10 Star Trek Undercover Operations That Went Wrong
7. Lost And Found
Chekov isn't the only one to lose his communicator at the worst possible moment. He followed in the footsteps of one Lieutenant Reed.
The Communicator features a covert operation that went wrong not just once, but twice. Archer leads a disguised away team to investigate a pre-warp civilisation. They return congratulating each other on a job well done...until Reed realises his communicator is missing. It really does make you wonder if this kind of mission is worth the risk.
Archer and Reed return to try and find it before it can cause any cultural contamination, but they're captured by the paranoid military who are convinced they're spies for the rival Alliance. In a job terribly done, yet more Starfleet technology is discovered on them, and T'Pol decides to contact Archer using his highly suspicious rank of Captain. Vulcans really need to up their subterfuge game.
Things take a dark turn when the pair are interrogated, examined and set to be executed. But they manage to maintain an improvised cover that they're genetically enhanced soldiers until T'Pol can rescue them.
Archer bleakly hopes that all's well that ends well, but T'Pol points out the damage is done. Yes, they might have succeeded in keeping their extraterrestrial origins secret, but they skewed their captors' view on the Alliance, contaminating the natural progression of their civilisation.
On the surface, The Communicator is a straightforward proto-Prime Directive story. But it's the way it's written and delivered that hits hard. Reed's fear of what one rogue communicator might do...Archer and Reed's earnest debate over whether they should reveal the truth or not...the suspicion and aggression of a military power faced with strangers.
So maybe we should forgive Reed's transgression, given the cracking good episode that spawned from it. Just this once.