Sussman Responds to Cogley!

Not really dude, You just make crazy comments about things. Sussman had to put you in your place which I think he did a wonderful job doing.

Next time think about your reviews before you write them. You might not have the writer coming on and having to explain everything to you next time.

I personally dont read any of your reviews. They're so off and you really dont put much thought into them. Its more bashing then anything.

Thanks for explaining these things Mr Sussman even though the real fans of Enterprise already knew the facts and LOVED THE EPISODE.
It sucks you have to explain the episode to people who dont understand Star Trek.

 

In stark contrast to the rest of the fawning:

It's very nice of you to tell us that, but it's not what made it on-screen. Sorry. This, incidentally, makes it non-canon.

But I personally do appreciate the fact that you tried and it's someone else's fault.

It's very nice of you to tell us that, but it's not what made it on-screen. Sorry. This, incidentally, makes it non-canon.

But I personally do appreciate the fact that you tried and it's someone else's fault.

This is, put simply, speculation. And as for negative consequences, allow me to point to Seven's cortical implant, something that certainly stood in the way to her regaining the full extent of her humanity, and to something that remained within Picard and allowed him to be tormented by whispers (and dreams?) of the Collective.

Yeah, those nanites were harmless. Let 'im suffer, who knows, he might tell us where to shoot our quantum torpedoes someday.

It's a good thing that's simply your belief. Look at Columbia: NASA are collecting every available scrap to study it to prevent it happening again. And Starfleet have one sure way of stopping the Borg from being a threat - FREEZE THEM. A scientist suggested this very thing at the start of the episode! If you're scared of the Borg fragments reanimating themselves, freeze what you can and obliterate the rest.

It is, put simply, suicidal stupidity - especially in the face of the clear danger the Borg represent - to say that this VERY SAME DANGER justifies destroying ALL the evidence, ALL the records, ALL the remains and forgetting it ever happened!!!

Do scientists destroy smallpox and anthrax? NO. Why? Because there is value in keeping very small amounts under carefully controlled conditions and restaints, just in case you need it someday so you can figure out a cure or learn something new from it!

Seriously, this is just totally crazy reasoning on your part. I'm sorry, Mr. Sussman, but i'll point to the anthrax analogy as an example of something that could wipe us all out, but we're not outright destroying. I bet once SARS is subdued a small amount of it will be kept alive somewhere. Frozen, ironically enough.

Yes, but given the obvious threat the Borg present, isn't it a little dangerous to assume anything? Look at what the scientists assumed, look at what Phlox assumed, and look where it got them. Let's assume again!! ... not.

Of course, being the writer, you can just say that the co-ordinates are all that the message contained. Frankly, I believe that's all that was in it. But giving us ifs and maybes is not a response, it's simply speculation, and completely spurious at that.

It wasn't until Archer saw a totally borgified human on the transport that he finally gave up hope of rescuing them. I believe Reed asks about them, and Archer says "there's nobody here we can help". It's kinda wierd, because they have clear proof of what assimilation.. i'm sorry, infection with these nanites.. can do to you in a bit over an hour (the travel time to the ship + some rescue time).. why Archer is incapable of extrapolating that and deducing what might have happened to humans in several days is a bit of a mystery.

T'Pol seems to be the only sensible and intelligent one on board. Par for the course, really.

I remember this line, and Sussman is right on this point.

Actually, I distinctly remember Trip saying the ship was only capable of warp 1.5.

They upgraded the engines TWICE. Once from 1.5 to 3 something, and then again to 4.8.

Would it trouble you to add the word "polarization" to the end, so it doesn't SOUND like hull plating is being lost?

Come to think of it maybe you should use different phrasing alltogether - how about this:

Hull polarization has been diffused to 12% strength!

That better represents what's actually going on, IMO. Of course, you can use other words, but I think polarization NEEDS to be in there, as do words relating to the dispersal or diffusion of a charge, which is what polarization IS. Please don't treat it like the thickness of a plank of wood, or the hull itself, as it sounded like you were doing.

