultivating with
aliens. However, the story lacked any real zest and merely connected
the dots from beginning to end. While not a bad episode by far,
it still manages to entertain, just not in a truly captivating
sense. I hope to see further examinations of the Boomers in the
future. Hopefully, once the series moves into using story arcs,
the opportunity afforded to the writers to truly explore the
characters, as well as the time setting, within a more complex
story line will be taken advantage of, as to date Enterprise
has some great characters making their way through some uninspired
plots.
Grade: 7/10
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 Tucker
Guest Cast:
Danny Goldring as Nausicaan Captain
Daniel Asa Henson as Boy
Vaughn Armstrong as Admiral Forrest
Charles O. Lucia as Captain Keene
Lawrence Monoson as Matthew Ryan
Kieran Mulroney as Shaw
Elyssa D. Vito as Girl
D. Elliot Woods as Nausicaan Prisoner
Creative Staff:
Director: LeVar Burton
Written By: James Duff
