Date: Sun, 06 Apr 2003 15:01:19
From: Boris Badenov <bbad@frostbite.falls.state.mn.us>
|Synopsis: Enterprise is swallowed by an otherworldly vessel occupied
|by noncorporeal creatures who invade the bodies of crew members and
|trade consciousnesses with them.
I thought we had the makings of a pretty good episode here, its shortcomings
notwithstanding, until we got to the point where the Swirlies try to take over T'Pol and
she learns they are lying. From that point, this episode went downhill so fast, it
threatens to become the Enterprise version of "And the Children Shall Lead."
I did not have any problems as some here have with noncorporeal beings on a starship.
They may not have had bodies, but they responded in one documented case to matter (the
osmium coating on the warp nacelle), so it seems reasonable to assume they would respond
to other matter and energy as well. So, they were probably sensitive to extreme heat, and
cold, and became tired. Perhaps they needed to feed on some sort of energy as well. So,
clearly, this bunch wasn't the Organians or Q.
My problem was being unable to accept that their ship was breaking up, and snatching the
bodies of the Enterprise was how they chose to deal with that situation. If they were
capable of warp six, they were within range of some planetary system capable of sustaining
their life. Instead, they jump our heroes. I don't buy that; I think it's much more
reasonable they scan for the nearest habitable star system and make tracks.
However, I have problems before we ever get to this point in believing their ship is
breaking up. This is a totally inadequate premise on which to base this story.
Inadequate, because it's never sold, and even if it were, we'd never believe it.
Everything from T'Pol's encounter with the Swirlies to the end of the episode should have
been re-written with a different motivation for the Swirlies doing what they did.
This just sucked.
Date: Sun, 06 Apr 2003 19:33:53
From: Keeper of the Purple Twilight
> I was somewhat disturbed by the ending. I don't think it was within
> Archer's character to just flat out destroy the noncorporeal alien
> ship.
Nevertheless, my respect for Archer doubled after seeing that.
> After all, the aliens were only trying to save themselves the
> only way they knew how.
That's their problem. Archer was faced with a direct threat to HIS
ship and crew. He did the only thing possible - destroy the threat.
(The aliens were obviously not about to listen to reason, anyway.)
Date: Mon, 07 Apr 2003 20:12:28
From: ashparnell@m...
Conveniently the aliens shut down the warp drive, otherwise the crew
wouldn't have been able to go into the catwalk to escape the aliens.
Date: Sun, 06 Apr 2003 21:29:34
From: rgorman@telusplanet.net
>I was somewhat disturbed by the ending. I don't think it was within
>Archer's character to just flat out destroy the noncorporeal alien
>ship. After all, the aliens were only trying to save themselves the
>only way they knew how. Typically, Archer would have not only saved
>his own crew, but would have also been able to bridge the gap between
>his adversary and his personal feelings. Thus, he would have saved (if
>not shown how) the alien people as well. If Archer was that concerned
>for his ship's safety, what happened to "take out their engines" and
>run?
He wasn't able to figure out whether their engines were...or anything
else about their ship. It was way different. He was just lucky that
his guess about shooting into the alien's "mouth" was right.
Which of course means that they couldn't actually do anything to help
the aliens.
Incidentally, that plan would probably have killed a good ten percent
of the possessed crew members. You can't really play games with
people's air supply that way without significant risks.