Fortunate Son

Fortunate Son was filmed in September 2001, two weeks after the Twin Towers came down but it was almost a year before the Star Trek series caught up with the public mood and transitioned to a more militaristic, end-justifies-the-means mind set. In this episode the writers were still working from the "torture is always wrong" playbook and no-one had yet heard of the expression "enhanced interrogation techniques.

Basically, in this episode the Boomers (low warp speed interstellar cargo hauliers) have captured a pirate an are determined to get him to give up the location of his base so that they can mount a revenge attack. It's not that which makes me wary of these people but the thought of a tiny, enclosed society of humans living together for decades on end and making up their own rules as they go along. It sounds like a cross between an extremist religious commune and Pitcairn Island*.

Whatever Mayweather's wide-eyed recollections are, the very idea of such a society spells out an invitation to autocracy, alcoholism, domestic violence an child abuse. Think about it for a moment. Now imagine a couple of the public figures you think most likely to want to impose their values upon a small group of people away from the supervision of a watchful society. I don't even need to name names, do I? Now give them a chance to gather up a few female chattels an head out into space for a couple of generations. It sounds more like a pitch for a horror movie to me.

Besides, it's a brave speculator who would base their livelihood on the value of raw materials projected decades into the future.

I see that other reviewers have chosen other reasons for marking this episode down so I suppose it's got the advantage of having provoked a certain amount of discussion. It was a real shame that poor Anthony Montgomery was given only this one episode as his piece of character development throughout the whole series. This likeable young man deserved a whole lot better from the writing team. He has had a fairly successful career since and I don't think he's ever been heard to complain about his blatant under-use aboard the NX-01

Senior Trekker scores each episode with a 5

(* Pitcairn is a remote island in the Pacific where the real life Bounty mutineers fled to escape justice. Within less than a generation they had almost all died at their own or each other's hands)

Captain Archer is contacted by Admiral Forrest asking him to turn back to investigate a distress call from the cargo freighter ECS Fortunate. Archer finds that the freighter had been attacked by the Nausicaans, a race of space pirates. Archer provides supplies, manpower and medical assistance to First Officer Matthew Ryan, who is in command since the captain is injured. When T'Pol detects an alien form in the ship, the reaction of Ryan is violent and the Enterprise discovers that the officer is plot revenge against the Nausicaans, jeopardizing the space route for other freighters.

"Fortunate Son" is the weakest episode of this good series so far. The story of revenge of Officer Ryan is silly and pointless, since the guy is not totally wrong. The Nausicaans are pirates and attack the freighters, and the Starfleet does not take any action, therefore his attitude of despair seems to be very reasonable. The moral message of this episode in the end is blurred. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "Mercadores do Espaço" ("Merchants of Space")

I can't shake the feeling that this Enterprise crew is a bunch of amateurs. In contrast to the crews of the TNG and VOY series, there are definitely no explorers and scientists at work here. Space anomalies? Not interested! Charting stars? Boring! Diplomacy? Something for losers! This crew doesn't have an ounce of tact. Like a couple of cowboys from the American provinces. The ensign simply chats into the captain's speech without being asked to do so. The captain is a complete joke anyway. He could maybe play captain on a shrimp boat. But on the Enterprise? Speaking of boats: The entire Enterprise set seems to me like I'm watching a submarine crew. Those blue overalls, those controls... it doesn't look like a spaceship.

The story of this episode is also complete nonsense. The idea of "Boomers" being born in space, traveling the stars on freighters and being a secretive community of swashbucklers who solve their own problems is just dumb. I just don't buy Mayweather's life story anyway. And his understanding of this freighter crew waging their own guerrilla war is also completely out of place in Star Trek. But Archer then plays space police and ensures law and order in the Alpha quadrant. USA! USA! USA!

Spoilers

We are supposed to believe that Star Fleet has had loads of freighters traveling at warp for at least thirty years, given that EN Mayweather was born on one. Yet, despite what are apparently common pirate attacks, Star Fleet doesnt have any warships patrol the shipping lanes.

