Ahh, been itching to use that one for a while... With this Vulcan trilogy, we're going to see more of Vulcan than any previous visit. What should we look for?
-An Earth installation on Vulcan. Is it just a building, or is there more to it?
-Destruction of said installation, and a familiar and well-liked character with it. Th' hell?!
-Return of the tan field uniforms for the Enterprise crew, with an additional overcoat. T'Pol dons her even-tighter-than-usual version of the same once more - but wasn't that the standard-use uniform? Shouldn't she have a pink or sky blue edition of it?
-How or when Enterprise arrived at the scene of the crime. They returned to Earth at the end of the Augment Trilogy; do they have another mission, or were they sent directly from home to investigate?
-Linkups with established Vulcan history - expect a bunch of name dropping.
Speaking of which, we should keep a namedropping tally from now on, and the episode(s) they were referenced from. Coto seems intent on giving us a healthy sprinkle with each episode; we should keep track of what he's plopping in.
Mark
Posted by TSN (Member # 31) on :
"Destruction of said installation, and a familiar and well-liked character with it. Th' hell?!"
They should name a Vulcan character "T'Hel", just so someone can have trouble hearing her and say "What, T'Hel?".
Posted by DoughBoy05 (Member # 1417) on :
So those guys that Surak fought under Raptors wings...hmmm I wonder who those guys are? On an unrelated subject...arent Romulans a cool race Posted by Siegfried (Member # 29) on :
Holy crap, it's the teddy bear with six inch fangs.
Kind of a cheesy lightning storm effect, though.
Posted by B.J. (Member # 858) on :
Random bits:
-The Earth building on Vulcan is the United Earth Embassy - says so right on it.
-12 Vulcans and 31 Humans were killed in the bombing of the Embassy, including Admiral Forrest!
-They were playing basketball on top of the #3 and 4 drop bays. So I guess they don't have an open cargo bay or an open gym for this sort of thing. It would ruin their day if someone leaned on the "open doors" button!
-Mayweather actually has a couple of lines, but he nearly gets blown up for his trouble.
-The Vulcan High Command used to be only in charge of space exploration.
-T'Pol used to have a sehlat as a pet. The domesticated ones are smaller than the wild ones. Slightly.
-Not only does the desert uniform return, but Archer's baseball cap is back, too.
-Soval used a mind meld to discover that the Vulcan in charge of the investigation was the one who planted the bomb. They had tried to pin it on a woman named T'Pau(!), who I think they said was 32 years old. But of course the High Command won't accept telepathic evidence, and Soval is in trouble because of the distateful abberant behavior of mind melding.
-There's a couple of Vulcan atmospheric craft looking for the other Vulcans (can't remember their name). They're at a fairly high altitude and all we can see of them is their contrails.
-It seems the Vulcans as a society have a bit of evolving to do before we get to TOS era standards of Vulcan society. Quite a bit of the "Vulcan mysticism" seems to have been repressed over the years. Of course, who's to say that what we saw Spock do was considered mainstream Vulcan, except for the IDIC thing.
-Soval's description of humans to Forrest in the beginning was very funny to me. Can anyone get a transcript of his lines there?
B.J.
Posted by The Mighty Monkey of Mim (Member # 646) on :
Typing during the commercials as I watch:
-- It took the Vulcans 1500 years after their period of devastating wars to rebuild their world and achieve starflight capability, whereas humans did it in less than a century.
-- Embassy go boom!
-- Basketball game on the hanger deck! Phlox got game! According to him, the sport is reminiscent of Octran fertility contests. (Except that the participants are fully clothed.)
-- The Vulcans initially want to blame the Andorians for the embassy bombing, but evidence implicates the Syrrannites, an extremist group of which T'Pau (of "Amok Time" fame) is a member. In fact, according to DNA evidence, she planted the bomb.
-- Surak's time was 1800 years ago.
-- Koss brings T'Pol an IDIC medallion, similar to the one Spock wore on TOS. They also do the little finger-kiss thing.
-- The medallion is actually a holographic projection device designed to show T'Pol where the Syrrannites are hiding out, a desert area known as the Forge. (Where Spock's kahs-wan was in "Yesteryear" and where Worf and Dax considered going backpacking on their honeymoon.)
-- The Forge's geomagnetic properties create a kind of natural dampening field that prevents scanners, communicators and other technology from working. Electrical sandstorms and sehlats are other indigenous dangers.
-- Soval gives Trip a look at the gaps in the High Command's satellite surveilance net. Naughty, naughty...
-- The "entrance" to the Forge is called Gateway, where Surak began his journey to enlightenment during the Time of Awakening. Supposedly. None of Surak's original writings still exist.
-- The Forge's dampening field only extens a few hundred meters above the ground, so patrol craft can still fly over it even though their sensors can't detect anything.
