Star Trek: Enterprise (TV Series) Hatchery (2004) User Reviews

Decent but with one plot hole...

[planktonrules · 6/10 · 9 April 2015]

The Enterprise comes upon a Xindi insectoid hatchery. It's abandoned and the landing party investigate. During this examination, the Captain is sprayed by some mucousy stuff. Soon after, he begins to behave very paternally towards these eggs...sort of as if they were his and not those of Earth's enemy. He seems to forget the mission and wants to spend important resources on protecting these young Xindi. It's so bad that some of the crew begin questioning whether they should mutiny instead of follow his insane orders.

The problem is that every person watching this show KNOWS exactly why Archer is behaving weirdly. However, inexplicably, no one on the ship seems to realize why the Captain is acting strangely until much later in the show--too late to be realistic. A decent but flawed episode.

Relax

[ghanima_atrieadies · 7/10 · 1 February 2021]

This episode is good. People need to chill and remember that people have different views based on experience and we may not like them. In this Archer may be under the influence but he's right, there's no reason to let the hatchery die, they're innocent. Trip's reaction is understandable, right off the bat he's callous and wants to let them die because of what happened to Earth, an impulsive, emotional reaction that he would never have gone through with after thinking about it. Reed and T'Pol are also understandable in not wanting to exhaust their resources to save the babies and fail in the larger picture mission. No one's actions were perfect but Archer did do the right thing and that's what makes the episode good.

Archer is completely justified in this.

[anaradakovic · 7/10 · 29 October 2015]

I really enjoyed this episode, however as said above...I think Archer was right. It feels stupid that they would justify his behavior (as if it needed justification) with an infection from an alien liquid. Archer is completely justified in this. He's saving the children. everyone else on board is against saving the children. They mutiny against him and try to make him look insane. I just find it inexcusable that so many people would not see the logic behind his actions (T'Pol even calls the idea illogical). Indeed saving the hatchlings would have shed some new light on the humans to Xindi and potentially stopped them from considering the destruction of the Earth. Nobody aside from Archer even takes it into consideration for a second.

Sealab: Enterprise

[Vvardenfell_Man · 6/10 · 21 April 2024]

Enterprise frequently reminds me of Sealab 2021, one of my favorite cartoons. It's irreverent and brash where Enterprise is--usually--reverent and calm. But sometimes the Enterprise crew let loose and go a little crazy. A little bit bonkers, if you will. Sometimes the narrative work that would justify that bonkers behavior is unjustified. Sometimes they see Captain Archer promoting a compassionate approach to interstellar relations and decide that he must be under the influence of an alien parasite. Apparently, that's really the case, even though everyone else is acting unhinged the whole time. I don't buy the storytelling and the message is, as usual, very muddled.

Obsession and Mutiny

[claudio_carvalho · 9/10 · 26 February 2008]

The Enterprise finds a Xindi ship crashed on the surface of a planet, and while the team leaded by Captain Archer is investigating, they meet an insectoid hatchery in a compartment protected by heavy and reinforced bulkheads. Reed realizes that the air inside is breathable and the group removes the helmet of the breathing apparatuses, but Archer is hit by a sort of substance on his face and sent to the sickbay. After the examination, Dr. Phlox realizes that no damage was caused to Captain Archer, but the crew notes that he becomes obsessed to save the insectoid offspring claiming humanistic reasons. When he orders to give one third of the supply of antimatter to restart the reactor of the Xindi ship to maintain the life support system of the hatchery, T'Pol questions his command and is confined in her cabin. Then Reed, Trip and Dr. Phlox are successively dismissed, and the senior officers decide that only a mutiny can save the Enterprise.

"Hatchery" is a tense episode of the Third Season, with Archer completely obsessed by saving the Xindi eggs. T'Pol, Reed, Trip, Dr. Phlox and Major Hayes have remarkable participations in this predictable but great story. My vote is nine.

Title (Brazil): "Incubadora" ("Hatchery")

Some interesting moments but overall a bit of a predictable mess

[snoozejonc · 5/10 · 11 November 2020]

Enterprise discovers a hatchery of Xindi eggs and babies.

I found this to be a pretty average episode with a predictable story and a strange message.

There are some decent moments such as the Enterprise crew v MACO scenes and the regimented nature of the MACO soldiers. However, when you see a main character portrayed as going a bit crazy it never makes a compelling plot line for me because you know they will be fine at the end of the 40 minutes. When this starts to happen early in an episode (and you know exactly when and why), all you really have left is a long time to sit and watch their behaviour.

