Fortunate Son
- Episode aired Nov 21, 2001
- TV-PG
- 45m
IMDb RATING
6.4/10
1.8K
YOUR RATING
Enterprise is sent to help the freighter Fortunate after an attack. However, its first officer, Ryan, is hiding something.Enterprise is sent to help the freighter Fortunate after an attack. However, its first officer, Ryan, is hiding something.Enterprise is sent to help the freighter Fortunate after an attack. However, its first officer, Ryan, is hiding something.
Daniel Henson
- Boy
- (as Daniel Asa Henson)
Jef Ayres
- Crewman Haynem
- (uncredited)
Jane Bordeaux
- Female Crewmember
- (uncredited)
Mickey Cassidy
- ECS Fortunate Guard
- (uncredited)
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaThis episode was directed by LeVar Burton, who played Geordi La Forge in Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987).
- GoofsThe end-of-transmission screen from Admiral Forrest references the signal as relayed from Relay: Echo 1/Transponder 4. A Relay that hadn't been deployed yet.
- Quotes
[Reed and Phlox are under fire]
Lieutenant Malcolm Reed: Get down!
Dr. Phlox: Under the circumstances, I defer to your experience.
- ConnectionsReferenced in Star Trek: Enterprise: Bound (2005)
- SoundtracksWhere My Heart Will Take Me
Written by Diane Warren
Performed by Russell Watson
Episode: {all episodes}
Featured review
A Senior Trekker writes.....................
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)
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)
helpful•66
- celineduchain
- Apr 1, 2022
Details
- Runtime45 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 1.78 : 1
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