Is that Jonathan Fernandez as in WTW from these very boards??

I hope so. It'd be nice to know he finally got that writer's credit he'd been wanting.

Live long and prosper!

Well, I thought this one was pretty cool! Effective use of pretty traditional horror flick techniques.

Obvious nit: Just like in season one's "Breaking the Ice," the asteroid that Travis and Trip walk on seems much too small to be generating Earth-normal gravity. But, it is overlookable, I suppose.

NANJAO: Reed uses one of the MACO rifles in this episode, rather than the Starfleet (phase?) rifles... good to see, I think the MACOs' rifles are cooler. BTW, what are they firing, exactly? T'Pol and one of the MACOs refer to a stun setting on them, so one would presume that they are also "phase technology."

The sequence at the end of the episode, while certainly effective (I jumped), seemed superfluous. Although, I did like T'Pol's reaction at the end. Very cool!

So, Trellium D is toxic to Vulcans, eh? This does not bode well.

'Til next time, nitpick with honour!

Be honest here: near the end when Phlox told Archer not to be long, who didn't, in a falsetto captains voice say, "Oh well, that shouldn't be a problem for me."

Hahahahahaha!! Bodily stuff.

Don't have time for a full bevy of comments, but this was a good 'un. I mean... yeah. It was nice. Definitely one that was interesting to watch the entire time.

Now, I was watching with some friends and at the end a bunch of other people showed up and the ensuing talking kinda wiped over some of the crucial end dialouge. So... what was the prognosis for T'Pol? Was she curable? I totally missed that.

"The sequence at the end of the episode, while certainly effective (I jumped), seemed superfluous"

Superfluous? It establishes that she wasn't cured!

I assume that their movie choice was Star Trek's tribute to Bob Hope, right?

Well, Trip mentioned showing a Hope & Crosby film. Seems to be a tribute to Mr. Hope, and also almost an injoke, for those who know that Bing Crosby was Denise Crosby's grandfather (and Denise played the role of Natasha Yar on Star Trek The Next Generation).

---Critique:
---Not too bad, either as a Night of the Living Vulcans story, or an entry in the Xindi/Delphic Expanse arc.
---With the previous episode and this one, I am more and more looking at how the episodes advance the Xindi arc, and wondering where it will lead to, and in general, I like the arc as a whole so far. Arcs spanning several episodes is something I always thought was something Voyager should’ve done, because it was better suited to their premise. Since Enterprise has always handled episode-to-episode continuity better than its predecessor, and its premise shares certain similarities with Voyager, it’s not only logical that it use arcs to explore certain regions of space for more than just the clichéd one episode, but nice to see that the creators (and UPN) are over their phobia toward continuity. Although not every episode has stood up on its own, even the clunkers like The Xindi and Extinction have yielded important developments in terms of the search for the Xindi, the crew’s learning about trellium, and Trip and T’Pol’s growing friendship as she helps him sleep.
---How does Impulse hold up on its own?
Well, as has often been said when reviewing episodes of this show, there was not much original, but what they had was put to fairly straightforward use. It was nice seeing what happened to the crew of the Seleya, and finding out that the trellium is what caused the psychosis we’ve been anticipating since Soval’s revelation in The Expanse was nice development. While crew members acting crazy or inspecting dark and creepy ships isn’t new, the manner in which it logically played into the Xindi/Delphic Expanse here made it go down much smoother.
---The lighting and other production elements were well-done, but I didn’t really feel scared or creeped out by the episode. Perhaps better music might’ve done it. In general, the space scenes are getting better and better on the show, owing no doubt to increased budgets and advances in computer effects technology. The asteroid scenes were excellently done.
---The battle between Reed, Hawkins and the crazed Vulcans in Act 2 was pretty well-done, as was Hawkins’ conflict with T’Pol over using the kill setting, and I was interested to see Reed using a MACO rifle.

---Notes:
Phlox reveals in the episode that trellium is a potent neurotoxin to Vulcans that disrupts the synaptic pathways that helps them control their emotions.

---Continuity Nods:
The Vulcan ship in the episode is called the Seleya, whose namedsake is no doubt the same as the mountain first seen in ST III where Spock underwent fal-tor-pan.

m: Is that Jonathan Fernandez as in WTW from these very boards??

Benn: I hope so. It'd be nice to know he finally got that writer's credit he'd been wanting.
Luigi Novi: No, it's not him.

Geez, it’s not bad enough he’s given so little to do; Now he’s not even allowed to pilot anymore!
Why isn’t Travis piloting the shuttlepod in the mission into the asteroid field? It’s not like Archer’s piloting was perfect, and T’Pol even volunteered to take over from him.
To boldly spread yourself out thin where no one has spread themselves out thin before
Given the danger of being in the asteroid field, should Trip and Travis really be looking for trellium ore at the same time that Archer, T’Pol, Reed and Hawkins are on the Seleya?
Set phasers to incredulous
By the time T’Pol loses control in Act 3, she’s a danger to the rest of the away team, yet neither Archer nor Reed nor Hawkins suggests stunning her. Sure, carrying her back to the shuttlepod would be more difficult, but then she doesn’t exactly go willingly herself, and keeping her conscious only makes the situation more dangerous. Not until long into Act 4 and T’Pol actually lunges at Archer does he decide to stun her.
As opposed to whatever the creators were breathing when they wrote this scene
When the two away teams get back to the Enterprise, Archer tells Trip that it may be a while before Phlox can find a way to inoculate T’Pol against the trellium, and orders Trip to put the trellium into storage in a cargo bay. Why is this? Is it really dangerous to her in solid form once it’s lining the hull? Asbestos, for example, is an insulating material that is harmful if breathed by humans, but when it’s inside the walls, it’s harmless, and people who work with it can simply wear EV suits.

