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Star Trek: Enterprise Rewatch: “Vox Sola”

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Star Trek: Enterprise Rewatch: “Vox Sola”

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Star Trek: Enterprise Rewatch: “Vox Sola”

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Published on April 18, 2022

Screenshot: CBS
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Star Trek: Enterprise "Vox Sola"
Screenshot: CBS

“Vox Sola”
Written by Rick Berman & Brannon Braga and Fred Dekker
Directed by Roxann Dawson
Season 1, Episode 22
Production episode 022
Original air date: May 1, 2002
Date: unknown

Captain’s star log. Enterprise’s first contact with the Kreetassans goes very poorly. Sato is having trouble with their language, and she thinks they said they eat like they mate, which confuses the crew. The Kreetassans leave in a huff. As the umbilical separates their ship from Enterprise, a lifeform makes its way onto Enterprise undetected.

Archer is bummed out about the blown first contact. Tucker cheers him up with a video of the water polo match between Stanford and Texas, which cheers him right up, Tucker gamely trying to follow along, as he’s no kind of water polo fan…

Sato is also bummed, and T’Pol’s urging for her to work harder so her next first contact is more successful doesn’t really make her feel any better.

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It’s movie night and they’re showing The Wages of Fear. Mayweather talks Reed into attending by telling him there are explosions.

In engineering, Rostov and Kelly are finishing up some stuff before going to see the movie. However, there’s a power failure in a cargo bay, and Kelly sends Rostov to check it out. Rostov arrives to a darkened cargo bay, and contacts Kelly—but then he’s grabbed by the alien before he can say anything. Kelly, confused by the silent communication, goes to investigate herself.

Instead of The Wages of Fear, the folks attending movie night are treated to security footage from various parts of the ship. Reed tells the bridge that they should fix it. Meantime, Kelly contacts Archer, and as she’s reporting about what happened in the cargo bay, she too is snagged by the alien.

Archer and Tucker immediately contact Reed, and they meet with him and Zabel, one of the security guards, at the cargo bay. Phase pistols prove ineffective against the alien, and Archer, Tucker, and Zabel are also snagged, but Reed manages to escape. He closes the cargo bay door on one of the creature’s tendrils, which is broken off.

Star Trek: Enterprise "Vox Sola"
Screenshot: CBS

Phlox studies the tendril, and he comes up with a solution: the creature seems to be sensitive to EM radiation. T’Pol orders an EM burst, which proves ineffective, as the harm it does to the creature is transmitted to its prisoners, and after several seconds of Archer and the rest screaming their lungs out, they disengage.

Sato has another idea: the creature’s emissions seem to be mathematical—maybe it’s a language. She gets to work on trying to decipher it. Meanwhile, Mayweather is charged with tracking the Kreetassans down—perhaps they’re familiar with this alien.

In the cargo bay, Kelly and Zabel are unconscious. Archer tries to buck Rostov up. After a time, Tucker, Archer, and Rostov start to feel their thoughts commingling with each other.

Reed has been working on a prototype force field, and T’Pol authorizes him to get it ready. Sato continues to work on the language, but is frustrated—eventually, she swallows her pride and asks T’Pol for help.

Mayweather finally tracks down the Kreetassans. In the interim, they have studied the database Enterprise provided, and now can speak perfect English. Sure. They explain why they were offended: humans (and Vulcans and Denobulans) eat in public. To a Kreetassan, that’s just gross. Mayweather very humbly apologizes on behalf of the crew. The Kreetassan captain accepts the apology and provides Mayweather with the coordinates for the alien’s homeworld.

Phlox is concerned by the lifesign readings he’s getting from the cargo bay. He believes that, if things keep going as they are, there will be only one lifeform in the cargo bay instead of the six currently there, as Archer and the rest will be wholly absorbed into the alien being.

Star Trek: Enterprise "Vox Sola"
Screenshot: CBS

Sato and T’Pol have managed to work out what they think is the alien’s language. Reed sets up his force field, and Sato attempts to tell them that they need their crewmates free. The alien responds with coordinates—latitude and longitude. Sato says that they are already proceeding to their homeworld, using the coordinates the Kreetassans provided.

The alien lets Archer, Tucker, Zabel, Kelly, and Rostov go. They arrive at the alien’s planet and take a shuttlepod down, releasing the alien into an area that is filled with the alien—which Phlox says is a single lifeform, with which this bit of the alien is reunited, and which covers pretty much the entire planet.

Can’t we just reverse the polarity? The alien is allergic to EM radiation, which is odd, since that stuff’s everywhere. Then again, maybe that’s why it’s trying to get home so desperately… 

The gazelle speech. Archer is a big honking fangoober of water polo, just in case we forgot he was a white guy…

I’ve been trained to tolerate offensive situations. T’Pol is in charge for most of the episode while Archer is captured, and she comports herself quite well, exploring multiple options and working with Sato on the most compassionate of those options.

Florida Man. Florida Man Sucks Up To His Captain With Water Polo Recording.

