Ha! First post!

Okay, as promised... <dramatic music> the True Nits!</dramatic music>

Well, as so often happens with Enterprise, I was concerned coming into the episode. Fortunately, my expectations have been lowered such that when they do pop off a good episode, I become weak in the knees. And this was a good episode. Three intriguing plots, some solid acting. This show may actually have gotten its act together. I still think it's gonna get cancelled, but... we'll see.

Three things I liked:
3) The Hayes/Reed fight scene was one of the better fight scenes I've seen in a while.
2) The weird anomaly deal they found had some great effects behind it, especially when they were trying to use the grappler.
1) The Expanse plot keeps getting jucier and juicier. It seems clear that whoever is screwing up the Expanse is also responsible for getting the Xindi involved with Earth. Intruiging!

Three things I didn't like:
3) So, I know the MACO's are trying to be all badass and all, but there's a difference between tough and crazy, specifically when it comes down to not putting any mats on the floor whilst training. Don't you want your people in tip-top shape for a possible attack? It seems like throwing people around on a metal floor would greatly increase the chance of injury.
2) And, oh yeah, about this training. Why start it now? I mean, the Xindi have pretty much had their way with both the MACOs and Reed's staff every previous time they've boarded. Shouldn't they have been trying to beef things up after, say, "Rajin"?
1) Annnnnnnnd finally, about the training... why is it only the senior staff and the MACOs doing this? I mean, I know that a senior officer is required to be around any time something important is going down on the ship, but wouldn't it make sense to, you know, get your whole crew trained in defense, seeing as though the Xindi have completely demolished you in every single encounter?

Other nits and notes:

Grungy nit time! When T'Pol disrobes, we have a wide shot from her behind. She takes off her shirt, and Trip's eyes trail down her body. Then the shot switches to a close-up, and his eyes are looking up at her face.

So, I thought the alien was supposed to be disentegrating, but in practice, it really seems like he's phasing out of our universe, or whatever, ala Laforge and Ro in "The Next Phase." That seems different from disentegration.

So, the anomaly... um, how exactly was it screwing things up? I mean, I understand it was interfering with navigation, but how would that affect things once they got to the other side? It didn't seem that big- couldn't they just go around? Did I miss something?

Okay, how did the Alien knock Phlox unconscious?

Onto a positive comment- it was really good to see Archer flat-out yell when chewing out Reed and Hayes. Can we have more of that Archer, please?

Those targets the MACOs had- what exactly were they? Were they holograms? If so, how did they get them? Were they projections of some other type?

Once again, the ship picks up an alien, and once again, said alien causes a ruckus. \Peter, Paul, and Mary{When will they ever learn, when will they ever learn?}

Archer definitively states that the MACOs technology is ahead of Starfleet's, which seems really weird, considering that Starfleet's phasers have proven more effective against certain enemies (like the Xindi) than the MACOs' weapons.

So, yeah, I enjoyed this one. If every month were sweeps month, Enterprise might be the best show on T.V. Grade: A- Next week: Having spent so long this season driving T'Pol nuts, the writers go to work on Phlox.

Nits? The whole episode is a freakin' nit... the ol' Captain doesn't even know where to begin...

Sorry, just trying to work out the worst of my ranting before trying to compose a proper post. In no particular order, just thinking back:

Trip and T'Pol. Hoo Boy!!! An experiment? What's she gonna do next? Try some of Phlox's hallucenogens for kicks? Berman and Braga need to get their sex-soaked ratings-obsessed minds back onto solid Trek ground and quit pandering to the 18 year olds in the audience. Not only is this the most blatant undercutting of T'Pol's Vulcan character, but it seems that they have taken it upon themselves to deconstruct her Vulcan nature little by little in each episode this year.

T'Pol's jealousy. Way out of line for a Vulcan. And as a side note, no human should be able to punch out a Vulcan, even when that Vulcan is emotionally distracted. First, a Vulcan wouldn't be emotionally distracted, and second, Vulcans are at least twice as strong as humans, even a trained MACO. The punch should have turned her head, but not laid her flat on the floor.

Reed's rivalry with Major Hayes. Childish. Childish, childish, childish. I thought Reed was a better person than this. And what is with "just a Klingon move I picked up"? When did Reed ever come into friendly contact with Klingons to learn any martial arts moves? The three times Enterprise has encountered Klingons they've been quite belligerent and not in a sharing frame of mind.

The unknown alien. Most straightforward part of the show, but no surprise when he turns out to be a sabotaging spy. Nit: why does his makeup suggest a degenerative condition as if his body is falling apart (Phlox even says he is literally disintegrating) yet he "phases" away, clothing and all, leaving no traces behind.

The pseudo-lesbian scene between Cole and T'Pol. I'm sick to death of this "neuro-pressure" garbage. Berman and Braga need to quit reading stroke magazines on the job.

Travis and Hoshi are turning into Sulu and Uhura in terms of their development and appearances. At least they got some exercise in the training scene in this episode, but lately they've been "Aye sir"-ing and opening hailing frequencies while pushing buttons on the bridge.

About the only thing I absolutely liked in this one was Archer chewing out Reed and Hayes for fighting. I wish Archer could do the same to Berman and Braga for writing.

I couldn't hear what the alien said as he disappeared.

Couldn't hear him either. I'll have to check my tape.

He said something along the lines of "When the Xindi have destroyed Earth, my people will (have won? Be victorious? Something like that... can't remember exact wording off-hand.)"

"my people will prevail"

Captain Dunsel wrote:

Reed's rivalry with Major Hayes. Childish. Childish, childish, childish. I thought Reed was a better person than this. And what is with "just a Klingon move I picked up"? When did Reed ever come into friendly contact with Klingons to learn any martial arts moves? The three times Enterprise has encountered Klingons they've been quite belligerent and not in a sharing frame of mind.

......He did say something he picked up. I always thought that Reed observes a lot, and just practiced what he observed from them.


AS for the treatment of how Vulcan T'Pol acted in this one, I'm yet to agree or disagree on her being handled wrong. It just so happen that I watched again, the TNG episode that had Sarek on it again, and remember seeing Picard, after exchanges of some strange emotional ritual with Sarek, tell Sarek's wife, that Sarek indeed did love her. Which is an emotion. Also remember seeing Troi say to Picard, the usual saying of how Vulcans have emotions, but learned to repress them. DS9 in my mind, certainly stretched Vulcans around in a different way, "Take Me Out To the Holosuite" showing a childish spat between a Vulcan captain and Sisko wanting to play baseball. Indeed.
I don't know, but with T'Pol's behavior ever since she boarded Enterprise, I think she is relevent to her usual self in this episode. Not even surprised with her speech to Trip in the 'morning after' scene. What I am surprised of, is that Trip took it easier than I would have thought he would have. Then again, he didn't even bat an eye, after finding out Malcolm pretty much used his special 'Ruby' as a 'familiar friend'. I'm beginning to think, that Trip is the unemotional one in this relationship.

As for Reed and Heyes, I was wondering when they would deal with them two, and it was nice to see it come to a head. I think Reed's feelings are natural here, but agree with some of you, that Reed acting them out, was a bit out of control. Then again, I also thought Heyes also was a bit iresponsible toward Reed as well, so it makes me wonder if the Expanse itself is guilty of mucking around with thier emotions. Which would also explain Archer's yelling all over the place.

As for the comment of Travis and Hoshi being 'Sulu and Uhura' part two. I am beginning to see that myself. There has already been a Hoshi episode, there should be a Travis one soon.

"when will they ever learn?"
Those three bozos ripped me off!

Sumbitch, YOU ripped ME off!

Trip and T'Pol. Hoo Boy!!! An experiment?Captain Dunsel

Heh. You believed that? T'Pol was very clearly in denial about the whole thing, which should be interesting later.

T'Pol has a nice bum.

