Chosen Realm

Rating: *1/2

Written By: Manny Coto

Director:  Roxann Dawson

al Qaeda meets “Let That Be Your Last Battlefield,” in essence.

And as such, it looks like Osama bin Laden, if he still draws breath, has one more reason to hate America.

A group of religious terrorists observes a shuttlepod piloted by Tucker and Mayweather leave the cloaking field of a Delphic sphere. Their leader, D'Jamat (Conor O’Farrell) evidently REALLY doesn’t like their visit to the sphere, and gives the go-ahead for something, which tells us that they’re “up to no good.” [tm]

They lie in wait for the Enterprise by posing as a ship in distress, which they know the Starfleeters won’t be able to resist stopping to lend a hand. You’d think that Archer, after the past two and a half years, would know better, but when it is determined that the ship’s crew is unarmed, he gives the go-ahead to assist them.

Stupid Archer.

We get the ambush setup for a segment, where we learn that D’Jamat’s group is from a planet called Triannon and that their religion centers on the spheres, which they venerate as creations of “the Makers,” and the Delphic Expanse as their “chosen realm.” We also see the predictable seeds of future rebellion within the bad guy’s group when a Triannonese woman who is married to another terrorist who is having private doubts about his leader (Yarrick, played by Vince Grant) and their “quest” quietly visits Phlox regarding her pregnancy.

Yarrick finally works up the nerve to express his doubts to D’Jamat, only to be chewed out for his “lack of faith.”

Then we see why Yarrick had doubts when D’Jamat announces to Archer that he’s stationed six of his people at strategic points throughout the ship who will blow themselves up with internal bioexplosives if he doesn’t surrender the Enterprise. And as a demonstration one of them does so (by sticking something in his forearm and twisting it) and blows a hole right through the hull (the repair of which will doubtless take place offscreen and without explanation). With no other choice (for the time being, of course), Archer complies.

Now we get “the rest of the (back)story.” Seems that that “heretics” on Triannon are “undermining” the way of lives of “the faithful,” and D’Jamat is taking the Enterprise and its weapons there to “bring peace” by obliterating them. How and why are the “heretics”…well, “heretical”? D’Jamat doesn’t say. Could D’Jamat be at least somewhat justified in taking such desperate measures – or, in other words, might the “heretics” really be the true villains? Unknown. Such nuance would have been appreciated, if only to keep me awake, rather than letting the surface appearance of their actions dictate their moral standing. As it was, it made D’Jamat’s refusal to even listen to what Archer was saying, even for the purposes of refuting it, profoundly irritating.

Yeah, I know, D’Jamat was supposed to be a zealot, and zealots aren’t supposed to be good listeners or make much sense. But they’re also not very interesting to watch, either.

Every one-dimensional villain sews the seeds of his own ultimate demise, so it comes as no surprise when D’Jamat also explains that the crew should be executed for entering a sphere, but because they put themselves at risk to save the Triannon, he will do Archer a huge favor and only off one crewmember – and the Cap’n gets to pick who he wants to sacrifice. Oh, and in the meantime, he deletes the Enterprise's data on the spheres. I hope Trip makes regular backups.

Like any Starfleet captain worthy of his pips, Archer decides to sacrifice himself, a choice from which D’Jamat tries to dissuade him with damningly faint praise about the two leaders being “kindred spirits” stemming from the Triannonite’s review of Archer’s logs of the “Anomaly” incident where he threatened to space one of the Osaarian raiders – which was a nice bit of continuity, to which Archer could only weakly reply that his potential victim “wasn’t harmed.”

As a gesture of this twisted respect, D’Jamat allows Archer to select his method of execution. And the Cap’n makes it a double-inside joke by choosing the transporter, which he tells the Osama bin Triannon is a “molecular disassembler.” Of course, he’s simply beamed somewhere else on the ship, which makes him a free agent since D’Jamat thinks that he’s dead.

In quick succession, Jon arms himself, breaks out Lieutenant Reed and the MACOs (fat lot of good THEY’VE been this season), gives Phlox Triannonish bio scans to enable him to synthesize a counteragent to the bioexplosive, and convinces Yarrick to help him by sneaking onto the bridge and enabling Phlox to release the counteragent into the ship’s environmental system. Once that’s taken care of, the usual phaser-and-fisticuff melee ensues, Archer & company retake the ship, and the Triannon “heretic” ships with which D’Jamat had been conducting a lopsided running firefight obligingly back off once Archer assures them that he’s back in command.

Would have been interesting if the “heretics” had been as stubbornly intransigent as D’Jamat was, forcing Archer to have to disable or destroy them in order to save his ship and crew, but they’re no less one-dimensional than “the faithful” are – moreso, even, since we only get a brief glimpse of them. Although that one glimpse is long enough to completely trivialize the entire premise of this supposed Triannon conflict and functionally destroy “Chosen Realm” as an even passable installment of Trek.

I’ll let Michelle Erica Green sum it up:

“Despite obvious antecedents in previous Trek episodes from ‘Let That Be Your Last Battlefield’ (TOS) to ‘In the Hands of the Prophets’ (DS9), this episode had me intellectually engaged and emotionally involved until the revelation of the source of the religious war -- a debate over whether the universe was created in nine days or ten. Suddenly what had seemed to be a rather fair look at religious fanaticism tipped over into ugly, superficial parody, and I resented not only the shallowness of the real-world parallels but the stupidity of recycling a plot that had already been done better on several previous incarnations of the series.”

We’re supposed to buy that an entire civilization destroyed itself – the ending of “Chosen Realm,” where Archer departs by remarking to D’Jamat, "Your faith was going to bring peace? Here it is," is lifted almost verbatim from what Bele and Lokai find on Charon 115 years hence – over THIS?

Not only is this a profound insult to the intelligence of the viewer, but I can only conclude that it reflects a profound contempt on the part of the current Trek “brain”trust that sees ALL religious faith as extremist and psychopathic. Indeed, Karl Marx couldn’t have penned it any better himself.

About the only saving grace for “Realm” was that this little “revelation” came about three-quarters of the way through the hour, so that my unique combination of gagging incredulity and angry annoyance didn’t have far to go.

In the larger picture, this ep did nothing to advance the Xindi story arc, which has been getting stale ever since all the way back in “The Shipment” nearly three months ago. Which isn’t to say that EVERY show has to do so, but if they’re going to produce standalone stories, they really ought to be better than THIS.

So far as we know, the Enterprise leaves the stunned D’Jamat and the remains of his terrorist cell on the devastated surface of their planet. It would have been a fitting end, though, if there had been some time-marking, perhaps even some remorseful dialogue, followed by a parting torpedo from Archer zooming down out of the sky, blowing them all to Triannonoid hell.

Or maybe he’ll just rename the planet “Earth” and leak its coordinates to the Xindi instead.

Next week: It’s Jeffrey Combs’ Shran to the rescue once again – and not a moment too soon.