“Doctor’s Orders”
Page 4 of 6plasma relays before they can start. Just then he sees Trip. Phlox knows he is hallucinating and Trip isn’t really there but he argues with him anyway as Trip wants him to stop. T’Pol interrupts and Phlox snaps out of it. T’Pol tells him she: “can’t find the plasma relays.” He sets things up and tries for warp two. The engines start up but something goes wrong. T’Pol can’t help as she is unable to think properly. She suggests they wake Commander Tucker. Phlox refuses as Trip would die. He tells her to do something. She can’t. He manages to do what’s needed and the field stabilizes. Warp engines work and they get out of the disturbance.
They are now in normal space and Phlox wakes Archer. Porthos is there and greets the captain. Phlox talks to Trip who ignores T’Pol who is with Phlox. The doctor walks her to her quarters. He walks in and sees that she too was in a coma and that the T’Pol he had been with all along was a hallucination.
Later Phlox is finishing his letter. He tells Lucas that he would have deleted the letter as most of it is “fiction” but decides that it might be entertaining to read so sends it anyway.
In the mess hall, Phlox joins T’Pol. She tells him that Trip is complaining about the engines. Phlox chuckles and tells her: “Yes, he gave me quite a talking to.” She tells him he said: “Phlox did one hell of a job.” Phlox is pleased by this. She tells him: “You must have enjoyed having the ship to yourself.” He replies: “It wasn’t nearly as empty as I anticipated.” T’Pol gives him a perplexed look.
REVIEW:
Maybe it’s because I have a cold and feel miserable, but I didn’t much like this episode. Maybe it’s because it’s a rehash of yet another Voyager episode called “One” (for the other see season one’s “Terra Nova” and Voyager’s “Friendship One”) where Seven and the Doc must pass through a nebula. They are left alone as in this episode to do it as it is dangerous to everyone but the two and Seven hallucinates. Maybe it’s just that there was nothing here to really enjoy other than getting an insight into Phlox’ personality and seeing how bad the T’Pol character could really be written. What I mean by the latter is that so many people complain about how un-Vulcan T’Pol is, seeing her in *this* episode I think might change their minds. Still, on second viewing to write the synopsis, I have to say I enjoyed it more if only because of Billingsley’s and Blalock’s acting and I focused more on that this time.
Of course, it is a hallucinated T’Pol throughout most of the episode but for a while there I thought she was the real thing. It’s when she began to act goofy that I realized she wasn’t real. Of course, there were other clues as when she didn’t eat with Phlox and didn’t take the phaser from him, amongst other things but I wasn’t sure till she started to act like she was a virtual Pakled.
We do get to know Phlox a little better which is good. I do like the character but I guess I
