Star Trek: Enterprise — 2x05 — A Night in Sickbay

Aired 2002-10-16

SpaceOpera.com rating:1

Average reader rating:3.15

Synopsis

Archer spends a fretful night in sickbay with Porthos and Dr. Phlox.

Remarkable scenes

T'Pol revealing the reason for the Kreetassans taking offense... again.
Phlox: "Have you considered that your anger may encompass more than just Porthos and the Kreetassans?" Archer: "What?" Phlox: "How long has it been since you were intimate with a woman?" Archer: "What?" Phlox: "How long has it be--" Archer: "I heard you!"
Archer to Phlox: "From what you're telling me, the closest thing your people have to pets are furry little things that go well with onions!"
Archer discussing with Phlox his extended family.
This episode features another huge Phlox smile at the end.

Review

It was nice to see that Enterprise is still searching for spare parts to repair their minefield damage and it was nice to see Archer have to deal with his intolerance of other cultures. However, the problem with this episode is the sheer number of annoying scenes. They easily outnumber the good scenes. Some of these bad scenes include Phlox trimming his toenails and grooming his long tongue. That just wasn't necessary to see. The treadmill race between Archer and T'Pol. Why does Archer feel the need to engage in pissing contests with her so often? The bat scene with Phlox was just redundant. Yes, we got the point. Sleeping in sickbay with Phlox around creates distractions. Did we really need to see another one? Throughout the episode Archer ignored the Kreetassans, in favor of throwing his temper tantrums and ranting at his crew like a child. Archer dreaming of Porthos' death and of being intimate with T'Pol was in poor taste. The climax of absurdity came with Archer's "doing the breast I can" and "send me your lips" lines. Even the scene in which Archer finally apologizes to the Kreetassans was silly, though that one's not so bad compared to the rest. Ent: A Night in Sickbay has a few good scenes and quotes. And I did like the connection between this episode and Ent: Vox Sola, showing us the Kreetassans again. But the nonstop tastelessness in this episode ruins what little fun this episode had to offer. It's really not so bad if you like watching immaturity at its best, but you know what? This is Star Trek, not a teeny bopper film.

9 reader comments

Taken from your own FAQ's: "A rating of 0 means I think the episode is so bad that I have (usually, but not always) personally dropped it from Star Trek canon. Episodes rated zero often have incredible technical problems."
While you certainly can and will rate these episodes according to your own opinions, I have to disagree with you on this one. Yes, the episode is in very poor taste. Yes, it is a huge waste of time. But I don't think it is a zero. A zero to me is an episode that is so awful that it shouldn't even be considered canon. Something like VOY: Threshold.
This episode has some very good humor which should alone guarantee it a 1. There are no flagrant violations of canon, and while they have some sexual material, it isn't obscene in any way. Perhaps Enterprise is just trying to be more realistic as far as sexual tension goes. I rather like how open they are with it, as long as they don't have those awful decon scenes. TNG: The Naked Now was much more offensive and distasteful in my opinion, and it got a 4.
Given, this episode has too many things like the Phlox toenail scene to be considered a good episode, but it is far from a zero IMHO.
by Pete Miller | 01/08/2007 at 4:40 am

Here's a problem with this episode. There's no such thing as an "autoimmune system". Dogs -- and humans for that matter -- have immune systems and when the immune system attacks itself, an autoimmune reaction or disorder occurs. Having an autoimmune immune system implies that the body has evolved a system explicitly designed for destroying itself, which makes absolutely no sense. And even if for some strange reason the dog does have an autoimmune system, its "collapsing", as stated by Dr Phlox, would be a good thing. Besides which, I can't even begin to imagine how some foreign pathogen is supposed to cause the breakdown of this non-existent system. The writers would have been far better off to invent something completely within the realm of science fiction for the Dog to fall ill with, like Klingon rabies or something.
by Dave Edsons | 09/02/2007 at 5:55 pm

I agree with you, Eric; the episode was HORRIBLE! I couldn't stand it! In need of an actual science fiction plot, anyone? And like you, I have never felt a need to see Phlox trim his toenails.
by Abigail Chappell | 02/22/2009 at 7:40 pm

Pete, you're right. I've revised my rating accordingly. It's a shame it took me almost three years to finally see your point. But point conceded.
by Eric Newport | 10/09/2009 at 11:51 pm

I'm just now going through and doing a rewatch of all the series; it's interesting to see some of the comments that have come in since I last read these reviews.
I would be interested to know if you have changed any other of your ratings since you first did them. I have come to find that some episodes have aged well with me over time, while others (like this one) have only gotten worse in my mind. Cool to see that you adjusted this one to a 1, although I do agree with you that it is a very low "1".
So far in my rewatch, I have really become sensitive to the overt sexualization of T'Pol. Sometimes it is too much to bear. I am all for casting hot women on this show, but it cheapens the character quite a bit to objectify her the way they do.
by Pete | 07/27/2010 at 1:52 am

Yes, Pete. Since I adjusted the rating (and review) of this episode in response to your comments, I have taken the time to do an audit of other episodes rated 0 to make sure that they're not actually more deserving of a 1.
For example, as much as it pained me to do so, I also had to elevate DS9: Profit and Lace to a 1 for the same reason that this episode was elevated to a 1. I don't recall all the edits, but there were more than a few.
If you stick around over the next year or two, all the reviews on the site will be adjusted, starting with TOS. I'll be adding new, higher quality screenshots, bringing over the "filler quotient" system from my Farscape reviews, and doing more extensive analyses in the reviews.
I'll be averaging about one a day, so it may take a couple years. :)
by Eric Newport | 07/27/2010 at 3:34 am

Awesome!
by Alex Sallas | 08/02/2010 at 4:03 am

While I agree with most of your critiques of this episode, I tend to view it with the same lens I watch the obvious humor episodes, so I don't mind some of the more juvenile stuff. That said, the scene where Hoshi catches the bat is awful and the decontamination chamber as an excuse to get T'Pol in her lingerie and forcing sexual tension by having characters rub gel on each other is already tired.
The best thing about this episode is that Archer is wrong. It's inexcusably bad judgement to take Porthos on an away mission at all, especially this one, with the Kreetassians, who've proven to have a truly alien culture and are easily offended. He then proceeds to have a virtual nervous breakdown because Porthos gets sick. I'm a pet lover, but Porthos is a dog. Would Archer have lost this much sleep over a sick crewman? We've seen episodes in the past where a captain's personal feelings--revenge, rivalry, etc.--lead them to make bad decisions. But we've never really seen a captain throw a tantrum act like such a child before. This episode works for me because it exposes one of the series weaknesses, Captain Archer himself, and explores it.
I like Archer's informal style of command, but he's a goober, an even worse ambassador for humanity than that galactic douchebag James T. Kirk. He is one of the big disappointments about Enterprise to me thus far, but I might have to give the writers a little more credit than I have so far, at least when it comes to this character. Maybe he's supposed to come off like a rube.
by JRPoole | 08/01/2011 at 8:52 pm

I found Archer's attachment to the dog disturbing, but the episode was passable until about two thirds in…
by Hugo | 08/28/2017 at 9:04 pm