My notes, just in time for the next episode!
- Vashti had its secondhand defence net already in place at the time of the Mars incident. We don't know exactly how long the Romulan settlement had been there by that point, but it stands to reason that for a planetary exodus, not every designated resettlement target could be covered by either Starfleet or the Romulan navy. Odd though that in the flashback the only visible craft were Federation, and no Romulan smaller ships were seen, though we know those assets exist. Presumably the Fenris Rangers were active back then too, as they helped the locals install it.
- Picard is super-busy with the evacuation plan, but gets to take three days off to visit Elnor and his Sister Act crew. I'm guessing someone forced him to take a bit of leave.
- When Raffi calls Picard with the Bad News, he takes the call privately by pressing a finger to his ear. It's reasonable to assume a man in his 80s would have a hearing aid (implant?), but we don't see it - and his combadge is still attached to his jacket which lies nearby. Incidentally, today's hearing aids can come with bluetooth control from one's phone and can take calls exactly like this.
- Picard walks down the stairs as he dematerializes, which is one thing. Another is where is he going? A waiting shuttle? The USS Verity* in orbit? Or some other planet - there is ample evidence these days to suggest interstellar beaming is commonplace by now.
*I'm being part sarcastic, I have little confidence his prequel comic starship will ever be mentioned, let alone seen
- La Sirena is first shown in this episode jumping into warp, suggesting they haven't taken a straight line from Earth to Vashti. Most starships are often shown at impulse when an episode kicks off. Did they just finish a stopover adventure? Side quest? Excuse to move the background crates around since the previous episode? Or are they following the "faster than light, no left or right" doctrine from Voyager and changing course only after dropping from warp?
- We've yet to see what's on the lower deck of the ship since last week, but twice now we've seen people come up from there. I'm sure we will, all these crew quarters and holodeck (holosuite?) have to be somewhere. Maybe the sickbay is on this main deck, the EMH walked onto the scene last week from an off-set room (that may not fit into the CG model of the ship, but I digress). No lifts though, which is a thing.
- Agnes was "going to watch a holo" when she discovered that the ship's memory only had Klingon Opera available. A holo... movie? Holonovel a la Voyager? Or have movies made a resurgence in the past couple decades?
- Is at least one of the Romulan ship designs swarming the Cube a variable wing design? Or are we looking at the same one in different wing configurations?
- It's great that a Romulan defence net allows transport windows in nice round increments of terran time units.
- Did anyone else see the triangular bread the sisters were making and think that it was actually Elven lembas bread?
- The bottle of Romulan Ale seen here is a different shape than the one seen originally in TWOK, but has the same label as in another appearance of the drink in some other episode, according to evidence from
TrekCore.
- Narek and Soji go skating in a "ventilation return" corridor. What are they sliding on? They took off their shoes but are still wearing socks. Sliding on ice in one's socks doesn't work, the moisture in the socks increases friction. And if they're slipping around on ventilation grease / goo / whatever, is it their magic space boots that keep them from sliding around?
- Raffi is alerted to "POSTITIVE ID: FORMER ADMIRAL JEAN LUC PICARD" on her screen.
- The former Romulan senator was brought to Vashti aboard the Wallenberg class USS (?) Nightingale. The implication is that this ship is of the class that was being built over Mars, but my read is that everyone brought here was aboard some fleet that Picard managed to scrounge together, and starting the move before the synths attacked. From last week's episode, it did seem that Picard was keelhauled pretty quickly after the attack. Or, as I suggested previously, the exodus was well underway with new ships as they were being completed. Either way, I wonder if the ships of the exodus fleet had names already assigned to other Starfleet ships, as "Nightingale" would be a pretty early target name to assign to a ship, IMO. "Captain" Kim's command aside.
- The Romulan BoP is seen firing both beam and pulse weapons, the latter of which is likely a torpedo. No sign of the classic plasma weapon, though.
- Said BoP is disabled when La Sirena fires on the shields on the ship's starboard pylon, and then Seven's fire neatly cuts through the hole made and then the pylon itself. Smart and nonlethal.
- What does this say for the state of non-Starfleet weaponry? The BoP is an antique, but between La Sirena and Seven's little ship, they were able to take care of things much more swiftly than Kirk and his crew did some 130+ years prior.
On to this week's episode, and the realization that ad-blocking software is NOT a standard feature on all starships!
Mark