posted
Another Nausican reference! Phlox must love these guys. I wonder if the Earthers have met Nausicans yet ...
Archer seems really quick to shoot down T'Pol's suggestions about attempting to make contact. I mean, if it takes 1/2 an hour to prep a shuttle, didn't they have enough time to try the "Theta" frequency?
I like the armory ... especially how the torpedoes are loaded. The ladder at the rear of the set to the upper level -- homage to the TOS Engineering set?
I also like the doors to sickbay. I don't think I saw them in the first episode. And if I did, I didn't pay enough attention to them ::shrug::
Nit: At the beginning of the 2nd Act, Archer and Tucker are walking down a corridor. They turn left onto a side corridor, then a right onto a larger corridor. They then make another right into a corridor, then another right. In other words, they walk in a big circle and head back the same way they come from.
[ October 03, 2001: Message edited by: Malnurtured Snay ]
posted
We saw the sickbay doors several times in "Broken Bow," Jeff. Sorry about that.
I concur with the torpedo/armory set. It reminds me a lot of the torpedo rooms on submarines (I watch way too much TLC and Discovery). The arrangement is good, I like the main control panel being positioned between the two tubes. Archer really did make quick work of those stairs, huh?
I like that this episode is fleshing out more of the characters, though. Dr. Phlox needs some help, though. He's still coming off a bit as a Neelix clone with an MD. I think the writers could effectively show his enthusiasm with humanity while at the same time toning it down a notch. The mess hall sequence was a nice exchange between Phlox and Tucker. Both are explorers, but only one is actually getting to explore.
T'Pol really does come across as a damp rag. She's the ship's killjoy to be sure, and you could still the tension between her and Archer when he was insisting on boarding the alien ship. Nice to see that they didn't immediately get buddy-buddy after "Broken Bow." Along with that tension, I think Archer is also developing in that he realizes that T'Pol is his grounding influence. After all, he agrees with her decision to leave the alien ship after finding the dead bodies.
Hoshi Sato is getting a fairly decent workout in the character development department in this episode. However, some of the "I'm afraid of space" is over the top. On the plus side, though, watching her talk about her fears with Phlox is nice in that she is being fleshed and growing. She definitely has mixed emotions about being out in space. It was good to see that come out as well in her conversation with Phlox.
-------------------- The philosopher's stone. Those who possess it are no longer bound by the laws of equivalent exchange in alchemy. They gain without sacrifice and create without equal exchange. We searched for it, and we found it.
posted
Cool alien ship. I guess I missed those doors ... oh well.
I didn't really care a whole lot for this episode. I think the way the crew got out of the prediciment ... well, sucked ... it was almost too easy, although it was nice for Sato to realize her "purpose" (so to speak).
[ October 03, 2001: Message edited by: Malnurtured Snay ]
posted
Okay, episode's over. I liked it overall, there was just some overacting at places in regards to Phlox and Sato. Not too detrimental, though.
Phlox definitely got better after the mess hall scene. His character was pretty professional when he was working on the dead Axanar on the ship. I really liked the interchange between him and Sato in Sickbay, though. Brought out something good in both of the characters.
I think Linda Park did a pretty good handling this episode. There were a couple of points that were over the top. Talking with Archer in his quarters (or ready room?) was one of them. I think the EVA suit dressing room was the other. However, everything else about her I think worked better. I liked the frustration she showed with herself after freaking out on the Axanar vessel. I liked her fear on the bridge and with communicating with the Axanar. I think that worked pretty well.
I think the the Archer/T'Pol/Tucker interplay is slowly beginning to take shape. For a moment, Archer seemed really ticked off at the both of them. However, he seemed to take off of both of their personalities and reactions to the situation the impetus he needed to decide to go back and figure out what the right thing to do was.
It looks like Mayweather and Reed are going to have a close friendship that akin to the one Bashir and O'Brien had in Deep Space Nine. They were both working on the targetting scanners together, and the interchange between them reminding of that. Reed needs some development, I hope he gets an episode pretty soon. In this one, he came across as someone who just wants to "blow shit up." There has got to be more to him than arming the teams with rifles and using microexplosives to break into ships.
