(2x18) The Crossing: Body Snatching Wisps

[Honeybee]

Talk about The Crossing here -

[EntAllat]

I do like this episode, but I have to admit that the dialog for the alien wisps was just this side of cheesy for me. Luckily there's lot of other stuff that make this one enjoyable, starting with a decent few lines and actions for a favorite minor character: Rostov!

Blalock does some of the best stuff here when she does some subtle shifts in her face while T'Pol is taken by one of the wisps. You can SEE the Vulcan mentally standing her ground and striking back to gather information; it's a very Spock-like-mind-meld moment without going overboard. And then she shifts back to her usual, but now slightly exhausted, countenance. It was well done, imho.

One observation that was new for me in this viewing -- there are a lot of parallels with events and behaviors from the MU episodes. Malcolm's wisp gives him a creepy, dangerous and slightly insane personality and even body language similar to Major Reed. Hoshi too! There's similar chemistry between Archer and Hoshi as in the MU. There's even a similar scene, since Trip and Phlox physically fight over Phlox's attempts to do something to the ship.

Travis got a few good moments in this one too, from getting to use another part of the helm (lol) to stuff that had nothing to do with flying the ship and even some leadership stuff.

[Kelly]

I enjoy this episode

I will add more later as I have seen this recently due to repeats on TV. Thank you Sky Atlantic!!

I have to say this but I am so annoyed that if there was something that involves a woman being a sexual object, it was always, always T'Pol! Wisp!Reed became obsessed with T'Pol, the ferengi in Acquisition whose name escapes me was obsessed with her and her alone. What about our poor Hoshi? I know she had that thing in Exile with the telepath but early on it was always T'Pol.

Did we hear Malcolm and Trip discussing Hoshi's bum in Shuttlepod One? NO!!!

Okay mini rant over.

[Hummingbird2]

I've noticed that too, Kelly. 'Exile' may be the only exception to this.

Hoshi is a very lovely woman, so it is a bit strange!

[Honeybee]

I think they finally made up for lost time with the Mirror Episodes, where the "sexy" one was Hoshi - and T'Pol, while vamping it up, was not the ship's sex kitten.

I did think the actors probably had fun playing something other than their normal characters. LP did do sinister very well. And DK played his wisp as downright evil.

There was definitely an Invasion of the Body snatchers homage, that i kind of forgot about but was cool.

[Section69]

I wonder if there were any other trapped alien consciousnesses on that ship? It seemed to me like these wisps had done this before, though I couldn't really tell you why that thought occurred to me. Maybe because they had a common vocabulary for "the crossing", etc.? They knew how to sneak up on Enterprise, over take her and disable her pretty quickly and they were planning to go in search of other vessels when 82 of them had left for Enterprise. It stands to reason there might have been a few floating Tellarite or Andorian or other alien consciousnesses on that ship already. Would they have experienced fantasies or past events in the same way?

I was also intrigued by the fact that the wisps didn't appear to have any gender. Reed's wisp was absolutely fascinated with the concept.

[Honeybee]

Oh, this is probably a subject for the neutral zone, but I totally think the lack of gender could have been a way of exploring attraction in different ways - I mean, imagine if Reed's wisp had fixated on T'Pol and/or Mayweather - simply because the wisp didn't understand the difference (and/or have the same hangups as humans). Or, they could have just been fascinated by the fact that the women wear makeup, and then men don't - and made some commentary on the arbitrary nature of gender cues.

I think it's a strong episode, but I think they could have pushed the envelop more with the concept.

[Glory1863]

I have to say this but I am so annoyed that if there was something that involves a woman being a sexual object, it was always, always T'Pol! What about our poor Hoshi?

For some reason, the first thought that came to mind was the question: Ginger or Mary Ann? And if you have no idea what I'm talking about, see Honeybee's excellent fic Sit Right Back and You'll Hear a Tale . . .

[Honeybee]

Oh, thanks for the shout out Glory!

I always thought that more men on the ship would crush on Hoshi than T'Pol, in a Ginger versus Mary Ann way - so I used it in that story! T'Pol maybe be sexy as hell, but I have to believe a lot of men would look to Hoshi as girlfriend material.

Although, I have to say I didn't see much of the Hoshi/Trip stuff I think they were playing with earlier in this season in this episode.

[Aquarius]

I'm not ready to discuss the ep yet, but I just wanted to add my voice to the Ginger/Mary Ann thing. If you ask most guys, sure, they'd want to sleep with Ginger, but she's just way too high maintenance for most guys. Mary Ann is pretty and down to earth, so while she didn't exude the sexuality that Ginger did, most guys find her more appealing.

I think it's pretty much the same for T'Pol and Hoshi. T'Pol, for all her beauty and Vulcan-ness is too high maintenance for most guys. Hoshi's the "real" girl that they actually want.

But rather than let it get me upset, I just kind of think of it like this: like light and dark or night and day or whatever, you can't really have one without the other. We don't have to view it in a manner that means one undermines the other.

Just my loose change.