posted
*GASP* Mayweather gets to DO something! And it's marginally COOL story stuff, too! LOTS of tech tonight, and I'll have more than likely missed lots of stuff in this writeup. But for now:
-The show opens with Mayweather reading in his Sweet Spot, not seen since the pilot episode. Oddly, there's a water satchel floating right by him without appearing to be moving. This contrasts the pilot episode, which shows Tucker flip-flopping a bit higher than that. Later on, we also see the Captain flopping over BEFORE pushing off the ladder opening. I guess the grav effect in the Sweet Spot isn't uniform...
-Enterprise heads 30ly closer to home to investigate an anomaly where a rocky planet spinning out of orbit is passing between a pair of gas giants, causing it to superheat. Forrest calls it a "little detour".
-There's a LOT about life on cargo ships here to add to what we've learned in "Fortunate". We start with how lots of people hold multiple jobs on cargo haulers - Mrs. Mayweather is medic and chief engineer, for example. Travis has a relative who had five jobs, only two of which were on the bridge.
-According to Trip, the three greatest horror movies ever made were Frankenstein, Bride of Frankenstein, and Son of Frankenstein. Chef is in charge of movie nights, and he and Trip were assembling this special nightly movie marathon. This forms the B story. which IMO shouldn't have been filmed so we can give Travis more to do. These 39 minute episodes really suck drama time out of the show.
-There's a groaner scene where Mayweather and Reed when the former suggests what a good idea it would be to have families on board. Reed counters that it would drive him nuts, and that if they ever did that they'd better have a psychologist on board. Errgh...
-Timestamp: Jan 10 2153. About time, too. Also, when they arrive at the anomalous planet, Echo 3 isn't too far away for a direct downlink.
-Trip gives Travis some pictures he's taken of their journey. I notice Mayweather standing in front of a pod (probably from "Strange New World") and the convention complex from "Stigma". Any others you can pick out?
-Ahh, the J-class ECS Horizon! It's not the Fortunate, and it's also not the truncated Fortunate-ish ship we saw earlier this season. Instead, we seem to have a "truck and tractor" arrangement where a ship up front tows a string of cargo pods, held together by dorsal and ventral extendo-lattice braces. The nacelles and important stuff are up front in a blocky module. Total length is around the same as Enterprise - I wonder how much cargo they have to haul to actually make a profit...
-She's 50 years old, and the warp core was designed by Zefram himself, according to Trip. It's a legend of some sort that Cochrane would sign each reactor casing built back then, and Trip wanted to see it... Inside, everything is noticably cramped, and looks really worn.
-Right away, we see that when the Horizon goes to warp, there's a noticable lurch - everyone is used to grabbing hold of something when they make the jump. Also, the occasional bump is nothing special.
-The bridge LOOKS like a significant redress of the venerable TOS movie bridge, but I seriously think it's a newbuild. I'll have to take a closer look later. Notably, the helm console is BEHIND the CO chair, which also has a large console. Various wall and free-standing consoles are scattered around the cramped bridge. The helm chair has been seen on Trek for many, many years. Look closely for some "real" windows above and around the forward monitor - a nice touch when she's at warp.
-Travis puts Enterprise at 150ly out, and that they've visited 22 planets in the 18 months they've been going. Anyone want to check that against the episode list?
-Things are not all well aboard the Horizon since Travis' brother took over for their late father. They missed a rendevous with the Orions (!) two weeks ago, and they've been running low on deuterium, dipping into their reserves twice. This suggests that such things are pretty carefully regulated on ships this size, without much room for side trips or emergencies.
-Aliens attack! They also plant a tracking blinko on Horizon along with a dicobalt explosive to discourage anyone from removing it. Another ship, the Constellation (presumably another hauler), reports in to say that they went through the same thing recently, where the beacon attracted a much larger ship that took their cargo. Both Horizon and Constellation are armed with only two plasma cannon turrets, which is not enough.
-Both the smaller and larger ships are reuses of VOY guest ships. Travis identifies the warp engine configuration as similar to a Mazarite ship.
-Going to warp 1.8 while hauling 30,000 tons will cause a notable shake. In order to make it to the better-armed Deneva station ahead of schedule, they consider dumping the cargo and pushing warp 2. Travis also works on pumping impulse power through the plasma cannons to increase their firepower by 80%.
-No one wants to run freight anymore, according to Travis' brother Paul. Instead, people are flocking to the whole exploration thing a la Travis and Roddenberry, causing a labor shortage in the industry.
