EPISODE: "First Flight" PROD#: ENT050 TRAN#: 2.24 RATING: PG AIRDATE: wed-14-may-2003-20:00 EPDATE: [not given, but c.14-mar-2153] OFFICIAL: startrek.com/library/ent_episodes/episodes_ent_detail_128720.asp FROM: Phillip Thorne, thorne@underbase.org POST-TO: rec.arts.startrek.tech, rec.arts.sf.tv REVIEW#: 41.0 FORMAT#: 5.0 URL: underbase.org/dept/trek/ent224_first_flight.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 (Today's edition also lacks the certainty of CC-reading -- but if anyone knows how to enable CC in Hauppauge WinTV 2000, that might change.) TECHNICAL: dark matter, dark matter nebula, metreon(sp) particles, spatial charges, sensor enhancements; shuttlepod main power, EPS grid, auxiliary power TECHNICAL, NX PROGRAM: stabilization protocol, telemetry, warp barrier, flight surgeon, subspace field, intermix LOCATIONS, POLITIES and ORGANIZATIONS: NX Test Program, Vulcan Advisory Council, Starfleet Command, 602 Club, New Berlin NAME-DROPPING: Caroline, Buzz Aldrin, Cyrus [Tucker?], Gardner(sp), Duvall(sp) III. ANALYSIS 1. What we get... A new (old) Earth ship, the NX-Alpha (and identical NX-Beta). Further details on Earth's warp technology, and the role of the Vulcans. 2. What we don't get... No epdate, or firm previous dates. 3. The NX-Alpha resembles Cochrane's _Phoenix_: the same conical command pod (probably a reuse of the "FC" interior/exterior set), cylindrical fuselage, cylindrical nacelles on narrow tapered pylons set in a horizontal plane like wings. The nacelles extend past the end of the fuselage, and seem to have white-glowing aft engine exhausts (there's no glow on the fuselage). They have conical red bussard collector-like things (but why?). The pylons fold at three points, Navy-style, so that the ship fits into its hanger. This implies a mastery of magnetic (and presumably vacuum) seals for the (segmented) warp plasma conduits. The NX-Alpha's engine (designed by Archer's later father) suffers from "intermix" problems, so presumably uses antimatter. When the ride gets rough past warp 2, there seems to be a bow shock at the ship's nose; but on close inspection, there's a translucent ellipsoidal envelope around the ship, rippling at the edges. When the ship breaks up, there's a brief orange fireball (fuel? antimatter?); it breaks into four large pieces (nose, fuselage, nacelles/pylons) and smaller debris. Aboard the NX-Alpha and -Beta, Robinson and Archer wear 20cen-like orange pressure suits and helmets. (Possibly props borrowed from the UPN series "7 Days".) The ship rides a carriage (supported by a blue antigrav(?) glow) out of the hangar, directly onto a catapult track, which turns upward at the end. The NX Program took Earth from warp 2 to 5 in (12mo + 8mo + 5yr + time to build ENT), so under ten years. In contrast, the Vulcans took 100 years to break warp 2 (from whatever their previous milestone was). 4. Even at ENT's warp 5, or the warp 2 of the NX-Alpha and Mayweather's _Horizon_, star-streaks are visible. The streaks are seen to shrink into stars when a starship slows from warp (when the camera's POV follows it), so they're not dust glancing off the navigational shields; but even at warp 9, parallax shouldn't cause the scenery to move like that. It must be a warp-induced illusion. 5. The "602 Club" has framed pictures of spacecraft on its walls, including the _Phoenix_ and the double-ring-narrow-neck ship also seen in the Ent-refit's history-niche in "TMP". 6. Commodore Forrest wears the same admiralty uniform (black jacket over white shirt, black tie, black pants; white/red shoulder stripes), but it has two pips on each shoulder, and two white stripes on each cuff. Archer and Robinson are commanders, with three pips. The blue Starfleet jumpsuit is unchanged, but the shoulder patch shows a circular field with a yellow swoosh, like the later Starfleet chevron turned to the right and elongated. In the NX test facility, everyone wears badges on neck lanyards. 7. The "NX Project" logo is a down-pointing triangle, anticipating the shape for Starfleet Academy and the ASDB. It features a white- bordered black silhouette of an eagle, on a blue field with a red border, thicker at top to accomodate the legend "NX Project". 8. Presumably, "New Berlin" is the lunar colony mentioned by Riker in "FC". Despite "Caroline's" (Archer's girlfriend?) retreat there, we don't know if it's a large civilian colony, or a small research outpost with an overambitious name. IV. NITS 1. The glowing red tips of the various Enterprise incarnations are labeled "bussard collectors", but a similar feature is found on shuttlecraft, Cochrane's _Phoenix_, and the NX-Alpha. Why? Does the red cap have another function, and on some ships the collector is merely integrated into it? 2. In the Launchbay set, Archer's shuttle is on the left (facing forward) -- but in the VFX for its launch and retrieval, it emerges from the right-hand bay. 3. When the NX-Alpha exits warp, the sunlight face of Jupiter is visible -- therefore, the ship was moving *towards* the sun when it exited. Both the planet and a moon are visible, so it would seem to be deep in Jove's gravitational field (whatever consequences that might imply for a warp field). 