The subject of Archer's behaviour is seemingly controversial. Through much of the episode I was 100% behind his actions even though they were brought on by his condition. There are other factors that come into play and make it easier for the story to go in a certain direction, but to me the writers took a good ethical idea and perverted it into what it needed to fit the 'captain's gone nuts' formula.

Why not just do a story where the captain chose to save Xindi babies at great risk to the mission and ended up annoying lots of crew members in the process? Maybe this could be linked to the overarching narrative in a positive way where a relative of one of the children does something good for Enterprise (that's crucial to the plot) in return for Archer's good deed. Then you have the more hawkish crew members having to eat humble pie.

Whatever intentions the writers had for this episode, the themes come through in a bit of a mess. Maybe it's just me, but I thought it was a missed opportunity.

Casual fan, really enjoyed this episode

[TekGryphon · 10/10 · 29 August 2015]

From the perspective of someone who never thought to write about a Star Trek episode, I found this one to not just be worth mentioning, but worth creating an IMDb account to do it. I know, weird.

This is my first time watching the series, but I found the acting in Hatchery to be some of the best in the show to-date (well, to- episode).

The entire midway arc was amazing. My favorite scene was when T'Pol volunteered to inform Archer of the decision to delay his orders. They made you feel this was an important admission by Trip. Archer and him had been friends for years, but he trusted T'Pol's relationship with the Captain, and her ability to find common ground with him. This was their first time deliberately sabotaging his orders, and Trip and Reed deferred to her ability to bear the brunt of it.

I disagree with a previous review which said this was a completely irrational dilemma. I don't believe it was as cut and dry as they presented. The Senior Staff were very clearly struggling with their own compassion. It wasn't until the mission was beginning to be genuinely compromised (losing 1/3 of their warp/weapon MagicFuel reserves). Their later actions came not from disagreeing with Archer's sense of honor and compassion, but from his completely out- of-character and extreme solution to the conflict. For those watching through it, the presence of a conspiracy is confused by both sides having a convincing argument containing believable mixes of compassion vs duty.

As a bonus, this is where the (imo) interesting conflict between Reed and Hayes reached the forehead-wipe moment. After the Captain blew the whole feud open, Reed swallows his pride and gives respect where its due to Hayes, a pivotal change in their story. Whatever happens after this (and I could be totally wrong, Reed just might get his knickers twisted into knots again) the acting made it feel like it was the real deal.

Filler in the Xindi Arc

[mstomaso · 5/10 · 16 December 2007]

The problem with The Hatchery is that it is a very highly improbable self-contained story which is connected to the Xindi story arc, and which introduces some very radical concepts which never emerge again in the arc. In other words, it is a bit of filler within a story arc which had no room for filler.

Enterprise discovers a hatchery for Xindi Insectoids aboard a wrecked insectoid ship and Archer decides to try to save the offspring for humanistic reasons. Obsessed, he loses sleep and his grip on reality and begins dismissing his senior officers when they fail to anticipate his command decisions.

The dynamics between four of the principal characters (Archer, T'Pol, Tucker and Reed) are examined in this episode, but are presented in a way which is consistent with most of the series. The story presents some rather extreme new ideas, but these are never really made use of again later in the series. Instead of what should have been a pivotal episode, the audience is left wondering why this filler episode was necessary.

Bakula uncharacteristically overacts the manic and obsessed Archer, and Blalock, Trineer and Keating carry the episode. Mike Grossman's directing is admirable, considering what he had to work with in terms of story.

Boy, Some People Are Pretty Upset

[Hitchcoc · 8/10 · 26 March 2017]

While I thought this episode was quite odd, I thought it was OK. There is one factor that floors me involving the creative team. An away crew with full protective suits goes to a place alien to them. As soon as they know the air has the right composition, off goes the suit. They don't wear any gloves when they handle things. They grasp substances that could be toxic, at least unfamiliar. Archer would never have been hit in the face if it had not been for his removing his gear. The only reason I can think of is that you can't have an episode of people walking around in space suits. Yes, the Xindi are producing children, but a true directive would have been to leave well enough alone. It's their world and their process. The issue is what is happening to the Captain and the danger presented by the situation. Their mission trumps (excuse my profanity) other things. There are billions on earth who will die. The belief that earth will destroy the Xindi is wrong--they have been misinformed or have some misguided belief. To bolster them is not in the best interest of the mission, to save earth from them. I know there is some moral dilemma here, but not believing in an after-life, the whole business of sacrificing the lives of an entire civilization is too much.

