-Look for new shots of Enterprise and Columbia in drydock. Among repairs, it seems that they replace the entire deflector dish too - consistent with the beating it took in "Azati Prime" and last season's use in the finale. Will we get to see the new Captain's chair in this episode?
-Note that the drydock model is the same scaled-up version seen around Columbia back in "The Expanse", and not the original one that surrounded Enterprise in that episode and "Broken Bow". I wonder what happened to the original, the in-story one and the model.
-Phlox apparently has a different relationship between his skin and his skeleton than we do. Not only can he smile farther than his jawbone would normally suggest, but he can puff up like a blowfish!
-The changing political scene on Earth will doubtless deserve several comments. For example, we see the Vulcans on the board of inquiry, suggesting the annoying "Vulcan Interference Blabber" (or should that be the "Annoying Vulcan Interference Blabber"?) is still in force on Earth.
-During the inquiry, there are several pictures on the back wall. Some may be new - I think I see Cochrane's Phoenix and the ringship Enterprise in there.
-We'll see a lot of "regular" Earth tech in this episode, perhaps more than we ever did in some other episodes of the franchise (which usually restricted themselves to a single set: Joe's restaurant, the Picard farmhouse, etc.). Looks like we'll see stuff like bars, the Great Outdoors, etc.
posted
Also note that the CGI background in Archer's speech now makes much more sense as opposed to what the trailer showed us. This is the only time I've ever seen a trailer actually use such raw unfinished material..
Whoah.. wtf is going on with Phlox there.
It seems we get yet another United Earth emblem. And Starfleet seems to have grown a bit since last time. At least, I can't remember ever seeing so many flag officers..
"It seems we get yet another United Earth emblem."
Wow. I didn't realize tectonic shift around the Atlantic would reverse direction and accelerate so much in the next couple hundred years.
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posted
A nice understated episode, bloody well LOADED with tech, politics, and the background stuff we relish. Has Coto finally landed? I hope so. Let's get right to the on-the-fly notes!
-Apparently the "Welcome Home" thing at the beginning happens RIGHT AWAY as soon as the crew got everything squared away on the ship, and is apparently the first physical contact they have with the brass, including Admiral Forrest. They even take a shuttle in, which still has battle damage, and some of the crew are still displaying bruises and such.
-But how long is it after they return home that they're on their way to the ceremony? It's got to be at least a couple days - how else would you fill a stadium so quickly?
-27 people died during their mission in the Expanse. That's nearly a third of the crew.
-Captaincy is a boy's-only club, eh..?
-It seems that TV, or at least theatre films, have NOT gone out of style here. While they were gone, another WWIII epic came and went, and "swept all the awards".
-While everyone's been pretty freaked out because of worries about the Xindi coming back to finish the job, there have been a record number of marriages and childbirths. OTOH, there seems to have been no mention of a wholesale exodus from the planet...
-Ooh boy! We get to see NX-02 in all her mostly-finished glory (including the lettering on her hull. The bridge is covered in plastic sheeting and people are welding stuff, and the aft table and railing is missing. Same Captain's chair, though apparently without lumbar support - a modification made to Archer's chair, and a sort of continuation of the running gag with the chair. Among Columbia's improvements over Enterprise:
*Hull polarization improved by 12%
*Ventral AND dorsal torpedo launchers
*PULSED PHASE CANNONS (!!) - Archer's own recommendation
-One of the NX class designers was Captain Jeffries - and Archer once argued that his ship wouldn't need a whole load of weapons for an exploratory mission. Archer now agrees with Jeffries... They need 'em now, and more.
-I didn't see a clear view of the Columbia patch, but I'm sure we'll be due one in short order.
-Hernandez wants Archer to look through her candidates list for senior crew, some of whom he's served with.
-TOS hat tipping - there's a familiar tri-screened monitor in the briefing room!
-The Vulcans are at the debriefing to grill Archer over the Seleya incident. Soval is unconvinced that Archer did anything to save the crew, nor the effects of Trellium. Archer rightfully blows his top at Soval, and is ORDERED to take some time off. He goes climbing, and Erika tags along.
-Xindi attack = Xenophobia. An Andorian and a pair of Rigellians were attacked, and the Vulcans have been keeping to their compound.
-Andorian and Rigellian - species with whom Enterprise made first contact (or at least first visited their planet / outpost, probably). New arrivals, of whom humans are suspicious? Interesting choice of aliens here... And I wonder what the Vulcans think of Andorians being present on Earth.
-We see a Vulcan house, which has distinctly Oriental qualities to it. How often have we seen Vulcan houses before? TAS "Yesteryear", perhaps?
-At no point do we see a moon around Vulcan. -T'Pol's wardrobe in this episode is decidedly... Rose-hued.
-Archer has had dozens of schools renamed after him, including Erika's brother's school. The continuous hero-worship and public appearances have already sickened him.
-Archer would recommend a MACO as the Columbia Tactical Officer. Erika's a little wary of having military on board, but Archer recommends she talks to General Casey about getting a whole squad. I guess the MACOs are here to stay!
-Still, if the MACOs are being kept, what's to replace the people they supposedly lost to accomodate them. Will the have a permenantly reduced complement of regular security or science officers, as we have suggested before?
-Archer: "You'll spend a lot of time boldly going into battle". Only a few episodes ago he was telling his crew to go back to the exploration and contact thing. Guess he's had time enough to become more cynical about Gunboat Diplomacy.
-T'pol's been offered a commission in Starfleet... SPOCK!
-Instead of fridges, Vulcans use "stasis units" to keep things fresh. >.<;;
-Reed is wearing a field jacket over his civvies to attract attention in a bar. I think it's yet another variant - it looks shorter and thinner than what we've seen before.
