EPISODE: "Impulse" PROD#: ENT057 TRAN#: 3.05 RATING: PG-V AIRDATE: wed-08-oct-2003-20:00 EPDATE: ["weeks" after #304] OFFICIAL: startrek.com/startrek/view/series/ENT/episode/2329.html FROM: Phillip Thorne, thorne@underbase.org POST-TO: rec.arts.startrek.tech REVIEW#: 48.0 FORMAT#: 5.0 URL: underbase.org/dept/trek/ent305_impulse.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/ENTERPRISE: transporter, resequencer, fused coils, biohazard locker, Cargo Bay One TECHNICAL/SHUTTLEPOD: intake manifold, starboard thruster, purge, impulse assembly, engine housings, docking clamps, Shuttlepod One, Shuttlepod Two TECHNICAL/_SELEYA_ deputy science officer, main power, starboard docking port, launch bay, [movable] bulkheads, Sickbay, auxiliary control room, engineering deck, transceiver, auxiliary transmitter, auxiliary grid, [bulkhead] actuator mechanisms, warp reactor, antimatter containment, hexafluorine, environmental controls TECHNICAL: thermobaric perimeter, subspace eddy, isotope density, trellium BIOLOGICAL & MEDICAL: synaptic pathways, paranoia, homicidal rage, bio-data, synaptic regeneration, innoculate CULTURAL: Movie Night, Hope and Crosby movie LOCATIONS, POLITIES and ORGANIZATIONS: Vulcan Consulate, _Seleya_, _Vaankara_(sp?) NAME-DROPPING: Chef, Cpt.Voris III. ANALYSIS 1. What we get... More details on the _D'kyr_-type Vulcan starship. Confirmation that Vulcans in the past were violent. 2. What we don't get... A date. 3. The shirtless files... Beneath her Sickbay blanket, T'Pol wears no gown, and the camera gets a view of her bare back when she sits up. 4. Arcs... Trellium. 5. It's sometimes assumed that Vulcans are markedly stronger than humans. However, Archer is easily able to restrain T'Pol as she's thrashing about, and the away team has no trouble in hand-to-hand with the crew of the _Seleya_. The zombies may have been malnourished and suboptimal, but that doesn't explain T'Pol. 6. Vulcan ships are named with a "the" prefix ("the _Seleya_"), but ENT isn't ("how's _Enterprise_ doing?"). This is British vs. American usage, but I forget which is which. 7. Previous appearances of Vulcan ships in ENT: Name Type Capt Ep ========= ==== ===== ====================== Ti'Mur 1 Vanik 108-"Breaking the Ice" Ni'Var 1 Sopek 114-"Shadows of P'Jem" ??? 3 117-"Fusion" D'kyr 2 x 201-"Shockwave" Nyran x Tavek 207-"The Seventh" Two unnamed 2 x 215-"Cease Fire" Unnamed 2 x 225-"Bounty" Vaankara x x 226-"The Expanse", 305 Seleya 2 Voris 305-"Impulse" Type 1, "Suurok-class", is red, has a tapered cylindrical hull, a triangular keel, and a ring-nacelle. Type 2 (class unknown) is red, has a flat triangular hull with a circular cutout, and a pivoted ring-nacelle. Type 3 (class unknown) is grey. Type X weren't shown. 7. The _Seleya_ is named after an important mountain on Vulcan, where Spock's /fal-tor-pan/ was performed at the end of ST3; it's the first Vulcan ship in ENT with a recognizable namesake. Starting from the deck with the floor hatch, the chasm shows at least four decks below. Docking port access would thus be on Deck 5 (at least), Launchbay on 6, Sickbay on 8, and the Bridge on 13; the Engineering Deck and Auxiliary Control aren't located. Corroboration: Decks 12 and 13 are said to be decompressed. The vertical ring-nacelle is definitely pivoted, as previous shots of this class would imply. The structure hanging within the horizontal ring appears to be an oversized snail-shuttle. The _Seleya's_ starboard docking port is located at the midpoint of its horizontal ring. The shuttlepod is about one-third the length of the rectangular band at that point; at five meters for the pod, some crude photogrammetry puts the ship at least 150 meters long -- with 13-plus decks, probably more. Vulcan circuitry modules consist of a half-dozen translucent green semicircular arcs, connected