Star Trek: Enterprise (TV Series) Fortunate Son (2001) User Reviews

A Matter of Revenge

[claudio_carvalho · 6/10 · 19 November 2007]

Captain Archer is contacted by Admiral Forrest asking him to turn back to investigate a distress call from the cargo freighter ECS Fortunate. Archer finds that the freighter had been attacked by the Nausicaans, a race of space pirates. Archer provides supplies, manpower and medical assistance to First Officer Matthew Ryan, who is in command since the captain is injured. When T'Pol detects an alien form in the ship, the reaction of Ryan is violent and the Enterprise discovers that the officer is plot revenge against the Nausicaans, jeopardizing the space route for other freighters.

"Fortunate Son" is the weakest episode of this good series so far. The story of revenge of Officer Ryan is silly and pointless, since the guy is not totally wrong. The Nausicaans are pirates and attack the freighters, and the Starfleet does not take any action, therefore his attitude of despair seems to be very reasonable. The moral message of this episode in the end is blurred. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "Mercadores do Espaço" ("Merchants of Space")

We need some space police!

[planktonrules · 7/10 · 21 March 2015]

When the show begins, annoying Nausicaan* pirates are attacking an Earth freighter. Soon, Enterprise is ordered to change course to investigate. However, the reaction of the freighter crew is strange and they seem like they don't want any help--even though their ship has obviously been damaged. It's obvious that they are hiding something--and when their secret is revealed, the ship takes off. What is it they are hiding and how will Archer handle it?

This episode brings up an interesting idea with space travel--who will police space? So, if there are space pirates, who is to stop them and how will they punish them? The Captain Ahab-like approach of the acting commander of the freighter is certainly one way! Overall, a rather interesting but not particularly outstanding episode.

*The Nausicaans was a name that was familiar but I didn't at first realize which episodes involved them. My wife looked it up--these were the nasty brutes who nearly killed Jean-Luc Picard when he was a stupid and headstrong Starfleet cadet--which is revealed in one of the final shows of "Star Trek: The Next Generation".

rough episode

[ivko · 5/10 · 9 February 2019]

SciFi, and Star Trek in particular, has a long history of social commentary. Usually I tend to agree with the general outlook of the show, which isn't really surprising since, with it being broadcast TV, the network would have insisted that the plots not be so controversial that they couldn't sell ad space for cheeseburgers and Pepsi and whatnot when it aired. But this episode seemed a little anachronistic to me in that I really did not agree with the perspective of the writers here.

The basic plot: space-based human colonies that make a living as long, LONG haul truckers (nicknamed "boomers") trigger an SOS and the Enterprise is sent to investigate, but finds that the boomers don't really want their help after all. It becomes clear pretty quickly that the boomer's culture is analogous to rural culture, making the Enterprise crew the urban perspective and the episode really about that culture clash. The boomers don't really care for the Federation, which they see as drawing their best and brightest away from their society. They eschew newer, faster drives that complete typical routes between planetary colonies in 6 months for drives that, if you do the math based upon the stated speeds, take an insane 25 years because "any faster, and there'd be no time to enjoy the trip." They also vocally value their independence from any governmental over site, setting them up for conflict with the Enterprise even though they are all technically from the same society.

These characterizations are all pretty much lifted from discussions about rural America at the time. The brain drain of youth moving out of struggling farming communities, valuing the slower-pace-of-life idea that goes back to at least the late 50's, early 60's on shows like Andy Griffith, and the anti-fed sentiment that was perceived in rural areas by urban populations in the wake of Waco and the like.

Just as a side note though, I have no idea how that slower trip thing works economically if ships capable of making the trip in 6 months exist; it would be like setting out from China in 1993 for the US and looking forward to your big payday when you arrive in 2018 with your load of Beanie Babies and Pentium 1 processors.

Anyway, the central tension in the episode revolves around the boomer's interactions with a not very sympathetic race that basically makes a living as violent bandits, killing and plundering wherever they encounter vulnerable boomers. The boomers have decided to respond in kind, but captain Archer steps in with a pretty self-righteous speech about finding a diplomatic solution, representing humanity, etc. When the boomers point out he has no jurisdiction there he strong-arms them by threatening to dismantle and remove all of the repairs/parts given to the boomers to keep them alive. He then proceeds to enforce his view of right and wrong with his superior power and hand-waves away their safety concerns by announcing that the Enterprise will guard them until the aliens go away, even after they point out that the real threat is what happens after he leaves.

