EPISODE: "A Night in Sickbay" PROD#: ENT030 EP#: 2.05 RATING: PG-DS AIRDATE: wed-16-oct-2002-20:00 EPDATE: [Unstated; spring 2152] OFFICIAL: startrek.com/library/ent_episodes/episodes_ent_detail_125906.asp FROM: Phillip Thorne, thorne@underbase.org POST-TO: rec.arts.startrek.tech, rec.arts.sf.tv REVIEW#: 24.0 FORMAT#: 3.6 URL: underbase.org/dept/trek/ent204_dead_stop.txt This technical overview is intended to support more detailed discussion of this episode and others, by specifically indicating who did what, and by indicating the spelling of proper nouns and technobabble, as attained through closed-captioning (CC). The NOTES are listed in approximate seen-on-screen order, and ANALYSIS summarizes topics. THESE MAY CONSTITUTE PLOT SPOILERS; continue at your own risk. Abbreviations used: (m/f/?) name belongs to mel/fem/unclear, (os) on viewer screen, (?) quote is uncertain, (sp?) spelling is unclear, (vo) voiceover. Captions use the spellings "Launch Bay", "Sick Bay", and "shuttle pod", but I sometimes abbreviate to one word. "Star Trek" and all related indicia are copyrights of Paramount Pictures. This overview is (c)2002 Phillip Thorne, thorne@underbase.org. Please notify me-the-author if you wish to re-print large hunks of text. And if you liked this, consider subscribing to my similarly-detailed e-newsletter, the _Non-Sequitur Express_. I. TERMS TRICKY [none] TECHNICAL plasma injector, decon agent; auto-immune system, sub-mammalian database; anaphylactic shock, tetrasol; Pillarian slips, pituitary gland; auto-suture, synaptic inductor. CULTURAL Kreetassan; Chancellory, Hall of Diplomacy, Alvera trees, Denobulan Lemur; Pyrithian Moon Hawk, Calrissian Chameleon; Interspecies Medical Exchange. CHARACTERS Cpt.Jonathan Archer Dr.Phlox Ens.Hoshi Sato Sub-Cdr.T'Pol Cdr.Charles "Trip" Tucker Porthos (Tucker appears twice, once with dialogue; and Mayweather and Reed appear only in nonspeaking cameos.) Vaughn Armstrong as Kreetassan Captain Kreetassan #2 Kreetassan #3 MENTIONS [none] III. NOTES TEASER * "8:47 pm" * Sato, T'pol, Archer, and Porthos are in their regulation undies, scrubbing with gel in the blue-lit decon chamber. * Archer is angry, because after waiting 5 days for a meeting with the "Kreetassans" to obtain a "plasma injector" (which they manufacture), they're kicked out by the protocol-sticklers for some unexplained offense. * The three humanoids leave, but Phlox(vo) insists Porthos stay, because "neither decon agent" has eliminated a pathogen he picked up on the surface. ACT 1 * "9:09 pm" * Ent uses 5 plasma injectors. One has begun malfing, and they can run on 4, but certainly not 3; and they have no spares. * The 5 are mounted in a trapezoidal array in a pop-up frame behind a vertically-sliding panel in Engineering. * In Sickbay, Porthos is isolated in a glove-equipped box. * Phlox: "His auto-immune system is collapsing." * To prevent this, they had transmitted the "genomes" of all the visitors to the Kreetassans before visiting, so the locals could check for pathogens. * The Kreetassan "Chancellory" finally explains the offense. The stand of trees outside the "Hall of Diplomacy" consists of 300-year-old "Alvera trees", considered cultural treasures. Porthos urinated on one. * "10:32 pm" * Archer watches vid of water polo. * Unable to relax, he carries pillow and blanket to Sickbay, to be near Porthos. * Phlox's "sub-mammalian database" doesn't contain info on "bugles". * When asked about pets, he mentions that the "Denobulan Lemur" is "highly sought-after." "It has a tail, fur; most have one head." * He holds 6 degrees in "interspecies veterinary medicine"; also "dentistry, hematology, botanical pharmacology"... (Archer truncates the recitation.) * "Auto-immune system" * Archer is disturbed by an electrical buzzing, which is Phlox trimming his toenails. (He must do so