[ST:Ent][Tech] Overview of 103:"Fight or Flight" SERIES: "Enterprise" EPISODE: "Silent Enemy" PROD#: ENT012 EP#: 1.12 RATING: PG AIRDATE: wed-16-jan-2002-20:00 EPDATE: several days prior to and including 2-sep-2152 OFFICIAL: www.startrek.com/library/ent_episodes/episodes_ent_detail_122434.asp FROM: Phillip Thorne, thorne@underbase.org POST-TO: rec.arts.startrek.tech, rec.arts.sf.tv REVIEW#: 6.0 FORMAT#: 3.0 This technical overview format is intended to be easy-to-scan, unambiguous, and precise, and a foundation for (in later revisions, a summary of) further freeform discussion. The NOTES are listed in seen-on-screen order, and ANALYSIS summarizes topics. It distinguishes between what is said/claimed by characters, from what is actually shown. Whenever possible, it uses spellings from the closed captioning (which may not be entirely consistent, or match those on the official website). Corrections to typos, phrasing, etc. are welcome, but only if you include a citation -- the idea is to *avoid* half-remembered inferences. Abbreviations used: (m/f/?) name belongs to male/female/unclear, (sp?) spelling is unclear, Adm admiral, Cwn crewman, Ens ensign. This overview is (c)2002 Phillip Thorne, thorne@underbase.org. If you wish to reuse large hunks of text, please notify me and include a citation. (NOTE: I managed to miss the middle of the ep, parts of Acts 3 and 4. I'll have to wait till the Sunday-22:00 repeat to fill in those details.) PLOT SPOILERS BELOW! I. TERMS TRICKY Kata Baharu. TERMINOLOGY Echo Two, drop out of warp; subspace amplifier, ready room, armory officer, Starfleet, subspace transceiver array, power relays, Armory, reverse engines, bio-signs, phase cannon ports, Jupiter Station, spacedock; phase-modulated energy weapon, Launch Bay Two, venting drive plasma; invasive scans [...]; [...], bromelin. CULTURE [none] CHARACTERS Reed's mom (Mary Reed), Reed's dad (Stuart Reed), Porthos, Reed's sister (Madeline Reed), Reed's best friend(m) (Mark Latrelle(?)), Alien 1, Alien 2. MENTIONS Chef, Duval(m), Natalie from Pensacola, Maureen the waitress. II. SCENES [ignored] III. NOTES TEASER While cruising in normal space, Ent drops "Echo Two", a SUBSPACE AMPLIFIER, then gives it some time to make contact with "Echo One". Reed notes an alien ship "dropping out of warp" at "12 km"; he is unable to make any readings. T'pol claims not to recognize it. It ignores Archer's message, then goes to warp. ACT 1 Archer wonders where the ship is from, and T'pol claims there are no inhabited systems nearby. He refers to the "subspace amplifier". Sato has tracked "them" [Reed's parents] to "Kata Baharu, Malaysia". He contacts them from his "ready room", with realtime video communication. Reed's birthday (2-September) is in "a couple of days", and Archer's looking for his favorite food for a surprise. His parents are very British. They haven't heard from him since San Francisco, and are a bit miffed that he's broken the naval (Royal Navy) tradition of Reed men, going to space. Archer explains that he's the "armory officer". Reed's grandfather was an ordinance officer. Sato is "running a diagnostic" on the "subspace transceiver array". In the corridor, Archer meets Tucker, and mentions T'pol's latest adventure with chopsticks; Tucker had skipped dinner in favor of messages. Walking to Engineering, he comments that "Duval" (a mutual acquaintance) had gotten his own ship, the "_Shenandoah_"; Archer's glad "he's a hundred light years away". "Natalie from Pensacola" has apparently broken up with Tucker. Back in the corridor (with Porthos), Tucker mentions replacing "power relays" in the "Armory" with Reed. Tucker's favorite dish is pan-fried catfish. The engine noise changes. They rush to the bridge, where Mayweather reports that he "reversed engines" [warp? impulse?] to avoid the alien ship, which dropped out of warp only 500-km ahead. Ent is scanned, with a piercing noise. It fires two volleys of two boomerang-bolts at Ent, and leaves. Reed reports that its shielding dropped for 2-sec while firing, and he detected 15 "bio-signs". T'pol claims their no "DNA" match in the "database". In the corridor, Archer asks T'pol how Vulcans dealt with aliens during their early exploration; she claims there were fewer warp-capable species then. Archer tells her Ent was fitted with "phase cannon ports", but because it left Earth "a few weeks early" they weren't installed; he wants them now. In the Armory, Archer tells Tucker and Reed that he intends to return to "Jupiter Station" to have the phase cannons fitted. The two think they can do it in the field. Tucker refers to "in spacedock". Ent makes a banking turn, then goes to warp (with a blue- and white-tinged trail). ACT 2 Tucker and Reed brief an assembly of engineers (red-stripes): at least 5 men and 2 women. On the screen is a rotating wireframe diagram of a blunt cylindrical device suspended from a vertically-pivoted frame; Reed calls it a "phase-modulated energy weapon"; it has a rated maximum output of "500 gigajoules". Ent is designed to carry three, but