(sorry...it needed to be said)

---Critique:
---Wow.
---Although how much a step forward in the Xindi arc this episode is remains unclear, it is possibly the most competently-produced episode in the series’ run, with the best depiction of character interaction and other ongoing premises, the best avoidance of telegraphed clichés, and possibly even a bit of complexity. If this is a harbinger of things to come, I say, bring it on.
---Harbinger is an example of how episodes can delicately balance separate, competently-written plot threads without degenerating into stupidity or sacrificing character or ongoing premises. It almost felt like watching Deep Space Nine again as I sat back, and for possibly the first time while watching Enterpise, I actually was surprised at how each new development flowered from previously ongoing storylines while at the same time setting up future ones, and how sincere it was all delivered. That the episode was able to convey some sense of resolution to all three plot threads, including the alien from the anomaly field, the conflict between Reed and Hayes, which appeared to have been dropped after The Xindi, and the triangle between Trip, T’Pol and Cole, while at the same time planting the seed for future episodes, has me more hopeful about this series than I’ve been since it premiered.
---What’s so pleasantly surprising about this episode is how there were so many different ways in which it could’ve degenerated into Trek clichés, but managed to avoid them though competent execution. Consider the Alien Who Turns out to be a Bad Guy cliché. Rather than trying to fool the viewer into thinking the alien was a good guy, the episode makes him antagonistic towards Archer from the start, and when he finally shows some friendliness towards Phlox at the end of Act 3, it lulls us in until we are surprised by his attack upon the doctor.
---Then there’s the patented Silly Fight Scene, in which characters either knock each other over with love taps, or with the silly Double-Fisted Punch. Here, the director and choreographers actually had me wondering if the actors sparring in Acts 3 and 4 had actual fight training. Whether they did or not, it sure looked it, and that’s the whole point. It is also interesting to consider that this may be the first episode in which two main or recurring good guy characters get into a fight over their genuine personality conflicts, and not because of some dopey alien influence or contrived situation. This also takes care of a problem I’ve had with Reed for some time, namely that despite his billing as a head Tactical officer, that he’s come off to date as a whiny, wimpy explosion freak who can’t put up a fight. Although his problems with Hayes seemed largely a matter of ego, it was nice to see that he actually can fight.
---Perhaps the most important development that avoided the bane of lame execution is in T’Pol and Trip’s relationship. The scene between them in Act 3 where they confront one another’s jealousy was dead-on, and the dialogue, was just perfect! This was the best character interaction scene on the series to date, I was blown away by T’Pol’s decision to kiss Trip, and extremely pleased that such a series plot development actually caused me some surprise. I was glad that instead of skirting around the issue of nudity and sexuality, they finally have T’Pol make a surprisingly aggressive move toward Trip where her disrobing is actually a relevently-shot, even romantic part of the scene. Some may gripe at the use of the Reset Button when T’Pol later reveals to Trip that she was merely exploring sexuality from a scientific point of view, but given how her prior jealousy indicated that there was an emotional component to her attraction, I have a feeling that this is a development that will be revisited. There’s also a certain bit of—dare I say it?— logic—to T’Pol’s regression at the end of the episode, not simply because the creators want to reset everything, but because from a Vulcan’s point of view, having sex is relatively easy, but admitting to the emotional aspect of it is extremely difficult, creating an interesting cross-cultural conflict as Trip and T’Pol continue to struggle to deal with how they feel about their relationship.
---Lastly, of course, the production values were top notch, in particular the really nice anomaly effects when the Enterprise grabs the escape pod in from the anomaly field in Act 1.

---Notes:
---Trip tells Cole in the teaser that when Reed was in Starfleet training, he at the same three meals every day for a year. And while we know Trip lost his sister in the Xindi attack on Earth, Cole explicitly establishes in the opening scene of Act 3 that his hometown was destroyed.

---Terms:
Corporal Amanda Cole The female MACO to whom Trip has been administering Vulcan neuro-presure, whom Phlox names in the third scene of Act 1. Trip tells T’Pol in the fourth scene of Act 2 that like he, she is from Florida. Cole tells T’Pol in the opening scene of Act 3 that she and Trip grew up 50 kilometers from one another, that their high schools were rivals, that they went to the same movie theaters, and that while her home town, like Trip’s, was destroyed in the Xindi attack on Earth, her family moved up north a few years earlier and was spared. Major Hayes later reveals in the same Act that Cole holds the target practice record of 14 hits at level four.

T’Pol: “I’m detecting an object up ahead.”
Archer: “What is it?”
T’Pol: “I cannot determine, sir, but it has “HAZARDOUS” written in big lettes on its surface.”
Archer: “Let’s brining it aboard.”
T’Pol: “There is also another object next to it, which is emitting a ticking sound and has some kind of clock on its face.”
Archer: “Um…okay, let’s bring that aboard too.”
T’Pol: “I am also detecting a third object……it appears to be a script……and at least a third of its dialogue appears to be for Ensign Mayweather. Should I bring it aboard as well, Captain?”
Archer: “What’re you, NUTS? That stuff’s like KRYPTONITE to us! Helm, get us outta here!”
Travis: “Aye, capt—”
Archer: “Did I say you could TALK?”
In Act 1, a foreign object is once again brought aboard the ship and opened without the benefit of EV suits or a quarantine field, even though such objects have proved hazardous in at least two prior episodes, Acquisition and Future Tense, and even though merely grabbing it out of the anomaly field caused ammonium sulfide levels to rise aboard the ship.
Guess friends are not considered good luck in the Florida of the future unless you’re a Republican running for President
When Cole tells T’Pol in the opening scene of Act 3 that her hometown was destroyed in the Xindi attack on Earth, T’Pol asks her if she lost family, and Cole responds that her family moved north, so she was “lucky.” But if this was her hometown, and she lived there as late as her high school years, as she indicates to T’Pol, then didn’t she lose most of her childhood friends? Was she just keeping a stiff upper lift and compartmentalizing this fact when claiming to be “lucky,” or did she not have any friends growing up?

Even Al Gore said, “C’mon, you didn’t invent that!” when watching this scene
In the opening shot of the target practice session in the second scene of Act 3, Hayes says they developed this specialized training system “at Jupiter Station a few months ago.” First of all, given that the starlog date in the beginning of this episode is December 27, 2153, and the starlog date of The Expanse was April 24, 2153, you had already been in the Expanse for a few months, and nowhere near Jupiter Station “a few months ago,” Major. Second, Reed trained Hoshi with pretty much the same type of holographic target device back in Silent Enemy, so what is it that Hayes thinks they developed?

A couple of quick thoughts...

So why did the alien demand to be sent back to his ship if he wanted to sabatouge Enterprise?
To give credence to his story? (I'm a prisoner. I don't know why I'm here, but... Un-rescue me immediately!!!)

Also, it's been mentioned before, but... why does the alien dissolve by shimmering out? If he was disintegrating, shouldn't there be a pile of dust left behind? And why did his clothes shimmer with him? (It seemed like he should have walked through the first wall, and his clothes would have stayed there. But I guess the creators decided that they already had enough nudity...)
I guess both of these could have to do with his extra-multi-transdimentional-whatsahoosit origins... If his entire molecular structure was out of phase or some junk... Who knows, maybe he didn't even die, he just returned to his own space.
Did his makeup toward the end suggest that maybe he was about to yell "It's Clobberin time!" at any moment? :-)

Why did the alien attack the ship? How does he know about the Xindi/Human situation? What did he mean by his last statement? What was he doing in the anamoly? Was he "bait" for Enterprise or there for an entirely different purpose? I don't understand what was going on with this part of the story. Is he a "player" in the temporal cold war and needs the Xindi to be successful in destroying Earth therefore he was sent to stop Enterprise before they find the weapon? I have many questions.

Two and a half seasons and we know very little about the Temporal Cold War beyond what was said in the pilot, which was minimal enough. This episode raised more questions without answering any of the previous ones. Other episodes have done the same. Consequently, it's increasingly difficult for me to care about that story. I don't need all the answers, just a few now and then.

Reed was very distasteful in this episode, petty and childish. I never lost respect for the characters on DS9 or Voyager as much as for Reed in this one.

SlinkyJ: That was sort of my point. When did Reed observe any Klingon martial arts moves? I suppose they could have had an adventure with Klingons in between the episodes that we didn't see...

Sparrow47: No, I didn't believe her for a minute! The "experiment" line was just a convenient out for the writers so they don't have to develop a new ongoing relationship. "We're not going to have sex again, but we'll continue to meet in our quarters after shift, turn the lights down low, take off our clothes and rub each others bodies." Yeah right. Pull my other leg, Berman. If the ratings dive any lower, T'Pol and Trip will be on each other faster than a Ferengi can count his latinum. Why do you think they did it in the first place?

I found a book at my local library written by someone who decided to spend time with different groups of Star Trek fans and record what Star Trek meant to people from different walks of life. I can't remember the title of said book, but one chapter of the tome was an interview with Rick Berman at Brannon Braga's house. The author said he was astonished at the extensive collection of pornography that filled every inch of Braga's residence. Berman admitted that he spends a lot of time with Braga, enjoying his porn collection. Does this explain why the "sexy blonde" became so important on Voyager and why T'Pol is being used as a sex object?

