1x10 No Small Parts
- At the end of "Return of the Archons", Kirk leaves a bunch of Enterprise crew on Beta III to undo the damage Landru did to the planet. Presumably it's they who were responsible for putting the signage and stanchions around the Landru computer, as they are in the TOS-era fonts and iconography. But in the era of pre-replicate-everything, does that mean that there is yellow chevroned hazard ribbon? Did they bring a printer with them, 3D or otherwise, to come up with the ineffectual safety stuff?
- The actual computer unit is almost the exact same as the one from the TOS episode, which is a great touch.
- Most of the elementary-age school supplies seen here are Starfleet-branded. But under what circumstances do they NEED protractors and compasses? My ten year-old daughter doesn't need these. Hell, *I* needed them for, what - one or two days worth of assignments? And on non-touch surfaces? And I'm guessing Mariner replicated these?
- Captain Dayton sure got a new command really fast - even if this season takes a calendar year, it means that Dayton got debriefed for the Rubidoux's destruction and then shot back into space on a new command in as little time as it took Kirk to do the same thing.
- I know that chronological NCCs in LDS are in question here, but one wonders if she got a newly-refitted California-class ship with its brand-spanking new bridge module?
- The Rubidoux notably had at least one child aboard. I didn't check to see if the same background characters made it to the Solvang, but if they did, and that kid transferred over too...
- Was Rutherford's implant an off-the-shelf Vulcan unit? Why would Vulcans need a bunch of emotional or personality statuses coded into the implant's OS? OTOH, the implant interface has been consistently a Starfleet LCARS design and in English, perhaps these behavioral modes are built into the default programming of all neural implants, and the glitches we've seen over the course of the series are what happens all the time when you put a universal OS on hardware from any number of manufacturers. Lookin' at you, Android OS...
- Mariner brings up that the family Crusher served on the same ship together. Of course, that's only part of the dynamic here, as we have numerous examples of married officers / engaged members as part of the same crew, but not NECESSARILY with one directly in command of the other. I wonder what Starfleet's regulations actually are here, if there are limitations, or what the practicalities can be. I'm sure they don't want another version of
The Sullivans to happen...
- Escaping from further parental admonition, Mariner becomes the subject of a selfie. She tells the other officer not to log that picture, and that she doesn't want to see it "up on the..." before she's interrupted by the cat. "Up on the" what, I wonder? Is there a Starfleet social network we're not aware of? Or is there an FNS branch for gossip?
- 2380s PADDs have selfie cams AND flashes.
- Part of the plot revolves around Ransom selecting SOMEONE to be transferred to the Sacramento, allegedly a cooler ship than the Cerritos. What drives promotions like this, that a specific ship gets to send anyone of their choosing over?
- Did anyone figure out what was in the wrapping of Shaxs' present? I looks vaguely bat'leth-ish, but that something sticking out of the middle doesn't make sense for one.
- Someone on Reddit has done a fairly comprehensive
review of the changes to the shuttle Sequoia over the course of the season, so I'll just link to it. Still, it's a little odd that they'd come up with a whole new ship model for the Sequoia instead of just painting over the model of the existing one that they started with, and giving it Type-6 nacelles. OTOH, stuff like the more TNG-cream paint livery for parts of it, and the TOS-sounding phasers are really nice touches.
- Shaxs establishes that there was an impact on deck 20. ARE there 20 decks on the MSD? Or are we counting the empty pylon space between the hulls as decks too?
- The Pakled ships explode out of warp with bits of debris, suggesting that either the ships aren't holding together that well in warp, or the warp drive itself sucks debris along with it. I'm guessing they mean the former.
- Upon abandoning the bridge, Shaxs says that the crew should head for the armory. Why? In several episodes this season, crew members have whipped out phasers from their uniforms despite not really needing them for whatever they were already doing. Any particular reasons they wouldn't be armed besides story ones?
- At the back of the big room on the Pakled ship that the Sequoia busts into, there's what looks like a four-legged robot with a triangular window on it that's being disassembled or something. I don't know what it is, but it looks REALLY familiar and not Trekkish. Has anyone been able to identify this Easter Egg?
- To save Rutherford, Shaxs pulls out the man's ENTIRE IMPLANT in one of the most unexpected shots of the show. But why? Was the cable somehow stuck in Rutherford's head? Why not just pull out the cable? Badgey?
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@Mike McDevitt has pointed out to me that in the shot of the Sequoia just as the Pakleds explode, the shuttle's port nacelle has been reoriented to some 90 degrees from where it should be. In the prior shots of the shuttle dodging UFO Catcher arms, the shuttle nacelles were both correctly oriented. Damage to the shuttle?
