posted
Placeholder, as I'm in meetings until later tonight and will likely not make the broadcast. Here's hoping the VCR works...
Also, it appears that I'm not getting an Enterprise double-bill with "Bounty" tonight. The TV-Guide can always be wrong, but it looks like I'll not be able to do a tech writeup of said episode. Someone else can feel free to do so. Mark-witty thread titles include "Bountiful Tech!", "Tech for Bligh!" and "Tech in Heat!".
Man, it'd totally SUCK if the whole schedule gets bumped, and I miss the freakin' season finale because of it! Oh, the humiliation! Shock and awe!
posted
I liked this one. Tech wise, it gives some pretty fascinating looks at pre-series tech, and Earthbound stuff is always fun (twice in as many weeks, no less!). Let's get to it, 'cuz there's a lot of tech.
-No timestamp for the episode, but it's more frustrating that they never really pegged when all the flashback stuff happened. What we DO find out is that after the events in the flashback, it was about two years before Duvall proke warp three. Five years later they laid keel for Enterprise, but without knowing how long it took to build here we don't really know when the epsiode happened. Has Duvall been mentioned before?
-Boy, Enterprise really cleans up good. No sign or mention of the pounding they took last week - the first true severe hull damage they've taken with the exception of that Romulan mine, which was cleaned up as a plot point. Ah well, par for the course as series go.
-We open with the gang finding a dark matter nebula - the first observed in their history. T'Pol is skeptical, and notes that even if it did there wouldn't be much to see. Archer notes that the Vulcans had been able to excite dark matter to a visible state with "metrion particles". Trip rigs spatial charges to that effect, providing the dramatic foil for the episode. The charges launch from the shuttlepod's nose... I don't remember any launching tubes being mentioned.
-Everyone's buddy A.G. Robinson was killed in a mountaineering accident on Mount McKinley in Alaska.
-Starfleet regs prohibit the Captain leaving the ship unaccompanied, which is the excuse that T'Pol uses to go mapping with the mourning Archer in a shuttlepod.
-The "NX-Test" program was designed to pop the warp two barrier with an early warp three engine as mentioned in "Fortunate". How fast were Horizon and Fortunate? Point being, if they were close to, or past warp two, I wonder how much of a barrier this really is. The engine is Archer's dad's design.
-Rank fun - look for Forrest's Commodore pins (one flag officer bar on each side, as expected) and sleeve bands. Look also for the NX-Test patch on everyone's shoulders. Archer is a Commander at this point. Note that while on the base, everyone is wearing these ID/security tags on lanyards.
-The NX-Test craft are very much reminiscent of the Phoenix, using the same capsule set and exterior prop. Physically, she's got aerodynamic pylons that fold up sorta like airplane wings, and a flared thruster assembly. Cockpit for two, and it even has a joystick. Robinson wears a space suit very evocative of late 20th century shuttle launch suits, all yellow and bulky.
-The first test with Robinson in the seat (much to Archer's dismay, as he SO wanted the gig) is successful, getting to warp two without much trouble (it started shaking at 1.5). It started hitting trouble around 2.1, but Robinsob managed to get to 2.2 before the warp field collapsed (some really nifty warp field "stress" effects seen here). NX-Alpha is dumped out of warp in Jupiter space following its Earth-orbit launch and promptly explodes. Luckily Robinson bailed out while at warp, becoming the first human to do so in an escape pod. The pod was NOT the nosecose section, as the escape pod prop was a tiny compartment with a totally different seat. While you're looking at the pod, lookit the NX-Beta sitting behind it. More echoes of the Phoenix...
-Name dropping - Lieutenant Tucker was assigned to the NX-Text program on Captain Jeffries' engineering team (betcha he spent a lot of time in tubes). We also get an explanation of Trip's name: he's the third Charles Tucker. Triple. Trip, get it? HAW! And yes, Ruby is hot.
-Trip insists that the problem with the engine is that the intermix formulae just need to be tweaked, and that nothing is wrong with the engine itself as the Vulcans and Robinson think. The project is shelved indefinitely, but of course Robinson, Archer and Trip take out the NX-Beta for an unoffical proof-of-formula run.
-The outside of the NX hangar is a re-use of the outside of the Project Backstep hangar from "Seven Days", an old UPN sci-fi series. I think this is the first time stock footage has been used like this in Trek in a VERY long time.
