posted
Just an advance warning to keep your eyes peeled on this one. Not only are we stepping twelve years into the future - and thus hopefully seeing a few tech-related tidbits and stuff that may figure into the later seasons - but there will also be namedropping and continuity to establish, maintain, and possibly ignore. For example, tonight someone mentions the Ceti Alpha system. Wait for it.
posted
An absolute joy to watch, both dramatically and tech-wise. Perhaps Enterprise's best so far.
The whole episode is a Continuity bonanza -- Ceti Alpha V! The Mutara System! Alpha Centauri colonies! Yridians! Shran! The return of the Intrepid and Ramirez from "The Expanse!" Some gorgeously composed effects shots of a starship battle! A flotilla of Earth ships! A new Xindi ship! The Zefram Cochrane statue being put to unusual use! Lots of reasons to use exclamation marks!
Plotwise, essentially take "Before and After," "Yesterday's Enterprise," "The Visitor, "Year of Hell," "The Inner Light," the film "Memento" and press puree. The wonderful thing is that the finished product doesn't feel at all derivative.
More spoilerish stuff follows.
$ $ $ $ $ $ $
We're treated to a vision of a potential 12 years of events following Archer's infection with weird temporal microbes that give him Guy Pearce syndrome. T'Pol and Tucker attempt to carry on the mission to stop the Xindi weapon, but Archer proves to be of declining usefulness and the mission runs into snags -- ultimately, Archer is relieved of command and T'Pol is installed as his replacement. The Xindi attack Enterprise, killing Travis in a virtually ignored death scene that is so blink-and-you-miss-it that I'm convinced TPTB were having a bit of fun, and despite mad skillz on T'Pol's part the starboard nacelle takes it up the butt, leaving Enterprise only Warp 1.7 capable. Consequently, the Xindi finish the weapon and cleave Earth into itty-bitty pieces (one of the more interesting VFX in Trek history) and then set about exterminating the human race from the galaxy, leading to Enterprise taking on something of a Battlestar Galactica role and leading a flottila of Earth's remnant ships to set up a new life on Ceti Alpha V, where Archer's continues to live under T'Pol's care. Flash forward 9 years later, and Phlox arrives with new hope for treating his disease...
The actual story is told in a nifty unchronologicalish manner... akin to The Visitor, pretty much, and there's a nifty finale that thematically recalls alt-Picard jumping over the tactical console and firing phasers at the Klingons. As usual, Trek has a fair amount of fun with showing a possible future of the crew, with Captain Tucker, Commander Reed (sporting a rather tacky-looking goatee) and Lieutenant Sato. Mullets are apparently all the rage on Denobula in 2065.
So big kudos from me. Proof Enterprise can tackle some pretty well-trod terrain and turn in a very entertaining hour.
-------------------- "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
The writer for the next episode commented that he really wanted the episode to relate to the TOS stories and I think we're seeing that here too. Here's a link. Major spoilage ahead.... http://www.treknation.com/episodes/season3/north_star.shtml
-------------------- 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!
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posted
This was by far the best episode of Trek since the Dominion War arc!
Now I'm going to have to build the Intrepid! That ship is soooooo coool! A pre-TOS Steamrunner!
