2.05: A Night in Sickbay

[Dave]

A Night in Sickbay: 2.04

We knew it would happen sooner or later; Porthos gets his own episode:

Episode Number: 204
Original Airdate: October 09, 2002

Completed filming Thursday August 8. Director David Straiton previously helmed season one's 'Desert Crossing.'

Porthos spends the night in sickbay after he is infected with an alien pathogen - with a worried Captain Archer in tow.

Rick Berman: "We also have a very humorous episode that has our good captain going and spending some time in Sickbay, because his dog gets sick. He moves into Sickbay the same way a mother will move into the hospital when her child gets sick, and it ends up being an 'Odd Couple' kind of an episode between the captain and Dr. Phlox. It's a lot of fun."

TREK TODAY -- With those adorable puppy-dog looks, it was inevitable that Enterprise's most popular non-humanoid would finally get a turn in the decontamination chamber. Yes, Porthos is the centre of attention the upcoming season two instalment 'A Night In Sickbay.'

In the episode, Porthos becomes sick after being infected by a pathogen on an alien planet, according to StarTrek.com. Although Captain Archer gives his beagle the full gel rub-down in the decontamination chamber, Porthos has to stay overnight in sickbay - with his owner in tow.

'A Night In Sickbay' finished filming Thursday under the watchful eye of director David Straiton. The 'Desert Crossing' helmer obviously hadn't heard the old adage about never working with animals or aliens - not only did he have to contend with the two dogs playing Porthos, but Dr. Phlox was showing off those Denobulan genes again. The official site promises both an optical effect similar to Phlox's out-of-this-universe grin from 'Broken Bow' and an up-close-and-personal look at the physician's feet.

Although the episode is set mainly in sickbay, the other NX-01 crewmembers aren't cut out of the action. The cast will reportedly ditch their regular uniforms for "contemporary but quite sharp-looking dark suits."

Perennial Trek favourite Vaughn Armstrong (Admiral Forrest) was also on set to reprise his role as the Kreetassan from 'Vox Sola.' At Creation Entertainment's recent 'Real Deal' convention in Las Vegas, Linda Park (Hoshi Sato) mentioned she had to revist the season one episode to ensure consistent pronunciation of the Kreetassan language.

 

[Dave]

Via www.ufpst.co.uk:

According to executive producer Rick Berman at a recent press junket, the dog gets sick and has to stay overnight with Dr. Phlox. The worried father, Archer, takes up residence in Sickbay during that time, and it turns into a humorous "Odd Couple" scenario between the captain and the doctor.
The beagles who portray Porthos had an unusual number of call days this week, and certainly put their acting skills to the test. The dogs are trained by Performing Animal Troop, a company that provides screen animals for film and TV. Besides "playing sick" in Sickbay, one of the dogs also had to allow Scott Bakula to rub gel all over him in the Decon Chamber (for the first scene, when Phlox discovers Porthos picked up a pathogen on an alien planet).

While the schedule was shorter and less strenuous than that of the previous segment, "Minefield", certain scenes were filmed for this episode that will involve optical effects in post-production. Remember the unnaturally wide grin Phlox displayed in "Broken Bow"? One of the new effects will be along those lines. Plus, John Billingsley donned special prosthetics that will reveal more than we really wanted to know about Denobulan feet.

On Thursday, perennial guest star Vaughn Armstrong was back on the lot for one day, reporting to work at 5:30 a.m. for a 3½-hour makeup session to once again become Kreetassan, the purplish, easily offendable race introduced in "Vox Sola."

It's not clear, and I'm not sure if Vaughn Armstrong will be a Kreetassan in this episode, as they are also mentioned in the next one 'Mauraders'. They might have been shooting both episodes together.

 

[Highlander II]

Honestly - I don't think this episode was that exciting - of course - i was only 1/2 paying attn b/c I was online doing other stuff -

but the whole thing was a bit lame and i think some characters were either not in the show at all, or had very small bits -- all i remember is that Porthos was sick and that Archer was supposed to be resting or something -- and we find out that he has a thing for T'Pol -- not sure if he's in love or lust w/ her - but it's still weird - considering we already know that Malcolm has a thing for her -- I see impending doom relationship-wise on this front--

i'm hoping they stay away from the 'romance' bit as much as possible ---

 

[Eway]

I actually enjoyed the interaction between T'Pol and Archer. The scenes in sick bay and trying to capture the bat like creature really took away from Archers conflict.

 

[skoon]

I liked how we got to see what The Doc. it doing when not with patients. The toe nail thing was discusting though. I really didn't like the Archer/T'Pol bit. I like her better with Trip, but still don't wnt a romance going at all. I don't understand how Porthos got sick though. It wasn't the greatest ep but had it's funny moments.

 

[Neo]

Originally posted by Highlander II
Honestly - I don't think this episode was that exciting - of course - i was only 1/2 paying attn b/c I was online doing other stuff -

but the whole thing was a bit lame and i think some characters were either not in the show at all, or had very small bits -- all i remember is that Porthos was sick and that Archer was supposed to be resting or something -- and we find out that he has a thing for T'Pol -- not sure if he's in love or lust w/ her - but it's still weird - considering we already know that Malcolm has a thing for her -- I see impending doom relationship-wise on this front--

i'm hoping they stay away from the 'romance' bit as much as possible ---

i aggree.... this was a boring episode

 

[Dave]

Most of the comedic parts of this episode [bat catching in sickbay, Archer’s apology] didn’t work for me, but it did give lots of back-story on Porthos, Phlox and developed the Archer-T’Pol relationship.

Trip: How [did you offend them]? You didn’t eat cabbage before you left?

Taking Porthos down to the Kreetassan planet was a big error of judgement considering the earlier encounter. T’Pol was correct.