The point isn't what was meant, it's what it sounded like. Hull plating down to 12% sounds like, well, there's only 12% of the hull left.

What year are these drones from again?

For that matter, why didn't the drones stay and assimilate EARTH? They could have done it, especially given how quickly the HEAVILY ARMED science team got taken out.

See Trip's comment re: Warp 1.5 to begin with. It's nice that you say the Borg ship left Earth doing 3.8, but we really don't know that. Besides, didn't anyone challenge an unauthorized ship in orbit? Is there ANY Earth defense at all?

I thought she got regular 3 calorie iron injections from Archer

 

^^^^^^^^You have to quote everything he said to make a 1 sentence comment

You need to read the BBS rules

 

And you need to read my post properly! OWNED!

 

Ok, call me stupid (go ahead ... you too ... everybody in the back ... OK?) but what does "59c on the TOS scale" mean? I know the warp scale was re-written between the 23rd and the 24th century so that warp 1 in the Enterprise D was more like Warp 2 or 3 on the original (the numbers aren't to scale, but that's my basic understanding). So, does that mean we are using the same scale from the 23rd Century or a "slower" scale, or are we using the 24th Century scale?

I'm sure this has probably been hashed over before, but I never got that memo.

 

Well, I certainly appreciate that.

That extra scene would have certainly helped, but I would then wonder why the Borg took such a great effort to remove all of the pieces. Do the Borg care about continuity now?

I'll buy that they might have used some of the debris as raw materials for the arctic shuttle -- but all of it? Some of that stuff had to be useless to them -- especially in light of the fact that technology seems to leap out of nowhere at the slightest touch of their fingertips.

Agreed.

In fact, they were restored a little too easily, but that's a whole separate ball of wax.

A line indicating that Phlox's "cure" "may only be effective in the initial stage of assimilation" would have clarified things a bit, especially since this is the first time we hear that omicron radiation can be used as a defense. It makes later scientists look bad that they never mentioned it.

I'll buy this. But if Starfleet considers the technology to be "incredibly dangerous," this cuts against Starfleet not remembering to put a yellow Post-It note on their future calendar that says, "Borg in town. Be ready. Make up the guest bedroom and put the omicron light bulb in the lamp."

Again, I'll buy that. But you forgot to sneak that into Archer's subconscious. He seemed to be worried that the Borg might still want to come back and "enslave the human race."

I assumed that this was the case. The only reason I made an issue about it was because it was very un-Vulcan of T'Pol not to make the distinguishing comments you just made in answer to Archer's primary question. She would have given him the full picture, whether he asked for it or not.

Yeah, the two conversations were so close together, and the time differential between when Archer and Trip were looking at the schematics and when the schematics were originally received was not clear. This is one of those things that gets more confusing the more you try to explain it, so throwing more dialog at it would probably have made it worse.

This was what I originally assumed, however, when I went back and looked at the numbers, they didn't add up.

However, I didn't realize you were using the TOS scale as a reference point. (Hell, I didn't realize that you used any scale as a reference point, so I'm happy to hear that you do.) I was looking at the Warp 3.9 from when they left Earth, and the Warp 4.8 they were travelling when the comments were made. Since these numbers didn't jibe, I assumed Trip was referring to the shuttle's original maximum warp, that of Warp 1.4.

I assumed as much. But wouldn't it make more sense to say "Polarization is down 12%," or "Polarization levels are down 12%"? This stuff is getting very nitpicky, of course, but I'm still glad you are addressing it now, anyway.

Gotcha. I still think they'd have better luck if they just beamed all the Borg drones over to the NX-01 right away and abandoned -- or absorbed -- the shuttle. Isn't the NX-01 a better hunk of raw materials, anyway? With lots more bodies to turn into drones?

And the real answer is that it's much more exciting if our crew is the one that gets the mission. My real beef here is that there seems to be a real aversion to showing us other Starfleet ships. Is this intentional, or inadvertent? And if it's intentional, is it because TPTB want to put careful thought into the designs of those other ships, rather than just cranking out knock-off NX-01 designs?

