SERIES: "Enterprise" EPISODE: "Fortunate Son" PROD#: ENT010 EP#: 110 RATING: PG AIRDATE: wed-21-nov-2001-20:00 EPDATE: (not stated) OFFICIAL: startrek.com/library/enterprise/episodes_ent_detail_010.asp FROM: Phillip Thorne, thorne@underbase.org POST-TO: rec.arts.startrek.tech, rec.arts.sf.tv REVIEW#: 2.0 This technical overview format is intended to be easy-to-read, unambiguous, and precise, and a foundation for further freeform discussion. It is arranged in the order in which events are shown, unless I combine several points on the same technology. It distinguishes between what is said/claimed by characters. Whenever possible, it uses spellings from the closed captioning (which may not match that on the official website). If the spelling is unclear, I'll append (sp?), should I remember. Corrections to typos, phrasing, etc. are welcome, but only if you include a citation -- the idea is to *avoid* half-remembered inferences. This overview is (c)2001 Phillip Thorne, thorne@underbase.org. If you wish to reuse large hunks of text, please notify me and include a citation. PLOT SPOILERS BELOW! I. TERMS (from closed captioning): Gravity plating, Jupiter Station, Cpt.Keene, Nausicaans, plasma cannons, drop out of warp; Adm.Forrest, subspace amplifier, _ECS Fortunate_, Y-class freighter, J-class freighter, First Officer Matthew Ryan, _Horizon_, cortical regeneration; Dralax, Vega Colony, Dralax-Vega run, hydroponics, nutripacks, Mystery Meals, _North Star_, T'pol's scanner, bio-sign, bio-scans, Tenebian skunk, Nausicaa; warp trail, remodulate the weapons, shield modulations, space boomers; NX-class starship, Dralaxian whiskey. II. NITS: * If the _Fortunate_ was in warp when attacked, why doesn't the exterior establishing shot show starstreaks? * If they only now fixed an unbalanced cargo loaded at Jupiter Station, and Jupiter Station is actually *our* Jupiter (conjecture), and their top speed is warp 1.8, shouldn't they be still close to Sol? Why are the Nausicaans so close? * Travis speaks of "incoming meteors". Technically, a rock in space is a "meteoroid", and it's the streak it makes while volatilizing through an atmosphere is the "meteor". Any remnant that reaches the surface is a "meteorite". III. NOTES: TEASER: * The freighter has "gravity plating" that can be adjusted to near-zero, and apparently to "Earth sea level". * After the ship shudders from the Nausicaan attack, Keene orders the ship to "drop out of warp" and then prepare the "plasma cannons". Implication: it was attacked *while* in warp. ACT 1: * At its current position, the Ent can hold realtime conversations with Starfleet Command (presumably: on Earth), but with static. * Moreover, it *has been* in communication; Adm.Forrest refers to scans of "that comet" (presumably: #107). * The Ent is preparing to deploy its first "subspace amplifier" to improve communications. * Wherever Ent is, it must "turn around" to reach the _ECS Fortunate_. The nearest [other] Starfleet vessel is 3 weeks away at maximum warp, but the Ent is only 1.5 days. * ECS stands for "Earth Cargo Ship". * Reed's briefing: the _ECS Fortunate_ is a Y-class freighter, max warp 1.8, crew of 23. (Plus any newborn kids, Travis adds.) * Travis explains that he grew up on a J-class freighter, a little smaller than the Y-class but otherwise similar. Such freighters are usually armed only with low-yield plasma cannons (for meteor defense), but most crews upgrade those first chance. "When you're hauling 20 kilotons of dilithium ore," he says. * Reed refers to _Fortunate's_ "warp reactor" and "primary systems". From nearby, the Ent's sensors can detect they're down. * Shuttlepod sensors can distinguish organic from inorganic debris, when nearby. (Alternatively, Phlox is reading a relay from Ent.) * _Fortunate_ has a "hatch" on the port side of the command section, but not the starboard. * First Officer Matthew Ryan explains that they were attacked by Nausicaan pirates. Travis adds that they've attacking ships in "this sector" "for years". Travis's family's ship was the _Horizon_. * On _Fortunate_, the emergency beacon is separate from the communications system. * Phlox diagnoses that Keene's "neural pathways" were "disrupted" by the Nausicaan weapons. He prescribes "a cortical regeneration", which will take two to three days, in Ent's sickbay. * Ent has the resources (Archer offers) to "maybe" upgrade _Fortunate's_ hull plating and weapons. * In one of _Fortunate's_ bays, cargo (the barrels and