[ST:Ent][Tech] Overview of 1.19:"Acquisition" SERIES: "Enterprise" EPISODE: "Acquisition" PROD#: ENT019 EP#: 1.19 RATING: PG AIRDATE: wed-27-mar-2002-20:00 EPDATE: [not stated] OFFICIAL: startrek.com/library/episodes_ent_detail.asp?ID=123774 FROM: Phillip Thorne, thorne@underbase.org POST-TO: rec.arts.startrek.tech, rec.arts.sf.tv REVIEW#: 15.0 FORMAT#: 3.31 URL: underbase.org/dept/trek/ent119_acquisition.txt This technical overview format is intended to be easy-to-scan, unambiguous, and precise, and a foundation for (in later revisions, a summary of) further freeform discussion. It distinguishes between what is said/claimed by characters, from what is actually shown. Whenever possible, it uses spellings from the closed captioning (which may not be entirely consistent, or match those on the official website). Corrections to typos, phrasing, etc. are welcome, but please, only if you include a specific citation -- the idea is to avoid *half-remembered* lines and *unrealized inferences*. The NOTES are listed in seen-on-screen order, and ANALYSIS summarizes topics. Abbreviations used: (m/f/?) name belongs to male/female/unclear, (os) on viewer screen, (?) quote is uncertain, (sp?) spelling is unclear, (vo) voiceover. This overview is (c)2002 Phillip Thorne, thorne@underbase.org. If you wish to reuse large hunks of text, or use this as a major source, please notify me and include a citation. PLOT SPOILERS BELOW! I. TERMS TRICKY Ulis pronounced "yoolis", Muk "muck". TECHNOLOGY gold-pressed latinum, weapons lockers, hypospray, decon(sp), bioscan(sp); bio-matter resequencing, [Ferengi handheld] scanners, antimatter injector, injector assembly, [neural whip]. CULTURE pecan pie, Rules of Acquisition; Malurzian Zoo; water polo, oo-mox, Vulcan High Command, beetle snuff, Bolian. CHARACTERS Ferengi Ulis (leader, Ethan Phillips), Krem (his cousin, brown, Jeffrey Combs), Muk (red), Grish (blue, the doctor). MENTIONS [none] III. NOTES TEASER * FX. Ent hangs canted in space. * FX os. Ent on Ferengi screen. * Ferengi bridge. Four crew. * FX. Ferengi ship moves to starboard docking port. Kora noosa? ohl cucht ---. Irr ghales. Nohm ---. NanDi. Vaneeday. ACT I * FX. Ferengi ship docked to starboard port. * Various. Two crew, wearing breath masks and brandishing guns and handheld sensors, enter the ship and prowl. The entire crew is passed out. Lir rrel ---. Y-solah-na! Krem! Tenda sout bazul, Ningor. Oooh! Gard-dzy latinum sou-tah! Lahje! Sapa-moul! Ehj saf-uz. Konah ---. Orink ---. (Spots T'pol) Oooh... Senpa tah0moy. Lorala. Ulis tenda vool ---. * Turbolift. The two remove their masks. * Bridge. The other two come aboard. Sop moepree. La-voy Daemon. Letra deema mirra! Mirra! Klaxut. Ree-jahvey. * Decon. Trip (in his blue regulation underwear, shirt and shorts) awakes on the deck, realizes he's overslept, calls for the doctor. * Sickbay. Phlox is passed out, heedless to Trip's voice. * Decon. Trip tries, fails to pry the doors apart. He pops open the grill on the intercom panel, shorts something out, and they pop open. (They lead directly to the spacesuit locker room.) * Corridor. Trip passes a crewman (male redstripe), reaches a turbo (inside: male brun redstripe, female brun yellowstripe). * Airlock. The Ferengi lay down ramps over the hatch sills, then enter with wheeled carts and empty sacks. * Sickbay. They start grabbing booty indiscriminately. One is startled by Phlox's pet. Trip watches from the top of the ladder. Guzah --- ---. Sel. Ehj ocuuz ---. Eek! Lam-rouvah ---. * Corridor. * Corridor. A torpedo gets carted off. Trip watches, then ducks around the corner. ACT II * Bridge. Ulis pries off the dedication plaque. * Engineering. Two Ferengi go to a bronze-colored cylinder, and push a misting cupola back into it. They find T'pol, and are intrigued. One tries to pull loose the port antimatter injector, and jumps back from a flash-bang. * Bridge. Mayweather's seat is carried off. * Mess. Another grabs food and utensils. He's intrigued by the pecan pie, and grabs both slices. * Quarters. Muk finds a pair of boots. * Launchbay 2. The chamber's filled with booty, plus five females: T'pol, Hoshi, and 3 others. * Engineering. Tucker passes 4 crewmen. He goes to his desk, activates his viewer, tunes to the bridge security channel. Sees 2 Ferengi carry off Archer. * Launchbay 2. Archer is shackled to a wall-handle. Grish awakens him with a hypo, and