-------------------- Justice inclines her scales so that wisdom comes at the price of suffering. -Aeschylus, Agamemnon
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posted
Random points: - Earth is directly attacked, yet again, in Star Trek. The history of Sol System Defense Command remains at everyone else ~5, Humans ~0. - Merriweather DIES! Right near the beginning, too. Just when we thought his role couldn't get any smaller, he takes an exploding console to the face. - Apparently NX-01 has the ability to manufacture warp field coils, which too much like VOY for my taste. - No photonic torpeodes were hurt in the making of this episode, where the heck are those silver bullets anyways? - Some nice clear pictures of the two other classes of Starfleet ships, hope someone made screencaps. Strangely enough, I believe those are the exact same two ships that saved NX-01 from Duras. Just how small is Starfleet???? - The Vulcans apparently stood by and let the Xindis destroy Earth. Although it's implied that they couldn't stop The Weapon with their forces, it's also implied that they made no attempt to try. All they did was half-heartedly try to help the survivors of Earth. - Some different ships in the BSG fleet, they look rather familiar. - Reese gets his command blown away, before he even gets to do some commanding. - Yiridian, the galaxy's ugliest information merchant, returns. This time the humans gets to slap around the alien of the week, instead of the other way around. - NX-01 gets shields! Well, we knew it was gonna happen sooner or later, at least it was only for one episode. Wonder who's the General Shan they got it from... - The Weapon is Death Star mini, nothing more, nothing less. Wonder why Earth didn't just build a giant phase cannon to counter it, or a swarm of hunter-killer drones to encircle Earth. It's not like they'd cost that much, in the face of humanity's survival. - The Denobulans continues to help human, I like those people. - Vulcan isolationism remains strong, why is the Ambassador still alive? I guess he ran back to Vulcan long before the weapon struck. - T'Pol's allergic reactions aside, someone really should coat the NX-01 with the Vulcan equivilant of the T-Virus to stop those damn anomolies.
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posted
I think this one's definitely among the best of the series to date, too. I've always had a soft spot for those self-contained temporal-reset-button shows, like "Yesterday's Enterprise." (There's a difference between the temporal reset button and the series reset button, of course... I'm talking about where they explicitly show that the entire episode never happened, not where they just ignore character changes from week to week.)
That new Xindi Death Star kicks ass! Looks like it was around 500 to 600 meters across, when compared with the two accompanying Xindi-Reptilian cruisers. And the Xindi decided not to stop at Earth, but went after Mars, Alpha Centauri, Vega Colony -- those are the major Human colonies. There were barely 6,000 left after that. But what about Terra Nova?
THIS IS CETI ALPHA FIVE!!!!!!!
I think that the funniest part of the episode was the part that was left unsaid, although I'm sure that there was a line to the effect of "Enterprise is leading a rag-tag fleet..." Battlestar Enterprise, anyone?
Mutara System, too.
It took the rag-t-- er, that is, the convoy -- a year to get to Ceti Alpha V. Assuming that they were only making Warp 2 (with the Y-class freighters in their group), that's not quite as far as it might sound.
We see the Intrepid! Dialogue bracketing some awesome special effects confirmed that the Intrepid was indeed the unique saucer-like ship seen in "The Expanse," while there was at least one of those other Norway-esque ships flying around, too.
I suppose we can't blame the production crew for trying to save money, but couldn't they at LEAST have tried to disguise that damn cryo-stasis unit from "Voyager" a bit better? I was getting flashbacks from "Before and After" and "Threshold"... not a pleasant experience!
I somehow doubt that this was intended to be a red herring, but for a few minutes I was expecting that unidentified small ship to be from the future. The view from the underside with the wings and semi-spherical engine pods made me think of the Aeon. Was that ship just a re-use of the model for the Axanar cargo ship, the one that we also saw on "Voyager" a few times?
Also looks like the Xindi-Insectoids are using different ships from the Reptilians... that's an interesting touch.
Nice to know that the Andorians were willing to give the Human remnant forcefield technology for defense, when the Vulcans obviously didn't... Tucker mentioned General Shran -- t'would be interesting to know how the Vulcans and Andorians got along without the Humans to mediate over the long run... (I find it odd that the Vulcans didn't even offer to loan a few combat cruisers to patrol the Sol System while the NX-01 was away... there's a very clear threat to a planetary population -- why wouldn't they help, even if they won't share technology? Afraid of becoming the next target?)
And next week, the NX-01 meets the American Old West. Nice to know that UPN's keeping up its tendency to go from the sublime to the ridiculous...
-------------------- “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
General Shran is the Andorian commander from seasons one and two.
About time they asked for andorian help! Those Vulcans are useless!