Dan Gunther: The sequence at the end of the episode, while certainly effective (I jumped), seemed superfluous"

Rene: Superfluous? It establishes that she wasn't cured!
Luigi Novi: ???? Well, we already got that with the prior scene showing her in bed in sickbay.

Is it me, or did it seem that the phase pistols had a more effective stun setting than the MACO rifles? Several Vulcans were brought down by one phase pistol shot each, while the MACO rifles required several shots.

I missed the tail end... T'Pol had just woken up in Sickbay... what happened next? Do it in white for those who don't want spoilers, please.

>>>>>Dan Gunther: The sequence at the end of the episode, while certainly effective (I jumped), seemed superfluous"

>>>>>Rene: Superfluous? It establishes that she wasn't cured!
>>>>>Luigi Novi: ???? Well, we already got that with the prior scene showing her in bed in sickbay.


Exactly! I'm not saying I didn't like the scene, I thought it was tres cool! It just seemed like, to me, the episode was short, so they had to stick in one more scene with Vulcans lunging from the shadows (there's a sentence I never thought I'd write in the last 20 years of Trek viewing). Again, don't get me wrong, I liked it, but it seemed a little tacked on.

Well, quite an okay one.
But I am more looking forward to Smallvilles.

The phase pistols seemed more effective.
First it takes two hits from a pistol but 4 from a MACO rifle.

Could be that the pistol shoots a beam after all, whilethe rifle shoots a pack of energy each time.
The whole ray of of short pistol should/could have more energy than one shoot of the rifle.

I wish they had done moire thinking about the weapons they use.

Also, in TNG and so, the phasers have 16 settings.
While the upper 8 are extremley powerfull, the stun range was larger. maybe its yet to advanced to have several different, weaker and stronger non lethal stun settings on a phase pistol.


Ok, beaming rocks is a problem.
That transporter really took some damage, heh ;)

But landing on a asteroid and hammering 6 kilo from it. Wouldn't it be easier and safer to collect some smaller asteroids with the shuttle flying around? They have no tracter beam yet, but sure they could have macguyvered something.

I also thought, that insulating the outer hull
wouldn't be dangerous for T'pol. Unless of course she takes a walk on the outer hull without EVA suit more often. When they fiest encountered the guy saying they need trellium d to insulate the hull. I thought he meant OUTSITE. But here it looked, (and archers says something like that on the vulcan ship) that they insulated the ships interior like painting it with it. Sure it would be instable in liquid form. (We learned that)
Also the outer ships hull and systems there would still be harmed by anomalies if they put th trellium in their inner hull or even gangways.

Makes no sence. Just a plot problem to have T'Pol ill if they insulate the ship.

It seemed odd that the agressive psychotic Vulcans could work so well together.

Prediction:
The expanse is alive. Consider the facts:
Easy for a ship to get in, difficult to get out.
Anolmalys could be part of digestion process.
T-D could be waste made by expanse that it can't consume.

If the asteroids are moving unpredictably why should the shuttlepod be any different?

Trellium D supposedly protects ships from the anomalies, but asteroids with the stuff are affected?

Disrupt the power & the anti-matter containment field will shut down & cause a breach. Ummm, wouldn't it be logical to have an independent power source and/or back-up power source keeping the field active? Or perhaps a battery operated ejection system that activates when power is shut off?

Unless Trellium D produces somekinda radiation that only affects Vulcans, I don't see why insulating the ship would cause T'Pol problems. Just keep her out of the area where they process it & be very careful about filtering the air in the processing room.

I too felt the end scene was just tacked on to fill out the hour.

1. It doesn't seem logical that the Vulcans would bring Trellium D on their ship and start lining the hull with it without somebody doing somekinda tests or scans of it first. How long did it tke Phlox to figure out it was toxic? About five minutes? They must not have all gone bonkers at the same time. They had a sickbay so I assume they had a doctor. Somebody should have shown some early symptoms that could have been diagnosed.

2. Just a thought about the Xindi arc. Could the Xindi scientist, Degra, be Future Guy?

While Trip and Travis approach the asteroid they are going to land on, Trip says something like "A little to the left". Shouldn't it be "port", not left?

Trellium D supposedly protects ships from the anomalies, but asteroids with the stuff are affected? - KAM

I wondered about this, too, at first. But then two possibilities came to mind:

1. The trellium-D needs to be refined somehow before it can protect against the anomalies.

2. The asteroid wasn't pure trellium-D, and so the anomalies affected that matter.


I too felt the end scene was just tacked on to fill out the hour. - KAM

I viewed the final sequence as another homage to the modern horror film... the "one last scare" sequence (the Freddy-car and killing of the mom in A Nightmare on Elm Street, Jason coming out of the water in Friday the 13th, the coffin sequence after the house has been "cleaned" in Poltergeist).

I don't understand the title of this episode. Why "Impulse"? Somebody help me with this.

At first I did think the last scene was tacked on to lengthen the show, but then, after thinking about it, I think it's possibly there to show that T'Pol won't be miraculously cured, & this will be something she'll have to deal with in future episodes.

