Episode Report Card Keckler: D+ | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Fist Fight
By Keckler | Season 2 | Episode 24 | Aired on 05.13.2003
Song.
Sh'bay. Trip tells a brooding Quantum what he has to do to expose his existential drama -- I mean, "the dark matter nebula." Trip wants to keep Quantum company, but Quantum puts him off. Still no sign of any Cogenitor repercussions on their relationship. I think that blows. To apprise us of the fact that Trip knew the dead guy as well, the engineer babbles about not being able to believe that the dead guy is dead. Quantum really wants us to know what sort of highway to the danger zone the dead guy took in his maverick lifestyle, so he comments, "All the close calls he had flying warp trials and he gets himself killed climbing Mt. McKinley." Of course, we all know he didn't "get himself killed"; The Evil Forrest made him take that extra step back for a photo,op. Quantum gets into the sh'pod, and Trip helps him close the door. After Trip leaves, T'Pol calmly boards the sh'pod and ignores Quantum's protestations. T'Pol parrots Trip's earlier pleadings to be brought along by saying, "It's only logical to bring your Science Officer along." Except that Trip didn't say "logical," because he's allergic to it. Quantum tries to eject her from the sh'pod, but T'Pol throws Starfleet Procedure in his face to the tune of the captain not being allowed to go on walkabouts all by his lonesome. T'Pol takes her seat, and Quantum gives up. Easily. I wonder if he gives into her more willingly than Trip because his crush on the Vulcan is stronger than the imagined Corned Beef Slash with Trip? Hmm. Evidently, her dinners carry more weight with Quantum than Trip's warp coils. They take off.
T'Pol tells Quantum how soon they will reach his emotional catharsis. Quantum is silent. T'Pol tries again, "I can pass the time by meditating, but if you prefer to talk..." Quantum tells her to go meditate herself. She offers him guided meditation. Quantum gives her a look, and T'Pol observes that he seems "unsettled" after Forrest's call. That's because it was an evil phone call. Quantum lies that he's fine. T'Pol is persistent and says that Trip, though reluctant to share, let it leak that a colleague had died. Quantum turns around and says, "A Starfleet captain. A.G. Robinson. I wouldn't be out here if it weren't for him." Is A.G. Robinson related to B.G. Robinson, the chick that had sex with Okona? T'Pol doesn't know who this person is, and Quantum tells her to look it up, but then relents and starts to tell her about it himself. Along with a few others, he and A.G. were in the NX-Test Program trying to break warp two. They all wanted the "first flight."