Dear Doctor

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.

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.

Eventually, the Prime Directive became part of the soul of all Star Trek incarnations. This, of course, is the directive that prevents explorers from interfering with the natural evolution of a species. For instance, giving arms to an oppressed group so that they can even a score. Relocating a group to more fertile soil so they can become superior farmers. In this case, there are two species living side by side, one more intellectually evolved than the other, but that species is dying from a genetic disposition. Phlox is asked to come up with a medical treatment but since the "lesser" group is becoming more able, he sees perpetuating the dominant ones as a philosophical dilemma. It' the butterfly effect where everything we do sends waves out to change the fabric of the world. Of course, one could argue that interference is also a part of the natural order of things. It's certainly an interesting topic for conversation. I didn't appreciate the little Archer speech about "someday." It is kind of tacky. It's like Lincoln saying, "Someday, we will be able to talk to each other on devices we carry in our pockets." Kind of dumb.

After a dozen episodes, the Star Trek series "Enterprise" comes into its own with this amazing episode, written by Maria and Andre Jacquemetton (known for their later work producing the great "Mad Men" series. Dealing with the central issue of how a space exploration might interfere with alien races' development, it's dramatized carefully in a very logical and in fact, emotional fashion, to deliver via Archer's final decision a terrific conclusion.

With an insidiously beautiful and subtle musical score, and central character John Billingsley's voice-over narration and bemused acting style, the episode personalizes theoretical issues. His relationship to his human crewmates, especially the platonic romantic interest well-played by Kelly Waymire, makes the notion about interspecies relations more palpable and personal.

Unlike literary science fiction, where concepts are paramount, movie (and TV) examples in the genre tend to be biased in favor of "action movie" cliches & SPFX. This episode is a thinking person's show in the genre, and packs a wallop.

One of the better Enterprise episodes so far. Even though I'm still not a fan of the doctor. Compared to EMH from Voyager or Bashir from DS9, this doctor is quite boring and also very annoying. The strange grin, the way he emphasizes his words and especially those ugly shirts. Couldn't they give him a proper uniform? However, there is a ray of hope: While the other doctors simply ran blinking tech gadgets 10 cm over the skin and healed both flesh wounds and complete broken bones, this doctor at least applies ointments or the like and carries out actual treatments on the body.

First of all, to the criticism of many commentators: NO, this is not about genocide and the crew of the Enterprise is certainly not committing genocide! Genocide is the deliberate killing of large numbers of people of a particular nation or ethnic group. Intentionally, actively and with the aim of extinguishing these people. What the crew is doing here is simply not interfering with a normal biological process of development or degeneration of a species. Enterprise, Starfleet and later the United Federation of Planets are not the Salvation Army of the Galaxy. Their goal is not and never has been to help every species from the outside and, so to speak, to shape them and pave the way for them.

This episode is basically the starting point of the Prime Directive. The basic guidelines that we will encounter again and again in Star Trek. If you don't approve of this episode, you should avoid Star Trek, because Star Trek is basically all about when and whether one civilization should interfere in the fortunes of another civilization. And Star Trek has always raised the warning finger that no good deed goes unpunished. The message has always been that a species, a culture, a civilization must develop itself and chart its own path into the future and must also make mistakes in order to learn and develop morally.