posted
Bah! My "Enterprise" channel is pre-empting the show in favour of the "Bachelor" premiere. The usual tech review will therefore not come until Saturday, or unless I can find a download of the show that isn't in the hundreds of megabytes. Therefore I task you, my faithful posters, to fill the void. Not that this one seems tech-heavy anyway...
posted
Those alien ships were neat, and had neat sound effects. The alien flamethrowers seemed pretty low-range, but perhaps the weapons were adjustable and just set for close-quarters.
And since we have spoiler warnings, I was sure that, at the end, Archer was going to want to keep the virus to use against the Xindi, which would have struck me as, well, a bit much, really. Instead he wants to keep it because it is all that's left of the extinct alien guys. Which is fair enough, and I'm not entirely sure Phlox's default suggestion should be to destroy his cultures anyway. I mean, sure, it's probably the best idea, especially since the ship isn't really the safest place to store things at the moment. But it is a rather unique scientific find.
The commando rifles are set on stun again, and actually used in that capacity this time. The commando EVA suits are definitely a different design, with just one headlamp instead of two, for starters.
I suppose if one wanted to catalog every instance of technology in the episode, we did see a mockup of a crashed alien craft, which looked kind of like the Future Pod from "Future Tense" with nacelle-like structures attached.
I'm kind of skeptical that anyone offworld infected with this virus would find their way to the planet, because the alienified crew did not seem like they were up to piloting advanced interstellar spacecraft. That's what we're told happens, though. It makes a bit more sense here than in the wereGeordi episode, at least, since these creatures were sentient tool-users in their own right, rather than the seemingly more primitive creatures in TNG. Though, we never knew what wereGeordi knew or remembered, or for how long.
Registered: Mar 1999
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posted
Sol got the good stuff, nonetheless, here is the rest of the fictional-factional tid-bits:
"--Star Trek-- Enterprise" (if you didn't know already )
Last weeks unseen Xindi was evidently the of the Sloth-class, which Phlox thinks evolved from some form of arboreal primate. Zzzz.
Although portrayed as primitive, the "Loque'eque", at one time were quite advanced. The story goes that something decimated their species centuries ago making them unable to reproduce so they made this mutagenic virus to save themselves from extinction. The effects of this virus was that transformed virtually any non-specie into their species.
Their capital city was known as "Urquat", a once lavish underground metropolis.
The unnamed 'aliens-of-the-week' have been studying the Loque'eque virus for 60-years. At one time, tens of millions on their world had to be destroyed to prevent its spread that, otherwise, would have transformed their entire planet in a matter of weeks.
Was that a mini-fridge in T'Pols quarters that Trip was looking for those peaches in? If so, that's certainly a first...
Definately way cool looking new 'AotW' ice-pick ships, 'cept they had klingon BoP disruptor sfx.
Thats about it. Having not read any spoilers prior to watching this episode, this sure was not what I was expecting from trailer.
-------------------- Hey, it only took 13 years for me to figure out my password...
Registered: Jan 2003
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posted
I thought it was rather interesting that Lavar Burton directed an episode that had a very similar plot to one that he acted (in TNG). I couldn't help noticing that they went a long way to make the quaranteening aliens look less advanced then the Enterprise. It must have done something to their egos to have a cure in an hour...
-------------------- joH'a' 'oH wIj DevwI' jIH DIchDaq Hutlh pagh (some days it's just not worth chewing through the leather straps in the morning) The Woozle!
Registered: Nov 2002
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posted
Actually, something seemed kind of off about the way the plot unfolded, now that I think about it. That is, the episode seemed to keep making us expect that the guys with the quarantine were more sinister than they turned out to be. When the city was discovered in ruins I was sure we were going to learn that it had been purposefully destroyed, but such did not turn out to be the case. When one of the flamethrower toting guys got a hole in his suit, and we could see his face, it seemed to me that he wasn't actually changing, and we were going to learn that these aliens were immune to the virus for unknown sinister reasons. But, apparently not.
The other thing, and this is more of a criticism than an observation: This wasn't much of a quarantine. The people running seemed, in the end, to be genuinely concerned in containing it, and not in furthering some dark and hidden agenda. So why not put some satellites or something in orbit to warn off the occasional random passerby? Or, for that matter, have your personnel stationed in orbit for easy access to the surface, when necessary.
