(1x25) Two Days and Two Nights: Risa is always trouble

[Honeybee]

Well, Risa is always trouble unless you're Hoshi!

Discuss this episode here.

[creek_chub]

I can't say anything without first paying homage to Archer's arms and rear end. Seriously, just think about it for a few moments, it's a guaranteed pick-me-up during a long day!

Anyway, this was a great episode. I loved the insight gained by seeing how these characters planned to spend their time away from the starship. I imagine that when you're on board, even when you're off duty, you're still "on duty" in a sense.

Aside from Archer's, uh, assets, I mostly had eyes for Hoshi in this episode. I loved loved loved that against the setting of Risa, which seemed to hark back so much to TOS with the set dressing and hairstyles, we were able to see a female communications officer actually come across as someone with an interest in languages, rather than a glorified phone operator. Don't get me wrong, I love Uhura...but I hate how under-utilized she was. Not only that, but we have this same female officer having a one night stand with absolutely no problems. No guilt, no drama queen angst, nothing. Take THAT TOS!

Finally, Phlox cracked me up. "I don't care what it tastes like."

[Honeybee]

First of all, I know it doesn't make for an exciting plot, but how wonderful that a young, single woman can meet a handsome guy on vacation and have a no strings fling. And it's portrayed as awesome! And she's not portrayed as a slut who needs to suffer. He's not a villain with a secret agenda. They are just two people who like each other and take advantage of that.

And all the guys have a miserable time, except for Archer who I think enjoyed his adventure with the mystery woman even though he doesn't get laid.

And Trip and Malcolm - *sigh* - I actually think their behavior was out of character for both of them. But it was kind of funny.

And the scenes with Phlox, Liz and T'Pol? Priceless! Phlox was hilarious. And the way T'Pol and Liz work together is cute. I wouldn't mind seeing a story that explores that friendship. And it can't be said often enough what a loss it was to the show and the world when Kellie Waymire died so young.

[tish]

I agree with you, honeybee, Kellie was a wonder Cutler, and we suffered the loss of her effervescence when she was taken from us too soon. I adored Elizabeth Cutler (and later loved that Trip's sister is also Elizabeth)

That said, the only story I like in this episode is Hoshi's, for the reasons hb and creek mention. She is a strong woman, intellectually and culturally curious, friendly, and open to another's beautiful mind and spirit....and her Risan vacation is a perfect culmination of all those traits.

Trip and Malcolm are soooooo out of character here. I can only suppose that as new visitors to Risa, they see only the good and potential for fun fun fun, as depicted in the Vulcan database, and therefore were not keeping up their guard, needing that well deserved break from such diligence, and they just let go of their usual instinct. (haven't we all done that at one time or another, being less than aware of our surroundings since we think it is safe, and we do so need that break of concentration and protocaols....) I do love the blue underwear scene....rrrrroooooaaaaawwwwwrrrrrr!

Archer's story was too bland for me....I wonder if the writers and producers thought the Suliban storyline needed to be advanced, and used this ep to do so. Still, love Porthos being the alpha dog!

The Phlox scenes were amazing! I jumped with T'Pol and Cutler when he woke up!

This is my best assessment, in the brief time i have to impart.....I look forward to learning of other perspective...so I may glean more from this, one of my lesser liked eps.

[EntAllat]

Interesting! I guess I've got a different perspective here: I didn't think Trip and Malcolm were being out of character in this ep ... sort of.

Individually? Yeah, if each was on their own I doubt they would behave quite like that. Trip tends towards more honesty and down-to-earth and Malcolm wouldn't have let his guard down like that. And individually they would, and had, behaved differently around women.

But together? I can totally buy it. There are some friends with whom you just get a little nuts, and find yourself in situations where you should have known better, or behaved differently. And normally you would behave differently or know better, but for some reason you just feed off each other in a crazy way. I know a LOT of guys and more than a few women who are like this when they get together. There's one friend in particular that I'm like that with. No one else - just that one person.

That's kinda why I liked this episode so much, beyond its usual appeal to fans of Trip and Malcolm. In this season Archer and Trip's relationship is still very much intact but it's obvious that those two have a very different sort of friendship, centered around sports and work, shared interests and even a back-and-forth kind of mentoring. (Trip is Archer's sounding board and helps him think through stuff, Archer is a role-model for Trip.) But then there's also the growing friendship between Trip and Malcolm, and it seems completely different. It's the odd couple thing. One is outgoing, and the other is reserved. One is cautious and the other is hotheaded. One builds things and the other blows them up. They don't seem like they should be friends but they are. It makes sense to me that when they get together they could tend to some of the "what the hell were we thinking?" kind of behavior or "how do you always get me into these situations?"

I'm also going to offer up a huge DITTO on all the observations of Hoshi's shore leave. I wish the guys had been a little more ... memorable somehow. He was a little bland. But otherwise it was awesome to see her get the guy and a little no-strings attached romance.

[Brandyjane]

I thought Trip and Malcolm were out of character, but I think you've changed my mind, EntAllat. That's a great analysis.

Hoshi looked gorgeous in this episode! Not that she wasn't beautiful in every episode - I just had a little bit of a girl-crush on her in this one. There were several close-up shots of her face, and I have to say that Linda Park has great skin!

I'm not 100% sure, but I think I just saw the Tandaran woman (Keyla) in an episode of TNG a few nights ago. I really wanted to know more about her. I got the feeling that if the show hadn't gone in a completely different direction in season 3, she would have made at least one more appearance. Has anyone tackled her story in fan fiction?

