I’ve watched a shockingly large number of noir-based TV shows in the last several months. It must be a current writing trend. And, as someone who finds noir to be generally fun, I’m certainly not complaining. That being said, aside from the fun use of black and white – especially Uhura mentioning that it’s hard to push button on a panel that is usually in color – I wasn’t a huge fan of this particular noir outing. Which is a bummer, since I had been waiting for the series to finally give Doctor M’Benga something to do.
The episode was split into two arcs, so I’ll touch on each in turn. The first, the main noir plot, lets Una take the lead, using her smarts and Rebecca Romijn’s charisma to sell a pretty traditional noir story. Una steps in for a doppelganger to spearhead the resistance to the local heavies. That those local heavies happen to be Klingons, well, that’s a fun Trek twist. Now here’s where my main gripe with this story comes in: I’m really tired of the series mining the Klingon War for emotional depth for M’Benga. So far, he’s had two major traumas: the illness of his daughter and his service in the Klingon War. And that’s really all we know about him as a character. And it’s been almost four seasons! Instead of having it be a new species, someone M’Benga doesn’t have a history with, it’s his greatest foes who he is more than willing to assassinate despite orders not to. I suppose the fact that he makes it through the episode without killing them all (and we know he could) is a measure of growth?
But still, our main character development is watching Uhura get tortured, watching M’Benga manage not to commit murder (although, certainly justified), and watching Una manage to outsmart a mole and teach the underground freedom fighters how to fight on their own. All well and good, but not really much to write home about. And it’s not even a really “fun” noir situation – no silly accents or really dressing up. It’s a pretty cut and dry plot that doesn’t give the characters or the actors much to play with.
Back on Enterprise, we get the continuation of the “Is La’an going to become a problem?” arc, which is one that I’ve found to be pretty interesting on the whole. I’ve mentioned this before, but the series has an interesting conundrum that they are getting closer to having to actually solve: What to do with the characters that don’t exist in The Original Series. Having La’an slowly begin to realize that her reactivated DNA could turn her into a threat begins the process of getting La’an closer to leaving the Enterprise, which unfortunately seems to be something that will have to happen by the end of the series. Now, it doesn’t have to happen this season – and as far as I know, Christina Chong is very much a part of the already filmed fifth and final season of the show – but taking these steps now, laying the groundwork now, is a really smart choice by the writers.
I did appreciate that the payoff for La’an fears about her paranoia was that Chapel was responsible for messing with the offending chip. So, La’an isn’t losing her mind, she was totally right to be concerned (despite Spock’s insistence on the contrary), but she needs to remember to exhaust all investigative avenues before starting to worry. Had she checked the transporter logs, she would have found Chapel’s actions and saved herself some worry. It’s nice to see La’an opt to be a true friend to Chapel and not report her actions. That’s some clear growth for her. But still, La’an has been acting out of character throughout these episodes. (A note about the filming order – this was the third episode filmed, ahead of the ghost ship episode – so, the La’an arc, in particular, has aired a bit out of order from how it was filmed.) There is a genuine reason to be worried about her – and while I don’t think she’d ever talk to Pike about her fears, it says a lot that he offered. Because if he’s noticed, everyone has. And that’s something to keep an eye on in the coming episodes.
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