Episode Report Card Keckler: C+ | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Future Nonsense
By Keckler | Season 2 | Episode 16 | Aired on 02.18.2003
Shuttle Bay. Trip and Reed get out of the Infinite Corridor, try to comm the Bridge, and get attacked by falling Suliban. You know, when it comes right down to it, they're probably only slightly less painful than falling anvils. Reed fires at both of them, but only hits one. The other one runs up the stairs to the control room in order to push some buttons and fire at Reed. Malcolm Powder falls off the stairs as a result.
Bridge. Hoshi reports that someone is trying to open Launch Bay Two, and she can't prevent it. Since Quantum can't get hold of Trip -- notice that he doesn't even bother to contact Malcolm? -- he orders a security team to check it out.
Shuttle Bay. Reed continues his firefight with the remaining Suliban.
Bridge. Enteprise is in a firefight with the Spiny Suliban Ship. Quantum wants to grapple T'Pol. That is, he wants deploy the grapple on the Suliban ship in order to find out why they wanted the MMP. Yes, because all Fuchsia-Suited Suliban encounters have been so informative and non-injury-causing, haven't they? The Spiny Suliban Ship retreats and transports its two infiltrators off Enterprise just as Trip wakes up. How conveeeenient. Malcolm dashes up to the TOS-reminiscent control panel in the shuttle bay. In outer space, the Spiny Suliban Ship decloaks. Quantum does something with his brow that I just can't even bring myself to describe anymore. Suffice it to say, if there's a scene with Quantum on this show, he's Eternally Furrowing.
Quantum tells us that they've contacted a Vulcan ship called Valkyrie. And if that's not the real name, I don't want to know, because I like mine better, so don't email me. Anyway, the Vulcans have promised to meet them and ferry the MMP back to Earth for further dissection. Quantum hopes they don't run into the Suliban again before they reach the meeting point. When is he going to learn that that kind of talk just invites Fate to knock on his air-lock and ask if he wants to buy some brushes?
Situation Room. Trip presents the gold bricks and tells Quantum and T'Pol that they were heavily shielded in the MMP. "It might be the black box," Trip hazards. Just in case there are those of us out there who weren't alive in the last two years but can still somehow comprehend this dialogue, T'Pol explains that a "black box" might be able to tell them what happened with the MMP. Trip mentions Bread and Circuits again -- I have no idea what the hell "organic circuitry" really has to do with anything, and I really don't want to know -- and then tells Quantum he's gotta git him down that Infinite Corridor so he can see how far the shaft goes. I wonder if Darwin's Deli delivers Corned Beef Slash with a dill pickle this late. "Bigger on the inside?" Quantum asks. Yes, they do deliver! Phlox calls Quantum to tell him he needs to see him in Sick Bay ASAP. T'Pol and Quantum leave.
Sick Bay ASAP. Turns out Corpus Chris T. isn't a pure human. Going back several generations, Corpus Chris T is also Vulcan, Terrellian, and another species Phlox can't identify. Kitschen Confidential: There are these brilliantly purple shells you can find in Apulia, Italy that were ground up in ancient times and used as dyes. Because it took ten thousand shells to produce just one gram of dye, they were only used to purple the robes of the Roman emperors. However, in 314 A.D., Pope Sylvester I discovered the color purple and insisted on using the dye for all his vestments. Despots and the cloth, man -- maybe that's the origin of "purple prose." Horace called it the definitive imitation of the shade of violets. And you know, I don't really have a point except that the dye is called "Terranian Purple," and I always think of it when I hear the name "Terrellian." Maybe when we finally do meet the Terrellians, they'll turn out to be purple people. Quantum is flummoxed that a human can have Vulcan ancestors that go so far back when they only just met the Vulcans. Hello? "Carbon Creek," anyone? Phlox just repeats his findings, and Quantum calls T'Pol out of the room.