One thing that hasn't been mentioned in a while on the show is that disease T'Pol got from the mind-meld. It would be nice to see her get a trreatment or see a symptom or something.

One thing "Enterprise" is doing is getting my boyfriend to be a Star Trek fan, believe it or not! He's always been a Star Wars only fan, but last night, when I started watching my tape of "Enterprise" (I'm out until after 9, so I tape it & watch it when I get home) & he wasn't in the room, he made me stop & rewind to the beginning so he could see it too!

I couldn't tell - those rocks that were beamed aboard - were they just stuck to the walls of the transport chamber, or did they partially materialize in the walls?

QUOTE OF THE WEEK:
"It's not logical." -- Archer to T'Pol on the likelyhood of him trying to kill the Vulcans.

SEIZURE CAUSE OF THE WEEK:
TUE Sez: Enough with the flashing lights. I was seriously having some difficulty watching this episode due to the freaky strobe lights they used on the Seleya.

SECONDARY FLASHING PROBLEM OF THE WEEK:
The strobe lights also had the unusual effect (at least in the opinion of my roommate and me) of making the action seem like it was taking place at a faster pace, as though someone had increased the film speed. It was distracting.

FLASHING PROBLEM OF A DIFFERENT KIND:
Once she is returned to sickbay, T'Pol is recovering under a blanket where she is clearly topless and probably naked. Why is this? Phlox trying to get a little piece of what Tucker has?

LIFE SUPPORT PROBLEM OF THE WEEK:
The asteroids are zooming all around in a chaotic manner right? The Seleya has no shields when they're found right? The visual of the Seleya at the beginning shows that the ship has gaping holes in it right? So how is there air on the ship?

BIOLOGY LESSON OF THE WEEK:
It may have been a flashing induced seizure that made me see this, but why did the faces of the Vulcans get all twisted out of shape when they got a neural disease?

SIMPLE SOLUTION OF THE WEEK:
At the end of the episode, Archer orders that the trellium be placed in a biohazard container in the cargo bay. If these biohazard containers can protect T'Pol from the trellium, why not coat the hull with the trellium and then coat the trellium with whatever the biohazard containers are made of? Or as someone else suggested, why not coat the outside of the ship?

CURIOUS PERSPECTIVE OF THE WEEK:
I would really love to see an episode where they show the perspective of the maintenance people. I thought of this when Tucker said that having rocks materialize in the walls would be a new one for the maintenance crew. If I worked maintenance that day, I'd probably come to see this and just say to myself "SON OF A B****! What did Cowboy Archer get us into this time?" That would have to really ruin your day.

HIGH QUALITY MAINTENANCE OF THE WEEK:
Tucker and Mayweather come back to the ship in their thoroughly pounded shuttlepod. Archer calls and asks for help. Tucker says it will take some time to get the shuttle in working order. Later we see Tucker swooping in to help Archer at the last minute and the shuttlepod is in pristine condition. You'd think those maintenance people would cut some corners if they're in a hurry, but not these guys. Maybe it was their revenge for that transporter malfunction. "Oh so Cowboy Archer's in trouble huh? Well we'll just take our good old time repairing the rescue vessel. Har Har Har Har!"

OVERALL OPINION OF THE WEEK:
Not bad, but nothing to write home about. Jolene Blalock's performance was excellent. Whenever T'Pol needs to lose her emotional control, she always does a great job. Now if she could only do that good with her normal character.
Bonus Points:
>> The Vulcan ship. Vulcan ships look so cool.
>> T'Pol's purple outfit. I like that one the best so far.
>> The two ENORMOUS asteroids crashing together. Sweet.
>> Phlox talking during the dream sequence movie. This is not the first time we've seen it and it probably won't be the last.
>> Return of movie night. Woo hoo!

So my final score is somewhere around 80%. Not too bad.

NEXT WEEK:
This episode looks promising. Hoshi has to choose between saving Earth or saving the Enterprise. Her choice is pretty obvious but I like to see characters struggle with these kinds of things.

Until then,

TUE

Soo... we got to see Xindi starcharts. So I guess my nit about not using them is not true

Also I guess that Archer is a bad conductor, since on Wolcan ship he casually pushes some dangling cables away without checking them first

But this episode, yes, it wasn't too bad

Why isn’t Travis piloting the shuttlepod in the mission into the asteroid field? - Luigi Novi

Because then Travis would be on the Vulcan ship and he rarely gets the big scenes like that (which is fine with me).

Given the danger of being in the asteroid field, should Trip and Travis really be looking for trellium ore at the same time that Archer, T’Pol, Reed and Hawkins are on the Seleya? - Luigi Novi

Not to mention they could be pulverized by one of those unpredictable asteroids if it hits the one they happen to be on. They're sitting ducks!

While the away team is on the Vulcan ship, sometimes they scan for Vulcans, sometimes not. When Archer and Reed were heading for auxiliary control, Archer was ambushed by them as he goes through a hatch. Then he asks Reed whether there are any more.

Do we know why the trellium is harmful to Vulcans? Maybe the solid form would "infect" T'Pol too. It could be some sort of radiation it emits. That would explain why Archer decides not to use it.

The Vulcans didn't seem to be interested in harming each other. Why not? Where were their emotions directed before Enterprise showed up? T'Pol even seemed to consider the other Vulcans to be her allies (can't remember the exact line - I might be mistaken about that).

Am I missing something here? The last scene establishes that T'Pol was NOT cured and that the earlier scene of her BEING cured was a dream. And yet people feel it was tacked on.

