Rate The Episode! "Stigma"

[erhershman]

And I thought the days of Star Trek trying to make an actual statement/message about the world were over and done with.
This episode is one of the best they have done so far IMO.

It'll be interesting to see how the mind-meld goes from being taboo to being commonly accepted as it is in TOS and later. This'll undoubtedly be a continuing story arc.

I gave it a 9.

[Phantom]

Ahhh, the mind meld was considered an exteamly personal occurance in TOS and beyond. It certainly wasn't common place. Now I haven't seen this ep, so I will hold opinion. But it sounds like I will have some questions.

In fact I can only think of 6 times a full meld was done over all the series. If anyone can think of others let me know. As I'm sure you will.

[Dan Stack]

After a run of, in my opinion, mediocre episodes (starting with Marauders), I rather enjoyed this one. I think a large part of one'e enjoyment of this episode depends on how one views the Vulcans of Enterprise.

I just wish T'Pol would wear something a little more Vulcan-looking... For some reason she looked real silly to me when she was visiting the city at night.

[Calcoran]

My! And I cant' seem to find it on the net! Argh, can't wait!

[Eric R.]

Well my 4 was a bit complex to explian.

Stigma was suppose to be an Allogory about Aids, instead what I saw was an alagory on McCarthism. There was too much politcial ramifications and process of the "stigma". It would have been much better and more compelling to see individual Vulcan;s react to T'Pol then her government. It was also I think intended to be a slam on the current US administration but coming a week after the impressive African Aids initiative it rung hollow to me. SO there fore it failed its mission.

However I did like the epsidoe it did have something to show about the unintendent subject, the best such epsidoe since the drumhead.

[Sarge]

I wasn't very impressed with this one. The AIDS allegory was blatantly obvious, unsubtle and heavy-handed. It didn't really make me think about the way we respond to AIDS. I think it's quite obvious that sick people deserve to be medically cared for, so the episode didn't make me sit up and say, "Hey, I never thought about that before!" If they had found some new and different perspective on the problem, it might have been more interesting.

To sum up, B&B are still sadly lacking in originality.

Maybe next time they'll have the guts to tackle something really controversial, like abortion.

[Moriarti]

Originally posted by Sarge
I wasn't very impressed with this one. The AIDS allegory was blatantly obvious, unsubtle and heavy-handed.

I agree w/ Sarge.. the episode gave me flashbacks to the TOS episode with the two-tone fellas arguing cause one was a Harlequin and the the other an anti-harlequin..

[Dan Stack]

Oh, well for an allegory it stunk. I more enjoyed it for the portrayal of Vulcans. Allowing undersirables to die is a logical, though not very nice, thing to do.

[Antonsb214]

I thought it was a good episode, as for being unsubtle and heavy-handed, one guy black/white and the other white/black isn't censor comouflage either, they just put it in a sci-fi wrapper.
And we get the idea the the ability to mind-meld isn't widespread among Vulcans, and they see it as an abberration, but since they don't believe in violence, they'll just "let nature take its course" and get the job done by negligence, and they don't deny treatment, they just don't research new ones. Nobody said Logic and Nice were the same thing. It seems the the Vulcans kept a lot of this under wraps even after a Vulcan joined the Federation Starfleet. Kirk didn't know what Spock could do until Spock would ask permission to try something "different".
I also liked the interplay between the Flox's and Trip. Of course it was going to be a play of the silly assumption that everyone has the same social mores that they do, how ethnocentric. Gee, all that college did come in handy after all. Now if I could only get a job....

[erhershman]

Originally posted by Sarge
I wasn't very impressed with this one. The AIDS allegory was blatantly obvious, unsubtle and heavy-handed. It didn't really make me think about the way we respond to AIDS. I think it's quite obvious that sick people deserve to be medically cared for, so the episode didn't make me sit up and say, "Hey, I never thought about that before!" If they had found some new and different perspective on the problem, it might have been more interesting.

The message may have been heavy-handed, but at least they SAID it. I'm not saying this is a perfect "message/moral" episode, but it is a step in the right direction.
The problem with trying to talk about current issues with science-fiction is that it's very difficult not to make it blatantly obvious that you're commenting on a current issue. For instance, Sarge's suggestion of tackling something about abortion is a great idea, but it would be hard because that's not something you can turn into an alien disease or the like as they did with AIDS in this episode.