I think what happened here is that the aliens were originally meant to be analogous to illegal immigrants or something like that. Maybe they planned to soften the aliens by explaining that it wasn't all of the species that was like this or something, but changes were made and the idea got lost. Total guess, but it would explain Archer's actions a little better. As it is, I'm kind of amazed there wasn't a scene where he was recalled to earth to find an angry mob who saw him as siding with murderous aliens over humans. Then again, this is a society that took billions (or even trillions) in resources and time to build a ship and then just gave it to some guy with the instructions "you get out there and go exploring, buddy!"

In the end they fail to really resolve the central tension, instead turning the acting leader into a would-be murderer of the Enterprise crew himself, then dismiss it all by having the original leader wake up from his coma and declare that he agrees with Archer. It feels cheap, lazy, and forced. Not one of the better episodes.

serial mad-men, would be suicide bombers, and the various other malcontents with a mission. . .

[magicsinglez · 7/10 · 17 December 2007]

Enterprise comes across the Fortunate, a freighter whose captain's been injured by Nausicaan pirates. Dr Phlox works on him in sick bay while their First Officer, Mathew Ryan, assumes command of the Fortunate. Much of the story is told from the perspective of the freighter.

We follow Ryan and his loyal, working class, cargo crew as they maneuver to hunt down the Nausicaans, making the shipping lanes safe for cargo crews.

With Ryan taking command, it's like, just an average guy, gets to undertake an important space mission. Fortunate's command chair looks really cool. Fortunate looks good. It's fitted with phase cannons, dumps it's empty cargo pod, and zooms off in search of Nausicaans. This episode was a lot of fun for me. I found myself talking back to the screen. It was a bit like 'Mystery Science Theater 3000' here at the house (a show where characters talk back to the television). It was a lot of fun. I suspect the actor playing Mathew Ryan read for the part of Captain Archer. For some reason I found myself waiting to see what the moral message would be. The crew have a Nausicaan prisoner on board, and actually torture him, certainly not a good thing, but I was waiting to see if their decision to go after the Nausicaans is right or not.

Nausicaans featured in a Next Generation episode. In an episode of season six, 'Tapestry', the all powerful alien being 'Q' lets Picard change his past. One regret Picard's had is that years ago as a young crewman he got into a brawl with a Nausicaan. He was nearly killed when the Nausicaan stabs him. Q lets Picard change things. This time Picard keeps a cooler head. As he continues on the ship he's assigned to, Picard is never considered for promotion. He realizes, if this fight hadn't effected him, he never would have risen in the ranks of Star Fleet. In a moment of defeat, and surprising candor, Picard says to Q, 'take me back'.

Nausicaans are a wild bunch and here they make their way as pirates. When the Fortunate meets up with them a space battle ensues. It turns out, First Officer Ryan doesn't have the Nausicaan's shield frequencies after all - the ace he's been counting on. Our freighter is on the losing end of a battle with two or three Nausicaan ships. The message seems to be, they simply didn't bring enough firepower.

Enterprise tracks down the pirates, too, and just in time, making it two ships versus three. At this point it's a standoff. Enterprise has an advantage but doesn't seem to want to press it's luck. Archer is trying to remain neutral perhaps. Enterprise can't stay and patrol this area of space. When Enterprise asks Ryan to return the captured Nausicaan and put an end to the fight, Ryan refuses. He won't give up.

At this point Enterprises' navigator, Travis Mayweather, himself a former cargo crewman, speaks to Ryan, to talk him down from this desperate act. But is he really talking to just Ryan, or perhaps also to other would-be captains out there? Other men on a mission. Other desperadoes. The serial mad-men, would be suicide bombers, and the various other malcontents of the world? Why is Ryan doing this. . .? "This isn't about those other cargo ships", Mayweather says. "It's not about them at all". "It's about, you".

It's about revenge, Mayweather implies.

Finally, Ryan gives in. It's over. The parties are parted, the real captain is returned to Fortunate, and Enterprise departs. At the end Archer contacts the real captain. Don't be too tough on Ryan, Archer says, "His heart was in the right place".

To be captain for a day. . .

'Fortunate Son' turns out to be almost a precursor to season three. Intentional or not, this episode is almost a microcosm of the Xindi-threat, where Archer is forced to use torture and space piracy, any and everything, in an effort to try and save Earth from the Xindi weapon.

