No assignments tonight, so I've got time for a larger writeup. Spoilers ahoy!
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Quick story commentary: This is a really good episode, especially in the charcacter department. I'm in the firm belief now that Reed is going to be the breakout character in the show - great acting from the actors for him and Tucker.
-Timestamp: Novemer 9, 2151.
-The main plot revolves around Trip & Reed starting in an asteroid belt on the namesake shuttlepod, thinking the Pre-E had been somehow reduced to a pile of wreckage on an asteroid.
-What *really* happened was that the Enterprise was meeting an alien ship, when it malfunctioned during docking and collided with the Pre-E. Most of the crew got off in escape pods, and the Enterprise is ferrying them home. Trip & Reed were off testing targeting scanners when an overload convenienty mucked up the sensors, thus preventing them from identifying the wreckage aside from a scrap from the Enterprise hull with some writing on it. Enterprise was expecting to get back in time, but the pod returned home early due to the malfunction and misinterpreted everything.
-We finally get to see those cargo hatches work! An inspection pod launches from one, to take a look at the damage to the landing bay.
-Enterprise escape pods max out at 300kph.
-For a Starfleet engineer, Trip seems blissfully ignorant of the realities of FTL travel. It's well into the second act of the show when Reed is finally able to convince him that at impulse, it'd take forever to get ANYWHERE, let alone to Echo-3, their closest possible destination. It was in the dimmest hopes that they'd get close enough to relay a distress call to.. someone, at least to let them know what happened.
-For a complete social recluse (per "Silent Enemy") Reed certainly seems to have more than a few notches on his belt in the love department, as evidenced by the farewell letters he records. He even got it on with Ruby, a waitress at a Starfleet academy hangout, on more than one occasion. Uh, so did Trip.
-Shuttlepods have 11-12 days of air on them. Their emergency beacon was knocked out; however, the portable backup has a range of ten to twenty million klicks. Holes in the shuttle hull can be fixed by sealant, a finger, or mashed potatoes.
-There's a bottle of Tenessee whisky in the shuttle. Apparently the Captain put it there in anticipation of giving it to someone. Unfortunately, it's consumed in the course of the episode, but as a result we get treated to a scene where Trip & Reed are totally sauced.
-Reed and T-Pol get it on. Well, at least in his dream. It's also revealed that he never liked his given name, instead being partial to "Stinky". And in the dream, T'pol reveals that "malcom" means "serenity" in Vulcan. Dunno if I'd trust that.
-This week's spatial anomaly is: microsingularities! They're what caused the damage to the shuttle and the alien ship. The B-plot involves Archer and T'Pol arguing back and forth whether or not they exist. There's no real conclusion on this issue.
-The shuttlepod can jettison and detonate its impilse drive. Also, its plasma weapons have a range of about ten kilometers.
-Oddly, there's an airlock in the top of the shuttle... Even more oddly, there's no space for it in the set, and the exterior model was not altered to add one.
Mark
Posted by Timo (Member # 245) on :
Sounds like a treasure chest of trivia once again.
I gather having an airlock on the shuttle makes perfect sense, and having it associated with the top entry hatch makes even more sense. Why else have that entry hatch at all? The doors of the shuttlebay are clearly strong enough to walk on, so the side doors of the shuttle could be used for ingress and egress there.
However, you say the top entry hatch leads into the main cabin of the shuttlepod, and not into an airlock? Too bad...
I have a minor problem with the escape pods having a "maximum speed". Presumably they simply have an engine pack that fires for a predetermined time, and this is the terminal velocity one gets out of the rocket pack. However, this apparently means that the pods cannot maneuver - they have to be aimed straight at a planetary atmosphere, at a suitable angle, in order to make a controlled re-entry. If they had fuel to maneuver after launch, they wouldn't have a "top speed" as such.
Timo Saloniemi
Posted by Michael_T (Member # 144) on :
Ok, that explains the trailer and why T'Pol was looking rather ready to shag with Reed.
Posted by Mark Nguyen (Member # 469) on :
Come to think of it, an expandable airlock a la Soviet Voshkhod would probably exist - we've seen the shuttle using some sort of extendable docking collar before. The only odd thing is that the walls beyond the hatch look remarkably rigid... Then again, it could be like one of those Winebagos that can expand the sides out when parked to make more room inside.
