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3-06 Exile
Reviewed by Kevin Thomas Riley
Placed in another season, this Enterprise take on Beauty and the Beast would have been a mediocre outing. What saves Exile is the fact that is part of the bigger Xindi story arc. Take away that and there really isn't much worthwhile left. It still has this "been there, done that" feel (and not just Trek-wise), but there is an added scope here and in other average episodes of this season.
It is a pity that whenever the underused Hoshi character is actually put in the forefront of an episode, they turn out to be less satisfying (Vanishing Point immediately springs to mind). She could be a lot more interesting. After all, she has a very unique linguistic talent that is probably related to some latent telepathic abilities. At least that's what one can conclude after this episode. Unfortunately this isn't delved deeper upon either in Exile or later on.
Hoshi's uncanny ability to decipher new and strange languages can now be inferred as being part of some sort of extra-sensory perception (ESP). How can one otherwise explain why she only has to hear some alien speak for a short period in order to be able to make rudimentary translations? Or that she seems to be able to read some dead alien writings, like in that book she was given in Exile? That there are humans with ESP abilities was established way back in the second pilot of the original series, Where No Man Has Gone Before. Hoshi might be one of those, even if she doesn't realize it herself, or her old teachers or anyone else for that matter, except Tarquin, the exiled "beast", who mentions that she has "a unique mind". This may also help to explain how the universal translator and linguacode of later era Treks works. There wouldn't have been a possibility to construct such a device without the contributions made by people like Hoshi Sato.
It is too bad that these interesting questions largely remain unanswered. Of course one cannot expect them to be resolved within the confines of this episode, but for the series as a whole it would've been an interesting tale to tell. But I suspect that not even the writers and producers really thought this through to make these, in my mind, obvious connections.
Still, we do learn some things about Hoshi from Exile. She's a lonely person, a prodigy brought up with special tutors and with little interaction with others. She has never been really close with anyone except her grandfather. Thus she feels isolated and alone even when she's with others. As a side observation, this gives her some things in common with another loner on Enterprise, Malcolm Reed. That could've been a relationship they could've explored on the show, but didn't, which is a pity.
But I'm getting ahead of myself here. The episode is more about who Hoshi is as a person and about Tarquin, a long-lived alien who has been exiled due to the fear his homeworld had of his telepathy. He feels lonely and occasionally picks up "companions", who have all died, and now he wants Hoshi to be his next companion. He lures her there on the pretence that he can help the Enterprise find the Xindi homeworld if he only can analyse some Xindi artefacts to check for "imprints". His condition is that Hoshi remains in his gothic castle while he works.
This is where the episode begins to come apart. Captain Archer, and Hoshi herself for that matter, is far too trusting of this alien, especially after the creepy way he began to appear to Hoshi onboard the Enterprise. Add to that that he readily admits to have picked her brains so much that he practically knows her inside out. If I'd been Hoshi I wouldn't have touched him with a ten foot pole, let alone agree to stay alone for a while with the guy. And even if they saw the necessity of having her remain, they could at least have had a security attachment with her. I'm sure Malcolm Reed, who seemed quite concerned for her well-being in the beginning of the episode, would've been happy to oblige. If Tarquin had refused, then it would be obvious that he had ulterior motives for her to remain. It also doesn't wash that the Enterprise has to travel on to find another sphere. Sure, time is a factor, but it hasn't stopped them from making detours in the Expanse, with upcoming North Star being a prime example.
But the silliest thing is that even though Hoshi should really be creeped out, she for whatever reason decides to wear these skimpy mini-dresses while she's in Tarquin's fortress of solitude. As a red-blooded human male I will sure admit that Linda Park looked absolutely stunning in that attire, and that I'm willing to forgive some of the silliness because of that. But really, it makes no sense! It doesn't even track with her relationship with Tarquin. He hasn't hinted that he has any other interest in her except her mind. She hasn't shown any signs either. Quite the contrary, she's been rather cold to him. And speaking of cold, the low temperature alone in the castle should preclude her wearing those outfits. Sigh! I suppose the producers tried to appeal to the male teenage demographic again.
There are further logical holes in Tarquin's story. If he has managed to trick other companions before, why didn't he simply take their ships? For that matter, why doesn't he simply ask Archer if he can tag along the Enterprise for a while? In exchange he could always "read" the Xindi artefacts en route to wherever he wanted to go. And how did he run his gothic palace? What kind of machines where there? There probably were some replicators so he could make the pizza slice and hamburger for Hoshi. Also, he seemed to possess some powers greater than mere crystal-enhanced telepathy, since he was able to immobilize the Enterprise and threatening to destroy it. That suggests telekinesis, and that came out of left field and wasn't explained at all by the end of the episode.
Nevertheless, Tarquin didn't come off as a total creep. They actually managed to make him a rather sad and sympathetic figure. He did decide to help the Enterprise in the end by giving Hoshi the co-ordinates to a Xindi colony where part of the weapon was built (which takes us into the next episode).
The B-plot of Exile is quite interesting and manages to reveal more about the overall story arc. While analysing the waves from the mysterious sphere they discovered in Anomaly, that causes the spatial anomalies, T'Pol discovers an interference pattern that suggests a second sphere. And off they go to find it, only to be interrupted by Tarquin. But they're soon on their way again and thanks to insulating a shuttlepod with Trellium-D, Trip and Archer manages to locate and even land on the new sphere.
One has to wonder, though, about how the shuttlepod behaved after Trip and Archer took out a malfunctioning thruster with their phase pistols. Under known laws of physics surely the shuttlepod wouldn't have come tumbling down like that, only to halt right in front of them. The gravity of the sphere wouldn't be strong enough. But like the odd asteroids of Impulse, one might blame it on the strange properties of the Expanse.
Anyway, with newfound knowledge T'Pol now comes to the conclusion that there are much more than two spheres. There are actually at least 50 of them, effectively creating the Expanse and its crippling anomalies. This suggests for the first time that their construction is deliberate for whatever reason - a nice progression of the story arc. It also helps to explain why there is no Expanse in later Trek incarnations. It had simply ceased to exist by then, thus addressing concerns from some fans when Enterprise first introduced the concept.
To sum up, the insights to Hoshi's mind and the revelations of the story arc is what gives Exile plusses. The silliness and the allure of Hoshi's dresses cancel each other out. The strange "beauty and the beast" thing gives minuses. I'll settle for a grade of 5 on my 10-graded scale.
I’m still trying to figure out the point of it, because frankly I’m more confused for having watched it than having previously missed out on it before. I guess this fugly alien provided our crew with some important information by looking into his crystal egg, but other than that this episode fixated heavily on Hoshi and the fugly alien having the hots for her. I actually can’t remember what the B-plot was now, other than a vague scrawling in my notebook about an “interesting distraction with shuttlepod incident.” Yes, I usually take better notes for my classes, but then this wasn’t a class and was actually kinds boring.
