Stigma (Enterprise)
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| Star Trek: Enterprise episode | |
| "Stigma" | |
 T'Pol is diagnosed with Pa'nar Syndrome |
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| Episode no. | 40 |
|---|---|
| Prod. code | 214 |
| Airdate | February 5, 2003 |
| Writer(s) | Rick Berman Brannon Braga |
| Director | David Livingston |
| Guest star(s) | Melinda Page Hamilton Michael Ensign Bob Morrisey Jeffrey Hayenga Lee Spencer |
| Year | 2152 |
| Stardate | unknown |
| Episode chronology | |
| Previous | "Dawn" |
| Next | "Cease Fire" |
Stigma is the 40th episode (production #214) of the television series Star Trek: Enterprise.
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[edit] Synopsis
In the episode, it is revealed that T'Pol has a degenerative disease, Pa'nar Syndrome, contracted from her mind-meld in "Fusion". She must face being ostracized by Vulcan society and losing her position on Enterprise.
[edit] Plot
Dr. Phlox tells T'Pol that his treatment of her possibly fatal Pa'nar Syndrome is losing effectiveness, and he'd like to make confidential inquiries about the disease with Vulcan doctors attending an interspecies medical exchange on the planet Enterprise orbits. She resists, but Phlox chooses to go anyway. Before he does, one of his wives, Feezal, arrives to help install a new microscope.
Phlox's inquiries with the Vulcans yields little information. When the Vulcans come on board Enterprise and interview Phlox and T'Pol, it is clear that his subterfuge had failed. The Vulcans trick T'Pol into giving a medical sample, which confirms to them that she has Pa'nar.
Archer is upset that he had to learn about T'Pol's condition from the Vulcans. It then comes out that T'Pol could lose her commission because Pa'nar is a stigmatized disease. It is only transmitted via mind meld, and the Vulcans have a low opinion of the practice. Archer then pays his own visit to the Vulcans — which is no more fruitful than Phlox's first visit. That is until one of the doctors, Yuris, sets up a secret meeting with T'Pol to give her the information she seeks. He is a mind melder, and feels a sort of bond with her. But she lets it be known that the infectious mind meld, her only experience, was forced. He tells her to tell the others before the Vulcan High Command is informed of her condition. She refuses.
Archer uses a loophole in Vulcan protocol to force a hearing. T'Pol stands by her silence, and Archer stands by his science officer, all the while arguing with the Vulcan doctors. Dr. Yuris then exposes T'Pol's secret, and comes out of the mind meld closet himself. As a result, he's suspended, but T'Pol is allowed to remain on Enterprise. T'Pol continues to take the high ground and will inform the High Command about the events — Yuris shouldn't be condemned without a fight.
While all of this was going on, Feezal was making constant amorous advances on poor Commander Tucker. He can't quite wrap his mind around a culture where polygamy from all sexes is the norm. He bows out as gracefully as he can, but Phlox and Feezal can only shake their heads and laugh in bemused wonder... "Humans."
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Please help improve this section by expanding it. Further information might be found on the talk page or at requests for expansion. |
[edit] Pa'nar Syndrome
Pa'nar Syndrome is a fictional neurological ailment, fatal to Vulcans. Its symptoms include the rapid increase of neurolytic enzymes, affecting the synaptic pathways within the brain as well as the endocrine and immune systems.
Pa'nar Syndrome is transferred between Vulcans via a mind-meld. At this time in the Star Trek universe, only a small portion of Vulcans exercise the ability to perform mind melds. Melding by Vulcans who have Pa'nar Syndrome is neither tolerated nor sanctioned by the Vulcan government.
T'Pol had contracted this relatively rare disease from Tolaris, a member of a rebellious Vulcan sect who had cast aside the rule of logic and experimented with mind melds and emotions. The event was seen in "Fusion", where it seemed that T'Pol willingly participated at first, unaware of the risks. It is described in "Stigma" that T'Pol later resisted and was telepathically raped by Tolaris. In 2154, T'Pol learned that the condition was in fact caused by an improperly trained melder, and contrary to what the Vulcan High Command had decreed, it was indeed curable by the touch of an experienced mind (in T'Pol's case a service provided by future Vulcan elder T'Pau).
[edit] Production history
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This section may contain original research or unverified claims. Please help Wikipedia by adding references. See the talk page for details.(May 2007) |
In the fall of 2002, Viacom, the owners of the UPN network on which Enterprise was aired, mandated that all fictional programs on its schedule would, sometime during the 2002-2003 season, produce a special episode addressing the AIDS crisis. This proved to be a challenge for Enterprise since, being a set 150 years in the future and not mentioning AIDS, it presumably takes place after a cure for AIDS has been discovered.
The issue was addressed not by the use of an HIV-analog (the disease T'Pol contracts causes progressive neurological deterioration, not immune-system breakdowns) but by the stigma Vulcan's institutional and cultural mainstream places on those infected. This stigma is compounded by the fact that most of the victims belong to a minority already reviled for their practice of mind-melding, the outlawed and not-yet-perfected art that causes the disease in the first place. As a result, Vulcan society has placed a low priority on the development of a cure, with deadly consequences.
The episode proved controversial. Some Star Trek fans felt it was untimely (too little too late) and a cop-out because the episode never mentions the AIDS pandemic on earth, fails to make an explicit plea for compassion for those living with HIV, and, as some producers of the series publicly acknowledged, it dodges the issue of sexual orientation[citation needed]. However, some viewers have responded positively to the parallels between the episode and the intolerance in human society.[1] Also, given the fact that AIDS affects people of all sexual orientations, this latter failure is not relevant to the quality of the episode per se. The episode’s concern was not with AIDS but with the stigma attending on a disease specific (or appearing to be specific) to an already oppressed minority, with the strong implication that it is not the nature of the disease but the nature of the stigmatization and of people’s responses to it that are important, because those latter factors affect among other things how the disease is treated and how the development of a cure is pursued.
Other fans praised the episode for T’Pol’s refusal to save her career and acquire the medical therapies she needs when it becomes clear that doing so would reinforce the prejudicial attitudes and practices of the Vulcan establishment. That very refusal gives one of the Vulcan doctors the courage to admit his own membership in the oppressed minority and suffer the consequences. Fans of the Vulcan race applauded the episode for revealing more background about the Vulcan race.
T'Pol's Pa'nar Syndrome was only occasionally mentioned in future episodes, and it became a fan complaint that years passed without it being even spoken about. This was finally rectified in the fourth season episode "Awakening", part of a story arc that addressed a number of issues first raised in "Stigma". It is revealed in the "Awakening" story arc that the oppressive faction seen in charge of Vulcan at the time of "Stigma" had disseminated untruths about the Vulcan race even among its own people (it is suggested the Romulans might have been responsible). Among these untruths was the claim that only a minority of Vulcans were capable of mind-melds. "Awakening" revealed this to be far from the truth, and it further clarified that T'Pol's condition was caused by an improperly trained melder, rather than a virus.
[edit] External links
- Stigma article at Memory Alpha, a Star Trek wiki
- Pa'nar Syndrome article at Memory Alpha, a Star Trek wiki
[edit] References
- ^ Intolerance in the world. Retrieved on 2007-10-12.
