[ENT][TECH] Overview of 3.08-"Twilight"

EPISODE: "Twilight"
   PROD#: ENT060
   TRAN#: 3.08
  RATING: PG-V
 AIRDATE: wed-05-nov-2003-20:00
  EPDATE: [unstated; a span of twelve years]
OFFICIAL: startrek.com/startrek/view/series/ENT/episode/2906.html

    FROM: Phillip Thorne, [EMAIL PROTECTED]
 POST-TO: rec.arts.startrek.reviews, .tech
 REVIEW#: 52.0
 FORMAT#: 5.0
     URL: underbase.org/dept/trek/ent308_twilight.txt

I. INTRODUCTION
This document focuses on the technical aspects of a current
episode; it is intended to support discussion, and to later
serve as a reference; it accordingly contains PLOT SPOILERS, so
CONTINUE AT YOUR OWN RISK.  Whenever possible, it indicates who
did/claimed/knew what, because characters can lie or be
mistaken.  Spellings of technobabble and alien nouns are
obtained from TV closed-captioning ("CC") -- which is
imperfect: it may not match spoken dialogue, or the website, or
be consistent within or between eps.  In the Synopsis, I may
condense or reorder scenes.  If you have corrections or
clarifications, please contact me, and I'll (eventually) make
corrections. 

Abbreviations commonly used: -(m/f/?) name belongs to
mel/fem/unclear, (os) on [viewer] screen, (vo) voiceover, -(?)
quote is uncertain, -(sp?) spelling is unclear; VDB Vulcan
database, VHC Vulcan High Command, XDB Xindi database; series:
TOS TAS TNG DS9 VGR ENT.  Although CC uses "Launch Bay," "Sick
Bay," and "shuttle pod," I often condense those terms to single
words.

"Star Trek" and all related indicia are copyrights of Paramount
Pictures, while this overview is (c)2003 Phillip Thorne.  Feel
free to use this document as a reference, but please give
credit where due.

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II. TERMINOLOGY
TECHNICAL:
radiolytic signature, subspace buoy, interspatial flux,
Minshara-class, subspace implosion, antiproton beam, millicochrane,
chromosphere, duranium signature, sentry probes

TECHNICAL/ENTERPRISE:
antimatter inducers, coil assembly, shields, turbolifts, plasma
injectors, feedback pulse in reactor, Supply Locker C on upper level
of Engineering

BIOLOGICAL & MEDICAL:
parasite, hippocampus, micro-cellular scan, antigens

CULTURAL:
"Rosemary's Baby"

LOCATIONS, POLITIES and ORGANIZATIONS:
[Starfleet] Command Council, Jupiter Station, Mars, Alpha Centauri,
Vega Colony, Mutara System, Ceti Alpha [V], [Vulcan] High Command

SHIPS:
3 Xindi-R, 3 Xindi-I(?), _Intrepid_, other Starfleet, Denobulan(?)
shuttle, freighters, others

NAME-DROPPING:
Adm.Forrest, Cpt.Ramirez, Gen.Shran

III. ANALYSIS
1. What we get... The full-scale Xindi Weapon.  A Xindi-Insectoid
ship-type.  Better views of two contemporary Starfleet classes.  A
really kewl planet-destroying sequence.  A homage to ST2:TWoK.
Evidence that ENT is not slipping forward into the future, because
they do have contact with Starfleet.

2. What we don't get... Specific dates.  

3. The shirtless files... In the teaser, Archer wears white drawstring
sweatpants but no shirt when he's awakened by battle.  ALSO: T'Pol+12
wears a casual red top and her hair in a Jadzia-like ponytail; a look
that IMHO is preferable to her formfitting suits.

4. Arcs... The Xindi Weapon.

5. Links... Ceti Alpha V is the planet on which Khan was discovered in
ST2:TWoK (it wasn't named in TOS-"Space Seeds"), after C-A-VI had
exploded c.2280.  --A rather ironic escape for the human refugees.
(Landing on C-A-VI itself would've been even more so.)  There seem to
be a lot of easily-detonated planets in Trek -- C-A-VI, the region on
TNG-"Pen Pals", the Xindi homeworld.

