Dear Doctor

The Enterprise finds a primitive starship with two dying alien astronauts, and one of them tells that his Valakian race is extinguishing due to an epidemic. Archer travels to their planet and assigns Dr. Phlox to find a cure for the disease. Dr. Phlox, who is trying to understand his relationship with the human crewman Elizabeth Cutler, discloses that the planet inhabited by two humanoid races that pacifically coexists: the developed Valakian and the primitive workers Menk. Further, he discovers that the Valakian have genetic epidemic that will annihilate their race in about two centuries while the Menk have linguistic and manual abilities to be developed. With the dilemma of interfering in the development of races, Phlox has a serious conversation with Archer.

"Dear Doctor" presents a good discussion of ethical and moral concerns. The story is centered in the pleasant Denobulian Dr. Phlox, who is totally integrated to the human style of life but still have doubts related to relationship between male and female. The advice of T'Pol is very funny and logical, since she does not understand the matters of heart and love. The excerpts of "For Whom the Bell Tolls", showing the gorgeous face of Ingrid Bergman with about twenty-seven years old, is a plus in this great episode. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "Caro Doutor" ("Dear Doctor")

The Enterprise comes upon a ship where there are a few folks in stasis. When they revive them, the humans learn that these people are from a plague-infested planet and they sent ships to space to look for more advanced species that might be able to help them cure the disease. Unfortunately, Dr. Phlox is having a heck of a time treating the illness. Plus, there is a serious ethical dilemma, as allowing the species to die out might just be in line with what would later be known as the prime directive.

This episode is interesting because it's told from the Doctor's perspective. In addition to the main plot there are some interesting subplots involving romance in the air for the Doc as well as his learning that the Captain is actually a far more capable man than he'd assumed.

The good thing about Star Trek is its willingness to tackle philosophical concepts and that is what makes this a good episode. Also by combining it with development of the doctor - my favourite character, nonetheless - I think it's the best episode of Enterprise I've seen so far.

I've seen negative reviews on IMDb, perhaps because the reviewers believe the "correct" answer is blatant. However, I would argue that the point is that these concepts should be explored. That the answers are not clear cut and that challenging one's established ideas is good. Each side has merit and the way this is explored is well written and presented convincingly.

This brings this series back to what makes Star Trek great.

This episode surrounds discovering a new species who is rapidly dying of a genetic defect, to the point of total extinction in their near future. This species is pre-warp but technologically/industrially advanced.

There is a second species, probably of similar ancestry, who live primitively, where there are somewhat treated inferior by the dominant species. They seem to be immune to the disease that is killing the dominant species.

Once they mentioned that the 2nd species' immunity (and certain dependence/inferiority to the dominant species) I kept anticipating that Dr. Phlox would suggest interspecies mating to potentially weed out this genetic defect. It would solve the problem of the 2nd species being treated like inferior, as well.

Unfortunately that suggestion was never brought up and I guess the writer of the episode just wanted to bring up the "We can't play god" theme where you don't intervene technologically/medically with a less advanced species. Honestly you don't need to intervene medically to eliminate genetic defects - it's called diversification with mating. Telling the dominant species to integrate the other 'inferior' species into their own and interbreed wouldn't be the 'playing god' thing. It's just common sense for anyone who has any comprehension of (genetic) diversity.

Dear Doctor has some serious issues to discuss and does so very well indeed. Confronted by two different humanoid races inhabiting the same planet but possessing conflicting developmental challenges, the crew experiences the type of moral dilemma for which the iconic Prime Directive was created. The problem for the Valakians and the Menk is that this new Star Fleet policy hasn't been ratified yet. Captain Archer very much wants to help these interdependent races but doesn't know who to assist or how to do so.

We see hear the story unfold through the means of a long letter in which Doctor Phlox documents his doubts and discoveries in order to shares them with his exchange colleague Doctor Lucas. This is a well constructed episode with both Rick Berman and Brannon Braga taking writing credit. John Billingsley turns in a faultless performance as he always does when given a worthwhile part and, apparently, particularly liked this episode because he felt it was his first opportunity to flesh out his character.

Movie Night aboard the Enterprise is a good idea which will be resurrected many years down the line in Star Trek Discovery but, as with all those theatrical performances which took place aboard the 1701D, we are often left wondering who is minding the store when so many cast regulars are taking the evening off.

David Kimbel as the Valakian, Esaak, and Alex Nevil as the unnamed Menk give credibility to the plight of their respective races and Kelly Waymire continues to stand out as the lively Crewman Cutler. Jeremy Lewis, recipient of the doctor's revealing missive, does not appear in person until the Fourth Season but establishing him in this episode helps to round out both the professional and the personal aspects of Doctor Phlox.

Senior Trekker scores every episode with a Five.