EPISODE: "The Breach" PROD#: ENT047 TRAN#: 2.21 RATING: PG AIRDATE: wed-23-apr-2003-20:00 EPDATE: [Unstated; late jan-2153 ?] OFFICIAL: startrek.com/library/ent_episodes/episodes_ent_detail_128486.asp FROM: Phillip Thorne, thorne@underbase.org POST-TO: rec.arts.startrek.tech, rec.arts.sf.tv REVIEW#: 38.0 FORMAT#: 5.0 URL: underbase.org/dept/trek/ent221_breach.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. Spellings of technobabble and alien nouns are obtained from TV closed-captioning ("CC") -- which does not always match the spoken dialogue, and is sometimes egregiously different with regards to previously-established spellings. In the Synopsis, I sometimes condense or reorder scenes, for clarity. If you have corrections or clarifications, please contact me, and I'll eventually make corrections. "Star Trek" and all related indicia are copyrights of Paramount Pictures, while this overview is (c)2003 Phillip Thorne. Some details provided by _The Star Trek Encyclopedia_, 1st ed., 1994. 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: pitons, flex-cable, ration packs, waste disposal units, reactor casing, hemostatic scan, dermaline gel, anaprovaline, imaging chamber, intra- cellular regeneration, bio-signs, low-power particle beam GEOLOGICAL: speleothem, calcite, aragonite, botyroidal flowstone, tractosite BIOLOGICAL: tribble LOCATIONS, POLITIES and ORGANIZATIONS: Denobulan Science Academy, Antara(ns), Xantoras CULTURAL: Hippocrates, xenomythology NAME-DROPPING: Mettus (son of Phlox) III. ANALYSIS 1. What we get: a new capitol ship, a new patrol ship, and possibly several others. A new species, the Antarans. Three new Denobulans. Additional Denobulan history. A tribble. 2. What we don't get (in dialogue): A name for the Antaran patient. Names for the Denobulan geologists. A physical appearance for the Xantoras. 3. Sato is instantly entranced by the cooing tribble, but Phlox is unsentimental. "It was extremely difficult to acquire," he explains, because they've been "outlawed on most worlds" -- they breed "prodigiously" and are kept in check only by the "abundance of reptiles" on their homeworld. When Phlox says "it", does he mean a first breeding individual? Does he keep a colony in that small flip- top cylinder? 4. If Ent has climbing gear in its stores, why no helmets or headlamps? Did they instead have to fabricate the pitons and carabiners? 5. Antaran physiognomy & physiology: Cardassian-like ridges up each side of the neck. A single ridge across the bridge of the nose. Two pairs of ridges: from the corner of the eye around the eyebrow ridge, and from the nose diagonally across the forehead. The latter are flanked by small brown spots. The Antaran lifespan is at least 60 years (we don't know how old the patient is). 6. The Denobulans and Antarans fought several (presumably interstellar) wars, the most recent 300 years ago. Since Phlox's grandmother remembers that one, a Denobulan generation is around 100 years. Some attitudes from that era survive; Phlox's estrangement from his youngest son Mettus [previously alluded to in "??"] arises from this. 7. The planet Xantoras is noted for a diverse resident population of non-Xantoras (not "Xantorans"), for spectacular geology, and a government that frequently changes. 8. The Xantoras orbital patrol ship has a narrow rectangular-xsec fuselage with a blue-glowing circular engine throat. It has a pair of small aft-mounted winglets, each with a rec-xsec tip-pod. It fires a green beam from its nose. 9. The alien ship is another of the "fish-shaped with dorsal docking port" school (see the Kriosian cruiser in "Precious Cargo", and the same design in "Horizon"). It has a flat, spade-shaped body with a flat kite-shaped tail, and two midbody fins, laterally notched -- apparently the warp nacelles, as their aft tips surge-glow white as it jumps to warp. On the dorsal surface of the spade is a small forward ellipsoidal pod, and a larger spade-shaped swelling with the docking port at its apex. IV. NITS 1. Why is Sato forever hand-delivering messages on a PADD, instead of forwarding them to personal email accounts? Is she simply taking the opportunity to be social? 