Enterprise 12/17/02 (1 Viewer)

[Frank Anderson]

Rollie I believe you are mixing up "Starfleet" with "Federation". Starfleet has been part of Enterprise from the begining. The Federation has yet to be established.

 

[Everlasting Gobstopper]

One issue with the episode.. that storm looked about as thick as the Enterprise itself. Why not just move up or down (or whatever direction you want to call it) and avoid what appeared to be a pretty small issue.

Well, if the storm were moving at high warp, when Archer saw it, it still would have been a very long way away, so while it might have appeared thin, it was probably extremely thick.

 

[Rollie]

Rollie I believe you are mixing up "Starfleet" with "Federation". Starfleet has been part of Enterprise from the begining. The Federation has yet to be established.

Right on. Thanks for clarifying Frank.

 

[Qui-Gon John]

One issue with the episode.. that storm looked about as thick as the Enterprise itself. Why not just move up or down (or whatever direction you want to call it) and avoid what appeared to be a pretty small issue.

Yes, this was the biggest thing that bugged me. I can't believe that there was not one direction, in the entire sphere of directions that the Enterprise could travel, that it could not have gone in that direction at Maximum Warp and have avoided that storm. Especially when we finally saw the storm, parts of it did not seem very 'thick' at all.

Another equally true point is, they said the storm was travelling at High Warp. If so, and the Enterprise was stationary, it should have passed by the Enterpise in a matter of seconds, minutes at most. What, was the storm supposed to be as big as an entire quadrant?

Also, on going in the nacelles. They said it was too crowded, yet it seems all 83 went in the same nacelle. Why not split the group in half, 41 in one nacelle and 42 in the other. And Phlox's animals, they had already said the shielding was stronger in sick bay, why'd he move them?

This episode was very poor in the logic department. Didn't anyone on B&B's team think of any of this? Or are they all too big of a$$-ki$$er$.

 

[Shaun C]

Yes, this was the biggest thing that bugged me. I can't believe that there was not one direction, in the entire sphere of directions that the Enterprise could travel, that it could not have gone in that direction at Maximum Warp and have avoided that storm. Especially when we finally saw the storm, parts of it did not seem very 'thick' at all.

Me too. I was like, they had what, 3 to 4 hours advanced notice. And they could not have gone to warp in at least one direction and have avoided this storm. Do you realize how frickin far they would have travelled in 3 hours at Warp 5, maybe a hair faster, I'm sure Tripp could have eecked out a couple of points higher by doing some creative engineering.

 

[PhilipG]

And of course, they could have easily have used the far side of the planet to shield them, if the storm was really travelling that fast.

Those aliens just flew off then? They didn't scan to see if Enterprise survived for just a second or two? Riiighht.

And then we come to the 300 degree heat from the warp nacelles - just how long does it take to get that hot? Several minutes, if this episode is to be believed. Does anyone buy that?

The "Catwalk" is supposed to be a crawlspace, but has masses of room - more than enough space for all the Doctor's pets.

Did the internal comms suddenly stop working when Tripp was investigating Engineering? Or was he waiting for Hoshi to "isolate" them, as she does later, assuming confidently that the aliens don't have the ability to detect their "isolated" signals.

When Tripp is recovering, who does he send to Engineering? His number 2 engineer? No. T'Pol. Are we to assume that without Tripp nobody would understand how to fix anything in Engineering?

The crew are unaware of the aliens at first, even though the ship has docked, and (apparently) command functions have been rerouted to the Catwalk. If they can navigate through the storm, can't they tell that a ship has docked alongside them?

Finally, Archer's logs and sensitive crew information are apparently available to anyone who wanders into his room and switches on his monitor.

This was an average episode. It only seems very good next to the dreck that preceded it.

 

[PhilipG]

Yikes, double post.

 

[Nelson Au]

I think others and I have already addressed the issue of Enterprise flying up and around the storm. 2 things I think I would like to add to this. And try to keep in mind the size of things in space.

1. If the storm was 4 hours away, and it is traveling at warp speed, it's really coming fast. And if it looks small out of Archer's porthole, and it is coming so fast, by the time it does arrive at the Enterprise's location, you better believe it is so big they can't get out of the way in time. In other word, from our point of view here on Earth, the Milky Way (our constellation in which Earth is a part of) looks pretty thin, but it is really large in reality, I imagine it would take a very long time to pass through our constellation along the thin plane at warp speed.

2. The look of that storm to me was a homage to TOS Trek. Remember "Where NO Man Has Gone Before, the 2nd Pilot for Star Trek and the first time for William Shatner. They pass through a energy barrier at the edge of the galaxy. That looked pretty thin too. We are to believe they could not have flown over it too. But as they got closer to it, I'm sure the same rule applies, it's really big.

My 2 cents, Nelson

 

[Shaun C]

I don't buy it. If the Enterprise were to travel in the same basic direction as the storm, but let's say diverged by 45 degrees, at maximum warp, for one it would keep moving the Enterprise away from the storm track, laterally. Plus, with a shared forward component, this would negate some of the closing rate of the storm, giveng the Enterprise even more time to get out of it's path.

And yes, it may have looked small from far away and be large when it gets there, as you have suggested. But even when the Enterprise first goes into the storm, parts of it do not look very 'thick'.

 

[Rex Bachmann]

Nelson Au wrote:

Quote:

This follows a long Trek tradition of having pretty much only the main characters involved in the principal action, whether appropriately so or not. How many times in TOS episodes does Mr. Spock (or Data in TNG, for that matter) end up tinkering around in Engineering instead of some "assistant head engineer"? Of course, this stinks with regard to verisimilitude, but ST producers have always deemed it de rigueur, both in terms of drama (keeping the audience focussed on the regular protagonists) and budget (not having to hire someone from outside for another speaking part).

 

[Nelson Au]

Opps, I meant Galaxy. Thanks.

 

[BrianW]

If the storm was travelling at warp speed, how were they able to see it approaching?

With their eyeballs, I mean. Subspace-aware instruments, maybe, but isn't seeing a storm as it approaches faster than the speed of light much like hearing an airplane as it approaches faster than the speed of sound?

 

[Rex Bachmann]

BrianW wrote:

I can't remember, but were they not also travelling "faster than the speed of light"? If so, I would think that would affect their ability to see other phenomena travelling at such velocities.
And, by tradition, all "real" detection in Star Trek has always been done by eyeball.

 

[Qui-Gon John]

A new episode tomorrow might, Wed. 1/8. Then no new episodes until Feb. What's up with that?

Also, I still think they could have avoided the storm somehow. To me, this has been the biggest gaff in Enterprise so far in either season.