- Upon dropping out of warp, the Titan immediately starts firing weapons. A few seconds later, Riker appears on screen, and THEN orders red alert, with the accompanying lightbulb changes. Were they already at yellow alert upon receiving the same partial distress call from the Solvang and then something else tipping them off that things were amiss? Perhaps if they'd detected three warp signatures heading to where the Solvang had made a call and the Cerritos had not responded, I'd have concluded something was up too.
- This episode puts a neat little bow on just how relatively underpowered the California class ships are compared to the front-liners like the Titan. In more typical Trek, the hero ship is usually the best and most advanced Starfleet ship in the room - even Voyager usually undercuts comments about her smaller stature compared to the queens of the day with just how much quicker and smarter she was. Here, while neither the Solvang nor the Cerritos got a shot off, at no point was it registered that either ship was remotely a match for the Pakleds. Then the Titan pops up without advance knowledge of the threat ships and curbstomps three of them, before the latter could even fire back.
- Can we conclude anything about the specs of the California class as such? If the Galaxies, Soverigns, or even Voyagers of the day mount Type X phasers, would it make sense that a California would mount Type IX (which the DS9 Tech Manual states were mounted on the Ambassador class), or even lower-rated phasers? Would her maximum shield output be a meager fraction of the Titan's? To say nothing of warp speed, maneuverability, or other tactical yardsticks... The Cerritos was pretty much on standby while Freeman went over to work the situation on the Vancouver. And of course it took two Californias to tow the generational slug.
- Rutherford is recovering in a sickbay patient room, which is something we've never really seen in Trek before. In most cases before, people get to recover in the usual sickbay biobeds, and in general if they need long term care they are shuffled back to their quarters; unless they're a kid in an isolation ward or something. Rutherford is seen here in a full-on, private room of his own.
- And it seems his implant is related to maintaining his long-term memory to a certain extent, but it's not required to keep him alive a la Bareil in any way. We STILL don't know why he had it in the first place, but this suggests that it wasn't critical to his survival. I'm guessing his replacement unit, if he gets one, will fill in this story.
- I'm guessing they recovered part of Shaxs' body, unless they buried an empty casket replicated his earring for posterity. And we see that the flag over his torpedo casket has made it to Freeman's ready room.
- Does this mean that they're going to shoot his body out into space? It's not like they're in unexplored space or need to economize space in the morgue. Could his remains not be transported back to Bajor if needed for burial - as we know Bajorans do this? If so, would you still put said remains in a torpedo casket? And if not, does this mean that in general, when you sign up for Starfleet, you're agreeing that your body gets disposed of with full honors and sometimes bagpipes?
- Under repair at Douglas Station, Freeman wisely turns down the upgrade package the dealership is trying to sell her. I'm okay with that, but at what point does a Captain get to customize the EXTERIOR of her ship? We've had discussions here that a CO may have some leeway in how their bridge looks, for example, but where does this end? Did Bob Wesley put in for an extra window on his ship's forward conference lounge? Alt-Kim want a more prominent nose on his? Harriman justified those love handles?
[I'm reminded of a 1980s fan-parody manga wherein the captain of the Constellation II got her tactical officer to secretly install aft torpedoes and more phasers to cover the blind spots, after the ship got pasted in a Klingon skirmish.]
- Of the notable repairs, the entire bridge superstructure on the Cerritos was being replaced or otherwise plugged back into its socket. Given how messed up the ship got in this episode, we COULD see a whole new bridge next season and this can easily be the justification for it.
- Much of the middle of the ventral saucer had been popped off too, revealing a sizable cavity extending upwards. IF the captain's yacht takes up some of this volume, it may have been replaced as well. Unless the computer core was being extracted for some reason, as they are generally kept buried deep in a starship's saucer. Badgey?
- And speaking of bridges, the Titan! It seems to be loosely based on the Cerritos bridge, but most of the details are different so I'm guessing that it's a new set with the notable exception of the tactical station, which is pretty much the same shape, albeit covered in E-D-esque wooden textures. However, this bridge doesn't have a ramp from the upper deck, and the side stations are all configured differently, to say nothing of the Sovereign-inspired forward stations and chairs. I look forward to seeing more of this set in the next season!
- The rest of the Titan however is all redressed from what we've seen before. Boimler's quarters are the same set as Mariner's from "Moist Vessel", and the corridors are the same too.
What a great season, and an unexpected treasure trove of Starfleet tech, most of which doesn't really throw the tech of the era out the window! Looking forward to the next ten episodes!
Mark