The other other thing is, despite their burn first ask questions later policy when it comes to healthcare, these aliens seemed fairly reasonable. They seem to have a working government, at least, with resources to spare on patrol ships. Why not ask them about the Xindi? A little information, or maybe even an armed escort, seems like a small price to pay for the cure to such a relentless pathogen. At the very least they should know which parts of the Delphic Expanse are more dangerous than others.
Registered: Mar 1999
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posted
"Tune in for next week's exciting new episode, where we learn what Captain Archer and Captain Flamethrower talked about, after becoming buddies"
-------------------- joH'a' 'oH wIj DevwI' jIH DIchDaq Hutlh pagh (some days it's just not worth chewing through the leather straps in the morning) The Woozle!
Registered: Nov 2002
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posted
I really was'nt impressed with the plot at all (and I HATED the Geordi version on TNG even more) but I have to say that Trip's acting and role in general were far above Trek standards. He was decisive, smart and took no shit from the aliens of the week. A big step up in maturity from previous seasons. Mabye the death of his sister has tempered him a bit?
A question: is Trip the First Officer on Enterprise? T'Pol is left in charge often but Trip is always busy making things work without blowing up. If Trip's the XO, I'd like to see more episodes like this where he gets to command.
Something of note: the Marines don't appear to speak much when not spoken to: the beginings of Red Shirt mentality?
-------------------- Justice inclines her scales so that wisdom comes at the price of suffering. -Aeschylus, Agamemnon
Registered: Aug 2002
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posted
Just another example of sloppy thinking. The Enterprise needs a XO, but someone who in theory should be spending a lot of time in the Engine Room hardly qualifies. . . And not even a mention that the ship's real XO was left behind originally because T'Pol was going to be on board. What would such an XO do anyway? Science Officer? Didn't Archer say in "Broken Bow" that he didn't have one, and needed one? Archer could hardly know T'Pol was going to end up as ad hoc First Officer, and to be honest I'm not sure how official her position is anyway, given how much time she and Trip spend bickering whenever they're left in charge.
No, there should have been a XO, but there wasn't. Because the structure of the show assumed T'Pol would be it. They could have at least had a mention that, I dunno, the XO (Lt. Cdr. Cavit's great-great-great-grandfather!) had mumps or something.
-------------------- "It speaks to some basic human needs: that there is a tomorrow, it's not all going to be over with a big splash and a bomb, that the human race is improving, that we have things to be proud of as humans." -Gene Roddenberry about Star Trek
Registered: May 1999
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posted
meh.. since ENT didnt really have a military atmosphere when it began, i can hardly expect them to adapt a military command structure.. the NX-01 was an exploration vessel, equivalent to a NASA research mission of our time.. look at a typical space shuttle mission: some military men, mostly non-combat, chosen for their piloting skills, and staff officers (such as doctors) and other scientists rounding out the queue..
shuttle commanders arent chosen fr their military command ability, neither are their copilots (XOs)..
thats why the chain of command on a NASA (and NX) mission differs from the naval format that occurs in latter-day Trek.. if you look at a shuttle roster they are all colonels and majors (or equivalent naval or international ranks) it wouldnt be odd to see a foreign officer who outranks everyone accompany the shuttle in a vital role, or vice-versa have an officer commanding that is outranked by his staff.
Archer and Trip were chosen because it was a test-flight, they were the pilot and engineer that invented the project.. T'Pol was given political status to take charge of certain aspects of the mission, and became default XO (due to her liaison role).. i could see the NX-01, minus T'Pol, operating with no XO.. they don't keep much of a duty watch, the ship is piloted by who is piloting and decisions are made by the captain.. as they have grown into their mission, hey have started to adapt to Reed's calls for a military atmosphere, and now the MACOs are enhancing that.
in some ways, i think this is ideally suited for the shows prequel role.. we are seeing the birth of the (admittedly sometimes wierd) military-but-also-exploration-and-we-dont-want-to-be-so-military-but-we-have-to-be command structure that later Trek embraces
Registered: Sep 2001
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