Star Trek: Enterprise (TV Series)

The Breach (2003)

John Billingsley: Dr. Phlox

Photos 

Quotes 

• [Dr. Phlox takes a ball of hair out of a small cage] 

  Ensign Hoshi Sato : What is that?

  Dr. Phlox : It won't bite. It's called a tribble.

  [he hands the tribble to Hoshi] 

  Dr. Phlox : It was extremely difficult to acquire. They're outlawed on most worlds.

  Ensign Hoshi Sato : Why? Is it dangerous?

  Dr. Phlox : Oh, far from it. All it's capable of doing, really, is eating and breeding. The problem is, they breed quite prodigiously.

  [Phlox takes the tribble and feeds it to one of his other creatures] 

  Dr. Phlox : The only thing that keeps their population in check is the abundance of reptiles on their homeworld.

• [last lines] 

  Dr. Phlox : Dear Mettus. I know it's been some time since I've written, and I know chances are slim that you'll respond to this letter. However, something has happened that compels me to try to reach you again. I've had an experience that has opened many old wounds. As painful as it's been, it's also changed something in me. I hope, if you're willing to listen, it might begin to change something in you.

• Dr. Phlox : The will of the patient is the cornerstone of Denobulan medical ethics.

  Captain Jonathan Archer : Don't you believe if you can help someone, you're ethically bound to do so?

  Dr. Phlox : Hippocrates wasn't Denobulan.

• Dr. Phlox : When I was quite young, I wanted to take a... a trip to an arboreal planet, near our system. It was a park of sorts with a... great variety of exotic animal life. Some friends and I had planned the journey for months, but a... week before I was supposed to leave, one of my grandmothers took me aside and told me I couldn't go.

  Sub-Commander T'Pol : Why not?

  Dr. Phlox : She said the planet was tainted. Antarans had lived there once; even though they'd been gone for years, she believed the place had been spoiled by their presence.

  Sub-Commander T'Pol : Did you go?

  Dr. Phlox : No. But when I had children of my own, I took them there. I was determined not to raise them as I was raised.

  Sub-Commander T'Pol : Your children were fortunate to have a father who taught them to embrace other cultures.

  Dr. Phlox : [gloomily]  I certainly tried...

• Dr. Phlox : You also asked me if I have children; I have five. And no, I never told them my grandmother's stories. When they asked me about the Antarans, I told them the truth, as best as I knew it. I told them about our military campaigns against your people. About how we had demonized you, turned you into a faceless enemy. I wanted them to learn to judge people for what they really are - not what the propaganda tells them.

  Hudak : How would you know who we really are?

  Dr. Phlox : I don't. But I am proud to say that my children would consider my grandmother's attitude archaic - all of them but one.

• Dr. Phlox : You wanted to know what my children would think if they were here now. I can tell you what Mettus would think: he would be happy to have me grant your request - and let you die. But that is not the example I tried to set for my children. Why not live? Set an example for yours?

• Hudak : Tell me, were you raised listening to stories about my people, the 'evil Antarans'? Did they give you nightmares?

  Dr. Phlox : I could ask you the same question about my people.

  Hudak : Do you have children, Doctor?

  Dr. Phlox : Why?

  Hudak : Did you tell those stories to them? Did you teach them to hate Antarans just like you were taught?

  Dr. Phlox : My children have nothing to do with this.

  Hudak : Don't they? If they were here right now, what would they think about their father, talking to an Antaran?

  Dr. Phlox : Enough!

  Hudak : Would you even let them in the same room with me?

  Dr. Phlox : I have tried to treat you with respect, but I refuse to listen to these insults. You're the reason we haven't been able to put the past behind us! You have kept this hatred alive! No Denobulan would want to be in the same room with you!

  [storms out of sickbay]