Meh... Short report today, as this was mostly a character episode - and a decent one.
-Phlox has a tribble! It's cute and furry and cuddly and... and doesn't last very long. Tribbles are rare, already outlawed on most planets, and the only thing that keeps their population in check are the lizards on their homeworld - something which is clearly demonstrated in the opening teaser.
-Mayweather is the resident rock climber (see "Two Days and Two Nights") and takes the lead(!) with Trip and Reed in an away mission to rescue a batch of Denobulans. The tan field uniforms make another appearance. The spelunking equipment includes snake-lights mounted on their backpacks, which is a welcome innovation considering the limited usefulness of the palm beacons of TNG, and the awkward arm-mounted lights of VOY.
-Numerous ships are seen in this show as ships that are evacuating the world o' the week as a regime changes. At least one is new, I'm sure - it flies over the shuttlepod as it makes its way to the surface. A damaged transport is saved by Enterprise, and it docks along its ventral surface (like the Kriosian ship from a while back).
-The principal debate here is that an Antaran doesn't want to be treated by a Denobulan. There's a little bit of an ethical debate here, as Denobulans do not share in the Hippocratic Oath - they simply won't treat anyone who doesn't want to be treated. The Antarans and Denobulans haven't seen each other in 300 years, since their last war when the Denobulans did some rather nasty things.
-Phlox's grandma lived through the last war - an indication of the Denobulan lifespan. However, Phlox never told any of his five kids of his grandma's rascist attitude. Only one of his sons is so closed-minded.
-After Travis heroically saves Trip and Reed and busts his ankle in the process (guess he couldn't be front & center for long, eh?), they ultimately stumble upon the Denobulans, who predictably don't want to leave. Note the amount of equipment the scientists brought with them! If the Enterprise gang had to squeeze through so much with only backpacks, how long would it have taken the Denobulans to lug ALL THAT down there...
-Denobulans use tupperware?!
-Anyway, they don't want to leave because the world o' the week has some really nice rocks. It could be instrumental in preventing seimic disasters back home - no mention is made of any doomed planets, as was suggested in the spoilers.
-On the way back up, the shuttlepod is attacked by a patrol ship. And... That's it. They just sort of leave it at that, and move on to the next scene. This isn't a tech observation - I'm just confused as to why they left it hanging.
Mark
Posted by Topher (Member # 71) on :
Trip said "They just want to give us a little kick in the pants". They were probably pissed about the Enterprise staying so long and the patrol ship attacking was their way of saying "Scram! And don't come back!" Posted by Sol System (Member # 30) on :
I don't normally read these until I've seen the episode, but I had to see what the title was refering to this time. Tribbles!
I suppose someone should complain that McCoy couldn't just look up "tribble" in Starfleet's xenobiology database...?
Posted by Futurama Guy (Member # 968) on :
Ah, Perhaps McCoy was more of the "hands on" type.... besides, afterall he's just an old country doctor...
Posted by Topher (Member # 71) on :
Well, Phlox knew what it was because he's been around. Hoshi didn't know what it was, and seeing as where they're outlawed they're probably not seen much by SF folks.
Posted by Futurama Guy (Member # 968) on :
It was an especially meaty one...
Posted by Futurama Guy (Member # 968) on :
Prolly should note too the Denobulans uncanny rockclimbing ability, remiscent of Spiderman...they never cease to amaze me...
[ April 23, 2003, 06:05 PM: Message edited by: Futurama Guy ]
Posted by Jason Abbadon (Member # 882) on :
Loved Trip getting pissed and threatening to shoot the head researcher in the ass! Good to see Mayweather getting involved. Pretty ballsy of him not o scream in pain as Trin and Malcom were only being suspended by his busted ankle. Sure hope he brought some painkillers in the medpack. A good Phlox episode and Archer's conversation with the Antaran was nice: as was his reaction to the Denobulan warcrimes. It seems that Denoublans of just a couple of generations back were pretty Nazi like in their experiments (if the antaran is correct). Yet another episode without Porthos! I wonder if they've phased him out of the show...
Posted by MinutiaeMan (Member # 444) on :
quote:If the Enterprise gang had to squeeze through so much with only backpacks, how long would it have taken the Denobulans to lug ALL THAT down there...
There was probably another passageway into that cavern. The Denobulans were down in that cave network for six months, after all, and probably weren't in that one place the whole time. They may have taken an indirect route in.
I guess one tech question would be, whether that patrol fighter at the end just has some pissiant particle beam popguns that can't take out ENT's shuttlepod, or if they were just firing at low power to make a point. (I know Trip said they were giving them "a kick in the pants," but the question remains whether the weapons power was deliberately reduced or relatively weak anyway.)
Posted by Futurama Guy (Member # 968) on :
quote:Originally posted by MinutiaeMan: I guess one tech question would be, whether that patrol fighter at the end just has some pissiant particle beam popguns that can't take out ENT's shuttlepod, or if they were just firing at low power to make a point. (I know Trip said they were giving them "a kick in the pants," but the question remains whether the weapons power was deliberately reduced or relatively weak anyway.)
I believe it was said it was something to the effect of being 'low yield' or set at low yield just as a lil...'you lucky we gave you a few hours bitch, be gone' kind of pant bootin'.
Posted by Phoenix (Member # 966) on :
quote:Patrol ship fires. Shuttle rocks a bit.
Reed: Minimal damage. They're using low-powered particle beams.
Archer: Do you need assistance?
Tucker: Stand by. I think they're just trying to give us a little kick in the pants.
Patrol ship turns away.
"Low-powered" suggests to me that the weapons are actually weak, not that they have been set to be weak. And you wouldn't put pathetic weapons on a ship if you had good ones.
Posted by MinutiaeMan (Member # 444) on :
quote:"Low-powered" suggests to me that the weapons are actually weak, not that they have been set to be weak. And you wouldn't put pathetic weapons on a ship if you had good ones.
Not unless you're Archer, anyway. HOW long was it before he had those phase cannons installed? Posted by Sol System (Member # 30) on :
If by installed you mean "built largely from scratch with the exception of an untested prototype."
Posted by newark (Member # 888) on :
I think it is possible the patrol ship pilot could alter the frequency of the weapons and was using a lower setting for sending a message.
Posted by Sol System (Member # 30) on :
Now that I've seen it, I'm wondering what Phlox was doing with his tribble. He had obviously sterlized it or put it out of commission in some way, since he only had a tribble. But, I mean, he just fed it to something else. Perhaps he had it around to study as a biological curiosity, and then disposed of it in a useful manner when he was done?
Posted by Futurama Guy (Member # 968) on :
They would make for a reliable renewable resource for feeding his other "pets", mind the hair, without cutting into the ships energy/supply resources...
Posted by Sol System (Member # 30) on :
I don't know about that. Tribbles eat rather voraciously. Surely they'd consume way more energy than they'd give back. (Well, of course they'd consume at least some amount more, this being the universe and all, but enough to make it completely uneconomical, is what I'm getting at.)
Posted by Phoenix (Member # 966) on :
quote:Originally posted by Sol System: Now that I've seen it, I'm wondering what Phlox was doing with his tribble. He had obviously sterlized it or put it out of commission in some way, since he only had a tribble.
That we saw. Perhaps he has a cupboard full of them, and feeds one to one of his other "creatures" every five minutes. Posted by MinutiaeMan (Member # 444) on :
Obviously he was aware of the tribble's capabilities, since he knew it was outlawed on most planets. I would guess he kept the tribble in a close box without any food, or else it was fixed.
However, I also got the impression that he had only recently acquired the tribble at a recent stop.
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