Time Travel sucks, man.
Especially when those Suliban dudes swipe your hair dryer.
Wow, what an inconclusive ep.
Temporal Cold War is Hell, apparently.
BTW, having worked on offshore oil rigs, the heritage of the design for cabin E14 was clear. Now that’s the kind of accommodations I’d expect for enlisted personnel on a starship.
So what was Archer’s deal? Was he trying to cover all bases in case the Suliban was the good guy? Deny him the device, but since the captor was dead, let him escape?
What I want to know, given the past lack of internal consistentcy, is whether the time travellers of the future will inhabit the same universe of possibilties that Voyagers did. Being false unto your own world-creation sucks.
Okay, the Visitor From the Future said that the ability to send instructions back in time will be around before the invention of physical time-travel. We also know from the original Star Trek series that physical time travel was possible (though dangerous) in the 23rd century.
This must mean that the ability to send instructions back through time will be invented before Kirk & company fling the NCC-1701 Enterprise past a star and wind up in the 20th century. And, perhaps, before they discover the Guardian of Forever. We might see the ability to send instructions back through time get invented before the 23rd century even dawns!
This is my take on the whole thing:
As far as I can remember, time travel in Kirk’s time required use of the “Slingshot Technique” ala Star Trek 4. But such a technique requires a starship, a sun, and a certain amount of luck and risk. I don’t think such a technique would be convienent for waging a covert temporal war.
But the technology to send an individual back in time has yet to be invented[discounting phenomena like the Guardian of Forever] I think even circa Next Gen. For example, there was the episode with the guy who had stole a time machine from a future traveler, and if I remeber correctly everyone seemed to be impressed.
So it will be some time yet[har!] before time travel is actually conveinent, rather than someting that can only be done with a certain amount of procedure.
I’m just somewhat amused by Scott Bakula being confused by the prospect of time travel.
This was the worst episode so far. Archer should have stunned the Suliban guy when he had the chance, instead of chasing him around the ship. Just how do you manage to hold on when the shuttle bay explosively decompresses, anyway? Ooh, can we get more close-up shots of that big door lock, and turn up the stupid music? Bleh.
Apparently, that’s nothing. I’m still wondering how he didn’t suffocate with all of the air gone, plus managed to open the air lock and hold onto the door frame while that decompressed. I swear, the ignorance of the writers is starting to make the show painful to watch.
Have to agree. I once looked up what happens to an unprotected human in a vacuum. Archer made several mistakes that should have killed him. Holding your breath causes more damage as the air tries to rush out of your lungs into the vacuum. Plus he had only 9 to 12 seconds to do anything before blacking out and dying mind you I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt in that there was some air longer than we’d believe.
At least they didn’t have him instantly freeze
I hate this Time cold war… Nonsense. So one side has mastered time travel in the far future while another sends messages from a closer moment and these two sides are against each other? Why doesn’t the one side merely go to the other time and stop them there? The problem with Time travel is that you can fix mistakes easily by the fact you have knowledge of events and can anticipate and counter things. Even if you screw up, you’ll know it before you go back in time so you can avoid it… you know paradox. It can only lead to bad writing and sloppy plot lines.
Personally I hope they drop this story line soon. The series has been really strong and managed to make the usual seem new. This extra baggage is dumb, dumb, dumb!
I would think (but I would avoid time travel stories) that the trick to this temporal war thing is altering the timeline in a way that the other side doesn’t know about. Say, give Napolean a very bad intestinal infection on the eve of Waterloo. If the other side doesn’t know you did it, they will think it a natural event and not change it.
Removing the other side’s time traveler seems a bit heavy handed; they would just replace him, instantly in so far as historical events and you traveler are concerned.
Back to the Future handles this sort of thing better, but it’s about time travel, not space stuff.
I miswrote… What I meant was
Why can’t the far future time travellers (A) travel to the time of the other Group (the ones talking to the suliban)(B) and prevent them from doing it. After all everything B has done has already happened in A’s time so they can go back to prevent it all.
If B changes tactics due to As intervention A still already has this knowledge as it is in As past and so they can counter it… etc etc. My head hurts… essentially B can not do anything without A already knowing it as Bs actions are As History. So this Temporal Cold War is utter claptrap.
That’s the deal, to kep your oponent from knowing that you are responsible for the change. Hence, sneak aboard Enterprise to waylay the Suliban rather than prevent him from boarding.
If A goes back and stops B from discovering time travel, B discovers it later and sends a guy with a gun back to the pst. B also hears about it and sends two guys with guns; A responds with four guys, etc, etc, etc. So they try to sneak around.
Well, I for one liked this episode.
We saw that B&B have removed the all-powerful reset button, and there were references to previous episodes.
We saw that there may not be Good guys or Bad guys in this Cold War, just shades of Gray. (Very DS9ish)
Thought that Daniels was a bit too loose with his “Information”. On the other hand, he may not be entirely human…
We saw Archer take a Precaution. (locked up the cabin)
The enlisted quarters; Exactly what they should be, not Hotel-style like Voyager.
As they were inside a bruning hot steller nursery, I’m willing to ive them the benefit of the doubt on Archer not instantly freezing.
I liked it … mostly … but there were a few physics problems.
The decompression was far too slow. When you open a hole the size of the shuttlecraft doors into vacuum in a sealed toom the sise of the shuttlecraft bays, the air inside is going to all be gone in a fraction of a second. There’s simply not enough air volume in the bay to supply that level of air flow for any longer. The effect would be less like a strong breeze and more like an explosion. Of course, this would have probably killed the captain.
Speaking of which, where were the shuttlecraft? Aren’t they kept in the bay when not out flying?
The whole “tech that makes you walk through walls” bit is always silly and fraught with inconsistencies. For starters, he can stick his hand through the wall, but when someone hands him a phaser it doesn’t fall through his hand…
The ending was interesting, though. They didn’t push the reset button on the plotline, and left just what was going on ambigous and unexplained. This show definitly sucks less than Voyager.
I did like the fact that the crew quarters are shown to be what you’d expect on a military starship - tiny, doubled-bunked, and using storage lockers. I also like the fact that important controls use real mechanical switches and buttons, not the silly touch-screen displays of TNG.
Worst episode ever. I don’t like the Suliban. I want to see the Klingons, and when will we ever get to see the Romulans. I don’t like the idea of time-travel because it loses the rough biggining-of-technology feel that Enterprise has.
Additionally, I should complain about the casting in this episode. Why was the doctor the one that was so interested in the alien culture? Isn’t it obvious that Hoshi should have been cast in that role? Above all physical law violations I can’t accept that artistic tradgedy.
That’s what he was doing on Earth and why he agreed to join the crew when Archer was short a Doctor. “What better way to study humans?” he said.
I’m very confused by this episode. I don’t understand why Capt. Archer locked the door at the end, can someone explain it please ?
He thought there might be other futuristic devices in Daniel’s quarters: “God knows what else is in there.”
Christopher wrote:
Hopefully, never.
Accurding to the ST:TOS episode “Balance of Terror,” we humans had fought a war against the Romulans in the past (thus establishing the Federation-Romulan Neutral Zone), but we had never actually seen the Romulans we were fighting. Officially, “Balance of Terror” was the first time human beings had ever laid eyes upon a Romulan. (Hence, the shock of their resemblance to Vulcans.)
Unless they keep their helmets on. They couldn’t afford ears for everyone, so the enlisted men had those Roman looking hats.