-- Telomeres tell Phlox that 32-year-old T'Pau is being framed for the bombing. (Are these real?)
-- The guard at the embassy wore a Starfleet uniform, but he was identified as Corporal Askwith. What gives? Perhaps he was supposed to wear a MACO uniform and the wardrobe people flubbed.
-- I'm going to tactfully refrain from mentioning the oddity of Arev (which is Vulcan for "desert wind") speaking English to T'Pol and Archer. (We know that universal translators can't be at work here.)
-- Archer wears cool shades to protect his eyes from the glare as they cross the Plain of Blood. T'Pol and Arev have their inner eyelids. And they only need water every several days.
-- OK, kids, I'm sure we all know the answer to the quiz questions: (1) Who said "Logic is the cement of our civilization, with which we ascend from chaos, using reason as our guide..."?; (2) What is Kiri-kin-tha's First Law of Metaphysics?
-- Soval is a melder! SCANDAL! SCANDAL!
-- Those electrical sandstorms are called "sandfires," and typically last a day or two.
-- The delta on the IDIC represents Mt. Seleya, where Surak died after the last battle with "those who marched under the Raptor's Wings...who wanted to return to savage ways."
-- Turns out the Chief Investigator from the High Command placed the bomb himself, as part of a conspiracy to cast blame on the Syrrannites.
-- With his dying breath, Arev melds with Archer and rasps the words "tuluk tu vokau...." "Vokau" means "remember." Archer is apparently now carrying the katra of Surak, which would make Arev...Syrran.
-- I wonder how the Syrrannites managed to conceal the T'Karath Sanctuary without the use of technology. Surely they don't expect us to believe it was magic?
LOTS of Star Trek II going on here. I absolutely love it, even if the references were a BIT over the top.
I LOVED the Star Trek IV Quiz program reference too.
Best episode of the season, IMO.
Posted by Harry (Member # 265) on :
- It seems that Earth Starfleet too is extremely powerful, and seems to actually run most of Earth's foreign relations...
- Sehlat! And it even looks like Spock's sehlat from TAS!
- Finally, the fact that Vulcans *are* stronger than humans is acknowledged.
- Hey. These are actually Vulcans! And making T'Pau a prominent Syrranite and her being family of Spock makes good sense.
- Surak's enemies marching under "Raptor's Wings" line had something decidedly Romulan about it. Cool.
[ November 20, 2004, 07:23 AM: Message edited by: Harry ]
Posted by AndrewR (Member # 44) on :
Ooooh yeah! Great episode! Intruige abounds. This season started off a little slow - but it's really hotted up now (excuse the pun)
I read 'Vulcan's Forge' - that's actually a good book. I'm not too fond of the trek novels. Maybe that one, Pathways, The Q one with Trelane and "The Seige" by Peter David - the first stand-alone DS9 novel after Emissary.
Funny I thought I posted a post about Telomeres - yes they are real, they are the ends of chromosomes. As mentioned - they can depict the age of the chromosome/person. This was a problem with the cloning of Dolly. Dolly ended up being essentially the same age as the original sheep from which the genetic material was taken from (they used hair follicles I believe) thus the sheep was an older sheep in a lamb's body. This might be the idea behind the problem with cloning Pulaski mentions in TNG season 2 - with replicative fading?
P'Jem mentioned again - that episode seems to have had far-reaching consequences!
I can't believe they killed off Admiral Forrest - I mean WHY!?! He has probably been the best Admiral depicted in Trek so far. I mean Admiral Ross in DS9 was a bit of a drongo.
Andrew
Posted by DoughBoy05 (Member # 1417) on :
Did I not see another Mission Patch on one of the StarFleeters going through the lineup? Maybe for the Embassy itself.
Also notice the Embassy itself was labeled "United Earth Embassy"
Posted by Harry (Member # 265) on :
Yup. It was a bit of a shame to see the Embassy being run by Starfleet. Considering that a) Starfleet didn't seem to be capable of much before NX-01 and b) Starfleet was really small in the first seasons, I wonder what exactly Starfleet's mission is. It certainly wasn't a military fleet before the Warp Five engine. IIRC, it had only existed about 20 years prior to "Broken Bow". So why are they actually running the Embassy of Earth? And why is the Vulcan Administrator in direct contact with a mere Starfleet captain, and not some sort of UE government official?
(Of course I know the dramatic answer to that, but I have some problems with the ever-present, over-powerful depiction of Starfleet in Star Trek)
Posted by DoughBoy05 (Member # 1417) on :
Yeah I just checked...Corporal Whats-jis-face indeed has a nifty new patch on his shoulder
Posted by TSN (Member # 31) on :
"Also notice the Embassy itself was labeled 'United Earth Embassy'"
Well, we know B.J. did, for one...
