an icepick through the keyhole

My problem with "A Night In Sickbay" wasn't quite that Quantum was a dumbass - but that he was deliberately written so and his character assassinated for the sake of a After School Special moral.

We've seen Archer deal with alien species over the last year, we've seen him make mistakes, fumble, but in none of these interactions did he seem completely as unreasonable and irrational as he did in this episode. We've even seen him admit to mistakes at the end of "Shockwave, Part II". One would imagine that, after one year, he would have learned some tolerance, some modicum of sense. One does not expect this petulant child - and, considering what he's experienced over the last year, this petulant child personality is implausible.

Archer in this episode was virtually ranting at his subordinates, which is so completely out of character for him given the careful way he tries to get closer to them over the past year with his Captain's breakfasts and casual manner on the bridge. This is also a man who's learned to deal with his Vulcan Science Officer as an almost equal, and the two have demonstrated (well, T'Pol - still the smartest - at least) the beginnings of being able to anticipate each others' moves and thinking much like Kirk and Spock used to do. Which makes Phlox's assertion about friction ring false, since that hasn't manifested itself since mid-last season... since "Fusion" in fact, where the two of them started to reach an understanding.

What I found annoying about the episode was Bermaga's completely unsubtle writing - that they knew full well how petulant and irrational Archer would be acting if they wrote him this way and they wrote it anyway in the face of all the character development and growth Archer should have undergone in the last year. And they did this precisely so our Grinch could learn his lesson. In other words, they were building up the psycho-Archer as a straw man easy for the rest of the characters to knock down.

Why this is a mistake is because Archer is not supposed to be a straw man. Archer is supposed to be the leading man - the Captain, and as a straw man he is not capable of holding the respect of the crew he is supposed to lead. This is not the man who Hoshi said of that she would give an earful to whoever bad mouthed Archer. This is the man who Hoshi smirks and gives significant glances to T'Pol about behind his back. This is the man who Phlox tolerates and patronizes. This is the man who even Trip treats like a six-year-old when he tries to explain why he doesn't feel comfortable with only four working plasma injectors. This also undermines any kind of respect or sympathy the audience has built up for Archer. It regresses the character to make a cheap point, and that's just low.

I'm not a Quantum booster (now there's a technbabble device for you), but I hate it when the writing is so transparent in its intentions - its bad intentions.

I will say, though, that even though it would have been just as painful to watch, "A Night In Sickbay" would have made more sense for Archer's character if it had been written early in the 1st season, prior to "Fusion", say.