-------------------- Justice inclines her scales so that wisdom comes at the price of suffering. -Aeschylus, Agamemnon
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quote:Originally posted by David Templar: [QB]- Apparently NX-01 has the ability to manufacture warp field coils, which too much like VOY for my taste.
Well, Tucker did say that the coils were fused, not vaporized. That means that the material was intact -- my guess is that they had to reshape them to be useful for propulsion, a process which would be difficult and time-consuming (because of the extremely dense material used for warp coils).
quote:- No photonic torpeodes were hurt in the making of this episode, where the heck are those silver bullets anyways?
Simple -- Tucker said that antimatter was in short supply. The wouldn't waste it on weapons when they needed to power their ships.
quote:I believe those are the exact same two ships that saved NX-01 from Duras. Just how small is Starfleet????
Well, aside from the Intrepid, which was mentioned by name, those could easily have been different ships. We didn't see any names on the hulls -- not even on the Intrepid, which had a BEAUTIFUL death sequence!
quote:- NX-01 gets shields! Well, we knew it was gonna happen sooner or later, at least it was only for one episode. Wonder who's the General Shan they got it from...
SHRAN, not Shan. The Andorian guy. Remember?
quote:- The Weapon is Death Star mini, nothing more, nothing less. Wonder why Earth didn't just build a giant phase cannon to counter it, or a swarm of hunter-killer drones to encircle Earth. It's not like they'd cost that much, in the face of humanity's survival.
Probably because Earth doesn't have the manufacturing ability to get all those weapons ready in time? I dunno... I got the impression that Earth was definitely mounting a defense as the Death Star approached, it just wasn't doing any good. There could've been any number of planetary defenses there, in that case...
-------------------- “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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Anyone wonder why no one else's worried about the Xindis enough to take them out? I bet if the Andorians and Vulcans come together, they can do it. Considering those guys have the ability to pop planets like pimples and the willigness to do it wholesale, I'm surprised there isn't a rush to destroy the Xindi weapon and annhilate their race before they build more of them and conquer the galaxy.
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posted
You know, I think that someone on the writing staff has a really sick and perverted sense of humor.
Has anyone considered what would probably happen if that timeline had continued, and the Earth colony managed to survive? A minor "incident" about two hundred and ten years after the founding of the colony, circa 2267?
Does Ceti Alpha Six ring a bell?
Assuming that the planet's explosion was a natural phenomenon, the internal pressure (or whatever caused it to explode) must've been building for thousands of years, geologically speaking. So that could be considered a constant event across timelines. And so the "shining planet, known as Ceti Alpha Five" would've become a death trap instead! And they probably wouldn't have had Khan's genetically-enhanced superiority to help them survive, either!
Egad... can you imagine what might've happened if the Human remnant did survive, and they ended up running across the Botany Bay as it headed out towards the Mutara Sector? With only six thousand people left, just how desperate might they have been? Might Khan have actually had a chance of taking over under those circumstances?
(Man, alternate timelines are fun, but never quite so much as when you're talking about destruction on a planetary scale! )
-------------------- “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
That was the first Season 3 ep I've seen . . . and I doubt I could've ended up with better. Holy crap! That was truly superb. Who the hell wrote that? It couldn't have been Braga.
The nice touches abounded in this episode, and despite being a reset button episode the continuity was simply astonishing, both in reference to the entire series and the entire franchise.
I can only hope they maintain and/or exceed this quality in the future. Change the theme and move the show to a better timeslot, and they could resurrect Trek.
-------------------- . . . ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.
posted
Holy FRACKING FRICK, this was a good show! I had to watch the opening bit three times before I could move on, it was so excellent. Just look at the reactions of everyone to Earth blowing up - even the extras behind Archer. Beautiful, as with the rest of the episode. On we go - note that I haven't read most of the other posts, so apologies in advance for any overlap.
-Note that during the attack, the huge-ass sphere jumps in AFTER the Reptilian ships. This implies that the Reptilians were there to clear the way of Starfleet resistance and give the sphere nothing to do but shoot. There were only two ships flanking the sphere... I'd imgine the Xindi would attack with more.