Oh, almost forgot... I promised to check on this... just before he died the alien said "When the Xindi destroy Earth, my people will prevail."

T'Pol's jealousy. Way out of line for a Vulcan. - Captain Dunsel

It was established in Impulse that trellium adversely affects Vulcan synaptic pathways. Phlox says that he is able to treat T'Pol, but not the other Vulcans. He doesn't, however, say he can cure her. Is it possible that the effects of her trellium exposure are irreversible? And that T'Pol is simply having difficulty suppressing intense emotions (even Spock had trouble from time to time)?


When did Reed ever come into friendly contact with Klingons to learn any martial arts moves? - Captain Dunsel

He didn't say a Klingon taught him the move. Perhaps he "picked up" on it by observing the enemy's tactics in Marauders (like a good security officer would).

Maybe, Darth, but I think this is becoming a convenient excuse to "sex up" T'Pol for the sake of ratings. And on Reed, okay, maybe so, but it still seems a bit early in Trek history for a human to be throwing around Klingon trivia.

Does this alien species have something to do with the spheres? Hasn't it been stated, or speculated, that the spheres are creating, or somehow transforming, the expanse. Are they there to create an environment for this species to live in? Is this anamoly a small example and this alien was sent to check it out and serve as a guinea pig?

Sparrow47: And, oh yeah, about this training. Why start it now? I mean, the Xindi have pretty much had their way with both the MACOs and Reed's staff every previous time they've boarded. Shouldn't they have been trying to beef things up after, say, "Rajin"?
Luigi Novi: Perhaps Hayes has wanted to, but didn’t want to assert himself too soon after first coming on board the ship as a newbie, and when he eventually began to make such suggestions, ran into resistance from Reed.

Sparrow47: about the training... why is it only the senior staff and the MACOs doing this?
Luigi Novi: Perhaps focusing on Tactical crewmen and senior staff is an interim idea, and may develop to include the rest of the crew if successful.

Sparrow47: When T'Pol disrobes, we have a wide shot from her behind. She takes off her shirt, and Trip's eyes trail down her body. Then the shot switches to a close-up, and his eyes are looking up at her face.
Luigi Novi: No, he’s still looking down, and then looks up. Granted, he’s still looking a bit higher than in the previous shot (down near the floor in the previous, and then near her chest area in the next), but there’s no reason why shots have to be sequenced with such exactness that things like eye movement has to correspond perfectly; he could’ve moved his eyes a bit between shots.

Sparrow47: So, I thought the alien was supposed to be disintegrating, but in practice, it really seems like he's phasing out of our universe, or whatever, ala Laforge and Ro in "The Next Phase." That seems different from disintegration.
Luigi Novi: We don’t know exactly what effect his body was exhibiting, or how Phlox’s instruments interpreted it. It’s possible that the effect of the alien’s body was designed to look like what Phlox saw.

Sparrow47: So, the anomaly... um, how exactly was it screwing things up? I mean, I understand it was interfering with navigation, but how would that affect things once they got to the other side? It didn't seem that big- couldn't they just go around? Did I miss something?
Luigi Novi: Where was it shown to be screwing things up once they left it?

Sparrow47: Okay, how did the Alien knock Phlox unconscious?
Luigi Novi: He cut off his air supply just enough to do so.

Sparrow47: it was really good to see Archer flat-out yell when chewing out Reed and Hayes. Can we have more of that Archer, please?
Luigi Novi: I think we’ve had plenty of yelling and cursing from Archer. Good leadership is more than that, and is indicated more by his decision-making and tactical maneuvering, like what we saw at the end of Proving Ground.

Sparrow47: Those targets the MACOs had- what exactly were they? Were they holograms? If so, how did they get them? Were they projections of some other type?
Luigi Novi: They were clearly holograms. The projector was shown in the establishing shot of that scene, and it first used back in Silent Enemy.

Sparrow47: Archer definitively states that the MACOs technology is ahead of Starfleet's, which seems really weird, considering that Starfleet's phasers have proven more effective against certain enemies (like the Xindi) than the MACOs' weapons.
Luigi Novi: Where was this scene? I remember Ryan taking out the mining foreman at the end of Act 3 of The Xindi with one shot from his MACO rifle.

Captain Dunsel: Trip and T'Pol. Hoo Boy!!! An experiment? What's she gonna do next? Try some of Phlox's hallucenogens for kicks? Berman and Braga need to get their sex-soaked ratings-obsessed minds back onto solid Trek ground and quit pandering to the 18 year olds in the audience. Not only is this the most blatant undercutting of T'Pol's Vulcan character, but it seems that they have taken it upon themselves to deconstruct her Vulcan nature little by little in each episode this year.
Luigi Novi: I saw her claim that this was an exploration of human sexuality (not an “experiment”) was an obvious way of covering up her emotional feelings for Trip, since the episode made clear that she was jealous of his relationship with Cole.

Captain Dunsel: T'Pol's jealousy. Way out of line for a Vulcan. And as a side note, no human should be able to punch out a Vulcan, even when that Vulcan is emotionally distracted.
Luigi Novi: There is no basis for this assertion. Vulcans are not omnipotent. They’re fallible, just as humans, and their emotional control isn’t perfect. Sometimes it fails them, and when that happens, they are vulnerable to the same things humans are vulnerable to when they become distracted.

Captain Dunsel: First, a Vulcan wouldn't be emotionally distracted…
Luigi Novi: Vulcans have the same emotions as humans, and as such, they can be affected by them, which has been long-established in Trek. (Spock affected emotionally by the Tribbles in The Trouble with Tribbles(TOS), his elation at seeing Kirk alive at the end of Amok Time(TOS), Sarek’s admission to T’Lar at the end of ST III that his logic is uncertain where his son is concerned, Spock’s decision to stand with his friends in ST IV, Tuvok’s reaction to Neelix accusing him of having to have the last word at the end of Rise(VOY), etc.

There is nothing that suggests that a Vulcan can never be distracted, and never lose a fight.

Captain Dunsel: …and second, Vulcans are at least twice as strong as humans, even a trained MACO. The punch should have turned her head, but not laid her flat on the floor.
Luigi Novi: Physical strength has nothing to so with vulnerability to physical impact. If you get hit hard enough, you’ll fall.

Moreover, skill in hand-to-hand combat techniques usually emphasizes things other than sheer physical strength, like speed, leverage, strategy, interpreting your opponent’s next move, knowledge of sensitive nerve clusters, etc.

Captain Dunsel: And what is with "just a Klingon move I picked up"? When did Reed ever come into friendly contact with Klingons to learn any martial arts moves? The three times Enterprise has encountered Klingons they've been quite belligerent and not in a sharing frame of mind.
Luigi Novi: He might’ve gotten it from the Vulcan database.

Captain Dunsel: The unknown alien. why does his makeup suggest a degenerative condition as if his body is falling apart yet he "phases" away, clothing and all, leaving no traces behind.
Luigi Novi: I personally did not see his makeup as having anything to do with his alleged condition. I assumed his face’s “cracked look” was a natural feature of his race.

Captain Dunsel: The pseudo-lesbian scene between Cole and T'Pol. I'm sick to death of this "neuro-pressure" garbage. Berman and Braga need to quit reading stroke magazines on the job.
Luigi Novi: I didn’t see this as having a romantic or sexual component at all, particularly since T’Pol’s jealous of her and makes them rivals, and she even hurt Cole a bit when Cole mentioned her attraction to Trip.

ScottN: I couldn't hear what the alien said as he disappeared.
Luigi Novi: His exact words were, “When the Xindi destroy Earth, my people will prevail.”

Captain Dunsel: Sparrow47: No, I didn't believe her for a minute! The "experiment" line was just a convenient out for the writers so they don't have to develop a new ongoing relationship.
Luigi Novi: I think they are going to develop this relationship, if what we’ve seen of the ongoing plot threads and Trip and T’Pol’s relationship this season is any indication.

But whatever the external motives on the part of the writers, Sparrow’s and my point is that internally, T’Pol was covering up, because the episode itself makes clear that she was jealous.