The show so screwy, doing the right thing is an evil ploy!

[phenomynouss · 1/10 · 9 October 2010]

So in this one, the Enterprise finds a Xindi Insectoid ship where all the Insectoids are dead. It's discovered they drained their power and sacrificed themselves in order to keep a hatchery full of their young operational and keep them alive.

Shockingly, Archer's reaction is not that of the redneck Trip, which is to burn the eggs alive like butchers, but to save them and care for them. Not only is this the humane thing to do, since these insectoids are sentient AND infants, but it's the politically and morally wise thing to do, considering that the Xindi consider the Humans a savage race out to destroy the Xindi, which is the WHOLE REASON THEY ATTACKED EARTH, and the WHOLE THING THAT WILL BE Proved IF THEY LET THESE XINDI CHILDREN DIE.

SHOCKINGLY, Archer justifies himself in a sensible, coherent way, including a story of how his great-grandfather fought in the Eugenics War, and had a confrontation in North Africa with the enemy, and they agreed to a ceasefire long enough to evacuate a school full of children between their lines of fire.

SHOCKINGLY, EVERYONE BUT ARCHER DISAGREES WITH THIS, AND THINKS THEY SHOULD ABANDON THESE XINDI HATCHLINGS AND GO ABOUT THEIR MISSION, EVEN THOUGH HELPING THEM IS JUST A SLIGHT SIDETRACK IN THEIR MISSION! So, UNshockingly, this is of course some sort of evil brainwashing by the Xindi and not anything remotely resembling a moral dilemma or conflict of ideals that can be handled in a mature, enlightening way. Nope, that's just too much for the simple-minded mediocrity of Enterprise, and Archer's care for the Xindi hatchlings becomes a COMICAL OBSESSION with them that ends with Archer with three little insectoids crawling all around his shoulders while he incoherently tries to get Trip to not kill them.

So a potentially great episode involving moral conflicts and a difficult situation of there being no clear-cut right and wrong, black or white, is squandered in exchange for bio-technobabble, as it's explained that the egg-sack's squirting stuff on Archer in the beginning of the episode "reverse imprints" on his brain, essentially doing the opposite of what happens with Humans---children become mentally "programmed" to be attached to their adult caretaker. In this case, the adult caretaker becomes "programmed" to be attached to the Insectoids.

This leads into the cheap cop-out of an ending where they leave the Xindi hatchlings alone in the ship, with no more than a "tough s***, good luck", essentially abandoning them and hoping a Xindi ship will find them eventually.

Imagine if a nursery full of Human babies was found by an alien species, and these aliens went OUT OF THEIR WAY to care for these babies, keep them safe, before the crew mutinied and then left those babies alone on their big space ship for Humans to find later on.

How long would it take for them to be found by other Humans? Days? Weeks? Months? Even if those babies somehow survived, how psychologically destroyed would they be? These are the sorts of things that could make for a great show. Enterprise proves, EVEN in its best storyline idea (the Xindi arc), that it is far from a great show.

Everything Star Trek stands against.

[merry-prankster-online · 13 February 2018]

So a whole Starship crew thinks it's a good idea to kill a lot of children! Everything Star Trek stands against. Showing compassion for your enemy's children is exactly how you turn your enemy into your friend and exactly what a Starfleet crew should do!

Xenophobia

[texasfamily-94461 · 9/10 · 5 October 2021]

He gets sprayed in the face with alien goo, hilarity ensues!

Disgusted at the crews' reaction to helping the hatchery.

[wwcanoer-tech · 3/10 · 4 December 2021]

Disgusted at the crew's reaction to helping the hatchery. It's obviously the right thing to do and could avert a war. Do what you can, set an automated distress beacon to start 24 hours after you leave, and leave a message that you found the ship and tried the best to help. Sure, there's a risk. They might seek to destroy you but so far it's the best chance at averting a war. Destroying one weapon won't solve anything other than the immediate threat.

I have the feeling that they will later say that the captain was sprayed with a substance that gave him motherly instincts. Of course, this wouldn't happen if they kept their EV suits on! It makes no sense to take them off.