-Ahh, I think the whole Xindi probe thing makes more sense now, given the big weapon's intended effect (and result!). The probe's beam obviously didn't blow up the planet; it's likely that its purpose was to test the conditions of the Earth's crust, atmosphere such that the big one can do the job right. They didn't want to simply raze the planet - they wanted to destroy it outright.
-The little green chair in Archer's room that he wakes up in is the most TOS-ish chair since... TOS, really.
-The movie this week was "Rosemary's Baby". Yeesh, they seem to be getting more recent, no? Attendance is not mandatory for the senior officers.
-While zoned, Archer comes up with a way of upgrading the antimatter inducers - increasing fuel efficiency. Given his condition, he came up with it in a matter of hours. Smart guy.
-This is the first time they mentioned communicating with Starfleet via the buoys they left behind.
-The Reptilians' armor seems to be less effective this time... It takes a single shot to take one down.
-Did anyone else notice the imaginative use of the Zephram Cochrane statuette as an anti-intruder weapon?
-The Enterprise brig was designed only for two people - in other words, the one we've seen is the only one they've got.
-With one warp nacelle, they can manage a plodding warp 1.7. I think this is the first real evidence that starships CAN function with one nacelle lost, albeit at severely reduced speed.
-T'Pol notes that by the time they found where the Xindi weapon was being built, it had already been deployed. I wonder how they got it to Earth? And more importantly, how could Enterprise have gotten back BEOFRE it, damaged for six months as she was?
-People seem to be noting that the Vulcans and the Andorians may have been able to help avert the disaster. Indeed so - but with them hating each other so much, they may have been able to fare better. Hey, if they were working together, in a "Federation" of sorts, maybe so. Maybe so.
-We see Ceti Alpha V... And Trip notes that it's barely M-class, with a definite lack of blue and green. Didn't Kirk's gang say something about the place being a "paradise" for Khan?
-CETI EELS, man! Wouldn't this be a fricking PROBLEM here keeping people up at night?
-The bosun's whistle is REAL on this ship. Stoopid ST6.
-I think there were at least a couple ships that were new in the ragtag fleet, though the known freighters and research ship we've seen seem curiously absent. I'll have to take a closer look, but I think the ol' triangle ship was in the mix. The Yridian ship Enterprise disables was first seen as Ahab's vessel in "Voyager Vs. the Pitcher Plant", and has already been seen in this series in "Broken Bow" as the ship whose backwash knocked T'Pol halfway across the Rigelian landing deck.
-Speaking of which, Rudy Ransom discovered the Yridians, eh? Hehe.
-The new Xindi ship this time is the Insectoid ship... They seem to be less resilient to phase cannons than the Reptilian ships.
-The other Starfleet ships left over were Intrepid and one of the smaller ships. They seemed in pretty good repair... Would they have gone to other systems to stay that way?
quote:-T'Pol notes that by the time they found where the Xindi weapon was being built, it had already been deployed. I wonder how they got it to Earth? And more importantly, how could Enterprise have gotten back BEOFRE it, damaged for six months as she was?
I figure they had repaired at least some of the damage to the warp coil by then. Plus the Xindi would have had to fend off whatever starfleet ships were built since Enterprise entered the Expanse (plus the Intrepid and the two Norway-esque ships). The Andorians might have sent ships to engage Xindi vessels as well: we only saw the area of Earth's orbit, not the whole Solar System.
T'Pol verifies that the Vulcans were holding back Earth's warpdrive development!
Good re-use of old ship sets on the "colony"! Explained even!
The Romulan War never happened in that timeline because the Rommies wouldnt want to screw with planet-destroying-xindi!
Looks like Porthos dies of old age by the time Phlox arrives with his cure for Archer. Am I the only one that cares about that dog? ...oh, and Mayweather croaked too.
-------------------- Justice inclines her scales so that wisdom comes at the price of suffering. -Aeschylus, Agamemnon
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