-------------------- The philosopher's stone. Those who possess it are no longer bound by the laws of equivalent exchange in alchemy. They gain without sacrifice and create without equal exchange. We searched for it, and we found it.
posted
- 'resequenced protein': at first I thought "Oh sh!t, they've got replicators!" then I remembered that you don't need replicators for that, I think. Beef flavored reconstituted krills, anyone?
- torpedoes: nice loading sequence, reminds me of "The Undiscovered Country"; more like a missile than a torpedo, though, configuration reminds me of a miniture version of the NMD interceptor (they even mentioned IR targeting!), looks like old style reaction drive, rather slow, explosion looks like conventional warhead (nuke blasts are generally more uniformed), not quite sure what the guidence is (active, semi-active, continuous datalink with ship, dumb, whatever), but there is a self destruction function
- Vulcans: I dunno, they seems a little TOO stuck up, were Vulcans really that irrational? you'd think they would have assisted or at least investigated disabled vessels, and explored a lot more than what T'Pol indicated
- "pulse rifles": I can hear the hardcore B5 guys laughing, I thought the bolts fired in the "Broken Bow" looked remarkably like PPG fire; the little sequence with Archer demonstrating how you can pull the battery out of a phase pistol reminded me of pulling the power tap on a PPG
- Archer: he's being kinda rash, you would have thought he would at least try all the comm options before going over there
- Hoshi: the Reg Barkley of 22nd Century, same question as back in TNG: "How did she make it through Starfleet?"
- when the Enterprise engaged the enemy ship, it felt like it was just to show off the new torpedoes; they could have opened up with their energy battery when the torpedoes failed, but instead they chose to rely on something unreliable, I doubt that single successful shot at the end did much damage in anycase
- "sluggy": I thought they were going to find a nice Argon rich environment for it, so why was Hoshi and the Doctor Z not in EVA suits?
-------------------- "God's in his heaven. All's right with the world."
posted
About the weapons, I think the series bible says that the plasma batteries we saw in "Broken Bow" are less powerful than the missile/torpedoes we saw here in "Fight or Flight." By the way, that really is an apt episode title considering Sato spent much of the episode trying to "fly" instead of "fight." I also really doubt that the torpedo had much impact than moderate damange to the ship's starboard prong.
I liked the shuttle docking sequence, too. That really is a fragile and painstaking process. I guess the new Enterprise definitely wasn't designed to be a warship (taking this into account as well as the limited weapons).
I think we already know the answer behind how Sato got through training school. As she said to Archer, she bit her lip and just got through what was needed to pass the training. I also noticed that she said her Starfleet training took only three years. Plus, since she's in the communications department, she probably wasn't subjected to everything else that Archer got in command training. As she said earlier too, she wasn't trained to deal with dead people hanging on hooks.
I'm not sure about the atmosphere, but if the atmosphere had a proper content of oxygen, I suppose that humanoids could spend a limited amount of time in an argon-based atmosphere without a spacesuit. Sluggo's problem could also have been related to being in captivity and not out in the wild. Of course, one has to wonder about the effects of placing an extraterrestrial slug in a completely foreign environment. I'm having flashbacks of the Simpsons episode with the American frog being unleashed on Australia.
-------------------- The philosopher's stone. Those who possess it are no longer bound by the laws of equivalent exchange in alchemy. They gain without sacrifice and create without equal exchange. We searched for it, and we found it.
posted
Not to mention, considering what we know of Starfleet of this period, it's unlikely most officers expect to do anything but be stationed on an outpost in the Earth system, or maybe got a post on one of a handful of ships, which never get very far away from Earth, the longest journey perhaps being to Vulcan.
capped
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Well (about to get crucified if I'm not remembering my science right..) argon is inert, so the planets atmosphere could have been an oxygen argon mixture. Breathable to humans (since our oxygen atmosphere is mixed with a percentage (20 something%?) of nitrogen which we dont do anything with) As long as there was oxygen we could breathe the remaining inert gas would cause no problem.
