Apparently, the Reeves-Stevenses have promised " a multiple-starship action sequence that's never been seen before, and that everyone's very excited to bring to the screen". Who knows how much fun it'll be, or how central to the arc it'll be. But we've been due a dual Earth starship scene for a while now; with the exception of the cool-fight-that-didn't-happen in "Twighlight" and the twin-ship stuff in "E2", I've been itching for this episode to happen to give us some more stuff happening than just Enterprise blasting away.
-So obviously, we'll be looking for tons more stuff on Columbia and her upgraded firepower, which will hopefully be graphically displayed here. Who knows though - we could be in for more clone-ship action.
-Likewise, some nicely coordinated battle footage would be nice. I'm not a great fan of G&J R-S's novels, but I do remember a fight scene where a Defiant-class ship cloaked, flew INTO the central cavity of a Romulan Warbird, then decloaked and pulled a Death Blossom maneuver. Will we see anything as creative?
-More of that new Klingon design, which the producers figured would be cooler than a new Romulan design. The Klingon fleet is more diverse now than ever, even in this time period.
-The resolution of the Klingon bump issues, which I'm guessing IS the species-wide introduction of modified human DNA to save everyone. Will we be told that this will have to continue until the strain of virus is eliminated, say in a hundred years or so? Or will we expect that they'll solve it themselves some time between TOS and its movies (with many smoother movie foreheads being an interm sort of solution) and we're just to accept as such?
-Spoiler images show Archer is part of the solution - bump city.
-More of T'pol's emerging meld abilities will be explored here, and not likely forgotten. We'll likely see more of the Matrix Loading Program scene, but how does this figure in to Vulcan telepathy?
-Then there's the Section 31 connection, still not firmly established. Reed apparently thought himself out of "your section" last week; this will likely figure in to taking it down (or so they think) by the end of this episode.
-Hey, so Marc Worden (the adult Alexander Rozhenko from DS9) plays the Klingon guy they caught last week. It's not likely to be a deliberate casting, nor will it be mentioned in dialogue, but we can probably tie him in to the House of Mogh lineage...
What will the fate of Columbia be? How will Trip weasel his way back on board Enterprise? How will REED weasel his way back on board Enterprise? All this and more, tonight!
posted
Wow. That personnel transfer was actually pretty cool to watch. Yeah, there are the unanswered questions of how Columbia got to them so quickly, can match Enterprise's 5+ warp on fresh engines, and why Enterprise couldn't let the warp field collapse when the reactor is shut down, but this is easily one of the coolest ship sequences I've ever seen.
Some things to note about Enterprise's reactor: the control panel on the front of it can easily be detached and lifted away (which makes me wonder if it's always been attached to a crane or if this is a new thing). Has this been before? I haven't seen every episode of Enterprise, so I don't know off-hand. The reactor can be shut down by shorting out some circuits on the top of it.
-------------------- The philosopher's stone. Those who possess it are no longer bound by the laws of equivalent exchange in alchemy. They gain without sacrifice and create without equal exchange. We searched for it, and we found it.
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It sucked that Columbia appeared to use same weapons systems as Enterprise despite Archer saying the contrary in "Home". It was also weird that the relationship between the two mon capitans was not explored here.
Registered: Feb 2005
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Aside from the beginning segment, Columbia was kind of a letdown in this episode. The battle sequence in orbit of the Klingon colony wasn't all that great. The action focused on Enterprise; all we saw of Columbia was her chasing off two of the Klingon ships. I'm trying hard to remember if we saw phase cannon beams on Columbia coming from the dorsal or ventral surface of the saucer. I'm kicking myself now for not paying better attention. In either case, Columbia lost all her weapons before Enterprise did. That was disappointing.
-------------------- The philosopher's stone. Those who possess it are no longer bound by the laws of equivalent exchange in alchemy. They gain without sacrifice and create without equal exchange. We searched for it, and we found it.
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Solid episode - easily the best multi-parter this season after the Vulcan arc, IMO.
-I *know* I wasn't the only one having a bad Keanu Reeves flashback when Archer said that they'd explode if the ship went any slower than warp 5.
-REALLY COOL opening shot of Enterprise passing overhead directly at the camera, then Columbia following as we go INSIDE the ship. Anyone wanna look for screencaps of what we see in the intervening interiors? This episode is replete with handheld and zoom shots, BTW - like "Daedelus", except toned down somewhat.
-The transfer is done by merging the warp fields of the two ships and then moving within 50m of each other, belly to belly. It was insane, but pretty fun to watch. Critics will see this and wonder why Enterprise is flying so close to the top of an Akira-class starship.
-Wait, why didn't they just release the tether on the Columbia end? Even with some relative drag coefficient slipping through the field, it'd be better than losing the assembly on the Enterprise end. At the very least Trip could drag at the end of the tether until Reed could reel him in.