The two other Starfleet ships, and Cpt.Ramirez, first appeared in
2.26-"The Expanse".  The (probably J-class) civilian freighters in the
convoy appeared in 2.20-"Horizon".  Yridians appeared frequently in
DS9 and the latter seasons of TNG.  Tucker refers to "General Shran,"
the Andorian who appeared (without rank) in 1.07-"The Andorian
Incident", 1.14-"Shadows of P'Jem", and 2.15-"Cease Fire".

6. Finally!  Relayed contact from Starfleet, via "subspace buoy."

7. The memory-blocking parasites exist in "interspatial flux" in a
"domain outside normal space-time."  Any relation to the interphase
that trapped _Defiant_ in TOS-"The Tholian Web", or the critters in
TNG-"Timescape", or the Wormhole Prophets?

That Phlox is "synthesizing antigens to the parasites" seems to be
medico-babble, but maybe not.  An antigen is anything that triggers an
immune response; usually surface proteins on invading cells.  Perhaps
Phlox is helping Archer's immune system: maybe the parasites don't
naturally exhibit any antigens, so he's creating artifical flags
designed to bond to their surfaces.  (Of course, if he can do that, he
might as well attach poisons or markers, and destroy the parasites
without recorse to Archer's immune system.  Certain experimental
cancer treatments work this way.)

8. Although only half the coils in the starboard nacelle are fused,
the entire set is apparently useless.  Tucker refers to "one warp
engine," meaning the port nacelle -- usually, "engine" refers to the
entire core-plus-nacelle-pair.  The ship can operate with the single
nacelle, but only at warp 1.7.  The inefficiency of projecting a warp
field from off-center?

9. Earth's colonies include Mars, Alpha Centauri, and Vega; T'Pol
doesn't mention any cities on Luna, Jupiter Station, or any space
colonies.  (We know they exist by DS9-"Past Tense", but there's no
evidence of them in 2150.)

10. The full-scale Xindi planetkiller is an upsized, more elaborate
version of their Probe.  It emerges from a yellow-burst (an "energy
vortex," per 3.07-"The Shipment") as did the Probe.  In size, it's
several times wider than its two Xindi-R escorts.  It has the two
spinning rings, a surface with irregular cutouts, and an inner layer,
all of them spinning independently -- like an astronomical orrery, or
one of those elaborate carved ivory spheres from China.  The two rings
align, a set of circles on the outer layer illuminate/dilate yellow,
and a pulsing orange beam is emitted.  On Earth's surface, clouds boil
up at the point of impact.  Rifts split open, filled with the orange
glow of molten-hot lava, steaming as they cross oceans.  The planet
swells, then bursts into fragments like an overripe fruit.  (The
chunks appear to constitute not just the crust, but a large fraction
of the mantle.)

11. The _Intrepid_ has a semicircular main hull with the same features
as ENT (flattened rim, deflector, raised rectangular section, bridge
dome).  There's a row of windows on the edge of the rim, a second row
atop the rim, and two on the slope.  The saucer connects to a
rectangular engineering section, which splits dihedrally into two
pylons.  Each nacelle has an anhedral fin that continues the line of
the pylon.

The unnamed Starfleet ship has a delta-shaped saucer and no
engineering section; the dihedral pylons are rooted directly to the
aft edge of the saucer.  Each nacelle has a red forward tip and a blue
aft tip.  Like the other two ships, there's a raised rectangular
section atop the saucer; but the bridge-dome seems to be an
ellipsoidal blister set forward.

12. The Yridian's ship has a rectangular fuselage, with a tapered nose
and tail, and five x-reinforced segments between.  It has a pair of
delta-like "wings" on each side:  a square assembly adjacent to the
rear 2/5 of the mid-hull, connected by an angled beam to the forward
1/5, with a void between.  The square has a trapezoidal aft tab, and a
blue-glowing annulus on top; the beam has a blue-glowing outer edge.
(That's a really wacky arrangement of warp coils, if they're both
photon-spill ducts.)