boxes we've seen since TNG) is stacked as though expecting gravity; it doesn't seem to be lashed down. * The Nausicaan prisoner has an ochre-yellow complexion, four spikes down the center of his forehead, three mouth tusks, and purple bruises/scrapes. ACT 2: * _Fortunate_ has a machine shop. * Ent has a Quartermaster, and Engineering can fabricate items he doesn't stock. * The transporter alcove is directly off a corridor. * Ryan refers to rumors about transport of humans: that for a split second, you can feel yourself in both locations. Travis implies this is why he's anxious to try it, although most of Ent's crew is afraid. * Travis was born halfway between "Dralax" and "Vega Colony", on "the Dralax-Vega run". * Travis's sister and her husband are still aboard _Horizon_. * Trip studies a part on the upper level of Engineering, and offers to "synthesize" replacement valve seals (presumably what he's scrutinizing); it'll take about 40 minutes. * Trip proudly notes that Ent has the only warp-5 engine in the fleet. * Travis notes that with a warp-3 engine, a 5-year run could be cut to 6-months. * Ent's mess stocks what Travis calls "homemade ice cream". He claims Ent's chef is the best in Starfleet, and that Archer had to call in a lot of favors to get him. He recommends avoiding the "resequenced meat lof". * At this stage in _Fortunate's_ run (18 months? The last time Ryan had a real steak), it's down to "hydroponics" and "nutripacks". Both _Fortunate_ and _Horizon_ kids refer to them as "Mystery Meals". Apparently moms can use them in very creative cooking. * Ryan was one of the survivors of an apparently-well-known-among-Boomers unspecified disaster that befell the freighter _North Star_; his parents were lost (killed?). * Travis acknowledges that "running freight is dangerous". * Travis claims that three more "NX-class" ships like Ent are "on the drawing boards". * There are at least 3 kids on _Fortunate_. * T'Pol is able to help with repairs. * T'Pol evades a question during a game of hide-and-seek; when asked if she's seen Nadine (whom she's discovered behind an access panel), she answers "I don't know which child is named Nadine". * On Archer's ready-room desk, there are racks filled with what appear to be CD jewel cases. * Ryan claims that one of the kids has a "Tenebian skunk". * The "bio-scans" performed by T'pol's "scanner" can distinguish the "bio-signs" of the Nausicaan prisoner, and his injured state -- presumably while she was aboard _Fortunate_. * Ryan claims the Nausicaans have been attacking for months, and stealing cargo. * Ryan implies Nausicaans are from "Nausicaa". * Archer admits that Starfleet has no jurisdiction on _Fortunate_, but he does over the replacement parts he supplied. * _Fortunate's_ crew is armed with (at least) a rifle-like weapon that fires white-blue(?) bolts, and a handgun that fires white-orange bolts. * _Fortunate_ can jettison bay #8 (identified by door signage). * Bay #8 is the aftmost portside. ACT 3: * Hoshi's station can receive bio-sign readings. * With Archer and T'Pol away, Tucker assumes command. * _Fortunate_ fires sweveral orange bursts, apparently from the #2 starboard cargo pod. * Tucker orders "starboard tubes 3 and 4". There's a recessed rectangle on each side of the forward edge of the ventral curve; each has two circular openings. * When _Fortunate_ enters warp, its engines glow blue, then it leaves a white streak (TOS movie style) and vanishes in a white burst (TNG style). * Ent can track their "warp trail". * _Fortunate's_ "plasma cannons" knocked out Ent's "long-range sensors". Getting them "back on-line" will take about four hours, Tucker estimates. The table GUI shows "loss of signal" on their track. * Ryan tortures the Nausicaan to get the "shield modulations" so he can "remodulate" their weapons. * _Fortunate_ carries escape pods. * Ryan refers to _Fortunate_ as "her". * "Captain's Starlog, supplemental". * Travis helps with the repairs of the long-range sensors, in Engineering. He suggests "bypass circuit L-47". * Travis claims that his dad had run into Nausicaans, and handled them. * Archer refers to "space boomers". * While _Fortunate_ is at warp, it is surrounded by white starstreaks. Its nacelle tips are yellow. * When they find the Nausicaan ship, Ryan orders "full impulse" and "lay in an intercept course". Range, or target-lock range, of the cannons is only about 9-km. During combat, he orders "hull plating to maximum". Their "reactor is off