-T'Pol's mom was dismissed from her job at the science academy because the Council blames T'Pol for what happened on P'Jem. Only the political marriage to Koss would save her at this point. T'Pol reluctantly agrees - she'll have to live on Vulcan for a time at some point, but is allowed to return to Enterprise for the time being - obstensibly in part to convalesce from her Trellium addiction.
-Archer is tortured by nightmares of Xindi tossing him off cliffs. I wonder if this will continue to bug him later.
-Trip says Vulcan is 16 light years away. Have any of our cartographers been keeping track?
-Erika once served under Archer, um, in more ways than one. They stopped fraternizing because of them serving together, but this is no longer the case. They won't be seeing each other regularly, but that doesn't stop them from making whoopee while on the mountain...
quote:Originally posted by TSN: Wow. I didn't realize tectonic shift around the Atlantic would reverse direction and accelerate so much in the next couple hundred years.
The dark secret of the Xindi is that they were working for Portugal, trying to soften the blow when Florida rammed Europe.
My comments, observations, and errata:
1. No comment about Nazis. Good.
2. The episode was jam-packed. They should've squeezed the "OMG we have to get rid of Braga's stupid alien Nazi shit" into one ep, and then made this a two-parter. I mean, they actually had characters in this one.
3. Vulcan is 16 light-years from Earth, as suggested by Trip. That suggests the 40 Eridani = Vulcan idea from the Trek non-canon, with the exception of the fact that 40 Eridani is part of a triple system. The B and C stars are together a good distance from the main star, though.
3a. In TMP, Scotty offered to have Spock back on Vulcan in four days. That's four light-years per day, or 1460c.
4. This episode was composed entirely of large-breasted women. But I'd still rather have me some Hoshi.
5. Pulsed phase cannons? Please don't tell me the Columbia is going to get all Defiant on somebody's butt. She's already got dorsal and ventral torpedo tubes, which is getting a little ridiculous. Kirk kicked plenty of ass with two tubes side-by-side . . . there's no need to get freaky with torpedoes flying from every port-hole. Besides, on NX-01, every port-hole has a phase cannon, so the port-holes are occupied.
6. We once again see a tricorder . . . or a scanner, in this case . . . being used as a Sherlock system. In this case, Archer scans a track and concludes that it is from a mountain lion, and a few days old. Whether he actually has some tracking skills or whether he'd loaded "Outdoorsmanship For Dummies" into his scanner is unclear.
7. Archer has high schools named after him, and is considered a hero of Earth. According to Daniels, he'll be at the Federation Charter signing ceremony. While apologists have stated their case as to how his ship and his exploits might end up never being mentioned, it still bothers me.
8. T'Pol was not at all low-key with her emotions. If anything, Blalock's portrayal was that of a twitchy former junkie . . . which is accurate, I guess, but still.
9. T'Pol's mother taught at the Vulcan Science Academy, but can't fix anything in the house. That's not a contradiction or anything, but it's amusing.
10. Vulcan just didn't seem all that alien, really, besides the idea that guests have to fix breakfast.
10a. T'Pol was eating with her hands.
11. Major update required for my San Francisco page.
-------------------- . . . ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.
posted
12. A star just to the left of Polaris was the star of the "Strange New World" star system. It was evening-time, in the northern hemisphere, in late February or March of 2154. It shouldn't be too difficult to figure out which star he referred to, given the naked-eye visibility in a darkening-but-not-dark-yet evening sky.
-------------------- . . . ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.
posted
Vulcan (orbiting 40 Eridani A) *is* 16 lightyears away. Or to be precise, 16.45. lightyears. That seems to be pretty solid evidence that 40 Eridani A is indeed Vulcan's sun.
quote:T'Pol's mother taught at the Vulcan Science Academy, but can't fix anything in the house. That's not a contradiction or anything, but it's amusing.
posted
So Coto can juggle. So far, so good... I'll wait until the first plot-driven episode till I pass judgement, though.
The weapon upgrades to NX-02 make sense to me. Kirk's ship in TOS had at least six tubes, so two pairs (?) here doesn't sound excessive to me at all. Indeed, there's a real-world trend of fewer and fewer weapon emplacements in warships. And pulse phasers are logical, too. So far, the phase cannon have been fired at constant "overcharge" mode, having originally been designed for a fraction of the power. Pulsed firing should markedly increase phase gun lifetime...
Incidentally, any indication so far whether this was the first attack on Earth ever? Or has Starfleet mounted defensive action before?
Nice to see that somebody is reading the Star Charts. Or some other source that has got the 40 Eri A distance right. I wonder if Coto has issued a general hunt for such semi-canon trivia...
quote:Originally posted by Mark Nguyen: -Apparently the "Welcome Home" thing at the beginning happens RIGHT AWAY as soon as the crew got everything squared away on the ship, and is apparently the first physical contact they have with the brass, including Admiral Forrest. They even take a shuttle in, which still has battle damage, and some of the crew are still displaying bruises and such.
The shuttlepod has a blue stripe, meaning it ought to be one of the Starfleet shuttles (as seen in "Regeneration") instead of one of the ones from Enterprise.
Also, the music during that scene . . . well . . . sucked. Sounded like music off of a computer game. It was done by the same guy who won an Emmy for his "Similitude" music, though.
-------------------- . . . ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.
posted
Anybody get a good 'cap of the schematics of the Selaya?
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Or some other source that has got the 40 Eri A distance right. I wonder if Coto has issued a general hunt for such semi-canon trivia...
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