??

Did the scene near the end where the Maco was gunning down the vulcans like nuts remind anyone else of any number of violent video games?

Rene: re: T'Pol being cured merely a dream.


Dan Gunther: I suppose it's possible... I didn't really get that impression myself, I thought that the dream sequence began when they showed movie night.

After all, Phlox did say that it would be a few days before T'Pol regained emotional control... I thought the final scene was merely illustrating that.

I thought Vulcans had superhuman strength. It doesnt seem they are difficult to fight hand to hand in this episode. Also, at the beginning T'Pol is the only one offered assistance going up and down the hatches. As a Vulcan she should be capable of moving along herself (though this gesture is probably more for Jolene's benefit!)

I think in order to make the Vulcan zombies more threatening they should have taken a bite out of somebody, like in George A. Romero's flicks. Amazing no one was killed in any of the exchanges.

Overall pretty entertaining, great special effects, Jolene's acting quite good. Yah, she was nude, but why fight it?

Tonight on UPN, "When Vulcan Zombies Attack!"

Usually, I like when writers attempt nonlinear storytelling -- i.e., the teaser showing T'Pol already gone mad. But here, it killed any suspense this story might have had. When the Vulcans sealed off Archer and the gang from their shuttlepod, my first thought was, I know they are going to get off the ship and back to Enterprise. It had already been shown in the first scene!

Nits and notes:

-- I really want to grumble about how it should have been mentioned in previous episodes that a Vulcan ship had disappeared in the expanse mere months before the attack on Earth, but I'll let it slide. (grumble, grumble)

-- The computer on the Vulcan ship seemed to be operating, at least somewhat, yet nobody checked the logs to learn what had happened to the crew.

-- The special effects (incredibly awesome once again) showed the asteroid damage the Vulcan ship had taken. The ship was shown engulfed by asteroids. Yet once Archer and Co. were onboard, there was not one incident of an asteroid striking the ship. Similarly, Archer's shuttlepod took no noticable asteroid damage while docked to the Vulcan ship.

-- After "Extinction" and other stories that have shown humans stricken with an illness while T'Pol was seemingly immune, it was nice to have that convention turned on its head.

-- The story contained a 47. It was when T'Pol gave the complement of the Vulcan ship. I didn't note the exact number, just that it ended with a 47. I think it might have 847. If so, that number is nitable. The Vulcan ship did not appear large enough for a crew so big, nor have we seen a ship so large in the 22nd century.

Further, because the ship was exploring a dangerous region of space, the expanse, it would have been wiser to send a ship with a smaller crew, to reduce the risk of -- well, what happened here.

-- I thought Archer waited way too long to stun T'Pol.

-- TUE said: "If these biohazard containers can protect T'Pol from the trellium, why not coat the hull with the trellium and then coat the trellium with whatever the biohazard containers are made of? Or as someone else suggested, why not coat the outside of the ship?"

There's also the argument that if black boxes can survive plane crashes, then why aren't planes constructed of the same material as the boxes. It just doesn't work that way ... On your other point, T'Pol likely would be affected by the trellium even if the outer hull were coated.

-- Rene said: "The last scene establishes that T'Pol was NOT cured and that the earlier scene of her BEING cured was a dream."

That's an interesting idea, but Phlox said it would take T'Pol several days to regain her emotional control. Perhaps at the time of her dream, she hadn't. Then again, you may be on to something.

I do believe that T'Pol is cured (just in time for next episode ), and last scene merely shows hers nightmare because she didn't recuperate fully.

Also, yeah, I wondered too, why the Vulcans didn't seem to be interested in harming each other.

And I'm curious how it they got so weak all of sudden. Maybe Spock was former Mister Universe (be sure to check for his book, "Pumping Iron is logical" )

The story contained a 47. It was when T'Pol gave the complement of the Vulcan ship. I didn't note the exact number, just that it ended with a 47. I think it might have 847.Trike

It was 147, I think.

A classic "run & jump"-themed show.

SEIZURE CAUSE OF THE WEEK:
TUE Sez: Enough with the flashing lights. I was seriously having some difficulty watching this episode due to the freaky strobe lights they used on the Seleya.

Yeah, that really bugged me, too. I like to watch TV in a fairly dark room and that accentuated the effect.

Kazeite:Also I guess that Archer is a bad conductor, since on Wolcan ship he casually pushes some dangling cables away without checking them first.

What does Archer's inability to lead a band have to do with cables? ;)

I loved the high-and-far-away shot of the very tiny Enterprise approaching the asteroid field. Reminiscent of NCC-1701's flight through V'Ger, showing that space is big, really big, so big that you can't even believe how really big it is.

"There's also the argument that if black boxes can survive plane crashes, then why aren't planes constructed of the same material as the boxes. It just doesn't work that way ..." -- Trike

Out of curiosity, why doesn't it work that way? I have never heard the reason for why planes aren't made of the black box stuff.

TUE

I thought Vulcans had superhuman strength. It doesnt seem they are difficult to fight hand to hand in this episode... - Bab

I would never have characterized Vulcan strength as "superhuman," though I believe it has been established that they are stronger than average humans due to Vulcan's higher gravity. T'Pol has been living on Earth and on an Earth vessel (with presumably Earth gravity) for several years, so maybe her musckes have adapted to the lower gravity.

In any case, it's possible the effects of the trellium-D weren't solely psychological.


