Episode Report Card Keckler: B- | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT You Can Call Me Al
By Keckler | Season 1 | Episode 21 | Aired on 04.29.2002
Cell Bloc Common Area. Mayweather gets some water -- seriously? -- and tries to strike up a conversation with Sajen, who's scribbling at something. It's not a letter, as Mayweather assumes, but a journal. Mayweather sits down and adopts a tone of one talking to a five-year-old, saying it's good Sajen is keeping track of everything because one day, people are going to want to read all about his experiences in the pretty little internment camp. Sajen glares at him and says no one's going to read it. Mayweather asks why he's writing it then. Obviously Mayweather is too dense to grapple with the idea that people keep personal diaries. Seems like the whole Enterprise crew has an issue with the term "personal." Sajen wants to know why Mayweather even cares. "I see how you look at us. Suliban terrify you," Sajen hisses, jumping up and leaning close to a now-startled Mayweather. "You wouldn't be surprised if I slithered up this wall or turned my face inside out!" Sajen says. Well, I would be. I didn't know turning one's face inside out was one of the genetic enhancements. I wonder what the function of that trick would be. Sajen tells Mayweather that Suliban and Cabal are one and the same to him. Mayweather tries to protest, but Sajen stalks off.
Cell Bloc at night. As Quantum examines a pencil-sketched floor plan of the detention center, something beams into their room. It's a communicator. Quantum smiles and picks it up. Flipping it open, he asks, "What took you so long?"
Dear Miss Manners,
When my starship risks life and limb to save my meddling butt, why should I ever show proper appreciation? I mean, I am the only starship captain worth rescuing -- they should be glad they have the opportunity to put themselves in mortal peril just for me, right? Right?
Semper Fi,
Cpt. Nosy Parker
Dear Cpt. Nosy Parker,
Shove it.
Yours truly,
Miss Manners
T'Pol asks if he's okay and says they're picking up Suliban bio-signs. Quantum tells her it's not what she thinks and wants to know if they are definitely on a secure channel. Hoshi tells him she's technobabbling the signal, so that even if they were in Starfleet HQ, no one would be aware of their conversation. T'Pol tells him they're in orbit and it won't be long before they're discovered. Trip says he's locking onto them with the transporter and can dematerialize them out of there anytime. Quantum tells him they're not ready to leave just yet and gives them the low-down on what's going down at Detention Complex Twenty-Six, including his desire to help the rest of the detained escape. "Have you ever heard of Manzanar, Sub-Commander?" Quantum asks. T'Pol isn't familiar with "that planet." "It's not a planet. It was an internment camp on Earth during the Second World War. Japanese-American citizens were imprisoned there, even though they didn't do anything wrong. The same thing's happening here," Quantum explains. Did y'all hear about the earthquake that was felt in New York, Quebec, and Boston? Yeah, well, it wasn't an earthquake, it was actually the Anvil that Ate Boston. T'Pol says, "I thought you decided not to interfere in other cultures." Quantum says he's making an exception this time, "Understood?" "Yes, Captain," T'Pol says in a tone and expression that totally Catches the Spock. Quantum tells her they've been working on a plan but they need help, and in a time-honored tradition of drama, they cut away from the scene of Quantum explaining the plan so we can see the plan in action without having it outlined for us first.