Darth Sarcasm: It was established in Impulse that trellium adversely affects Vulcan synaptic pathways. Phlox says that he is able to treat T'Pol, but not the other Vulcans. He doesn't, however, say he can cure her. Is it possible that the effects of her trellium exposure are irreversible? And that T'Pol is simply having difficulty suppressing intense emotions (even Spock had trouble from time to time)?
Luigi Novi: But didn’t they choose not to insulate the ship with trellium, which is why they’re still vulnerable to the spatial anomalies?

Darth Sarcasm: He didn't say a Klingon taught him the move. Perhaps he "picked up" on it by observing the enemy's tactics in Marauders (like a good security officer would).
Luigi Novi: Except that they never used such a move in his presence, or at all in that episode. I think he got it from the Vulcan’s knowledge of Klingons through their database.

Luigi, if you look at the first scene with the alien, when they bring him out of the pod, his skin is much smoother and it gradually becomes craggier in each subsquent scene in the episodes. And as for the T'Pol/Cole scene, television producers will generally use any excuse, no matter what the actual scene was about, to show two women in a potentially intimate setting. It's called "pandering to the teenage male demographic".

QUOTE OF THE WEEK:
"Unexpected can be good." -- Trip
I wonder if this is an inside joke on the part of the writers based on the negative reaction a lot of people had toward the episode "Unexpected."

GREAT DIALOGUE OF THE WEEK:
This episode had some great dialogue that made me sit up and take notice. The first was the conversation between Tucker and Cole regarding Malcolm. The second was the one between Tucker and Reed. And the best was the one between Tucker and T'Pol right before they got into it. It all seemed very realistic and not stilted or unnatural at all.

POOR SABOTAGE STRATEGY OF THE WEEK:
The alien's strategy to destroy the ship seemed poorly conceived. The alien's plan hinges on Archer not listening to him when he wants to be returned to his pod. Suppose Archer had listened. What was the alien going to do then?

STURDY STARFLEET OFFICERS OF THE WEEK:
During the "training", several people take severe hits especially to the face. What's remarkable is how well they manage to take it. I took Taekwondo for several years and it really hurts to even get kicked in the face when the other person is wearing pads. Also, as mentioned above, what good does it do to beat up your crew so that they'll be injured when the Xindi attack?

USELESS ORGANIZATION OF THE WEEK:
This episode seems to imply that the MACO organization has been around awhile (long enough to have more sophisticated techniques than Starfleet). Prior to the Xindi attack, what was this organization planning to do? Poverty, disease, and war were eliminated from Earth 50 years prior to this series. Reed says that these people were training in simulators, but what was the point? If the Earth government was expecting to run into hostile forces in space, why weren't the MACOs on the Enterprise from the beginning?

ELITIST CAPTAIN OF THE WEEK:
Where was Archer during these training sessions? He too good to get smacked around by ol' Hayes?

OVERALL OPINION OF THE WEEK:
Another good one. That makes 3 in a row. Not much meat to the plot, but it's definitely setup for larger things to come (hence the title). I'm really looking forward to learning more about this arc.

TUE

And as for the T'Pol/Cole scene, television producers will generally use any excuse, no matter what the actual scene was about, to show two women in a potentially intimate setting. It's called "pandering to the teenage male demographic". -- Captain Dunsel

That is the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard. Are you telling me that women cannot have an intimate conversation without it being deemed as pandering to the LCD? Virginia Woolf claimed that the greatest example of female equality is to show two women having an intimate and genuine conversation.

And, changing the focus a bit, there's a big difference between tasteless nudity and intimate nudity used for real reasons. The decon scene in "Broken Bow" is an example of the former. The scene where T'Pol disrobes for Tucker in this episode is an example of the latter. If the previews had not already spoiled it for me, I would have been genuinely surprised by that disrobing but not confused. The way it was filmed and the dialogue before it established it as a reasonable response to the circumstances. Vulcans have emotions and T'Pol has never been very good at hiding them. This is an example of the way nudity is supposed to be handled on television. There was a REASON for it. There was EMOTION behind it.

Anyone who thinks Vulcans are emotionless robots clearly has no appreciation for what makes them truly interesting.

TUE

You're correct about two women having an intimate and genuine conversation, TUE, but do you really think that's what was on the minds of the writers and producers? Or do you think they said "Let's put T'Pol with a hot babe and the ratings will jump!" Right also for the point about Vulcans and emotions. Sure, we know they have them and they know they have them. And that's why they work so hard not to show them! Indulging in strong emotion brings out the more undesirable aspects of the Vulcan persona. I think overall this story direction weakens rather than enhances T'Pol's character.

So why did the alien demand to be sent back to his ship if he wanted to sabatouge Enterprise?

He didn't realize he was on a human ship. Remember, he didn't leave sickbay until *after* Phlox told him most of the crew was from Earth.

But didn’t they choose not to insulate the ship with trellium, which is why they’re still vulnerable to the spatial anomalies? - Luigi

You're assuming T'Pol was completely cured when Phlox tended to her... my understanding in Impulse is that there was a point where the damage was irreverible (which is why he couldn't save the other Vulcans). So isn't it possible that T'Pol suffered some irreversible nerve damage (just not to the extent of the others).

In any case, she has ridden around in the shuttlepods, one of which was lined with the trellium. I hope she's been careful which one she used.

Or maybe she's kept a stash of trellium in her quarters that she takes hits off of before her sessions with Trip. "You got some D, man?"


Except that they never used such a move in his presence, or at all in that episode. - Luigi

I didn't realize that the entirety of that Klingon skirmish was seen through Reed's POV, which is the only way we can know if a Klingon ever used that move in his presence.

Regarding the intimate scene between Tr'pol, Vulcans are (will be) known for being quite illogical when they are in love.

Oh, last episode made mention that time is crucial and that 3 weeks detour would hurt their chances of destroying the weapon; and guess what, they were at warp in the beginning.

I posted this before.

http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?book=Dictionary&va=Harbinger

I'm guessing we're using the second definition. Hayes wanting to change the way training is run.
T'pol changing Trip's view of Vulcans. (At least he knows he won't get pregnant again.)

Perhaps Hayes has wanted to, but didn’t want to assert himself too soon after first coming on board the ship as a newbie, and when he eventually began to make such suggestions, ran into resistance from Reed...Perhaps focusing on Tactical crewmen and senior staff is an interim idea, and may develop to include the rest of the crew if successful.Luigi Novi

Both of these could be right, and both could have been resolved easily with throwaway lines. Alas.

but there’s no reason why shots have to be sequenced with such exactness that things like eye movement has to correspond perfectly; he could’ve moved his eyes a bit between shots.Luigi Novi

Well, I always think that a camera cut is supposed to involve a lack to elapsed time between shots. But, yes, it's near impossible for such things to synch-up when you take the different camera angles from different takes. I only mentioned this because it jumped out at me.

We don’t know exactly what effect his body was exhibiting, or how Phlox’s instruments interpreted it. It’s possible that the effect of the alien’s body was designed to look like what Phlox saw.Luigi Novi

I'm a little confused with your counter-nit here. Phlox uses the word "disintegrating" in reference to the alien, and further says that its body is falling apart at the cellular level. It's hard, in my mind, to confuse that with "phasing in and out of normal space."

Where was it shown to be screwing things up once they left it?Luigi Novi

Well, they had to stop at the anomaly so that the crew could make course and chart corrections before proceeding. This seemed to imply that had they not done so, they would have run into trouble once they got past the anomaly.

He cut off his air supply just enough to do so.Luigi Novi

Got it. Thanks.

I think we’ve had plenty of yelling and cursing from Archer.Luigi Novi

I guess I could have clarified my point a little more. Archer's anger here seemed to me to be pretty justified, as opposed to some of the other snarling he's done. I'd rather have a reason for the snarling.

They were clearly holograms. The projector was shown in the establishing shot of that scene, and it first used back in Silent Enemy.Luigi Novi

Ah, I had forgotten about those.

Where was this scene? I remember Ryan taking out the mining foreman at the end of Act 3 of The Xindi with one shot from his MACO rifle.Luigi Novi

Well, the foreman wasn't a Xindi! I've been trying to remember what episode it was that this happened. It was either in "Twilight," when the Xindi boarded the ship, and Archer ended up using his Cochrane statuette as a weapon, or it came from "Impulse" (which isn't against the Xindi either). I'm now feeling pretty strongly that it came from "Impulse"; I seem to recall that the phasers could take the Vulcans down with one shot, while the rifles took many shots. Or, I could be hallucinating the whole thing.

