Enterprise finds a crashed Xindi-Insectoid ship with a dead crew and a hatchery full of live larvae. Archer, while leading the landing party, is sprayed with something from an egg sac. He begins to act strangely protective of the larvae and soon it becomes apparent that he's been affected...
-- Insectoid ship hatches are hexagonal.
-- Reed's father is an amateur entomologist.
-- The Insectoid shuttle/assault craft is equipped with a half dozen particle cannons and torpedos.
-- T'Pol says they don't have a bridge, but rather have command functions dispersed throughout the ship. Trip later says that all their systems are integrated so in order to reactivate life support they will have to repower the entire ship.
-- Neat scene of NX-01 shuttlepod towing Insectoid craft.
-- Hayes wants to schedule combat training on movie night, Reed informs him that Tucker won't like that one bit.
-- The larvae are integrated with the hatchery chamber and can't be moved.
-- Timestamp: January 8th, 2154.
-- Half of the Insectoid shuttle/assault craft's power grid is routed to structural integrity and Travis wagers it could be flown through a gas giant.
-- Insectoids aren't a gendered species and reproduce asexually. Each adult can produce multiple egg sacs.
-- Insectoid iconography is different from that of other Xindi species.
-- Enterprise's antimatter reserves are down to 60% and they will have to use 1/3 of it to refuel the Insectoid ship. This will take 4-5 hours using both shuttlepods to make the transfer.
-- Reed mentions that this procedure won't leave much antimatter for their torpedoes, which definitely confrims that they utilize matter/antimatter warheads.
-- EUGENICS WARS MENTION!!!!! Archer's great-grandfather was in North Africa in a fighting front-type setting. I unfortunately didn't catch all the specifics of the anecdote.
-- The antimatter is stored (or at least transported) in drums that are lifted and loaded by hand. Theorectically, how heavy is this stuff?
As Archer's impaired judgement becomes increasingly dangerous to the ship and mission, the senior officers decide to mutiny and forcibly relieve him of command. In order to do this they must first tackle the MACOs, who are loyal to the captain.
-- Though ultimately it has no effect on continuity since the incident is unlikely to be recorded, what was the line from TOS (in "The Omega Glory" or perhaps "Whom Gods Destroy"?) about a mutiny never occuring aboard a Starfleet ship? (Actually, they may have said Federation starship, or so says Bjo Trimble's Star Trek Concordance...)
Oh, and I was typing at this point so I missed exactly how Phlox returned the captain to normalcy. Or did the effect of the neurochemical simply wear off?
-MMoM
[ February 25, 2004, 09:58 PM: Message edited by: The Mighty Monkey of Mim ]
Posted by TheWoozle (Member # 929) on :
Interesting defense mechanism.. the egg sacks make you want to help them.
It's pretty definate that they can't manufacture anti-matter on the ship, at least, not quickly.
A battle in the Eugenics wars was fought in North Africa.
Posted by TSN (Member # 31) on :
"The antimatter is stored (or at least transported) in drums that are lifted and loaded by hand. Theorectically, how heavy is this stuff?"
As heavy as the equivalent amount of hydrogen (specifically, deuterium).
Of course, we have no way of knowing how heavy the equipment is that generates the containment field.
[ February 26, 2004, 02:13 AM: Message edited by: TSN ]
Posted by Guardian 2000 (Member # 743) on :
- "My great-grandfather was in North Africa during the Eugenics Wars. His battalion was evacuating civilians from a war zone when they came under attack. There was a school full of children directly between them and the enemy. If his men had returned fire, they might've hit it. So, he called the commander on the other side . . . got him to agree to hold his fire long enough to evacuate the school. There are rules, Trip, even in war."
- Was it just me, or did the sound effects on Hayes's simulation sound just like the sounds on one of those cheap Trek screen savers?
- This episode featured an odd internal continuity flub. Right before the scene in sickbay where Phlox explains what happened, we see the ship at warp and T'Pol reporting that they've resumed their course to Azati Prime. In the Trip/Archer scene, however, Trip reports their status, saying that they've just recovered the last of the antimatter, and implying that they're still in orbit. The captain then says they need to "get back on the road", and Trip is told to have Travis set a course for Azati Prime.
Archer has a window. Could he not see the streaking stars?
- I think, in the Trip/Archer scene, Archer's screen has a picture of Porthos on it.
- Another use of stun grenades, this time looking no different than the explosive charges Reed uses in "Regeneration"[ENT2]. Also, MACO pistols which were evidently on stun.
- I thought Movie Night was on Tuesday?
Posted by TSN (Member # 31) on :
Either the men in Archer's ancestry tend to father children rather late in life, or the writers are using another incorrect date for the Eugenics Wars.