Am i right or do i look stupid (i havent done science since high school.. its not a requirement for art majors)
-------------------- "Are you worried that your thoughts are not quite.. clear?"
posted
My favorite part about the episode was that kick ass design the "butcher ship" (for lack of a better term) had. I may be the only one, but I thought that that looked like something the Tholians would design for a second. I am disappointed though sense we never got to learn exactly who the butchers were or what they looked like.
I loved the torpedo room. However, Reed is gonna need a charactor work out. I even commented to my bro while watching this episode that all Reed seemed to want to do is blow stuff up.
The Tucker/Phlox exchange was.....interesting. I don't think that that one couple would be willing to have Phlox watch them while they are having sex though. What a shame.
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posted
Things i noticed: The ships were cool.. both original designs. the age of CGI prevents us from having to deal with another redress of the ship from V or the Merchantman. Thank god, its about time.
The 'stabilization beam' -- because they dont know what a tractor beam is yet? Anyway.. the effect actually looked a little wierd.. but familiar as a tractor beam.
The action sequences seemed poorly staged compared to last week.. it took forever for the ship to drag them in, but i wasnt feeling any tension. the interior/exterior switches werent timed right to include the viewer in worrying about the state of the ship. The torpedo launches could have used a little more acting to give them an 'oh, crap, were screwed' kind of quality instead of a 'hey were standing here on the bridge' In those scenes, Sato was the only one who was really reacting to the situation, everyone else seemed to decorate their station.
On the other hand, the hand held camera portions of suit up room were well done, as was the dinner scene where we see the captain really question himself with his two first officers. much more than i was expecting from the new show. the overall pacing of the show impressed me also, spending 45 minutes of pure character before we got to the threat seemed a bit odd, but its almost a relief that they didnt get action happy right away
-------------------- "Are you worried that your thoughts are not quite.. clear?"
posted
Almost forgot: why the heck was Archer actively giving away the location of Earth? Is he out of his bloody mind? He couldn't even establish contact with the alien ship, and he's sending them his mailing address? Compared to both of the new alien races encountered this time, the NX-01 seems like a child's toy. Do they really want to be attracting so much attention with their current level of technology?
-------------------- "God's in his heaven. All's right with the world."
Registered: Apr 2001
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I was commenting to Jeff earlier that I liked the pacing of the episode. The build-up was good, but the ending did seem a wee bit rushed I (but not horribly thankfully). The sequence with the grappling of the Enterprise did feel like it needed a better editting job. I would have used a bit more interchange between the bridge scenes and the exterior of the ship.
I don't think Sato was the only one reacting to the situation. Archer seemed pretty desperate to try to do whatever to get Sato up there to speak with the Axanar. T'Pol was also urging her. Notice that she called her "Hoshi" instead of "Sato" or "Ensign?" Mayweather looks a bit concerned, but I think he would have been showing a bit more fear at that point. Reed and Phlox were pretty stiff in that scene. I guess Phlox wasn't too concerned since he didn't say that he had the compounds the aliens needed.
-------------------- The philosopher's stone. Those who possess it are no longer bound by the laws of equivalent exchange in alchemy. They gain without sacrifice and create without equal exchange. We searched for it, and we found it.
posted
I have to say over all, it's a decent episode.
But man, Starfleet sucks compare to other race at that time.
I mean, no shield, no tractor beam, and their torp. was so pathatically slow that it was shot down by "bad guy's" weapon.
This made me wonder how Starfleet all of a sudden became the "boss" in the future.
-------------------- "George Washington said, 'I cannot tell a lie.' Richard Nixon said, 'I cannot tell the truth.' Bill Clinton said, 'I cannot tell the difference.'"
-- comedian TOM SMOTHERS, from his latest stage act with brother DICK SMOTHERS.
posted
Well, it's understandable that Starfleet pretty much sucks at this point in time. After all, the organization itself hasn't existed for maybe a couple of decades at this point. The Vulcans are being stingy with technological information, so they are dependent on themselves to build things and develop ideas. I mean, they only now developed a stable Warp 5 engine. So, naturally, every other species that's been in space longer and/or trading information more freely with their neighbors is going to be in a better position than Earth.
-------------------- The philosopher's stone. Those who possess it are no longer bound by the laws of equivalent exchange in alchemy. They gain without sacrifice and create without equal exchange. We searched for it, and we found it.
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