Episode Report Card Keckler: C- | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Say Goodnight, Shran
By Keckler | Season 4 | Episode 14 | Aired on 02.10.2005
Sickbay. Shran watches over Voldenar until she wakes up. Voldenar murmurs that she failed. Shran affectionately tells her not to be ridiculous, she was incredibly brave: "I'm a Commander in the Imperial Guard and I'd be afraid to go anywhere near that thing." Voldenar smiles that his Indigo Girl was fortunate to have him. "I was the fortunate one," Shran corrects her. Voldenar realizes that her brother's going to die, but Shran refuses believe it. "It's hard to be strong," Voldenar says weakly. "You make it look easy," Shran assures her, taking her hand. "Keep being strong. For me." Aw, that was nice. I mean, Combs was great as always, but he was so good in this scene that he even managed to give blood to Voldenar's more anemic acting.
Bridge. What appears to be a Tellarite freighter is crossing Enterprise's path. Quantum orders a hail and we see Hoshi working on it, but she doesn't even get the chance to say, "No response." Instead, when there is no response, Quantum orders their engines targeted. So, I guess the reason why they can't tell that this ship is a drone from the power signature is because they wouldn't have seen this particular drone's power signature before? From what I gathered in an earlier scene, they didn't recover a power signature in the wreckage of the Ticonderoga. However, they do know what a Tellarite freighter's power signature is, so can't they just examine that as they did before? It really doesn't make sense that they threw in this inconsistency, even if it is for the sake of "dramatic" "tension." I mean, come on -- the viewers are smarter than that. Star Trek viewers have ALWAYS been smarter than that! How is that a hard concept for the writers to grasp? The "unknown" ship closes in, and finally Quantum orders that they fire on it.
Fairly quickly after the firefight starts, the drone drops all pretense of being a Tellarite fighter by sloughing off its holographic skin. I suppose the Romulans decided that once it was clear Enterprise knew the jig was up, they might as well put all their power toward shields and weapons and not waste any on the skin.
Sickbay. In reaction to all the noise and bouncing about, Shran explains to Voldenar that they are under attack. He's about to dash to the Bridge to lend a blue hand when Voldenar stops him, saying, "I can feel him." She can sense her brother's presence and wants to try the unit again. Phlox argues that it's too dangerous, but Shran insists they let her try.