Mark
Posted by TSN (Member # 31) on :
Perhaps the "top speed" of an escape pod is the fastest speed at which it can initially hurl itself away from the ship. If the ship is not about to explode any moment, you can eject at a slower speed, so that you conserve fuel. However, if it might explode the second you separate from the hull, you can screw fuel economy and zip away as fast as possible so you don't blow up, too.
Posted by Malnurtured Snay (Member # 411) on :
I wouldn't count anything from the "dream" as canon.
Posted by David Templar (Member # 580) on :
"Trip & Reed were off testing targeting scanners when an overload convenienty mucked up the sensors, thus preventing them from identifying the wreckage aside from a scrap from the Enterprise hull with some writing on it."
Actually, I do believe it was a micro-singularity that caused their problems in the first place. That's the 'jolt' Reed was talking about.
Those blackholes must be *really* small, if they punch holes small enough to be plugged with a hand, and disappaits when hitting polarized hull platings.
I'm surprised they didn't use the phase pistols to heat up the floor boards or something.
Why the heck would a shuttle have shot glasses onboard?! Well, glass cups, anyways.
Shuttlepods have what looks like a microwave, along with microwave dinners! Not the most efficient use of space, but atleast the rations are "edible". Personally, MREs takes up less space.
The entire aft squarish engine thing is detachable. However, they apparently couldn't simply overload it, and had to microdetonators. A lot was micros in this episode.
Posted by The_Tom (Member # 38) on :
<adam sandler as abused goat>'oly fuckin' sheet, man!</adam sandler as abused goat>
Wow. Enterprise's first classic. Not an enormously original premise, but wow, boy did they get a lot of distance out of it.
If I may sneak in a few non-tech comments first. People used to whine about how Braga was great for coming up with screwed-up stories but couldn't do dialogue. This should blow any such bull clean out of the water. Two very real people having very real conversations. If going to the 22nd century means we can actually have people who sound like people, then fuck the Akiraprise nonsense to hell. "Hold on, here we go..." Priceless.
Beautiful score. I'm pretty sure it's a Chattaway, but CityTV fudged the credits and re-aired the ones from "Silent Enemy" that listed Velton Ray Bunch. Jay Chattaway has whallopped Dennis McCarthy so hard this season that I'm surprised the scoring stage doesn't attempt to spit McCarthy out when he comes in to do his elevator music of the week. With every episode he's done, things have gotten louder and more creative. It really made the episode all the stronger.
Acting, directing? Beautiful. I think Trinneer and Keating have been the best performers all year and this has continued to solidify that opinion.
Anyhoo, back to the tech side of things, and it seemed like a pretty nifty episode all round.
I'm pretty sure Trip crawled into the same docking tube that popped out of the top of the shuttlepod in "Fight or Flight," "Fortunate Son" and "Sleeping Dogs." He punched a control panel and it took a few seconds before the inner hatch opened above them, so I'm assuming the interval was the time it took to extend. I guess it must telescope upwards.
Enterprise's deputy chief engineer during this episode (by the sounds of things there isn't a permanent second-in-line) is Lt. Hesse, a woman. Perhaps Braga has crafted a young German lass who falls asleep every night dreaming of meeting Mr. Bernd Schneider and asking about his writings of multiethnic engineering?
My inner Canadian feels it necessary to point out that prolonged exposure to -5 degrees C temperatures without any form of windchill in the sorts of clothing they were wearing probably wouldn't cause hypothermia. Indeed, making it colder would raise metabolism and probably drain oxygen a bit faster. Perhaps -5 was a calculated equilibrium point of some form, any colder likely to make them shiver through their oxygen faster, any warmer likely to work the thermostat too much. (Oh, and David: perhaps the ability to make rocks glow hot was a feature that only the true phasers of the 23rd century could do )
The very fact that the NX-01 has escape pods (which seemed pretty likely, anyway) is a pretty good indication that the Constitution had them, too, presumably buried under the hull Defiant-style. Any speculation on where the NX keeps hers?
We still don't know where the latrine on a shuttle is. I imagine there isn't too much privacy.
All in all, an great watch. 9.5/10, and plenty of techy coolness.
Posted by TheF0rce (Member # 533) on :
Reed: "so what do you think of t'pol?"
