EPISODE: "Judgment" PROD#: ENT045 TRAN#: 2.19 RATING: PG-V AIRDATE: wed-9-apr-2003-20:00 EPDATE: [no date given; late autumn 2152 ?] OFFICIAL: startrek.com/library/ent_episodes/episodes_ent_detail_128343.asp FROM: Phillip Thorne, thorne@underbase.org POST-TO: rec.arts.startrek.tech, rec.arts.sf.tv REVIEW#: 36.0 FORMAT#: 5.0 URL: underbase.org/dept/trek/ent219_judgment.txt I. INTRODUCTION This technical overview is intended to support discussion of the current episode, and to later serve as a reference: it contains PLOT SPOILERS; CONTINUE AT YOUR OWN RISK. Whenever possible, it indicates who did/claimed/knew what; the official of technobabble and alien nouns is obtained from TV closed-captioning ("CC") -- which is not always correct. If you have corrections or clarifications, please contact me. "Star Trek" and all related indicia are copyrights of Paramount Pictures, while this overview is (c)2003 Phillip Thorne. Feel free to use this document as a reference, but please give credit where due. Abbreviations commonly used: -(m/f/?) name belongs to mel/fem/unclear, (os) on [viewer] screen, (vo) voiceover, -(?) quote is uncertain, -(sp?) spelling is unclear; VDB Vulcan database, VHC Vulcan High Command; series: TOS TAS TNG DS9 VGR ENT. Although CC uses "Launch Bay", "Sick Bay", and "shuttle pod", I often condense those terms to single words. II. TERMINOLOGY TECHNICAL: warp trail, particle cannons, D-5 battle cruiser, methane ice, isolytic plasma, diamagnetic dust, multispectral sensors BIOLOGICAL: Zenopalid athemia, Targ SHIPS: Klingon Raptor _Sam Ra_, Klingon D-5 Battle Cruiser _Vor'tas_ LOCATIONS, POLITIES and ORGANIZATIONS: Klingon Empire, Tae'khogo Defense Perimeter, Klingon protectorate of Rha'duras, Rura Pente[sic], Vulcan High Command, Vulcan Ministry of Security CULTURAL: Klingon tribunal, magistrate, advocate, prosecutor, Judicial Charter of Kholos, J'Hak, blood wine NAME-DROPPING: Kahless III. ANALYSIS 1. What we don't get: A date. Tucker, Porthos or Chef. The name of the "rebels" race from "the protectorate of Rha'duras", or the name of their leader. How Enterprise was captured so that Archer could be tried. Why the Klingons showed sufficient restraint to try only *him*. Whether he was tried on the previously-visited Klingon homeworld (the snowy, mountainous landscape would imply that), or a major colony world. 2. The Klingon "D-5 battle cruiser" resembles a cross between a D-7 and Bird of Prey. A wedge-shaped head tips a long greebled neck/fuselage, from which descend angled wings tipped with warp nacelles; between the wings is a dorsal impulse housing resembling that of the D-7. It's green in color, and fires green energy-orbs from the nose. 3. Does the name "the protectorate of Rha'duras" indicate the planet is administered by the Duras family? Was the theft of the colony's "resources" (technological? mineral?) a further example of behavior as seen in ENT:"Marauders"? 4. Klingons apparently love to reuse family names. In ST6 we meet "Advocate Worf", reputedly father of Mogh, father of TNG's Worf. Here, we have "Duras son of Toral", whose forehead indicates he's probably an ancestor of TNG's Duras, father of another Toral. 5. Although notions of martial honor apparently permeate it, Klingon society does *not* consist exclusively of warriors. (Such uniformity is an absurdity, as is the notion that all Ferengi are merchants.) There are teachers, biologists, legal professionals (and presumably technologists, builders, farmers and artisans; unless the Klingons subcontract to other races/planets). However, in recent decades (prior to 2150) there'd been an unbalanced promotion of the warrior-victory ideal. In the TNG era, some TOS fans objected that the cultural personalities of Klingons and Romulans had been swapped: treachery vs. honor. However, TOS showcased only two Romulans, who might have been exceptional; and cultures change over time. This cultural shift could explain the apparently static nature of their shipbuilding: possibly, after centuries of improvement to a position of local superiority, it was no longer necessary to innovate, and the technological skills needed to do so (coincidentally?) fell from popularity. IV. NITS 1. Closed-captioning uses the spelling "Rura Pente" (not "Penthe", as established by ST6), Prosecutor "Orack" (not "Orak", as on the website's cast credits), and spells the name of Duras' command as both "Vor'tas" and "Vor'Tas". 