And as for the T'Pol/Cole scene, television producers will generally use any excuse, no matter what the actual scene was about, to show two women in a potentially intimate setting.Captain Dunsel

That was intimate? Sorry, but the T'Pol/Cole scene was strictly buisness between the two. There's a big difference between a scene like that and a scene where two women seem to be thiiiiiiis close from turning the thing into a lesbian porno. (see: "Rajin")

The clips from previous eps at the beginning were odd. Okay, so they telegraphed subplots that are picked up here for those who've forgotten or missed eps. Fine.

But they were out of order and thus, confusing.

I don't remember, but was there a scene in the preview where T'pol tells Cole to stay away from Trip? I thought there was but I didn't see it in the episode. At least I think it wasn't in the episode...

Is this a Nit? I can't remember...

Phlox... stop it! Get that thing away from me... No! Stop! AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!


I don't remember, but was there a scene in the preview where T'pol tells Cole to stay away from Trip? I thought there was but I didn't see it in the episode. At least I thi...

I took Taekwondo for several yearsTUE

That wouldn't happen to have been USTF/ITF, would it?

They used the Couldn’t-Hit-Water-if-He-Was-Standing on-a-Boat Timing Program
During the target practice session in Act 3, Hayes says the object is to hit as many targets in ten seconds, but Reed is given at least 12 seconds.

Captain Dunsel: Luigi, if you look at the first scene with the alien, when they bring him out of the pod, his skin is much smoother and it gradually becomes craggier in each subsquent scene in the episodes.
Luigi Novi: Yeah, you’re right. Me, I’m not sure what to make of his make and Phlox’s diagnosis in light of his phase-shifting abilities. Maybe he was engineered to have phase-shifting abilities, but it had the side effect of cellular degeneration when taken out of his lifepod.

Captain Dunsel: And as for the T'Pol/Cole scene, television producers will generally use any excuse, no matter what the actual scene was about, to show two women in a potentially intimate setting. It's called "pandering to the teenage male demographic".
Luigi Novi: And if you made this comment for Rajiin, or even Sleeping Dogs, I’d tend to agree. But I personally didn’t see anything “intimate” about this particular scene, Cap. There was nothing sensual about their scene together, IMO, and they were actually pitted against one another as rivals for Trip.

TUE: The alien's strategy to destroy the ship seemed poorly conceived. The alien's plan hinges on Archer not listening to him when he wants to be returned to his pod. Suppose Archer had listened. What was the alien going to do then?
Luigi Novi: If the alien was working for the Xindi, it is arguable that they knew Archer would refuse, based in part on studies of his character.

TUE: This episode seems to imply that the MACO organization has been around awhile (long enough to have more sophisticated techniques than Starfleet).
Luigi Novi: What does one have to do with the other? They’re simply a different organization, and different organizations sometimes do some things better or have better resources in some areas.

TUE: Where was Archer during these training sessions? He too good to get smacked around by ol' Hayes?
Luigi Novi: He had other duties to attend to.

Captain Dunsel: You're correct about two women having an intimate and genuine conversation, TUE, but do you really think that's what was on the minds of the writers and producers? Or do you think they said "Let's put T'Pol with a hot babe and the ratings will jump!"
Luigi Novi: As far as I’m concerned, it’s all about how the scene read to me as I watched it. To me, it came off as a sincere and a plausible outcome of the characters’ revelations to one another, not a gratuitous or shameless ratings-grabber. Not ALL nudity or sexuality is gratuitous, Cap. Sometimes, it’s appropriate.

Captain Dunsel: Indulging in strong emotion brings out the more undesirable aspects of the Vulcan persona. I think overall this story direction weakens rather than enhances T'Pol's character.
Luigi Novi: Personally, I think her unprovoked cattiness in episodes like Unexpected and Oasis were far more detrimental to her credibility as a character than opening up to Trip about her feelings for him and then backing off afterwards in this episode.

Darth Sarcasm: You're assuming T'Pol was completely cured when Phlox tended to her... my understanding in Impulse is that there was a point where the damage was irreverible (which is why he couldn't save the other Vulcans). So isn't it possible that T'Pol suffered some irreversible nerve damage (just not to the extent of the others).
Luigi Novi: I suppose it’s possible, but I guess now this can be used whenever the creators want her to be catty.

Darth Sarcasm: In any case, she has ridden around in the shuttlepods, one of which was lined with the trellium. I hope she's been careful which one she used.
Luigi Novi: But she’s not breathing in the trellium that’s used as insulation in it. This the same problem I brought up in Impulse, where trellium is treated in the same way that some people think of asbestos: That it’s dangerous merely by being inside the walls, when in fact it’s only dangerous if you breathe it in. If the trellium is in solid form as a layer of insulation inside the hull, it can’t get to her.

Darth Sarcasm: Or maybe she's kept a stash of trellium in her quarters that she takes hits off of before her sessions with Trip. "You got some D, man?"
Luigi Novi: LOL.

Darth Sarcasm: I didn't realize that the entirety of that Klingon skirmish was seen through Reed's POV, which is the only way we can know if a Klingon ever used that move in his presence.
Luigi Novi: Well, now you know.



Seriously, it was seen through our POV. None of the Klingons used such a move, and Reed didn’t even engage any of them in hand-to-hand combat. He was in the hills acting as a sniper. In fact, none of the Klingons engaged in hand-to-hand combat either, because every single one of them was carrying a weapon of some kind (a bat’leth, mek’leth or disruptor) during the entire confrontation.

Torque, Son of Keplar: I'm guessing we're using the second definition. Hayes wanting to change the way training is run.
T'pol changing Trip's view of Vulcans.
Luigi Novi: That’s another thing that was good about this episode. It actually had a GOOD title that was RELEVENT to the episode’s content, and worked on MULTIPLE levels. In addition to the applications you mentioned, I saw the alien as a harbinger of things to come if the Enterprise pursued their mission to Azati Prime.

Sparrow47: Well, I always think that a camera cut is supposed to involve a lack to elapsed time between shots. But, yes, it's near impossible for such things to synch-up when you take the different camera angles from different takes. I only mentioned this because it jumped out at me.
Luigi Novi: I can buy this type of nit when it’s say, someone’s arm on the armrest of a sofa that’s suddenly in their lap in the next shot, because the movement from one position to the other is something that would be “read” visually. Eyes, on the other hand, move more subtly, and the cut here didn’t seem “wrong” to me. To each his own.

Sparrow47: I'm a little confused with your counter-nit here. Phlox uses the word "disintegrating" in reference to the alien, and further says that its body is falling apart at the cellular level. It's hard, in my mind, to confuse that with "phasing in and out of normal space."
Luigi Novi: But perhaps one has nothing to do with the other. Perhaps his phase-shifting ability was given to him by the Xindi, and a side effect of it was cellular degeneration.

Sparrow47: Well, they had to stop at the anomaly so that the crew could make course and chart corrections before proceeding. This seemed to imply that had they not done so, they would have run into trouble once they got past the anomaly.
Luigi Novi: You asked, “but how would that affect things once they got to the other side?” Where in the episode did it do so? (I just wanna make sure I understood this.)

Sparrow47: It was either in "Twilight," when the Xindi boarded the ship, and Archer ended up using his Cochrane statuette as a weapon, or it came from "Impulse" (which isn't against the Xindi either).
Luigi Novi: And it doesn’t pertain to your assertion that phase pistols are more powerful than MACO rifles. (Unless you’re speculating that Cochrane statuettes are akin to phase pistols. )

Sparrow47: I'm now feeling pretty strongly that it came from "Impulse"; I seem to recall that the phasers could take the Vulcans down with one shot, while the rifles took many shots.
Luigi Novi: The first Vulcan that attacked T’Pol and Archer in the last scene of Act 1 of that episode needed two shots (one each from Archer and T’Pol) to be knocked out. So did the next two in the beginning of Act 2. The next batch that attacked Reed and Hawkins varied in resistance to the MACO rifles that they were both using. The first two needed four to five shots each at several feet away to each be knocked out, but then the crowd of Vulcans that appeared at the far end of the corridor were knocked out with two, three, or even one shot, and that was farther away. Another that attacked Hawkins with a hand-held weapon was felled by one shot at point-blank range. Then the one that was trying to strangle Reed was knocked out by Archer showed up at the far end of the corridor and shot him with one shot from a phase pistol. Given all this variance, this would suggest to me that each Vulcan’s resistance to the weapons fire simply varied, possibly as a result of their individual exposure to the trellium. Distance may also have played a part in it.