2. Ent's spelunking party had lines, pitons, carabiners and flexible climbing shoes, but no helmets or goggles; and their lights were on silly gooseneck backpack mounts that had to be manually adjusted (as silly as VGR's wrist-beacons or TNG's awkward-grip blocks). V. THIRD-PARTY COMMENTS [...] VI. EPISODE SYNOPSIS TEASER: SATO visits PHLOX in Sickbay to deliver a message on a PADD, marked "urgent", from the "Denobulan Science Academy". "Feeding time?" she asks. "When isn't it?" he replies, and drops a "tribble" into a creature's cage; after a moment of shaking leaves and agitated squeals, all is quiet again. ACT 1: Around the briefing table, examining a red-tinted graphic of a cave system on the planet "Xantoras", are MAYWEATHER, Phlox, TUCKER, REED, ARCHER. A three-member party of Denobulan geologists have in 6 months mapped 50 km of the caves (noted for their "speleothems"), Phlox explains; his government lost contact 3 weeks earlier, and now the Xantoras government has changed and is expelling all aliens. While Denobula can't send a ship in time, Ent is less than a day off, and has been asked to help. Archer assigns Mayweather (he has spelunking experience) to retrieve them, with Tucker and Reed. In Launchbay, the trio (clad in taupe jumpsuits with blue zippers) examine their equipment: "pitons", 500 m of "flex-cable", 1 week of "ration packs", and "waste disposal units" ("we take out everything we bring in," explains Travis seriously, to Trip's look of disgust). Archer arrives, tells them the Xantoras have moved up their deadline: three days. As the shuttlepod [#2] descends, other ships evacuate. Sato registers a distress call: the "reactor casings" have ruptured on one (600 km below, T'POL notes), and several compartments are flooding with radiation. Xantoras denies permission to land. There's a mel- yellowstripe fill-in helmsman. In Sickbay, Phlox and multiple crew and tending the injured. He orders a "hemostatic scan" to check for internal bleeding; another is treated with "dermaline gel" and "2 cc's anaprovaline" for the pain. Another casualty [the ANTARAN] is wheeled in on a gurney; Phlox stares at him in shock, then orders him into the "imaging chamber". LATER, he tells Archer he plans a regime of "intra-cellular regeneration" to repair the "heavy dose of radiation", but the patient awakes and notices him. "I'd rather die than be treated by him." Reed, scanner in hand, leads the trio to the entrance probably taken by the geologists. Bandoliers of carabiners jingling, gooseneck lamps mounted on their hardshell backpacks and hanging over their left shoulders, they enter. The first cave is full of angular stalagmites and small rubble. ACT 2: Outside Sickbay, Phlox explains that his people and the Antarans have "a complicated history". They fought several wars, the last one 300 years ago. He can't treat the Antaran without his consent: "the will of the patient is the cornerstone of Denobulan medical ethics," and "Hippocrates wasn't Denobulan." He refuses Archer's direct order. LATER, Archer speaks to the Antaran, who's adamant. Denobulan "battle tactics" caused 20 million Antaran casualties; he's the first Antaran in six generations to even *see* a Denobulan. LATER, in Phlox's quarters (wall art, desk with plant and test tubes), the doctor explains his attitude: Antarans are taught from childhood that Denobulans are enemies to be feared and reviled. The trio rappel down a shaft. Finding a ledge, Travis scouts further, while Trip and Malcolm pause to drink from their softbody canteens; they find a plastic case of rock samples. LATER, descending a narrow lip, the rock crumbles, and Reed goes sliding, yanking Tucker along. Mayweather's piton (at his end of the safety line) is yanked loose. The first two tumble over the edge, but Travis jams his left leg against the wall, arresting their descent... ACT 3: ...They manage to swing themselves to the wall and climb out, just before the line slips through Mayweather's hands. They scan his leg: broken, with torn ligaments. With a brief argument, the two leave him there and continue. LATER, they inch through a narrow horizontal fissure, its roof hung with dangling vegetation, pushing their packs ahead of them. Reed detects Denobulans 50 m away. They emerge into a high cavern, full of gear. "I don't mean to be rude, but there are many other caverns to explore," says the lead geologist. Tucker announces their mission (one day remains), but the Denobulans refuse to leave... In Sickbay, the Antaran awakes as Phlox is checking his "bio-signs", and shies away. He supplies that he's a "teacher of xenomythology" -- he studies the legends of other species. Phlox comments that the "diverse population" of Xantoras would make it an ideal world