13. The Xindi-Insectoid(?) ship has a B5/Minbari look to it: an
ellipsoidal hull with a circle of blisters at the nose, and three
aft-mounted claw-like crescent-shaped forward-swept fins, set at 120º.

IV. NITS 
1. Why is Soval still promoting the Vulcan party-line? --that this is
all the fault of Earth for expanding too quickly.  The Xindi are too
far off to have even met Earth -- or do the Vulcans believe the
culprit is someone else?  Is it a common occurrence for upstart
species to get slapped-down with this severity?

2. There's no mention of interstellar reaction to the Xindi attack.
Regardless of their opinion of Earth itself, shouldn't the Andorians,
Klingons, etc. be concerned about this newcomer? --with the ability to
appear and destroy a planet with no warning.

3. In 3.05-"Impulse", Archer declines to trellium-line the hull to
avoid poisoning T'Pol.  Wouldn't it be safe to line just the nacelles?

4. How can ENT "patrol the system" if it's "in orbit" of one planet?

5. Tucker excuses the dimmed lights because "antimatter is at a
premium these days."  Haven't they fusion reactors? --for shipboard
operations, and in-system impulse operations.

6. How did they fit the Yridian craft into ENT's launchbay?  It's the
wrong proportions to fit through the hatch, unless it folds up.

7. If the parasites vanished from both present and past scans, how
were Phlox and T'Pol able to recall their absence?  This isn't "Back
to the Future" -- they themselves hadn't traveled in time.
Conversely, if they past-zapped all the parasites but *remembered*
doing so, how would a new timeline be established?

8. If they triggered a subspace implosion with the warp core, why did
ENT blow up slowly, starting with the forward saucer section?  Was the
implosion a relatively small event, triggering non-engine explosions
elsewhere -- perhaps related to combat damage?

V. THIRD-PARTY COMMENTS
[...]

VI. EPISODE SYNOPSIS
TEASER:
Archer awakes to a shaking ship.  He punches out the crewman
(mel-brun-red) guarding his quarters, and struggles to the Bridge --
where he finds T'Pol in the center seat, in yellowstripe-uniform with
captain's pips.  "Somebody get him off the bridge," she orders, and
two red-guards grab him.  Reed, Sato, relief helm officer.  Then
everybody watches as the Xindi destroy Earth.

ACT 1:
Archer awakes in an unfamiliar room (his personal items on a shelf
nearby), with unfamiliar grey hair.  He finds T'Pol in the kitchen.
He last remembers examining long-range scans in the Command Center.
That was twelve years ago, she tells him...

TWELVE YEARS EARLIER: Archer and T'Pol (red) in the corridor.  Movie
night: "Rosemary's Baby."  (Reed, Mayweather, Sato on bridge.)  An
anomaly: it affects the starboard nacelle, and fuses the injectors.  A
ripple propagates towards them, and drops a corridor-rib on T'Pol.
With a mighty effort, Archer lifts it, and she pulls free -- but he's
hit full by the next wave.

He awakes in Sickbay.  Phlox tells him that the anomaly left "several
clusters of parasites" in his "hippocampus" (per "micro-cellular
scan"), which are preventing the formation of long-term memories;
short-term fade in a few hours; he's been there for three days.  The
doctor is synthesizing "antigens."

SEVERAL WEEKS LATER: Archer holds a breakfast-briefing with T'Pol and
Tucker.  They report finding a "garbage scow" with the same
"radiolytic signature" as the kemocite transport (3.07-"The
Shipment").  Archer has an idea to upgrade the "antimatter inducers,"
to improve fuel efficiency; then realizes he's already proposed it.
"It worked nicely," Trip offers.

T'Pol gets a call in the hall from Sato; a hail from Starfleet,
through the "subspace buoy."  

Adm.Forrest and the "Command Council" relieved Archer of duty, and
gave T'Pol a field commission to captain.  Phlox discovered that the
parasites originated in a "domain outside normal space-time," existing
in a state of "interspatial flux" that was inoperable.  After several
months of additional searching, they found the Weapon's facility...

