Star Trek: John Billingsley's Favourite and Least Favourite Enterprise Episodes

Dr. Phlox, performed by John Billingsley on “Star Trek: Enterprise”, maybe the most effective characters within the franchise. Phlox was aboard the Enterprise as a part of a species trade program, and he was desirous to serve among the many people, tickled by their optimism and amused by their prudishness. He was a Denobulan, a species with its personal medical ethics (the affected person's will trumps an earth physician's dedication to do no hurt), which led to discussions of precept of excellent and evil. His species additionally intermarried in giant and sophisticated polycules the place every male took three wives and every feminine took three husbands. When requested if this sophisticated issues on his homeworld, Phlox smiled impishly and replied, “Sure.”

Phlox, nonetheless, was all the time optimistic and keen to elucidate cultural variations to curious human researchers. Phlox additionally practiced unusual, however scientifically confirmed, medical strategies, typically utilizing animal excretions and strange herbs to heal the crew of the Enterprise. He was like your laid-back hippie uncle from Venice, California.

Dr. Phlox is probably Billingsley's most seen performing function, though he has appeared on tv because the early '90s, taking part in supporting roles on reveals like “The X-Information,” Northern Publicity” and “NYPD Blue.” He was in all 13 episodes of the 2000 science fiction sequence “The Others” and, after “Enterprise”, he would have common roles in “The 9”, “True Blood”, “Intelligence” and “Stitchers”.

In 2010, Billingsley participated in a fan-led FAQ, hosted by StarTrek.com. He was requested what his favourite and least favourite episodes of “Enterprise” have been – i.e. doesn't starring Dr. Phlox – and the affable actor had some definitive solutions. Oddly sufficient, neither his favourite nor his least favourite have been significantly well-known or well-liked amongst Trekkies.

Billingsley was most likely biased when it got here to the Phlox episodes, however exterior of his personal character, he appeared to concentrate on the episodes centered on the Enterprise engineer. Charles “Trip” Tucker (Connor Trinneer). He describes his favourite this manner:

“I might say the one the place we cloned Journey. I believed that was the perfect episode for a lot of causes. Everybody within the solid was concerned and everybody had a deep emotional line. In some episodes, in n it doesn’t matter what sequence, actors are used to convey data or they’re pushed apart This episode I believed was the perfect of our ensemble items and it did what “Star Trek” does finest, which is. that’s to say, coping with a present challenge which has a sure sociological which means in a context that brings into play humanist values.

The episode Billingsley is referring to known as “Similitude” (November 19, 2003) and has an intriguing premise. Journey is injured in an explosion and falls right into a coma. Dr. Phlox, having no appropriate organ donors on board, proposes to domesticate a mimetic clone of Journey, with a lifespan of two weeks, with the goal of harvesting his organs for transplantation. Nevertheless, in the course of the clone's temporary life, full consciousness and even some reminiscences of Journey develop. He additionally learns of a process that might prolong his life past two weeks… and asks to be allowed to reside.

The clone finally chooses to sacrifice himself to save lots of Journey's life, as he begins to recollect Journey's mission and understands that he and Journey are primarily one and the identical. The episode is a superb moral conundrum, a miniature morality play that’s the inventory in commerce of “Star Trek.”

When requested what he preferred least, Billingsley additionally had a solution. He replied:

“I feel it was the episode with Padma Lakshmi. It wasn't her fault, however she was taking part in an alien princess. She and Journey have been working from whoever was chasing her. I don't bear in mind all the small print. I believed it was an unlucky episode throughout. It simply didn't work. Once more, it's not the actors' fault. And it was at a clumsy time in our second season. , however an viewers sufficient and after that episode, our numbers dropped and we by no means obtained the viewers again once more.”

The episode in query was known as “Treasured Cargo” (December 11, 2002), and Billingsley is correct: it's not excellent. Within the episode, the Enterprise helps an alien diplomat transport a stasis pod containing a lady named Kaitaama (Lakshmi). She is in stasis to save lots of assets throughout prolonged flights in deep area. Nevertheless, when the module malfunctions and Journey frees her, she reveals that she is a kidnapped princess and that her guardians truly intend to carry her for ransom. The couple ultimately escape in an escape pod and briefly go on the run.

As Billingsley identified, “Enterprise” was by no means a scores boon, and episodes like “Treasured Cargo,” he believes, are a giant motive why. The story wasn't very fascinating and will have occurred in any of the “Star Trek” reveals that got here earlier than it (and that's sort of what occurred in the “Star Trek: The Next Generation” episode “The Perfect Mate”).

One would assume that if he had been allowed to decide on episodes of Phlox, Billingsley would have leaned in that path.