EPISODE: "The Expanse" PROD#: ENT052 TRAN#: 2.26 RATING: PG-L AIRDATE: wed-21-may-2003-20:00 EPDATE: circa 24-apr-2153: at least a month before, then some time refitting, then seven weeks of travel later OFFICIAL: startrek.com/library/ent_episodes/episodes_ent_detail_128800.asp ??? FROM: Phillip Thorne, thorne@underbase.org POST-TO: rec.arts.startrek.tech, rec.arts.sf.tv REVIEW#: 43.0 FORMAT#: 5.0 URL: underbase.org/dept/trek/ent226_expanse.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: GEOLOGICAL: BIOLOGICAL: LOCATIONS, POLITIES and ORGANIZATIONS: CULTURAL: NAME-DROPPING: III. ANALYSIS 1. What we get... 2. What we don't get... In ENT, the scenes of the Klingon world are sunny and mountainous. In TNG, they're dark and urban. Is it the same world? Did the intervening Praxis disaster (ST6) cause a change in the weather, or was it urban development, or a change in the government? Or did the seat of Klingon government change planets? The spacedock which contains the NX-01 has five pairs of ribs, plus a down-hanging tower. The dock for NX-02 has only three ribs, and no tower. The ship is complete in its shape (the same as NX-01), but lacks most of its hull panels. The nacelles aren't yet attached, but are each held by a single huge robot arm. The new "photonic torpedoes" are stored in a five-count vertical magazine, and feed into a new tube that runs beneath the dais at the front of the Armory. Ep 225-"Bounty" gives its date as 21-mar-2153. ENT returns to Sol system on 24-apr-2153. Reed speaks to Tucker of a memorial ceremony held "a couple of months" previously, presumably before ENT's arrival. Most consistent explanation: the ceremony was very soon after the attack (even before all casualties were counted), ENT took about a month to return, and the photonic torpedo scene is set at least one month after that (circa late June). Starfleet HQ has a perfectly normal front door. On the veranda is a sculpture of the globe, and a parallelogram-shaped stone sign reading "Fleet Operations Center", with an early form of the fleet logo: a semicircle intersected by a chevron of markedly unequal arms. ENT's impulse engines have "intake manifolds", which don't deal well with the thermobaric clouds surrounding the Expanse, thereby limiting the ship's speed. What do said manifolds take in, since space is usually a vacuum? Even at "point-two impulse" (under 0.1-c?) in a dense cloud, space should be a good vacuum by Terrestrial standards. The "Bird of Prey" commanded by Duras (and two others) resemble the class first introduced in ST4, but with a more tapered neck, backswept delta wings, and a dorsal impulse assembly similar to that on the K-7/K't'inga. The ship is green, with orange-glow vertical stripes on the curved forward dorsal edge of the aft hull, yellow-glow horizontal stripes on the aft edge of each rectangular pod, and a red-glow horizontal impulse throat. There are three ovoid features on the underside of the command pod, each with a central red-glow. The wing-roots have features that resemble hinges. ??? are capable of transferring aft shields forward, leaving the ship's rear undefended. The three ships in the Expanse (but not at Sol's edge) have a trapeze-like feature hanging beneath the ship, at the neck-root. IV. NITS 1. Holo-Guy gave Archer coordinates inside the Delphic Expanse, yet he has no idea where to find the Xindi. Did the coordinates include a range of uncertainty, or did Holo-Guy specify them as merely a starting point? 2. In the NX-02 construction spacedock, the nacelles are held by robot arms. One of them moves visibly during the few seconds of the shot -- which given its size and probably mass, imputes a ridiculous speed and mechanical load. V. THIRD-PARTY COMMENTS [...] VI. EPISODE SYNOPSIS TEASER: ACT 1: On a sunny day in the snowy mountains on a Klingon planet (homeworld?), a six-member COUNCIL gives DURAS a chance to regain his command and honor, by recapturing Archer. ENT's "senior staff" are gathered in the meeting room; Phlox comments that it's rare for him to be so invited. Archer enters, grim, from a conversation with ADM.FORREST. Earth has been attacked by a "probe" of unknown origin, which has cut a "swath" of destruction "4000 kilometers long, from Florida