Thanks, tarra. I get a kick out watching the rerun show on the late night Sunday when i get a chance. It’s like having a commentary by a madman. I’m constantly surprised by what I said.
Aes, since you won’t see it for a while, the Hoshi shower scene is an angst induced MONSTROUS hallucination by Phlox. Not a pretty sight.
im a doctor not an engineer!
Monstrous? Does she have two heads or something? Three arms? Five boobs?
TRIP: “I thought you said nothing from this universe can survive in a spatial gravimetric pink-colored whoop-dee-doo disturbance cloud.”
PHLOX: “Nothing can survive in it, unless we take the proper precautions.”
<one minute later>
PHLOX: “My Denobulan neocortex is immune to the effects of the disturbance.”-
… so that means, Denobulans aren’t from this universe!! :eek:
I adore that little doggie 
Such a good doggie! Now I want a episode where the Enterprise goes through a insert technobabble here nebula where they have to put Porthos in a coma, only to later encounter a ship endangering swarm of Xindi squeaky toys and sticks.
Some vague Sixth Sense style hints…did you notice that T’Pol didn’t touch her delicous wedding soup…T’Pol didn’t touch any dials or sliders or whatnot when “they” were starting the warp engines…
That doggie be cool. I wonder how Bakula could remain so still when it was lapping at his face, though. I’d have been running around like Lucy Van Pelt, yelling for iodine.
Liked the funny note on the little jar: Phlox’s – Do not touch
Trip had exactly the right reaction to the idea of another coma. It’s his second one in the past few months. He was probably worried about being Sim’d again.
Uh, oh…Dangling Modifier! I’m quite sure Phlox said, “After two days at the helm, the ship is running perfectly.” How does that work, may I ask? The ship spent two days at its own helm?
Phlox was feeding Porthos some bad stuff, and he’s always on Archer’s case about cheese. Hee! What a slob the doctor is with the popcorn…but it’s okay to do that when no one is around…Isn’t it?
Which movie was he watching? Was that Donald O’Connor or Danny Kaye?
Phlox’s inflections and funny noises are more noticeable than usual in this ep.
Archer must not have been feeling well even before the coma. He was a nice mellow fellow in contrast to his usual pissy 3rd season self.
Nice exchange between Phlox and T’Pol in the galley.
Good follow up to “Dear Doctor” with the letter to Lucas.
Nekked Phlox…I suddenly had a flashback to the Austin Powers opening when he was bopping around the hotel with objects strategically placed behind or in front of him to cover his business.
That poor dog…almost getting shot!
I think Ghoulie Hoshi would have been better as scary old woman Hoshi, or mangled Hoshi, or something. Something sad.
Kind of a weird overhead shot in Engineering.
I was hoping that the Xindi Insectoids would have turned out to be the real thing after all. Maybe they’ll let us know next time? Speaking of next time…OOH, a mutiny! Cool! Archer’s had that coming for a while now. It’s about time.
Ghoul Hoshi?! What?!
WHAT DID PHLOX DO TO MY HOSHI?!!
He got chocolate in her peanut butter.
That must have been the Advil speaking.
He put his what where!? :eek:
He better be glad he’s light years away. :mad:
Obviously Phlox must be destroyed.
(i missed this one due to studying. The internet will fix my miss)
(i also need to get around to mailing Aesiron what i was going to mail him)
That is just great. Have to get one of those.
Spoiler follows, even though it’s already shown except in Paraguay.
He hallucinates that people have awakened, which would eventually kill them, and Hoshi looks like the salt vampire from TOS.
I liked the episode because it had more character than the action driven anomaly-encountering-Xindi-not-destroying-when-they-can episodes. The problem for me was the pacing. Phlox had much more time to give us inner monologues while hearing noises and just saying “Hello?” but there was too much time just humming or walking around.The first time T’Pol popped up I felt it was odd. She hadn’t seen Phlox in two days, but both were taking care of the ship, so why was Phlox given cursory training? But I forgot about it. Around the kitchen scene where T’Pol just sat and didn’t eat I started to wonder if she were real. Then I said to myself, “Let’s see if she actually touches or moves anything or makes a decision with knowledge Phlox doesn’t have.” She didn’t carry a phaser when they searched the ship. Even being skeptical, she would have. The scene in Engineering proved she wasn’t real - but I was happy it took me so long to catch on.I loved Jolene in this because she was more Vulcan than she has been and more fun when “delusional”. She had some real character showing through. Notice how even in Vulcan-mode she can give T’Pol character when she really works at it. The logical Vulcan can present stocism, serenity, condescension (don’t we know it), calm, matter-of-factness (is that an emotion?), dismisiveness, etc. Not just the annoyance her character seems to always portray.