Sparrow47: Or, I could be hallucinating the whole thing.
Luigi Novi: Gotten into Darth’s stash of “D,” have we?

So, I know the MACO's are trying to be all badass and all, but there's a difference between tough and crazy, specifically when it comes down to not putting any mats on the floor whilst training. Don't you want your people in tip-top shape for a possible attack? It seems like throwing people around on a metal floor would greatly increase the chance of injury.

I noticed in a close-up shot that the floor consisted of interlocking pads designed for the purpose such as are used in tournaments.

Did his makeup toward the end suggest that maybe he was about to yell "It's Clobberin time!" at any moment? :-)

Thought the same thing!

Sparrow47: Okay, how did the Alien knock Phlox unconscious?
Luigi Novi: He cut off his air supply just enough to do so.

To me it looked like his arm phased through Phlox's neck, and I had the impression he did a similar thing to Trip in the engine room.

Captain Dunsel: The unknown alien. why does his makeup suggest a degenerative condition as if his body is falling apart yet he "phases" away, clothing and all, leaving no traces behind.

To show "disintegration", I would have liked to see a few flakes come off (OK, gross, but cool!).

I still have a problem with Archer calling our guest star "the alien", especially when talking directly to T'Pol.

Here's another case of being able to phase through wall but not the floor. Initially it looked like he had no control over it (he seemed rather surprised), then was able to use it deliberately.

Another sweeps month, another episode beginning with a neuropressure scene. Not that I mind...

Longest... "Previously"... Ever...

I too liked Archer's berating Reed and Hayes. Called to mind the old Kirk days, almost.

Nice to see that a knock-down, drag-out fight had some real effects, and not just a "wipe the blood from the corner of your mouth" moment. As as 4th Dan Taekwondo Black Belt, I know that with a worthy opponent, sometimes it's fun just to beat the carp out of each other.

Do you do that when your opponent just had some seafood, or something?

There have been a lot of excellent points raised so far in this thread; I think that this reflects the quality of the episode.

The deterioration/disappearance of the AOTW makes sense to me: he comes from some multi-dimentional technobabble and is inserted into the anomaly in order to determine whether it will support his kind of life. Once he's moved out of the anomaly, the wear and tear of our form of space start to have their effect. To use a strained analogy: think of him as a rubber band, and the force that keeps him in our reality is the elasticity of the band. The more time he spends in our reality outside of the anomaly, the more damaged the band becomes - getting dry and cracked. As he accumulates damage, he becomes less bonded to our reality, allowing him to pass through things. Finally there is so much damage that the band snaps alltogether, and his remains pop back into his reality. And no, that doesn't explain why his clothes phase out with him - when we first see him in the pod he doesn't have a shirt on and it's not unreasonable to assume that he was nude. So unless there were some clothes balled up in the pod, he got the scrubs from Phlox. And on the Phlox front, it seemed that it was the arm-phasing-through-the-neck that knocked him out, not the choke hold (which didn't last very long).

I had mixed feelings about Trip/T'Pol's 'morning after' discussion: if taken at face value it comes off as pretty bitchy on T'Pol's part, essentially telling Trip that she was just toying with him with no emotional attachment. However, it seems clear from the earlier scenes that T'Pol does have an emotional attachment to Trip. So I interpreted this discussion with Trip as her setting the tone/rules for any future relationship: let's not go mooning over each other like you and Cole were doing. If anyone asks or finds out, I'll claim that I'm just experimenting in human sexuality. Yes, I have feelings for you and can be jealous, but don't expect us to hold hands at movie night. And yes, we are so getting it on at our next 'neural pressure' session. And if you try to talk about 'us' in a public area again, you're going to get smacked down again.

All in all, it seems to me that it is likely that 'normal' Vulcan relationships would be like that. Since the 'natural state' of a Vulcan is to have strong emotions, they would tend toward forming passionate relationships with jealousy, etc. Imposing logical control over their emotions would perhaps lead them to fewer public displays of affection but it wouldn't eliminate the underlying drives. Speaking of drives, I find it interesting that T'Pol was already nude under her robe at the start of the scene - it wasn't my impression that the 'normal' neural pressure sessions were like that. It seems that she had planned for the option of jumping his bones even before their 'jealousy' conversation.

Valid points, Luigi, but overall I still believe that the producers are going for the T&A crowd with the "neuro-pressure sessions" subplot. Sex has always been part of Star Trek-- it is about human nature after all-- but never has it been blatantly shoved in our faces as it has been since Berman and Braga wrote Seven of Nine and now their take on T'Pol. Sometimes it makes me feel as if I've been watching a sleaze flick, and that's not the feeling I want to have when watching Star Trek.

So bad that Ed Wood got a royalty from that shot
The shot of the alien being knocked off the warp reactor in the beginning of Act 4 after Reed and Hayes reverse the polarity of the plasma injectors is a really silly-looking CGI shot.

Influx: I noticed in a close-up shot that the floor consisted of interlocking pads designed for the purpose such as are used in tournaments.
Luigi Novi: I did barely notice the interlock pattern, but they didn’t look like pads at all. When you look at how their feet press down on the floor as they stand, or how Travis hands are pressing down when thrown onto his stomach, the floor isn’t being pressed down as if it is pads. It looks like a solid metal surface.

Captain Dunsel: Valid points, Luigi, but overall I still believe that the producers are going for the T&A crowd with the "neuro-pressure sessions" subplot. Sex has always been part of Star Trek-- it is about human nature after all-- but never has it been blatantly shoved in our faces as it has been since Berman and Braga wrote Seven of Nine and now their take on T'Pol.
Luigi Novi: I agree with you entirely. I just didn’t regard this particular scene as a good example, because in this particular case, I felt it was legitimate to the plot, and to the development of the characters’ relationship.

Maybe I was the only one annoyed by the technique of repeating lines. For example (approximate dialogue):
Trip: Your voice is tensing up.
T'Pol: I didn't realize you were an expert on vocal inflections.
Trip: I don't need to be an expert to read you.

Later in the scene, they repeat the lines, with each using the other's lines, something like:
T'Pol: Your voice is tensing up.
Trip: So now you're the expert on vocalizations?
T'Pol (rather quick on the draw): I don't need to be an expert to read you.
To be fair, maybe I wouldn't have objected if she had used a different inflection. She sounded a bit juvenile.

I think there's also another repeated line (Trip & T'Pol again) about "It comes with the territory," or something like that.

Reed throws Hayes' line back at him: "You were watching my hands when you should have been watching my eyes." Good, Malcolm. That put him in his place. Of course, Malcolm was juvenile throughout most of the episode anyhow.

Do you do that when your opponent just had some seafood, or something?

Darn it, Luigi, you beat me to it!

Heh-heh. You snooze, you lose, Scott.

But perhaps one has nothing to do with the other. Perhaps his phase-shifting ability was given to him by the Xindi, and a side effect of it was cellular degeneration.Luigi Novi

Possibly. I think what confused me the most was that there wasn't much of an additional reaction to the phase shifting- it wasn't "Whoa! He's disentegrating and phase shifting," it was "He's disentegrating!"

You asked, “but how would that affect things once they got to the other side?” Where in the episode did it do so?Luigi Novi

The timeline I'm seeing goes someting like this: 1) Travis notes the stars are "moving." 2) They stop at the anomaly. 3)They take readings on the anomaly so they can correct their course. 4) They continue. I thought that if they hadn't made the corrections, they would have had problems once they were past the anomaly. There's just a lot about this anomaly that I don't get.

Given all this variance, this would suggest to me that each Vulcan’s resistance to the weapons fire simply varied, possibly as a result of their individual exposure to the trellium. Distance may also have played a part in it.Luigi Novi

Ah. Well, I'm still gonna keep my eye open on this.

Gotten into Darth’s stash of “D,” have we?Luigi Novi

NO! I do NOT have a PROBLEM!

And just how many Tae Kwon-Do black belts do we have running around here, anyway?

SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER!!! and a question if it is true.
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I heard the creators are doing something with a half vulcan half human character. Now I don't know what TPTB are planning. But do people think that that could be Tr'pols child? Did T'pol somehow become pregnant in this episode?

Along the same lines, maybe this episode was done like it was if Jolene Blalock is pregnant and TPTB need some way to explain why T'pol looks like she is having a child. You can't exactly give her a work coat, she wears a bunny outfit!!!