they start interrogating him, clubbing him with a rifle. Their UT finally tunes in. They ask where the ship's vault is, and are astonished/credulous when he claims that (a) Ent is a ship of exploration, not commerce and (b) it carries no "gold-pressed latinum", gold, or jewels. He recognizes their type, and fabricates a story. They leave him in Krem's custody, to load the ship. Ingala habi. (He's injected.) Ingala --- ---. Duk habi ---. Bok, megoron duk what I'm saying? * FX. Ships docked, aft view. * Ferengi ship. Archer learns from the nervous Krem that this is his first "month" on the job, that it's his cousin Ulis's ship, and about the Rules of Acquisition (all 173). The most important [unnumbered]: "a man is only worth the sum of his possessions". #45: "Expand or die". * Ferengi and Ent docking ports. #6: "Never allow family to stand in the way of profit". Archer spots Trip , feigns a cough, and convinces Krem to get a glass of water (and some food) from the mess hall. He's left shackled to a wall-handle. Trip fails to free him. Apparently all 14 of the ship's "weapons lockers" have been emptied. Archer tells him he was awakened with a "hypospray" in "Launch Bay 2". Trip sneaks off as Krem returns with a glass, munching on a white-bread sandwich. (The Ferengi ship seems to have a single main chamber, with control area forward, cargo bay midships with a portside airlock chamber, then an aft T-junction. It's mated to Ent's airlock chamber and anteroom.) * Launchbay 2. Trip enters, finds the hypospray, and wakes T'pol, then goes to Sato (but it's empty). As he does so, she stares at him, which he notices. "Just because a guy's in his underwear, you think the worst." He explains that, after returning from the lunar surface, he was in decon(sp) to clear bioscan(sp). T'pol guesses that the "canister" he returned with was planted: it released "some kind of gas" when opened. Trip hides and T'pol feigns sleep as Archer and Krem enter. Krem doesn't recognize Vulcans, and is intrigued by her ears. Archer describes her species as "not very interesting". ACT III * Quarters. Trip dons a borrowed bluestripe jumpsuit. * Sickbay. Ulis, Muk and Grish are puzzling over the scanner tube, wondering why the vault is in the "medical bay". Ulis cites #23, "nothing is more important than your health, except for your money". It suddenly opens, and they're startled when the bed slides out. Muk is concerned that they've only 3-h until the crew starts to recover. Muk finds a well-crafted medical implement and decides to keep it to himself. "Do I look like a Menk to you?" * T'pol watches them on a screen. * Maint tube. Tucker affixes a locking-drum to a hatch marked "bio-matter resequencing". * Bridge, situation room. Ulis tells Grish he won't find the vault marked on the ship's map, but Grish is looking instead for the captain's quarters (that's where Ulis keeps *his* vault). (By the map, they're just starboard of the deflector notch.) (T'pol triggers an alarm.) The three pained Ferengi look for the source, find her console, shoot it (yellow beam). While distracted, T'pol sneaks out, grabs Muk's three "scanners". When they return to the briefing table, Muk can't find them, and immediately suspects Ulis, who protests his innocence. (T'pol triggers the scanners.) Ulis's bag beeps, and Muk pounces on it. (T'pol keeps the third.) * Back corridor. T'pol listens, plots. * Engineering. Krem directs Archer to the offending panel; "warp core parts are in high demand". Archer tells him he'll have to shut down the "injection assembly" to remove the "antimatter injector". Archer sows dissension in Krem, and offers a bargain. * Archer's quarters. Grish asks Porthos where the vault is. "It's a lower lifeform, you fool. Probably the captain's next meal," sneers Muk. Grish says maybe not; note the size of its ears. Muks decides he can sell it to the "Malurzian Zoo". * FX. Ships docked, aft view. * Launcbay 2. Muk puts Porthos in a crate. He spots Trip, shoots, misses as he slips out the hatch. Alerts the others through his handheld com. * Corridor. Trip evades Muk's pursuit. * Mess. Trip feigns sleep amid the other bodies. When Muk is turned, tackles him. Struggle, punches him, grabs the dropped gun. * Corridor. Trip shoots at Grish. His hand is hit; drops gun. Ulis advances, wielding a neural whip. ACT IV * Launchbay 2. Krem marches Archer in. The other 3 enter with Trip. