Episode Review - Dear Doctor
Reviewed by Andy Taylor

Synopsis

The crew encounter two species coexisting on the same planet, and one is dying of an illness that developed over millennia. However, ethical dilemmas soon make a mission of aid something much more controversial.

As Phlox enters sickbay to commence his routine of feeding his strange array of animals, Sato hands him the latest letter from his human friend who is also a doctor, based on Denobula – Phlox writes to him to try and make him feel as comfortable as he made Phlox feel when he was first based on Earth. He therefore begins to respond to it immediately – he tells of how his work on Enterprise tends to be fairly routine, in that he only ever treats for minor bumps and scrapes; in particular he treats a crewmember for first-degree burns in Engineering. He also says how he feels that he thinks that the predominantly human crew is finally coming round to accepting an alien as their doctor, though an incident with Reed shrugging him off in the mess hall highlights how social interactions can be difficult. However, despite this, he says that after at first not wanting to stay onboard the Enterprise for long, his observations of humans in general are interesting enough to keep him happy. One theme he also begins to pick upon is that of human compassion – especially Archer’s love and affection for Porthos, which shines through after the captain has been feeding him cheese again, which results in a telling-off from Phlox.

Later, Phlox sits in the Enterprise’s cinema with Crewman Cutler. He says that he finds everything fascinating, and she comments that the film is a classic – he won’t be disappointed. However, he was referring to the heightened sense of emotion in the room, represented by the tears rolling off Trip’s face. Again in his letter, Phlox comments that even fiction has the ability to bring emotion out of a human. He is also noticing how Cutler is beginning to show signs of affection for him – when he walks her to her quarters, she apologises for brushing against him, as Denobulans don’t like being touched. However, he says that he is exploring other cultures and doesn’t mind – as a result, she kisses him on the cheek.

Meanwhile, Enterprise encounters a ship containing two faint bio-signs. Phlox is able to revive them, and after the Universal Translator has some problems translating what one of the men is saying, he eventually asks Archer if his ship is warp capable. Archer is confused, therefore he carries on: 12 million of his people have died in the last year of an illness that Phlox manages to detect. They cannot find a cure for it, and need more advanced technology – technology of those cultures that have warp technology – to help. So far, they have contacted species such as the Neglexca and Ferengi. Archer asks T’Pol about whether they should offer assistance, to which she replies that as the species has already been in contact with warp civilisations, it should be alright.

Phlox continues with his letter – he comments again on how human compassion was the element that brought these two aliens to the Enterprise, and thus the problem of the illness to the crew. He mentions how he was once responsible for fifty patients due to a mining accident on Metallus – now he has the well-being of over fifty million people to consider. Later, he is helping Sato to develop her Denobulan language in the mess hall, during which she asks whether the two are dating yet. He answers that he is confused and asks for advice, to which Sato comments that they make a cute couple.

Again in his letter, Phlox is fascinated with the human desire to help others – after all, Archer has committed all of the ship’s resources to a species he only just met. After they reach the aliens’ (Valarkians’) planet, they discover that the illness is an epidemic – one in three people are affected. The antibody that the Valarkians have developed always mutates, and as soon as it enters the immune system there is nothing that they can do to save the patient. Phlox is able to give them something to sooth the pains created by the illness for the time being. Meanwhile Sato talks to one of the Valarkian doctors, only to find that the Universal Translator isn’t working. However, she soon finds out that he speaks a different language, and that is because he is another species – Menk. The Menk and Valarkians both live on the same planet, though the Menk are less advanced. The two are physically incompatible, meaning that the Menk are not infected with the illness.

Phlox returns to his letter, and says he is worried about Archer building up the hopes of the Valarkians – he is not sure that he can develop a cure as the epidemic may be too out-of-hand. In sickbay, Cutler, who will be accompanying him to the surface to analyse the Menk, is aiding him. However, her affection for him is beginning to confuse him, so he therefore consults T’Pol whilst he is giving her some dental treatment. She tells him that humans lack the maturity needed for interspecies relationships, and says that the woman interested in Phlox may only be using him for her own satisfaction, at the expense of his feelings. Phlox turns back to his letter again, saying how T’Pol has a pragmatic view of life, and perhaps lacks the instinct that human emotion evokes.

Later, Archer asks Phlox how his cure is developing. So far, he has developed a treatment for some aspects of the illness. Unfortunately, however, the illness is neither viral nor bacterial – the proteins that bind in chromosomes are deteriorating. It is something that has been developing for a thousand years at least, though throughout the last three generations it has advanced more considerably. According to Phlox’s predictions, the Valarkians will be extinct in less than two centuries. He does say that looking at the physiology of the Menk may help.

Phlox again reverts back to his letter – he says that he never knew that becoming a doctor would take him to different worlds and species. He now has the unique chance of analysing two different humanoid species from the same planet – in any normal case, one species would have driven the other to extinction, yet here the two peacefully coexist. Phlox then begins to perform molecular bio-scans on the Menk. When the Menk doctor from earlier then offers the away team some food, he does so by actually saying the word "food," despite not being taught anything - this in turn fascinates Phlox. He, Sato and Cutler learn that the Menk’s ground is not good enough for growing crops – in fact the Valarkians don’t allow them to live where the soil is good. They provide the Menk with everything they need. Phlox returns to his letter – whilst the Menk think that they are treated well, the humans believe that the Valarkians are simply exploiting them.

At the end of the scanning session, Phlox finds the Menk doctor grouping samples together by family, and has cross-referenced the bloodlines and marriage by interpreting the colour codes correctly. Therefore he again comments in his letter, saying how the Menk may appear unsophisticated (even by human standards), but they show a lot of potential.

Cutler approaches Phlox and asks if it’s true that he doesn’t see a problem with the Menk being taken advantage of by the Valarkians. He says again that symbiotic relationships would normally result in one of the two species in question being driven to extinction by the other. He also says that exploitation is the way of life for these two species, yet still Cutler believes it to be wrong. Therefore the Doctor offers a different analogy, and asks Cutler whether she is married. She says no, to which he responds that he is married thrice, with each of his wives having two husbands each, other than him, which is considered completely acceptable on Denobula. She asks what the point is – Phlox asks if he has interpreted correctly that she has romantic feelings for him, to which she says she has, but still doesn’t see the point. He then says that she needs to know that he is different because it seems to matter that the Menk and the Valarkians have a different culture than that of humans. However, Cutler tells him that as far as she is concerned, she isn’t bothered about becoming wife number four; she just wants to be friends. As for romance, they can just see how things develop.

Archer visits the Valarkian man who originally contacted the Enterprise, who thanks him for returning him to his planet before it was too late. He also says that it took a year to get to the location that the Enterprise found him at – he then drops the bombshell that his species needs warp capability to help them meet new cultures to develop a cure.

Back on the Enterprise, T’Pol informs Archer that they have been hailed 29 times in the past hour, and two ships approached them, believing that they had found a cure. He tells T’Pol that he has been asked if the Valarkians can have their warp technology, though he knows the reaction he will receive. He therefore suggests that they could stay and help. T’Pol states bluntly that the Vulcans stopped to help Earth ninety years ago, yet today they are still here. Archer finally begins to realise how the Vulcans felt when they first began to help.

Phlox has some trouble sleeping, and meets up with Archer who is having the same problem. Phlox actually requires little rest – Denobulans have a six-day hibernation period during the winter. Archer asks if he has a cure yet, to which Phlox replies that the research has been challenging. Even if he did find a cure though, he doubts whether it will be ethical to use it. When Archer asks why, he says that the illness has developed through thousands of years of evolution, which he would be interfering with. Archer argues that as a doctor, he interferes every time when he stops an illness, but Phlox says that he is forgetting about the Menk. There is evidence of them developing motor, mental and language skills to a better extent than the Valarkians. It may take millennia, but the Menk could become the dominant species of the planet. Archer is angry that the point has been raised, but Phlox asks what would have happened had the Neanderthals had help from an advanced alien culture? Archer says that Phlox is talking something that only might happen thousands of years in the future. Phlox says that it appears that compassion is guiding Archer’s decisions, to which he agrees angrily and asks for a cure. Phlox already has one.

Phlox returns to his letter – he is in conflict with his captain for the first time, though still has respect for him. He hopes that Archer can look past his sympathy for the aliens. When Archer next speaks to him, he has decided to go against his principles and accept Phlox’s argument. He also says that some day his people will come up with a doctrine that will tell people what to do and what not to do in space. But until someone writes it, every day he will have to remind himself that they did not come out to play God.

On the planet, Archer tells the Valarkians that they couldn’t find a cure, but gives them something that should ease the pain for a decade or so. In that time, he says, anything could happen. He also refuses to give them warp technology; the Valarkians thank him for his help anyway.

Phlox returns to his letter one final time before transmission – he says that if he hadn’t have trusted Archer, he would have been as bad as those Vulcan diplomats that held humans back for so long, and as a result has a newfound respect for him. When he gives the letter for Sato to transmit, she tells him to get out of sickbay – the last few days have left him worn out. He therefore contacts Cutler and asks to go to the mess hall for a snack. She accepts, and Phlox leaves his sickbay, wishing his animals a good night.

Summary
Did anyone notice how the end of the episode (saying bye to all the animals and turning off the lights in sickbay) reflected the start almost exactly (especially with Sato’s appearance in both)? That was really good to see – both that this was all something that fits into the routine that Phlox first spoke of at the start of his letter, as well as that we were back where we started, give or take a few details (such as Phlox inviting Cutler for a snack, or the opposite happening at the end than at the start.) It showed how next week things will be back to normal, but the characters have learned something about themselves, which I thought was great…

Well anyway, sorry about the long synopsis guys, but this really is an episode that can’t be missed – I loved it! There is so much that happened and it could be debated that this could easily still be in an Enterprise episode top-ten list by the time the series finishes! What was great about the episode as well was that they chose to look at an undeveloped character, and certainly personally the result has pushed Phlox into being my favourite character. But rather than babble on about how good it was, I’ll go over the reasons why I loved it so much.

First of all, I have to note the structure of the episode because it is so in-your-face most of the time – Phlox spends the episode giving commentary on events as he is writing a letter to his doctor friend back on his home planet. This is interesting enough – as the synopsis shows, he talks about some interesting things. In my review on ‘Fortunate Son,’ I think I made the unfair comment on how Phlox wasn’t really a Spock/Data/Odo/Seven/Doctor/T’Pol-type character – well I completely take it back. His observations on humans were compelling to listen to, and especially funny was the cinema sequence and Trip was actually crying at ‘For Whom The Bell Tolls!’ The fact that he hasn’t left Enterprise yet because of his interest in humans, despite previously wanting to (as he mentions this episode) shows his fascination with humans, again reflected on in this episode several times. His look at human compassion was great – ranging from the light-hearted, again when at the cinema and when Archer is concerned for poor cheese-stuffed Porthos; right up to the serious when in the heat of the argument with Archer he told him that it was his compassion that was directing his feelings.

And that certainly wasn’t the only thing going on. This was the first episode since ‘Strange New World’ where Crewman Cutler appeared (remember her? The really, really, really nice person? ), and here we see that she has romantic feelings blossoming for Phlox (I completely agree with Hoshi on this one – they really would make a cute couple! ), which I feel are likely to be returned. Phlox also continued his strange ‘we’re the only aliens on Enterprise’ relationship with T’Pol, which (and I found this quite amusing) was looked at over some dental surgery. T’Pol’s unease at having something done was brilliant, as well as her trying to respond with her mouth wide open! She may be incredibly annoying and Vulcan-like, but she sure finds time to be just a little bit goofy. Phlox’s relationship with the captain also took a positive beating – their ethical conflict at the end over evolution was well done, and was perhaps the first time the Prime Directive was ever adhered to on Star Trek – ironically on a prequel show where the Prime Directive does not yet exist!

So the humour was good, relationships developed were fun to look at – everyone knows I’m edging around the big debate, and wow this is what gives the episode its punch – Phlox’s refusal of wanting to save a species because 1) of the development of the other species on the planet, and 2) the whole argument on evolution (which of course contributed towards number one.) Well, a good old Star Trek episode had to pop out of the cracks somewhere.

While I’m here, let’s look at Phlox’s choices (and in fact Archer’s as well – the episode wouldn’t have played out the way it did if he didn’t say no as well.) Firstly, Phlox was completely adamant that he was right – Archer raised a pivotal point in that Phlox was discussing something that only might happen a few thousand years down the line. Why should Phlox be so sure that his theory would play out? Like Archer said at the end, a decade is a fair amount of time, and anything could happen. Secondly, how could Phlox and Archer allow a race to become extinct? Ignoring everything about evolution (which is only a theory, as Phlox pointed out somewhere amidst the controversy), Archer rejected an appeal for help, which even T’Pol allowed as acceptable due to the previous contact with the Neglexca and Ferengi (great namedropping, by the way – watch out for ‘Acquisition’ ). Surely a doctor would jump at the chance to save his patient? Thinking about the other Star Trek series, each of the doctors in the respective series would have done anything within their power to save them.

Of course, you just as easily argue against any of the above points. But if everything seems so negative, then why is this a good episode? Because of the above! These characters don’t have a Prime Directive, and are the first people who are really ‘out there.’ They are going to make mistakes; they are going to get into really sticky situations. What this whole ethical debate did, including the stuff about developed relationships and humour, was make everything seem much more realistic, and was incredibly compelling as a result - I should know, I’ve seen the episode four times already now!

The episode had a lot of depth – look at the arguments raised about the decisions decided, and all of the other aspects to it, including the relationships. Perhaps it’s a good development to see the same writers of ‘Breaking the Ice,’ full of B, C and even D-plots come up with something as amazing as this, even with a B-plot (Phlox and Cutler’s relationship.) OK, with 'Breaking the Ice' the writers obviously had something complex to play with, which deserves credit (even though I still believe that the episode didn't turn out that well.)

As well as that, Archer’s own troubles with warp technology and whether it should be given out like free leaflets in the street tracked well with Phlox’s later problems. In fact the whole episode was done so well I was on Archer and Phlox’s side by the end, even if some of the aspects of their decisions were wrong. I loved the episode – I couldn’t find anything wrong with it, and is something the writers should be very proud of producing so early in the series’ life.



Final Opinion
Fantastic

Rating: 10/10