Doctor's Orders (episode)
From Memory Alpha, the free Star Trek reference.
| This article is written from the Real World point of view |
 |
| This article is written from the Real World point of view |
|
| "Doctor's Orders" | ||
|---|---|---|
| ENT, Episode 3x16 Production number: 068 First aired: 18 February 2004 | ||
| ← | 67th of 97 produced in ENT | → |
| ← | 67th of 97 released in ENT | → |
| ← | 696th of 726 released in all | → |
 | ||
| Written By Chris Black Directed By Roxann Dawson | ||
| Unknown (2154) | ||
- For the novel, please see Doctor's Orders.
In order to traverse a large region of subspace anomalies safely, Phlox must put the rest of the crew in stasis and pilot the Enterprise himself.
Contents |
[edit] Summary
[edit] Teaser
The Enterprise is moving very slowly through a pinkish-purple cloud. The warp nacelles are inactive. Onboard, there is nobody on the bridge, in engineering, in the mess hall, or even in the corridors, apart from Porthos, who is being chased by Dr. Phlox.
- Phlox - "Stop!... oh, urrm... Return!... no, urmm... heel, yes thats right, heel, Porthos, heel!"
Porthos does stop, but only because he's got to where he wants to be: he paws at one of the crew-quarter doors. Phlox suddenly understands, and lets him in. In the cabin, Porthos jumps up onto the bed to look at Captain Archer, laying there, unconscious, with a silver disc attached to his head.
[edit] Act One
Phlox and Porthos are in Phlox's cabin, discussing why Porthos keeps trying to go back to see the Captain. Phlox discovers on his PADD that dogs are very territorial, and that a dog called 'Scruffers' once traveled 3,000 km to get back to see his master. Phlox tells Porthos that he heard of a Pycan space moth that traveled half a light year, but that it probably didn't have a name.
Phlox and Porthos go for a walk, while he dictates a letter to Dr. Jeremy Lucas. They arrive at the galley, where Phlox gets some leeches to eat, and gives one to Porthos, claiming that he probably won't like it, but his intestinal tract will be thoroughly cleansed. Phlox then continues his letter, concerning his assignment to the Enterprise.
Two days earlier, the Enterprise encountered a transdimensional disturbance, similar to the one they encountered a few weeks ago (ENT: "Harbinger"). However, this one is different, because it has only just started forming. It is also on a direct path between the ship and Azati Prime. To avoid several weeks of a detour, T'Pol suggests going through the disturbance. Dr. Phlox says that he will need to put all the crew members into a coma, to which Commander Tucker objects strongly. Despite Trip's objections, the Captain agrees to Phlox's plan, and Phlox gets basic training in the running of the ship, including helm and engineering operations. Also, Trip suggests that they should cross the disturbance at impulse, rather than risk the unpredictable effects of warp drive in the disturbance.
[edit] Act Two
Visiting Travis Mayweather, who is also in a coma, Phlox continues his letter, saying that he managed to convince the Captain, and that his physiology was sufficiently different than the humans that he wouldn't be affected by the disturbance. Still, he had his doubts about his ability to control the ship by himself. In engineering, he hears something odd, but finds nothing. He continues his letter, saying he'll be relieved when he can wake the crew, in another 2 days 16 hours and 43 minutes.
[edit] Act Three
Phlox is jogging through the corridors of Enterprise singing a song in Denobulan:
- Phlox -
- "Darickmay kal'paron ripa,
- "Oochi vanka luu!"
- "Bareet suut vahl, suut vahl, suut vahl!"
- "Ba-reet suut vahl."
He walks into sickbay, appearing naked, and apologises to his animals because he's late for their feedings. He then watches The Court Jester, a 1956 movie, with some popcorn:
- Movie script -
- Hubert Hawkins - "I don't want the vessel with the pestle, I want the chalice from the... what?"'
- Maid Jean - "The chalice from the palace."
- Griselda - "Its a little crystal chalice with a figure of a palace."
- Hawkins - "Does the chalice from the palace have the pellet with the poison?"
- Griselda - "No, the pellet with the poison is in the vessel with the pestle."
- Hawkins - "The pestle with the vessel?"
- Jean - "The vessel with the pestle."
- Hawkins - "What about the palace from the chalice?"
- Griselda - "Not the palace from the chalice, the chalice from the palace!"
- Hawkins - "Where's the pellet with the poison?"
- Griselda - "In the vessel with the pestle!"
- Jean - "Don't you see? The pellet with the poison is in the vessel with the pestle, the chalice from the palace has the brew that is true. It's so easy, I can say it!"
- Hawkins - "Well, then you fight him!"
Suddenly, Phlox hears something odd, looks at Porthos as if to check to see if he heard it, then goes to see if he can find out what it was he heard.
[edit] Act Four
Walking through the deserted corridors, Phlox tells Porthos that he shouldn't have let Trip force him to watch The Exorcist last week. Then, he hears a sound again, and tracks it to one of the shuttlebays. Phlox looks up and sees a small gas leak, which is rattling a chain.
- Phlox - "Is this a starship, or a haunted house?"
Suddenly, T'Pol appears behind Phlox, and startles him. He then invites her to dinner later on.
Back in engineering, Phlox is running one of the routine operations that Trip showed him, when he hears, and this time sees, a shadowy figure running away on one of the upper platforms. Angry, Phlox calls T'Pol on the intercom, presuming it must have been her, and compares her to a Draxxan cloud viper. However, she claims to have been on the bridge all the time.
