Augh, I have to watch this epsiode again to catch it all.. And I will later. Suffice it to say, we see the limitations of the warp 5 engine, we see a Vulcan "combat cruiser", we see the aft phase cannon, we see Vulcans drink iced tea, and much more! And the episode was pretty cool, to boot!
Sweeps is here!
Mark
[Edit - where I live, they split up this week's double healping of Enterprise over two nights, with the second airing tonight. Someone else can feel free to handle the tech thread for "Desert Crossing".]
[ May 08, 2002, 17:10: Message edited by: Mark Nguyen ]
Posted by Fedaykin Supastar (Member # 704) on :
May Sweeps?
if so....i've never actually known what the term means
could some one enlighten me?
Buzz
Posted by Mark Nguyen (Member # 469) on :
It's May sweeps, or the Decepticon Sweeps. Either suits me just fine..
Mark
Posted by Siegfried (Member # 29) on :
Sweeps, which usually occurs in May and November, is a monthlong drive by the networks to raise ratings through the roof. It is during these periods that the advertising costs are calculated (a higher-rated show can sell advertising space at a higher price than a lower rated one).
Sweeps is also maked by many cliched attempts at the networks to generate ratings. This is why you'll sometimes see "A Very Special Episode of __" during sweeps. You'll also see super special guest stars, a lot more near naked people, and even more misleading promos for upcoming episodes.
Posted by Matrix (Member # 376) on :
You will also see more explosions and what would have been horrible episodes look really good.
Posted by Mark Nguyen (Member # 469) on :
Okay, here we go:
-Timestamp: February 9, 2152.
-The episode opens with T'Pol noting that no one on the ship has gotten laid since they left Earth; as a result, crew efficiency is down three percent. As such, T'Pol delves into the database and suggets everyone goes to Risa for some shore leave. Trip jumps into the game, wearing a Hawaiian shirt on duty and blabbing about the two hundred 24-fingered Nuvian maseusses there. The Captain declines to go down when they get there, instead preferring to get it on with some star chart reports. Apparently, Starfleet forbids fraternization between officers and their subordinates.
-When the inevitable sidetrack comes, it's to go pick up the Vulcan ambassador to Mazar. V'Lar has been into diplomacy for a long time, having negotiated the first treaties between Vulcan and Andoria prior to first contact with Earth, plus the treaty of Ka'Tann. She later notes that her career is 94 years old; assuming they're talking Earth years, they suggest that the Vulcans first met the Andorians no more than a few years before any Humans.
-In order to accomodate V'Lar, Hoshi gets to vacate her quarters. This is a little odd, as I can't remember offhand any other Trek having problems with accomodations, including the Defiant. I wonder how much extra space there is on Enterprise? And more importantly, why we weren't treated to a pillowfight with Hoshi and whoever she ended up bunking with?
-Once again, Enterprise gets trounced by the bad guys, who have (slightly) superior engines, and energy shields against which torpedoes are useless. The aft phase cannon does fare better, after a bit of banter about how they can't fire the cannons at warp. This is because of particle discharge, which would throw off the warp field and possibly blow both nacelles. Malcom's been working on the problem, but [BOOM!!]. Regardless, Mazarite ships do not share this problem.
-Yes, the phase cannon is mounted off-centre, deploying from a hatch under the starboard catamaran. One can only assume that there's a matching hatch on the port side with nothing in it, at least until the inevitable upgrade.
-There's lots of new CGI models this week, including the Mazarite warship and shuttle, AND the Vulcan "combat cruiser" Sh'Raan and its shuttle. The Sh'Raan looks pretty much like the science vessel seen earlier this year, however it's much larger - at least twice as long, making her comparable in length to an Excelsior-class ship! In fact, it looks a whole lot like the picture that was posted here some time back. Her top speed is warp seven, and she carries enough firepower to scare away three Mazarite warships that would have otherwise made space junk out of Enterprise. Archer makes a point of saying it's one of Vulcan's most powerful ships.
-Soval is still on Earth, apparently. Forrest talks of consulting him at one point.
-V'lar likes iced tea with passion fruit. T'Pol does not. The two met at the Ka'Tann conference at Vulcana Ragar.
-They really push the limits of what they can do with the warp 5 engine. In an attempt to outrun the Mazarite ships, they take her to 4.9, which they can't even hold for two hours. Ultimately, they try warp 5.0, which comes pretty close to shaking the ship apart. The Mazarites are barely faster, and at one point they vent drive plasma to keep their engines from overloading.
-Mazarites carry their weapons in shoulder harnesses! This is a first for non-Human species on Trek, I believe.
Mark
Posted by The_Tom (Member # 38) on :
Grabbed some pics (from a so-so-quality mpg) of the Vulcan ship (I think we've gotten to the bottom of Bernd's little scheme ) taking on the Mazarites, whose shipyard engineers apparently enjoyed Independence Day a bit too much.
And the shuttle's a biggish one... more in the runabout region, judging by its length beside the Enterprise's saucer.
Posted by Jack_Crusher (Member # 696) on :
Isn't "Vulcan combat ship" an oxymoron?
Posted by Mark Nguyen (Member # 469) on :
No more so than the Vulcan ground troops we saw earlier this year...
