posted
Some decent tech (lots on Xindi weapons secrets), a decent plot, and a bunch of background in the inevitable "Let's nice-ify the aliens" Trek episode for the Xini. Ah well.
-STILL no timestamp, but Reed mentions they've been in the Expanse for three months now.
-Following a flashback to the last episode, we open with a glimpse of the new probe weapon - much bigger apparently and shinier, but still keeping with the spherical motif with roting rings around it.
-They want to test the mostly-finished weapon on an uninhabited world in the Kallindra system. They think of that NOW?! This just deepens the hole dug by the earlier probe, which only served to make Earth mad. In any case, they plan on deploying the new weapon in a matter of WEEKS.
-Hey, the weapon uses KEMACITE to work! A hundred kilos is necessary to this end; how much was Quark carrying in "Little Green Men"? And could it have something to do with temporal or spatial travel?
-To hide from the Xindi planet, Archer places Enterprise behind a moon, hoping it's enough. For the atmospheric entry, they ionize the hull and come in on a steep vector, creating the appearance of a meteor entering the atmosphere. Indeed, the VFX show the streaking and the smoking rather well.
-That moon Enterprise is hiding behind must be really close for Archer to use his communicator to talk to T'Pol. Perhaps he was realying through the shuttle? At least they seem to need in a line-of-sight for comms, or else Enterprise would be pretty clearly visible from where they had her in the VFX.
-Later on, they beam a kemacite sample back to the ship, and a chunk of Xindi probe back afterwards. REALLY low moon!
-Tucker gets to have fun taking apart the Xindi weapon they captured a while back, since it's imprinted with the same quantum signature of the stuff they beamed up. Parts of it are organic, and reproduceable - he removes a sluglike tube from the inside of the thing, and it GROWS A NEW ONE in less than a minute.
-Phlox is able to kill the slugs with delta radiation - the slugs act as power regulators for the weapon. Trip starts scheming: if they rig up some delta rad emitters, they can disable the weapons before they can get close. Delta rays aren't too healthy for humans, though.... And omicron radiation just makes them reproduce.
-There used to be a sixth Xindi species - the Avians. None of them were known to have fled the homeworld following the hundred years of war they can't remember reasons for starting. The homeworld was destroyed possibly as a result of the war, but mostly because of geological instability. They don't establish WHEN exactly this happens, but the scientist's grandpa lived there. This was at least 42 years ago, since that's how long the scientist guy was in charge fo the place.
-Testing the Xindi rifle, Trip sets up a four-inch block of duranium to shoot through. Also, to contain any explosive blast, he rigs a quartet of Reed's forcefield emitters around the block. These were last mentioned in "Vox Sola"... I was hoping they would never be heard from again, but there you go. Unfortunately, the weapon is bobytrapped and Trip is forced to beam it off the ship before it explodes. I wonder if it's keyed only to be fired by Xindi?
-Hey, Trip said four INCHES! So much for metric...
-Taking off with the scientist, Archer and co. are pursued by Reptilian "Seeker" drones. Shooting one of them down, it OOZES this black fluid. Yuck.
-Taking the initiative, Archer has T'Pol and Hoshi change the signature of the sample they took, allowing Enterprise to track it. We only see the shuttle that picks up the kemacite and not the mother ship, but both are apparently of Reptilian design.
-The Reptilian ship went into that spatial portal thing soon after it left orbit; they've lost their bread crumbs. But the Sloth notes that the range of the portal is only a few light-years. Hm!
posted
Good analysis. The Xindi world was destroyed by the Reptillians and Insecetoids (no other names given for their races) when they detonated (something) explosive devices along the planet's major fault lines. Morons, huh? Still, it serves the point that the bugs and lizards are the violent types so far and possibly had an alliance during that big war of theirs.
Looks like the Xindi were once a technological force to be reckoned with! Organic weapons and biotech weapons invoke ideas of bigtime genetic manipulation capabilities. As does the speed they're making the bio-weapon in.
Possibly the Xindi were a great old race and built the Spheres themselves (for travel or defense), had a big war, lost their world to it, and began an inevitible decline both socially and technologically... The Spheres began to malfunction: both decreasing their spacewarp range and causing the anomalies. Now they're suckers in the Temporal Cold War and are trying to wipe out earth.
