Episode Report Card Keckler: D+ | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT From Dusk 'Til Yawn
By Keckler | Season 2 | Episode 13 | Aired on 01.07.2003
I guess they choose option three: Deep-fry themselves like Tripwrecked's favorite food. Don and Tripwrecked climb up to a height where the sun is most likely to reach them very quickly, and set up the transceiver.
Enterprise. Hoshi reports that she's picking up a transmission, and tries to get a lock.
Tripwrecked writes in his diary about their current status, "It's been two hours since we started signaling the Enterprise. No response yet. The sun is not even up yet and it's already hotter than hell." Tripwrecked looks over at Don, who's looking a little greener than usual. "My sparring partner dunnit look too good. I can't be sure but I don't think his species can sweat," Tripwrecked says. Maybe you shouldn't have beat him up, then. Tripwrecked records some more pointless information which could only benefit those who decided to tune into the last fourteen minutes of the show, and asks if Don has any words of wisdom to impart. "Nohkto," Don twitches. "That means 'bad,'" Tripwrecked half-laughs, and thinks Hoshi would be proud of his new vocabulary. Don struggles with his canteen, so Tripwrecked unscrews the cap for him. Don drinks and smacks his lips together pathetically. Yawn finally breaks and beats down on the two, and Don crawls to hide in the shade of a tumbleweed. God, shove the poor thing under a damp rock or something!
Time passes, and Tripwrecked is concerned with Don's passivity. He smacks the suffering alien's leg a few times until Don looks up. "Enterprise?" he asks. Tripwrecked gives him the bad news that he just woke him up for no reason. Don lays back down again and hisses, "Damn it." Thank god I have the closed-captioning on or else I wouldn't understand when Don was actually speaking English. Tripwrecked helps Don drink the rest of his own alien liquid. "Don't worry, I'll get Phlox to cook up a new batch for you once we're aboard Enterprise," Tripwrecked tells him. Won't Chef be irritated if the doctor infringes on his territory? Don doesn't seem too jazzed by the prospect, and tries to go back to sleep. In the manner of Quantum in the Osama Bin Dribblin' episode, Tripwrecked yells at Don to stay awake: "Don't die on me now -- unnerstand?" Tripwrecked even gives a few head twitches. Don twitches back. Satisfied by the mutual twitch, Tripwrecked leans back against the rock. The transceiver sputters with Hoshi's voice. "See, I tole you!" Tripwrecked tells an unresponsive Don.
Enterprise. Quantum tells Tripwrecked they're trying to get a lock on their position, and Tripwrecked tells him not to send a sh'pod because it will just go kablooey they way his did. Quantum agrees and thinks the Head & Shoulders atmosphere, though slightly scalp-tingling, will not interfere with the transporter. Tripwrecked tells Quantum he's not alone. "We know -- the Arkonians helped us find you," Quantum explains. "How're you and their pilot getting along?" Tripwrecked tells him they're just like ole friends, but he's worried about Don's dehydration. Quantum tells him to stand by, and orders the transporter beam fired up. Phlox interjects with an "I wouldn't do that, Captain." "What's the problem?" Quantum bellows. Phlox explains that Don's system is in a state of cellular decomposition, and transporting him would be fatal. Quantum explains the situation with transporting Don to Tripwrecked: "We'll try to find a way of getting him back to his ship. But in the meantime, I'm getting you out of there." Tripwrecked pulls a Not Without My Alien, and T'Pol tells him that the surface temperature will be at one hundred thirty degrees soon. Tripwrecked ignores this and says that the Arkonian sh'pods could be modified to make it through the planet's atmosphere to rescue them. He technobabbles the information, and Quantum says they'll talk to the Arkonians but he won't allow Tripwrecked to stay down there much longer. "Understood," Tripwrecked sweats.