4. Even at this date, "Starfleet" exists. How much of a star-capable fleet does Earth even have? It seems a rather arrogant name for a force limited to warp 1-and-change. 5. Archer's deep, indomitable desire to reach deep space was a desire to see giant sunset-colored nebulas? That's a bit shallow. 6. Archer does not look 7-10 years younger during the flashback scenes. V. THIRD-PARTY COMMENTS [...] VI. EPISODE SYNOPSIS TEASER: Ent has detected what might be the first "dark matter nebula" ever found, a structure 10 million km wide, but T'Pol is skeptical. Archer reminds her that Vulcan scientists have used metreon(sp) particles to make dark matter visible, and orders Trip to ready some "spatial charges" to spread them over a wide area. Sato notifies him of a (realtime) call from Adm.Forrest, who gives Archer the sad news that "A.G." has died while climbing Mt.McKinley. ACT 1: In Launchbay, Tucker and Archer lament A.G. Trip tells him the charges will illuminate within a range of 500 km. Archer doesn't want him along, but T'Pol, carrying a case of "sensor enhancements", invites herself ("this is a science mission, and I am your science officer") and reminds him that Starfleet regulations prohibit the captain from leaving the ship unaccompanied. Archer begins his story... During the "NX Test Program" to break warp 2, there were four test pilots: himself, Gardner(sp), Duvall(sp), and Cdr.A.G.Robinson; commanded by then-Commodore Forrest. In Forrest's office, Archer learns that Robinson will pilot the first test flight. He retreats to a bar, the "602 Club", where a waitress named "Ruby" notices his dudgeon, and refers to the time when "Caroline moved to New Berlin". "Do you remember what Buzz Aldrin said when he stepped onto the Moon?" he grumbles. "Nobody does. Because he was second." NX-Alpha orbits Earth, waiting while Mission Control fixes some "stabilization protocols". Forrest, Archer, and 2 Vulcans watch. Finally, the testbed leaves orbit, then enters warp. "Telemetry" reports its velocity at warp 1, 1.5... then 2.15, 2.2... Robinson watches the star-streaks outside his window. He fights a growing instability. The ship exits warp near Jupiter (apparently between the planet and a moon), and breaks up in a brief orange fireball. ACT 2: Archer fires two of the spatial charges (from a pair of tubes on the shuttlepod's nose), which detonate with snowflake-like purple dendritic bursts -- but T'Pol reads nothing. Archer's story continues... Robinson was the first person to deploy an escape pod at warp, but lost one of two testbeds. "Warp barrier." In the hanger, as Starfleet and Vulcans argue about the cause of the accident, and engineer appears from behind the NX-Beta ship, introducing himself as "Lt.Tucker, on Cpt.Jeffries' engineering team", to defend the engine. "Just 'cause it took [the Vulcans] a hundred years to crack warp two..." he accuses. In the 602 Club, Archer and Tucker sit at a table. "Cyrus, like my great-grandfather," Tucker calls to Ruby, then explains that she'll marry the first man to guess the names of her future children, which she picked at age ten. This is the two officers' first meeting. Tucker explains that his nickname "Trip" is from "Triple": Charles Tucker III. Forrest arrives. "Uh, can I buy you a drink, sir?" Trip asks. "It's the least you can do, after that outburst," the commodore snaps; then calms down. "I gave up trying to understand the Vulcans a long time ago." At the urging of the "Vulcan Advisory Council", "Starfleet Command" has chosen to put the NX Program on indefinite hold, while it develops a new engine. Later (just before Last Call, and after Forrest has left), Robinson enters from the rain and orders bourbon; after his hours of debriefing with the "flight surgeons" and "senior staff". He reported that the "subspace field destabilized" at warp 2.2, then the primary flight controls failed. Trip suggests they just need to "balance the intermix", that it might be pilot error; but Robinson rejects that hypothesis. "...there's nothin' left to point a finger at," he tells Archer. "Your father designed a lousy engine." This precipitates a brawl between the two. (Archer suffers two cracked ribs and a cracked molar, he tells T'Pol.) ACT 3: The shuttlepod suffers a "fluctuation in main power", a "surge in the EPS grid", but "auxiliary power" activates. T'Pol is cautious, but Archer takes it as a sign of dark matter. Later, when he estimates they're 20,000 km inside, he fires two more charges, which likewise fizzle. In the hanger, Robinson takes the liberty of cleaning out