posted
Tonight I'm writing this on the fly, as I watch the episode. More to come probably later, during the second watching.
-Hoshi has fun with the languages thing.
-As of this epsiode they're still having prime rib for supper. I'm guessing it's all synthesized, but I'm getting curious as to how good it really is...
-Porthos can detect aliens in the ducts!
-The alien is this wierd frothy white stuff, akin to the human messentery (i.e. the white tissue that holds your lower GI tract in place). It's got a sort of blob mentality, going around absorbing things and people. Anyone ever see "Leviathan" with Peter Weller? Like that.
-One engineer off inspecting stuff carries a communicator. Odd, since they tend not to be carried around except on away missions. It's odd only in that it seemed to be convenient to the plot that he contacted someone before getting glooped by the alien.
-I think this is the first time we've seen the cargo bay set. Nothing too special, though as usual nothing seems to be secured. We also see a CG Jeffries tube set as the air duct, which is pretty much like any other we've seen in the past ten years, save for some lit power conduits.
-The plasma rifles are seen firing phase blasts, complete with improper sound effect. Oops!
-Starfleet *has* been working on forcefields, thought they're nowhere near reliable. Malcom has been fiddling with a rudimentary version whose specs are in the database, that can absorb a phase pistol shot 60% of the time. By the end he gets it to work somewhat, setting up portable emitters on the walls.
-Vaughn's back, as yet another alien species - that's three roles in the space of a season, probably a Trek record.
-And on the subject of records, does anyone know which Trek series has gone the longest without the death of a crew member of the titular ship or station? For all the danger Enterprise faces, it's almost surprising that no one has died yet. TNG, TOS and VOY have all had deaths in their first season. What about DS9 - anyone know?
Mark
[ May 01, 2002, 14:33: Message edited by: Mark Nguyen ]
posted
Well I guess this means that if someone dies in the next episode, it means that death in the first season is just an occupational hazard for the background characters (excluding Tasha). Isn't it Vox Sola?
quote:death in the first season is just an occupational hazard for the background characters
Where have you been for the last 35 years? Death has always been an occupational hazard for background characters in Star Trek. That's why they have background characters. Somebody has to die, & it's not gonna be Archer or Tucker. It's gonna be some redshirt they introduce in the episode for the sole purpose of killing him later. It's always been nice, clean death in Star Trek.
BTW, the only reason Tasha died was because she left the show. TPTB didn't just go to her one day and say "Good news! Your character is going to be killed off today!"
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posted
It was nice to see a flubbed First Contact encounter for a change. Although this being "Star Trek," we pretty much had to Set The Record Straight by the end of the hour.
I suppose I can't complain too much given that these forcefields are very definitely in the early stages of development, but did anyone think that those four puny hand-held emitters were too small for such a powerful and experimental technology? I'd think that to generate a projected EM field like that, you'd need much bigger equipment, at least in the early years that it's put in use.
-------------------- “Those people who think they know everything are a great annoyance to those of us who do.” — Isaac Asimov Star Trek Minutiae | Memory Alpha
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posted
Ah, indeedy. I'm just hoping that when this does happen on Enterprise, that there will be a big deal made of it...
Makes you think a bit of other things too... I mean, shouldn't there be a guy walking around the ship with bits of rock and plant sticking out of him? Would they have turned back to drop him off somewhere? At the the time, they weren't too far out, and may have rendezvoused with a slower ship to transfer the guy off...
Mark
[ May 01, 2002, 23:35: Message edited by: Mark Nguyen ]
posted
What's "vox sola" supposed to mean? For some reason, I thought it was "vox solis" ("voice of the sun"), which doesn't make a lot of sense in context, but at least it means something. Unless it just isn't in my dictionary, "sola" doesn't seem to be a word...
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Obscure fact of the day: US Water Polo National Team coach Richard Corso was credited as a consultant.
-------------------- "I was surprised by the matter-of-factness of Kafka's narration, and the subtle humor present as a result." (Sizer 2005)
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posted
That's another thing I liked -- showing a "different" sport for a change. Rather than some of the mainstream games like baseball or football or soccer or whatever, we get to see something that's a bit more unique. (I've never watched any water polo games myself, anyway.)
