posted
Placeholder for tonight's episode. You all know the drill, Daedalus = father of Icarus, who flew too close to sun, yadda yadda. . . Since we know this episode features the inventor of transporter technology and his. . . daughter, I think? . . . it's safe to guess it'll probably all end in tears.
. . . Of course, if you want to hope against hope that we'll get to see a Daedalus-class starship, be my guest. Don't come crying to me, is all. 8)
posted
Well, for lack of a better pun... I was ready with "Waxwork Tech" or something. What're we looking for?
- Quanification on various aspects of early transporter tech. The first time we heard it, the transporter had an effective range of two thousand kilometers. I believe it's up to twenty now, and of course this episode deals with extending it further. Also look for possible explanations for the psychadelic new transporter bay walls.
-Links to future trnsporter tech. Re-watching various TNG epsiodes about transporter psychosis and stasis are encouraged, as well as the one with the subspace transporter. Ditto with the Voyager episode about the metrion cascade, from which this episode borrows some themes.
-Our visiting doctor is in a wheelchair - and like DS9, Enterprise is decidedly NOT wheelchair friendly. Look for possible creative ways to get around this.
-Not surprisingly, Enterprise has been sticking close to home of late; she was in space but near Vulcan at the beginning of the last arc, so within a few days warp of home. Where is our guest picked up?
posted
This was a very quiet, understated episode. Maybe these types of stories don't have much place in modern Trek, but it's nice they're still there. On-the-fly notes follow:
-Timestamp: a week since T'Les died. So, counting transit back to Earth, this episode basically happens immediately after "Kir'Shara".
-There's a ramp on the transporter pad. Don't remember there being in there before, and it's not there later.
-T'Pol is already reading the e-book of the Kir'Shara. Pretty quick.
-The site of the transporter tests is in a region known as "The Barrens", which supposedly hasn't a single star system within a hundred light years. Take THAT, cartographers..!
-Vulcan is pegged at "over sixteen light years away". Take THAT, cartographers!
-The first transports took 90 seconds to complete.
-Removing the psychadelic wall panel on the transporter bay reveals the familiar transporter pad seen in the floor or ceiling of the transporter pads in TOS, TNG and VOY. I doubt that these are the ACTUAL pads, but the tech tribute is nice, AND explains the wierd patterns.
-The fun starts when an anomaly is detected around the armory. Naturally, it's the redshirt and not Reed that is killed, doing a respectable impression of a victim in "The Ring" in the process. The thing ends up skulking around suddenly empty areas of the ship, ambushing people along the way.
-Our first test of the new sub-quantum whatsit technology sees the transport of a test article (which looks suspiciously like the distress buoy from the SS Valiant) to 40,000 kilometers, matching the typical TNG range.
-Before having her hand mangled by the thing, T'pol takes visual readings with her tricorder. She has a surprisingly steady hand, or the tricorder has some damned fine anti-jitter technology. Anyway, it's Quinn - Emory's son, lost in an early transporter accident. He's stuck between normal phase and subspace phase... Sort of an interphase, if you will.
-Emory declares that sub-quantum transport will NEVER work. But Quinn tried it anyway, and off he went. Emory is on a mission to recover his son and atone for his guilt. The Barrens is a subspace "node", which is why no stars are around (wha?); Emory has determined that Quinn's signal is somehow trapped somewhere here. Archer is convinced to try.
-Porthos!
-Engineering has some additional scaffolding. It's tough to see with the darkened lighting, but it looks like the warp core has some safety fences around it now.
-Through subsequent manifestations, they get enough data to attempt a rescue. Surprisingly, they DO get him back, but with irreperable cellular damage - Quinn has just enough time to ask his dad what the hell's going on before he dies.
-Bookending the previous trilogy, Phlox tells T'Pol she has no trace of Pa'nar syndrome. Apparently, now that the truth is out, people with it are coming forward and are being cured - and as an in-joke, Phlox says it's no longer a "stigma". Ha, ha.
-The new console installed for the experiment replaces the old freestanding console, and looks to be a permenant addition, as it's still there after they leave.
-The small "cutter" design we saw meet Enterprise when she came home from the Nazi episode is here again. She looks a little bigger than last time (probably a mistake, but easily explained away as a perspective thing) and this one's named the Sarajevo.
posted
The Barrens sound like a bad thing. How can there be no star systems within 100 ly, and still be in range of Earth's ships? How can Vulcan be 16 ly from it?
posted
maybe they just mean for 100 lightyears after it, considdering we could still see stars as behind them as the Enterprise dropped out of warp
Registered: Mar 2004
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posted
Well, uh, if it weren't subarctic outside tonight, I could go out and see stars and other phenomena that are considerably more than 100 light years away.
Registered: Mar 1999
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posted
- Oh right. The 16 lightyears to Vulcan was from Earth. Which is the same figure given in the trilogy, and is consistent with 40 Eridani.
- But the Barrens is still weird. It seems to be at most two days away from the core worlds, but it must be at least 100 ly from Vulcan and Earth.
- That redstripe was using a MACO-rifle, and the gun cabinets in Armory were stocked with only MACO-rifles?
- The Sarajevo is not really that much bigger than the previous appearance. In Storm Front, the ship flies past the Enterprise in such a way that we can't actually see how far apart they are. Same goes for this appearance.
posted
-The Barrens' lack of stars could be a property of the subspace node - sorta like walking into a room comprised of one-way mirrors. The same could be said of the 2000ly dark spot Voyager went through in "Night". I also like the notion that they're just on the EDGE of the Barrens, rather than in the middle of a 200ly blob of nothing. Still, I'd challenge any stellar cartographer to find such a space of nothing within 200ly of Earth, which is about as far out as Enterprise has ever been.
-The regular old rifles were seen on the rack on the walls of the armory. It wouldn't hurt though if they simply replaced them... The MACO rifles are cooler and more original props.
posted
Seems I was spot-on with my choice of "melting wax" for a thread title. In some ways the going-runny-then-setting look is worse than the gore one would imagine from a transporter accident - although when they were trying to rematerialise Quinn I thought "They're gonna need a mop to clean up the pad when they're done."
Interesting choice of the MACO rifle as the prop in that scene. Looked like the scope was half-out as well. I bet we haven't seen the last of the Starfleet-issue Grease-Gun rifles though.
I think the nametags on those two MACOs were pretty visible. Must resist urge. . .
posted
Hmm... I believe we previously thought that the Sarajevo was a sublight-only design because it doesn't have any obvious warp engines, and there's only one glowy part (funky impulse engine?). If that's the case, it's a long way from home without warp, even though Archer did say they rendez... rondayvoos... MET with the Sarajevo.
-------------------- Justice inclines her scales so that wisdom comes at the price of suffering. -Aeschylus, Agamemnon
Registered: Aug 2002
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posted
depends on how close to the camera it is compaired to Enterprise. To me it looks like it's closer to the camera than it appears
Registered: Mar 2004
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![[Razz]](tongue.gif)
What're we looking for? ![[Smile]](smile.gif)
Anyway, it's Quinn - Emory's son, lost in an early transporter accident. He's stuck between normal phase and subspace phase... Sort of an interphase, if you will.![[Wink]](wink.gif)
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