Archer's locker. Archer shows him a padd with the telemetry, and his new intermix calculations. They hatch a plan to abscond with the NX-Beta for a second test flight, to demonstrate its feasibility. (T'Pol notes that this theft is not documented in the VDB.) That night, Tucker helps Archer suit up. He joins Robinson aboard the NX-Beta, while Trip disables the tracking sensors -- next he'll do the telemetry. As they exit the hanger and are launched by the catapult, he tells them that New Berlin will detect them in six minutes. A male officer enters Forrest's office and reports the news from New Berlin, but "internal sensors" show the ship still in its hangar. "Did anybody think to *look*?" the commodore asks, rushing out. In Mission Control (now staffed), Forrest barks into the comm. "Come back now and I'll do what I can to keep you out of prison." Then the two Vulcans enter. "Perfect." Aboard, Robinson magnanimously cedes control to Archer, and they switch seats (pilot is left). They go to warp... the shudder begins, and Archer wrestles with the stick, while Robinson fiddles with the intermix valves on the bulkhead to his right... ACT 4: ...the warp bubble(?) wobbles at warp 2.15, as Robinson continues to adjust the intermix. Three male guards enter the hanger to arrest Tucker, just as Archer reports steady flight at 2.15. "Congratulations," says Forrest. "Now get the hell back here." They return, he reams them out, they're suspended pending an inquiry. Archer states his case that they'll "never reach deep space" if the VAC has its way. On the shuttlepod, Archer tells T'Pol that they avoided court-martial, but were grounded for 3 months. The program was on hold for a year, while the Vulcans insisted they run every possible simulation. Eight months later, Duvall broke warp 3 in the NX-Delta; five years later "we laid the keel for _Enterprise_." He fires the last two charges. Nothing happens... then T'Pol gets a reading... and Archer watches a tangerine-and-coral glow spread across space. "Fascinating," T'Pol comments, then turns back to monitor "the quantum field". The glow continues. "That's why A.G. and I worked so hard to get out here." The final selection for ENT captain was made 6 months before launch, by which time A.G. and Archer (now both captains) were the only remaining candidates. A.G. congratulates him in the 602 Club, tells him he'd rather for the "NX-02", then leaves to catch his shuttle to "Alice Springs" for "survival training". The shuttlepod returns to Launchbay, and they exit via its upper hatch. T'Pol notes the human custom that he who discovers a thing of merit gets to name it. "What, the T'Pol-Archer Nebula?" he grins, but T'Pol has another idea. "I was thinking the Robinson Nebula would be more appropriate." VII. SFX SHOTS 1. Shuttlepod drop-launches 2. Starfleet HQ (see #223) 3. Shuttlepod 4. NX-Alpha orbits Earth 5. NX-A goes to warp 6. (OS) stars in window 7. At warp 2.15, field instability 8. (OS) stars in window 9. Drops from warp near Jupiter, breaks up 10. Shuttlepod, ventral, L2R 11. Fires two charges, L2R 12. Detonate 13. Shuttlepod, dorsal, L2R 14. NX hanger interior 15. Fires two charges, L2R 16. Detonate 17. NX hanger exterior with guards (borrowed from "7 Days") 18. NX-B rolls out 19. NX-B rolls past Trip 20. NX-B rolls down catapult, launches 21. Recedes from Earth, R2L 22. Jumps to warp 23. (OS) stars in window 24. Field instability, see (7) 25. (OS) stars in window 26. Fires two charges, denote 27. Sunset-colored glow spreads 28. Changes from pink to orange 29. Shuttlepod approaches ENT, R2L 30. Ent banks towards us, enters warp, R2L to L2R VIII. PRODUCTION REGULAR CAST: Scott Bakula as Cpt. Jonathan Archer Connor Trinneer as LtCdr. Charles Tucker III Jolene Blalock as Sub-commander T'Pol Dominic Keating as Lt. Malcolm Reed [no lines] Anthony Montgomery as Ens. Travis Mayweather [no lines] Linda Park as Ens. Hoshi Sato [one line] John Billingsley as Dr. Phlox [no lines] GUEST CAST: Keith Carradine as [Cdr. A.G.] Robinson Michael Canavan as Vulcan Vaughn Armstrong as Admiral [and Commodore] Forrest Victor Bevine as Flight Controller Brigid Brannagh as Ruby John B. Moody as Security Officer [Two other flight controllers] [Two other security officers] [Second Vulcan] [Forrest's aide] CREATIVE STAFF: Directed by LeVar Burton Written by John Shiban & Chris Black NEXT WEEK: Also tonight: in 051/225-"Bounty", Archer-the-Klingon-fugitive is captured by a Tellarite, while T'Pol's /Pon-farr/ is triggered by an alien pathogen. And next week, Earth is devastated by an alien probe from "the Delphic Expanse". (What goes around, comes around -- that'll teach Earth to send friendly antimatter-fueled warp probes blindly into neighboring quadrants. See VGR.) See: startrek.com/library/ent_episodes/episodes_ent_detail_128726.asp and startrek.com/library/ent_episodes/episodes_ent_detail_128800.asp .