Those darn Xindi

Lesser Effort/Moderately Entertaining

[Hitchcoc · 6/10 · 9 March 2017]

The Enterprise is asked by Star Fleet to investigate the silence of a space freighter. In the opening, we see it attacked by Nausicaans, known as space pirates. They follow the pattern of the bad guys being ugly. The captain of the freighter, Fortunate, lies unconscious in their sick bay. His second in command happens to be a man whose family was killed while on board a freighter. He has spent his whole life in this line of work. Unfortunately, he is consumed with revenge and has taken on of the invaders hostage. He routinely beats him, forcing him to give up defensive codes. When the Entriprise away team comes on board, this man is resistant to their interference, knowing that their scanners will find the Nausicaan. Soon, he traps the away team, sends them off in a pod, and goes off to attack the pirates. Archer realizes that this will lead to the deaths of either the crew of the Fortunate or a herd of Nausicaans. This is really heavy handed and moralistic. The conclusion is really unacceptable when one considers what this guy did.

You're Gonna Need Some Draylaxian Whiskey to Get Through This One

[Samuel-Shovel · 4/10 · 16 May 2017]

The Enterprise runs into a freighter who have been getting harassed by a bunch of Nausicaan pirates. Chaos and moralizing ensues.

This episode was Travis-centered. Each main cast member seems to be getting their own character development episode in season 1 as we get to know the crew of the Enterprise (Fight or Flight for Hoshi, Unexpected for Trip, Breaking the Ice for T'Pol, etc.). Travis identifies with the ship and its crew, being a Boomer himself. Travis must cope with his personal remorse over leaving the freight he called home to join Star Fleet. He left behind his family and friends for a new life and must deal with the emotions that come with that. As the Enterprise learns of a Nausicaan hostage aboard the freighter, it's up to the Enterprise to figure out the best route to take.

The moralization of this episode just comes across as too heavy- handed. The characters practically spell it out for you in strangely worded monologues. It also doesn't make a whole lot of sense. Archer tries to construe these pirates as human beings who deserve the same treatment as the crew of the freighter. The problem with this is simple: THEY ARE PIRATES! They live outside the law and clearly don't deserve equal treatment as the shipping crew.

Archer tells the Nausicaan captain that humans will soon have powerful ships all over space that will blow them out of the sky so they better behave. The Nausicaans back off... and that's it. No reprimanding for all the past instances of theft and destruction? Okay.

This episode brings light to a real problem with space exploration. Lack of supervision and law. Early on in the Earth's foray into the great unknown, space still has a bit of a Wild West feel. The Vulcans keep an eye on things but they don't like to get their hands too dirty. This may foreshadow a future involving more oversight for races with space capabilities.

The obvious and flawed moralization, mixed in with some bad acting from Officer Ryan, makes for a poor episode. Probably the worst from the series so far.

A Senior Trekker writes.....................

[celineduchain · 5/10 · 2 April 2022]

Fortunate Son was filmed in September 2001, two weeks after the Twin Towers came down but it was almost a year before the Star Trek series caught up with the public mood and transitioned to a more militaristic, end-justifies-the-means mind set. In this episode the writers were still working from the "torture is always wrong" playbook and no-one had yet heard of the expression "enhanced interrogation techniques.

Basically, in this episode the Boomers (low warp speed interstellar cargo hauliers) have captured a pirate an are determined to get him to give up the location of his base so that they can mount a revenge attack. It's not that which makes me wary of these people but the thought of a tiny, enclosed society of humans living together for decades on end and making up their own rules as they go along. It sounds like a cross between an extremist religious commune and Pitcairn Island*.

Whatever Mayweather's wide-eyed recollections are, the very idea of such a society spells out an invitation to autocracy, alcoholism, domestic violence an child abuse. Think about it for a moment. Now imagine a couple of the public figures you think most likely to want to impose their values upon a small group of people away from the supervision of a watchful society. I don't even need to name names, do I? Now give them a chance to gather up a few female chattels an head out into space for a couple of generations. It sounds more like a pitch for a horror movie to me.

Besides, it's a brave speculator who would base their livelihood on the value of raw materials projected decades into the future.

I see that other reviewers have chosen other reasons for marking this episode down so I suppose it's got the advantage of having provoked a certain amount of discussion. It was a real shame that poor Anthony Montgomery was given only this one episode as his piece of character development throughout the whole series. This likeable young man deserved a whole lot better from the writing team. He has had a fairly successful career since and I don't think he's ever been heard to complain about his blatant under-use aboard the NX-01

Senior Trekker scores each episode with a 5

(* Pitcairn is a remote island in the Pacific where the real life Bounty mutineers fled to escape justice. Within less than a generation they had almost all died at their own or each other's hands)

"Fortunate Son" Is A Muddled Mess

[kellyadmirer · 4/10 · 1 December 2020]

"Fortunate Son" is a muddled mess and quite possibly the worst episode of "Enterprise." I know, it has some competition there, but let's go through it.

