The Forge
No one else started it…
:dubious:
While we eagerly awaited the Vulcan homeworld arc, were we expecting this?
I’ve got a bad feeling about this. Looks like CBS News.
Come on, Manny! I’m pullin’ for ya.
Today *IS *Friday, isn’t it? Man… being housebound’s really screwing with my time perception.
This sounds interesting although the idea that Vulcans would bomb an embassy is a bit odd. Of course, the idea of a Vulcan Civil War sounds odd too. Maybe Manny will be able to make it be cool though.
I’ll find out in a couple months. 
Goodness! The Dope is slow tonight. Slow server, slow threads, slow man walkin’…
Since I’m home tonight, might as well do a recap.
TEASER:
Wow. They are really making old Vulcan stuff look Hindu (or is it Bhuddist?)
Just a big lightwand, bunch of dust, and Surak.
ACT I:
Vulcans can’t define Humans. Seems we have a mix of qualities which makes us fearsome.
Vulcan’s WWIII set them back 1500yrs. Human’s WWIII only a century.
The quarterback IS toast!
We’re playing bas-ket=ball…
Yep, they killed off some recurring characters. :eek:
Stal is tall. And…, HE’S NOT DARK HAIRED! Not very dark, anyways…
The administrator looks familiar.
Merry gets a speaking part! Malcolm still has a death wish, tho.
T’PAU!
“Private communications are no longer private.” Message?
T’Les is a wanted woman.
A rather long 1st act, it seems.
Another odd thing, a next act preview (3 secs or so) right before commercial.
ACT II:
Ooh! R2D2!
Follow the path.
The Ambassador is Syrynite, I bet ya!
Yep. It’s hot alright. And a Bible studies analogy.
CGI beasties. Seylott (sp?) Vulcan children are never late with their pet’s dinner.
Is that DNA tehcnospeak accurate?
Nice names. Stel. Arev. Koss.
Vulcan inner eyelid mentioned in passing. Archer probably forgot to include that minor point in his debiefing. Canon stays unharmed, imho.
T’Pau!?!?!
ACT III:
Soval and the question of mind melds. “The needs of the many…” :dubious:
Quantum in the desert looks like a director. I can almost hear him shouting to Ford, “ACT, damn you!”
Okay, my initial misgivings are softening. Arev’s info gathering and odd way. Soval’s mind meld. Very well done! I won’t spoil it trying to describe it. But it was a gooder.
Yeah, there is indeed a form of a message, religious zealots corrupting the teaching, yada yada…
IDIC and Katra are explained.
Soval takes a stand. This is heavy. He implicates a suprising person.
YES! 
I won’t spoil it for anyone, but she is somehow involved in this ep. It’s really cool, y’all. And it goes a long way towards fixing a certain nitpick we’ve all complained about for 3 seasons.
SEGUE ACT:
“…remember…”
I predict a fal-tor-pan in a future ep.
If Vulcan has no moon, where is all that night light coming from? Dawn on Vulcan is unusual. No transition.
Okay, I see that Manny is answering the problem of the nonVulcan Vulcans. Will he make it work? I predict yes. This ep (as a setup ep only) works.
We must discuss this arc in sickeniing detail once it is all over.
From the preview and a guess: So, Archer is carrying Surak’s katra and from him it will go to T’Pau. Somehow the hated council will try to start a war and then be thrown down and the Serenites under T’Pau will rule?
If you’re right, lee, I’ll be more than a little annoyed. That sounds horrible.
But, it will fix the Vulcan problem. Bring order and harmony. Peace will align the planets.
If he finishes as good he set it up, it will work, and will be an enjoyable watch. We’ll just have to wait and see.
Where is everybody?
Why?
We know that T’Pau becomes ruler of Vulcan.
We know that there is a vast difference between the ruling council of Archer’s time and the conduct of Vulcans and government of Vulcan in Kirk’s time.
We know that a human can carry a katra.
[Spoiler]It was obvious that before he died that guy melded with Archer. He had made it clear that someone is holding Surak’s katra. I think it unlikely that he would choose to meld with Archer if only his own katra were at stake.
As for the council starting a war, the preview practically announced that. Also, it seems unlikely that the lying ass arrogant council would peacefully found the Federation with the Andorians. It only makes sense that the group that T’Pau is part of takes over, there is not much time left for there to be many intermediates. [/Spoiler]
No need for spoiler boxes, please. Unless it spoiles an unaired episode. It it’s been on TV already, spill it. If it’s your own speculation, spill it.
I would bet on Arev’s katra, not Surak.
I think this episode was amazingly well written. So do you think her husband has the hots for T’Pol?
We have no idea what kind of society Vulcan has and we definitely don’t know that T’Pau becomes the ruler (if there is even a single ruler… I would assume Vulcan would have a parliamentary government)… only that she’s held in high esteem by Kirk’s time.
[spoiler]And the reason I dislike it is because, in recent years, I have started to intensely dislike the whole everything is interconnected aspect of Trek. I HATE HATE HATE that Soong showed up in ENT, that Kirk was in Generations, that Riker had a great great great great great great uncle that was saved by Q and so on. It’s so hokey.
That Archer is carrying Surak’s katra is eleventy bazillion times worse.
Of course, the episodes might be fine but if that happens, it’s still going to annoy. Much like the trilogy we just had.[/spoiler]
Well, he touched her.
And she gots some nacelles, that’s for sure.
I’ll hold my speculation about who’s got who’s katra for now.
The quality of writing is high for this one. For the set up, anyways. I’ll wait for the whole arc to finish before passing judgement on the merits of exactly how they fix the Vulcan problem. For now, I’m just happy that it’s getting done. One way OR the other.
NO MORE BOXES!!!
I had nits about the Augment arc, but I wasn’t annoyed.
I actually enjoy the interconnectedness. Usually. Sometimes, though, like that stupid Quinn/Riker crap) it goes too far.
NO MORE BOXES!!!
Here’s what startrek.com had to say about T’Pau. I’m not that familiar with the original series, so I don’t really know whether this was all established in Amok Time.