it has only one aboard, that one a prototype. Sato speaks to Reed's sister. Then to his [best?] friend, who tries to remember one time they went to a fish restaurant; he thinks Reed had a crush on the waitress ("Maureen"), but hated fish. T'pol has the bridge. In the mess, Sato meets Reed. She mentions that she misses cooking, but "Chef" keeps the kitchen locked tight. She can cook enchiladas, and has a hotplate in her quarters. Reed misinterprets this as a proposition, and becomes flustered. The alien ship approaches the in-warp Ent from behind. [Drop from warp before or after first attack?] A mysterious power drain knocks out communications, warp drive, "main power", and lights. An alien shuttle enters "Launch Bay Two" (vacant). Two crewmen (carrying flashlights) go after a couple of aliens they see slouching past. They're assaulted. Later, Archer and a couple of guards find them in "E Deck, Section Seven". Meanwhile, the alien shuttle leaves, and the ship fires a single two-boomerang volley at the port nacelle; an orange explosion erupts and it goes dark. T'pol reports venting of "drive plasma". ACT 3 In Sick Bay, Phlox examines the two crewmen (both red-stripe male brunettes), who were subjected to "invasive scans" from which "residual neural damage" may result. Archer demands info from T'pol, even if it's classified; she claims to know of no aliens who use such techniques. Tucker reports warp drive will take "a couple of days" to fix. [...] ACT 4 [...] Phlox tells Sato that "bromelin" is a plant enzyme, found e.g. in pineapples. She rushes out. In the Armory, Reed reports "both forward cannons" ready, and Archer orders "both" fired. Twin orange beams. Each emitted from an aperture below and centered on the dual torpedo ports (on the forward side of the lower saucer). They're ineffective on the alien shields. The previous day's performance (when the blew up "something the size of Mt.McKinley) was due to an overload, and Reed warns the "plasma recoil" of an intentional overload would "probably blow out two decks". Tucker quickly devises a way to absorb the shock by "repolarizing the gravity plating" and shunting the energy to "structural integrity". This works. Two torpedoes are fired, from the two inboard ports. The "plasma relays" on "B-Deck" are indeed blown out. Reed refers to "the aft cannon". T'Pol is at Reed's station Sato suggests dropping another "subspace amplifier". The number "0298166" is stenciled on a torpedo. Pineapple is indeed Reed's favorite. V. CONNECTIONS Ent deploying subspace amplifiers: see 1.11-"Cold Front". VI. ANALYSIS 1. The SUBSPACE AMPLIFIER is cylindrical in form. In stowed form, two semicylindrical panels [solar collectors? radiators?] wrap around a narrow lower cylinder, which is topped by a wider upper cylinder, then a dish antenna. After deployment, the panels hinge out on arms (and remain parallel to the main body), and the dish pivots downward. It was dropped while in normal space, from a circular port [purpose-built?] on the underside of the port "pontoon". 2. The ALIEN SHIP is shaped something like a flattened F/A-117 aircraft, grey in color with green engine accents. There's a narrow, wedge-shaped central mainbody, with two cranked-delta wings, in down-dihedrals; their tips extend forward beyond the mainbody. Each meets the mainbody at a long narrow notch of irregular shape. There's a horizontal green feature on each leading edge. Aft, there are two impulse? exhausts, also green, at the wing roots. When going to warp, it leaves a green-tinged trail. The mainbody has a shuttle launch bay on its upper aft extreme, lit internally also green. Weapons fire emerges from the mainbody's forward tip. A volley consists of two green horizontal boomerang-shapes, which can be angled substantially off-center. The aliens can remotely shut off a ship's power, and open its launch bays. 3. The ALIEN SHUTTLE is shaped something like a toenail clipper, with a long upper slab angling down from tail to nose, and joined to a shorter horizontal slab. There's an elongated ellipsoidal canopy atop the upper slab. It's about the size of an _Enterprise_ shuttle pod; it can fit in a launch bay. 4. The ALIENS are definitely not Romulans, even if they have a bird-shaped ship with green lights and eschew visual ship-to-ship communications. They're tall and skinny, with long, three-segment legs (a forward knee, then backward; something like a horse). They have blunt, onion-shaped heads with eye sockets, each of which has an eye on a short stalk which can move horizontally; but no apparent noses or mouths. Their suits seem to include forcefield-based helmets. 5. Units of length. Sometimes the bridge crew says "12 kilometers" and sometimes "12 thousand meters" (but never "12 thousand 500 meters"). 6. Ent's three "phase cannons" are each rated at 500-gigajoules. That's 1.195e11-calories, enough energy to, in one second, raise 1.195e6-liters of water (a cube of water 10-m on a side) from freezing to boiling. They can sustain fire for several seconds. VII. NITS [none]