Sleeping Dogs
Date: Unknown
Original Airdate: January 30, 2002
By Shadowfyre
The Story
This week's story opens with a short scene where Malcom gives
Hoshi further instruction in the use of the new phase pistols,
with her firing "blanks" at a holographic moving target.
Sensing the ship dropping from warp, Malcolm sees that they are
approaching a class nine gas giant.
A probe is launched into the upper atmosphere to gather additional
information. As it delves into the depths of the gas giant, it
detects a vessel adrift amidst the gaseous layers. The decision
is made to take a shuttlepod to investigate, with Hoshi uncharacteristically
volunteering for the mission. T'Pol is to the lead the trip,
with Reed as the third member of the party – and the only
one suffering from a cold.
The shuttlepod docks with the vessel, and once aboard the trio
discover that not only is the atmosphere breathable, but the
ship is in fact a Klingon vessel – a discovery made by
Hoshi when she translates some text on the wall. Further examination
reveals the crew to be alive, but weakened by some type of neurotoxin.
With the ship gradually sinking into the crushing depths of the
gas giant's atmosphere, and time running out, T'Pol advises that
they leave, rationalizing that since Klingons are a warrior race
who dream of dying at their posts, removing them to safety would
only be an affront in their eyes.
As they debate what to do with their time left, a lone Klingon
woman, previously undetected, manages to steal the shuttlepod,
stranding the three Enterprise crewman on the seemingly doomed
ship. She transmits a request for aid from nearby Klingon Warships
before Enterprise can use the grapplers to capture the shuttlepod
and bring the woman aboard, where to no one's surprise, she's
not very cooperative. Archer tries to take the Enterprise itself
into the atmosphere to rescue his crew, but the Klingon ship
has sunk further into the gravity well of the planet and the
Starfleet vessel is not able to reach it's new location without
risking it's own destruction.
Archer attempts to gain help from Bu'Kah, the Klingon woman,
but she refuses to help, despite the treatment Phlox gives her
to help her recover from the effects of the neurotoxin. Tucker
proposes re-enforcing a shuttlepod with Duratanium braces. Back
aboard the Klingon ship, the trio of Enterprise officers are
evaluating their options and engaging in various attempts at
getting the ship moving again before they are crushed by the
atmospheric forces. With time running out very quickly, they
decide to use the ship's photon torpedoes to help in their situation,
hoping the shockwaves from nearby detonations will push them
into a higher and more stable orbit.
Aboard Enterprise, Archer does some research on the Klingons
and decides to take a more confrontational approach with Bu'Kah.
He presents her with the information that indicates that the
neurotoxin that incapacitated her crew actually came from some
tainted alcohol the Klingons had captured in a recent raid. Appealing
to her desire to see her comrades not die so dishonorably, he
convinces her to accompany him on Tucker's recently re-fitted
shuttlepod. They dock with the Klingon ship, where Bu'Kah is
able to stabilize the ship's orbit.
The Enterprise crew return to their ship, but before they can
depart, the newly awakened captain of the Klingon ship demands
the surrender of the Starfleet ship, insisting that they had
violated their vessel and had access to their weapons. Archer
uses more of his recent understanding of Klingon nature and bullies
the Klingon Captain into standing down. Enterprise departs, with
T'Pol, Hoshi and Malcolm enjoying an extended stay in the decontamination
room.
Review
The very first thing that popped into my mind when I saw the
trailer for this episode was the now famous quote from Jean-Luc
Picard in The Next Generation's "First Contact" where
he relates how first contact with the Klingons lead to a protracted
period of conflict. "Sleeping Dogs" makes the third
time the Enterprise has encountered the Klingons in a one hundred
light year sphere of Earth, and yet each encounter ends not with
hostilities breaking out, but with the status quo more or less
maintained. I can only surmise that Picard's statement must not
refer to any single incident, but perhaps is the end result of
a series of incidents that occurred when Humanity and Klingons
first encountered each other.
That aside, this episode is a solid, yet ultimately by-the-book
tale. There is nothing surprising about the turn of events
that lead T'Pol, Reed and Sato stranded aboard the Klingon
ship, nor are there any major revelations made in the attempts
to retrieve them. Instead what we get is something Enterprise
as series has excelled in so far – character interactions.
The plot, while pushed along by the predictable events, is
still enhanced quite a bit by the character dynamics that occur
with in it.