When the Vulcans sealed off Archer and the gang from their shuttlepod, my first thought was, I know they are going to get off the ship and back to Enterprise. It had already been shown in the first scene! - Trike

Ah... but did you know Reed and Hawkins would make it?

In any case, had they not shown you that teaser, would you really have been at the edge of your seat wondering if they'd make it out of there?

I thought this was a great episode, especially compared to Enterprise's recent offerings. I loved the asteroid field, especialy the opening establishing shot. And yes, Influx, I was thinking the same thing about that long shot. Great shot.
As for the nits:

Darth Sarcasm, I'd have to check my tape, but I believe the asteroids are simply said to contain Trellium. (No bloody A, B, C, or D!) Well this term typicaly tends to be interchangable with trellium D, this could be an explanation. Perhaps trellium is refined into Trellium D.

As was mentioned in several places, the Vulcans didn't seem strong enough, and there was no real reason for the zombie make-up. Perhaps that was supposed to suggest that they had been injuring each other or something?

Trike, you make a good point about the asteroids. In fact, I noticed one establishing shot of the Vulcan ship where an asteroid DOES bounce off of the ship, but it has no accompanying sound effects. Almost as if they were trying to keep us from noticing it... :-)

Finally, Elwood- This is a minor point, but i believe in the TNG phasers, only the first 3 settings were stun (Light, medium, and heavy) and settings 4 through 16 are all kill, in varying amounts of power.

Just read your newest message, Darth Sarcasm.

Yes, Enterprise is getting better. But keeping us on the edge of our seats? I think they have a way to go for that...

>...but i believe in the TNG phasers, only the first 3 settings were stun (Light, medium, and heavy) and settings 4 through 16 are all kill, in varying amounts of power.<

From a little dead to very dead?

Those flashing lights got to me too. Were they impact flashes, power surges, or just someone playing with the on/off switches? Whatever, they gave me a headache by the end. It probably wouldn't have been so bad if the lights weren't so darn bright!

Out of curiosity, why doesn't it work that way? I have never heard the reason for why planes aren't made of the black box stuff.

Weight limitations.

For TUE: I remember hearing several years back that the reason the whole plane isn't made of 'the black box stuff' is that roads aren't built wide enough. The point being that it's easy to make a small, heavily armored fireproof container to hold some recording equipment that can survive a couple G's of decelleration, but to build the whole plane to such specifications would render it impossibly heavy.

On an unrelated note, some random thoughts about trellium-D toxicity. Warning: involves fanwanking!

I think that Phlox described it as acting as a 'potent neurotoxin for the Vulcan nervous system. It disrupts the synaptic pathways that allow them to control emotion'. He didn't say anything about radiation effects - and the Trek writers have never been afraid to invoke some new N-wave or Z-particle when they wanted to. So I'll assume that the trellium effect is a chemical one. He also didn't say that the emotional pathway thing was the _only_ effect.

Having said that, the effects on the Vulcans can be explained with only a moderate amount of handwaving. First, Vulcan individuals are susceptible to trellium to different degrees. Trellium-as-neurotoxin makes them violent/emotional by disrupting the synaptic blah blah blah mentioned above. It also affects their coordination to varying degrees (zombie walk and poor aim). Because their muscular control is poor, they are effectively weaker. The trellium makes them flush (look greener) and stimulates the growth of bumps on the face.

If, as Phlox says, the effects are progressive, then brain damage becomes more pronounced with time. The engineer interrogated by T'pol was presumably exposed to the trellium the longest and therefore was the worst off, having become totally incoherent, etc. Others, having less exposure were not so poorly off and could think to close doors, etc, being more 'paranoid' than 'brain-damaged'.

To insulate Enterprise using such small quantities of trellium, they are presumably going to apply it pretty thin. It would make more sense to do this on the inside of the hull, where repair is easier and every weapons blast or collision with space dust won't scrape the stuff off. Besides - what if it melts or shrinks under the conditions on the outside of the ship?

I did have a few nits about the episode - for one thing, I wouldn't have gone aboard a vessel as damaged as the Seleya without an environment suit (but of course this would eliminate the poisoned-T'pol plot). I would have had T'pol doing all the talking to the Vulcan crew. I hoped that there would be some comment on the environment aboard the Vulcan ship - shouldn't the gravity be set higher than Earth-normal? And/or shouldn't it be hotter?

Yes, Enterprise is getting better. But keeping us on the edge of our seats? I think they have a way to go for that... - Zarm

Yes, I know. I was being sarcastic. (Imagine that! )

Trike seemed to suggest that the teaser lessened the suspense of the show, since we knew T'Pol and Archer survived until the events in the Teaser. But even if we hadn't known the events from the Teaser, we would have suspected they survived, since the main characters rarely get killed in episodic television. In episode after episode, Enterprise is threatened... but do we really think the ship will be destroyed?


He didn't say anything about radiation effects... - Brossa

No. But he said that part of the problem was that the Vulcan ship entered an asteroid field filled with the compound, leading one to conclude that the effect might be radiological.

Glad to know I'm not the only one who minds strobe lights. I almost couldn't watch because of them.

By The Man from Space: I don't understand the title of this episode. Why "Impulse"? Somebody help me with this. > Luigi Novi : Phlox reveals in the episode that trellium is a potent neurotoxin to Vulcans that disrupts the synaptic pathways that helps them control their emotions.