Posted by Lee (Member # 393) on :
I noticed the goof as well. . . Very odd. As regardas the date of the Eugenics Wars, wasn't there somewhere else that was already changing their date to suggest it could still happen at some point in our future, and to allow for ships like the Botany Bay to exist?
Posted by MinutiaeMan (Member # 444) on :
I noticed that some writer took the time to look up Starfleet Order 104, section C.... which, strangely, was the order mentioned in the Federation Starfleet for "The Doomsday Machine." More evidence that Earth Starfleet == Federation Starfleet, unfortunately. Posted by Futurama Guy (Member # 968) on :
I don't think that the generational time frame is too out of wack to throw off the mid-1990s timeframe for the Eugenics War.
He did say his great-grandfather afterall, and so it's not that far of a stretch. If this ancestor in question was, say, 25 during the Eugenics War which means he could have been born around 1970.
If he had a child (aka Johns grandfather) at 47, and the same for his grandfather having a child at 47 (aka Johns father) and his father was also 47 (rather redundant and convenient, I know )when John was born that adds up to roughly 140 years or 2111, roughly when John was born.
I realize that his father looked 40ish when Archer was 8 in the flashbacks ("BrokenBow") but that doesn't mean people can't look younger than they are 100+ years from now - so 40 to 50 isn't that outrageous of an age to have a child. Especially if they started their families late in life because of their military or otherwise lives coming first. Look at Sisko, he was like 40-50 when he conceived his child with Kasidy. It's still a cool reference, nonetheless. Posted by Timo (Member # 245) on :
Also, wouldn't "great-grandfather" traditionally cover a large number of possible generations, from "great-grandfather" to "great-great-great-great..etc -grandfather"? Few people would actually bother to use multiple "greats" in spelling out the generations.
Interesting stuff in any case. And another indication that the Eugenics wars "baddies" were basically still admirable or at least respectable types, at least on some war theaters, no matter how sinister the name of the wars.
Timo Saloniemi
Posted by TheWoozle (Member # 929) on :
His Great Grandfather might also have been on the Maternal side. What if his mom was 10 years younger then his father and it was HER grandfather...
On a side note, while they made Archer get dirty, to accentuate his mental condition, it was nice to see for once, that it can happen.
Posted by Jason Abbadon (Member # 882) on :
Best part of the episode: Mayweather saves the day!!!
I laughed pretty hard.
Good to see the MACO's all go down against a select few starfleet officers and that security girl of Reed's (missed her name though).
Archer definitely has a few people to apologise to.
The Inscectoid ship fell pretty easily to Enterprise's torpedos now that they know what to aim at.
Am I the only one that thinks that all the transferred amtimatter was'nt used? Looked to me like Trip and some unnamed crewman get there really quick (and that Trip got over ant transporter phobia as well). I sure expected that unnamed crewman to get eaten buy the baby bugs though...
Overall, a good episode and more build-up to next week's encounter with the super-weapon.
Posted by Lee (Member # 393) on :
Er. . . Security girl? Wasn't that T'Pol in a baseball cap?
Posted by MinutiaeMan (Member # 444) on :
Yeah, T'Pol wore a baseball cap for "cover" -- after all, I doubt anyone else on the ship knows the Vulcan Neck Pinch. And I assume that the Starfleet uniform was just camouflage -- she only had an ensign's pip on her gold-command shoulders...
Posted by Mark Nguyen (Member # 469) on :
..Which begs the question of whose uniform she nicked? It's probably just a re-use of the uniform they made for her in "Twilight" with the extra pips removed, but...
Mark
Posted by B.J. (Member # 858) on :
quote:Originally posted by Jason Abbadon: Best part of the episode: Mayweather saves the day!!!
I loved that, too. He seems to be kicking butt pretty frequently and consistantly. I wonder if his contract stipulates that he *won't* be this show's whipping boy?
At least I now know I didn't have a brain fart about the continutity error. Curious how that got through the filters.
I thought I noticed another production error, but I'm not sure. When Archer leaves sick bay (I don't remember if he did this more than once in this ep.), I thought I saw the doors start to open an instant before he hit the button. Can anyone confirm/deny this?
Even though you'd have to be blind not to know that something else was affecting Archer, the show still kept my attention very well. The questions about who was going to side with the captain reminded me somewhat of the rift in Babylon 5's Earthforce - do you follow orders no matter what, or do you have an obligation to evaluate those orders and act accordingly?
And poor Daniel Dae Kim is barely being used! He's basically a security guard in this episode.
B.J.