Most notable is the relationship between Hoshi and T'Pol. A
far cry from their almost adversarial approach with one another
in "Broken Bow", the two seem to have come to an understanding
as well as formed some type of mutual respect. This is illustrated
most when Hoshi admits to T'Pol that she is at times envious
of the Vulcan's ability to repress her emotions. T'Pol, in another
uncharacteristic move, takes Hoshi's hand and instructs her on
how to calm her mind, aiding her in the process. This seems to
settle Hoshi, who thanks T'Pol for the help. T'Pol informs her
that once they return to Enterprise, she will show Hoshi how
she can achieve the same thing on her own. This seems to be a
key moment, as it no doubt is setting up further moments down
the line where the cultural gap between Vulcans and Humans will
be narrowed even further with these two characters learning from
each other. The only bad thing is that the development of these
two plays second banana to the plot, and ends up leaving the
viewer wanting a scrap or two more.
Alone, Hoshi sees major development here. Gone is the timid,
nearly panicked ensign seen in "Broken Bow" or the
one filled with self doubt in "Fight or Flight." This
Hoshi actually volunteers for the away mission. This was a welcome
change, though I suspect we haven't seen the last of Hoshi's
more worrisome facets.
T'Pol also shows signs of change. Gradually, over the weeks
on board, she has left behind the arrogant, condescending person
she appeared to be "Broken Bow" and become much more
integrated with the Human crew. While still displaying her Vulcan
heritage, it come across much more in the form of ironic and/or
humorous comments she makes. While not quite ready for the stand-up
comedy route, she's showing the signs of living with Humans for
an extended amount of time.
Another developing character this week is the Captain himself.
Again we see evidence of this younger, less experienced Starfleet.
Archer, in the grand tradition of Starship Captains to come,
seems to shoulder enough responsibility for the entire crew.
When the time comes to pilot the shuttlepod on a risky attempt
at rescuing the stranded crew, we see Archer in the pilot's chair.
While not outwardly saying it, the message he, and to a larger
extent the writers, are conveying is that here is a man who feels
a deep sense responsibility for those under his command. When
members of that crew are in serious danger, he would rather take
on the risks himself than impose those same risks on another.
While certainly heroic on the surface, this trait more importantly
makes for an intriguing character who must learn to balance his
own nature against the unknown he runs up against each week.
Archer's new understanding of Klingon nature was nice to see.
Earlier, when Hoshi and Reed seem appalled at the idea of leaving
the Klingons to die, it's obvious to the viewers that these people
just don't understand Klingons, otherwise they'd know better.
Archer attempts to relate to Bu'Kah as he would anyone else,
but gets nowhere fast. It's only after he studies the culture
he is dealing with does he realize what path he must pursue in
order to gain her help. At the end he puts this newly gained
knowledge to use again when dealing with the Klingon Captain.
Threatening to destroy their ship if the Klingons push the issue,
he sees at last how they respond to perceived strength and weakness.
While not a major point overall, I felt that this really helped
to illustrate once again that the reason these species are called
alien is because they are NOT like us. Their motivations and
responses are very different from ours and require understanding
on our part. This is the true exploration Humanity is engaged
in. Not just the mapping of space and stars, but the more intense
understanding of what lies in between. That point, more than
anything else, made this episode enjoyable for me.
The Good
Malcom and the weapons. The way Reed's eyes lit up when Hoshi
mentioned photon torpedoes was fun to see. Once again, a reminder
of just how much Malcom likes to blow things up.
The Klingon vessel. It was quite nice to see a new design and
hull configuration. We were even treated to a name – Raptor
class. I'm sure we'll be seeing these ships again at some point.
Klingon culture. The peek into the Klingon Galley was quite
informative…and quite unsettling for some. The live Targs
were nice to see, and certainly looked more vicious that the
glorified pig that Worf recalled in The Next Generation's "Where
No One Has Gone Before." T'Pol's mention of gagh was another
nice piece of continuity.
Klingon language. For once the characters in a Star Trek series
find themselves aboard an alien vessel and cannot automatically
read the controls. Much more realistic is the approach taken
in this episode, with Hoshi struggling to translate all the text
around her. Her comment about reading Klingon and speaking Klingon
being very different is reminiscent of Scotty's comment about
reading Klingon in "Star Trek: IV."
The Bad
The teaser. Another deadly dull teaser that does little to make
viewers want to watch.
The final scene. Did we really have to see another blatant shot
of T'Pol's scantily clad form slinking around the decontamination
room?
Overall
A by-the-numbers plot, which Enterprise seems to excel in, supported
by well developed characters – which Enterprise also seems
to excel in. Nothing to jump up and down about, but a couple
of great, albeit subtle, moments on Humanity's quest for understanding.
Grade: 8/10
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:
Vaughn Armstrong as Klingon Captain
Michelle C. Bonilla as Bu'Kah
Creative Staff:
Director: Les Landau
Teleplay By: Fred Dekker
