SERIES: "Enterprise" EPISODE: "Cold Front" PROD#: ENT011 EP#: 111 RATING: PG AIRDATE: wed-28-nov-2001-20:00 EPDATE: (not stated; 4mo+3wk+6d elapsed) OFFICIAL: startrek.com/library/enterprise/episodes_ent_detail_011.asp FROM: Phillip Thorne, thorne@underbase.org POST-TO: rec.arts.startrek.tech, rec.arts.sf.tv REVIEW#: 3.0 This technical overview format is intended to be easy-to-scan, unambiguous, and precise, and a foundation for further freeform discussion. It is arranged in the order in which events are shown, unless I combine several points on the same technology. It distinguishes between what is said/claimed by characters, from what we see. Whenever possible, it uses spellings from the closed captioning (which may not match that on the official website). If the spelling is unclear, I'll append (sp?), should I remember. Corrections to typos, phrasing, etc. are welcome, but only if you include a citation -- the idea is to *avoid* half-remembered inferences. This overview is (c)2001 Phillip Thorne, thorne@underbase.org. If you wish to reuse large hunks of text, please notify me and include a citation. PLOT SPOILERS BELOW! I. TERMS (from closed captioning): Technology: protostar neutron burst, Armory, starboard targeting sensor, gravimetric field displacement manifold, transfer conduits, nacelles, warp coils, subspace displacement field, magnetic constrictors, positron stream, plasma storm, plasma lightning; internal sensor grid, Main Engineering, command codes; orbital engineer, power relay J-37, tachyon radiation; particle weapon, com system, Service Junction 59, Launch Bay 2, Cabin E-14. Culture: Great Plume of Agosoria, Tal-Shanar; Vulcan Science Directorate; Kaana-sah, Jupiter Station, Invocation of Renewal. Characters: Taylor (unseen), Crewman Daniels, Captain Fraddock, Prah Mantoos, Silik. II. NITS: III. NOTES: TEASER: * Suliban genetic enhancements can be removed; in particular, enhanced vision. (Silik undergoes surgery in a fuzzy-time room while a fuzzy-figure watches, as punishment for not succeeding with the Klingon civil war gambit.) ACT 1: * Apparently Ent has crew movie nights. Mayweather: It carries "50,000 movies in its database". Mayweather and Reed watched, but not Sato. Both men agree "Night of the Killer Androids" was "two hours" they want back. * Archer is served breakfast by DANIELS, who switched shifts with TAYLOR. * Ent has changed course to investigate a stellar nursery "not far from here" in which they've detected "several ships". * T'pol identifies the alien ship as "a transport vessel". * Visual comm is immediately established. * It's a new alien, with green reptilian skin, who eventually identifies himself as CAPTAIN FRADDOCK, but doesn't list his species or affiliation. * He's transporting pilgrims ("spiritually minded men") (probably 17 of them, we later learn) to see the Great Plume of Agosoria. * Every 11 years, one of the protostars emits a neutron burst. * Archer (carelessly) extends an invitation to the captain and passengers to visit Ent. * The transport vessel is much smaller than Ent. * It extends a tube and docks to a port on the starboard edge of the saucer. * Archer and T'Pol explain Ent has been underway for 4 months, 3 weeks, and 6 days. * Phlox explains that, while on Earth, he explored multiple religions traditions; he attended the "Tal-Shanar" ceremonies at the Vulcan Consulate. * T'Pol claims Vulcan spirituality is based on "logic and the pursuit of clarity". * On the bridge, Reed (sensibly) hopes Archer's tour doesn't include the "Armory", and says "we're not familiar with these species ... tactical systems should be off-limits." * The "starboard targeting sensor" goes out "again". Reed exits the bridge by the forward starboard passage, and returns two minutes later. * Leaving, Reed gives Mayweather the bridge. He, Sato, and a man in the rear alcove are the only bridge staff. * Trip gives a tour of engineering, including the "gravimetric field displacement manifold" ("commonly known as the warp reactor"). The pinkish light is