Twitter is an amazing thing. The other day I learned from a random Twitter conversation that a Star Trek series had done a ‘Zombie Vulcan’ episode. Zombies? On generally hyper-tolerant, liberal humanist Star Trek? Could this be a break for our cause?

Well, no, as it happens. Instead of providing any interesting depictions of the Differently Animated or inducing audience sympathy for their plight the episode ‘Impulse’ involves a handful of Enterprise crew wandering around a Vulcan ship full of a poisonous substance that makes the Vulcans lose control of their emotions. For some unexplained reason this also makes them shamble around, become basically non-verbal, and ooze a lot of green blood everywhere. (Presumably to make them look more Zombielike)

In other words, it’s a lot like ‘Pandorum’, which we previously reviewed here on the ZRC blog. Paranoia, attacks in a crumbling ship with lots of flashing lights and sparks and metal clanging on metal. Moving from one place to the next to activate the the series of technomagic macguffins to get off the ghost ship. Etc.

The Enterprise episode is so eerily similar to ‘Pandorum’ that it feels like a ripoff, except for the inconvenient fact that ‘Pandorum’ came six years later. I saw them, as it happens, in reverse order. Is ‘Pandorum’ derivative of ‘Impulse’, then? I kind of hope not.

Needless to say there’s a lot to be confused and upset about in this episode. The treatment of the Zombie-Vulcans is harsh and unfair, of course; despite being repeatedly labeled as somehow beyond help and without reason, they in fact repair and sabotage the ship around the Enterprise crew, acting more like officers attempting to repel an invasion than supposedly berserk individuals.

Within the Star Trek universe it doesn’t make a great deal of sense either. I thought Vulcans without control over their emotions were.. essentially.. Romulans? I mean, isn’t that the point?

So are Romulans all Zombies too? Like, Roman Alien Zombies?

Bizarre. If so I think we can support them, but…

The handy wikipedia tells me that the technological macguffin in question is later turned into an addictive Vulcan drug, which is hardly the first time Zombies have been slandered as akin to drug abuse, or stemming FROM drug abuse. Sigh. And I thought Vulcans controlled their emotions through religion and meditation? In other words, it’s a voluntary process, right? Why would you need a drug to stop meditating? Is meditation addictive to Vulcans? The mind boggles.

In the end, ‘Impulse’ showed that even the Star Trek franchise, long known for battering down the barriers of prejudice, was unwilling to lift a finger to help combat stereotypes when it came to the Zombie Community, and on the contrary was more than happy to spread said stereotypes.

The Zombie Rights Campaign accordingly awards the Star Trek: Enterprise episode ‘Impulse’ our second-lowest ranking, the Anti-Zombie brand of shame. For shame, long-since-cancelled TV show. For shame.

‘Impulse’, as well as the whole ‘Enterprise’ tv series, is currently streaming on Netflix Instant Viewer for those who are interested.

Special ZRC thanks to sparklystuff for the Twitter tip that led to this review.

Tags: Television, ZRC Reviews

This entry was posted by John Sears on Wednesday, December 7th, 2011 at 4:14 pm and is filed under Zombie Media. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.