-------------------- “Those people who think they know everything are a great annoyance to those of us who do.” — Isaac Asimov Star Trek Minutiae | Memory Alpha
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-We see a nice detail on the starboard side docking port; it seems that various alien ships tend to have the extentable collar that mates to and the other side, which has an open, smooth surface to latch onto. I'm guessing that the port side hatch is used for standard docking procedures "at port", per tradition.
-There's a pool table aboard ship somewhere. I wonder where? We've not yet seen a rec deck or any sort of real recreation facility save for the mess hall, which is also used for the movies.
-Notice that Archer and Tucker are sipping away at schooners of beer as they watch the match. With the exception of Star Trek IV and possibly other time-travel episodes, is beer ever casually seen in an episode? In the VOY "Memorial" they make a small deal out of it, but otherwise?
-Starfleet had been working on forcefields for five years; given the urgency of the situation, if T'pol could have helped on that, she probably would have. Since she didn't, this suggests that Vulcans don't have advanced forcefield technology either.
-At one point Phlox summons a "Medical Team". So there *are* other medical technicians aboard! Unto the present the sickbay has been the sole refuge of Phlox and his menagerie.
-Notice that the other security guy that gets glooped by the alien essentially disappears afterwards? He's mentioned as being unconscious, which is pretty danged convenient for an ND.
-In a MacGuffin to get Travis more lines this week, he happens to be alone on the bridge when the aliens phone back (T'Pol & Hoshi are in the mess hall; Reed's in the armory). Isn't it some sort of breech of protocol to answer the phone instead of calling whoever's suposed to be in charge? He even looks around to see if anyone's there.
-What was the alien feeding on to grow so big? It could have simply been distending itself to increase in volume while trading off density, but this seems impractical given the tendrils' yanking power and glooping ability. Also, when they delievered it back home, it was small again...
Mark
[ May 02, 2002, 07:36: Message edited by: Mark Nguyen ]
Ah. Indeed. Had to look under "solus" to find it...
"Isn't it some sort of breech of protocol to answer the phone instead of calling whoever's suposed to be in charge?"
Well, if he wasn't in charge, who was? Was he only on the bridge by random chance? Isn't it a breach of protocol to leave the bridge completely unmanned?
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posted
Death in Star Trek:
Pre-TOS: No one died in "The Cage"
TOS season 1: Got off to a rolling start.. "Where No Man Has Gone Before" had 9 unseen crewmembers killed before the opening credits rolled (i think, and none of them were redshirts since there were no red uniforms at the time, [redshirts=beigeshirts]), followed by Kelso, Mitchell and Dehner at the end of the ep. Going by the first aired episode, "The Man Trap" killed Darnell before the credits rolled also, followed by about a half dozen others (none wearing red though, but i suspect that the man in the hazard vest [Barnhart] normally wore a redshirt). Subsequent crewmen died in "The Naked Time" and "Balance of Terror" but Star Trek inaugurated its first official redshirt deaths in "What Are Little Girls Made Of?", Matthews and Rayburn.
TOS season 2: "Catspaw" also kicked off with Jackson dying before the opening credits rolled. No redshirts bought it until two episodes later in "Friday's Child" however, followed by redshirt massacres in "The Changeling" "The Apple" and "Obsession"
TOS, season 3: By now the first death was naturally a redshirt, in "Elaan of Troyius" one episode in.
TNG: the first crewman to die was Mr. Singh, and in these more modern times all redshirts wore yellow. Light first season casualties in "Heart of Glory" and then the Tasha killing in "Skin of Evil"
Season two: one episode in saw the twitching awfuls received by Haskell, in red, on the bridge (which i still imitate at parties when the topic of redshirts comes up)
DS9 was completely Starfleet-bloodless until the finale, when Ensign Whatsisface got stir-fried in a wok-conduit by Neela, with the chief's tool. Its the longest without a crew casualty Star Trek has ever done.. we'll see whether Enterprise waits til season 2 or not. (oh.. or do we count the battle of Wolf 359 from emissary? if so, DS9 had 11,000 deaths before the opening credits, another record...)
Voyager of course killed everybody before the second commercial.
![[Wink]](wink.gif)
Crewman Kelly tells Rastof (sp?) that the comm's out when she tosses him the communicator.![[Razz]](tongue.gif)
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