>

Like the Krell of Altair IV, any emotional impulse generated by the Vulcans is automatically expressed instead of being repressed as it usually is.

"Any impulse, Morbius, for any purpose!"

Monsters from the Id, indeed . . . :-)

Darth Sarcasm: I would never have characterized Vulcan strength as "superhuman," though I believe it has been established that they are stronger than average humans due to Vulcan's higher gravity. T'Pol has been living on Earth and on an Earth vessel (with presumably Earth gravity) for several years, so maybe her musckes have adapted to the lower gravity.

Well... I don't know. Spock, who served on board of Earth ships for many years (that 'first Vulcan in Starfleet' thing), still was described by Kirk as being "much stronger than the ordinary human being. Aroused, his great physical strength could kill."

Also we've seen humans on Vulcan couple of times and they didn't seem to be under particular stress from inreased gravity (even after 'three months' from TVH), so the gravity can't be much bigger and our standard 1g.

Though Brossas theory regarding zombie Vulcan convinces me. If I like episode, I'm very forgiving

I have some thoughts about this episode:
Even after all those accidents and emergencies, they still have only two shuttlepods on board. Not very smart

Also, did they had to extend wings when flying into asteroid field? Unless there's some ultra-thin thruster build in, I can't see why would they want to risk unnecessary damage to the wings?

I'm net even sure if shuttlepod could fit into shuttlebay with extended wings, and if shuttle will be unable to retract wings due to the damage, its crew will be forced to repair it outside of Enterprise

It was interesting the way the shuttle pod docked with the Seleya. If the Vulcan ships have been portrayed in standard Star Trek fashion, then the shuttle pod was turned up on its side. This is interesting, because when the away team climbed up through the roof of the shuttle pod, the came up through a hole in the floor on the Seleya.

Does this mean that the airlock has its outer door on the side, and its inner hatch in the ceiling? Or are the decks of the Seleya long and thin, making Vulcan ships "sideways" every time they meet up with Enterprise?

Or are the decks in the aft section concentric rings around the warp ring?

Luigi wrotw: Set phasers to incredulous
By the time T'Pol loses control in Act 3, she's a danger to the rest of the away team, yet neither Archer nor Reed nor Hawkins suggests stunning her. Sure, carrying her back to the shuttlepod would be more difficult, but then she doesn't exactly go willingly herself, and keeping her conscious only makes the situation more dangerous. Not until long into Act 4 and T'Pol actually lunges at Archer does he decide to stun her.

I think this is still the best option for the Team. They're probably going to be facing more of the violent Vulcans and can't tell what kind of detours they might have to make. They left the Seleya bridge by climbing up through the ceiling. If they have to do this again, trying to get an unconscious T'Pol up through the opening would be quite difficult and trying to fight psychotic Vulcans with someone over your shoulder would be much more dangerous.

Is it just me, or does the music in this episode bear an odd resemblence to that of The Matrix?

When T'Pol goes totally psycho and starts wildly accusing Archer of trying to kill her and the Selaya's crew, I immediately thought of "Strange New World" when psycho Tucker was freaking out left and right at T'Pol.

Trellium-D makes Vulcan's something something

Rene: Am I missing something here? The last scene establishes that T'Pol was NOT cured and that the earlier scene of her BEING cured was a dream.
Luigi Novi: Precisely my point. If they had left well enough alone, and kept that scene real, and made it the last one, what followed wouldn't have been necessary. Establishing that she wasn't cured is only necessary if you plan on something following it. But if the scene with her in sickbay after returning from the Seleya is the last one, "establishing" it isn't necessary, because it's understood that it takes place after her return, and that she is therefore not yet fully cured. If the episode ends there, that scene doesn't required establishing anything.

A good episode; with Anomaly, the best of the third season so far.

Does anyone else think that the music in these third-season episodes is reminiscent of that from the original movies, especially ST2 and ST3?

The story was reasonable to good.

The science was mostly plausible.

And the CGI guys deserve a chestful of medals apiece! That shot of the Vulcan ship lying in the asteroid field with gaping holes torn in its hull by the asteroids, its de-powered warp ring hanging off-kilter...LOVELY! (Ahem. This is the main reason why I watch Star Trek).

Somebody above complained that this ship wasn't mentioned in a previous episode (LOUD SIGH) I think some of the nitpickers are deliberately not paying attention just so they can bring up more nits. In The Expanse Soval told Archer and Forrest that *several* Vulcan ships had been lost in the Expanse. A specific ship's crew had gone mad: in this episode T'Pol says that ship was sent after this one when it was sucked into the Expanse. Therefore, no inconsistency. The only problem I had was that the Seleya vanished 9 months ago: if T'Pol served on it, shouldn't she have have reacted sometime last season? (Yeah, I know, emotional suppression).

So the Vulcans in this episode had their emotional control degraded - like Romulans. And they got bumps on their foreheads - like Romulans! Maybe this explains the old bumpy-forehead thing: degredation of the neurotransmitter (presumably just by not using it in Romulans, rather than having it broken down in the zombie Vulcans) causes the forehead to develop ridges. Actually, I wonder if the mind-melding Vulcans from the last two seasons have anything to do with the Romulans...

Nice to see everyone getting a decent role, except maybe Hoshi.

Actually, I think the Vulcans did seem pretty stronger than Archer in the first couple of fight scenes, but later they did seem too easily beaten. Probably the Trellium also attacks their muscle neurotransmitters: certainly human muscle nerves use several of the same neurotransmitters as the brain.