Second, CPT Archer is an officer so respected and experienced that he is called in to discuss the Enterprise's launch with admirals and diplomats of Earth and Vulcan, but he doesnt know what a Nausican Pirate is? That is blatantly absurd. But, it lets Mayweather, who is the reason this episode was written I guess, give us some of his boomer expertise.

Third and the most unbelievably incoherent plot nonsense I have ever seen in Star Trek, the freighter's second in command not alone maroons the captain of Star Fleet's flagship on a pod with a pressure leak (attempted murder), he fires on the Enterprise and flees. Not hanged. Not arrested. Not tried. Nope...he is reduced in rank by his own captain.

This episode highlights the insane touchy feely bent of this series, and Mayweather constantly piping up in more than one episode (but more so here) to offer his advice to Star Fleet's preeminent captain, is ludicrous and tiring. I want to like this show, and some of the characters are good, and the acting is very good, I am finding it difficult.

"Fortunate Son" is a muddled mess and quite possibly the worst episode of "Enterprise." I know, it has some competition there, but let's go through it.

The plot revolves around interstellar piracy and the lack of law enforcement in space. We learn that there is a fleet of earth freighters that have no protection against raiders, so their crews take matters into their own hands. These freighters take years to travel between destinations, turning the crews into "families" or, less euphemistically, armed gangs that basically do whatever they want on their journeys.

So, "Fortunate Son" at its heart is about lawlessness and how people exposed to it handle themselves. This isn't the most exciting concept, and there isn't a shred of originality about anything in this episode aside from the inevitable introduction of a new race (who really cares what they're called because they're just another variety of Klingon-variants with the standard forehead ridges, but they're the "Nausicaans") and the concept of freighters. Neither idea is particularly interesting and both seem a bit fanciful given the time periods we're dealing with, but we'll go with it.

The plot is the major problem. Put as succinctly as possible, it's insipid. It also makes virtually no sense. Freighters taking on not just warships but multiple warships, crews who haven't thought through at all what they're doing, a resolution that can be seen a light year away... it's just a cauldron of confusion and banality.

On the bright side, this is undoubtedly the best episode of the series for Ensign Mayweather. We learn through endless tedious monologues about how he grew up on a freighter, what he knows about freighters, how tragic life can be on freighters, blah blah blah. Are you really that interested in freighters and Mayweather? Then this is the episode for you (and I know there are some of you out there). I didn't find anything shown in this episode to be particularly interesting or insightful, but may the speed at which freighters travel is just fascinating to you.

Back to the banality. There is some heavy-handed moralizing going on, and not in a subtle way. They brought LeVar Burton in to direct this (think really hard to figure out why), and the pacing is horrible because we keep getting sidetracked by Mayweather opining about this and that. Maybe Burton's a good director elsewhere, but not here. We get pointless and banal discussions over meals, an extremely forced relationship between Mayweather and the villain or antihero (what he is is unclear from this muddled script), and a truly bizarre climactic moment when Mayweather just leaps into sensitive negotiations and embarks on a pointless monologue where he tries to say something meaningful. He's still trying. Maybe he'll manage it eventually. Oh, since Mayweather is the only person who knows anything about freighters, apparently that's why he's entitled to just talk over Archer and start pacing around the bridge expounding on his own theories.

So, the moralizing of this episode is off the Richter scale. At one point, Archer says to Mayweather in a condescending tone, "You in particular should understand (treating everyone equally)." Oh, geez, I wonder what he's really talking about there? And guess what, vigilantism is bad. Wow, shocker in a show centered around a military ship! The vigilantes resent the sudden appearance of law enforcement for some reason because they've become as bad as the pirates (at least that seems to be the lesson of the week). There are other such "lessons," but I'll stop there.

"Fortunate Son" is an unfortunate episode. We get little of interest from anyone other than Mayweather, T'Pol has a few cameos here and there, and everyone else is basically invisible or ineffective, including Archer. Oh, and the title has nothing to do with the song, if you were wondering about that. Nice little misleading trope there, Rick!

So, if you're a big Ensign Mayweather fan, tune in, but virtually everyone else is going to wonder why this was even made.