I find it hard to believe that Scott Bakula, Captain Archer from Enterprise will be 57 years in October. It seems like only yesterday that Mr. Bakula “leaped” to stardom as Sam Beckett. That was in 1989, when the actor was 35 years old. Now, after what seems like almost no time at all, he’s almost old enough to be looking at Medicare plans, though I don’t finances being a real problem for this very successful actor.
Join us in wishing a Happy Belated Birthday to John Billingsley, Enterprise‘s Dr. Phlox.
John Billingsley was born on May 20, 1960 and he turned 51 years old yesterday.
While readers here might only remember him as the Denobulan doctor who kept bats in sickbay and fed tribbles to one of his “pets”, Mr. Billingsley’s filmography goes back to 1988 and includes parts in Northern Exposure, The Practice, and Diagnosis Murder, as well as an episode of Stargate SG1.
Without a doubt, my favorite quote from John Billingsley comes from an interview in which someone asked him if that ear-to-ear smile of Dr. Phlox’s was real or not. His answer was, “The smile as computer generated. The 18-inch tongue, on the other hand, is all mine.”
You’ve got to love that sense of humor.
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Have you ever noticed that in every incarnation of Star Trek, whenever a hostile alien tries to take over the ship the first thing they do is cut off life support to the bridge? Have you also noticed that once life support is restored, usually at the last possible second, everyone is fine except for these huge sweat stains on their uniforms?
Those sweat stains would mean that their body temperature has gone up. Based on an article at thermogenesis.org, as often as that happens, nobody whose post is on the bridge should have any trouble with their weight.
In reality, once life support is cut off, the bridge area should be getting colder since the heating system is off.
Enterprise’s Dr. Phlox is definitely one of the show’s more interesting characters. One of our favorite episodes in which Phlox figures prominently is “Dear Doctor”. In the episode, because postcard printing doesn’t seem to exist in Captain Archer’s time, Phlox is dictating a letter to a colleague on his home world and the letter is used as a narrative throughout the episode.
The crew encounters a world with two intelligent species, one of whom is dependent upon the other, which is dying of because of a genetic virus.
Phlox determines that the dependent species is undergoing an awakening of sorts and could, eventually, dominate the planet if they weren’t completely dominated by the other species.
Phlox developed a cure for the disease that is killing off the dominate species, but doesn’t feel that it would be morally correct to administer the cure. He expresses the opinion that they should let nature decide which species will survive.
His discussion with Captain Archer about the subject is the first hint of a mention of the Prime Directive in the Star Trek timeline.
Given how Dr. McCoy felt about twentieth century medicine (“cutting and stitching people like garments” “sounds like the g** d****ed Spanish Inquisition”) wouldn’t it be interesting if he could have met Dr. Phlox from Captain Archer’s Enterprise, either through time travel or through a really long Denobulan lifespan?
McCoy always used the latest technology available while Dr. Phlox preferred eels, leaches, and bat droppings instead of more “conventional” treatments like Ibuprophen, adapexin, or Tylenol.
Readers are encouraged to post in the comments how they think such a meeting might go.