[tmutant]

A good episode, it explores the Vulcan race, and demonstrates that they have their own flaws. T'Pol takes an unexpected principaled stand, and Archer backs her up, even though he diaagrees with her methods of protest. This is an allegory for AIDS, and prejudice and intolerance in general. As such, it works.

[Kosst Amojan]

I gave it a solid 8. I had pretty much given up on Enterprise. My wife loves it. I was reading a book while she was watching it (Mission Gamma : Book I....good book!) and found myself pulled in by the story. Wow, this is why I loved Trek! A glimmer of hope in the Enterprise franchise! I hope the guys continue on in this tradition. And, I am looking forward to the upcoming episode with the Andorians. They've never looked so cool. Jeffry Combs makes such a good Andorian. He is an asset to the Trek universe as a character actor. He is so memorable, as Weyoun, Brundt, and now his new character in Enterprise.

Now, somebody said something about T'Pol's outfit. What is up with Trek and dressing their women in catsuits and such? It goes way back as a Trek tradition. In TOS, we had the mini-skirts that were standard issue for all the ladies onboard the Enterprise. Then, in TNG we had Troi in all sorts of outfits. However, wouldn't you agree she looked sexiest in the actual uniforme? I think Troi made the Starfleet uniform look better than anybody else did.

I guess we have to give DS9 some credit. Of course, I am prejudiced when it comes to this one, it is my fav. However, I don't recall any regular characters gallavanting around in skin tight suits or short skirts. However....mirror universe Kira always looked tintilating in that black leather. Ahem...now moving right along.

Of course in Voyager we have the 7 of 9 catsuit. What's up with that? Well, I guess the boys in charge feel the need for a sex symbol in the shows to draw in more audience? I don't know about you, but the best looking ladies in trek were Marina Sirtis and Terry Farrell when they had on their standard issue Starfleet uniforms.

[Balok]

I gave the episode a low mark ('4').

It's unsubtle, but certainly no less so than (for example) the TOS episode 'Let That Be Your Last Battlefield'. There's not a lot of subtle ways they could have told this story. But there are better ways.

I found the dialog jarring. Particularly annoying was the use of 'the minority'. I think it would have been better to give them *some* sort of name, and I think it's likely they would have had a name; people tend to name things they're going to discuss, even if the discussion is limited to how repellent they are.

I also would not have used the Vulcans for this story. I don't feel it's characteristic of the Vulcan people as established by Roddenberry. The Vulcans of B&B are so different from those of TOS that it's hard to imagine how they can change that much in a hundred years. Especially when contrast to humans, who clearly *don't* change that much (how many clear differences are there between Enterprise era humans, and TOS era humans).

I imagine they had to use the Vulcans because they didn't want to use humans, and that left only one race represented by a major character. Using Denobulans wouldn't have been a bad choice, since we know so little about them. However, B&B seem to have a clear disinclination towards introducing flaws into characters/societies they create, unless they're one-offs.

If one assumes that the opinion against mind melds comes from a time when Vulcans misused their mental gifts, and fear that "the minority" will do so again, that's simple prejudice, which is illogical. Yet, we have at least one character who has risen high in his profession, and who is willing to ignore his medical oaths (either the equivalent of 'do no harm' or the equivalent of doctor-patient confidentiality, or both) because of simple prejudice. Only one thing can inspire such violent prejudice, and that's hatred, an emotion.

Just not a good story. YMMV.

[Evan van Eyk]

I liked the episode quite much. It was well done in my point of view, although not very tense. The funny thing is that Mind Meld is regarded as being emotional while its called the superior control of though in TNG, while this may seem like a contradiction it may refer to the fact that Vulcans finally accepted all parts of their society.
BTW this minority has a name. It is mentioned during their actual occurance in season I and I think it is also mention in stigma, however I guess the Vulcans do not call them that way, because that would make their existance official, so they remain a minority - which stresses theid oddness.
And I liked the obvious fear and irrational behaviour of the Vulcans, which showed that they are not as advanced in society as in later series.

[REG]

Finally! An ENTERPRISE episode worthy of my attention!

A good baby step in the right direction, albeit an old issue but I am thankful of the reminder, especially in Third World Countries where there is a growing population of the afflicted along with social mistreatment.

Now if they can offer more episodes of that caliber or better, then and only then may a few of us longtime fans of Trek may forgive Braga ... "may."

Then again, Braga may return to his old self and "Stigma" will just be a handful of good episodes drowned in a sea of many bad ones.