They meet in the galley, where Phlox prepares a meal that his fifth grandmother made for each of his weddings. Apparently, the chef on the Enterprise could never get it right, and was lacking in his Plomeek broth skills as well. Phlox talks to T'Pol about how crowded his homeworld is, not by necessity but by choice, because Denobulans enjoy living in groups. For him, being alone on the Enterprise has been unsettling, but T'Pol has found it to be a welcome respite. T'Pol doesn't eat or drink anything during the meeting.
[edit] Act Five
Back in sickbay again, Phlox continues his letter to Dr. Lucas, talking about how much he misses Denobula. He visits Captain Archer for a check-up, and is startled by a shadowy form that he sees outside the Enterprise window. Frightened, he calls T'Pol.
On the bridge, they discuss the Enterprise sensors, and find no other lifeforms. Not convinced, Phlox continues with his rounds, only to find a Xindi-Insectoid in Ensign Sato's quarters. He is chased by the Xindi through the corridors, until he gets to an airlock, in which he traps himself until the Xindi gives up and moves away.
Phlox arms himself with a phase pistol and, starting on G-deck, searches the ship for alien lifeforms. T'Pol comes with him. Phlox uses a scanner to look for other lifeforms, but almost shoots Porthos by mistake. After wasting two hours of T'Pol's time, she starts to get angry with him. Later, Phlox believes that he can hear Hoshi calling him over the com system. When he reaches her quarters she is in a steaming shower. As she emerges, she appears grossly disfigured, blaming him for her condition, and reminding him that the crew were under his care. After a moment, Phlox looks back at the shower and then sees Hoshi lying peacefully in her cot. Phlox asks T'Pol to meet him in sickbay, where Phlox does a scan of himself, which shows that he's been subtly affected by the disturbance as well, and has in fact been hallucinating. Phlox considers handing over control of the ship to T'Pol, but she refuses after she admits she's been having trouble controlling her emotions in the disturbance, and she could become irrational.
On the bridge, they discover that they're still over a quarter of a light year from the edge of the disturbance, althought they should have been out of it by now. The disturbance has expanded at an accelerated rate, and it would take them another 10 weeks to get out of it at full impulse. T'Pol insists that they engage the warp drive.
In engineering, T'Pol isn't much help, because she can't concentrate on anything. Although Phlox has a dozen scientific degrees, none of them are in warp field propulsion. Since T'Pol can't help, Phlox has to "read the manual" about how to engage the warp drive. Phlox is distracted by another hallucination, this time of Trip reminding him about his warning not to engage the warp drive inside the disturbance. After a few minor problems, he manages to take the ship to warp 2.
Once they are out of the anomaly, Phlox starts waking the crew, the senior officers first. He walks T'Pol back to her quarters, where he finds that she's been in her quarters the whole time, and that he's actually been speaking to himself. The rest of the crew is awakened, and the Enterprise continues on towards Azati Prime.
[edit] Memorable Quotes
"I'm a physician, not an engineer!"
- - Doctor Phlox
[edit] Background Information
- This is the fourth time anyone in Star Trek has spoken Denobulan. The other three episodes were "Dear Doctor", "Stigma" and "A Night in Sickbay". Denobulan was also spoken in a deleted scene from the episode "Minefield". See Denobulan language
- It is also one of the very few episodes of Star Trek: Enterprise to have no guest stars.
- This episode is remarkably similar to the Voyager episode "One", in which the entire crew is put in stasis except for Seven of Nine and The Doctor, who are left to run the ship. In this episode it is Seven who starts to hallucinate as a result of radiation, affecting her cortical implant.
- The "vessel with the pestle" scene from The Court Jester that Dr. Phlox watches is the most famous scene of the movie. According to Danny Kaye's daughter, if people saw Kaye in public, they would approach him and recite the scene's exchange.
- Because only existing sets of Enterprise was used, this episode qualifies as a true Bottle show.
[edit] Links and References
[edit] Main Cast
- Scott Bakula as Jonathan Archer
- John Billingsley as Phlox
- Jolene Blalock as T'Pol
- Dominic Keating as Malcolm Reed
- Anthony Montgomery as Travis Mayweather
- Linda Park as Hoshi Sato
- Connor Trinneer as Charles "Trip" Tucker III
[edit] Uncredited Co-Stars
- Mark Correy as Alex
- Daphney Dameraux as an operations division ensign
- John Jurgens as a command division crewman
- Ator Tamras as a science division ensign
- John Wan as an operations division crewman
- Breezy or Windy as Porthos
[edit] Archive footage
- John Carradine as Giacomo
- Danny Kaye as Hubert Hawkins
- Glynis Johns as Jean
- Mildred Natwick as Griselda
[edit] References
antimatter constrictor coil; Azati Prime; Beagle; canine; class C gravimetric field distortion; coma; The Court Jester; Denobula; deuterium; dilithium matrix; Draxxan cloud viper; The Exorcist; Galley; hand scanner; haunted house; hull plating; impulse manifold; intestinal tract; Kaybin District; Klingon, ancient; leech; Lucas, Jeremy; magnetic constriction coil; millicochrane; neocortex; neurochemistry; parsec; particle confinement; physiology; plasma relay; plomeek broth; popcorn; Pycan space moth; Pyrithian bat; San Francisco; scientific degree; Scruffers; spatial-compression index; Starfleet training; theta waves; trans-dimensional disturbance; warp coil; warp field; Xindi attack; Xindi-Insectoid;
| Previous episode: "Harbinger" | Star Trek: Enterprise Season 3 | Next episode: "Hatchery" |