Attacked by two Xindi-R ships; one docks at the starboard port.
Boarders vs. MACOs, yellow vs. blue.  Sato reads 23 invaders on C, D
and E Decks.  One enters Archer's quarters, but the captain overpowers
him, and stabs him in the chest with a sports trophy.  Reed reports
loss of engines, weapons; T'Pol takes the helm from a fem-yellow, and
rams the docked ship into its counterpart.  Debris damages the
starboard nacelle; both enemy ships are "disabled," Reed reports.
(Not destroyed; the VFX show them still intact.)

Phlox reports 13 crew lost and 22 injured.  They took nine prisoners,
but the brig is only designed for two.  Tucker reports half the
starboard coils fused; they could be fixed in three weeks at "Jupiter
Station," but out here, he'd have to "rebuild the coil assembly from
scratch" -- a six-month job.  [Where's a parasitic robot repair
station when you need one?]  The best he can do, with "one warp
engine," is warp 1.7.

....They located the facility, but the Weapon had already been
deployed.  The Xindi destroyed Earth, then went on to "every human
outpost they could find" -- Mars, Alpha Centauri, Vega Colony.  About
6000 humans are left.  Archer staggers outside the house, into the
refugee colony.

ACT 2:
They're on "the fifth planet in the Ceti Alpha system," and ENT is "in
orbit, patrolling this system."  Several refugee convoys converged
here; ENT led one...

....A Vulcan ship approaches the convoy and delivers Soval.  He tells
T'Pol that, two weeks earlier, the Vulcans responded to a distress
call from the convoy in the "Mutara System" -- to find it destroyed.
There's a good chance *this* convoy will also be destroyed.  The "High
Command" will accept T'Pol's return; and there are specialists on
Vulcan who can help Archer.  He accuses her of an emotional
attachment.

Archer, Porthos.  Classrooms on D-Deck, children onboard.  After
nearly a year, the convoy reached Ceti Alpha; the only one to do so.
Tucker remarks that the planet is "barely Minshara-class," and T'Pol
resigns as captain.  Civilian ships dismantled to construct the
settlement.  To convince Archer he's not being deceived, she tells him
of "Margaret Mullin," whom he'd met at age 24 while in "flight
school."  She declined his proposal of marriage, not wanting to be a
"Starfleet widow."

Phlox arrives at the camp by shuttle, and scans Archer.  He had
returned to Denobula, and consulted with the finest "neurosurgeons"
and "quantum physicists," who concluded there was no way to destroy
the parasites short of "vaporizing you in a subspace implosion."  It
took a decade to create the technology to do otherwise, and it
requires the energy of a warp-powered starship.

ACT 3:
Archer (with Phlox and T'Pol) is piped aboard.  Nine years since
Tucker took command.  Antimatter at a premium.  Reed, just promoted to
Captain, to replace "Ramirez" of the _Intrepid_.  Sato promoted to
Lieutenant.

"Highly focused antiproton beam;" chamber in Engineering; calibration
will take an hour.  Later, T'Pol finds Archer in his quarters, after
leaving the reception early; Phlox calls.    Archer in the chamber.
"Increase to 800 millicochranes ... 850 ..." directs Phlox, as they
zap the first cluster of parasites.  Later in Sickbay, examining the
scans, T'Pol finds a "discrepancy" ...

Reed detects an "intermittent duranium signature" in close orbit of
the sun.  ENT finds a "small vessel" outside the "chromosphere," with
one bio-sign aboard; it has "warp coils;" when it tries to run, they
capture and bring it into the Launchbay.  Tucker and Reed interrogate
the "Yridian" (whom they recognize from the VDB) in the Brig.  He
claims he's a dealer in "Rigellian flamegems," which are illegal in
this region, which is why they can't find any -- he dumped them.  When
Tucker threatens to take a "plasma torch" to his ship, the trader
admits he was watching Phlox on behalf of the Xindi; to report if he
ever left his homeworld.