2. The role of UTs in this ep is unclear. Archer has no trouble understanding the Magistrate, other personae on the court's floor, or the Rura Pente guards; but Kolos has to explain the chant of the gallery watchers. 3. Is *everything* in the Trek universe flammable? Planetary atmospheres, ring systems, warp drive exhaust, major onboard systems... 4. By the usual definition, a "tribunal" has three judges; the Klingon court had only one. Maybe the Klingons count the Advocate and Prosecutor. V. THIRD-PARTY COMMENTS [...] VI. EPISODE SYNOPSIS TEASER: ARCHER is dramatically brought to face a "tribunal" of the "Klingon Empire". The GALLERY cheers. ACT 1: PHLOX is permitted to visit Archer in his cell, and causes the CELL GUARD to move out of earshot by mentioning how "Zenopaldis athemia" is highly contagious. He scans the hunk of meat on Archer's plate, and declares it a good source of protein. He meets Archer's "advocate", KOLOS. Archer is taken to the courtroom again, where the gallery (which is *not* a jury) continues to pound its staffs. (Kolos explains what they're saying.) The MAGISTRATE enters, and opens the session with the benediction "Strength to the Empire!" PROSECUTOR ORACK calls the first witness, DURAS, son of Toral, formerly captain of the "Battle Cruiser Vor'tas" [also cc:spelled "Vor'Tas"], now demoted to a Second "Weapons Officer" on the "Tae'khogo Defense Perimeter". (Archer gets jabbed with painstiks for speaking out of turn.) Duras relates to the Magistrate how Archer aided "rebels" from the "Klingon protectorate of Rha'duras"... Flashback scene: the _Vor'tas_ bridge. They follow the rebels's "warp trail" to a ringed planet, and find it docked to an unknown ship, armed with (reports a female officer) "torpedo launchers for and aft, and low yield particle cannons". The enemy ship sneaks behind a ring fragment, and fires a torpedo which ignites the ring, shaking and disabling the _Vor'tas_. ...Prosecutor Orack sneers to Duras that he's lucky his first officer didn't assassinate him for his failure. He demands the "most severe punishment decreed by Klingon laws:" "J'Hak". ACT 2: In his cell, Archer tentatively tries his ration, and spits it out. Kolos arrives, and identifies it as "Targ". In the courtroom, Kolos cites the "Judicial Charter of Kholos" to permit Archer to testify (against current custom, but traditional since the "time of Kahless"). Archer relates his side of the story... Flashback: Enterprise receives a distress call from a small ship: 27 bio-signs aboard (says T'Pol), and its "main propulsion is offline" (adds Reed). Because its port engine is "venting reactor coolant", Mayweather approaches from its starboard side. In sickbay, a MALE ALIEN (who resembles a skinny, articulate Pakled) relates his party's tale of woe: Several years earlier, their colony was annexed by an unknown species, which stripped their resources and never returned with promised supplies. His group of 54 left, but their ship began to fail: engines, "food processors", "water recyclers". T'Pol anticipates Archer's offer of refuge, and begins to rebunk crew to provide berths. Then a Klingon ship (ID'd by T'Pol as a "D-5 battle cruiser") approaches, ETA 17 minutes... ACT 3: Archer, T'Pol, Reed and Mayweather cluster in the briefing niche, examining schematics of the D-5. Reed estimates that "sustained fire" would penetrate its "armor"; but would they get the chance? At Archer's question, T'Pol identifies the ring as containing "methane ice, isolytic plasma, and diamagnetic dust". Archer alludes to ENT:"Sleeping Dogs", asking Reed about that ship's sensors: "Pretty standard