Posted by Mark Nguyen (Member # 469) on :
Yeah. The guy's a good actor! They really oughta to use him. I know they hired people like him and Culp to be there in the event that they *might* get used in a serious role in the future, but in Kim's case his character is barely used for anything more than extras work.
As for Mayweather, I'm sure the actor made a mistake in asking for time off at the beginning of the season so he could do a one-shot standup comedy gig. They responded by basically writing him off the show for the first half of the season, and I'm sure he's not going to get his own episode until next year - assuming there is one.
Mark
Posted by Jason Abbadon (Member # 882) on :
quote:Originally posted by Lee: Er. . . Security girl? Wasn't that T'Pol in a baseball cap?
Yah: you're right....I was a bit distracted by family yapping during he episode. Who was Reed's person stationed in te armory? I missed the name but mabye it's the same guy that beamed down to the hatchery with trip?
Posted by Mark Nguyen (Member # 469) on :
Okay, let's talk about range here for a minute. This week we establish that a) they've got about 60% of their antimatter stores left, and b) these stores are shared with the photon(ic) torpedoes. Can we estimate the approximate duration of the ship's usual mission from this? All this season they've been running and fighting, and for all we know thye've been exlcusively using antimatter warheads.
We don't know when they left Earth, but they got back in "the Expanse" at the end of April 2153. With this episode being in January of the following year, they've been going full tilt for seven months or so, taking little time to stop and do much surveys or other activities that would keep them in place for more than a few days at time. From this data, and assuming that they haven't stopped to gas up since they left Earth, we can extrapolate that Enterprise has an operational range of at least two years of normal, non-constant warping around. This fits in comfortably with the notion that Enterprise had spent the previous two years "out there" with little indication that she was in need of more fuel. Not that they were ever REALLY far away from help, anyway...
Comments?
Mark
Posted by Lee (Member # 393) on :
Makes sense.
Posted by Futurama Guy (Member # 968) on :
quote:Originally posted by Mark Nguyen: We don't know when they left Earth, but they got back in "the Expanse" at the end of April 2153. With this episode being in January of the following year, they've been going full tilt for seven months or so, taking little time to stop and do much surveys or other activities that would keep them in place for more than a few days at time. From this data, and assuming that they haven't stopped to gas up since they left Earth, we can extrapolate that Enterprise has an operational range of at least two years of normal, non-constant warping around. This fits in comfortably with the notion that Enterprise had spent the previous two years "out there" with little indication that she was in need of more fuel. Not that they were ever REALLY far away from help, anyway...
Comments?
Mark
Actually they left Earth for the Expanse roughly June 10, 2153. I had to do some digging but I found the old thread where I did the math on the timetable of the first couple episodes of the 3rd season which gave me the aforementioned date. So for the most part, they have been in the Expanse now for a little over 6 months.
Posted by Lee (Member # 393) on :
I chaecked out the early-opening door, it does look as if it opens almost before you hear the door-opening beep. . .
Posted by TSN (Member # 31) on :
"Who was Reed's person stationed in te armory?"
T'Pol: "Who's on duty in the armory?" Reed: "Ensign Welsh and two of my men."
"This episode featured an odd internal continuity flub. Right before the scene in sickbay where Phlox explains what happened, we see the ship at warp and T'Pol reporting that they've resumed their course to Azati Prime. In the Trip/Archer scene, however, Trip reports their status, saying that they've just recovered the last of the antimatter, and implying that they're still in orbit. The captain then says they need to 'get back on the road', and Trip is told to have Travis set a course for Azati Prime."
This may have been a mistake, but I think it's easily explained. Since Archer's just woken up, he doesn't realize they're already on the way. After he gives the order, Trip figures it's kinder to just say "yes, sir", than to let Archer know just how out of it he is.
Posted by Harry (Member # 265) on :
Just nitpicking, but I found it kinda strange that Archer was shuttled back to the ship's sickbay after being sprayed by an unknown (possibly volatile) substance. That doesn't sound like a particularly safe routine. At least he should've been kept in decon, but preferably he should probably have been treated/examined on the surface.
Although, OTOH, Starfleet captains very rarely follow regulations...
Posted by TheWoozle (Member # 929) on :
Maybe he was. Plox made it pretty clear that he thought it was just an irritant. They probobly assumed that there was a quick tricorder scan on the surface, then in Decon, Phlox would have determined that it wasn't dangerous to the rest of the ship. Wham, Bam, thank-you writer ma'am, for saving five minutes of screen time.
Posted by Mark Nguyen (Member # 469) on :
They coulda beamed him up, too - it was just afterwards that we see Reed and Hayes shuttling up with corpses and combat ship in tow.
Mark
Posted by Harry (Member # 265) on :
Some more generic points.