.... It turns out that the antiproton beam *today* can eradicate the
parasites in the *past*.  Phlox and T'Pol make the case to Tucker
that, by curing Archer now, he wouldn't be sidelined in the past; and
the Xindi mission could be a success.  Tucker, however, needs power
for the imminent arrival of the Xindi *now*.

On the Bridge, Sato (monitoring the "sentry probes") detects six Xindi
ships entering the system.

ACT 4:
Six Xindi ships (three Reptilian and three Insectoid) arrive and
attack, but ENT's new "shields" hold.  "Remind me to send a thank-you
note to General Shran," Tucker remarks.  Mel-black-yellow-one at helm.
ENT swoops close to a moon, pursued by two ships; they don't notice
when the other two Starfleet vessels come up behind *them*.

The "turbolifts" are down, so Archer begins climbing a ladder to the
bridge, followed by T'Pol.  Meanwhile, the Xindi pound _Intrepid_, and
cut off its port nacelle.  The pound ENT -- phase-cannons, hull
breaches on B- and C-Decks; finally, they cut off the bridge-dome
(with green and yellow beams).  Archer reaches the landing just
outside, and the display indicates its loss.  T'Pol calls Phlox.

They meet him in Engineering, but the chamber is damaged; so Archer
suggests the subspace implosion.  They'll need (T'Pol says) to
overload three "plasma injectors," (there are five in the port
compartment) thereby triggering a "feedback pulse" through the
"reactor."  Phlox goes to "Supply Locker C, on the upper level" for a
replacement injector.

Four Xindi-R beam in (yellow) and shoot three ENT crew.  Two XR shoot
two MACOs.  They arrive in Engineering and shoot Phlox, then T'Pol.
Archer gets shot twice, but manages to enter the final commands.  ENT
explodes.

TWELVE YEARS EARLIER (NOW): Archer awakes in Sickbay, with Phlox and
T'Pol.  They cleared the anomaly, with minor damage to the starboard
nacelle, and a minor concussion to his head.  T'Pol hands him a PADD
loaded with "Rosemary's Baby;" at his request, she gets and extra
pillow (from a bedside drawer) and turns down the lights.  "Y'know,"
he says to her, "You'd make a wonderful nurse."

VII. VFX SHOTS
Weapon destroys Earth.
ENT attacked by two Xindi-R ships.
ENT rams the docked Xindi-R ship into the second.
ENT, the starboard nacelle dark but for a few flickering aft coils.
Refugee colony, built of ship parts.
ENT (engine still out) leads convoy.  At least 14 ships, including
Starfleet, freighter, and others.
Convoy approaches planet.
Denobulan(?) shuttle lands at camp.
ENT in orbit (engine repaired).
ENT approaches sun.
ENT zaps Yridian craft.
ENT in orbit of C-A-5.
Swoop around moon.
Combat.
_Intrepid_'s port nacelle sliced off.
ENT's bridge dome sliced off (no bodies go tumbling).
ENT explodes in sequence, front to back.
ENT.

VIII. PRODUCTION
REGULAR CAST:
Scott Bakula           as Cpt. Jonathan Archer
Connor Trinneer        as LtCdr. Charles "Trip" Tucker III
Jolene Blalock         as Sub-Commander T'Pol
Dominic Keating        as Lt. Malcolm Reed
Anthony Montgomery     as Ens. Travis Mayweather [not seen]
Linda Park             as Ens. Hoshi Sato
John Billingsley       as Dr. Phlox
[No Porthos]

GUEST CAST:
Gary Graham            as Soval 
Brett Rickaby          as Yedrin Koss [the Yridian, unnamed]
Richard Anthony Crenna as Security Guard 
[Other people]         as [Other crew]
[Yet more people]      as [MACOs]
[Also people]          as [Xindi-Reptilian boarding party]

CREATIVE STAFF:
Directed               by Robert Duncan McNeill ["Tom Paris"]
Written                by Michael Sussman

NEXT WEEK:
In 3.09/061-"North Star", it's "The 37's" -- but *18*37.  (1850, 1875
-- whatever.)  Yee-haw, break out the wild west backdrops.  See:
http://www.startrek.com/startrek/view/series/ENT/episode/3150.html

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