for that. The Antaran repeatedly insults Phlox, who grows flustered and storms out. T'Pol enters the Mess (with a PADD, gets a mug), vacant but for Phlox; he unloads himself to her. Once, as a young man, he'd planned with some friends to travel to an "arboreal planet" near Denobulan, one kept as a reserve for its "great variety of exotic animal life". His grandmother took him aside and insisted the world was "tainted" by the presence of Antarans, years earlier. He didn't go then -- but years later, he took his children. ACT 4: In Sickbay, Phlox prepares to treat the patient regardless (Factoid: he should have 60 years of lifespan remaining) and explains why: his grandmother lived through the last war, and still hates the Antarans -- but of his own five children, only one, his youngest son METTUS, was seduced by those attitudes. It caused a rift, such that they haven't spoken in ten years; Mettus would be happy to accede to the Antaran's wish to die untreated. LATER, the Antaran agrees to treatment; he has children of his own. ...The geologists expect the government will change again by the time they're done (in two to three weeks). It's the "most remarkable collection of speleothems I've ever seen," the leader announces: "calcite, aragonite, botyroidal flowstone." He's spent 14 years searching for "tractosites this perfect," which could provide clues to prevent "seismic disasters" on Denobula. Tucker threatens to shoot and drag them out. LATER, inching through the fissure, the lead geologist pauses to retrieve another sample case, and Tucker threatens to "shoot him in the ass." The ground starts to shake... Up on his ledge, Travis feels it too, and scooches against the wall... Reaching the shaft (which the Denobulans had free-climbed), Reed observes that it feels like weapons fire -- but they still have two hours. A huge chunk falls! On the bridge, Sato reaches the REGIONAL GOVERNOR (voice-only), and Archer angrily demands to know why a patrol has opened fire in the vicinity of the caves. The governor claims they're firing on soldiers from the previous regime, but the captain isn't in the mood for excuses, and orders them targeted. "Stick to your original agreement, and you won't find yourself fighting on two fronts." The duo laboriously ratchet-climb their lines, while the Denobulans skitter effortlessly up the sheer rock face. LATER, they hoist Mayweather up; he drops one sample case. On the bridge, it's two hours past the deadline, with no contact, and Archer anxiously orders Shuttlepod One and a security team prepped -- then Tucker calls from the shuttlepod. Reed reports a Xantoras patrol ship, at "184 mark 27", which fires a "low-power particle beam" at them -- just encouragement, Tucker interprets. In Sickbay, Phlox pronounces the procedure a success. LATER, Archer escorts the Antaran to the docking port. The three Denobulan geologists will be on his ship; he's spoken to them, and they're willing if he is. In a darkened Sickbay, Phlox records a message to his son Mettus. He's just had an experience that "opened old wounds", but it "changed something in me, and maybe if you listen, in you." VII. SFX SHOTS 1. Ent at warp, ventral, left to right. 2. Ent slows from warp L2R, accompanying POV. 3. Shuttlepod Two descends toward planet R2L as three other craft rise L2R. 4. Ent's port dock occupied by alien fish-ship, dorsal, L2R. 5. Surface: picturesque mountains, cave-mouth. 6. Ent docked to fish-ship, ventral, L2R. 7. See (4). 8. See (5). 9. Xantoras patrol ship fires (green beam) on Shuttlepod Two. 10. Shuttlepod rises R2L as patrol ship peels away. 11. See (6). 12. Alien ship undocks, rolls, goes to warp. Ent goes to warp. VIII. PRODUCTION REGULAR CAST: Scott Bakula as Cpt. Jonathan Archer Connor Trinneer as LtCdr. Charles Tucker III Jolene Blalock as Sub-commander T'Pol (minor) Dominic Keating as Lt. Malcolm Reed Anthony Montgomery as Ens. Travis Mayweather Linda Park as Ens. Hoshi Sato (minor) John Billingsley as Dr. Phlox [No Porthos] GUEST CAST: Henry Stram as Hudak Mark Chaet as Yolen D.C. Douglas as Zepht Laura Putney as Trevix Jamison Yang as Crewman [Several additional crew helping in Sickbay] CREATIVE STAFF: Directed by Robert Duncan McNeill ["Tom Paris"] Story by Daniel McCarthy Teleplay by Chris Black & John Shiban NEXT WEEK: In 048/222-"Cogenitor", they meet astrophysicists from a race with three sexes. See: http://startrek.com/library/ent_episodes/episodes_ent_detail_128560.asp