to Venezuela", killing maybe one million people. The ship has been recalled. "It'll take a while to get back," Mayweather notes; Archer orders warp 5. Tucker enters Archer's ready room and asks about Florida; he's worried about his sister, an architect. "Older or younger?" "My baby sister." The casualty count has been revised upward, to three million. T'Pol enters, relays news from AMB.SOVAL: a "Vulcan transport" located the pod in "Central Asia"; its pilot, of an unknown species, was killed on impact. Just then, eight Suliban ships approach at "high warp". Moments later, power goes out on the bridge, Suliban invade (two on the ceiling, one on deck), and Archer is taken. SILIK and a guard meet Archer in an interrogation cell. Archer immediately assumes Silik is responsible for the attack, but the Suliban pleads ignorance. The captain's taken to the audience room and meets HOLO-GUY, who explains: The attackers were the Xindi, who were informed that their world would be destroyed by humans in 400 years time; they were so informed by another faction in the TCW. The probe was a test; they're building a more powerful weapon to destroy the planet -- and if they do, it'll "contaminate the timeline." (Apparently there are rules in the TCW.) "You have no choice but to believe me," he finishes. Archer relays this to T'Pol, who's still skeptical about time travel. "Captain's log, April 24th, 2153..." ENT returns to the fringes of Sol system. Casualties are now counted at seven million. Reed detects a vessel... ACT 2: Duras attacks ENT, hitting "both forward phase cannons." T'Pol IDs it as a "Klingon Bird of Prey". ENT fires three missiles, which green-splash against Duras' shields; the BoP returns green bolts, which hit the starboard nacelle. An orange blast is followed by a blue vapor leak; then the other nacelle is likewise crippled. The BoP calls and demands Archer. On his bridge, Duras (and his three officers) are upset by the arrival of three Earth ships. They fire orange beams, disable Duras' weapons ("disruptor banks 3 and 4"), and bring its shields to the point of failure... he departs. Onscreen, Archer thanks "CPT.RAMIREZ" of the "Intrepid". At Starfleet HQ, Archer meets with Forrest and Soval. Soval repeats the line from the "Science Directorate". Archer cites the coordinates given by Holo-Guy, which represent a three-month trip and warp 5 -- but Soval tells him they're inside the "Delphic Expanse", a region "nearly 2000 Ly across". Vulcan ships have entered, but only a few have returned; there are reports of "fierce and dangerous species", "unexplained anomalies", and regions where the laws of physics seem not to apply: 20 years earlier, a Klingon vessel emerged from the Expanse, with all its crew anatomically inverted, but still alive. ["Don't worry, it's just that cloud that turns people inside-out..."] Archer leads them to more proof. In the hanger (from 224-"First Flight") he waves a "scanner" around the piles of debris, "quantum-dating" it. The "principal alloy" in one piece was fabricated within the past four years; five, twelve -- and minus 420. "Quantum dating always registers in positive numbers," objects Forrest, whose scanner corroborates Archer's. Soval objects: if Holo-Guy's faction can only *communicate* through time, how did the Xindi-support faction transport a physical item? They go to the freezer (attended by two guards with guns) containing the pilot's corpse. In Sickbay, Archer meets the grey-haired Vulcan DR.FER'AT, who scans him for any traces of "pyritic radiation" absorbed from the Xindi debris. He asks probing questions as to Archer's mental state and Phlox (after checking the "Vulcan database") turns angrily to him: the only Fer'at listed is a "psychiatric analyst", not a "pathologist". "Where are your medical ethics!?" "I'm just doing what I was told to do," the Vulcan answers calmly. Tucker and Reed stand at the edge of the trench carved by the probe's weapon, which cuts across the urban center of Tucker's hometown. It's about a hundred meters wide and half as deep, with puddles. ACT 3: In a conical inspectionpod, Archer and Forrest inspect the NX-02, under construction in spacedock. The admiral says that it'll be ready for launch in "14 months", with the