IMNSHO, it would have made more sense to have the Trellium emit a specific radiation that broke down the Vulcan neurotransmitter, rather than a chemical - as other people have said, that could simply be isolated from T'Pol. Maybe the creators are trying to get away from inventing Thalidimide radiation or Thingummydoodlybarbyon particles every week. If so - I suppose, good for them!

Phew, that post was almost as long as all of Luigi's...

They may be psychotic zombies, but they’re psychotic zombies with a great teamwork ethic
Jamahl Epsicokhan, in his review of the episode at http://www.st-hypertext.com/ent-3/impulse.html, wondered why, if the Vulcans have all gone mad, have not attacked and killed each other by now, and instead gang up on the Enterprise away team?

Kind of like the "zombies" in "Night of the Living Dead."

Weren't the "zombies" in Night Of The Living Dead hunting for living flesh?

I suppose one could say that the Vulcans were after those who were 'untainted', but I think that would be a stretch since I can't think of any good reason why they would go after someone who was 'untainted', but leave easch other alone, not to mention how would they know who was or wasn't untainted.

Now that's what I'm talking about. Great episode, with some thrills and chills, and dark, ravaged ship really added to the atmosphere of the ep.

Aren't Vulcans supposed to be much stronger than humans? Because Archer does a pretty good job handling the increasingly more disturbed T'Pol. Is she weak for her species?

I loved the CGI at the end of the episode. Shuttlepod 2's approach to the Vulcan ship and the ship's destruction were both beautiful.

And that ending was kind of freaky. I was wondering why no one else was noticing the quite loud conversation that T'Pol, Tucker, and Phlox were having during the movie.

I figured the final scene of the episode was hinting that this would continue to affect T'Pol. I haven't seen the rest of the season yet, but she does have problems with Trellium later on, doesn't she?

elwood: Also, in TNG and so, the phasers have 16 settings.
While the upper 8 are extremley powerfull, the stun range was larger. maybe its yet to advanced to have several different, weaker and stronger non lethal stun settings on a phase pistol.
Broken Bow established that they have two settings, stun and kill. So, yes, they are not yet advanced enough to have more than one stun setting.

Christopher Q: It seemed odd that the agressive psychotic Vulcans could work so well together.
Despite their seemingly mindless need to kill something, their intelligence was at least partially there.

Nove Rockhoomer: While the away team is on the Vulcan ship, sometimes they scan for Vulcans, sometimes not. When Archer and Reed were heading for auxiliary control, Archer was ambushed by them as he goes through a hatch. Then he asks Reed whether there are any more.
I thought that Reed told him that there were two 5m ahead. Archer, not seeing them, slowly and cautiously headed for them until he was ambushed.

Kazeite: I have some thoughts about this episode:
Even after all those accidents and emergencies, they still have only two shuttlepods on board. Not very smart
Does the Enterprise have room for any more pods?

I think so. The shuttlebays seem to be big enough to hold more.

Those shuttlepods are surprisingly durable compared to their later counterparts. The one with Travis and Mayweather plowed right into a huge chunk of rock and it was fine.

When the away team get to the Vulcan ship they split up into to groups, Archer & T'Pol and Reed & MACO. It doesn't make much sense, to me anyway, to have the two security people in the same group. Also, the MACO should've been the point-man for the majority of the mission since he's not command level.

I don't recall where but I've heard more than once that Vulcans have three times the strength of an average Human, yet we rarely see this beyond TOS.

"This is interesting, because when the away team climbed up through the roof of the shuttle pod, the came up through a hole in the floor on the Seleya." Summerfield

I noticed that to, and I also noticed that when returning to the shuttlepod it was connected to the Seleya on its roof, and the shot inside S1 showed the team sitting normally. Something's not quite right here. When S2 shows up to save the day Archer tells Travis they're stuck and he immediately shoots the docking mechanism. Either a little more time passes during this exchange or Travis is an incredibly good shot, espicially when it didn't look like he was at an angle to shoot that thing.

>>>By elwood on Thursday, October 09, 2003 - 4:16 am:
I also thought, that insulating the outer hull
wouldn't be dangerous for T'pol. Unless of course she takes a walk on the outer hull without EVA suit more often. When they fiest encountered the guy saying they need trellium d to insulate the hull. I thought he meant OUTSITE. But here it looked, (and archers says something like that on the vulcan ship) that they insulated the ships interior like painting it with it.<<<

If you coated the outside of the hull you'd cover the sensor equipment. Sure, you'd be protected from the anomalies but you also would be unable to see anything.

I'd also postulate that the stuff might have strange effects on the warp field if its on the outside of the ship.

>>>Also the outer ships hull and systems there would still be harmed by anomalies if they put th trellium in their inner hull or even gangways. <<<

My educated guess here would be that Enterprise has a double hull at least. The inner hull for keeping the atmosphere in and an outer layer that protects the ship from weapons and impacts (its armour). The outer hull is probably designed, as would any equipment mounted there, to take damage without compromising the ship as a whole. The real risks would be that the anomalies warp the inner hull - which is holding the air in - or the beams that provide the ship with structural strength. Loosing one of the main support beams could destroy the ship.

>>>By Keith Alan Morgan on Thursday, October 09, 2003 - 4:39 am:
Trellium D supposedly protects ships from the anomalies, but asteroids with the stuff are affected?<<<

They were mining ore not pure Trellium. As we discovered last week the ore has to be refined to be of any use.

