the delphic expanse

No... they definitely don't really have a friendship going on, but I would love to hear from others about the adversarial relationship between Malcolm Reed and Major Hayes. I liked Hayes (which definitely stemmed from an appreciation of Stephen Culp) and I always thought that as Hayes was portrayed, that most of the time Malcolm was just seeing things that weren't there. I don't see that Hayes ever really wanted to take over security as Malcolm suggested over and over again. Please understand that I really do like Malcolm, but in this specific instance - I thought he was really wrong about Hayes.

Any thoughts?

Oh, I definitely think that Malcolm jealousy was one-sided. I think Malcolm probably seethed a lot about Hayes, and Hayes probably didn't spare much thought for Malcolm. That said, I think Malcolm was probably understandably annoyed when the MACOs came along to perform functions that had been previously performed by his team. I think there was likely a very clear delineation of rules - the MACOs were space marines. Their job was to fight the war. Malcolm's people were supposed to protect the ship. The problem was that when the war came to the ship, which is did, there was overlap.

Nobody likes a noob coming along and getting in their turf. Trust me, I know. There's a huge turf war going on at my job.

Hayes's death was unfortunate, because seeing a working friendship between him and Malcolm, which their was hints about, would have been interesting.

Ditto!

I appreciated how that working relationship was portrayed because I've seen this happen so many, many times in real life in the office, (especially when the suits on high don't clearly mark the delineation line between departments.) Though the chain-of-command would have been clear here, I think I can understand where Malcolm professional paranoia was coming from. He seems the type to be overly concerned that his supervisor (or his boss's bosses) thinks he's not doing a good job if help is brought in and I suspect he'd be worried that he's not good enough for his job if he admired Hayes competence and skill as a MACO and leader.

I really liked both characters and was sad to see when they killed off Hayes. Both are good guys trying to do their jobs well and both have a very strong sense of duty. They're more alike than different. There are differences though, and in my opinion it's that Malcolm has a touch more of a rebellious streak than Hayes, balanced by some insecurity. The former is what led Malcolm to go to Starfleet rather than the Royal Navy, and possibly led him into the Section as well. The latter comes out here (and I think shows up a little in Minefield as well) in this working relationship very strongly. It's the same for Hayes - he's a good solider but not the kind of person to question orders and, though confident and a good leader, perhaps not as creative and adaptable as Malcolm.

As far as friendship goes, I think those two might have become good friends if Hayes hadn't been killed in action. At any rate, I suspect a Malcolm had a higher opinion of Hayes posthumously than he did when they were attempting to work together.

I loved Hayes and I was sad when he was killed in action. If my memory served me right, there was a great scene between Hayes and Malcolm when Hayes was in sickbay, near his death. After they settled things between them in Harbinger, I would have loved to see more interaction between Hayes and Malcolm. They would have made good friends in the end.

When I watch the Reed/Hayes episodes, I get the distinct impression that the communication ball was dropped somewhere along the line. Since Archer is the captain/manager/suit, a lot of the blame falls on him.

Malcolm's sense of self or self-worth is intimately connected to his job, probably more so than is healthy, but he is who he is, and by this time Archer should know that.

It seems to me that Archer would/should have discussed bringing the MACOs aboard with his tactical officer. I get the sense, though, that perhaps he didn't. If he had sat down with Malcolm and said something along the lines of, "Malcolm, I think we're headed into big trouble. You want more power for something, then I'll tell Trip to expedite. I'm bringing a detachment of MACOs aboard, not because I'm disappointed in you or your team's performance but because I want more power, more boots on the ground, when we get where we're going. They will be reporting to you." I don't think that would have been a hard sell.

I'm not sure he even had a conversation with Hayes and Malcolm after the fact. He needed to make sure they both understood what his expectations were and what the line of command was, but they seemed kind of adrift. That vacuum lets the usual interservice rivalries get out of hand and exacerbates the question of divided command. The only time I can think of where divided command worked well was Lewis and Clark.

I think in this instance Archer really needed to be specific with Malcolm because he tends to send him mixed messages. One minute he's out on the hull saving his rear and the next minute he ignores his professional recommendations on matters of security. Is it really surprising that Malcolm wonders where he stands?

Another problem is that because Trip is so deep in his own grief over the loss of his sister, he can't run interference for Malcolm as he might have otherwise. He isn't inclined to clue Hayes in on how Malcolm is, nor is he inclined to pass on to Archer that things seemed a little tense in the armoury today when he was in there fixing something and maybe the cap'n might want to check things out. It was an unfortunate situation all around because so much of it could have been avoided with better communication.

Mareel, did you deal with this specific issue in any of your Archer/Reed drabbles? I don't remember seeing it, but you have a huge body of work and I may have missed it.

These are great insights that I never thought of!

Here's another. When I was putting together the last episode of S5 I started to wonder about what would haunt Malcolm?! Then I thought about the animosity between Malcolm and Hayes? Why was it there from the very beginning? For me, Malcolm had nothing to base his judgements on. So, I started to think... what if, in Malcolm's days of working for Section 31, he and Hayes had worked together on an assignment that went south? What if Hayes had made a decision which in turn led to needless death? It's just a hypothetical, and I'm still working it through, but it bares thinking about.

Whether it fits with canon or not, Pauline, that could be one heck of a story. I'd read it, and I bet Mr. Smith would, too.

You know, I think Malcolm mentions a couple of times that he's been around people like Hayes all his life. I wonder if he sees in Hayes some of the attributes that he doesn't particularly care for in his dad or if Hayes reminds him of some of his dad's friends that he didn't particularly care for.

paulinem wrote:So, I started to think... what if, in Malcolm's days of working for Section 31, he and Hayes had worked together on an assignment that went south? What if Hayes had made a decision which in turn led to needless death? It's just a hypothetical, and I'm still working it through, but it bares thinking about.

That's a great idea. There's nothing (that I can remember) in the show to indicate that Hayes and Malcolm didn't know each other - at least in passing - before Hayes appointment to Enterprise. They could have run across each other before and had a clash of personality and style from the get go.

Glory1863 wrote:Whether it fits with canon or not, Pauline, that could be one heck of a story. I'd read it, and I bet Mr. Smith would, too.

Hmm... It'll be a ways off yet, but at least I can think on it!

EntAllat wrote:That's a great idea. There's nothing (that I can remember) in the show to indicate that Hayes and Malcolm didn't know each other - at least in passing - before Hayes appointment to Enterprise. They could have run across each other before and had a clash of personality and style from the get go.

That's why I thought of it. We never saw Hayes and Malcolm introduced, so that leaves it right open!

To further this thought, pauline....I could see how Reed as knowledge from his section 31 days about Hayes, along the lines of an operation going south, that maybe Hayes is not aware Reed knows.

This would explain Reed's animosity and Hayes' ambiguity, along the likes of what you state.