So, the captain is clearly going too far in trying to help the insectoids. Bizarrely, the crew is very slow to say anything. Unfortunately, since the insectoids know that they can control aliens, saving them won't mean anything special to them and won't avert a war.

I wish that the captain had decided to try to save them before getting infected. They could still have him be infected later and show his change to being obsessed with saving the insectoids. Giving up 30% of already low anti-matter reserves certainly would be a step too far.

Many of the crew are working in the hatchery, so why haven't any others been infected? Showing them change from being against helping to being obsessed with helping would only further the plot.

An insectoid ship appears and immediately fires at Enterprise. Why were they not prepared to hail the ship? This is easily foreseeable. It could still fail but at least show Enterprise trying to communicate before destroying the ship. Anyways, since one ship arrived presumably to rescue the crashed ship, they can safely assume that others will arrive once contact is lost. Also, the insectoids would have immediately sent command a message as soon as they saw Enterprise. That would be priority #1 for them.

Why didn't Phlox relieve Archer of duty for refusing his order to have an immediate medical inspection? He has the power to solve it right then and there. Why let him take more antimatter to the surface? That makes no sense. But hey, a mutiny is more dramatic, so we need to ignore logic and protocol.

Since you can stun people, when they take over the bridge, why not shoot first rather than having a standoff? Because we want the conversation but then it's not even a good conversation! They don't even explain that they believe that the captain has lost his mind. Malcom is twice pointing the phaser at Hayes' head, which might kill. Should only be body shots.

Now that we presume that there's a heavily fortified hatchery on every insectoid ship, what will they do the next time that they half-destroy one of their ships? Every time that you destroy an insectoid ship, you're killing babies.

It makes no sense that they need to restore power to the entire ship in order to power the hatchery. The hatchery was heavily fortified, designed to survive when the rest of the ship failed or is destroyed. It would have it's own backup power supply. But they needed to find some reason for Enterprise to do something that would endanger their ship.

So, should the humans have left a message that they tried to help but needed to leave because the previous insectoid ship opened fire (and didn't respond to hails)?

So Saving Infants is Crazy?

[Samuel-Shovel · 3/10 · 6 February 2018]

On the way to Azati Prime, the Enterprise discovers a crashed Xindi ship with incubating eggs aboard. After being sprayed with a neurotoxin found aboard, Archer becomes protective of the eggs to an obsessive degree, jeopardizing the mission. A munity against Archer and the MACO members has to be done to save the ship and its mission.

I'm kind of conflicted about this one. While yes, Archer did go overboard with his protection of the eggs, the conclusion of the episode almost makes it seem like it was wrong of the Enterprise to save the eggs instead of going at them with a blowtorch as Trip suggested. These are innocent creatures and it seems to fall within the Star Trek philosophy to want to save them from sure demise. But at a certain point, the mission must take precedence; it's a fine line. But everyone seems to think Archer crazy for wanting to save them. I suppose they are on a time crunch which "justifies" this... Like I said, I'm conflicted.

I understand people's anger at the way the show portrays the interaction between Archer and the Xindi babies. They frame it to be horrific to the viewer which is just plain wrong. We're suppose to abhor them because they're different, a terrible message.

It's also pretty obvious early on that Archer's been compromised by the eggs. The ending comes as no surprise to anyone watching.

One interesting thing of note is how the show portrays the military outfit as all "yes men", obeying Archer's orders even as they get more ludicrous. Maybe this episode will change Hayes mentality moving forward. On we go to Azati Prime!

What on Earth was the point of putting the "Star Trek" brand on this episode?

[universaladdress · 1/10 · 11 October 2016]

There's no spoilers here, since it's made clear very early in the episode: this is an episode, purportedly of a "Star Trek" series (the series name itself was changed during this very season to include "Star Trek") where the crew of the Enterprise encounters a nursery full of alien infants in enemy territory, and decides, in the end, to leave them to die, because the only way, the show informs us, that we'd want to save the lives of infants born to our enemies is if we were affected by insidious mind control. It's sick, and I wouldn't subject my children to this filth.

The captain insists that they do what they can to care for these infants for the sake of the crew's own humanity. Again, I want to stress: these are helpless infants. It's already bogglingly against the message behind "Star Trek", its CORE message, that the crew would disagree with this assessment. It's even worse that the captain's passionate - and correct - defense of his decisions only exists, per this episode, because he's been poisoned by the infants early on in the episode. Poisoned, I guess, with even an ounce of human feeling or compassion, otherwise absent from this episode!

