Episode Report Card Sara M: B- | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Degra Dearest
By Sara M | Season 3 | Episode 20 | Aired on 04.27.2004
Well, the hull breach is still going on, and now it's spewing green fire. Maybe this will finally get someone's attention.
And it did. Trip says a warp plasma conduit ruptured. Degra volunteers to help out; Trip responds that they can handle it themselves. He says there are manual cut-offs, but they can only be accessed outside, and they're located very close to the green fire. Well, now, that is just plain poor structural engineering. Shame on whoever built this ship. Martin Short and Trip volunteer themselves to go out and fix things. They leave, prompting Archer to step up and furrow his brow for no reason. What's with this guy?
Martin Short and Trip are outside in their cute little space suits. A poorly-done CGI effect shows us the action from afar. I shouldn't complain, though: this is a real treat for me, considering that my regular show considers a split screen to be the haute couture of special effects. Trip orders Martin to open a panel while he goes to the other cut-off switch. Martin's having trouble opening his panel, while Trip's slides open effortlessly. Martin tries the time-honored "bang on it 'til it works" approach to fixing mechanical problems, but it's no good. Trip suggests using his "plasma torch" to open the panel. Does everything on this show run on plasma?
Martin whips out his "plasma torch" and shoots it at the panel. He says it will take a while. On the ship, T'Pol says they have less than six minutes before the giant green fire actually causes some real damage. The green fire roars its agreement, which is strange, since I always thought stuff in space made no sound. But I guess the green fire and Russell Watson managed to get around that particular law of physics.
Hey, check it out: it's one of the show's regular cast members who never gets any lines! And she's got a line! Sadly, I blinked and missed it. T'Pol tells Archer that Martin's too close to the fire, and his space suit can't compensate for the heat. Trip looks to be about the same distance from the fire, but he's fine, so I guess he got the good space suit. Archer orders Martin back into the ship before he dies. Martin won't do it. He finally gets the panel open by lifting the errant piece of metal off the ship and tossing it away. I hope he's prepared to pay the no-doubt-stiff space-littering fine.
Archer again orders Martin back into the ship; Martin says he can't hear Archer because he's "breaking up." Then he makes some static-y sounds with his mouth and says only every other word of his next sentence, to really make it believable. Trip tells Martin to turn some lever thing ninety degrees, which Martin manages to do right before he loses consciousness. Trip alerts Phlox to meet them in the airlock, and Archer and Degra decide to go too.