Star Trek: 10 Episode Spoilers Hidden In The French Translation

Season one, episode thirteen of Star Trek: Enterprise lends a classic epistolary form to a classic Star Trek dilemma. Doctor Phlox muses on events, and the nature of human emotions and compassion, in a series of letters to his colleague Jeremy Lucas.

Phlox is tasked with finding a cure for a disease that is killing an alien species – the Valakians – in their millions. He discovers the cause is genetic and will lead to extinction, but that the Menk – a second sentient, but outwardly less advanced, humanoid species of the same planet – are immune. In reality, the Menk are on an upwards evolutionary path and giving a cure to the Valakians could disrupt this process. Phlox is thrown into an ethical dilemma, and Captain Archer must face an additional predicament when the Valakians ask for warp technology.

‘Dear Doctor’ is an apt title that balances brevity with just enough imagination to entice the viewer. The French choice of title, however, is baffling to say the least. ‘L’Évolution de l’espèce’ translates simply as ‘[The] Evolution of the Species’. It manages to spoil the entire intrigue that develops in Acts One and Two, ruins the reveal about the Menk and, hence, the reasoning behind Phlox’s ethical and medical dilemma, as well as Archer’s double-edged conundrum.

Ultimately, the French title misses the point that the story of the episode is intended as a subtle commentary on the evolution of humans as a species. Despite an extraordinary capacity for compassion (even towards film characters, as Phlox notes) and a growing interspecies competence, humans (in 2051 at least) still have some evolving to do away from knee-jerk emotion towards a more rational ‘prime directive’. The French viewer is rather robbed of figuring out this allegory for themselves.