at least once a week.) He dumps the clippings into a cage on the floor, causing commotion. * Then he cleans his tongue with a scraper; it hangs past his chin. ACT 2 * "12:09 am" * Archer goes to the ship's gym. * It contains a towel cart, 3 treadmills, a 3-axis gimballed whirly cage, and a ladder to an upper level. * T'pol, wearing a sleeveless grey exercise suit, is running. * Archer's statements imply he assumes that Porthos' behavior could've been extrapolated from his genome. * Wall intercom * "1:32 am" * Porthos goes into "anaphylactic shock". * Phlox treats it with 5-cc of "tetrasol" (a blue fluid). * Working water tap near Sickbay door. * T'Pol is Archer's "Science Officer" and second in command. * Archer: "might get another 10 light years out of [the malfing injector]." * Phlox also has a degree in "psychiatry". * Sato communicates with a Kreetassan. * He considers it an obvious/unspoken courtesy that Ent should reset its clock to match the capital city. * Archer is awakened by Phlox yelling in an alien language. * His white bat has escaped its cage. ACT 3 * With a second net, Archer helps chase the bat. * Drawers * Roll of paper(?) towels * Phlox mounts a blue origami-like bird on a pole: a "Pyrithian Moon Hawk", which (with its call, which Phlox had once memorized) should terrify the bat -- but doesn't. Capture fails. * Phlox diagnoses "sexual tension" in Archer regarding T'Pol. * Sato enters Sickbay and snatches the bat out of the air. * Archer's dream: Porthos' funeral -- featuring T'Pol. * Archer's dream: the decon chamber -- featuring T'Pol (and her bare back). * "2:49 am" * Archer explains Porthos' origin. * Phlox: Denobulans don't keep pets. * The Denobulan Lemur is "much sought after" because its kidneys are considered a delicacy. * T'Pol arrives with two covered meal dishes on a tray. * Archer: "I'm doing the breast I can" and "Bring your lips -- lisp -- the list, down." * Phlox calls these "Pillarian slips". * Porthos' "immune system" recovers, but his "pituitary gland" is damaged. * Phlox decides to transplant the gland from a "Calrissian Chameleon", though he'll have to "alter its DNA" to avoid rejection. * The chameleon secretes a rare toxin, useful in treating respiratory infections, and its his last one. * He directs Archer to begin filling a large cylindrical container from a wall (water?) spigot, to "super-hydrate" Porthos for the surgery. ACT 4 * "3:44 am" * Porthos is secured to a frame, suspended within the orange-tinted fluid. * Archer and Phlox wear grey surgical smocks, but no masks. * Phlox performs endoscopic surgery through an unbleeding hole in Porthos' forehead. * "Auto-suture" * Phlox directs Archer to "lower the fluidic temperature" by 12-deg. * At Archer's request, Phlox explains his family situation. * "Synaptic inductor" * "We Denobulans live long lives." * "Interspecies Medical Exchange" * CGI of Kreetassan city, with buildings shaped like frustums of cones, set amid parkland. * Archer performs the ceremony of apology, as Trip and Sato look on, before three Kreetassans. They seem pleased. * "9:15 am" * Obtained the replacement plasma injector, plus 2 spares. * Archer retrieves Porthos. * Phlox gives him a disturbingly wide grin. V. CONNECTIONS 1. The Kreetassans were first encountered in ENT-122:"Vox Sola". VI. ANALYSIS 1. T'Pol is spelled with a capital "P"; somehow I've been doing it wrong. The title reads "Sickbay" but CC for dialogue is "Sick Bay". 2. The Decon Chamber, as depicted, continues to be silliest part of the ship. If one's contracted a skinborne pathogen, cleansing oneself while still half-clothed won't remove it (even less so if one is a dog being shampooed by one's owner); a shower or immersion would be more effective. Even that won't get the bugs one has inhaled or ingested. (The chamber, and "Ent's" whole approach to skin-titillation, comes under the heading of "fan service" because no viewer who *isn't* a fan will bother tuning in just to see such minor/rare scenes; this isn't "Baywatch".) 