That sound about right so far?
-------------------- Justice inclines her scales so that wisdom comes at the price of suffering. -Aeschylus, Agamemnon
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quote:Originally posted by Jason Abbadon: Possibly the Xindi were a great old race and built the Spheres themselves (for travel or defense), had a big war, lost their world to it, and began an inevitible decline both socially and technologically...
Or maybe the old Xindi race created the young Xindi races as an experiment, before they disappeared. Wait, I'm thinking MoO... Or is it B5?
Registered: Apr 2001
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posted
Gregory Benford, The "Uplift" Saga. . ?In which humans raise chimps and dolphins to sentience? Maybe that's how the various Xindi came to be, they're client races of the real Xindi, now long gone, leaving their former servants to fend for themselves. . . Which would make them like the Drakh I guess.
posted
- Kemacite is a metaphasic isotope (uhm.. yeah)
- Depending on how refined it is, it has multiple uses. Obviously including big bad bombs.
- T'Pol identifies the subquantum imprint (right..). It's the same isotope as in the first Xindi probe.
- The Xindi rifle has the same subquantum imprint. So apparently there's kemacite in that as well?
- Some of the charactes pronounce it kemocite, but I assume it's supposed to be a DS9 reference.
- The group hides in a cave with topaline ore. A reference to a TOS compound! It was used in environmental systems in TOS, and Xindi-Reptillian sensors can't read through topaline ore.
Hayes talks about installing 'blast inhibitors' to minimize damage to the rest of of the facility if it comes to bombarding the refinery. One would think any sort of 'blast inhibitor' would involve force fields.. Or it could be a inertial dampener derivative.
Oh, Hayes also suggested using 'two spatial charges' to blow up the facility. Presumably something different from torpedoes. But why does Hayes inform the captain about this and not Reed? What do MACOs know about starship weaponry?
posted
Well, considering that he hasn't done anything else all season, he's probably had plenty of time to read about them.
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posted
Wheren't the demolitions?I'm sure that the marines in Iraq know a whole lot about demolitions charges that Navy weapons officers only hear about. DIRECTIONAL demolitions charges.
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Registered: Nov 2002
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posted
What about the portal... no one has mentioned the portal!!! Can the Xindi create and control wormhole like travel tubes?
-------------------- Later, J _ _ _ _ _ ___ _ _ _ _ _ The Last Person to post in the late Voyager Forum. Bashing both Voyager, Enterprise, and "The Bun" in one glorious post.
quote:Originally posted by Lee: Gregory Benford, The "Uplift" Saga. . ?
Wrong "Killer-B" - the Uplift Saga is by David Brin.
(The Killer B's are David Brin, Gregory Benford and Greg Bear.)
Also - was it just me, or were the VFX for the weapon materializing outside of the ship subtly different than normal? To me it looked like the particles were *emitted* from a single point on the ship's dorsal hull, rather than just swirling in willy-nilly or top-to-bottom as in most transporter effects?
posted
It's just occured to me that the "blast inhibitors" could simply be shaped demolition charges. that are strategically placed to reduce the blast area by "shaping" the main explosion. Sorta like reactive armor, except to keep an explosion IN instead of out.
posted
Blast Inhibitors could also be a portable Inertial Dampner that contains the blast's shockwave and prevents unwanted collateral damage to the surrounding area.
...either that or it's just jargon.
-------------------- Justice inclines her scales so that wisdom comes at the price of suffering. -Aeschylus, Agamemnon
Registered: Aug 2002
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quote:Originally posted by Mark Nguyen: It's just occured to me that the "blast inhibitors" could simply be shaped demolition charges. that are strategically placed to reduce the blast area by "shaping" the main explosion. Sorta like reactive armor, except to keep an explosion IN instead of out.
Hmm, I don't think so... because according to the dialogue, Archer was going to basically nuke the outpost from orbit with a pair of spatial torpedoes.
Oh crap... if these "blast inhibitors" weren't explosives of their own, and they were there to protect the inhabitants, then that means they're probably based on some sort of forcefield technology. Grr....
Okay, maybe they're some kind of shaped charge after all...
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![[Roll Eyes]](rolleyes.gif)
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