“Exile”
Page 3 of 4back to pick her up in a few weeks. She wants to go back to the ship. She soon realizes that this is not Archer but the alien and demands to know where Archer is. Meanwhile, Enterprise has arrived and Archer calls Hoshi but there’s some sort of disruption field and he can’t get through. Power on the ship goes off-line. Tarquin threatens to kill everyone on board if she doesn’t stay with him. Hoshi grabs the alien’s *crystal ball* and she will destroy it unless he backs down. Power returns to the ship, Hoshi gets through and asks them to come get her. Meanwhile, T’Pol works on the data and discovers that there may be 50 spheres contributing to the anomalies. Archer suggests that the ones who created the spheres did so to create the Expanse. T’Pol finds it odd that someone would deliberately create “a web of crippling anomalies.”
Back in her quarters on the ship, the alien appears to Hoshi for a last time and gives her the coordinates to a Xindi colony that is building part of the weapon. Hoshi goes to see Archer to give them to him.
Review:
I know I won’t win brownie points with Hoshi fans here but I have to say from the beginning that I don’t particularly like the character of Hoshi as I find Linda Park too bland and expressionless. She does an adequate job here but is too restrained in her reactions. In fact, I think she would have made a splendid Vulcan and it makes me wonder if they should have had her and T’Pol as Vulcans on the ship with her as the colder, more logical one. I think it would have made for some interesting interactions between the two. Still, being expressionless does come off well here at times if only because it shows her disinterest in staying with Tarquin and amplifies it.
Hoshi’s beauty to Tarquin’s beast never quite works because Maury Sterling’s performance as the alien is equally bland. It’s hard to feel for the guy he’s so mechanical. The problem is we don’t see his desperation. He acts like it at times but is not convincing and it seems more like an afterthought than the way he feels. Paired with the Hoshi character it makes for a rather dull and predictable hour. Linda Park’s performance is a little better in that the Hoshi character is somewhat improved and has grown; she no longer comes off as a frightened little girl. She’s competent and capable but unfortunately too dull to make it interesting. It brings to mind another not so interesting episode “Sub Rosa” where Doctor Crusher is seduced by an anaphasic lifeform named Ronin (Duncan Regehr) that has used the women in Beverly’s family for years to stay alive. Of course, in that case, he appeals to Beverly as a lover while here Tarquin wants a companion. It’s never made clear whether Tarquin would want a physical relationship with Hoshi and it’s just as well. I’m glad they didn’t make him an *evil* villain as well as that would have been even more cliched.
Character-centric episodes rarely work well and I can’t think of any that I’ve ever found particularly good in any Trek series save perhaps for DS9. It’s great to develop the characters but subplots where there is character interaction does this much better and is much more interesting.
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