{Damn IE keeps saying “IE has encountered a problem and needs to restart.” I click on “Don’t Send” a report to Microsoft. I was nice in the beginning, but now they’re just pissing me off. Thank Porthos I do the copy-to-notepad-paste-and-save routine.}
Nitpicks: [ul][]I hope Phlox has checked out metabolic compatibility before giving Prothos a “leech” to eat.[]So the trans-dimensional space effects can be stopped in the neocortex by just shutting it down? The rest of the brain’s autonomic systems can still operate normally and are not affected? So the region only affects higher functions? How … selective![]No problem with nourishment or Hydration being comatose for 4 days?[]Damn those intake manifolds! When are we gonna get a ship that doesn’t suck in space gasses!?[]How many times is it going to take Phlox to hear sounds, say “Hello?” and Not investigate?[]Oh, that many. Then while investigating I like to do something I call … TURNING ON THE LIGHTS!!![]T’Pol frightening Phlox gives him “cardiac shock”? I thought it was “cardiac arrest” and “cardiac shock” was the cure.[]Phlox must have good hearing if he can hear chains and hissing in Engineering from the Mess Hall. Must be those thin walls {re: Man With Two Brains}.[]When Phlox found the steam in engineering I’m glad he located the “Stop Steam” button on the wall panel.[]Pothos doesn’t jump when Phlox almost shoots him. Must be used to Reed taking target practice at him. Of course the beam didn’t damage the floor, ricochet, disperse, etc.[]At least they Tried to talk Trek-speech about the difficulty of getting the warp engines going instead of just overlooking it completely.[/ul]I liked various scenes.[ul][]Movie night with Dany Kaye’s “The Court Jester” was great. I love that movie and especially that part.[]Having Phlox walk around nude was cute and adds to his character. I still lament over having Everyone humanoid, but … okay.[]Having Porthos’ feet clicking around the floor was nice.[]I loved the kitchen scene where we see “Gregarious vs. Hermit”. A good look into their characters. Too bad one is technically a reset since it “didn’t happen”.[]When Phlox fled into the airlock, the camera was on the door frame and I was tense expecting to see a Xindi claw stop it at the last minute. I was pleased that obvious cliche wasn’t pulled, but it did put another nail in the “just hallucinating” coffin.[]I like the overhead camera angle in engineering to bring out the paranoia.[]I Loved Jolene being a confused Vulcan up on the Warp Core platform. That look of “Uh, I dunno” was priceless![]When Phlox encountered Archer in the turbolift I knew it wasn’t really him. Archer was too calm and lighthearted. Why, he even seemed to have facial expressions and an at-ease demeanor.[]Loved the TOS nod of Phlox’s with “I’m a physician, not an engineer!”[/ul]Overall I like it for character development but down grade it for pacing.
Overall a very good episode. Ironically, it wouldn’t have worked as well if they were consistently this good. The surprise ending worked (for me at least) because even though I spotted some earlier weaknesses in the story that should have tipped me off I dismissed them as bad writing rather than clues.
“I’m a physician not an engineer”
Hoshi had a shower scene, but not in a good way.
They finally found a niche for Mayweather; guy in a coma.
All this and Andy Sipowicz finally drops to number two on the list of television characters I didn’t want to see naked.
Good episode! A bit slow, but I’m not complaining 'cause of the Doc Phlox Quotient. For some reason, I was compelled to start my “How Much Antimatter Would It Take to Blow Up the World” thread in GQ while I was watching.
And damn, T’Pol’s got a nice ass!
Hopefully, that phase pistol is set on Stun!
[QUOTE=Corner Case]
[ul][li]So the trans-dimensional space effects can be stopped in the neocortex by just shutting it down? The rest of the brain’s autonomic systems can still operate normally and are not affected? So the region only affects higher functions? How … selective![/ul][/li][/QUOTE]
Yeah … and “nothing from this universe” can survive in it! :rolleyes:
I give it a B. Note that’s a relatively high mark for this stubbornly mediocre show.
The twist at the end didn’t fool me:
[spoiler]I was on to it the moment T’Pol appeared. “Didn’t we just hear Phlox tell the good Cap’n he was the last one awake?” I asked my wife. “And why is Phlox learning how to maintain the engines if T’Pol is still around? Oh, look, she didn’t take any soup. SHE’S A GHOST!” Heh.
“It’s healthy for Denobulans to hallucinate” was the giveaway. That happened at about the 20 minute mark, as I recall. After that, there wasn’t anything else going on.
And I question the wisdom of firing up the warp engines and everything even though he knew he was hallucinating at least the Xindi and Zombi Sato and couldn’t trust his reading of the sensors telling him where they were in the cloud, or even a look out the window. For all he knew, they were out of the cloud an hour beforehand and his brain was fried. If they’d wanted to really turn the screws, they could have had him draw that conclusion, saying he didn’t trust his reading of the sensor, and waking up a crew member as a trial, only to see him or her grabbing his head and hitting the deck. Naturally, at the end that crew member would be in sickbay, with a line about “it’ll be a couple of days, but I think they’ll be fine” so Phlox knows he didn’t kill anybody, but it would really have sent his paranoia up to a new level at the time.[/spoiler]
Anyway, the rest the episode obviously wasn’t as successful with the inevitable twist so clearly telegraphed within the first fifteen minutes.
“I’m a physician, not an engineer” cracked us up, though.
And Phlox is far and away the show’s most interesting character (and Billingsley the best actor), so an opportunity to get to know him, even if the episode itself melts like a square of toilet tissue in a bowl of water (and even disregarding how the premise is borrowed from Voyager), is welcome.
Further, Roxann Dawson shows some real directorial chops in the way the episode is shot and edited. The pacing is really nice, and keeps the show from grinding to a halt even though basically nothing is happening. It’s a nice, light touch, pushing only where necessary. Good job with a throwaway script.
So, I give it a B.