If the trellium is in solid form as a layer of insulation inside the hull, it can’t get to her. - Luigi Novi

Why assume trellium functions like asbestos in every way? Sure, being inside an asbestos-insulated room isn't necessarily dangerous to us. But Impulse at least implies that being inside trellium-insulated walls is dangerous to Vulcans. Nothing in the show states that breathing has anything to do with it.


Oh! And I'm remembering a line of dialogue from Hayes to Reed right after Mayweather gets thrown to the mat...

"It's just a little blood, sir. No one got hurt."

Now, unless Mayweather spontaneously bleeds every now and then, he bled because he got hurt. However, he wasn't seriously injured (which is what Hayes was probably getting at).

Huh???? I thought Spock was the first.

Darn... I'll look at the preview one of these days

I don't recall anything specifically indicating Spock was first. But I doubt said rumor is in any way true. The show has to not get cancelled first.

'Fraid so, the spoiler is true. The episode is later this season, called "E2" (pronounced 'E Squared')

Sparrow47: Possibly. I think what confused me the most was that there wasn't much of an additional reaction to the phase shifting- it wasn't "Whoa! He's disentegrating and phase shifting," it was "He's disentegrating!"
Luigi Novi: Because there was no opportunity to. When it was first used in a crew member’s presence, it was Phlox, who was rendered unconscious. When he then used it to sabotage the ship, the crew didn’t have time to react by questioning this ability or expressing surprise. They had to stop him from destroying the warp reactor.

Luigi Novi: Gotten into Darth’s stash of “D,” have we?

Sparrow47: NO! I do NOT have a PROBLEM!
Luigi Novi: Sigh. Denial.

Sparrow47: And just how many Tae Kwon-Do black belts do we have running around here, anyway?
Luigi Novi: I don’t know about black belts, but…

Ghel stated that he is a student of Isshinryu Karate
Spelunker stated that he is a martial arts teacher.
Keith Alan Morgan stated that he took martial arts classes “many years ago.”
I took kung fu classes for a few months when I was 13, but I didn’t stick with it.

Darth Sarcasm: Why assume trellium functions like asbestos in every way? Sure, being inside an asbestos-insulated room isn't necessarily dangerous to us. But Impulse at least implies that being inside trellium-insulated walls is dangerous to Vulcans. Nothing in the show states that breathing has anything to do with it.
Luigi Novi: Then how and why can it get into T’Pol’s system?

Uh-oh. Better get more MACO’s.
Once again, no security guard is posted in sickbay to monitor the new alien arrival until Act 4, after he’s gone beserk and tried to destroy the ship.

I have some thoughts on the alien "disintegration" problem? Have we seen phase shifting on Enterprise yet?
I don't recall it happening on the original series. The closest they came was in Blink of an Eye. Which wasn't exactly phase shifting. It was used occasionally on Next Generation.
But Enterprise is before either of those in the timeline. Maybe the alien was phase shifting all along and Phlox didn't know what else to call it but cellular decay. He probably never encountered such a condition before.
But truth to tell the whole alien plot looked heavily re-written without getting the final proof-read it deserved.
I just didn't buy that he was just sitting there waiting for Enterprise to show up. Which, again, the writers seemed unure whether he was or not. But finding his little ship in this huge anomaly seemed harder to do than finding a needle in a hay stack.

You guys said pretty much everything I wanted to say, so I'm just gonna add little nit

And 'round we go...
Due to the contruction of Enterprise set, it is possible to walk in circles, which wasn't possible in previous shows.
And in this episode, Reed and Hayes do just that when they discuss training schedule. Especially Reed, who basically end back where he started - in the front of turbolift.

This is also visible in "Fallen Hero", where Archer and T'pol make nice, small circle and start second lap before ending their conversation.

And I wonder why this alien took his clothes with him... those aren't his, since he's naked when resting in his pod.

Because there was no opportunity to. When it was first used in a crew member’s presence, it was Phlox, who was rendered unconscious.Luigi Novi

Didn't his hand start phasing at one point while talking to Archer?

Sigh. Denial.Luigi Novi



I don’t know about black belts, but…Luigi Novi

Interesting list. You apparently missed that here on this board, both Influx and TUE professed to studying Tae Kwon-Do, with Influx saying he got up to 4th Degree Black Belt. Well, he said "4th Dan," but "Dan"="Degree." How do I know? I'm a 2nd Dan! Well, I was; I haven't practiced in a while, but that's neither here nor there.

How do YOU spell: "Sweeps Month"?
Answer: T&A.

"I too liked Archer's berating Reed and Hayes. Called to mind the old Kirk days, almost."
WHO THREW THE FIRST PUNCH?
It should never - AND STONE COLD STEVEN OF NONE _MEANS_ NEVER! - have taken two seasons for the Enterprise crew to finally open up a can of whup@$$, Old School Trek style.

"Trip and T'Pol. Hoo Boy!!! An experiment? Berman and Braga need to get their sex-soaked ratings-obsessed minds back onto solid Trek ground and quit pandering to the 18 year olds in the audience."
Next, you'll say they need to start writing good stories. I gave up on them doing that in Season One.

I'm going to the MSTing Board next; if ever an ep deserved to get heckled, this one is IT.

And next week: The crew get put to sleep; and the only one who can save them...is Seven Of Ni-
OOPS! Mistook this for that Season Four Voyager ep - my bad.

And that's the bottom line...if you smell what I'm cooking.

Huh???? I thought Spock was the first. - ScottB

First of all, there's the Temporal Cold War, which can raise (and has raised, in many people's opinions) all kinds of havoc with the established timeline.

Second, for all we know, the episode winds up being one of those temporal loop/alternate reality stories (and some rumors places it in the Mirror universe), where the events depicted don't necessarily occur (like Children of Time, Twilight, All Good Things..., etc.).

Third, for all we know, Enterprise is destroyed in the Expanse before the end of the series, and all data it collected is lost. (Not likely, but certainly possible.)

Let's watch the show before we start nitpicking it.

ScottB: Huh???? I thought Spock was the first.

Don't actually know if this is the case. I would say that it is possible, but also possible that it isn't the case, due to the fact that it has never been explicitly stated one way or another. If ANYONE can find definitive proof (ie: Spock says "I am the first child born to human and Vulcan parents") I will gladly concede that I was wrong, and etc. etc.

Now, I am going to bed, as it is 2:22 in the morning and I am rather thoroughly intoxicated and inebriated. (Hey, it's Saturday on a University campus, what're you gonna do? )

Shmuh.

So who the heck was this alien and what was he doing in the anamoly? I haven't seen any posting that offers a reasonable hypothesis. Maybe there was not enough information provided for us to form one. Didn't they state his ship was made of the same material as the spheres? That seems to be a meaningful tidbit although I have no idea what it means.

There was an exchange of dialogue between Archer and T'Pol that suggested that the alien might be one of the Makers worshipped by the Triannons in Chosen Realm. The presumption (at least to me) is that these aliens come from a universe different from ours... so different that they cannot survive in ours. So they've constructed the Spheres to reconfigure the Expanse so they can survive in our universe, perhaps as a precursor to invasion! How this ties into the Xindi, I don't know. Were these the aliens who convinced the Xindi that humanity was going to destroy them in the future?

I thought maybe the alien was a Sulibon? Since they're shapeshifters they can look like a different sort of alien, and then they can look like they're phasing out or something. And we haven't heard from them in a while and maybe the Xindi are teaming up with them.
Has anybody heard about any plans for the Xindi and Sulibon to team up?

To clarify...if he's a shapeshifting Sulibon, maybe he can make his skin look like articles of clothing, so he's really naked. And maybe he can make himself partially transparent, then fully invisible, in stages, to make it look like he's "phasing out" or something. This is to make his true identity more mysterious and they won't connect what he's doing with the Sulibon.

Line's we'll never hear:

"Now that I've finished my study of human sexuality, I will now study Denobulan sexuality."
"Now that I've finished my study of Denobulan sexuality, I will now study Bolian cooking."

About T'Pol getting pregnant because the actress does--couldn't the producers of any TV show or movie ask the actresses to please not get pregnant at a time when it would really complicate matters for the writers and producers?

Yes, it might seem like an intrusion but does it seem so unreasonable to everybody else?

The alien is probably not a Suilliban, as the crew already has scans of the Sulliban, and for Phlox not to notice the similarities between the two would be far under his usual level of competence. I do think his race, whatever that is, is the one that tipped off the Xindi.

roger: I thought maybe the alien was a Sulibon? Since they're shapeshifters they can look like a different sort of alien, and then they can look like they're phasing out or something.
Luigi Novi: The Cabal's shapeshifting abilities are limited to stretching, compressing and twisting their bodies, not trasmogrifying themselves like Changelings or Chameloids to look like other species. There's also been zero indication that they have phase-shifting abilities like the alien in this ep.