Posted by DoughBoy05 (Member # 1417) on :
oops my bad!
Posted by The Mighty Monkey of Mim (Member # 646) on :
Coincidentally, I just watched the TNG "Gambit" 2-parter last night and realized something very cool:
quote:PICARD: According to Baran's logs, the two artifacts are supposed to be delivered... to the T'Karath Sanctuary on Vulcan.
TALLERA: I know that place. It was an underground stronghold for one of the factions during the last civil war. It's been abandoned for centuries.
Great tie in!
Posted by AndrewR (Member # 44) on :
Very very cool. This is what we like to see!
I enjoyed the actor who played Soval's... ACTING during the meld scene - he took on a distinctl human-like quality in the way he was speaking - i.e. the guy's normal thoughts - quite a contrast to his normal Vulcan speech - well done.
Also - did anyone notice the harp music during the mind meld scene... very much like that in TOS.
Posted by Futurama Guy (Member # 968) on :
Hey, finally got to see it!
At the end there, there was a very similar feel to it as was at the end of "Unification, I" , I was half expecting Spock to suddenly walk out of the shadows and say: "Indeed. You have found him, Captain Picard."
Anyway, looks like next week Enterprise is going to get spanked by a combat cruiser(?)!!! Posted by Lee (Member # 393) on :
It's quite interesting that they have the rank of Corporal in Starfleet now. Perhaps they've incorporated the MACOs in, while the NX-01 was in the Expanse. Starfleet is the new Homeland Security department. . . 8)
Good episode. Lots of political stuff, might finally start to see the Vulcans beoming the way we're used to them. It's good that Soval has lost a lot of the asshole act, maybe they will use him to replace Forrest's role in the show, not that he really needed to be replaced.
Anone see the bombed Embassy and think of the Oklahoma City bombing?
At about two o'clock from the United Earth logo, doesn't that look just like the Starfleet arrowhead? I'm sure it's just an optical illusion, you can see two more similar chevrons at one o'clock and ten o'clock, but it would be telling if the Starfleet logo (originally the Enterprise logo) turned out to be based on a Vulcan symbol! Even if there is a sideays version of it already on the Starfleet Command patch.
Posted by The Mighty Monkey of Mim (Member # 646) on :
Like I said, I'd say it's a fair bet that Askwith was supposed to be a MACO, but the wardrobe people mistakenly gave him a SF uniform. After all, it's been pretty well established ("The Expanse," et. al.) that the MACOS are Earth's actual military at this point, not SF. And don't you usually see military officers from a country guarding their embassies?
And I just highly doubt that Coto, the Reeves-Stevensons, or anyone else intended to add "Corporal" to the SF rank structure. It just don't make no sense!
Weird. Still works for me, and this is on a different PC.
Posted by Malnurtured Snay (Member # 411) on :
Link worked for me, too.
Posted by Harry (Member # 265) on :
I think he means that IT is DEAD. As in "the embassy was set up the bomb". Humans are so illogical.
Posted by Lee (Member # 393) on :
I see. So your contention is that, while I posted a link to an image which was then followed by a paragraph outlining my motives in posting the link, he has instead chosen to concentrate exclusively on my posting the image, and he then feels compelled to mention that the structure featured in the image subsequently suffered catastrophic bomb damage?
Posted by TSN (Member # 31) on :
Around here, you can never be sure...
Posted by Lee (Member # 393) on :
I therefore nominate FG's "Embassy go BOOM!!!" for the Least Useful Comment Not Posted By Wes Award. 8)
Posted by Futurama Guy (Member # 968) on :
Cool. Posted by Mark Nguyen (Member # 469) on :
-Anyone notice that the blue piping on T'Pol's outifts are apparently part of her "uniform"? It's on her desert outfit, which was apparently Vulcan standard issue.
-Also, the shots of Enterprise orbiting Vulcan seemed to be consistently dorsal-side facing the surface. It's oddly consistent, as usually it's side-on (and changing within that episode, even if they're all new VFX shots).
-The explosion of the embassy was pretty cool - we see the glass blowing out before the first shoots out the top of the building, which is another Trek first in terms fo detail. The walls of the interior look interesting, though. I'm reminded of the funky designs of the E-J corridors.
Mark
Posted by Lee (Member # 393) on :
It was interesting to see that Vulcan does have large modern cities.
Who, when designing a desert outfit, makes the shirt skin-tight with a tight zip-up collar?
Those shots in orbit of Vulcan were strange. Perhaps they had to be in a polar orbit or something. More likely they just took some ordinary shots of the NX-01 and added the planet and gave everything a refelcted red glow.
Posted by AndrewR (Member # 44) on :
There's now an Enterprise patch on T'Pol's uniform.
Posted by Dat (Member # 302) on :
There's been one there ever since she began wearing her three pips/bars on her uniform.
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