After two years, I think it's time you guys showed us what some of the rest of the fleet looks like.

Now, that I'd like to see! We haven't seen a good worm-eating fest since TNG's "Conspiracy."

Mr. Sussman, I appreciate your taking the time to respond to my review. I am also thrilled to see that you have the good sense of humor that I expected you did.

Most of the points you addressed were things that I had minor problems with -- the nitpicky stuff, but I'm sure you were aware of that.

My main problem with the episode is that I still don't think the good accomplished by this episode outweighed the bad that this can of worms opened. Not even close.

I appreciate your attempt to clarify the mysteries of the "scooped up" bases along the Neutral Zone, but I really don't feel like "Regeneration" accomplished, or even addressed this at all.

Again, thanks for the response. It means a lot to all of us that you guys are listening.

 

Yeah,

it's damn annoying when I see Trek fans just kissing ass and sucking up whenever a producer or writer from ENT shows up. What the hell, like they're going to get a gig in Hollywood because they kissed the ass of a Trek producer over the internet.

I don't think we should flame, bash or be nasty to these semi-celebrity folks that work on ENT, but we're not helping out the Trek franchise when we just kiss up to these guys. We should speak our minds and tell them what we honestly think. ENT is a boring show, and NEM was a boring movie. They need to know this, otherwise they come on here and see all this sucking up and think everything is just dandy and keep giving out mediocre episodes or more episodes revolving around 24th century aliens/plot devices.

 

I don't get this. Does this mean that if something is not shown on screen we have to take your interpretation of events as canon?

What I mean is that the reverse is also true. Any assumptions you make is also not canon (e.g. Borg did not remove the debris, dead drones did not dematerialize/disintegrate a few seconds later) unless shown on screen.

 

^We're not kissing up to anyone. We're just thankful someone from the show actually takes us seriously.

Cool off.

 

IIRC, Braga and Menosky wrote the teleplay. They probably made some changes to the actual story. The teleplays are much more informative of a writer's ability than the story is. Not that the story is important but the teleplay can ruin or make a script. And IMO, as of this season Sussman and Strong are the best writers on the show.

 

Thanks Mike for your participation here and in the running spoilers thread. Although it will be a while before I am able to catch it on tv here, I have read all the spoilers and will be looking forward to it.

Based on your previous efforts I get a feeling that it will be a good episode.

Oh ya, one other thing, how about more Archer and Trip moments? There's lots of us out here invested in that friendship.

 

What about A Matter Of Honor?!?

Riker ate everything but the bulkheads...

 

Speaking of which, where's my hundred bucks?

 

Warp 2?????

Could someone tell but have I dreamt the episode 'Fortunate Son' where it was mentioned that a cargo ship with a warp 2 engine could upgrade to a Warp 3 Engine???? Did I dream this???? now see I'm thinking if a freighter can get warp 3 engines, why can't a star fleet vessel?

Any ideas?

 

Yea, Thanks for coming to the running Commentary thread on wed night and thanks for just coming on this BBS and talking with us.

 

It's plain that something is on your nose, SammoSammo, but I won't say what.

 

Down, boy.

 

My guess for your age is about 15.


Thanking writers and producers for taking their time to come and talk on a BBS is NOT kissing ass.

Once you graduate High school you might have the intelligence to understand this.

Maybe not.

Kids like YOU ruin all the fun for everyone else.

 

Umm, Ok dude.

 

Oh, for Ghu's sake! The writer of the episode comes in here and takes the trouble to explain some stuff, and you say his explanation is "non-canon"?

Well, isn't that big of you.

I don't want to sound like I'm sucking up - Ghu forbid! - but I think if anyone's entitled to speculate about what wasn't seen on-screen, and come up with an explanation, it's the writer... and anyone who disagrees is the wrong one.

Your position is, simply put, untenable.