Luigi Novi: I don’t know about black belts, but…

Ghel stated that he is a student of Isshinryu Karate
Spelunker stated that he is a martial arts teacher.
Keith Alan Morgan stated that he took martial arts classes “many years ago.”
I took kung fu classes for a few months when I was 13, but I didn’t stick with it.

Anybody else find it just a bit creepy that Luigi is keeping such detailed records on us?

Something I recall being odd -- Reed sees "the alien" sticking his hand into the warp engine, then immediately determines that they "need to reverse the polarity on the sub-flux capacitor" or some such. I could see Trip coming up with that off the top of his head, but Reed? Was he around the last time they did something like that? (I'm sure Luigi knows... ;) )

All he said was that he had to reverse the polarity of the plasma injectors, which required flipping a couple of switches. Even non-engineers should have knowledge of basic stuff.

It appears that Christmas and the other holidays in December are not celebrated on the ship.

The Cabal's shapeshifting abilities are limited to stretching, compressing and twisting their bodies, not trasmogrifying themselves like Changelings or Chameloids to look like other species.Luigi Novi

Actually, in "Broken Bow," Sarin demonstrated just such an ability! Okay, so she was an ex-Cabal member, but still. Also, Silik may or may not have demonstrated a similar abiliby in "Cold Front."

All he said was that he had to reverse the polarity of the plasma injectors, which required flipping a couple of switches. Even non-engineers should have knowledge of basic stuff.
--LUIGI NOVI

HRTS Standardized Test
Starfleet Basic Engineering -- Section 1
Time Limit: 30min

A. A Phase shifting alien has his arm inserted through the structural casing of a model A Warp Five reactor core, destabilizing magnetic containment fields. Do you:

1. Shut down the reactor to prevent an imminent breach.
2. Reverse the polarity of the neutron flow plasma injectors to stabilize magnetic containment.
3. Initiate a controlled overload to shock the alien free of the reactor casing.
4. Flee. Escape pods are located in the starboard engineering annex.

Summerfield...

After a particularly stressful weekend, that was the best laugh I've had in a while. Thanks!

Thanks for pointing that out, Sparrow. I forgot about those. ;)

Summerfield, Hil-frickin'-arious! Helped me get over a hangover, thanks! ;)

Since when did the enterprise get escape pods?

Also, I had asked earlier under the spoiler warning whether Jolene Blalock might be pregnant and that is the reason for the Tr'pol scene.

Someone said that the spoiler was true...

Was Blalock getting pregnant true or was that a Vulcan/Human Hybrid episode true.

No details on that episode if it exists. I'm just wanting a clarification on the answer to my question.

The latter, not the former.

As far as I know...

thanks, for a while I was wondering who was going to be the one who informs Sovel.

Oh boy...

It's interesting that you bring it up, because that probably sums up my opinion of this episode. Yes, it was silly at times (like some of the wilder moments of the Reed/Hayes fight ["HAYES!" and Malcolm just tackles the guy from out of nowhere]), and I was surprised at just how and why Archer got to be a major hardass all of a sudden (very well done, though), but the only real complaint I had about the Trip/T'Pol arc was the jealousy/awkward one night stand thing in this episode.

I don't care what T'Pol's background on the ship has been like, I have a very hard time believing that any Vulcan would be that... well... slutty. At least the comic chemistry between Blalock and Trinner made up for that -- those two work very well together.

Darth: . . .being inside trellium-insulated walls is dangerous to Vulcans. Nothing in the show states that breathing has anything to do with it.
Luigi: Then how and why can it get into T’Pol’s system?
:: Outside radiation hits trellium insulation; energy is conserved so something has to happen to the trellium. E.g., different radiation emitted by the trellium, harmful to Vulcans.

Darth: Were these the aliens who convinced the Xindi that humanity was going to destroy them in the future?
:: In fact, contrary to what I perceive as a consensus here, I think the aliens are the Xindi’s puppetmasters, not their allies. Hence, “. . . MY PEOPLE will prevail.”

roger: couldn't the producers of any TV show or movie ask the actresses to please not get pregnant at a time when it would really complicate matters for the writers and producers?
:: Sure. If it were 1956, and there were no civil rights acts and no screen actors’ guild.

roger: couldn't the producers of any TV show or movie ask the actresses to please not get pregnant at a time when it would really complicate matters for the writers and producers?
:: Sure. If it were 1956, and there were no civil rights acts and no screen actors’ guild.

There wouldn't have to be a threat to fire the actress, it would just be a request and some people might feel like it's just common courtesy, just in case it might be hard to hide the pregnancy.

I dunno, it didn't seem like that much of a presumption just to make the suggestion. And in this day and age of decreasing privacy...

Never mind, I'm sorry I mentioned it, I'll drop it.

Actually SAG has been around since the '30s.

This question has come up before, specifically in TNG's "The Next Phase".

If the alien could phase through walls at will, why didn't he fall through the floor? Of course, in this case it appeared he had some control over the effect. Still it would seem to take some practice to will "OK, lift right foot and disincorporate, place through wall, reincorporate just before it hits the floor on the other side, keeping the rest of the body phased out. Repeat for left foot."

And later in the same Act, Trip gets to mount something else
In the opening shot of the target practice scene in Act 3, we see mounted on the wall the holographic emitters that project the targets. They’re the same props used as Reed’s force field emitters in Act 3 of The Shipment.

I only saw the first half of this episode because my Sky digibox decided to switch to the final of University Challenge halfway through my recording. &£@%£$*#*££$##$%£!!!

I did notice that the Enterprise years seem to be slightly ahead of the usual 1 season = 1 year rule. Perhaps the creators are trying to squeeze the whole Romulan war arc in so the series has 7 seasons but ends in 2161 (Perhaps not, too ).

I wonder if the blob of anomalies was actually a new sphere being constructed by the others (ie they could self-replicate?)

I don't know, I think the whole 'extradimensional invasion' concept some people mentioned is a little too reminiscent of Species 8472...

For European viewers: I read (I think in The Star Trek Communicator that when T'Pol disrobed when about to do the nasty with Trip, that the top of Jolene Blalock's anal cleft (butt crack) wsa visible in the shot, and that this was shown in Europe, but on on U.S. TV. Is this true?

Well, it was certainly true for Canada... quite a lot of exposure of the *ahem* anal cleft in the aforementioned scene...

This show's on a little bit of a streak. Another winner in my book. There were some good pickups from past stories and hints. I really liked the brawl between Hayes and Reed, though I do think that Reed has been overreacting a little bit. Good to see he can hold his own though.

I was kind of suprised by T'Pol's jealousy of the Trip/Cole thing, and even more by the kiss. Did anyone buy that she was just exploring human sexuality though? She is the most devious Vulcan this side of Gambit (TNG).

Great way to end it. That'll give the crew something to think about for a while.

I was surprised to see that they had data for some of the spheres back. So, did they recover some of the deleted files or did T'Pol have to reconstruct the information?

Darth Sarcasm: Or maybe she's kept a stash of trellium in her quarters that she takes hits off of before her sessions with Trip. "You got some D, man?"
Wow. I bet you were happy later on. It's always nice to be right.

Captain Bryce: ke some of the wilder moments of the Reed/Hayes fight ["HAYES!" and Malcolm just tackles the guy from out of nowhere
One of the reasons I loved that fight.

Luigi Novi: In the opening shot of the target practice scene in Act 3, we see mounted on the wall the holographic emitters that project the targets. They’re the same props used as Reed’s force field emitters in Act 3 of The Shipment.
Aren't they similar technology? Why can't similar tech have similar emitters?

Holograms and force fields are similar technology? How's this?

Well, TNG-level holoprojectors include forcefield projectors as well as light projectors, to make the holo-stuff feel solid (see the Tech manual and a number of Voyager episodes, including 'Heroes and Demons'). However, I don't know if Josh is necessarily right, because I wouldn't have thought Enterprise had 'solid' holograms yet (they seemed impressed with the Xyrillians' in "Unexpected").

NANJAO: T'Pol & Trip's sex scene....

All I can say is:

GODSPEED, TRIP!

Godspeed? What, don't you want T'Pol to be satisified? Let him take his time!

Btw, John, is there an address I can email you at? Thanks.