Episode Report Card Keckler: C | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Stuck Inside Of Coridan With The P'Jem Blues Again
By Keckler | Season 1 | Episode 15 | Aired on 02.05.2002
Quantum gnaws at his ropes, but the red thing in his hand opens up, and Trip's voice asks if Quantum can hear him. "Trip?" Quantum asks. Trip tells the captain that he and Reed are less than a kilometer away. "Just the two of you?" Quantum asks, and Trip tells them they've got a couple of Andorian friends who think they owe Quantum a favor. "He couldn't have picked a better time," Quantum says hoarsely. Trip tells them that an Andorian cohort is one of the guards: "When he unties you, head for the gate, it's about twenty meters from the building yer in. Until he shows up, jest sit tight." Quantum cracks, "That won't be a problem."
Rebel compound. Two guards take notice when someone in heavy robes swigs from a bottle and says, "It's cold innit?" Light falls on his face, and we see that it's Trip. The point is, the guards can see that it's Trip as well. A human. A species they've never encountered, and they're not shooting at him -- why? "Andorian ale?" Trip offers. The guards hesitate. "It'll warm you up," Trip encourages them. The guards grab at the bottle, and as they quaff, we see Reed scurrying in the area behind them. Inside the compound, Richard Marx barrels around. Since he's the one who brought Quantum the food with the flashing red prize in it, we can assume that he's the Andorian operative. He pulls some aluminum siding away from the wall, and a shadow of Andorian antennae is projected on it. The make-up crew is really proud of those antennae, aren't they? They certainly take every opportunity to show them off. The two Andorians crawl in and bang about, so Trip's drinking buddies get suspicious. "Who's that?" one guard asks him. Trip says, "Oh, it's nothing. It's just my friend, he --" But he's slammed up against the wall by one guard while the other runs off to find a bathroom. Trip makes a ruckus, so all the other guards leave their posts to check it out. The Andorians climb up on the compound roof. Trip bashes the guard over the head with the bottle, knocks him out, and rips off his woolly cloak to display his Starfleet Away Mission Leathers. The cloak must've been itchy.
The Andorians dispatch some other guards right off the roof, and Reed stands ready on the ground. From the interior, Bluer Man punches in a PIN number and the gates open, allowing Reed and Trip to scuttle in. The four reconnoiter, and Bluer Man silently points the way. There's a major explosion, and Trip can be heard to bawl, "What the hell's gowin' on?" Coridon guards run out of their clubhouse and get shot at by phaser weapons. The Vulcans have arrived and engaged the Coridons. Blue and red phaser fire. Richard Marx darts into Quantum and T'Pol's leaky barn, but gets shot for his trouble. "Get down," Quantum orders T'Pol. Taking cover, Bluer Man says, "Vulcans! Did you know they were planning to do this?" "Yer the ones who have their com system bugged!" Trip hayseeds in the whiny-little-brother "you started it!" tone. Yeah, but you did know that the Vulcans were going to send a special ops team in -- Sopek told you that on the bridge of your own ship! I think the warp core is beginning to affect Trip's short-term memory. There's more phaser fire, and Trip points out the bleedin' obvious: "We've got to get them out of there."