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I caught the episode late last night. Thank goodness for friends with VCR's.
All in all, it was a very enjoyable episode. It's nice that the creative staff finally got around to giving Reed some background and development. Of course, this can explain why we didn't know much about him until now -- he's a very private man. Looks like the Trek tradition of a main character having problems with his father is living on in Reed. I hope they revisit this later on in the series; Reed's old man really seemed to be quite ticked about his son. Watching Hoshi go through the episode playing the private eye was fun. I think I liked her exchange with Reed's friend the best.
I liked Archer's attitude change in this episode. He's finally realizing how dangerous and ill-equipped Enterprise is for deep-space exploration. He regrets some of what happened in "Broken Bow," but not ultimately going through with it. It also seems as if Archer's hatred for the Vulcans is beginning to lessen, or he's at least thinking things through logically a bit more. A nice continuation from "Breaking the Ice." Hell, T'Pol didn't even have to badger Archer into contacting the Vulcan High Command. Still, he admitted to Tucker that he was thankful they couldn't contact the Vulcans after all.
T'Pol was quite subdued in this episode, I thought. Maybe she's lightening up a bit around the humans? After all, she intentionally missed an opportunity to dig into Archer about humanity's bull-headedness and Archer's own emotions that got them into their predictament. Instead, she sounds down right reassuring to Archer by just saying there were less warp-faring species when they went out into the great unknown. Tucker had some really good moments, too. He and Reed work really together; they were feeding off of each other in the armory when they were starting to work on the phase cannons. Mayweather and Phlox got shafted in this episode, but I guess you can't win 'em all.
Here's a smathering of tech observations. One, Enterprise uses microprocessor chips. When the aliens board, the two engineers are pulling out a huge circuit board lined with chips on it. Reminds me of the 2 meg memory board from my old NCR computer. Apparently, there's a back door in the situation room that leads to a hallway. And, also, there seems to be a locker of flashlights everywhere there's an intercom. I guess this means they'd don't trust in uninterrupted power, huh?
Now, for a few things that bother me about the episode. First, was it really a good idea for Archer to shot at an unknown device carrying 600 gigajoules of power that has the ability to overload the phase cannons? I don't think so. Second, I don't think the support struts for the phase cannons should have been about to withstand the effects of releasing that much energy. Those things were fairly tiny, I think. Third, and what is probably my greatest problem with the episode, is that Archer didn't go ahead and head back to Earth. Yeah, they got the phase canons up and going, but what about the earlier system overhauls he was talking about? How about replacing whatever they had to cannabalize to build two phase cannons from scratch?
Still, it was good episode, I think. I liked it.
-------------------- 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.
Registered: Mar 1999
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The aliens looked like Pak'Mara with shaved tenticles.
Someday, soon I hope, the Enterprise would go into battle at General Quarters, with alarm bells telling the whole ship that they're about to get their butt kicked.
-------------------- "God's in his heaven. All's right with the world."
Registered: Apr 2001
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Finally saw the episode, really liked it. Some problems though, like they started with one unmounted gun and they manage to build two more and install them in 48 hours. They must have some wicked machineshop on board, not to mention the electronics lab. It was nice to see some background on Reed. I really think the show is starting to mature, still some character development going on but the feel of the show is starting to be good.
-------------------- "and none of your usual boobery." M. Burns
Registered: Oct 2001
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His dad... it's ... Lieutenant Gr�ber! From 'Allo 'Allo!
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