We open with a game of which blurb describes the episode best. Listeners emailed with grievances that we needed more games, so what you hear is the best we could do on short notice.
This very early Enterprise episode opens with beauty shots of the appealing and mysterious milieu of the secret Vulcan temple. The sound of the generic wooden flute signals that most of the Vulcans are in their afternoon massage and really can’t be bothered by the blue, antennaed aliens storming the room where the Vulcans await their massage therapist.
Synopsis of “The Andorian Incident”:
Archer, Trip and T’Pol are captured by the Andorians at a Vulcan monastery on P’Jem. They believe that the monastery is being used to spy on Andoria.
There’s quite a bit of tacit antagony over the relationships between all the different races. The humans are learning about the crazy spa habits of the Vulcans. The Vulcans have a difficult time with the stench of the humans. The Andorians think the Vulcans are lying. It’s not a featured element of the plotline of the episode, but it’s simmering in the background. It might be the most interesting aspect of the early world-building of Enterprise, which would make sense considering this is the humans’ first soirée into space.
Aliens in the Star Trek universe all have an absolute continuity of culture, where every member of a planet has intimate knowledge of the intricacies of that planet’s life, including language. To these podcasters, there are no instances where alien species have vastly different languages as humans do.
The same goes for T’Pol in this episode. She knows precisely the protocol of engagement even though she doesn’t have a history with these types of Vulcans. On Earth, an individual living in North America have little insight as to the cultural rules and etiquette in Central Asia and vice versa. Not the case for Star Trek aliens.
When Archer and Trip visit the temple under T’Pol’s care, the progress of the plot halts temporarily while, once again, the characters catch up to the information the audience already knows: the Andorians have invaded the temple and taken its inhabitants hostage.
T’Pol becomes suspicious about the agitation of the spa receptionist, and Archer clocks it and plays along. Then we see the blue guy hiding behind a changing screen, something the audience knew was inevitable. It would have been so much more intriguing had the audience not known about the Andorian invasion and been a participant in the process of discovery. Instead, we’re just waiting.
In spite of the intriguing interplay between species, not much happened. Arguably the most interesting scenario was when Archer pretended to have information for the Andorians as subterfuge to locate their position by throwing a small figurine through the giant face in the Andorians’ lair.
This was just filler since they could have accomplished the same goal by just looking through the slits on the face and physically looking at the Andorians.
Tune in for the shocking revelation of whether this is a genuine episode. You’ll be rocked at your core.
