2x20 Horizon

[5.2/10] For a while I’ve worried about Enterprise falling into the same pattern that The Original Series did, where the three main characters get all the stories and the rest of the crew, give or take the occasional Scotty episode, have to fend for scraps. It doesn't help that Enterprise, like the 1960s series, relegates the people of color in its cast to being supporting characters most of the time. So I’m inclined to appreciate the installments where Mayweather or Hoshi or Dr. Phlox get the spotlight for an episode.

The problem is that those episodes need to be, you know, good, and “Horizon” pretty much tops out at “boring.” A story with tinny emotions, slack pacing, and a sort of knowingly inessential vibe make Mayweather’s day in the limelight feels like a big waste. The threats here are minor, the personal relationships are stock and weakly-developed, and the conclusion is predictable and rushed.

The premise of the episode sees the Enterprise passing by the freighter owned and operated by Mayweather’s family. Travis asks for a brief leave to visit them, only to learn that his father, who captained the ship, died before word could reach him. What follows is an awkward, semi-presumptuous visit home, where Mayweather is excited to see his old digs and impart what he’s learned, but his brother, Paul, is far less welcoming.

“Horizon” is basically doing a less traumatized version of “Family” from The Next Generation here. Travis’s brother is resentful that his brother left the family trade to go join Starfleet. He is contemptuous of his brother’s vaunted place in the world, and has an implicit inferiority complex while trying to succeed his father in running the freighter. Travis, meanwhile, is conflicted between his desire to help his family and their ship run better and be safer while he’s there, with his own remorse at wondering if he’s abandoned his family and his old crew, and if he even has a place with them anymore.

That’s strong stuff! As befits the product of a writer who would go on to pen scripts for Mad Men, there’s complex familial and generational issues at play. The rub is that the delivery of those ideas, in story, dialogue, and performance, is all facepalm-worthy.

I feel bad for singling out Anthony Montgomery, but he’s just not really up to conveying the complicated emotional situation the episode wants to depict. Granted, the script does him no favors, being riddled with tin-eared dialogue and on-the-nose statements about what everyone’s thinking and feeling. But Montgomery does little in these stretches to suggest he should get this sort of focus more often (not that it stops the show from giving it to Bakula). While he does some nice nonverbal work in the moment where he’s crying in his little crawl space, every time Mayweather’s called upon to actually say a line, it feels like he’s announcing it rather than delivering it.

The other side of the coin is that maybe it’s not Montgomery’s fault, because the same thing happens with every other character on the Horizon, from Mayweather’s brother, to his mom, to his childhood playmate. There’s a stagey atmosphere to all of this, where each of the characters gives performances with the vibe of a high school play. Star Trek isn’t always a den of naturalism, but the hokiness of the line delivery across the board robs the episode of whatever tiny bit of emotional force the script might be able to muster.

That’s part of why the most enjoyable part of “Horizon” is its B-story. It sees Trip arranging a screening of Frankenstein, and he and Archer cajoling T’Pol to come to movie night and see it. It is, without a doubt, a trifle of a subplot, and it yet again teases romance between Archer and T’Pol that I just don’t buy. But it’s fun! Not everything has to be a high stakes outing, and just seeing the Enterprise’s senior staff goof off around an old movie without having to carry all the dramatic weight makes for an entertaining, seven-minute lark.

Still, it ultimately offers a more worthwhile point than the main story does. Maybe this is a cheap thing for a critic to like, but I particularly appreciate how T’Pol pulls out a different interpretation of the film than her colleagues intended. The idea of the story as a rumination on how humans treat those who look and act different from them, something that T’Pol and by extension, other Vulcans could relate to, causes Archer and Trip discomfort, but is a legitimate take.

Beyond the humor of T’Pol preferring a dramatic reading of the original novel or Dr. Phlox nitpicking the medical procedures, there’s some nice irony in the fact that T’Pol’s crewmates wanted her to learn more about humanity through its art, and she did, just not in the direction they were hoping. There’s a statement about the malleability of stories and the way we share them that is as worthwhile as it is pithy.

Were that I could say anything else in the episode was pithy. Back on the Horizon, Travis has predictable friction with his brother, predictable reminiscing and uncertainty with his old friend, and predictable reassurance from his mother. There’s a lot of “Did I ever tell you about the time?” scenes, and a lot of painfully ruminating on the same “You left us! The whole world is leaving us!” issues over and over again. This episode loses the thematic punch of the same topic in “Fortunate Son” by couching it in a tired kitchen sink drama and a barely-there action-y threat. The whole thing ends up dull.

That’s frustrating, because it suggests a lack of care or quality from these sorts of outings that suggests we won’t get many of them. One of the best things about Star Trek is that, from the beginning, the franchise has been about ensembles. It would be nice to see Enterprise taking advantage of that, and featuring other characters more often. But given the middling work and middling results in “Horizon”, that doesn't seem very likely.