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
I really liked how they set up this first scene. It appears they might be using the captain's private dining room for this summit meeting of "no, no one hundred twenty-eight ships, don't worry about it -- we'll get this one." The camera's giving us an expanded view of this room, which allows us to see a small bar set up in the corner. That alone makes me respect Quantum for the first time in four years. But what I really liked about this scene was the TNG feel of all the senior officers gathered together to discuss things. Furthermore, I loved that Phlox is one of those senior officers. They didn't always include him in past discussions and I was really annoyed by it. T'Pol briefs them all that the drone ship is controlled telepathically. For no real purpose that they ever follow up on in this episode, Shran says, "We experimented with that a couple of years ago -- nothing ever came of it." Wow, someone REALLY wants to get his security clearance revoked; revealing that sort of info is not something the Imperial Guard would look kindly upon. Maybe they'll punish him by arranging for him to get impaled by a frozen blue penis in a few days. On second glance, I'm thinking it's not actually the captain's private dining room. It's definitely the set from it, but they've expanded the walls and put more monitors up. I don't think we've ever seen this room before. "So," Reed says, sloooooowly cottoning on, "there really was nobody on that ship." "And the people runnin' it were back on their homeworld safe and sound," Trip adds. "Dunnit seem fair." No one said being cancelled was fair, Trip. T'Pol says she's analyzing all the data Trip crammed in his pockets last week and she thinks they can construct their own "telepresence unit." All they'll be able to do with their unit is use it to interfere with the drone's ship navigation. That's more than Quantum's done with his unit. Not that I'm complaining, I'm merely here to observe. They've also found a brainwave pattern, and the result of Phlox's extensive scans is the finding that the owner is highly telepathic. Apparently, you have to be telepathic to work the "telepresence unit." "Vulcans have telepathic powers," Quantum announces. No! Really? Vulcans have TELEPATHIC POWERS? You're joking! Wow. That's just…wow. My world will never be the same. Phlox says that Vulcans aren't as telepathically advanced as this particular brainwave, and he also can't find a species to match the brainwave: "However, the nearest genome is Andorian." Hold on, what's this crap now? Genomes are all about DNA and shit -- they have absolutely nothing to do with brainwave patterns, right? Oh, I give up. Sure, why not -- next thing they'll be wanting me to believe is that "Faith of the Heart" is actually related to music. Shran looks surprised; Quantum sits back and, for some unfathomable reason, looks resignedly accusatory.
Romaha. (A lot better than "Romuaha," don't you think?) Val-dor-EE and 2nd Romnana discuss repairs to the drone ship. 2nd Romnana, compassionate scientist that he is, expresses grave concerns about the health and well-being of the Gimp. Val-dor-EE doesn't care three ways to Tuesday.