The scene where Travis asks T'Pol whether she's ever been in an alien hospital, and she responds that she has - in San Fransisco - always intrigued me. I wonder what could have happened to T'Pol that would land her in a human hospital and not simply in the infirmary at the Vulcan compound.

One little thing that I thought was pretty funny was that I could easily identify nearly every alien plant in Jon's condo. In fact, I have most of them growing in my house or yard.

[Aquarius]

I'm in agreement with EntAllat here. Trip and Malcolm kind of remind me of sailors in those old World War II movies--the guys come into port and tell tall tales to impress the local girls and hopefully get a little lovin' before they ship out again. It's still early in their mission, so even though Archer indicated that dating is allowed on the ship in "Breaking the Ice," neither Malcolm nor Trip may be willing to push that boundary of getting involved with someone they work with, especially given A) their positions of authority, and B) they may not be ready for a long-term entanglement. I think the reality is, single guys in their situation are looking for only one thing: a hookup with a woman looking for the exact same thing. It would be understood by both parties that he's not going to call her tomorrow or next week or ever, so it really doesn't matter what Trip and Malcolm tell their dates, and I can see them having a little fun with that. They would probably also be operating on the premise that the women don't care if it's true or not since they're never going to see each other again, and are probably a little full of crap themselves. (Turns out this was true in spades.)

Consider also: Trip is recently single a la Natalie's "Dear Trip" letter. And we know from "Shuttlepod One" that there have been a *lot* of ladies in Malcolm's past. Not that this makes Malcolm a skank, but he's obviously not afraid to play the field, and there may have even been some encouragement from him that Trip should, too, given his unattached status.

As for letting their guard down, well...that happens when you drink. They weren't on duty, things seemed to be going really well with the ladies and it totally looked like they were going to get some, so the appearance of any threat probably appeared minimal at that point. Remember, this is their first experience in their big galactic neighborhood. They don't have much reason to suspect that these women are going to morph into two alien dudes because aside from the Suliban, it's outside their experience. Plus, as far as I know, I've only really heard of prostitutes rolling a john. I imagine it could happen with random chicks met at bars, but I don't think you hear about that so much.

Another thing Mr. Smith brought up in the chat: leaving Trip and Malcolm in their underwear. I mentioned that it was probably done because the humiliation factor would decrease the probability that the victims would report the crime in a timely manner, if at all. What I didn't mention is that the only reason they were even left with their underwear was because this was shown on prime time broadcast television. Most of the stories I've seen when prostitutes do this, they take everything. The guy is humiliated, he can't call the cops and make a police report because his wife (or whatever, if he has one) will find out, especially considering that prostitution was involved. (Even if he just said it was a date or random hookup that's bad enough.) The guy will more than likely call a buddy and have him bring clothes and money for the hotel bill (or wire money if he's far away) and just consider himself lucky to be alive and his secret intact. He'll cancel the credit cards and when he gets home to his wife he'll make up some kind of story about a mugger or a pickpocket to explain it all away.

In Trip and Malcolm's case, there's no wife at home to upset (unless you count T'Pol ), but there are probably "conduct unbecoming an officer" regs and sanctions to deal with, plus just the humiliation of EVERYBODY knowing what happened to you, and at the very least, a lecture from an irritated captain about the dangers of drinking too much while on leave and the possibility of future leave being jeopardized.

And one other thing to consider: this probably isn't the first time these chicks (alien dudes) have done this. They are probably just as good at what they do as Malcolm is at what he does. They do their thing by being very observant and saying all the right things. They are professionals at getting people to let their guard down. That's how con artists work. Even police and security professionals get fooled. Remember, Ann Rule was a police officer, and she had no idea that she was sitting next to a sociopathic serial killer when she and Ted Bundy worked a crisis hotline together. Even professionals can be fooled.

[Honeybee]

You make a lot of great points - and I do think that Trip and Malcolm were probably playing off each other - acting like sailors in port and whatnot. I can't put my finger on it - but it does still feel a little off. But maybe, it's because they are both playing to each other and this isn't behavior they normally engage in. At least that would explain away my reservations!

[Aquarius]

Another thing I thought about (migraine this morning--brain not engaging well) is that akin to the sailors in port thing--if you're single and on vacation, you don't necessarily behave the way you do when you're at home or at work. We haven't really seen Malcolm or Trip in that context before. I know that when I'm on vacation and free of the pressures and responsibilities of my usual existence, I tend to eat/drink more, try new things, and act a little crazier because I know I don't have a job to go to tomorrow morning or any of my usual obligations. I think most people "let their hair down" more than they usually do.

Same for Hoshi, probably. Again, we're given no indication that she's promiscuous or anything the rest of the time, but on vacation, she's perfectly willing to go with the flow and seize the day if she's having a good time with someone. I think the difference between her and Trip and Malcolm is that she didn't go down there looking for a hookup. Trip and Malcolm did, and maybe that's what's bothering people. Personally, I don't see it as a problem, for where they are in their lives at that point. Season 3 or 4? DEFINITELY a problem.

I also find it noteworthy that people are describing Trip and Malcolm as "out of character" here--when it's only Season One, and that's when a show establishes what "in character" is. Just an observation.

[Honeybee]

I have no problem with Trip and Malcolm hooking up with girls (or whatever) on Risa! That's why they went, so good for them. I think I'll I'm saying is the level of their obnoxiousness struck me as odd - and their juvenile way with one another and the alien bunnies. (That's what I call them, alien bunnies.) Malcolm, especially, given his track record of playing the field, I would expect to be more subtle. I see Malcolm using the soft spoken thing to great advantage. I'm not saying I don't buy Entallat's explanation but I guess I wanted to see their game be better. That's all! I see that they are probably performing for one another and just letting loose, so it's all good.