same armament as ENT will be retrofitted with. Archer expects most of his crew will sign on again, with no more than "eight or nine" departures. Archer asked for "the military" (Forrest), "non-Starfleet" (Archer). "GEN.CASEY". In Sickbay, Phlox and T'Pol speak. Refer to "Cwn.Fuller" and "200 snow beetles". A crewmember (fem black bluestripe) arrives with a case of critters. In the Armory, Reed shows off his new "photonic torpedoes" to Tucker. They have a range "over 50 times" of "conventional torpedoes", with a "variable yield" -- they can "knock the comm array off a shuttle without scratching the hull, or put a three-kilometer crater in an asteroid." Tucker asks about reconfiguring the tubes. Reed comments on integrating them into the "power grid". He asks about "Lizzie", and mentions a "day of remembrance" held "a couple of months ago" for all the victims. Tucker is touchy on the subject. At Starfleet HQ, in Forrest's office, Soval again tries to dissuade Archer (with T'Pol present) from his intent. He shows a distress call from the Vulcan ship "Vaankara", in which the crew has gone violently crazy. The ship had been in the Expanse for less than two days; the riot erupted six hours after the initial call; an hour later, the ship was destroyed. Outside, Soval speaks to T'Pol of career moves. "Ministry of Information". Disobeying the VHC would mean "immediate dismissal". It's decided to return T'Pol to Vulcan. "It's not that far out of your way," Forrest comments to Archer. After ENT launches, the Klingons are waiting. ACT 4: In the vacant Mess (starboard side, judging from the warp-streaks), Archer and Tucker speak of Porthos. They toast "to Henry Archer". 83 people. "None of that 'non interference' crap T'Pol's always shoving down our throats," Trip comments angrily. Duras attacks. The Klingons discover ENT now has "antimatter warheads" and its "hull plating has been enhanced". Duras is forced to impulse; T'Pol guesses 3 hours for repair. Archer orders an increase from Warp 3 to 4.5, to get to Vulcan space sooner. In the Ready Room, T'Pol reports an ETA of two days to Vulcan. Refer to Chef, food, human odor, human emotions. T'Pol announces that she's decided to resign her commission, insisting the ship needs her. "Captain's Starlog, supplemental..." After seven weeks at warp fie, they've reached the Expanse. They drop out 1Mkm from the white-streaked magenta "thermobaric clouds" that surround it; T'Pol explains that the most recent ship took nearly six hours to traverse them. Archer orders "point-two impulse". Over six hours later, they're still not through. Tucker reports the successful launch of a "communications buoy", with a test signal to Starfleet. Three Klingon BoPs attack, but their "targeting scanners" won't lock. Tucker recommends against full impulse: "the intake manifolds are having a tough enough time as it is." Duras takes the controls, and two ships break off. ENT fires two torps. Reed notes that he "transferred his aft shields forward," and Tucker that ENT has lost three "antimatter injectors". Archer orders an "L-4", and Mayweather executes the loop. ENT fires twice at Duras' unprotected rear, then again; his BoP erupts in flame, and breaks into fragments. ENT exits the cloud and enters the Delphic Expanse. VII. SFX SHOTS ENT banks, then goes to warp, with blue-white-blue streaks. Suliban arrive: 5 pods plus 1 sausage. ENT surrounded by at least 10 pods plus 2 sausages. Starfleet HQ at night. ENT in spacedock. Xindi trench across Tucker's hometown. NX-02 in spacedock. Starfleet HQ at night (again). ENT launches from spacedock (reuse of footage from #101). 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 Anthony Montgomery as Ens. Travis Mayweather Linda Park as Ens. Hoshi Sato John Billingsley as Dr. Phlox [No Porthos] GUEST CAST: Vaughn Armstrong as Admiral Forrest Gary Bullock as Klingon Council Member David Figlioli as Klingon Crewman Gary Graham as Soval Daniel Riordan as Duras John Fleck as Silik L. Sidney as Klingon Crewman #2 Bruce Wright as Dr. Fer'at Dan Desmond as Klingon Chancellor James Horan as Humanoid Figure Josh Cruze as Captain Ramirez CREATIVE STAFF: Directed by Allan Kroeker Written by Rick Berman & Brannon Braga NEXT WEEK: A summer of repeats!