Vox Sola

This episode is a very typical Star Trek episode:

An alien creature that initially poses a threat to Enterprise and the crew and is only perceived as an intelligent and sentient creature at second glance. Ethical discussions about whether to respond with counterforce to the creature's violence, with at least one crew member voicing their deepest concerns and morally prevailing against the majority opinion. In the end, the crew manages to communicate with the creature, and it turns out that the creature isn't actually evil but is just afraid and wants to go back to its planet. The crew then helps the creature, no one is seriously injured and everyone lives happily ever after.

Basically the quintessence of Star Trek: You shouldn't brand alien beings, cultures and civilizations as evil and dangerous simply because you don't understand their language and their way of life seems different and incomprehensible.

If this had been a VOY or TNG episode, it certainly would have had a bit more substance. Instead, Archer philosophizes about water polo (who the heck watches water polo?) and Hoshi feels bullied by T'Pol (apparently no one still understands the Vulcan ways and their logic). The subplot with the alien guests who see it as an insult if someone eats food in public is a bit cheap but also a kind of foreshadowing of the misunderstandings between different species. However, Mayweather's apology seems quite ridiculous - also because Anthony Montgomery seems like a helpless young brat in this role (much worse than Wesley Crusher in my opinion). For me it's a clear miscast. As is the entire crew except Jolene Blalock as T'Pol. Everyone else doesn't fit their roles at all and seems like amateurs.

When a group of seemingly combative aliens leave Enterprise after a failed first contact, a strange stringy mass enters an open bay. It is like a large sticky spider web. When an engineer enters, its tentacles grasp him and pull him in, wrapping him up. Not long after, his female colleague, Trip, and Archer find themselves in a similar circumstance. Part of the failed contact involves Hoji's inability to properly translate their language. She is now face with communicating with the entity which uses a unique mathematical language. Time is wasting because the crew are beginning to be absorbed. This is a truly unique alien life form and a good adventure.

After an unsuccessful first contact with Kreetassans, where nothing works and the group feels offended by some attitude of the earthlings, a jelly lifeform invades the Enterprise and lodges in one of its cargo hold. Later the creature captures with its tentacles Captain Archer, Tucker and two crewmembers and engulfs them in its jelly form. While Reed tries to develop an effective weapon to release his mates from the alien, Dr. Phlox advises that they are short of time, since it will be not possible reversing the symbiotic relationship of the alien with its preys. Hoshi finds pattern of a language in the noise of the creature and with the support of T'Pol, they try to communicate with the dangerous lifeform and find its intention.

"Vox Sola" is an episode that recalls "The Blob", with a jelly lifeform attacking the crew of the Enterprise. The best moment of this film is when the crew goes to the movie theater to watch the cult Henri-Georges Clouzot's "Le Salaire de la Peur", showing that the responsible for programming the movies for the crew has an excellent taste. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "Vox Sola"

This unusual segment takes as its launch point a premise similar to a sci-fi/horror film I saw back in the late '50s when our Junior High School used to show 20th Century-Fox features in 35mm at lunchtime (a wonderful system, a reel a day for 4 cents a pop!): "Space Master X-7". It was a memorable favorite of mine, as the idea of a blob-type monster on the loose in confined transportation vehicles like train or plane was quite scary.

Here we have a similar monster in the confined space of the Enterprise, and the show has the crew members not captured by it working hard together to try and communicate (Hoshi and T'Pol in charge) and otherwise disable it. This joint activity is dramatic, as is the suffering of Archer, Trip and others captured in its goo.

The episode works very well, thanks to a Roddenberry-esque almost haunting conclusion, in which it's made clear that what would appear to be a monster has feelings of it own that need to be respected (Dr Phlox is the crew member aware of that possibility), not to be just exterminated out of human fear of the unknown/Other.

The show begins with the Kreetassans becoming VERY offended at something the humans did during their meeting. However, instead of telling everyone what offended them, they stomp off the ship and it seems like a first contact experience with these folks blew up in their faces...but why?! Well, another first contact experience occurs soon after this--and it goes even worse!! Some weird tentacled creature is hiding in the ship--and it soon grabs several crew members (including the Captain and Trip) and holds them captive. What the creature is, what its intentions are and the fates of the crew entangled within it are all uncertain. So, it's up to the Doctor, Reed and Hoshi to figure out what to do.

The episode is awfully good because it it such a weird and unusual creature and I appreciate that. Too often, the aliens all are bipedal humanoids, so having something 100% different is a great idea. Well worth seeing.