Seems like they’re actually trying to sabotage what pitiful small bit of this series is left.
So, a highly technical and dangerous manuever is simply shooting a rope across?
Archer on top, of course.
I really expected Columbia to be destroyed despite being named for the ill-fated Space Shuttle.
The Malcolm vs Quantum scene was torturously bad.
Maybe it gets better.
Yeah, I want a Gorn, too…
I dunno, I thought it was pretty cool. Reminded my of one of Asimov’s stories. Stuff like that obviously appealing to a more casual trek audience, but I’m not picky.
“Article 14, Section 31.”
Does that satisfy everyone now?
What Asimov story?
PORTHOS! 
Synopsis? Not all of us have TVs, you know.
Hey at least it finally explains that famous discrepancy.
Why the klingons of the original series had no head ridges!
Haven’t read a single word of this thread yet.
See ya…
I really wanted to like this episode, but there was just too much logical hand-waving. Like:
1. Why did the ships have to stay tethered, and why did Trip have to crawl hand-over-hand back to Enterprise? They could have just cut the tether at Columbia’s end and then reeled Trip over.
2. There was no reason to endanger all four Klingons all at once like that. Infect one Klingon; wait an hour. If it’s the right serum, there’s no need to expose the other three. If it’s the wrong one, try a second serum. If it’s the right one…etc.
3. If it made any sense at all for Phlox to infect Archer, I missed it. I still don’t even get how it occurred to Archer to suggest it.
4. Is it always that easy to beam a biological weapon onto a Klingon ship during a battle situation?
Letting the novel writers write for television is putting the lunatics in charge of the asylum. Very bad science. Worse than usual. The Klingon wails “It will be passed on to our children”. There was a Russian evolutionary theory that if you cut off the legs of successive generations of frogs, eventually frogs will be born without legs.
They should have winched Trip across. They shouldn’t make dramatic gestures like moving Trip to Columbia and being him back the next episode. This romantic stuff with T’Pol, actually juvenile arguments is idiotic. Danille Steele junk.
I imagine it was written before cancellation, but it is sad to waste one of the remaining episodes on drivel. The guys wearing plastic ears worry about the ridges. Asinine.
It’s too damn late to kill Archer and promote Trip.
Just let it die; it’s too late to die honorably, or even gracefully.
All you pessimists can feel free to quit watching.
Really! Just, turn off the t.v.!
I like clever original action scenes. Like 'em muchly.
The originality of the man-on-tether-at-warp scene: A.
The execution of same (why again does Reed have to haul Trip onto the catwalk instead of just, y’know, closing the door?): C.
The rest of the episode: Remarkably predictable, except for Phlox’s morally staggering choice to employ a biological weapon, which was unpredictable in not a good way. I give it a C, or maybe a C+ because I think Capt. Hernandez is (a) one of the most credible guest captains in any Trek incarnation and (b) pretty hot, so the episode gets a bump in my mind. Otherwise: bleah.
And thus do we stagger ungracefully toward the finish line.
I assumed that his statement was not based on Lysenkoism, but the fact that he was a doctor with knowledge of genetics and responsible for the experiment that created the virus to begin with. He’s not guessing or moaning out of ignorance, he’s stating something he’s studied and knows to be scientific fact.
Of course, that still leaves the problem of how TOS Klingons had different uniforms than the Klingons of all other series, how the virus spread from the one planet and single infected ship to all Klingons ( I may have missed this due to poor reception), how the altered Klingons replaced the unaltered ones, why the Klingons didn’t just fit themselves with prosthetic implants, and a bunch more problems.
Trip is calling the Cap’n “Captain” again? He really is trying to sever the cord.
Honestly, I thought they were going to destroy the Columbia so that Trip could have an automatic excuse to stay on Enterprise. How’s he going to return, anyway? “Ah changed mah mahnd” doesn’t seem too credible.
We have to do without any new episodes till the middle of April. Late March will bring us three fan favorites, so sez UPN.
Amusing caption below the pic of Cap’n FurrowRidges here:
http://www.triphammered.com/index2.shtml
Speaking of whom, I wonder if Bakula just isn’t able to scream. All he ever manages is a strangled squeaking cry, as if he were in dire need of Worf’s Potent Prune Juice.
Phlox still rox.
Hardly any Hoshi, Aes.
Not great but not terrible. Hey, at least Archer actually paid attention to his poor neglected dog for a change.
Yeah, I was pretty hyperaware of his performance there too. But mostly I was thinking about how stupid any actor would feel sitting in a chair, moaning and writhing around for the couple of hours it takes to shoot a scene.
They’re not problems. They’re opportunities for the production of a line of associated novels, comic books, and video games to plug the holes with narrative spackle.
The whole runaway warp engine thing sucked.
they could have done an emergency shutdown of the warp core, let the ship fall out of warp by itself, purge the Klingon routines, restarted. A third-shift junior lieutenant, or Chef and Porthos, could have done this.
Instead, we get a lame “action” sequence used as an excuse to get Tripp over for some useless dialog.
At least we have a definitive answer for the Klingon head ridge issue. Though I have trouble believing any self-respecting Klingon would allow himself to be altered with DNA from another species.
Not to mention the fact that Malcolm seemed to bring no special skill to the party.
Malcolm: Yes, Captain, I’ve stood uselessly in a cargo bay with a rope tying two ships together before yelling “Hurry up! Hurry up!” And damnit, I’m ready to do it again!
Archer: Good, because you’re the only one who can do it. Porthos is off eating cheese.
What a completely lame way to allow Malcolm to redeem himself.:rolleyes:
I only saw the second half and I have a quick question about the whole Klingons looking different thing.
First, the set up:
When Deep Space 9 had the episode where they go back in the past to the Tribble incident and Warf is asked why those Klingons look different and he replies “We don’t like to talk about it.” I thought I had a pretty good solution. They look different for the same reason LaForge looks different from most his his crew mates, those Klingons were of a different ethnicity. Seemed logical to me, but then I was reminded of the episode where the Klingons from the Tribble episode came to Deep Space 9 and looked like how all the other Klingons look now, so obviously my theory was shot down.
Now, the question:
Does what happened in Divergence explain why the Klingons eventually went back to their “normal” appearance? Maybe it was explained in the first part which I missed?
I think it was Second Foundation. They’re switching ships and use a tether cord to pull themselves to the other ships airlock. They were parked at the time and not going c^5.5 but it rang a bell.
So how did they beam the virus aboard the klingon ship? Don’t klingons have shields?
Ah, that’s an Arthur C Clarke short story.
Take A Deep Breath from 1957’s Other Side Of The Sky.