Aha! Perhaps the definitive episode for Reed/T'Polers?  Proper Grammar as always, Malcolm says 'head nor tails'.  He settles in to read Ulysses while Trip 'tinkers'.  Would T'Pol read or tinker?  Malcolm wails to Trip about British schools and their core curriculum.  Did that make anyone else wonder what the Vulcan curriculum is like?  I doubt they read comic books and science-fiction novels.  Do you think Reed was good or bad in school? I say one extreme or the other.

 Malcolm also thinks Vulcans and Europeans have more in common, and that they wouldn't have babied humans as much if Vulcans  had landed in Europe instead of Montanta. (Where Cochrane spent his nights reading about cowboys and indians, says Reed.)

    Reed looks highly choked up at seeing that wussy  NX-01 splattered on the asteroid.  You would think they would know their ship was bigger than that, but Reed seems to know more about the shuttlepod than Trip. (I am not even discussing Trip's whole honors biology education.)  Nonetheless, we learn that Enterprise is safe, and Lieutenant Hess is in charge of the repairs.  I wonder about her.  She's a Lietuenant JG? But not a senior officer? But she's in engineering? I think we never see her because she's Malcolm's toy, but anway.

        Malcolm feels they are going to die, since they will run out of air in 10 days. 10 days alone in a shuttlepod, with Trip and Reed. What a way to go!  Trip, ever the optimist, works, while Malcolm dictates 'heartfelt letters to half the girls in San Francisco!'  Why didn't he finish Ulysses?  Malcolm becomes very angy and emotional.  The sublties in this episode are great.  I've seen it 12 times and I doubt I've caught them all.  Malcolm writes to his parents, who never responded to his two prior letters. Malcolm uses big words like 'screwn' and ends his report with 'May God have mercy on our souls!'  Actually they say God a lot in this ep, which is unsusual for Trek.

    Malcolm decides to eat. His sarcasism is superb, when he asks Trip if he's going to eat or wait for a ship serving 'proper meals'.  Malcolm pulls out 4 rashion packs, and reads three of them.  Trip then promplty asks if there is any meatloaf.  Reed looks up  at  Trip like 'I ought to stun him and eat the meatloaf just for spite.'  Malcolm cooks the Meatloaf pack for Trip, then makes Chilean See Bass for himself.  Trips asks how it is, and Malcolm answers, 'It's lovely. Thank you.'   I think he is being sarcastic.  And I still say Malcolm has never eaten with his hands!
    Reed continues with his letters, insisting he needs to tie up loose ends before he dies.  Well if you had tied up those loose ends in the first place, Mr. Reed, such as asking out a certain Vulcan!  Trip pulls out his heavy insults and questions Malcolm's cynisism.

    Trip forces Mal to take a break, and our weary Armory Officer falls asleep.  Malcolm dreams of T'Pol calling him a hero. Malcolm just has issues, because he also dreams of Archer telling him what a brave man he is. T'Pol steps to his bedside.   'I had no idea you could be so selfless. In the face of such danger, most males of your species would give into their fear.....Vulcans could never ignore courage.'   Malcolm even checks T'Pol out his in dream!  Reed admits he's never liked the name Malcolm, for he finds it too stuffy.   T'Pol loves Malcolm, the name I mean ;0) , and says its the Vulcan word for Serenity.  So Reed at least subconciously knows a thing or two to make a woman 'serene' 8op

    Mal promises not to change his name to Stinky, thank God, and T"Pol smiles.  The way Reed says 'This one does, I saw you.'  just rocks.  He keeps staying Stinky, which really got on my nerves the first time.  They get closer and closer.....

    Malcolm wakes, of course, right before the juicy stuff. I honestly think this is the first time they've interacted on the show, and its in a dream! (Actually I checked. They interacted 4 times prior to Shuttlepod One. Broken Bow, over the comm in Fight or Flight, Civilization, and Sleeping Dogs.)  I  was cringing at first. That Stinky over and over again is just, no.  But I thought, hey, this hot dork should get  the girl! Yeah!

    Anyway, Malcolm ingeniusly uses Trip's mash potatoes to seal a hull breach.  The boys sit down and chat about The 602 Club, a place where the boys both 'knew' a girl named Ruby.  I don't know if what Reed says is true, but he looked really hot when he said it. The Chops rub!

    While Malcolm shaves, because  'An officer at his best is always well groomed' (What number Reed Rule is that?) T'Pol is analyzing the possibility of microsingularties.  Why does she feel the need to reitorate she didn't mean science was more important than their crewman?  Obvious, much, T'Pol?

    Back on the BatPodMobile,  the boys shut off the heat to conserve oxygen.  Away jackets and hats! Malcolm writes more letters! Wtf? Who signs a letter to a former girlfriend as 'cordially' ? At least he said 'Cordially, Malcolm.'  instead of  'Cordially, Lieutenant Reed.' You gotta wonder what happened to those logs after!

    Trip is sick of Malcolm's last rites and insists they have a drink.  How Archer's Kentucky Borubun got hidden in Shuttlepod One, we'll never know!  Malcolm, despite his impeding death, insists 'I don't drink on duty.'  It's not supposed to make me laugh, but the way he says that, all serious and huddle in his hat and jacket, it just cracks me up, that and the 'Bloody Angel of Death!' line.   Trip asks if Mally is worried that the blood alcohol level will show Reed was unable to pilot.  Reed seems to stiffen at this thought. Hmmmm.......  Malcolm tells Trip he doesn't want to die, just everyone he cared about was on Enterprise, and now their dead.  T'Pol!   Do all British people sip Bourbun?   How does Reed keep all this emotional bottled up inside? Indeed the boy must be Vulcan!

Over emotional and not able to hold his liquor, Trip and Reedy get drunk.   Mal asked Trip what he thinks of T'Pol, since he thinks she pretty.   'She's a woman you know.  Don't tell me you've never looked at her, you know, in that way'.   Trip's 'OH GAWD!' is classic, but Trip does smile, thus admiting he noticed T'Pol's 'bum'.   Malcolm thinks 'She's got an awlfully nice bum! Awlfully nice!'  Is that how you spell 'awlfully' That's how he sounded when he said it, plastered.  The boys toast 'To Sub-Commander T'Pol!'

    But wait, what's that? Enterprise isn't destroyed, the boys finally find out.  Reed reminds himself  'Happy endings! I must think happy endings!'  Drunk off his keel, Malcolm still thinks of ways to get Enteprise to hurry to them.  First he wants to fire weapons, then he wants to blow up the shuttle engine.  Reed Rule #134567: If you can't solve something by firing, do it by blowing something up! He's about to die and what's on his mind? Weapons and T'Pol!

    After threatening to shoot Tucker, who wants to 'crawl up into a hole to die!'  Malcolm says Trip knows nothing about being a hero.  Ahem, does Malcolm? hehe.  Reed looks good not shaven.   So, the boys get rescued.   Malcolm returns drunk, dazed, and confused.  His only bright shining light is T'Pol standing nearby!  He asks if she has to say anything to him, hoping his dream will come true! But she just says goodnight, probably going to mediate on her confusing urges 8o)=)