-The launch stuff for the NX-Beta is extremely cool, with a glowey maglev sled propelling the ship up a rail ramp as the vehicle's wings extend and rockets ignite on the backs of the nacelles. I had to watch that a couple times. Anyway, after fixing the intermix follies NX-Beta holds steady at warp 2.5. Archer was at the helm.
-Security dudes eventually catch Trip, who's left on the base monitoring telemetry. Note that the goons seem to be wearing the old EM-33 plasma guns. Natch!
-For whatever reason, Archer ended up Captain of Enterprise over Robinson, who was content enough to wait for the then-nameless NX-02. The selection occured six months before "Broken Bow", and NX-02 wasn't named in this epsiode. Assuming Robinson never assumed command of that ship, it's safe to assume that NX-02 has not yet been launched at the time of his death. Oh well, at least Robinson's got a dark matter nebula named after him.
posted
Uhmmm.... guys? This was a great episode, but I saw a couple of potentially mind-boggling tidbits in the background at the "602" bar. Certainly, it was appropriately themed since it was obviously frequented by Starfleet people, but...
Folks, on the wall behind the bar, they had a nice color picture of the SS Enterprise XCV-330!!! Damn, I wish I'd taped this one for the proof, but even without freeze-framing it, I'm positive that was the ship.
They also had the picture of the Botany Bay launching (with booster rockets) from the "Chronology."
Robinson commented that his NX-alpha escape pod would be a nice addition to the Starfleet Museum. Guess it went into service rather early, for some reason...
Considering that the major [tech] problem of the flashback part of the episode was the intermix formula, I'm wondering if (again) the NX-test program was the development of the first antimatter-powered warp drive. Certainly Cochrane didn't have antimatter on his ship, so it had to be something designed later on...
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Shik
Starship database: completed; History of Starfleet: done; website: probably never
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posted
His name is A.G. Robinson?? That's effing HILARIOUS.
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quote: Look also for the NX-Test patch on everyone's shoulders.
I'm not so sure about that. It looks like that same logo is on the flag in Forrest's office. And if you take another look at the control center, there's a logo on the back wall. I can't remember exactly what it said, but it was fairly clear THAT was the NX test program logo. It was an upside-down triangle with an eagle (or some other bird of prey) in flight.
During the NX-Beta's flight, they mentioned the Auxiliary APU's hadn't been installed yet. LOL! Do they writers even know what the "A" in APU stands for? (For those non-aerospace-savvy people, it stands for Auxiliary Power Unit.)
Is the outside of the NX hangar a reused set? It looked like the hush houses we have here in St. Louis for fighter engine tests. It may be a real hangar of some sort.
And I noticed the ring ship in the wall picture, too. I wasn't very clear on my tape, but it sure looks like that "S.S. Enterprise" and not a Vulcan ship, complete with two rings.
posted
Actually, the S.S. Enterprise is U.S.S. Enterprise.
We can narrow down the timeline a bit. We know how long Trip and Archer have been friends from a first year episode, and we can conjecture from hints propped here and there throughout the series to the decade when Starfleet was introduced into service.
As for the freighters, they may have started out as warp one capable and were later modified to warp two with the possiblity of having greater velocity under extreme conditions. It is interesting though that freighters for a century will have a maximum speed of warp two.
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posted
I noticed the Ringship pic behind the bar too...when I was'nt rivited to Ruby's nubile form that is!
A.G. Robinson is indeed a hilarious gag! mabye he was just "plain simple A.G." to his friends. Commander Robinson may have been placed in charge of the upgrades that Enterprise is getting next season: it would explain why he never got the nod to be a ship's captain at least. If we ever see the Shenandoah it'll probably be a "stock" NX class after the Enterprise gets the upgrade (that way they can use the old CGI model.
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posted
About that ringship, are we sure that it is the recroom ringship from TMP? First of all, it�s a new angle, so either someone made a new pic, the old one existed in several versions or it�s a new ship.
Second, what�s the pic undeneath? Some ship on the ground?
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posted
You know what Harry, I think you�re right. However, I would have prefered if you linked that pic from my page instead of captain cabac�s, since I scanned that one myself from a communicator magazine
Still, no idea about the lower one?
-------------------- "The Starships of the Federation are the physical, tangible manifestations of Humanity´s stubborn insistence that life does indeed mean something." Spock to Leonard McCoy in "Final Frontier"
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, so I can't check, but it might've been a color-version of 
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