-We're not really aware of the passage of time between Columbia's launch and the Klingon virus attack. It's a stretch (mostly covered by the hope that you'd forget about the time factor in the intervening week), but not impossible to believe, especially given the still-ridiculous four day cruise to Qo'nos from the premiere.
-As Trip is doing the engine restart, where's Commander Kelby? He barely did anything last week, and here he's absent altogether, leaving T'Pol to push the buttons as Trip says so. Obviously this is the device to force those two back together, but she's hardly the most qualified. There are other engineers there too!
-The S31 guy is Harris, a former Starfleet security guy who "vanished" five years previous. When he talks to Archer, he references the Starfleet charter, Chapter 14, Section 31. So S31 predates the Federation... One wonders how they got their way into the modern charter.
-The Augment DNA gives Klingons a human level of emotional response and control. One wonders how this affects mixed-breed Klingons - we know K'ehlyr for example had rage problems. Alexander seemed okay but for the odd growth spurts and typical family dysfunction, no?
-Krell's approaching Klingon strike force recalls the days when the Enterprise-D habitually ran into a Vor'cha and a pair of BoPs. Reed labels all three as "battlecruisers", though.
-Why the hell did Archer go down alone, but to be the sole human around to get ridged? And what now, he's got parts of Vulcan AND Klingon floating around inside him, in one way or another?
-The battle isn't filmed especially dramatic, but was well done. Ah well - it'd have been cool if Columbia could come in, guns blazing. Ah well.
-Note that during combat, Hernandez goes to that pillar-mounted monitor to contact Archer. Finally, someone has the foresight to have a Captain-viewable viewer for communications. The only thing that's come close is Sisko going to a side consol to talk to Dukat while the Defiant was in combat, in "Way of the Warrior".
-As suggested, the Klingon ridges are gone thanks to the cure, and is a genetic condition that will be passed on to succeeding generations. Phlox suggests that in the future they might figure out a way to reverse the cosmetic parts of the changes. In the meantime, cosmetic surgery may become a growth industry in the Empire - this goes a long way in explaining why Klingons are pretty good at it a hundred years hence, why Darvin could convincingly look human a hundred years after THAT, and why Klingons really wouldn't want to have their foreheads be the subject of light conversation outside their walls. Well done.
-Archer jokingly says to Hernandez that ONE of them should be exploring - I guess they've noticed that Enterprise really hasn't been doing that this season, except for "Observer Effect" not too long ago.
-Hey - Trip STAYS on Columbia?! Th'hell? Who'll be around to fall prey to the Orion slave girls next episode?
quote:Originally posted by Mark Nguyen: -As Trip is doing the engine restart, where's Commander Kelby? He barely did anything last week, and here he's absent altogether, leaving T'Pol to push the buttons as Trip says so. Obviously this is the device to force those two back together, but she's hardly the most qualified. There are other engineers there too!
I noticed a while ago that StarTrek.com wasn't listing the actor who played Kelby as a guest star for this episode. At first I was worried that he was going to be killed off in "Affliction". Don't worry, though. Apparently he'll be back in "Bound" and "In a Mirror, Darkly, Part 2".
quote:-The S31 guy is Harris, a former Starfleet security guy who "vanished" five years previous. When he talks to Archer, he references the Starfleet charter, Chapter 14, Section 31. So S31 predates the Federation... One wonders how they got their way into the modern charter.
I'm sure Section 31 could have had a lobbyist working for them to slip it in when the new charter was drafted. Or, it could be a similiar situation where the drafters of the new charter thought section 31 of the old charter sounded cool and just dropped it in the new one (like how all the state constitutions copy the US Constitution's Bill of Rights [okay, it didn't happen like that exactly]).
quote:-Why the hell did Archer go down alone, but to be the sole human around to get ridged? And what now, he's got parts of Vulcan AND Klingon floating around inside him, in one way or another?
This bugged me a lot. So, what, there's no security around the genetics lab on this colony? There just happened to be no Klingons running around the complex? Really, Archer should have been down there accompanied by a team of MACOs. But even if he did bring down MACOs, you know he'd still be the one to take the injection.
quote:-Hey - Trip STAYS on Columbia?! Th'hell? Who'll be around to fall prey to the Orion slave girls next episode?
Trip says that he's going to stay on temporarily to help with the repairs. I got the impression that Columbia was going to start her mission and leave Trip behind for a short while just to make sure Enterprise is back to normal. This'll at least help explain his presence in "Bound". Don't know how they're going to run it for "Demons" and beyond, though. Either he'll ask to return to Enterprise (with Kelby being traded), or we're going to get some pussyfooting a la Worf's presence in Insurrection.
-------------------- The philosopher's stone. Those who possess it are no longer bound by the laws of equivalent exchange in alchemy. They gain without sacrifice and create without equal exchange. We searched for it, and we found it.
