ENTERPRISE 2/19/'03: "Crash Landing" (1 Viewer)

[Nelson Au]

This was a particularly exciting episode from my point of view. It was fast paced and well done, very entertaining.

However, it was just an episode that showed how cool a CGI Tholian ship is interpreted by 2003 designers and it reminds us of the TCW. As said before though, the best bits do include the dialog that winks at what a Human/Vulcan child might be like and T'Pol's possible knowledge of time travel.

I enjoyed it a lot. It was a good episode that helped to establish the setting more with regards to the possibility to what the Vulcan's really know and jokey clues to TOS.

But I was more surprised by the commercials for the Twilight Zone sequel to "It's a Good Life". That was really good! Ira Bear at his best.

Nelson

 

[Jack Briggs]

I'll weigh in when I see Sunday's reru### encore presentation. After screening a TNG episode last night I had this weird hankering to watch The Graduate. So that's what I did. Didn't expect I'd miss anything.

 

[Francois Caron]

At 600,000 kilometers they would reach the ship before T'Pol finished her sentence.

If they were traveling at the speed of light, two seconds to be exact. Light travels at 300,000 kilometers per second. I don't know how fast is warp 4.5, but I do believe it's an exponential speed indicator, not a proportionate one. That means they would have covered the 600,000 kilometers before T'pol could even start to breath in to speak!

For a Vulcan science officer, T'pol really stinks! GO BACK TO SCHOOL!!!

 

[Jason Seaver]

Not much worth saying here - yeah, the CGI Tholian ships looked pretty nifty. And it's better than most TCW episodes in that it was actually about the Enterprise characters, rather than "The Crewman Daniels Show guest-starring Scott Bakula".

But, geez, they didn't make it easy to like. As much fun as poking around the pod was, you'd think they'd employ some basic safety procedures. For example, if it had been a ship flown by future-Tholians, Archer would have found this out when he was scalded and poisoned by the atmosphere inside when he opened the hatch.

Also, just how did the whole time-looping thing work? Were their consciousnesses being thrown backward, or was everything in the room being teleported back to where it had been? It made for a couple nifty scenes, but it didn't make a whole lot of sense when you think about the physics of it.

And speaking of teleportation... Are there still a couple of Suliban hanging around the ship after they ambused Malcolm & Trip, or did they transport back to their own ship? I had been under the impression they had cloaked themselves and was waiting for them to reappear during the rest of the episode. Sloppy.

But, ultimately, the biggest aggravation is that in the end, nothing really happened. The ship and everything from it disappears, the crew hasn't really learned anything from it The episode doesn't quite un-happen, but it seems pretty inconsequential.

 

[David Forbes]

Oops, I was mixing miles and kilometers. But still, you get the idea.

Also, just how did the whole time-looping thing work? Were their consciousnesses being thrown backward, or was everything in the room being teleported back to where it had been? It made for a couple nifty scenes, but it didn't make a whole lot of sense when you think about the physics of it.

That bugged me in TNG episode with Kelsey Grammer as the starship captain that kept crashing into the Enterprise. I wondered how the ship reconstituted itself, why it started when it did, etc. You're right, doesn't make a lot of sense.

 

[David Forbes]

So did they ever SHOW a Tholian?

 

[Kwang Suh]

No

 

[Jeff Kleist]

NO THEY DIDN'T SHOW A THOLIAN

Considering that time loop episode is TNG's "Beer Bad", I'm not suprised it doesn't make sense

 

[Jason Seaver]

Considering that time loop episode is TNG's "Beer Bad"

Yes, I'll agree that it's an amusing hour of television that's continually and inexplicably underrated.

 

[Jack Briggs]

And one of Brannon Braga's true contributions to the franchise. Love that episode.

 

[doug zdanivsky]

Thanks Rex.

It was a good episode. Maybe they CAN make something good come of this temporal cold war tangent they're on, IF it somehow ties into something that would be revelevant for a prequel of the original series, 150 years in the future (ie. the Federation, the beginnings of a healthy relationship with the Vulcans, etc).

As it stands, I don't see why they would bother.

 

[Rex Bachmann]

David Forbes wrote (post #26):

No, that's what I meant by "A 'peekaboo!'-mystery" and by speculation over whether the Tholians wore environmental suits outside of their ships and on the Enterprise's docking bay. The producers tease, but they do not show.

 

[Nelson Au]

I think it's okay to "tease" a little here. The problem I see is that the technology for make-up and effects has leaped so far ahead, how do they do it without altering history from those of the 60's.

The way the producers had to handle the Klingons on the Trials and Tribulations episode of DS9 shows that. Micheal Dorn deflects the questions of what happened to the Klingons of TOS and TNG.

Also they can't do anything less these days in terms of effects work. The Romulan ships from Mine Field looked more advanced then from Balence of Terror. And the Tholian ships looked more advanced then the ones from The Tholian Web.

Nelson

 

[Jason Seaver]

The answer usually given - and, if you ask me, the correct answer - is that TOS was as accurate a depiction of what "really happened" as was possible at the time. The equipment on Enterprise isn't actually more advanced than TOS; they just didn't have the budget and technology to show it accurately in 1966. And, like most "historical" movies/TV shows, the props and costumes will be filtered somewhat through the general tastes of the audience.

And no good can come of taking "Trials And Tribble-ations" too seriously.

 

[Nelson Au]

Jason-

Fair enough! I meant to say that the current shows have more advancedlookingdesigns.

Opps on misspelling Trials....

 

[Qui-Gon John]

I was waiting for the Tholian ships to make a web around the Enterprise.

 

[DeathStar1]

>The equipment on Enterprise isn't actually more advanced than TOS; they just didn't have the budget and technology to show it accurately in 1966.>>

Wich brings up the taboo question. Whatever happend to that company that wanted to update ALL the backgronuds, space scenes, planetary scenes, and effects for TOS? Not to mention the makeup and alien costumes. Did anything ever come of that?

Since the original Series is on DVD un-altered, wouldn't see fans having much of a problem with season sets of re-altered effects..

 

[Lance Nichols]

Yep, distance (unless traveling at sub-warp) should be measured in light minutes/hours. If they were three minutes away at warp one then they would have been 54,000,000Km distant. They were fleeing the Suliban, and the Enterpise was straining, so I imagine the ship was traveling at somewhere between warp 4.5 and 5 (the theoretical maximum speed of the ship).

They would have covered the 3 LIGHT MINUTES in just under 1.8 seconds (less as I calculated that from warp 4)

Warp Scale

But we all know that B&B especially don't seem to care about Trek continuity these days. So they just used "kilometers" because it sounds exotic to the casual American. Never mind the simple time/light speed index that you would HAVE to use to get some grasp of the actual distances involved in space flight.

Sorry about the rant. This one niggle drove me nuts watching it the other night.

Edit: for spelling and cohesiveness.

 

[Greg_S_H]

But, geez, they didn't make it easy to like. As much fun as poking around the pod was, you'd think they'd employ some basic safety procedures. For example, if it had been a ship flown by future-Tholians, Archer would have found this out when he was scalded and poisoned by the atmosphere inside when he opened the hatch.

I think we can assume a combination of internal sensors and tricorders allowed them to know it was safe. Remember how Phlox could tell the radiation was relatively harmless?

But, yes, you or I would have taken a few extra precautions, and the sensor readings be damned.

As for the title change, I think Future Tense suits the episode much better than Crash Landing anyway. That title doesn't seem to make too much sense.

 

[Rex Bachmann]

Nelson Au wrote (post #33):

Lots of room for interpretation and innovation there, without disturbing a thing. But I actually believe it was a wise choice not to show anything at this time.