EPISODE: "Extinction" PROD#: ENT055 TRAN#: 3.03 RATING: PG-?? AIRDATE: wed-17-sep-2003-20:00 EPDATE: [not stated] OFFICIAL: startrek.com/startrek/view/series/ENT/episode/2286.html FROM: Phillip Thorne, thorne@underbase.org POST-TO: rec.arts.startrek.tech REVIEW#: 46.0 FORMAT#: 5.0 URL: underbase.org/dept/trek/ent303_extinction.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 is imperfect: it may not match spoken dialogue, or the website, or be consistent within or between eps. 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, XDB Xindi 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: EV suit, biohazard protocols, decon chamber, transporter BIOLOGICAL & MEDICAL: neural nodes, arboreal primate, chromophyllic plant species, bio-signs, mutagenic virus, Vulcan K cells, antivirus, genetic profile, resequence, serum, Pyrithian bat CULTURAL: Georgia peaches, Xindi, Loque'eque LOCATIONS, POLITIES and ORGANIZATIONS: Urquat NAME-DROPPING: Chef III. ANALYSIS 1. What we get... Two new alien races, a new alien starship, a spoken language. 2. What we don't get... A date, the name of the containment-aliens, a name for their captain. 3. The shirtless files... Tucker takes off his shirt for his neuro-pressure appointment with T'Pol, who's wearing her midriff-baring blue PJs. 4. The "Loque'eque" (pron. "lo-KEH!k") lived in a circular tiered city called "Urquat" ("ur-kwat"), located in a crater-shaped cavern not far beneath the surface of a jungle. An unspecified number of centuries ago, they suffered an unspecified calamity which left them sterile; they devised a "mutagenic virus" to convert other humanoid species to their own. Physically they're superior to humans: with thicker ribs, a larger heart, and the ability to leap vertically into trees. (This assumes the virus' effect doesn't vary based on the host.) The virus included race memories and behavioral cues: the spoken language, identification with the Loque'eque, images of Urquat and a compulsion to return there. The language includes phrases such as: Jahz ya brahk. Jahz ya seetayla? Zihn'tah. Key'znaht. Hees tellum ta'key. Mina sa'ahl udakay! Rageen so-lok? So-lok?! 5. Phlox puts the virus in the single storage drawer of a small box; the drawer glows blue, and the box hums. Presumably this is a "stasis unit", and apparently standalone (no power cords) for small samples (the drawer is too small for anything besides the vial). 6. The aliens have a single mid-facial ridge that extends from the nose, along the forehead, into the hairline. 7. The suits worn by the alien containment crew were white, with grey lamellar (segmented) plated at shoulders, abdomen, and knees. A tall cylindrical helmet was equipped with three green-tinged lamps: above and to each side. 8. The alien starships consisted of a flattened midbody, twin chevron tailfins, and a vertical forward sail. The midbody had two parts: aft it was rectangular, with a convex lenticular cross-section; forward, it tapered to a point. The aft section had a belt of blue-glow (and a pair of triangular blue impulse(?) throats), while forward had yellow-glow panels both dorsal and ventral. The tail-fins followed the contours of the midbody, but were separated by struts. The midbody-equator also sprouted a pair of pointy outriggers. The forward sail consisted of a backswept ventral portion, and a less-raked ventral portion that extended back, the full length of the forward midbody. They elicit the usual warp-transition FX. 9. The MACO EV suits were grey, with a lumpy overlayer that concealed the backpack. The cylindrical helmet included a single forehead lamp, and [the inevitable but silly] blue-tinted jaw lamps [to illuminate the actor's face]. 10. Some of the neural nodes triggered by Vulcan neuro-pressure are located in the feet. IV. NITS 1. As usual, physiological changes of this magnitude shouldn't occur so quickly (and the writer, former Trek science advisor Andre Bormanis, should know better). Phlox's comment, "The laws of biochemistry ... may be just as unpredictable," may be read as, "Yes, we know it's implausible, but this time we have an excuse." Perhaps the planet hosts a cloaked device that zaps bio-replicator beams at virus-victims to make the coded changes happen at Ludicrous Speed? 