line". * They apparently lack the sensors to determine the asteroid has a Nausicaan base within it. * One Nausicaan ship fires a blue-green beam. * A Nausicaan ship "latches on" to _Fortunate_. ACT 4: * Ent's long-range scans that detect weapons fire are visible at both T'Pol's and Reed's stations. * The Nausicaan handguns have two round barrels, but only fire from the upper. It's a yellow-orange beam. Sustained beams can cut the locks on an interior hatch, but even three beams take several minutes. The ship that latched on carried at least three crew, who boarded _Fortunate_. * Ryan's handgun has a vertical slot for a barrel. * From ~200,000-km, Ent can get a visual of the combat, can detect the four Nausicaan bio-signs aboard, and note weapons discharges (presumably those onboard). * Reed reports that the Nausicaan ships have fore and aft plasma cannons, and shields that wouldn't hold up long to Ent's torpedoes (but that might be a boast). * Archer refers to Ent as "an NX-class starship". * _Fortunate_ has an intercom in the cargo bay, through which Ryan converses with Ent. * Archer orders "starboard tubes 3 and 4" and "port tubes 1 and 2". * Keene offers Archer "Dralaxian whiskey". He busts Ryan down to "Able Crewman", at which rank he'll be flushing "hydraulic pumps". Keene's family has been running _Fortunate_ for 3 generations, but will need at least warp 3 engines to stay in business. * _Fortunate's_ sickbay(?) has open shelving, and a flatscreen on the wall behind the biobed. * The sickbay hatch has a physical keypad on the adjacent bulkhead; one of the buttons opens the hatch. IV. NEXT WEEK: Archer meets an agent from 900 years in the future, visits a "temporal observatory", and chases a Suliban. V. ANALYSIS: * _Enterprise_ is an "NX-class starship", the only ship currently in Starfleet with a warp-5 engine, but there are three more being planned. It has at least six torpedo tubes: two pairs forward, plus two aft (ENT:"Civilization"). The forward four might be numbered 1-2-3-4 port-to-starboard. Ent is capable of realtime subspace communication with (probably) Earth, but reception is improved with a "subspace amplifier" (presumably an uncrewed predecessor to the relay station seen in TNG:"Aquiel"). (Apparently they don't use digital error-correction codes.) As with future ships, many non-Engineering chores are perfomed in Engineering. * The Y-class freighter _Fortunate_ looks like something out of "Babylon 5", but less colorful. The forward command section is a vertically-elongated block, with a docking hatch on the upper port side. Its forward surface has a pair of vertically-stacked gold dishes (round-topped rectangles) on a blue-glowing background (like Ent). Two horizontal rectangular pods attach to its ventral edge; they have blue-glowing aft ends (impulse engines)? Behind the command section is an arch-topped rectangular spine, with ventral trusswork. There are two cylindrical warp engines attached to a ventral bulge; they have yellow tips, blue-glowing side panels, and hemisphere-capped ends (like the TOS Ent). Eight cargo pods are attached, four on each side, by a short stalk. Each pod is a vertical semicylinder, with symmetrical for and aft notches. They can apparently be jettisoned. There are narrow aerial-like structures for and aft. Its plasma cannons fire orange bolts; there are two at the ventral edge of the deflector(?) oblong, and possibly more on the cargo pods. It's a near-uniform light grey in color. * The three Nausicaan raiders are identical crescent-shaped aerodyne-looking ships, convex edge forward, with a central dorsal bulge. The crescent "wing" has triangular "flaps" at each tip, and extends aft into two flanges. Beneath the flanges are yellow-glowing cylinders (presumably the warp engines). Their plasma cannons fire blue beams. They're orange-brown in color. * Travis notes that with a warp-3 engine, a 5-year freighter run could be cut to 6-months. So, 60-months at warp-1.8, 6-months at -3: that's 10 times faster. Assuming a cubical warp scale, warp-1.8 is ~5.8-c, and 3 is 27-c, only a factor of ~4.7 faster. Hmmmm. * "Princess Nausicaa" is the name of the female lead in the Miyazaki animé film "Nausicaa and the Valley of the Winds", from which animé fan Okuda derived the name of the Nausicaans back in TNG:"Tapestry" (presumably while filling a script "TECH" placeholder). It's now also the (a?) name of their planet, following the precedent of "Andoria" (ENT:"The Andorian Incident").