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$$$ Watch your technological step! ["Minefield" Spoilers]
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[QUOTE]Originally posted by Mark Nguyen: [QB] Yup, this is one tech-heavy episode. This'll take a while. -There are only two crew working full-time down in the armory. Reed asserts that adding a third will allow one of them to work on the upgrades to the torpedo launchers. Upgrades? -England has made it to the finals in the 2152 World Cup for soccer. Huzzah. -The fun begins when they orgbit a new M-class planet. They're going to start exploring in 'pods when BOOOOM (and I repeat for emphasis: BOOOOOM!!!)! A large hunk of the fore port section of the saucer gets blown to pieces. -Damage is to C and D decks; this may not jive with the damage seen. It looks a lot lower. 17 casualties reported in the initial blast, including Hoshi. -Okay, the mines ARE cloaked. So are the Romulan ships that show up later. This sucks. Anyway, a second mine soon latches itself close to the starboard impulse saucer impulse engine. It's armed with tricobalt explosives - apparently not much, as yield is later determined to be a quarter kiloton. I think they really meant MEGAton. Anyway, letting it blow so close to the impulse manifold is considered a Bad Thing, so Reed heads out to fix it. -Figuring a minefield can't have only two mines, Archer breaks out the quantum beacons still attached to the grappler arm (back in "Shockwave Part I"). Soon enough, they break through the cloak (already?! Yeesh!) and detect 'em. -New set gimmick: The side airlock, opening upwards, No idea where it comes out.. Probably under a slideaway plate. I'd have liked it if they'd used those ventral/dorsal doors where the robot arms are supposed to be kept. -New set gimmick #2: the steering wheel at the conn has been replaced by a joystick. Looks better than the wimpy control sticks used on the E-E or Delta Flyer. Travis may need a little more practice with it, though, as we see soon enough. -The mines may have been there for some time - they're scorched with micrometeorite impacts. A pretty nifty prop, actually, though it doesn't really "look" Romulan. And this is a Good Thing. Along the way, Reed gets speared through the leg with one of its magnetic mooring legs - luckily, the suit seems to be equipped with a self-dispensing sealant, which is also a Good Thing, but something apparently forgotten by the time Worf goes Borg-hacking in "First Contact". -Oh, and the detonator is similar to one seen on a Triton-class spatial torpedo, whatever that means. It's got lots and lots of tech yaddas to disarm, though no one seems to suggest the transporter (I may have missed it - but it's pretty obvious). -Ooh, the Romulan ship is spiffy. They apparently have a more advanced version of the mine's cloaking field, as the quantum beacon couldn't penetrate it. There is at least one weapons mount, in the nose, and fires a typically Romulan green pulse blast. -They broadcast in Romulan, which Hoshi has to translate as the UT can't handle it. Huh? Given that the Romulans are off-shootish from the Vulcans, shouldn't their languages share at least a little commonalities? But I guess it's not THAT bad, since English/Latin is pretty different from almost any African language, and we're all on the same planet - there could be something like that working with the Romulans (not to mention thousands of years apart). Can anyone remember any Romulan language references in any TNG series? -Let's talk about the Romulans themselves for a minute. Archer does remember the book he saw when he was stuck in the future two episodes back, and true enough can't offer anything because of it. T'Pol knows of them, and reports that the Vulcans know them to be an "aggressive, territorial species" that they've never made direct contact with. Sure. In any case, that's about all we learn about them this time around. By the end of the episode, Hoshi has figured out their language and the UT translates accordingly. -Relevant character bits: Reed was trained not to "chat", which is part of the reason he sits in his shell most of the time. He's not perfectly comfortable with the relatively lax attitude Archer has on the bridge, or with his relative lack of caution in security matters. Adding to all that we know of his family (he's the most developed of the characters in that area, no?) he's got a great uncle who served in the Royal Navy, but who was aquaphobic like him (one reason he chose Starfleet instead), but served on, and gave his life for the crew of, the RN sub HMS Clement. Reed was raised on the water, and loved the Navy, but was always afraid of drowning. -Archer mentions at one point that "they could be out here for years", referring to their mission. Interesting - do they have an open-ended mission? No "five-year" stuff? Are they scheduled to return to Earth at SOME point, or just whenever they feel they need to? -We see a little more of the spacesuits later on, when Archer attaches a spare air hose to Reed's suit after Malcolm tries to make like his uncle. Apparently, Starfleet has been using the same magnetic boot technology for a while: the SFX used for the suit boots are the same as for the FC suits (but not those in the comparitively silent boots of Star Trek VI). -Crew counting... When the Romulans show up again (this time with two ships), they say that there are 82 people in Enterprise, plus Archer and Reed outside. At last count we were at 87; counting Daniels, we seem to have lost two people. No mention is made of this, or if they were lost in the blast. -I'll leave the resolution of the episode for you guys to see yoursleves, 'cuz it's pretty neat. I WILL say however that it involves the use of two shuttlepod doors. :) -At the end of the show, Enterprise leaps into warp with all the damage on the port side still there (and a large plate of hull missing from the starboard side-- oops, did I say too much?). Possible glitch: Voyager apparently has trouble going to warp with a Kazon shuttle sticking out of its hull. Enterprise has NO trouble with large sections of ship missing. Hm. Fingers tired. Other people fill in rest. :) Mark [/QB][/QUOTE]
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