Archer tortured a guy! Ok, this is just ... coming out of left field? I mean, he's like Picard from "Yesterday's Enterprise" and Sisko from "In the Pale Moonlight", except YE Picard wasn't "our" Picard, and Sisko was "our" Sisko, but one brutalized by some pretty nasty situations. Somewhere down the line, Archer's behavior is going to get out of hand to the point one of his crew is going to take actions against him. Why is he taking the Xindi attack so ... personally? Reed at least still had a sliver of his humanity about him.
Cool brig. It has doors. Such a simple concept, Starfleet ship designers in the future should be bitch smacked.
At least Hoshi gets some stuff to do.
I'm sure this occured to me before, and to some of you, but I didn't watch much of ENT's second season ... do Denebulans (sp?) look like a cousin of the Cardassians to anyone else?
So ... they find a ship, are on guard against pirates ... and then the pirates just totally ransack 'em? Is it not standard policy to put security dudes around when you're expecting to be boarded? Then again, would a transporter boarding be expected? Then again, shouldn't Archer be expecting the unexpected?
Well, I liked it. We've had our Hero Ships boarded before, but even in TNG's "Die Hard" episode, there wasn't much to be gained by stopping the terrorists - "Oh no, they stole something we need, we'll just get it shipped over from Starbase Six..." Here, though, at least the consequences of the boarding (and the crewmember's death) FEEL very real.
Posted by Futurama Guy (Member # 968) on :
I liked it.
Posted by Jason Abbadon (Member # 882) on :
Damn good episode.
Definitely a frantic feel to the episode and the camera work during the airlock decompression scenr was great and jerky in an intentionally nervous way: it jerks back and forth between Archer and Reed insttead of clean cutting between them.
The moment between Reed and Trip was really good. I mean Deep Space Nine kinda good. Trip's frustration and exhaustion is a palpable thing in that scene.
Good to know Reed's still there and not freaking out like everyone else.
Of course, all his family was well out of the Xindi weapons path o' destruction too.
You guys catch the stembolts refrence? I laughed: Stembolts are BIG.
Posted by Malnurtured Snay (Member # 411) on :
Jason: yes! How much you wanna bet those are the same stembolts that Jake and Nog are going to get their hands on in "Progress"?
Posted by AndrewR (Member # 44) on :
Yes, but were they self-sealing stem bolts?
Posted by Jason Abbadon (Member # 882) on :
They may not have had self sealing stembolts that far back.... Jake and Nog's haul of Stembolts must have filled a whole cargo hold!
Posted by Malnurtured Snay (Member # 411) on :
Did Quark buy them back? He was trying to unload some stembolts in "Prophet Motive."
Also - did the music in the episode, the sickbay segment, remind anyone of the score when Crusher was trying to revive Yar?
Posted by Jason Abbadon (Member # 882) on :
Your bringing up "Skin of evil" just underscores how good tonight's episode truly was.
Posted by Sol System (Member # 30) on :
?
I liked some of the camera work, especially when they first boarded the derelict craft in the beginning.
Posted by Mark Nguyen (Member # 469) on :
The things Reed was waving his scanner at are NOT stembolts. I think they're the same props that were wpent reactor casings (or whatever they were) from "The Seventh" last year. I guess stembolts come in different sizes.
Mark
Posted by TSN (Member # 31) on :
I suspect there's a noticeable difference between a 22nd-century stembolt, and a 24th-century self-sealing stembolt.
Posted by Alshrim (Member # 258) on :
I loved the ep.. Very Gritty! Lots of tension. Great camera work.. And I think Archer's taking this personally because his best friend's sister croaked in the Xindi attack .. not to mention that he's the captain of the starfleet flag-ship - and maybe feels a responsibility to get to the bottom of things.
It was good to see Reed in charge of the 'Marine-types' .. they are pretty green, aren't they?
Posted by Futurama Guy (Member # 968) on :
Yeah, definately a SFx bonanza, and I loved the noticably different camera work too. In fact, the times that the Enterprise entered/exited the distortion and approached that 'mini-me' Dyson sphere the camera work and intensity felt like that of TWoK when 1701 was first approached Regula....and the zoomed in fly-by with the ominous music while they were waiting in ambush...very wraith of khanny!
Posted by MrNeutron (Member # 524) on :
Personally, I find the idea of torture pretty reprehensible, and I wasn't at all happy to see it used here.