At the show's apparent attempt at a climax, we're invited by camera angles, lighting, musical cues and the response of other characters, to feel disgust and horror that the Captain would allow these infants to touch his pristine body. We're supposed to feel disgust not because these infants are malevolent villains in disguise or anything like that, but because THEY LOOK DIFFERENT FROM US. BECAUSE THEY LOOK DIFFERENT, and FOR NO OTHER REASON, even though they are INNOCENT INFANTS, we're supposed to be disgusted by their touch and wish them dead, and to view their survival as secondary to the mission of bombing the enemy! There is no "Star Trek" to be found here.

Anyone who has ever watched even a single other episode of "Star Trek", unless they are completely unable to grasp the message behind it, would agree: whether or not you agree with this (repulsive) conclusion, it is COMPLETELY antithetical to the message of the show going back to its very foundation. Extremely disappointing - again, I would not for a second expose my children to the message behind this episode, and I suggest you do not do the same. Whether you wish to subject yourself to it is your business: it's a great example of how severely this show went astray at the time.

The doctor should have relieved him of duty as soon as they knew

[txriverotter · 3/10 · 8 July 2022]

I don't have a problem with Archer wanting to save the Xindi hatchlings. I do have a problem with the fact that the scriptwriters want us to believe the only way he could actually care about their lives is because they imprinted on him.

The rest of the crew really upset me, including the always tiresome and obnoxious Trip, because they just want to burn them out and move in. They don't look at those hatchlings as living beings that would suffer and die. Not only is this sick and unethical, but if they want to prove the Xindi is right, and that humans are nothing but an aggressive, evil race, a sure-fire way to do it is murdering their infants, especially when they've been shown to care for them to the point of sacrificing their own lives to keep the hatchlings alive.

However, when Archer goes so far as to remove antimatter reserves that will jeopardize their ship, literally suspending any officer who dares to question his motives, and when the doctor had medical scientific proof that Archer was under undue influence, he should have immediately been relieved of duty.

Trip said it would take him a few days to make the different parts compatible in their power supplies; surely a little bit of antimatter would get the Xindi hatchlings thru until he finishes. Then they could hook up the power supply and continue their mission, knowing the hatchlings were safe until their people came for them.

It matters not that the Xindi wouldn't do the same for them if they came upon human infants. What matters is what they do, and that they maintain their morality and integrity. If you only maintain those things when it's convenient or easy, then you don't really have them.

Mutiny on the Enterprise

[tomsly-40015 · 5/10 · 6 April 2024]

This episode is controversial. There are differing opinions as to whether and how far Archer should have gone to save the Xindi insectoid eggs. However, it is and has always been the central element of every Star Trek crew to protect innocent lives and even face an enemy with humanity. As Janeway once put it, these values and the values of the Federation in general are not a luxury that can only be indulged in in times of peace, but especially in times of crisis and war they are the anchor not to drift into inhumanity, revenge and hatred.

But similar to the film "Crimson Tide", in which the judge concludes at the end that both sides in this conflict were both right and also wrong, this can also be applied to this episode. Of course, it was Archer's duty to help the Xindi. After all, they are innocent children (or unborn hatchlings in this case), they are civilians who have nothing to do with the war. However, Archer's analogy is a bit exaggerated, comparing these eggs to Xindi primate children. Depending on the stage of development of the brood, one could have made a decision based on whether these eggs already contain appropriately developed embryos or whether they are at such an early stage of development that no life in a medical sense is yet present.

But of course the crew was also right: help, especially in times of war and crisis, stops when one's own life or one's own mission is jeopardized. When Archer wanted to divert antimatter or send a distress call directly to the Xindi, he went too far. The crew should have intervened much earlier and removed the captain from command instead of starting a ship-wide mutiny. It's surprising anyway that there don't seem to be any dedicated rules to deal with obvious character changes among senior officers. The crew flies through unknown territory, with dangers lurking everywhere in the form of pathogens, space anomalies, multidimensional phenomena or aliens with sophisticated weapons or psycho-manipulating abilities. In fact, any change in a command officer's behavior should always be examined closely and, in cases of doubt, lead to him being temporarily relieved of command. Ultimately, the crew must always be prepared for the possibility that a sudden change in behavior could be due to an external influence. And especially on the current mission, the entire crew should remain focused.

The entire escalation would have been unnecessary if both sides had adhered to clear rules.