2. Despite Tucker's maternal changes in "Unexpected", the ENT crew have never seen biological metamorphosis at this scale, and should have expressed greater surprise. 3. When Archer's ribs widened into plates, where did the extra mineral content (calcium and phosphorous, ie hydroxyapatite) come from? When his heart expanded, what happened to his lungs? 4. When Tucker rescues Archer et al from the containment squad, they all return to Shuttlepod One. That's a hike, presumably of several km -- shouldn't the aliens have noticed their team was unresponsive, and taken action *before* the shuttle returned to ENT? The flight to orbit itself should take several minutes, although the eps regularly time-compress (skip) that activity. V. THIRD-PARTY COMMENTS [...] VI. EPISODE SYNOPSIS TEASER: A man in red staggers through a jungle, a tympanum at the corner of his jaw pulsing. He stumbles into a clearing, and to the side of a small vessel. Several other figures in white suits and helmets, with green lamps, appear after him; they carry flamethrowers. He burns. ACT 1: T'Pol lights candles in her quarters. Tucker enters, bearing a pot of "Georgia peaches"; he'd picked up a "crate" on Earth, and "Chef's been keeping them in stasis for me." They're an apology for the two neuro-pressure sessions he's skipped (he slept like a baby after the last (first?) one), but T'Pol (who at his urging, takes a bite) isn't mollified. At her direction, he doffs his shirt and (reluctantly) his shoes -- he doesn't want to offend her sensitive nose with his stinky feet [see "???"]; also, he's ticklish. "You're sure this is safe?" he asks, lying down. She admits it's never been tried on humans, but "the risk of paralysis is minimal." She's called away by Archer. With PADDs and coffee-flask in the Command Center, Archer shows her a portion of the Xindi DB they'd retrieved: it shows a new species of Xindi (Phlox thinks they evolved from some "arboreal primate"), and the last planet visited before the ship was raided. ENT arrives at the planet. From orbit, T'Pol (in white) scans "several million chromophyllic plant species". Reed detects a "landing craft" on the "equatorial islands", but no "bio-signs" within 30 km of it. Archer, T'Pol, Reed and Sato arrive by shuttlepod [One]. Wielding flashlights and phase-pistols, they troop through the sounds of the night jungle, and find the craft [a redress of the time-capsule from "Future Tense"]. By "oxidation", T'Pol concludes it landed 2 weeks earlier (which matches their later demise, Sato confirms; Archer recognizes the shape from the XDB). Sato finds a body -- but not (T'Pol notes) one of the three species of Xindi they're familiar with. Reed finds a second; Archer notes the whole area's been "scorched". Reed rubs his neck: "I've never much cared for the tropics." Splitting up, T'Pol notices discoloration on her forearm, and ridges pulsing at her temples. She returns to the clearing to find Reed mutated: his hair lank, a new forehead, tympanae pulsing at his jaw. Archer changes as she watches. (X-ray view: his ribs swell into plates, and his heart triples in size.) T'Pol calls ENT (Mayweather has the conn), but is interrupted. Sato is also changed, and the three chase the not-as-affected Vulcan. ACT 2: They carry her back, tied into a stretcher of vines and branches, then interrogate her impatiently in an alien language of chittering growls. With difficulty, she convinces them to hand over the UT from Sato's hip-holster; but then they stop talking. Tucker, Mayweather and Phlox agonize around the briefing-table, which displays a map of the area. They can scan the bio-signs of T'Pol, but not the others; what's that she said about being "altered?" "The laws of biochemistry on this world may be just as unpredictable as the laws of physics," Phlox shrugs. Tucker decisively orders Shuttlepod Two prepped: they'll use "EV suits", "biohazard protocol", and the "decon chamber". The UT is finally working. The trio don't trust T'Pol (because she's different), and are in a rush to reach "Urquat" and their people. They take her. Reed leaps into a tree and returns with two pods; Archer snatches one, and Sato grabs the other when Reed drops it. A shuffle for dominance ensues. The pods contain fluid and worm-creatures [that Trek staple, meal-worms]. Archer offers T'Pol some, but she