multispectral sensors, not to different from ours," he answers. Igniting the plasma (Archer plots) would disrupt their sensors ("for a few seconds", cautiously qualifies Reed); he's sent off to modify a torpedo in the remaining 11 minutes. The _Vor'tas_ arrives. Duras demands the "rebels" be delivered to him; Archer politely-but-firmly declines, appeals to higher authority. "I speak for the Chancellor!" Duras blusters. The two ships exchange fire. Enterprise dives into the ring system, hides its 200-meter bulk behind a "600-meter" fragment, and fires when the Klingons approach within "800 meters". ...In the courtroom, Kolos cites Archer's role in revealing the Suliban plot to foment civil war (ENT:"Broken Bow") and his rescue of the crew of the "Klingon Raptor Sam Ra" from the gas giant (ENT:"Sleeping Dogs"). Orack is surprised by these references; Kolos accuses him of stinting on his research. In Archer's cell, Kolos is surprised by the unusually long wait for a verdict, and shares a hip-flask of "blood wine". When Archer asks, he explains that, as an Advocate, he'd won over 200 cases -- but that was "long ago, before the tribunal became a tool of the war class" (warrior(?)). At Archer's surprise, Kolos explains that his father was a teacher, and his mother a biologist a the university; but nowadays (he adds distastefully), all the young people want to be warriors. They're told there's honor in victory, any victory, even one over a weaker opponent. Archer mentions Earth's three world wars, and how a few courageous people began to advocate a better way. The Magistrate finds Archer guilty, but commutes his sentence from death to life imprisonment -- in the "dilithium mines of Rura Pente[sic]"... ACT 4: ...Kolos objects: the life expectancy on Rura Pente is 6 to 12 months. He accuses the court of having no honor; he's found in contempt, and sentenced to join Archer for a year. Aboard Enterprise, T'Pol tells the crew Archer had ordered them not to risk the ship; they were permitted to remain in orbit only during the trial, and must now leave. The VHC is still "lobbying" for his release, but she herself has additional avenues: she'd dealt with "several Klingon bureaucrats" in the past (during her time with the "Ministry of Security", Reed later clarifies). The icy surface of Rura Pente... and its icy, brightly-lit mine-warrens, full of Klingons and aliens. Kolos wheezes; Archer struggles with the guard who abuses him ("our ships run on dilithium, not talk!"), then gets stabbed with painstiks from two others. Kolos is grudgingly impressed, but asks if all humans are this "stupid". Reed sneaks in, a hood covering his human features. They'd bribed the captain of a "dilithium barge" to get in and out. Archer asks, but Kolors refuses to go: he'd been an Advocate for 50 years, the last 20 holding his tongue, and couldn't now stomach the dishonor of living as a fugitive. While Reed makes urgent noises, Archer reminds him of a prisoner's life expectancy. "Most prisoners here," Kolos finishes, "have very little to live for." VII. SFX SHOTS [...] VIII. PRODUCTION REGULAR CAST: Scott Bakula as Cpt. Jonathan Archer [No Tucker] Jolene Blalock as Sub-commander T'Pol Dominic Keating as Lt. Malcolm Reed Anthony Montgomery as Ens. Travis Mayweather Linda Park as Ens. Hoshi Sato John Billingsley as Dr. Phlox [No Porthos] GUEST CAST: J.G. Hertzler as [Advocate] Kolos Daniel Riordan as Duras Victor Talmadge as Asahf [the "rebel" leader?] John Vickery as [Prosecutor] Orak Helen Cates as Klingon First Officer D.J. Lockhart as Cell Guard Granville Van Dusen as Magistrate Danny Kolker as [Mine] Guard [Oodles of Klingons] [Other "rebel" aliens] [Other Rura Pente alien prisoners] CREATIVE STAFF: Directed by James L. Conaway Story by Taylor Elmore & David A. Goodman Teleplay by David A. Goodman NEXT WEEK: In 046/220-"Horizon", Mayweather gets to visit his homeship, the ECS _Horizon_, shortly after his father's death. See: http://startrek.com/library/ent_episodes/episodes_ent_detail_128440.asp