>>>By margie on Thursday, October 09, 2003 - 11:41 am:
I couldn't tell - those rocks that were beamed aboard - were they just stuck to the walls of the transport chamber, or did they partially materialize in the walls?<<<

It was the latter - the rocks ended up in the wall.

Of course this does begg the question; Why do the consoles on the bridge explode if someone so much as sneezes at the ship, while the transporter fails to give off any pyrotechnics when half a ton of rocks suddenly becomes part of it?

>>>By The Undesirable Element on Thursday, October 09, 2003 - 11:52 am:
LIFE SUPPORT PROBLEM OF THE WEEK:
The asteroids are zooming all around in a chaotic manner right? The Seleya has no shields when they're found right? The visual of the Seleya at the beginning shows that the ship has gaping holes in it right? So how is there air on the ship? <<<

Ships have bulkheads and are seperated into small sections. If one section of the ship is exposed to space doors slam shut to isolate the damaged section of the ship. (By the time of TNG this can be done with forcefields - as seen in ST Nemesis and Generations. In Archers time they are physical doors).
Submarines and ships do the same thing today, although their bulkheads prevent water from getting in rather than air getting out.

>>>By Trike on Friday, October 10, 2003 - 12:12 am:
There's also the argument that if black boxes can survive plane crashes, then why aren't planes constructed of the same material as the boxes.<<<

Black boxes are not made out of some magical material, they are constucted to handle impacts by their shape more than anything. Its also incorrect to say that Blackboxes always survive crashes intact, they are often found with some damage, in some cases they are too badly damaged to get much information off them and at other times they have been totally destroyed.

>>>-- The story contained a 47. It was when T'Pol gave the complement of the Vulcan ship. I didn't note the exact number, just that it ended with a 47. I think it might have 847. If so, that number is nitable. The Vulcan ship did not appear large enough for a crew so big, nor have we seen a ship so large in the 22nd century. <<<

Archer asked T'Pol how many Vulcans they might have to deal with. T'Pol gave the crew complement of the ship as 147 - although given the extent of the damage to the ship its unlikely that was the total number of Vulcans left alive at the time.

>>>Further, because the ship was exploring a dangerous region of space, the expanse, it would have been wiser to send a ship with a smaller crew, to reduce the risk of -- well, what happened here. <<<

From the diolog given my impression was that the ship didn't intend to go that far into the expanse but was pulled in.
And why not send a large ship? A Larger ship has better weapons/shields to deal with any hostile and more equipment, so why not send one in?

>>>By Kazeite on Friday, October 10, 2003 - 1:30 am:
Also, yeah, I wondered too, why the Vulcans didn't seem to be interested in harming each other. <<<

Reed did find Vulcan blood on one of the walls before they ran into the crew. So we can surmise that the crew had been fighting each other before Enterprise arrived.

>>>By Kazeite on Sunday, October 12, 2003 - 3:12 am:
I'm net even sure if shuttlepod could fit into shuttlebay with extended wings, and if shuttle will be unable to retract wings due to the damage, its crew will be forced to repair it outside of Enterprise<<<

They can probably eject damaged wings if they have to.

>>>By Summerfield on Sunday, October 12, 2003 - 7:25 pm:

It was interesting the way the shuttle pod docked with the Seleya. If the Vulcan ships have been portrayed in standard Star Trek fashion, then the shuttle pod was turned up on its side. This is interesting, because when the away team climbed up through the roof of the shuttle pod, the came up through a hole in the floor on the Seleya.

Does this mean that the airlock has its outer door on the side, and its inner hatch in the ceiling? Or are the decks of the Seleya long and thin, making Vulcan ships "sideways" every time they meet up with Enterprise?

Or are the decks in the aft section concentric rings around the warp ring?<<<

The port may lead to a tunnel that turns 90 degrees to come up through the floor, or the airlock may be a small room for decontamination where the exit is a ladder going up. This would be a better configiration if someone tried to board the ship through the ports than having the port and the deck floor on the same level as Enterprise does.

>>>By Josh M on Sunday, October 31, 2004 - 12:09 pm:
elwood: Also, in TNG and so, the phasers have 16 settings.
While the upper 8 are extremley powerfull, the stun range was larger. maybe its yet to advanced to have several different, weaker and stronger non lethal stun settings on a phase pistol.
Broken Bow established that they have two settings, stun and kill. So, yes, they are not yet advanced enough to have more than one stun setting. <<<

When Reed gives Archer one of the Phase Pistols in Broken Bow he says 'Two settings, kill and stun. Don't get them mixed up'. Later Archer shoots someone and comments 'Well, stun seems to work'.
Reed tells Hoshi the same thing later in Season one when he is training her to use the pistols.

I'm assuming however that Reed means 'live' settings as he's training Hoshi to use the pistol in the armory without seemingly being worried that she's going to damage anything. From this I'd guess that there are three settings; Stun, Kill and 'training'.

Nit; I don't know if this has been mentioned or addressed before, but back in season one T'Pol states that Vulcans don't go exploring. However it seems she was in error since the Vulcans have sent some ships to explore this region of space.

T'Pol is shown sweating. Vulcans do not sweat

Really? It's possible, but I don't think I ever saw this established anywhere.

You're right. It's non-canon. It's from the MRM.

I also seem to remember reading it in a "behind the scenes" book.

But it was never established in an aired canonical source.

Plus, I have to think that Tuvok was shown sweating at some point.