declines. Shuttlepod Two circles, swinging its undernose searchlight. Aboard at Tucker, Chang, and a second MACO. They land and search, the MACOs in their own suits, with their big guns. (Tucker orders stun.) The trio notice them (POV: orange solarized vision). Tucker stuns Reed, but Archer attacks with a stick-club and cracks his faceplate; T'Pol calms him down, they pursues him with parting orders to take the comatose Reed. Reed claws at the walls in Decon, while Phlox and Tucker watch from Sickbay. It's a "mutagenic virus", "apparently designed to rewrite the DNA of the host," but T'Pol's "Vulcan K cells" are keeping it in check. He's been "synthesizing an antivirus from her genetic profile", but needs an "active sample of her DNA" to complete it. Two alien starships arrive. They hail, and the red-garbed captain declares "restricted space", infection, quarantine, and intent to board. ACT 3: Archer has a dream in which he finds Urquat, a tiered underground city full of life. He wakes and describes it to Sato, and gives the name of their species the "Loque'eque" (pron. "lo-KEH!k"). T'Pol fruitlessly reminds him of his real home and mission. The unnamed aliens have been studying this virus for 60 years, and are paranoid about it. They infect "tens of millions" on his homeworld, all of whom had to be killed. Centuries ago, the "Loque'eque", somehow lost the ability to reproduce, and devised the virus to replenish their population. His ship detects three more infections on the surface, and storms off, adamant about his way. Phlox gives Tucker a 2-hour deadline: any longer, and there won't be "enough of their original genomes to resequence". Tucker rules out the transporter, since T'Pol's probably contagious. He rushes off to her quarters and finds the peach she had bitten. He's paged: the aliens have launched a shuttle. Archer et al find the cavern-entrance from his dream, but it's dark. The city comes into view -- and it's in ruins. ACT 4: Archer and Sato take this badly. "Who would do this?" They notice a corpse, obviously much younger than the ruins, and suspect T'Pol was the destroyer. Then they hear someone approach -- the alien "containment squad". They flee into system of caverns, and subdue the two aliens; T'Pol takes his weapon. The cuff on one is torn, and when his teammate arrives and sees the face behind the visor already changing, flames him. Meanwhile, the trio reach the surface -- but find two aliens waiting for them; and two more behind. Then Tucker and a MACO beam in (in EV suits), and stun the four aliens. They rush back to the shuttlepod, return to ENT, and depart at "warp 4". In warp, the aliens close to 2000 km, 900, 700, then fire (green bolts). Tucker hails them, they respond -- and Phlox enters the bridge with Archer and Sato, their condition receding. The alien captain is most surprised. Captain's Starlog, supplemental: they give Phlox's "serum" to the aliens. In Sickbay, Reed (still ridged at temples and forehead) gets a hypo to the neck. He complains about the food, and Phlox offers to share the "moth larvae" he feeds his "Pyrithian bat". He leaves; Archer enters. Phlox shows him a vial containing a sample of the virus, and the captain muses that the aliens, now equipped with the serum, probably won't stop until it's weiped out. The virus was created "as the final effort to preserve a civilization ... they cease to exist the moment this virus is gone." He orders Phlox to "put it on ice, in stasis, whatever," and leaves. Thoughtfully, the doctor does so. VII. SFX SHOTS [...] VIII. PRODUCTION REGULAR CAST: Scott Bakula as Cpt. Jonathan Archer Connor Trinneer as LtCdr. Charles "Trip" Tucker III Jolene Blalock as [Sub-Commander in name if not fact] 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: Philip Boyd as Com Officer Roger Cross as Tret [unnamed in dialogue] Daniel Dae Kim as Corporal Chang Troy Mittleider as Palmer [unnamed in dialogue] Brian J. Williams as Alien Decon Agent [Others as Lots of Other Alien Decon Agents] CREATIVE STAFF: Directed by LeVar Burton Written by Andre Bormanis [who should know better!] NEXT WEEK: In 3.04-"Rajiin", the eponymous xenobabe isn't really "Elaan of Troyius" or "The Perfect Mate": she's a Xindi spy! See: http://www.startrek.com/startrek/view/series/ENT/episode/2287.html