at ends and midpoint by metal rods. 8. The asteroid field is insanely dense, even more so than the usual TV SF standard. (In Sol's asteroid belt, you'd be lucky to see one body from another.) The rocks frequently collide and grind together; you'd expect the bodies to be reduced to uniform rubble in short order, and for the field to disperse. (Cue Delphic Expanse weirdness.) If the field is too dense for ENT to enter, what does that imply about the _Seleya's_ greater capabilities? Also, it didn't seem to have shields, so why hadn't it been clobbered (during whatever interval it had been there)? IV. NITS 1. The phrase "synaptic pathways" is an histological oxymoron. A synapse is the *gap* between two neurons. A neural pathway (between, say, a gland and a sector of the brain) consists of one or more neurons. (A neuron can be very lengthy, mostly in its output fiber, the "axon". In the human peripheral nervous system, axons from the spinal cord to the foot can be three feet long.) 2. The term "hexafluorine" is incomplete. Fluorine gas is diatomic; it does not by itself form a six-atom molecule. However, uranium hexafluor*ide* has been proposed as the fuel for a gas-core fission reactor tied to an MHD generator in an electric rocket (see _Space Travel: A Writer's Guide to the Science of Interplanetary and Interstellar Travel_, by Ben Bova and Anthony R. Lewis), but it's highly toxic. 3. Archer's a bit fuzzy on his medical terminology. You can be "innoculated" against things that cause an immune response (pathogens, allergens), not toxins. 4. Why isn't T'Pol wearing a gown in Sickbay? Phlox had to work on her head, not her torso. V. THIRD-PARTY COMMENTS [...] VI. EPISODE SYNOPSIS TEASER: Archer carries an agitated T'Pol into Sickbay, and with Phlox's help straps her to the scanner-bed. "Let me go! Kill you! Liar!" she raves. [At 18 seconds, this is probably the shortest Trek teaser on record.] ACT 1: "The damage is more severe than I expected," says Phlox, scanning T'Pol. Archer is able to restrain her head so Phlox can apply a hypo. ONE DAY EARLIER: Archer and Tucker work in the Command Center (night shift), examining Xindi starcharts for other anomalies (they later explain). Tucker relays "Chef's" concerns that the crew has been skipping meals. "Movie Night's" ("Tuesday, nineteen-hundred") been on hold since entry into the Expanse, and the engineer thinks morale needs a boost; he suggests "a comedy, a classic Hope and Crosby." T'Pol enters. Sato calls: she's picked up an automated Vulcan distress call. On the Bridge, a relief helmsman is on duty. Sato clarifies that the call originates at "3.2 Ly, 016 mark 12". T'Pol "recognizes the frequency": it's the _Seleya_, which entered the Expanse nine months earlier. They approach the perimeter of an asteroid field; T'Pol pronounces the rocks to be in "chaotic motion", and the _Seleya_ to be 2000 km ahead. Tucker realizes they're loaded with "trellium ore"; Archer orders him to get some. Archer, T'Pol, Reed, and a male MACO (later named HAWKINS) enter the field in Shuttlepod One. Dodging rocks, T'Pol explains: She had served aboard for over a year, as "deputy science officer" under "Cpt.Voris", before joining the "consulate" on Earth. Last she heard, it was attempting to chart the "thermobaric perimeter" of the Expanse, but reported itself caught in a "subspace eddy" and pulled in. The _Vaankara_ was dispatched to find it (226-"The Expanse"). Approaching the ship, Reed scans "main power is offline", "minimal life support", decks 12 and 13 decompressed -- but T'Pol reads multiple bio-signs. There's no response to Archer's hail, so they hed for the still-intact "starboard docking port". They climb up through a deck hatch, to find the ship in a shambles. (The usual: flickering lights, intermittent sparks, fallen