- Did the shuttles always have grapplers?
- So if Archer wasn't under the influence of the Stuff, he would've let the hatchlings die? I'm not sure I like that idea. Although he obviously goes a bit over the top.
- Insectoids have a lifespan of about 12 years.
- Awww! Look at the little baby Insectoid.
- Hayes is apparently both a good computer wizard and proficient in ship-to-ship battle.
- The later Insectoid ship was of a different design than the one crashed on the surface. I'm not sure which (if any) of them we saw earlier.
- I'm pretty sure that the HDTV version of this episode will result in pretty clear closeups of Hayes' shoulder patches.
- HA! That trolley they used to transfer the antimatter to the shuttle clearly couldn't have come through any of the ships's doors
- MACOs train at West Point. Sounds familiar.
- Porthos makes a cameo.
- I disagree about the alleged continuity goof. "Returning the antimatter" can easily mean that they are getting the AM back from the shuttles (and somehow through the doors ) back into the storage facility.
Posted by B.J. (Member # 858) on :
quote:Originally posted by Harry: - Did the shuttles always have grapplers?
At least since the episode with the cloned Trip.
B.J.
Posted by Jason Abbadon (Member # 882) on :
I'd have been more impressed wioth the episode if NOTHING was wrong with Archer except sleep deprevation.
All the reasons Archer gave to Trip after his shower were sensible and PIcard would have done exactly the dame thing without anyone questioning orders.
It was a moment of idealism that flew out the airlock once they started showing Archer get all irrational and sappy with the baby bugs crawling all over him.
I do think the Xindi ship that attacked Enterprise was the same make and model as the crashed ship: else the tactical knowledge wouldnt have worked so effectivly.
Regarding the Antimatter supply distance traveled, keep in mind that they havent fired off a ton of torpedos this season and that travel in the expanse is slow going due to both anomalies and them not having a clue where to look. If they needed backup, I think the Intrepid could randevous within a couple of months at least and the Intrepid could be outfitted with Trelleum D for even faster travel.
I just want to see the damn Intrepid. Posted by Harry (Member # 265) on :
quote:Originally posted by Jason Abbadon: I do think the Xindi ship that attacked Enterprise was the same make and model as the crashed ship: else the tactical knowledge wouldnt have worked so effectivly.
But the reconstructed CGIs of the crashed vessel showed three 'wings', while the later vessel had only two wings, with two smaller thingies. IIRC.
Posted by Mark Nguyen (Member # 469) on :
It's true. The crashed ship is the same type of tripartite ship they fought in "Twilight". the one that attacked them later is smaller, had three people aboard, and looked very different.
And let's not forget the even smaller combat shuttle, which they still have tucked away in the flight bay. Mind you, they seem to have lost the Suliban cell ship they'd kept from before... Perhaps they finally dropped it off at Earth? There've been a couple instances where it could've been useful this season.
Mark
Posted by J (Member # 608) on :
Ok on the range thing, you guys are forgetting a lot. The Enterprise has been traveling at top speed for a lot of the period since they've left from Earth. I think that like the ships of the 24th century, Enterprise has a lower speed at which they normally travel, cruise... that is optimum for fuel consuption... perhaps Warp 3. This probably significantly increases the ship's range of Enterprise's current range.
Also, as mentioned elsewhere, the ship has to dodge anamolies, not just rips in space, but gravity flux that is quite deadly created by the spheres. Then there is the dodging of Xindi patrols [they've done that a couple times, right? well, if not on screen they've had to do it off screen].
Posted by TSN (Member # 31) on :
"So if Archer wasn't under the influence of the Stuff, he would've let the hatchlings die?"
I think he still would have gone through the whole "we must try to save them so we can prove we aren't barbarians" bit. But, I don't think he would have sacrificed a third of the ship's antimatter to do it.
Posted by Dat (Member # 302) on :
quote:Ok on the range thing, you guys are forgetting a lot. The Enterprise has been traveling at top speed for a lot of the period since they've left from Earth. I think that like the ships of the 24th century, Enterprise has a lower speed at which they normally travel, cruise... that is optimum for fuel consuption... perhaps Warp 3. This probably significantly increases the ship's range of Enterprise's current range.
That may be true, but Trip figured out to compress the antimatter stream. Their range was increased because they were using their fuel more efficiently
![[Big Grin]](biggrin.gif)
![[Frown]](frown.gif)
![[Wink]](wink.gif)
)when John was born that adds up to roughly 140 years or 2111, roughly when John was born. ![[Smile]](smile.gif)
![[Razz]](tongue.gif)
![[Roll Eyes]](rolleyes.gif)
) back into the storage facility.