Star Trek 634: Terra Nova

634. Terra Nova

FORMULA: Friendship One + Miri + Voyager's Nemesis + any episode with shipwide malfunctions

WHY WE LIKE IT: The underground culture and language.

WHY WE DON'T: All too predictable.

REVIEW: Enterprise's visit to a lost colony, Earth's first, seems to purposely recall such TOS episodes as Miri, where the crew walks into a deserted town, with abandonned bikes, etc. Did Terra Nova secede from Earth or was it destroyed? Well, a little bit of both, actually. In keeping with what seems like a pretty strict cycle of alternately visiting alien ships and cave networks, most of the action takes place underground, where the colonists' children have gone to ground.

Like on Miri's planet, the children have inherited the world and created their own culture and dialect. Unlike Miri's planet, the generations have gone by normally and Terra Nova has an adult population, with only a few seniors (or just one?) remembering the days before they put mud on their faces and started calling lies "shale". So while we initially see the Novans as aliens, the (rather predictable) twist is that they're really humans. I think the better twist here is that they aren't transformed or mutated humans, but simply painted humans.

I like how humans are infinitely adaptable when it comes to culture. No matter the circumstance, they can't help but create a culture. The Novans have their own music, their own jargon, their own way of looking at the world. T'Pol, despite the usual bored performance, challenges Archer's preconceptions about humanity by suggesting that the Novans are now a distinct society. It's a precursor of sorts to the many human colonies we'll come across in other series who, left to develop on their own, have a very particular bent.

Less interesting is the episode's resolution, which, while well made and presented, doesn't quite smack of originality. It's the same old stuff where the blind fool's eyes are opened by the hero's courage. Both parties agree to trust each other and all's well with the world. We've seen it before and I'm sure we'll see it again. Couple that with a shuttlepod dropping through the crust of the planet, but miraculously being pulled out offscreen and you have a pretty ordinary pat ending.

LESSON: Shale is real unreliable.

REWATCHABILITY - Medium: Well made, with an interesting culture on show, but all the surprises are overly familiar.