Episode Report Card Keckler: C- | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Friendship 2 1/2
By Keckler | Season 1 | Episode 6 | Aired on 10.23.2001
Hoshi and Mayweather join Quantum in his quarters, telling him they've discovered the last transmission anyone sent from Terra Nova. "It was still in the buffer," Hoshi tells him, slipping a green plastic tile into a slot. "It's Captain Mitchell," Mayweather says as the transmission starts up. Captain Mitchell's transmission is as follows: "No matter how angry Logan's threats may have seemed, there had to have been a way of dealing with this other than attacking us. Nearly half the adults are dead, including Dr. Tracy, and everyone else is getting sick except for the younger children. If they have any chance of surviving, the least you can do is have the Vulcans send a ship for them. But for all I know, they were the ones you talked into attacking us. You wanted Terra Nova enough to do this? Well, it's yours now but I doubt you'll be very pleased with what you find when you get here." Mayweather tells an aggrieved Quantum that Mark Logan was the head of the opposition to more colonists coming to Terra Nova, and that he threatened to fire on any ship that came into orbit. Hoshi tells Quantum that Mitchell's message never reached Earth because the debris-clogged atmosphere wouldn't allow it to transmit. "So for some reason the young kids survive and begin living underground," Quantum says sloooowly, trying to piece it all together. "Their last memories of their parents are hearing them blame humans for destroying the colony. The idea that humans are the enemy has been embedded in them for more than two generations. This isn't going to be easy," Quantum Brain concludes. I'm sorry, can we have a judge's ruling on this? They heard their parents blame "humans"? Why -- how -- huh? Last I checked, a new planet does not a new species equal. Did the Pilgrims blame humans when they got annoyed with the British? Ugh, this episode's affecting me like a skin complaint -- look at me, I'm itching all over.
Phlox intercoms the Captain, asking him to report to sick bay. Phlox has eradicated Muddy Mum's cancer, but apparently, both her and her son's endocrine systems are undergoing microcellular decay brought on by drinking the radiation-flavored water. "I don't have any medication to treat this," Phlox tells Quantum, "and it's only going to get worse." Quantum, if it's possible, looks even more aggrieved than before. "Would bringing them to the surface help?" he asks. "T'Pol says the soil and foliage is going to remain irradiated for at least another decade," Phlox says. Quantum asks how Muddy Mum is doing. "She's as disagreeable as she was before I treated her," Phlox smiles. "Bring them to the Situation Room," Quantum orders, and walks away.