beams, rubble.) Archer and T'Pol carry phase-pistols, Reed and Hawkins rifles with shoulder straps. Exploring, they find a bulkhead half-smeared with blue trellium. They split up. Archer and T'Pol encounter a crazed male Vulcan with a club. At the transporter niche, Mayweather mans the controls while Tucker operates a portable second console. They beam aboard a large chunk, which the engineer pronounces has "good isotope density" and to contain "half a kilo" of trellium. They try for a bigger rock -- but a distortion passes through the stage. There's an "overload in the resequencer"; Mayweather crouches to a set of controls on the front of the command pillar, but is repelled by a blue spark. The half-materialized rock vanishes, then reappears as a dozen smaller chunks stuck to the walls of the niche. Tucker pronounces the "coils fused": it's now useless. Mayweather suggests taking a shuttle to one of the bigger asteroids. ACT 2: T'Pol is getting nervous. Her scans indicate "his synaptic pathways have been severely damaged." Their move to take him to the pod is interrupted by two others, whom they stun. Archer calls to warn the other party, who start shooting (blue bolts); Hawkins uses his cattle-prod nightstick. They're cut off from the docking port when a vertical hatch is dropped. They climb a ladder to escape. Archer gets no response calling ENT. T'Pol suggests the bridge -- seven decks above. Reed recalls the "launch bay" is on this deck, but T'Pol checks a wall console (red) and reports it's depressurized; moreover, all four "bulkheads" to the docking port are sealed. Hawkins has been injured; Sickbay is two decks up. The ship has a full complement of 147. They reach Sickbay; Reed shoots a Vulcan (SOLIN) who springs from above. Hawkins' left upper arm is bandaged, while T'Pol stuffs Solin (whom she identifies as the chief engineer) into a diagnostic tube. He has yellow pustules on his face, grunts incoherently, and strains against the restraints. T'Pol grows agitated, but Archer forces her to think of an alternate way to open the bulkheads: an "auxiliary control room" on the "engineering deck". They crawl through a horizontal circular access tube [unnamed]. Archer and Reed go ahead, while Hawkins stays with T'Pol. "I thought Vulcans didn't have emotions." She explains: "A common misconception ... we keep them suppressed ... there was a time in the past when we were an extremely violent race ... paranoia and homicidal rage were common." Wearing EV suits, Tucker and Mayweather make a rough landing on a large spinning asteroid, one safely isolated from others, and with ore near its surface. They pile rubble into a case. Mayweather refers to the accident in the synthesis lab. A spatial distortion passes, triggering a small avalanche; Sato calls, warning them that it has diverted them into a denser part of the field. A huge asteroid looms overhead ... ACT 3: Pelted with pebbles, Tucker and Mayweather evade the oncoming megarock. Debris in the "intake manifold" causes the "starboard thruster" to fail; Tucker tries to "purge" it, but they limp home on "one thruster". He calls ahead for the Launch Bay crew to expect a rough landing. Archer et al drop through a ceiling hatch into Auxiliary Control(?), and close the main door. (Reed "encrypts the locking codes".) The control panels are lit. T'Pol pronounces the "transceiver" damaged, but Archer prompts her to remember the "auxiliary transmitter". Mayweather tallies the damage to "POD 2" (written there on the nose) on a padd, including that to the "impulse assembly" and "engine housings". Sato relays the call from Archer; he's advised that it'll be "a couple of hours" before Pod 2 can launch. The captain also transmits "bio-data" for Phlox to analyze. Phlox discovers that trellium-D is a potent neurotoxin to Vulcans -- it "disrupts the synaptic pathways that control emotions". Tucker objects that he and T'Pol have been working with it for weeks, but the doctor points out that they never successfully synthesized it. Because the controls on Deck 9 are severed, T'Pol reroutes through the "auxiliary grid"; Reed "realigns the actuator circuits". Without supervision, he flubs it, which "overloads the actuator mechanism". T'Pol grows angry, then paranoid. As an alternative, Reed suggests overloading the power grid, disrupting all shipboard systems -- but (T'Pol points out) with the "warp reactor" already unstable, they could lose "antimatter containment" and cause a "reactor breach". Her paranoia in full swing, she pulls her phase-pistol -- set to kill. In the corridor, two Vulcans remove a wall panel, then a circuit-cluster within. Phlox calls with the news that T'Pol must undergo "synaptic regeneration" ASAP, but the other crew are too far gone -- then he's cut off. Gas starts flooding in through vents near the floor -- Hawkins scans and IDs it as "hexafluorine". ACT 4: Outside, Vulcans hammer at the hatch with clubs. They've "bypassed the environmental controls", so Reed initiates the overload and, coughing, they climb out. An alarm starts; they have maybe 15 minutes to escape. Standard FX: shaking corridor, explosions. They pass two dead Vulcans (with green blood). They encounter a chasm that cuts through at least five decks; Archer and Reed lug a narrow (~10cm) beam across it. Archer's forced to stun T'Pol, and carries her across; Hawkins and Reed provide covering fire against the oncoming mob. They reach the bulkhead hatch, pull it up and prop it open, escape, then let it close. Oops -- the "docking clamps" are stuck. Pod 2 arrives (with Tucker and Mayweather) and phaser-severs the docking tube. They escape. In the Launch Bay, Tucker shows Archer the "60 kilos" (ore? trellium-D) he'd collected; "it should be enough to line the forward hull". "It may be a while before Phlox finds a way to innoculate T'Pol," says Archer resignedly, and orders him to store it in "a biohazard locker" in "Cargo Bay One". Archer visits T'Pol in Sickbay; Phlox says it'll be a few days for her to regain full control. He revives her with a hypo. He explains the problem with trellium-D. "It's essential you protect this ship. Leave me on the next habitable planet," she insists, but he refuses. Movie night: Phlox and Tucker discuss it loudly. T'Pol (in purple) objects, and Tucker explains that, "Part of the fun of a mystery is to try to solve it ... using logic." "Then use logic more quietly," she retorts. There's an alarm. T'Pol hallucinates an attack by the Vulcan mob. She awakes in Sickbay -- Phlox is one of them! He reassures her. She lies back down, slowly, shuddering. VII. VFX SHOTS Madcap asteroid field. Shuttlepod One scoots through. Shuttle pelted with pebbles. Shuttle dodges. Approach the _Seleya_. Shuttlepod Two skids to a stop on the asteroid. Tucker and Mayweather on its surface. Small explosions on the _Seleya's_ hull. The _Seleya_ fragments in a series of huge explosions. ENT at warp, its blue impulse-glows on. VIII. PRODUCTION REGULAR CAST: Scott Bakula as Cpt. Jonathan Archer Connor Trinneer as LtCdr. Charles "Trip" 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 [briefly] John Billingsley as Dr. Phlox [No Porthos] GUEST CAST: Sean McGowan as Hawkins [Somebody] as [ENT relief helmsman] [Somebody] as [Chief Engineer Solin] [Others] as [misc. ENT crew] [Others] as [misc. _Seleya_ crew] CREATIVE STAFF: Directed by David Livingston Teleplay by Jonathan Fernandez Story by Jonathan Fernandez & Terry Matalas NEXT WEEK: In 3.06/058-"Exile", a powerful alien telepath contacts Sato, offering to sell the whereabouts of the Xindi. See: http://www.startrek.com/startrek/view/series/ENT/episode/2482.html