Mark
Posted by The_Tom (Member # 38) on :
Archer calls it a "combat cruiser," but I'd imagine according to Vulcan High Command it's a "promotion of peace & logical order starship." The captain had the cool superiority thing down quite nicely.
(And it shoots teal beams that match the aforementioned shock troops in SoP'J, which qualifies as continuity, I suppose)
[ May 08, 2002, 16:38: Message edited by: The_Tom ]
Posted by Dukhat (Member # 341) on :
Before I saw the episode I thought, "Oh great, instead of designing a new ship, they're gonna badly rescale an old one." However, it's clear IMO that this "combat cruiser" IS a different class of ship. The upscaling and hull stretching actually isn't unbelievable like with the BOP, since the design is quite simplistic. However, it did look enough like the Suurok class to be mistaken in that earlier pic of Bernd's. I think that pic is actually of this ship, not the Suurok.
Posted by Mark Nguyen (Member # 469) on :
Whilst leafing through this month's ST:M today, I chanced to find a pic of the science ship. They *are* very different, and it's very clear in the detailing on the aft undercuts of both ships. For starters, while the science ship has an impulse drive kinda like the one found on the TOS shuttlecraft, this combat cruiser has a drive more like the TOS movie era Connie.
Another point of interest - one has to wonder exactly what course the Pre-E is taking during its first year. Without delving into the upcoming maps book discussion, it seems like they are in fact *not* traveling straight out from Earth, but are purposefully looping around it at some distance beyond human-explored space. How else to explain how we keep running into the Vulcans, Klingons and Andorians while constantly running into various aliens unknown to anyone? For that matter, even with the network of Echo relays, shouldn't communication distance concerns come into play more often?
Mark
Posted by CaptainMike (Member # 709) on :
BTW, "Elaan of Troyius" featured Uhura giving up her quarters since all the guest rooms were full, so there is a precedent for that. I imagine the NX-01 has even less free room, possibly with no guest accomodations whatsoever. This would make sense with the ships exploratory (not diplomatic) mission profile.
Posted by Harry (Member # 265) on :
I just saw Fallen Hero. It was a good one, actually. V'lar seemed to be one of the first iced-down Vulcans, while the Vulcan Captain and his lackeys were still chilly. I wonder, though, how those two Vulcans dissapeared out of the air-lock without opening a door
The Vulcan ships are indeed quite different. The greeblies in the aft undercut are different, and the impulse engines glow red on the combat cruiser and blue on the Surak (this spelling is confirmed by the May issue of the Magazine).
Those Mazarite guns were quite cool. They fired fast blue-ish pulses. A good mix of contemporary vs. rayguns.
Posted by Bernd (Member # 6) on :
Isn't the "combat cruiser" CGI the same as that of the "science ship"? I see no difference in the windows arrangement. I have listed them as the same ship type for now (although at least the max. speed is different).
Compared to NX-01 alongside (225m), the combat cruiser looks like it is 600m long. I don't think we have any evidence that the science ship should be smaller.
Posted by Harry (Member # 265) on :
They are not the same. I'll make a lil' comparison for the skeptics .
Posted by Harry (Member # 265) on :
Not a lot of difference, but certainly not a simple rescale.
Posted by Shik (Member # 343) on :
I liked V'Lar muchly & would enjoy seeing her again. When she went to help Hoshi with the comm message, that made me smile--I like useful ambassadors as opposed to tools like Robert Fox.
Oh, yeah. Fionnula Flanagan is STILL hot.
Posted by Toadkiller (Member # 425) on :
OK -
So now can we dream up some reason for the "ring nacelle" thing? Some logical reason I suppose.
Posted by The_Tom (Member # 38) on :
Whatever reason people dreamed up back in 1979 ought to fly, no?
Posted by Bernd (Member # 6) on :
I looks like some details on the CGI have been "refined", but they are essentially the same. Especially the decks visible in the forward section have identical window arrangements. on both ships.
Harry: Is this a scan?
Posted by Vice-Admiral Michael T. Colorge (Member # 144) on :
Is it me, or I'm wondering how on Earth this Enterprise managed not to blow up into billions of pieces since they really haven't tried going to Warp 5 before. That and how does the ship stay looking like Voyager after a Borg attack. Well, it is now May sweeps... perhaps Hoshi should have ended up bunking with Ensign Chesty St. Clair and Lt. Busty LaRue. There's nothing like showing skin and a pillowfight to boost ratings.
Posted by The_Tom (Member # 38) on :
Call me hopelessly na�ve in my lax attitudes towards prosecuting the Enterprise Art Department like some twisted Law & Order guest star, Bernd, but I think you're going a bit out on a limb there. I see enough differences between the two ships for me to say it's equally or more likely to be a fresh CGI model than not.
Posted by TSN (Member # 31) on :
"So now can we dream up some reason for the 'ring nacelle' thing?"
Because that's what the T'Pau had in "Unification".
Posted by Harry (Member # 265) on :
The left picture is a scan from the "Next issue" part of the Magazine. The right pic is one of the screenshot posted on page 2 or something of this thread.
Posted by Bernd (Member # 6) on :
I'm not saying that there are no differences. It's just that the first thing I would have changed to suggest it is a new ship of a larger size would have been the windows, and not some obscure parts of the engineering section.
Posted by Harry (Member # 265) on :
Windows are illogical. Posted by Bernd (Member # 6) on :
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