-When the big bad ship shows up, Horizon jettisons the cargo pods (still held together by the extendo-lattice frame) and immediately becomes a nimble fighter ship, taking out the larger ship in no time at all. Nice FX scenes of this ship the whole way through, by the way. I hope to see more of these J-class cargo haulers in the future.
Mark
[ April 15, 2003, 08:43 PM: Message edited by: Mark Nguyen ]
posted
I wonder if it was a little homage to fandom circles that the other ship was named the Constellation, given that a common notion held in those circles is that the Constellation from "The Doomsday Machine" (TOS) was a refitted Horizon-class vessel. (Their explanation for the NCC-1017 registry.)
-MMoM
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quote: -Travis puts Enterprise at 150ly out, and that they've visited 22 planets in the 18 months they've been going. Anyone want to check that against the episode list?
Like how specifically do they define a 'visit'? Like actually setting down on the planet or contacting it ooooor just scanning it?
This is probably incomplete but here is a sample of where they have visited:
"Broken Bow": 2 visited : Rigel X and Klingon Homeworld
"The Andorian Incident": P'Jem
"Civilization": Akaali homeworld
"Dear Doctor": Valakis
"Shadow's of P'Jem": Coridan
"Shuttlepod One": Tesnian Homeworld (unseen)
"Oasis": The Oasis Planet
"Detained": Tandaran 'prison camp' Planet
"Fallen Hero": Mazar
"Desert Crossing": Desert Planet
"Two Days and Two Nights": Risa
"Shockwave, Part I": Paraagan II(?) - - - - - -
"A Night In Sickbay": Kreetassan homeworld
"Marauders": 'small mining colony'
"The Seventh": Pernaia
"The Communicator": 'pre-warp alien planet'
"Vanishing Point": 'Alien Planet of the Week'
"Stigma": Dekendi III
"Cease Fire": "Weytahm"/"Paan Mokar"
"Canamar": Enolian homeworld...
"Judgement": Klingon 'colony'
EDIT - Okay...I weeded out a few based on the 'inhabited' reference...so 22 is pretty close...
[ April 15, 2003, 11:41 PM: Message edited by: Futurama Guy ]
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posted
Even if the Constellation/Horizon thing is a cute reference to the fandom 1017 explanation, it can't be an actual suggestion that NCC-1017 used to be a J class ship early in her life. Too different designs. And I take it there was nothing to indicate that ECS Horizon was the class ship of the J class?
OTOH, this take on J class makes sense in the contex of the other TOS references: Starfleet could very well make use of a ship like this in a training role, sans the cargo pods, while Harry Mudd could use the forward part plus perhaps one set of pods (and perhaps Leo Walsh originally had lots of pods which Mudd then ditched?). It would have been less joyful to see a ship that was way too big for Mudd or too specialized for training duty.
quote:Even if the Constellation/Horizon thing is a cute reference to the fandom 1017 explanation, it can't be an actual suggestion that NCC-1017 used to be a J class ship early in her life. Too different designs.
I don't think that that was what Mim was implying; however, I'm pretty sure the name-dropping was just a coincidence, and that the writer had no idea about previous Star Trek fandom.
-------------------- "A film made in 2008 isn't going to look like a TV series from 1966 if it wants to make any money. As long as the characters act the same way, and the spirit of the story remains the same then it's "real" Star Trek. Everything else is window dressing." -StCoop
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-------------------- "A film made in 2008 isn't going to look like a TV series from 1966 if it wants to make any money. As long as the characters act the same way, and the spirit of the story remains the same then it's "real" Star Trek. Everything else is window dressing." -StCoop
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[ April 16, 2003, 09:57 PM: Message edited by: Jason Abbadon ]
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posted
I really liked this episode! Mayweather became a real and intresting character for me for the first time and the acting was very good. I really felt for Mayweather when Archer was consoling him in "the sweet spot". The crack on TNG's families on board was great! "They better have a psychaitrist (sp?) on board!" Definitely the one liner of the episode.
[ April 16, 2003, 09:57 PM: Message edited by: Jason Abbadon ]
-------------------- Justice inclines her scales so that wisdom comes at the price of suffering. -Aeschylus, Agamemnon
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quote:Originally posted by Futurama Guy: This episode really seemed to echo "Fortunate Son"...
I thought it was "Fortunate Son"! Having never seen that episode and fallen behind on ENT overall, and catching the episode towards the end, I thought I was watching a rerun.
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![[Smile]](smile.gif)
In order to make it to the better-armed Deneva station ahead of schedule, they consider dumping the cargo and pushing warp 2. Travis also works on pumping impulse power through the plasma cannons to increase their firepower by 80%.![[Big Grin]](biggrin.gif)
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