Chip and Dale
By TRexx

Observer Effect is one of the shabbiest and contrived scripts of the series. Virtually all of the dialog to and from the Chip 'n' Dale alien duet is nonsensical.

Key to the premise of this episode is that it's the first encounter between Organian and Human, yet Chip and Dale, as Hoshi and Tucker, have a chitchat in decon that's loaded with the baggage of racial familiarity and prejudice...

Tucker: "What do you have against this species?"

Hoshi: "What disturbs me most about the Humans is their capacity for violence."

Tucker: "Klingons embrace violence, the Humans try to avoid it."

Hoshi: "Humans say they avoid it, but their words don't ma... We're being observed."

The Organians already had the 411 on Human behavior, so their jig is all for naught. Where did Chip learn about the Human capacity for anything, and why didn't that knowledge base contain accounts of Human intelligence, persistence, and compassion?

The daffy dialog in this episode is worthy of a junior school play, not prime time Trek. Let's examine some of it, shall we?

Just prior to the aforementioned decon scene, Dale (as Mayweather) says to Chip (as Reed), "We came to observe their response to the unexpected, not to watch them suffer". This is to say that they're familiar with corporeal suffering, and that they know it's happening to the Humans. Nonetheless, as soon as they leap into the sickly bodies of Hoshi and Tucker, Dale is surprised, noting "The sensations in this host are different from the others; I'm experiencing physical pain". Yes, Dale, that's the corporeal suffering you were just harping about to Chip, remember? And if you wanted to talk private-like, why did you leap into the two most closely monitored crewmen on the ship? Better to have poofed your incorporeal selves somewhere into the silent ether, especially as you later grouse, "Talking is a limited form of communication for us. We're much more advanced than humans."

Our Scooby Gang are often strangers to the obvious -- thus sleuth Archer seeks the virus in meteorite craters, ignoring the Klingon Porta-Potty and garbage dump that Hoshi and Tucker had been tossing around in while on the planet -- but wouldn't Chip and Dale be the Organian equivalent of scientists, since theirs is a scientific mission? Yeah, so why doesn't Chip understand the standard procedure and commonsense of isolating an unknown and contagious pathogen during the process of identification and search for a cure?...

Reed: "Captain Archer's done nothing different from the Klingons. The launch bay and decon chamber are completely isolated from the rest of the ship."

Mayweather: "So, it doesn't matter if an infected landing party comes aboard."

Reed: "Precisely. Humans don't want to interact with dying crew mates any more than Klingons did."

Chip can't fathom the difference between Klingon murder and Human quarantine of infected crew. Then there's this, from Phlox's confrontation with Chip (as T'Pol) in sickbay...

T'Pol: "We're here to observe. We can't interfere."

Phlox: "You're interfering with me!"

T'Pol: "Our subjects are Human, you're Denobulan."

What is Chip saying? Is Phlox treated any differently than others? No, he's body-snatched and memory-wiped too.

Phlox: "No wonder you erase memories. Your behavior is appalling."

You're right, Phlox, but these are prickish ENT Organians, not the wise messengers created by TOS.

"According to what I read on the doctor's medical padd, he's learned how to stop the infection", notes Dale, to which Chip huffs, "Expending resources to attempt an impossible task is not a sign of intelligence". Excuse me? First, expending resources to accomplish a task is mostly unavoidable to physical beings, so Chip is again the bonehead. Second, Phlox has learned how to stop the infection, so the task of defeating the virus can't be called "impossible" at this point. Bonehead.

Hoshi goes flatline in sickbay. Cardiac arrest used to be cause to call the morgue, but modern medical techniques reduce it to a Code Blue. Does Archer act like there's no hope for Hoshi at that point? Not at all. Phlox certainly isn't signaling defeat. So, what is it that prompts Chip to say "they know it's hopeless" when no one in the experiment actually believes it's hopeless? What does he know about Human response to a crisis? Gaining such knowledge is what this farce, erm, process is all about.

It's evident that ENT writers watched Errand of Mercy for this story, and they heard the TOS Organian elder say, "We find interference in other people's affairs most disgusting"; thus Observer Effect lip-services noninterference no less than four times. Do Chip and Dale actually practice what they preach? Of course not. All of that body-snatching and memory-wiping is gross interference to the affairs of free will, and the alien behaviors of the possessed adversely effect natural (Human) interaction, particularly among people who live and work together.

Compassion sways Chip and saves the day. "What Archer has done today -- his act of compassion -- you've never witnessed that before", declares Dale. Pardon me for asking, but exactly which act of compassion can Archer take credit for? Removal of EV gloves, at personal risk? No, that was Phlox's initiative. Indignation toward Organian inhumanity? No, Chip and Dale got that first from Phlox. Hmm. Phlox is a model of intelligence, guardianship, and self-sacrifice. From what Chip and Dale have witnessed, Humans may be intelligent-primate servants and soldiers, bred to mimic and uphold the values of their Denobulan caretakers. Chip's report could read, "In a crisis, Humans loyally follow the teachings of their Denobulan mascot."

The experiment is a bust!

Star Trek fans who understand Errand of Mercy will recognize that the victims in this latest insult to viewer intelligence are the Organians, as highly evolved creatures of conscience who are rendered into boneheads for Observer Effect. This is classic B&B: Make our heroes seem smart by presenting others as uncommonly stupid.


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