Civilization

Archer explores a planet with a pre-industrial society and discovers other visitors have taken already taken an interest.

This episode starts off strongly with a lot of build up and excitement to doing some proper exploration. Unfortunately it doesn't really continue with the same tone. It just evolves into a pretty run of the mill Star Trek episode where the crew go in costume to mingle with another humanoid race and get drawn into a bit of trouble.

As these type of episodes go, it is pretty good. One scene where Archer's universal translator fails is quite memorable and when the plot starts to unfold things do get relatively exciting. Arch definitely channels his inner Captain Kirk in this one during his interaction with the locals. No wonder T'Pol has a difficulty with this level cultural contamination. All with the best of intentions though.

Overall though I would describe it as a missed opportunity to see something different during these early years of Starfleet exploration.

It seems that Captain Archer and the crew are beginning to grow a little wiser as they spend more time exploring. This time when they find a new planet, at least they have the decency to take T'Pol's advice and go incognito. Fortunate for them that they did decide to go check out what the Akaali are up to since they find something fishy going on.

The Vulcan/human relationship is still a bit odd to me. The humans complain that the Vulcans look over their shoulder a bit too much but, at the end of the episode, we're told that Archer informs the Vulcans of this planet and asks them to check in on it from time to time to see how they are doing. This extends the reach of the Vulcan's oversight even further. Knowing earthlings, realistically, we'd probably want to keep the knowledge of this planet to ourselves and in the future treat it as one of our colonies & extract its precious resources for our material use. But hey, maybe we'll mature in the next 100 years.

This episode's fairly average. Seeing Archer encounter some alien romance is fun, I suppose. It's also nice encountering 2 new races but it's doubtful that we run across the Akaali again anytime soon. I like the character of Riaan, too bad she couldn't come aboard the Enterprise. Noting special about this episode, but not terrible. It also has a sweet stratagem executed by T'Pol.

Side Note: Archer tells Riaan that he often talks to his dog when he's thinking critically. How the hell does Riaan know what a dog is?

The Enterprise finds three different phenomena to research: a supernova; three neutron stars; and a pre-industrial planet with 500 million people. T'Pol is against the exploration of the Akaali planet fearing cultural contamination, but when she scans the Minshara-class planet, she finds a powerful antimatter reactor hidden underground emitting neutrino. Archer, T'Pol, Trip and Hoshi use makeup to resemble the locals and travel to the planet. They meet the pharmacologist Riann and discover that several Akaali have been sick after the arrival of Garos, the owner of an antique shop. Their further investigation discloses that the aggressive race of the Malurians is exploring minerals in the underground, jeopardizing the health of the Akaalis.

In "Civilization", once again Archer uses curiosity against the logic of T'Pol, ignoring her wise advice. However, the menace of the Malurians justifies their action like sheriff and interference in the development of the planet. T'Pol also proves that is a great strategist, using the reactor to defeat the enemy. Archer acts like Captain Kirk, having a first and second contact through a brief romance with Riann. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Civilização" ("Civilization")

It's obvious on this series that T'Pol is often irritated by how foolhardy the humans can be when it comes to meeting new races. Once again, the ship comes to a planet and Archer insists on landing to at least observe the Akaali. Fortunately, they at least took some of T'Pol's advice to heart and went in disguise. Also fortunate is that the ship DID investigate, as they soon are shocked to find that some other advanced species is on the planet in disguise also--and these beings are NOT particularly nice and don't mind if they kill a few of the Akaali in the process. So it's up to the landing party to right things without alerting the Akaali of their presence.

This is an interesting episode and a great example of the humans doing good because they are just so darned swell. Worth seeing but not among the better episodes.

Now I know that not many people will agree with me but this is the type of episode that I like best.

We are shown an alien world that is both strange and familiar, plus some engaging guest actors and fascinating, not-quite-right historical sets and costumes that convey an alien civilisation at an earlier period of development than our own. This forms the backdrop for a story that we've probably seen hundreds of times before: villains from a more advanced race secretly extracting minerals from beneath the feet of the occupants, a female healer who notices that people are becoming sick and searches doggedly for the cause despite her limited scientific knowledge. Oh, and some light snogging for the Captain.

If it looks this good and moves at this brisk pace then I'm happy. Diane DiLascio who played the inquisitive Riann wore the medieval look very well and may have been recognisable for a brief role in Babylon 5. Wade Williams who played the exploitative villain Garos needs little introduction as he has appeared in just about every TV horror series of the last two decades. In this episode, the alien make up was understated to say the least but, as we have have learned before, you just can't have elaborate costumes and prosthetics in the same episode. At least not unless you want it to be followed by two boring-as-hell bottle shows in order to recoup the expenditure.

Now, I'll only say this once and once only (hopefully none of my kids will notice) but.......

........... Scott Bakula is a hell of a lot more sexy than William Shatner ever was. He's much taller, he has more hair, a better physique and ten times the acting range. I also understand he can actually sing. Yes, I just checked it out on YouTube compared to Shatner, Scott's a positive Pavarotti. When called upon to do a bit of smooching on screen there's just a chivalrous pressing of the lips but absolutely none of that lascivious Captain Kirk-style slobber. How the first Star Trek Captain would have survived in today's atmosphere of safe spaces and "intimacy co-ordinators", I've no idea.

Senior Trekker scores every episode with a 5.