Yeah, well, we’re gonna call it “cealot” from now on. We’re also going to decide how to spell the damn thing.
I watched the animated episode “Yesteryear” where they got some stuff for “The Forge”. They are really big fuzzy toothy monochrme panda bears.
Is the animated series generally considered to be canon? D.C. Fontana wrote the above episode.
Ah, but would she pander bare?
Some Dopers need little teensy switches under little teensy doors on the back of their neck like Data.
“Yesteryear” is canon, the rest of the series isn’t. At least, that used to be the party line. Evidently, that’s become more relaxed in recent years and the whole series might eventually become canon.
I hope not.
(gah I had my whole post-viewing post disappear before my eyes, so now am having to re-do it!)
Wow! I am so impressed by the beginning of this arc. I am already loving it. Of course, the Stevens’ (husband and wife) wrote the episode, and I’m well familiar with their Trek novel work–they are indeed well-versed in the Trek Universe. Did anyone notice that Robert Foxworth was playing one of the High Command Vulcans? He and the actress who plays T’Les (T’Pol’s mother) played Brenda Chenowith’s parents on Six Feet Under (LOL).
The only thing that bothered me was that they seemed to be too quick to jump to “pumping” the only witness, who was critically injured, with the mind meld; even Phlox capitulated although at least he did appear to acknowledge the unethical-ness of it. I hope in the coming weeks we’ll see more of the Enterprise crew, especially Trip and (of course) Porthos. Although I am quite pleased with the Vulcan-centric shows and grateful for more information.
One nitpick I had:
They’re in the desert; phase pistols (and other electronics) don’t work. But they need defense. Have they forgotten how to use a simple PROJECTILE WEAPON, powered by, oh I don’t know, GUNPOWDER, you know, a chemical reaction?
Also, was anyone else expecting them to walk carefully to avoid sandworms? 
I liked this one quite a bit. Heavens to Betsy, that’s twice this season. Can the corner have been turned?
Re the “needs of the many” stuff, I agree that they’re overdoing it a bit on the Trek-reference continuity porn, but I’d definitely rather have too much nodding to canon if the alternative is makin’ up shit that doesn’t connect to anything. So that didn’t really bother me too much.
The biggest problem for me with this episode, actually, was how crappy an actor the guy playing the Vulcan investigator was. And I say this with the long history of crappy Vulcan performances in the New Era fully in mind (remember Vulcan Bert as one of Sarek’s assistants in the TNG episode where he’s getting old and needs help keeping his emotions in check? great scene from Picard, but that one actor was just awful; still, this new guy sets a new standard).
But (as someone previously suggested) it almost seems like this whole arc is designed by Coto to account for how different Enterprise’s Vulcans are, and how they’re all pissy and non-logical and basically unlike the Vulcans we thought we knew. The Vulcan in the cave in this episode was the most, well, Vulcan-y of any Vulcan we’ve met so far on Enterprise, by a long shot. Maybe when this arc is done the Vulcans will be “fixed,” so to speak. I’m not sure how I feel about that; I’ve complained bitterly about how the characterizations are wrong, but I think it’s been due to poor writing and casting and conceptualization in general. I’d sure like to see them start doing Vulcans right for a change, but this way sort of legitimizes the crappiness by building three seasons of substandard work into the continuity as if it were a deliberate choice instead of ineptness. Know what I mean?
Otherwise, a solid episode. My hopes for a resurrected show are soaring.
Check out the interviews with the authors at startrek.com. They write Trek for Pocket books and enjoy “fixing” things of this sort.
I agree with you, an explanation of the differences in Vulcans in Enterprise is needed. The acension of a new or minor philosophy would work well.
And here I thought everyone would be happy with Hoshi’s legs…
I watched the first bit thinking - “well, this’ll make the Dopers happy”…
Hard to please, you are.
I actually thought that the sandstorm thingy was a worm ripoff for a second. But then they started running, which would have stupid if it were a real worm.
Trek is real. Dune is a book.
Credit where credit is due, thank you very much. :dubious:
[QUOTE=Corner Case]
[list][li]My wife, an RN, commented that the medical dialogue about telomeres was a nice mix of real and sci-fi. :)[/li][/QUOTE]
More the latter than the former.
As soon as Phlox said this, I blurted out, “Wait a minute, he’s talking about T’Pau’s DNA here! So Vulcans not only have DNA, they have freakin’ telomeres too? Sheesh! Telomeres aren’t even universal to all terrestrial eukaryotes. Why in the name of the Great Bird would DNA that evolved on Vulcan have the exact same mechanism for limiting runaway mitosis as human DNA?!”
I believe the on/off switch is near the bottom of the area where a human’s right kidney would be.
[sub]Convenient if his on/off switch was on some other person’s body, eh?[/sub]
Nah, then some idiot would play with it, and accicently turn himse
You’ll never turn me to the Dark Side!
I see what you mean, thanks for the heads-up. They don’t come right out and confirm that this is designed to fix Enterprise’s crappy portrayal of Vulcanness, but they do obliquely say something about “problems and contradictions are opportunities for us.”
It’s still irritating that the show basically wasted three years to get to this point, while other shows like Lost and Firefly have demonstrated that with solid writing it’s possible to rock the house right out of the gate, but better late than never, I guess.
Yeah yeah, we all know about the 4 billion year old genetic program that directed evolution on the various humanoid-inhabited worlds of the galaxy.
Thing is, that genetic program was only suposed to control the outward physical appearance of the various species. Internally, everything’s allowed to be different. We already know that Vulcans have green blood and scrambled internal organs, and Klingons have pink blood and two spines, for example.
Are you suggesting that telomeres were part of the 4-billion-year genetic program? If so, then why doesn’t every eukaryotic species on Earth have 'em, huh?