10 Greatest Star Trek Feel Good Moments
4. Porthos Pulls Through
At the start of the season two Star Trek: Enterprise episode A Night in Sickbay, we find out that Porthos has picked up a potentially problematic pathogen after going walkies with Captain Archer, Ensign Sato, and T'Pol on the home world of the Kreetassans. The adorable little musketeer also relieved himself up one of the Kreetassans' culturally significant Alvera trees, a fact for which Archer would later have to, rather theatrically, apologise with a chainsaw, an interesting hairstyle, and the careful placement of wood.
It’s touch-and-go for everyone's favourite captain's pet (do those ready room fish count for consideration?), and so Archer decides to spend the night in sickbay with the naturally tireless Phlox. In amongst the ups-and-downs and tense moments for Porthos, we get a wild bat chase, the filing of toenails, awkward dreams, and more Freudian (or "Pillarian," as Phlox calls them) slips than that time Dr Sigmund tried out his local ice rink. "I'm doing the breast I… The best I can" and "When you get back to the bridge, why don't you send me your lips. Lisp… list!" is about all Archer manages to say to T'Pol at one point.
The really uplifting moment comes at the end of the episode, however. Archer returns to sickbay after his lengthy apology to the Kreetassans, anxious to see how Porthos is doing. The beagle wakes up and bounds into the Captain's arms and the pair set off for 'home'. We're even treated to one of Phlox's trademark ear-to-ear smiles.
"Optimism, Captain!" as the Doctor once said.