Star Trek 638: Fortunate Son

638. Fortunate Son

FORMULA: Valiant + The Pirates of Orion + Return to Grace

WHY WE LIKE IT: The historical implications. Effects.

WHY WE DON'T: The new/old Nausicaans. Another "blind fool" story.

REVIEW: A Mayweather episode, in that it deals with the Boomer experience, but Travis remains a somewhat dull character despite that focus. Perhaps he's too open-faced to seem complex. Perhaps his backstory is too simple - growing up and leaving home is a common enough experience. Whatever the case may be, he's still making speeches and telling tales, but he's not a very interesting orator. In the story's climax, he speaks up and starts walking around the helm despite the fact that the ship is being fired at. "Screw evasive maneuvers, I'm really into what I'm saying here."

And I'm not recommending the episode for the particular story being told, since we've seen it many times before, both in Trek and out. A leader is a "blind fool" who won't hear reason until the last minute (unless HIS second-in-command takes over). It's the usual psycho-drama in that sense. However, there's a lot to recommend in the theme at play in Fortunate Son. This is clearly the end of a way of life. Enterprise and future Warp 5+ ships will replace the old Warp 1.8 cargo runs, and with them, the idea of a wild frontier where you make your own law. No one need be born and raised on a dangerous spacelane when harbors are only days or week away. We can understand why Starfleet would be resented as interference, at least at first.

Up against the Boomers are Nausicaans, making their first chronological appearance. I'm slightly torn about it. On the one hand, it's nice to see them (they were already associated with the "past" by first showing up in Picard's early career), and would have made cool recurring enemies for Enterprise. Pirates would have made good foes in the early frontier period of Trek (too soon for Orions though?), and the best-known species shouldn't really be in play much at this point. Alas, there was only one other appearance. On the other hand, I don't like the new look. The more expressive make-up, more eloquent performances and generic goon jackets are far less interesting than the original stuff. Makes it seem like the culture actually REGRESSED between Enterprise and TNG.

Finally, let me commend the special effects sequences. The Nausicaan asteroid base is really cool. Playing football in low-G seems like something Boomers would do. The jettison of the cargo pod with our heroes inside is a dramatic bit of action. The cargo vessel has this odd crayfish-like appearance, but over all, I think it works.

LESSON: Archer REALLY needs to keep a tighter com line.

REWATCHABILITY - High Medium: Sure, I'm not keen on Mayweather or the basic plot, but Fortunate Son marks a meaningful point in Star Trek's timeline, and it looks pretty good.