evidence of the collision of matter and antimatter. He points out the "transfer conduits". One of the pilgrims (Silik) claims to be a "warp field theorist" and explains the rest: "nacelles" containing "warp coils" which produce a "subspace displacement field". * Purple asks about "positron flow in the dilithium matrix". Trip answers that a series of "magnetic constrictors" align the "positron stream", with automatic backups if any escape. During testing, both primary and backups were momentarily lost, and "about a billion" positrons drilled through three decks, almost causing a hull breach. A technical fix took a month. * Silik sneaks away, opens a panel on the underside of the port transfer conduit, and tears loose a cable. * Ent encounters "plasma lightning", and Fraddock warns them of the "plasma storm" they should avoid; it's bumpy. * Phlox shows off his medical scanning tube: it can read both organs and DNA. * There's an impact on the port bow, causing damage to "C-Deck, Subsection Four". * A power surge occurs in the "impulse relays". * To exit sickbay, Archer tabs a control on the doorside keypad. * Engineering suffers an "antimatter cascade": the cylinders on the port wall explode in sequence, then the cascade stops with the transfer conduit. ACT 2: * Trip shows Archer the damage to the "antimatter conduit" in the rectangular transfer conduit: it's the two-inch fiber-filled cable that Silik snapped. * Daniels approaches Archer, and with knowledge he shouldn't have about Archer's fight with Silik aboard the _Helix_, brings him to his quarters to talk. * Daniels has a bunkmate. Their bunks are stacked, and have blue sheets. * He pulls an ovoid suitcase from his locker and removes an ovoid device. Activated, he calls the surrounding holographic display "a temporal observatory". * Daniels claims to come from 900 years in the future, and to be "more or less human". Silik's orders come from an earlier era, "not as far forward", when time travel wasn't perfected; his superiors can only partially materialize, to deliver orders. All species that had time travel agreed in a Temporal Accord it would only be used for research. He identifies one node as anthropologists from 2769 watching the construction of the Great Pyramid at Giza. His mission is to find Silik. His side believes the 22nd century is a front in the "temporal cold war". * The Suliban can evade most sensors. * Daniels has equipment to detect them, but it would be more effective if tied into Ent's "internal sensor grid". He'll need access to "Main Engineering" and Archer's "command codes". * Archer confides in T'Pol and Trip. * T'Pol claims that the "Vulcan Science Directorate" has studied time travel extensively, and has found no evidence that it exists or can exist. * Archer cites Daniels' device as evidence, but Trip counters with the "Xyrillian" simulation. ACT 3: * Trip and T'Pol take the turbolift; Trip presses a single button for their destination. * Phlox spent the night on the pilgrims' ship, learned some ceremonial passages, and engages in "Kaana-sah", a set of exercises to purify the body. * Daniels needs an additional 20 megawatts routed to the "sensor grid" for his device; over T'Pol's skepticism, Trip says the grid can handle it. * Daniels' cover story includes a brother who's an "orbital engineer" at "Jupiter Station". He did grow up in Illionois, just "not the one you're familiar with". Earth still exists, depending how you define it. * Daniels loads the Suliban "biometric paramaters". * Daniels' ovoid device (a second one?) is not keyed specifically to him, because Trip inadvertently activates it. * "Power relay J-37" malfunctions. * Daniels uses a bracelet-like device to pass through the bulkhead to repair the relay. * Porthos can apparently detect cloaked Suliban. * Silik can turn invisible, like a Jem'Hadar. * To Archer, Silik claims he's detected "tachyon radiation", and because Ent has no systems that emit it, knows another temporal agent is present. * Silik's handgun fires a yellow beam which