3. Before landing, Ent transmitted (presumably at the Kreetassans' request) the genomes of the landing parting, so that they could be checked for vulnerabilities to local pathogens. This is not entirely absurd, assuming Kreetassan, Vulcan and human genomes are sufficiently similar to recognize all the immune-system and cell-surface-protein components -- although the reactive nature of the immune system, and the combinatoric nature of immunoglobins, means you can't predict what a human will be pre-sensitized to. However, the next part *is* silly: Archer's self-defending/pitying notion that they could predict Porthos' attraction to trees, and the fact that neither Phlox nor T'Pol corrected him. 4. Denobulans do not keep pets; the closest thing to a dog Phlox can think of, is the Denobulan Lemur (with a tail, fur, sometimes one head), whose kidneys are considered a delicacy. Denobulans "live long lives", their toenails grow very rapidly and require an electric saw to remove; the tongue is about 15-cm long; and the lips can stretch into a smile twice as wide as a human's. 5. Phlox holds 6 degrees in interspecies veterinary medicine; also dentistry, hematology, botanical pharmacology, psychiatry, and probably others (relating to humanoid medicine). Whether this degree of achievement is unusual for the long-lived Denobulans, or for members of the Interspecies Medical Exchange, is unstated. 6. Phlox has 3 wives, each of whom has 2 other husbands. Phlox describes that as 720 relationships, 42 of them with "romantic possibilities". The entire extended family has 31 children, of which 5 are Phlox's, and all of whom "left the nest" years ago. His 2 daughters are a surgeon and biochemist, his eldest son is an artist/potter, and he's been estranged from his 2 younger sons for some time. The number of edges in a complete graph with N vertexes is given by the formula E=(1/2)(N)(N-1). Phlox's marriage-cluster can be described as a set of M males and F females, in which (presumably) M == F. The constraints given are that E_all := E(M+F) =720 and E_MF := (M+F)-V(M)-V(F) =42. M F E_all V(M) E_MF ? ? 720 42 Desired solution 3 3 15 9 6 10 10 190 45 100 19 19 703 171 361 There does not seem to be a solution. [Joe, you're a mathematician. Can you find an error in my analysis?] 7. Archer grew up with dogs. Porthos was one of four males in the litter of an ex-girlfriend's beagle, and Archer's had him since he was 6-wks old. 8. While chasing his bat with a net, Phlox yells the following. Presumably it's Denobulan, possibly cursing. Luu TAA ke MAI LOO! Bak see rem TAH Laa! Tryest Berat kara tok ah see! 9. The lengthy apology-ritual involves beaded hair braids (like those worn by the Kreetassans), a bare torso with pictures (tattoos?) on chest and back, cutting a log into many two-inch-thick slices, then placing them in a specific pattern on the floor; and reciting a chant, which concludes with: Pranab boko oor-tah Deelos takaa seely estos oor-tah Tenvlaikot pranab boko oor-tah Deelos taka seely estos oor-tah Tenvla nikot pranab boko oor-tah. In retrospect, that looks highly repetitive; the differences might be typos on the part of the CC-writer. Maybe one recites the same verse for every log-slice. VII. NITS 1. Phlox refers to Porthos' "auto-immune system". There's no such thing; an "auto-immune disease" (eg lupus) is one in which the immune system attacks its own body. 2. While concluding surgery on the immersed Porthos, Phlox directs Archer to reduce the "fluidic" temperature by 12-deg. Short of magical technology, refrigerating that much water(?) (~200-L) will take a very long time. VIII. NEXT WEEK Something! that! my VCR! truncated!