The plot revolves around interstellar piracy and the lack of law enforcement in space. We learn that there is a fleet of earth freighters that have no protection against raiders, so their crews take matters into their own hands. These freighters take years to travel between destinations, turning the crews into "families" or, less euphemistically, armed gangs that basically do whatever they want on their journeys.

So, "Fortunate Son" at its heart is about lawlessness and how people exposed to it handle themselves. This isn't the most exciting concept, and there isn't a shred of originality about anything in this episode aside from the inevitable introduction of a new race (who really cares what they're called because they're just another variety of Klingon-variants with the standard forehead ridges, but they're the "Nausicaans") and the concept of freighters. Neither idea is particularly interesting and both seem a bit fanciful given the time periods we're dealing with, but we'll go with it.

The plot is the major problem. Put as succinctly as possible, it's insipid. It also makes virtually no sense. Freighters taking on not just warships but multiple warships, crews who haven't thought through at all what they're doing, a resolution that can be seen a light year away... it's just a cauldron of confusion and banality.

On the bright side, this is undoubtedly the best episode of the series for Ensign Mayweather. We learn through endless tedious monologues about how he grew up on a freighter, what he knows about freighters, how tragic life can be on freighters, blah blah blah. Are you really that interested in freighters and Mayweather? Then this is the episode for you (and I know there are some of you out there). I didn't find anything shown in this episode to be particularly interesting or insightful, but may the speed at which freighters travel is just fascinating to you.

Back to the banality. There is some heavy-handed moralizing going on, and not in a subtle way. They brought LeVar Burton in to direct this (think really hard to figure out why), and the pacing is horrible because we keep getting sidetracked by Mayweather opining about this and that. Maybe Burton's a good director elsewhere, but not here. We get pointless and banal discussions over meals, an extremely forced relationship between Mayweather and the villain or antihero (what he is is unclear from this muddled script), and a truly bizarre climactic moment when Mayweather just leaps into sensitive negotiations and embarks on a pointless monologue where he tries to say something meaningful. He's still trying. Maybe he'll manage it eventually. Oh, since Mayweather is the only person who knows anything about freighters, apparently that's why he's entitled to just talk over Archer and start pacing around the bridge expounding on his own theories.

So, the moralizing of this episode is off the Richter scale. At one point, Archer says to Mayweather in a condescending tone, "You in particular should understand (treating everyone equally)." Oh, geez, I wonder what he's really talking about there? And guess what, vigilantism is bad. Wow, shocker in a show centered around a military ship! The vigilantes resent the sudden appearance of law enforcement for some reason because they've become as bad as the pirates (at least that seems to be the lesson of the week). There are other such "lessons," but I'll stop there.

"Fortunate Son" is an unfortunate episode. We get little of interest from anyone other than Mayweather, T'Pol has a few cameos here and there, and everyone else is basically invisible or ineffective, including Archer. Oh, and the title has nothing to do with the song, if you were wondering about that. Nice little misleading trope there, Rick!

So, if you're a big Ensign Mayweather fan, tune in, but virtually everyone else is going to wonder why this was even made.

Archer does his best to power this one, but the warp core was ejected before the opening credits

[snoozejonc · 5/10 · 19 August 2020]

Starfleet contacts the Enterprise with orders to help a freighter ship in distress.

I like the concept of freighter ships and their crews so this is an interesting area of the Trek universe that I wanted to find out more about. However, the plot, dialogue and acting in this episode languishes at impulse power. The only time it ever kicks into warp 1 is when Archer gets a bit tough with Officer Ryan.

The resolution comes from someone talking someone else round to see sense and I always struggle with these situations. Couple that with the Nausicaans resembling someone wearing a bad Predator mask and I found this one difficult to get through.

Travis is given a bit more screen time and something tangible to do but unfortunately the quality of material doesn't do the character favours. Archer tries to lift things with his ethical stand, but it doesn't improves matters that much.

I did like the discussions about advancing science and warp technologies impacting ways of life outside of Starfleet but that's about it.

A failed attempt at moralizing makes episode farcical... with poor acting

[guy_in_oxford · 2/10 · 31 October 2014]

The Nausicaans are a typical Star Trek speed bump race. All male, all ugly, all violent.

But, we humans are supposed to think they're good reasonable honorable people who deserve to be treated with respect after they murder and attack and steal whenever they feel they have the upper hand. We're supposed to cower and pretend being raided and pillaged is totally normal until we're at the point where we have so much superior weaponry that we don't really need to press the fire button.

I was really waiting for someone to start talking about 17th century battlefield honor codes, or something equally preposterous. (For instance, guerrilla fighting is without honor, but standing in a line to be mowed down like automatons to the sound of insipid drum and flute music is courageous and smart.) That's really what Archer's position is about. It's about pretending a situation is something else entirely in order to prove a point to someone who won't be alive once the pillaging (or zombie-like advancing of the lines) is over.