Optimism, Captain! Phlox gets Reed to slow his roll when it comes to testing his force field on the alien sample in sickbay, as he’s unwilling to torture what might be a sentient being. Reed tries to pull rank, but Phlox pulls it right back, as it’s his sickbay, and only the captain—who’s indisposed—can counter the doctor’s authority there.

Good boy, Porthos! Porthos is the first to detect the alien, but being a dog, is unable to communicate this to the rest of the crew.

Star Trek: Enterprise "Vox Sola"
Screenshot: CBS

More on this later… Reed says that Earth scientists have been working on a force field (or, rather, a “stable EM barrier”), and Reed himself has a working prototype he’s been working on. These force fields are commonplace by the twenty-third century, as seen in the original series and all the other spinoffs so far.

I’ve got faith…

“You don’t think I belong on Enterprise, do you?”

“On the contrary—it would be a great loss to Starfleet if you were not a part of this crew. If you feel I’ve been unfair to you, I apologize. But I hold you to a high standard, Ensign, because I know you’re capable of achieving it.”

–Sato thinking that T’Pol is being mean to her and T’Pol showing that it’s the exact opposite.

Screenshot: CBS

Welcome aboard. Vaughn Armstrong shows up again as the Kreetassan captain, having already played a Klingon in “Sleeping Dogs” and having the recurring role of Forrest, not to mention his eight previous roles on TNG, DS9, and Voyager. He’ll be back as a Kreetassan in “A Night in Sickbay,” though it’s not at all clear if that’s the same Kreetassan as in this episode.

Joseph Will and Renee E. Goldsberry play Rostov and Kelly, respectively. Will previously appeared in Voyager’s “Muse” and “Workforce, Part II,” and was a finalist for the role of Tucker. Rostov will return, played by Will, in “Two Days and Two Nights.”

Trivial matters: This episode is the first time that T’Pol is explicitly stated to be the first officer of the ship—she’s always only been referred to as the science officer, though she has also clearly been second-in-command since “Broken Bow.”

The original title of this episode was “The Needs of the One,” before they decided to go all Latin on us.

While this is Kelly’s only appearance onscreen, she also appears in regular rewatch commenter Christopher L. Bennett’s Rise of the Federation novels. Bennett also retroactively established that Onna Karapledeez, mentioned as a prominent Starfleet officer who died under mysterious circumstances in TNG’s “Conspiracy,” was Kreetassan in his Lost Era novel The Buried Age.

Star Trek: Enterprise "Vox Sola"
Screenshot: CBS

It’s been a long road… “As soon as you give up, the game’s lost.” This is a good, solid science fiction story, and also does a very nice job with the characters.

We start with Tucker cheering Archer up with footage of a water polo match, with some fun west-coast-vs.-the-south friendly rivalry between Archer (rooting for Stanford) and Tucker (rooting for Texas). I particularly like how hard Archer and Sato in particular take the failed first contact with the Kreetassans.

It’s also a successful first contact with the alien creature, for all that it takes five kidnappings and some weapons fire to get there. I like that T’Pol keeps her options open, letting Reed try to find some way to combat the alien while Sato tries diplomacy. And I especially like getting to know more of the crew. The friendly banter between Kelly and Rostov is fun, and I wish we got to see more of Kelly, though at least Rostov comes back. But this is the sort of thing we should’ve seen more of, especially since this is the only Earth ship out here, and everyone’s on this important mission.

Plus all the main characters get something to do. While Archer and Tucker are indisposed for most of the episode, they still get some fun bonding moments, both over the water polo game and while captured. T’Pol does brilliantly in charge, as expected, and Sato gets to realize how much she’s actually appreciated by the taciturn Vulcan who gives her a hard time, not because she’s a hardass, but because Sato has proven that expecting greatness from her is not unreasonable.

Plus Reed gets to be all violent and stuff, Phlox gets to remind Reed that it’s his sickbay, thank you very much, and Mayweather gets to sincerely apologize on behalf of the entire crew for their eating in public. And Porthos is the first to detect the aliens, because dogs are awesome.

In general, what’s particularly strong about this episode is that it gives us two genuinely alien aliens. The Kreetassans are the more typical Trek aliens—humans slathered in latex and with one or two weird traits to make them stand out and cause problems—while the alien invaders to the ship are genuinely other. But the crew is still devoted to the still-very-nascent-at-this-point future-Federation ideal of compassion over violence, diplomacy over warfare, talking over fighting. And in the end, everyone lives and the aliens get to go home.

Warp factor rating: 8

Keith R.A. DeCandido is celebrating his 53rd birthday today. Please wish him a happy birthday in the comments and let him know that people actually read the bio…

About the Author

Keith R.A. DeCandido

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Keith R.A. DeCandido has been writing about popular culture for this site since 2011, primarily but not exclusively writing about Star Trek and screen adaptations of superhero comics. He is also the author of more than 60 novels, more than 100 short stories, and more than 70 comic books, both in a variety of licensed universes from Alien to Zorro, as well as in worlds of his own creation, most notably the new Supernatural Crimes Unit series debuting in the fall of 2025. Read his blog, or follow him all over the Internet: Facebook, The Site Formerly Known As Twitter, Instagram, Threads, Blue Sky, YouTube, Patreon, and TikTok.
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2 years ago

Happy birthday, Keith!