That said, it was a pretty stupidly done scene. You wouldn't die near instantly when exposed to a vacuum. And if the air was almost gone, the alien couldn't have heard Archer or Archer heard him. In space, no one can hear you _______.
Posted by PsyLiam (Member # 73) on :
quote:Originally posted by MrNeutron: Personally, I find the idea of torture pretty reprehensible, and I wasn't at all happy to see it used here.
Were the "goodies" or "badies" doing the torturing? Because if it's the badies...do you want them to not do anything you don't think is nice? That'll make the plot a touch boring, don'tcha think?
Posted by Harry (Member # 265) on :
It was ARCHER who was doing the torturing. With Reed and Generic Security Guy standing right behind him. Although Reed was shocked to see his captain going crazy, he didn't do anything.
Posted by Alshrim (Member # 258) on :
I think it was great. It added grit to it.. Showed that there they weren't as 'refined' as people thought...
It shows also that Archer is RIGHT on the edge. He can teeter either way - and he's having trouble dealing with the death of a good friend - the destruction of so much on his planet... and he wants revenge! When you want justice - no matter what - it begs the question, how far are you willing to go to get it.
Well.. obviously - he's willing to shuck away his morality a bit!! That's human nature!
In the end... He lets the guy go ! *shrugs* again evidence of this teetering moral conflict.
I just like the grittiness of it all.. He's saying... "Fuck being the good guy all the damned time !! It's time i show people that they can't push me around all the time, damnit!"
Posted by TheWoozle (Member # 929) on :
Keep in mind that Reed would HAVE to react to Archer acting crazy, for it to be believable. The Pirate was all ready to just stand in the airlock until he passed out, knowing that he would just be put back in his cell. That's harder to do when you start believing your gonna die. I notice that they didn't have the other characters commenting on Archer.. I still think he's coffee cup is just getting on his nerves.
Posted by Jason Abbadon (Member # 882) on :
I often feel like tossing jerks out the airlock when I don't get my caffine.
Posted by Alshrim (Member # 258) on :
BWAHAHAHAHAA !!!!
Posted by CaptainMike20X6 (Member # 709) on :
quote:Originally posted by Jason Abbadon: I often feel like tossing jerks out the airlock when I don't get my caffine.
using 'tossing' and 'jerk' in the same sentence gives your statement intercontinental barroom hilarity
Posted by Cartman (Member # 256) on :
"It was ARCHER who was doing the torturing."
If Janeway, after one of her many Batesian mood swings, could get away with it in Equinox, so can Johnny.
Posted by Capped in Mic (Member # 709) on :
rewatched, i just saw that the MACOs suiting up wore a red undershirt under their EVA suits..
the first redshirts...
Posted by Wraith (Member # 779) on :
The casualties ought to start racking up soon then.
Posted by Jeff Raven (Member # 20) on :
Damn fine episode. The tension in Archer is so palpable. This is quite a turn from the "Trying to be a good boy" Archer from the first season, and I can see why he is so frustrated. Imagine starting out as one of the first interstellar explorers, hoping to find other cultures with similar interests in exploring and learning new things...only to find out that a great deal of them are greedy, destructive and violent.
Posted by TheWoozle (Member # 929) on :
They're really making it look like Archer is taking seven million casulties, personally and looking for somebody to blame. It's understandable, considering that HE, personally, is out there to protect Earth from having it happen again. That would stress anybody out, not to mention all the Xindi skullduggery.
Posted by Bernd (Member # 6) on :
A story with Archer ticking off was about to come sooner or later. Interestingly, it seems every Trek captain so far has exactly one person or thing that makes him (or her) go berserk:
Kirk - Klingons (well, Khan would probably count too) Picard - Borg Sisko - Eddington Janeway - Ransom Archer - Xindi
Posted by Treknophyle (Member # 509) on :
In case any of you aren't fans of classic sf, the airlock interrogation scene is pretty much a redo of the one from Heinlein's 'Rocketship Gallileo'.
Same result in the end. It is easy to face death in the abstract - less easy when the breath is whistling out of your lungs - and the lower end of your GI tract is venting as well.
I see no problem with the tactic in regards to Archer's character. Yes, he's taking his role of 'Earth's Protector' seriously - but then, until other starships come online, NX-01 is it so far as Earth's survival.
I was watching the episode in company, and our first commercial comment was: "looks like Archer grew himself a pair."
We've seen the evolution of ethics throughout Trek (right up to Picard, who sometimes seems downright goody-goody - and this is the closest era to ours.
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