The muddled moralizing of this episode fails also because the threadbare attempt to resurrect the Wrath of Khan (the strong leader with big pecs who puts revenge ahead of his ship and comrades) doesn't convince. It's changing the subject, since the bulk of the build-up is about protecting the crew from a real threat. The pecs of Khan-lite are also pretty much the only highlight of this episode.

Archer is his typical Sesame Street self, spelling out everything in big capital letters in order to bore everyone. Even when the Enterprise is in the middle of a firing battle involving five ships it's hard for the cast to not yawn during the insipid speechifying done by whoever the guy is who was once a freighter child. Even Archer acted bored when he gave the firing orders, the results of which we didn't even see (as we know the outcome will be Archer's success at demonstrating yet again the beautiful cornfed morality of the American midwest).

But, the episode has plenty of predictable phaser battling amid obstacles that's supposed to be action (complete with goofy background "music") — just like the previous one and probably the one before that. It's also amusing that the humans can't seem to hit a huge Nausicaan standing in the middle of a corridor.

There are so many things wrong with the way the prisoner is handled, with the way the Enterprise bridge crew are captured... it would take pages to go into. I suppose the writing could be said to not be totally predictable, just predictably wacky. The bad moralization, though, is eternally predictable, as is the poor acting — complete with manic hand gestures during the worst scene in the episode (the one mentioned earlier where a speech trumps a dull firefight).

I do have to say, though, that the way the Nausicaans completely transformed from killer pillagers to humans with nasty-looking masks, in order to make the moralizing work at the end of the episode, was quite a sight. It makes deux ex machina seem credible.

It's amusing that Berman thought having gay people in Trek would be a bad thing for the series and then released shlock like this. This is one gay person who would have done a heck of a lot better. As someone who was a target of bullying, I could have told him that, indeed, the best defense is a good offense. You do punch back, as hard as possible and right at the face. That's the language bullies understand. If you're going to make Nausicaans, cloaking them in all of the garb of the Star Trek speed bump... then be serious, eh?

Ensign Mayweather plays captain Bellwether

[tomsly-40015 · 3/10 · 21 February 2024]

I can't shake the feeling that this Enterprise crew is a bunch of amateurs. In contrast to the crews of the TNG and VOY series, there are definitely no explorers and scientists at work here. Space anomalies? Not interested! Charting stars? Boring! Diplomacy? Something for losers! This crew doesn't have an ounce of tact. Like a couple of cowboys from the American provinces. The ensign simply chats into the captain's speech without being asked to do so. The captain is a complete joke anyway. He could maybe play captain on a shrimp boat. But on the Enterprise? Speaking of boats: The entire Enterprise set seems to me like I'm watching a submarine crew. Those blue overalls, those controls... it doesn't look like a spaceship.

The story of this episode is also complete nonsense. The idea of "Boomers" being born in space, traveling the stars on freighters and being a secretive community of swashbucklers who solve their own problems is just dumb. I just don't buy Mayweather's life story anyway. And his understanding of this freighter crew waging their own guerrilla war is also completely out of place in Star Trek. But Archer then plays space police and ensures law and order in the Alpha quadrant. USA! USA! USA!

Made it to Episode 10 and Wondering Why

[frmrfran · 4/10 · 7 March 2024]

Spoilers

We are supposed to believe that Star Fleet has had loads of freighters traveling at warp for at least thirty years, given that EN Mayweather was born on one. Yet, despite what are apparently common pirate attacks, Star Fleet doesnt have any warships patrol the shipping lanes.

Second, CPT Archer is an officer so respected and experienced that he is called in to discuss the Enterprise's launch with admirals and diplomats of Earth and Vulcan, but he doesnt know what a Nausican Pirate is? That is blatantly absurd. But, it lets Mayweather, who is the reason this episode was written I guess, give us some of his boomer expertise.

Third and the most unbelievably incoherent plot nonsense I have ever seen in Star Trek, the freighter's second in command not alone maroons the captain of Star Fleet's flagship on a pod with a pressure leak (attempted murder), he fires on the Enterprise and flees. Not hanged. Not arrested. Not tried. Nope...he is reduced in rank by his own captain.

This episode highlights the insane touchy feely bent of this series, and Mayweather constantly piping up in more than one episode (but more so here) to offer his advice to Star Fleet's preeminent captain, is ludicrous and tiring. I want to like this show, and some of the characters are good, and the acting is very good, I am finding it difficult.