2x13 Dawn

[7.7/10] “I bet you’ve got stories too.” I’ll cop to using the “this is what Star Trek is about” framework to write these things up a lot. The truth is that Star Trek is a lot of things. It’s politics and philosophy and psychology and diplomacy and action and personal struggle and everything else under the alien sun. But if you put a gun to my head and said “cut the crap, Andrew what is this franchise about deep down?”, I’d take a deep breathe, fumfer around about the multiplicity of the show for a while, but eventually say that it’s about their being tons of different people with tons of different ways of life out there, each with their own stories worth telling and hearing.

“Dawn” centers on that concept, and on the essential Starfleet mission of bridging the gap between civilizations, moving postility, and getting to understanding. To accomplish that, we have another situation that calls to mind iconic episodes like “Darmok” and “Arena” and...I guess...“Bem”.

The premise is that Trip is tinkering around in the shuttlepod, when he’s shot down by an enemy fighter. He gets stranded on a nearby moon, not far from where his attacker’s ship crash landed after an exchange of fire. The universal translator is nowhere to be found, the transceiver to contact Enterprise is busted, and the planet is heating up quickly. With no common language and a lot of hostility, Trip and the alien who shot him down, Zho’kaan, have to figure out if and how they can get past their mutual mistrust and language barrier to signal someone to rescue them.

I’ve harped on Enterprise a lot for regurgitating plots from earlier Star Trek episodes, but there’s a reason this premise so durable. Plenty of other shows do “two people trapped together” episodes, because there’s something elementally compelling about watching two individuals have to set aside their differences because of an immediate, common goal. That usually leads to some mutual respect and understanding through the journey. It’s basic, but it’s also as effective here as it is in Trek episodes past.

The thing that distinguishes “Dawn” from its predecessors comes from a few things. The first and most obvious is that, thanks to the era in which Enterprise is set, this is, chronologically at least, the first time that a Starfleet officer has been in this situation. When Trip is trying to figure out what to do with his alien counterpart, it’s from a position where humanity has little experience with first contact, where there’s not protocols and centuries of precedent to pull from, where we’re still very much just figuring this thing out. That means, beyond the usual “where no one has gone before” uncertainty, Trip is especially working without a net.

It also helps that Zho’kaan seems more alien than the usual aliens that Starfleet officers encounter. Part of it is simply that the Universal Translator isn’t around, so we get to hear the Arkonian’s guttural language in its full glory, his inability to pronounce English words, and his low-pitched growls. But he also looks more alien with his full mask ridges and sunken glowing eyes. He moves more alien, with a sort of gorilla haunch. And he even spits some substance that can both heal Trip and blind him. It makes the gap between him and Trip seem much larger than when, for instance, Geordi got stranded with a Romulan.

It also makes it more compelling when Trip and Zho’kaan have to try to communicate with one another. In a nice touch, their gestures are even different, with the Arkonian having a distinctive sort of nod, and there being natural misunderstandings between the two. Sometimes the show takes a shortcut or two, with Trip and his alien counterpart seeming to understand one another better through mutually indecipherable sounds and intonation that might be true in real life, but there’s enough bumps and frustrations along the way to make the eventual connection feel earned. There’s some recency bias for yours truly here, but it reminds me of Al Swearengen and Wu trying to communicate with one another on Deadwood.

The language barrier isn’t helped by the trust barrier. Much of the episode is spent with Trip and Zho’kaan trying to trick one another or take advantage of the situation, which is understandable when their relationship starting with an interstellar firefight. Zho’kaan holds Trip at gunpoint and grunts at him to fix his ship. Despite being offered water, Trip uses the situation to sting Zho’Kaan with fuel of some kind and gain the upper hand. When he tries to give Zho’Kaan food and free him and set aside his weapon so that they can work together, the Arkonian uses his superior physical stature to try to get into a scrap with his human captor.

It’s one of the more exciting, Kirk-esque style bits of fisticuffs we’ve had on Enterprise. It’s a professional wrestling match, with good stuntwork and believable blows to both parties. But from that scrap comes a shared respect, the realization that they can stand toe to toe with one another, and despite that, Trip throws his phase pistol away. That is a sign of trust, one that shows that they’ve been through the ringer together, and there’s no reason to fight anymore.

There’s some important choices in the aftermath. Trip makes contact with Enterprise, but won’t leave until his new friend can be rescued too. In the mean time, he keeps Zho’kaan conscious and ticking. And he reflects on all the stories he’s written out here, all the things he’s gotten to do and see and experience in the wild wooly galaxy. Even on death’s door, he doesn't regret it, because he’s gotten to expand his horizons so far, do so many things he’d never get to do from the safety of his home, including make friends with someone who started out trying to kill him.

That is the core of Star Trek to me -- trying to turn hatred and violence and anger into peace and understanding, and valuing the chance to do it. I honestly don’t recall with the militant Arkonians ever become a Federation ally or not, but Enterprise posits this as an important first step toward warmer relations with Zho’kaan’s people than the Vulcan were able to establish after years of trying. And the series also posits it as something essential to what humanity brings to the interstellar community, that compassion, curiosity, thirst for adventure, and empathy, that makes humans good friends to have, even when we get off on the wrong foot.