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Doug
2 years ago

Skipped this one on my current re-watch, as I didn’t recall the slime creature story being that interesting. Your high score floored me.

So in honor of your birthday, I’ll dial this one up tonight and give it the re-watch it apparently deserves.

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2 years ago

Sappy Mirthday! Love your rewatches. keep up the good work.

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2 years ago

Happy birthday!

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Don S.
2 years ago

Happy Birthday, KRAD! You’re now the age my maternal grandmother was when I was born—not to make you feel old or anything. In any event, I hope friends give you some Romulan Ale to enjoy the day. Hope it’s a great one!

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Charles Rosenberg
2 years ago

Perhaps the atmosphere of the aliens planet screens out the specific wavelengths of EM that the creature is allergic to. We’ve seen other examples in Trek of lifeforms that can’t tolerate some types of EM (the flying pancakes in Operation Annihilate were destroyed by Ultraviolet light).

 

BTW, I’m sure it’s a typo but it’s role not roll for the interaction between Reed and Phlox.

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2 years ago

This is probably one of my favorite episodes of Enterprise, basically for the same reasons you listed. I feel like this one is often overlooked, but it’s a solid episode with a memorable alien and good characterization for all of our main cast. Hoshi is possibly my favorite character and I love the little glimpses of the mentor relationship she has with T’Pol. I also enjoy the little prototype versions they build of what will eventually become everyday tech.

I do feel bad for Trineer and Bakula though! They spent most of the episode in what looks like uncomfortable harnesses that were sprayed with white snot.

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2 years ago

“Correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t our mission to better understand new forms of life?”

There’s a bit of a feeling of Stock Plot Number Six about this one, but it holds the attention, more from the character work than the actual mystery which is ultimately resolved rather swiftly, with the creature releasing its captives after exchanging a couple of sentences with the crew. Archer and Tucker get a few good buddie moments but they’re unable to play a part in the action for the second half (this must be one of the few times neither of them gets to go down to the planet!), so the spotlight gets to shine on the others. T’Pol has improved her man management but doesn’t quite know how to handle humans, managing to get Sato’s back up. (She’s pretty dismissive of the idea of communicating until brute force fails spectacularly.) Sato’s insecurities come out but she also gets to show she knows what she’s doing. Reed continues his tradition of coming up with everything of worth (this week, inventing forcefields), while Phlox gets to stand his ground with him. And Mayweather proves surprisingly capable, coming up with the idea of contacting the Kreetassans and then handling the communication himself when the other officers are off the deck.

It’s an interesting cultural detail that the Kreetassans view eating in public as a taboo. His role as the Kreetassan captain is Vaughn Armstrong’s last new role in the franchise to date (Forrest’s Mirror Universe counterpart aside), although he’ll continue in his recurring role of Admiral Forrest into Season 4: I’d completely forgotten he was one of the Kreetassans in “A Night in Sickbay” as well. Joseph Will makes the first of three appearances as Crewman Michael Rostov. (I made him Shran’s first officer in the Federation Starfleet.)

Also under information that no-one else cares about, having rewatched 160-odd episodes of Voyager and 20-odd episodes of Enterprise on a clapped out video player, I finally give up on it and replace it with one with decent sound and picture quality when there’s only five episodes left that were actually released on VHS…

Water polo’s a white man’s sport? Teetering on the edge of the cultural divide and trying to work out what the British equivalent would be. Non-water polo?

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Bob
2 years ago

I liked this episode “it gives us two genuinely alien aliens” but unfortunately it serves to highlight how rarely that happened on Star Trek. This is the same time when Farscape was regularly giving us plenty of weirdness and visually distinctive aliens. Meanwhile Stargate SG1 had by this point given us four seasons of scifi adventure and alien planets that looked like Canada, and mostly human aliens but was a good variety of cultures and different civilizations. Going a little wider Star Trek on UPN was competing with shows like Superman on The WB, and even though the first season of Smallville was monster of the week trash  it had potential. I’d argue Futurama was the best scifi on TV at the time, it was certainly my favorite. 

 So again, good episode of Enterprise. I look back on the show more favorably now but I remember there were plenty other choices at the time and why this show was never a must watch for me . 

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Ecthelion of Greg
2 years ago

I think Enterprise is at it’s best when it explores problems that would of course be present during Humanity’s first adventure into deep space and meeting new species, instead of trying to do just standard Star Trek plots in a new ship.  That’s why I loved the miscommunication subplot – we can’t expect the translator to work all the time, and the idea of a culture where eating in public is taboo is (to my knowladge) rather original and fascinating.  And sure, the main plot was good, but we’ve seen the “strange alien intety who just wants to communicate/go home/give birth/mind it’s own buisness and doesn’t realize it’s hurting our heros” plot a bunch of times before; plus, I was very distracted that the tendrils of the thing they were tied up in was rather obviously crumpled plastic wrap covered in slime.  And did we really need Reed to invent force fields, a technology that would become incredibly important in all other series?  Sure, it falls under the “all interesting aspects of the orriginal work are set up by one group of people in the prequel” trope.  But this early in the series as well?  

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