Phlox

We've never seen them before.

And Phlox alludes to, as Spock refers to it, the proclivative proclivities.

It's not quite that.

Multiplicative proclivities of the Tribbles.

I noticed that was actually, you know, we'll come to that scene, but that scene in the mess hall that could have been so static.

You actually, you did exactly that.

You come around Phlox to the back of, to Paul.

Yes, we switched sides.

typical for a Star Trek vessel to have some kind of irascible doctor.

I mean, Phlox is an exception.

So is Culber.

Culber is an exception.

And who this week has the number two position in the credits? Why, it's John Billingsley as Dr.

Phlox.

Yes.

What isn't there to say about our friend and colleague and a frequent convention and podcast guest that John probably hasn't already said about himself? Now, John was born in Pennsylvania and has an extensive theater background after getting his degree at Bennington College in Vermont.

While Hoshi debates staying on the ship, Archer and T'Pol debate the effects of turning around and leaving the alien ship without attempting to learn more.

That makes for the most awkward of dinner conversation for Trip, but Archer is determined and orders Enterprise to turn back around despite the possibility that the perpetrators will return.

Phlox determines that the dead aliens were being robbed of their triglobulin.

Trip gets their comms up and running to send a distress call while Hoshi makes a breakthrough studying their language.

Yeah.

And it's then, I think it's now that we learn that Travis knows that his father's been unwell and Scott offers the services of Dr. Phlox should that become necessary.

I thought that was a nice little touch.

It was a good scene.

Yeah.

And that was done very, very well.

So now we're in sickbay and we're carrying on with the B story where T'Pol is now trying to wriggle out... of going to movie night and Phlox gives her, you know, a hyper spray and says, you know, get on with it.

You're looking for a medical excuse.

Act Two Enterprise's crew settles in.

Dr. Phlox, a Denobulan doctor who had been treating Klang at Starfleet Medical, is manning sickbay at Archer's request.

Klang is being treated in sickbay when the Suluban board Enterprise and abduct him, despite Archer killing one of the attackers.

Act 3 Phlox discovers that the dead Suluban has been extensively genetically altered.

Sensor evidence and Hoshi's translation of Klang's words lead Archer to Rigel 10, where an away team consisting of Archer, T'Pol, Tucker, Hoshi, Reed, and Mayweather take a shuttle pod to the surface to investigate.

In super snazzy jackets, they encounter various exciting and confusing alien species in their search before the Suluban capture them.

Act 5.

T'Pol assumes command while Archer is unconscious, but first she and Tucker must rid themselves of the spore picked up on the surface in his sexy decon chamber.

And they kinda broke the recipe with her a little bit to the detriment of the show.

Um, and then I think the last character worth mentioning is Dr. Phlox, who, uh, is, is kinda like a lesser character, but he's definitely, you know, part of the show.

He's not even in Starfleet.

He's like an exchange doctor who showed up in the first episode to take care of a Klingon, and he's just so happy-go-lucky and cheerful.

And it's, it's funny because after having watched the entire show, the rest of the crew to me are just dudes.

Like, I don't even remember their names, you know, for the most part.

I remember Trip, I remember Phlox, I remember [laughs] Scott Bakula and T'Pol.

And the rest of 'em I'm just kinda like, "Yeah, yeah, all right.