stuns Archer. * While in Engineering (lower level), Daniels detects Silik, and suggests "C-Deck" be sealed off. Hence, Engineering is on C-Deck. * When Silik fires at Daniels, he first fades and wavers, and a blue ripple flows from the impact. With a second shot, he explodes into angular chunks and a dissipating mist. ACT 4: * Phlox wakes Archer with a hypo to the neck. * Phlox identifies Silik's gun as "a particle weapon". * Hoshi reports a encrypted message sent through the "com system". * Activity is detected on "B Deck", at "Service Junction 59". Someone's trying to obtain the "lock-out codes" for "Launch Bay 2". * Reed has a phase-pistol and his two guards have rifle-like weapons. * Daniels' hand-device isn't keyed either, because Archer uses it. * Archer enters a compartment full of pipes, hoses, and a few glowing conduits. * Archer pursues Silik to (presumably) Launch Bay 2, through the control room and onto the catwalks. The doors are labeled "3" and "4" (left and right, as seen from the control room). Neither bay is occupied by a shuttle; the docking pylons are unoccupied. * Silik opens bay #4, and lets himself fall forward. (No apparent jump.) He falls to a waiting Suliban ship "below" Ent. * Archer orders Daniels' "roommate" assigned to new quarters, and "Cabin E-14" sealed. "Who knows what else is in there." * Reed seals the cabin with a drum-shaped device, which clamps over the handle. Its face has several blinking red lights. IV. NEXT WEEK: (No episode) V. ANALYSIS: * The rank insignia on Daniels' shoulder resembles the two pips for a lieutenant, but Archer calls him "Crewman". This is confusing symbology, almost as bad as Chief O'Brien's collar pin with the miniscule three chevrons and two stars (in DS9). * "The Great Plume of Agosoria" is the name applied by the pilgrim-celebrants to the (visible) neutron burst emitted every 11 years by a particular protostar in the nebula, which symbolizes a Hindu-like universal cycle of renewal. A greeting is "may Agosoria embrace you into his renewal". Several "worlds" (and species) are represented among them, including one man in purple Bajoran-like robes. Archer is presented with two gifts: a "clock" that "charts time from the beginning of the universe" and a bottle of "Voo-Sinteel", a red "spirit" traditionally consumed as the plume reaches its full brilliance. [Act 1] Pilgrims purify their bodies with "Kaana-sah" exercises. "Roja durana tua teenan" ("may the plume light your way") is another greeting. The "Invocation of Renewal" has at least three verses: "Goran tonia Agosoria, Yoraya uralan porporo gost / Totonya tur eeta dura / Tyana mooreeta". Each verse is chanted by a cantor, then repeated by the other celebrants. [Act 3] * While scanning for Silik, we see diagrams of Ent's interior, side and plan. In the diagram, it looks to have about five decks. Cited are "B-Deck, Service Junction 59", "C-Deck" (apparently with one level of engineering), and "Cabin E-14" (probably on E-Deck). * Dialogue in prior eps indicates Ent has only two shuttlepods, but there are four hatches. We have "Launch Bay 2" with doors labeled 3 and 4, beneath vacant ladders and pylons. We don't see the bay from the control room, if there are two further doors. Probably there's an identical-but-occupied "Launch Bay 1", separated from #2 by a bulkhead/firewall. * No mention is made of a Temporal Prime Directive (eg DS9-506:"Trials and Tribble-ations") or 29cen Federation Timeships (VGR-308/9:"Future's End", VGR-524:"Relativity"), but Daniels' 900-years-hence (c.31cen) organization might be related. Since the Vorgons (not to be confused with Vogans, Vogons, or Vorlons) of TNG-319:"Captain's Holiday" claim to be from 27cen, they're probably not collecting weapons (ie the /tox uthat/) for the cold war. VI. CONNECTIONS: * The Suliban and Silik were introduced in ENT-101/2:"Broken Arrow". * The Xyrillians and their holodeck-like technology were introduced in ENT-105:"Unexpected". * Temporal anthropologists were implied in TNG-509:"A Matter of Time" (26cen).