Episode Report Card Strega: F | 67 USERS: C+ YOU GRADE IT Strifeboat
By Strega | Season 1 | Episode 16 | Aired on 2002.02.13
The mightiest of props to the long-suffering keckler, and also to Paul Riddell, who offered me copious supplies of laudanum, ether, and Thorazine to ease my pain. I have to say, it wasn't nearly enough.
So, originally the tape I recorded this show on had...uh, a different current SF show featuring a number of Australians. Eventually I got a better copy of the episode, so I used the tape to record Gormenghast. Which Katie gave me on DVD for Christmas, so I recorded the Legend of the Rangers movie when it was on the Sci-Fi Channel. Which I ended up finding too dull to sit through, so it seemed fitting to use it for this. I'm just amused how this one tape has documented the widely varying quality of a genre. Okay, let's get to it.
A wee shuttle zips through an asteroid field. Inside, Malcolm frets, "The captain said they'd be mapping this asteroid field, but I can't see head nor tails of them." Is there really a point to mapping individual asteroids? It seems like their relative locations would change an awful lot. Trip points out that they aren't scheduled to rendezvous for three more days, so maybe the Enterprise found something better to do. My bet is that the crew wanted to have a party, but nobody wanted to invite these two clowns. I can see it now: "Say guys, why don't you take the shuttle out? We're going to...um...map asteroids! Yes, that's it. Very boring stuff, you wouldn't enjoy it. So why don't you go away for a couple of days? Doesn't testing the shuttle sound like fun?" And then later "mapping asteroids" will be a code word for the crew meaning "that bitchin' party where T'Pol got drunk and we all ended up spending three hours in the decontamination chamber," and for months afterwards, when Trip and Malcolm are around, other crewmen will snigger to each other about how they're in the mood to "map some asteroids, if you know what I mean," and Trip will just ignore it while Malcolm will wonder if they're making fun of him somehow, but he'll never quite have the nerve to ask, and sometimes he'll laugh along as if he knows what they're talking about, and when he does everyone will stare at him with this pitying look because he's obviously a poseur. That's all just a theory, though. Malcolm expositions that their sensors are down, so they'll have to spot the ship visually. It turns out Trip is trying to fix the communications system. Malcolm says he'll just read Ulysses until the ship shows up. Trip makes a snide remark, which allows Malcolm to sniff, "Sometimes I think you North Americans read nothing but comic books and those ridiculous science fiction novels." This is supposed to get the core audience on Trip's side, I guess. They go on sniping at each other's cultures for a bit, and Trip snarks, "I don't recall any Europeans figuring out how to build a warp engine," and it seems like trapping these two with each other is poetic justice. Malcolm looks out the window and calls Trip over to look at something. They stare out at some burned wreckage on a large asteroid. Malcolm pilots the ship down for a closer look, and they spot a large hunk of metal with part of a serial number on it. Gosh.