Posted by J (Member # 608) on :
no no no no no, you've got to do the whole thing for the best conversion:
Radio static "Does that sound modulated enough for you?" Malcom "Modulated?" "The radio... or is it just the galaxy giggling at us again." "It can giggle all it wants, but it ain't getting any of our burbon." ... "Hey, what do you think of T'Pol, do you think she's pretty?" Malcom "T'Pol are you serious" "She is a woman you know, I think she's pretty" "You've had too much to drink" "Don't tell me you've never looked at her in that way" "She's a vulcan" "I think she's pretty" "Oh god" "Have you ever noticed her bum" "what" "her bum, she's got an awfully nice bum" ::giggles all around:: "to subcommander T'Pol" Trip "awfully nice... !"
Posted by Mark Nguyen (Member # 469) on :
Aw, quit bumming around. You all know it's the "Stinky" conversation that got more laughs.
Mark
Posted by Dukhat (Member # 341) on :
quote:The B-plot involves Archer and T'Pol arguing back and forth whether or not they exist. There's no real conclusion on this issue.
I must have been in the bathroom or something when this scene happened, because I don't remember anything like that in the episode. Could you refresh, Mark?
Overall, a quite enjoyable episode, IMHO. Just a few observations:
-Tucker mentions that he learned in biology class that hair & fingernails still grow after you're dead. That is not true. It's actually the skin which receeds, making it look like the hair/nails have grown.
-Archer shrugs off the concept of microsingularities as "Vulcan myths." Funny, I remember studying the concept of mini-black holes in college astronomy class.
Posted by David Templar (Member # 580) on :
I wonder if Reese left the recording button on when he made the "bum" comment... Someone should go over the logs. Posted by Dukhat (Member # 341) on :
The man's name is Reed. Malcolm REED. Not Reese. Obviously you're confusing him with some rather snotty kids who hang out over at that FOX station.
Posted by Cubic Centimeter (Member # 747) on :
Did no one notice the 1/4 of a lightyear comment? They estimate that the Enterprise is probably 1/4 lightyear distant, and would probably be there in two days. But alas they only have one day of air left. They decide to detonate the impulse drive so that the E will see the explosion and speed up. Now kids, there is one obvious problem there can you spot it? That's right! If the E was 1/4 lightyear distant, then it would take the light from the explosion 3 months to reach her.
Or can the E's sensors detect an explosion with FTL sensors somehow?
cm^3
Posted by TSN (Member # 31) on :
I thought it went w/o saying that ENT has FTL sensors...
Posted by Grokca (Member # 722) on :
All I know is that it would be a very sad death if the last drink you had was bourbon.
Posted by CaptainMike (Member # 709) on :
replace sad with happy
Posted by The_Tom (Member # 38) on :
Ditto on Tim's comment about sensors. Trek's always always always had FTL sensors. They'd never detect anything at warp until they were on top of it if they didn't.
Ditto on Grocka's comment about bourbon being a poor last drink.
And, if I may add something new to the discussion, there was an enormous whingefest over at TrekBBS where people said that Reed's finger, let alone the mashed potatoes, would be sucked out the hole. Well, somebody with a basic understanding of physics went to their lab and attempted to shut them up. They rigged up an apparatus with a vacuum pump, cooled a thin piece of metal with liquid nitrogen to 30 K and punched a 1 mm wide hole in it. Mashed potatoes formed a clean rock-solid seal for 20 minutes. Considering the shuttlepod's hull was most likely colder, thicker and with a smaller hole, its clear the science was bang-on.
Posted by CaptainMike (Member # 709) on :
an Enterprise first.
Posted by Sol System (Member # 30) on :
Hmm.
People always seem to overestimate the power of air pressure at sea level.
Posted by Balaam Xumucane (Member # 419) on :
Depending on the size of the hole I imagine they might get a blister, but if the microsingularities are truly microscopic, any blister would presumably be pretty tiny too. Hey do any physics buffs here know just how massive a black hole would have to be to maintain an event horizon approximately 1 �m wide?
Posted by TSN (Member # 31) on :
Assuming the equation I found was correct, and that I did my math correctly, a black hole w/ an event horizon of diameter 10-6m would have a mass of about 1 123 659 887 556kg (a bit over one trillion kilograms).
While that sounds like a lot, it's pretty small. To put it in perspective, even the planet Pluto is more than 10 billion times as massive as the singularity of a one-micrometer-across event horizon.
[ February 21, 2002, 11:50: Message edited by: TSN ]
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