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Why do we need to "transfer" the Section 31 of the UE Starfleet Charter to the UFP Starfleet Charter? Couldn't Sloan have been talking about the UESF Charter all along?
(Or did he say "UFP Charcter" rather than "Starfleet Charter"?)
Also, why not "wireless" crew transfer? Shouldn't transporters work just fine when the warp bubbles are merged that way? (If not otherwise, then perhaps one could launch a transporter cable and hardwire the two systems together, rather than send the person outside...)
posted
Considdering transporters are tricky back then, and transport at warp is supposed to be tricky in newer treks, I don't see a problem with not using it here.
Though, if they were inside the bubble, why did they need the cable? And why did it fly off backwards when it fell out? Shouldn't the bubble have kept it going aswell?
Registered: Mar 2004
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- The Columbia is definitely of a different color than the Enterprise.
- Err.. a computer display had USS before both ship's names. Yuck!
- Harris doesn't just mentions a Chapter. He doesn't use the word Starfleet. The Federation (or early 'Coalition') might have decided that the UE's Section 31 was a handy tool and copied it.
quote:Originally posted by Mark Nguyen: Yeah, good luck figuring THAT pun out.
Let me guess... at some point during a battle sequence, one of the ships performs a 'Crazy Ivan', a la Red October? (No, I haven't watched the episode, but that was the first thing that came to my mind)
Registered: Feb 2004
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Close enough. I was hoping for some sort of fun combat maneuvering between the two ships. We didn't really get it, though the belly rubbing of the two NX-class ships echoes how they can mask a signature by flying in formation - the very maneuver a Crazy Ivan was made to thwart. Speaking of which:
quote:Originally posted by Captain Boh: I noticed Trip whore an Enterprise patch on both his uniform and EV suit. Silly silly costumes.
They don't wear their regular uniforms under their spacesuits - Trip was probably just provided one in his size when he tranferred over, and no one bothered to change the patch. In "Affliction", Trip didn't think to do so until Hernandez reminded him.
As for the suit itself, while likely a wardrobe omission (they probably just grabbed the chest unit prop that said "Tucker" on it) it's been suggested that he simply took his own suit along with him and forgot to change that logo too. NASA used to custom-fit their space suits (they don't anymore for cost reasons, opting for a more modular design), and Trip certainly wore his an awful lot.
posted
Some beef I have with this episode and the previous one, neither of which I was particularly impressed by:
-- The cold start of the engines was way too easy. Anybody remember what a big deal it was in "The Naked Time" (TOS)? From Coto I would have expected more.
-- Where are Columbia's upgraded weapons?
-- Section 31 is not intimidating at all here.
-- I don't think they bothered to really think this Klingon thing all the way through, as evidenced by the choppy and vague dialogue concerning the nature of the virus and the results of the Augment experiments. I'm really not convinced it makes a whole lot of sense. There seem to be a lot of non sequiturs being espoused. (Why does the plague give Archer ridges?) Plus, I don't like how the Klingon-augments suddenly speak and talk like humans once transformed. (Antaak was better at the end, though.)
-- Like "The Aenar," general emphasis on cool VFX shots and "atmosphere" over story. Bleh.
Oh well, I'm still really looking forward to the "In a Mirror, Darkly" two-parter.
-MMoM
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quote:Originally posted by The Mighty Monkey of Mim: -- The cold start of the engines was way too easy. Anybody remember what a big deal it was in "The Naked Time" (TOS)? From Coto I would have expected more.
Here's the thing about that sequence that churning around in my head. They called it a cold start, but there's no way in hell that could have been a cold start. The reactor was only off for a maximum of two minutes, right? No way in hell that a reactor operating far and above the safety limits can be cooled down and depressurized in that span of time. In fact, when the reactor shut down, it got hotter (since Trip ordered everyone to the ground).
-------------------- The philosopher's stone. Those who possess it are no longer bound by the laws of equivalent exchange in alchemy. They gain without sacrifice and create without equal exchange. We searched for it, and we found it.
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The tech aspect was a little weird. In the prior episode, the Klingon computer program caused the antimatter flow regulators to lock open, producing increasing pressure in the intermix chamber. This pressure could only be relieved with increased speed.
(That, incidentally, implies a lock between reactor and nacelles, with no way to vent drive plasma safely.)
In this episode, they acted like the problem was simply dropping below warp five, with the Klingon algorithm fulfilling the role of Dennis Hopper's bus bomb. Purging the computer required shutting down the core for a moment, rebooting the whole system.
I suppose there are ways to understand the two together, but they seem contrary to me.
Nonetheless, I'm reminded of a TOS episode . . . either "Elaan of Troyius" or "That Which Survives" . . . wherein the problem seemed to change a bit in mid-stride, so at least these were in august company.
(BTW . . . what's the episode of TNG where the Enterprise-D's injectors were locked open and the ship was a runaway?)
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