Two Days and Two Nights

Enterprise finally gets to Risa for a spot of shore leave.

The episode intercuts between the four separate stories of Archer, Trip/Reed, Hoshi and Mayweather's experiences on Risa. Some are mildly entertaining whilst others are not particularly interesting.

The plot's theme is the ironic joke that two crew members are searching (and failing) to find a specific type of recreation, whereas the others are not, but find it.

It would have been better to have focused on less and tried to improve the quality of each one. The best scenes all involve Dr Phlox being awoken from a period of hibernation to treat a patient. These are genuinely funny.

It isn't a bad episode just not particularly memorable.

For me it is a 5.5/10, but I round upwards.

Gene Roddenberry's powerful themes in "Star Trek" obviously stressed multiculturalism, long before that term became commonly used, and remain powerful so many decades later, now that dark forces oppose that concept (with White Supremacy in America now dominating our politics). This episode in which the humans among Enterprise's leading players go to the resort planet Risa for a couple of days of R&R shows a certain danger to being too welcoming of "the other".

Only Hoshi emerges unscathed as her quickie romance with a guy from another planet is presented quite positively (she even gets laid!). Captain Archer is less lucky, and guest star Dey Young impresses while bamboozling him and adding some suspense to the ongoing series' plot thread concerning the time-traveling aliens Archer has encountered in previous episodes.

I recently re-watched this episode and while it is entertaining on the surface there are some issues I have with it. I know it can be difficult to portray an alien world where flora and fauna are different than what we have on Earth but perhaps more effort could be made (this is a cautionary tale to anyone trying to do the same in the 21st century). When Hoshi picks up a piece of fruit she claims that it is like a strawberry when she is holding up a LITERAL strawberry or when she tastes another and said that it tastes "like kiwi" when it was literally kiwi she just ate. Change the colour or use a different fruit that is strange (for example dragonfruit) or do what they did in the Original Series and use something else. For example, they could have made it out of Jello and then it would have been more plausible. The scene was very quick and could have had more impact with substitutions. Where my biggest issues come from with this episode (and several leading up to it) is the rampant HETEROSEXISM that is thrown in our faces. That may have been "acceptable" (was it, really, though?) in the 1960s but in the 2000's? No. Trip and Reed are at the bar acting very predatory towards the women and are body shaming some (one had more than 2 eyes) and then misgendering another all for laughs. This is offensive. 2002 was at the height of the gay rights movement and there were significant strides being made like Sweden legalizing same-sex adoption, several states banning discrimination on the basis of orientation, Switzerland gave equal legal rights to same-sex couples, etc. This episode does not stand up to the test of time and, in fact, was troublesome when it was produced. The bar scene and the consequences afterwards were particularly cringe-worthy. Oh well.

Since the original, "Star Trek" shows have always presented problems when the crew goes on shore leave. This is no exception, except the adventures are so dull. Hoshi goes to ply her translation trade and runs into a guy from a planet she can't pronounce. Tripp and Malcolm meet two babes who aren't what they seem. Mayweather goes rock climbing. And the Captain meets a sultry blonde. What happens with these encounters could have been interesting, but they just didn't have any kick. The only humorous thing that happened was Dr. Phlox being awakened from his hibernation to treat a patient. I would imagine that one of the characters may appear at a future time.

If it is possible to think of a tired, threadbare, over-used comedic gimmick from any romantic comedy, these writers did. I understand _Enterprise_ was approaching the end of a long first season, so perhaps the writing staff were the ones sorely in need of a vacation. Still, this shameful waste of time dishonors the proud name of Star Trek. The Next Generation episode "Captain's Holiday" gives a much funnier and more endearing portrait of the galaxy's favorite shore-leave stop, Risa. Watch that instead, even if you've seen it before. I would have given this episode a "1", except that -- as a Star Trek fanatic -- I feel compelled to provide every episode a respectable rating. Besides, this installment is superior to the absolute worst of Star Trek (the Original Series' "Spock's Brain", the Next Generation's "Shades of Grey" etc.), so I have shown it mercy. "Two Days and Two Nights" doesn't pioneer new ways of being awful -- it simply recycles every bad joke you've ever heard.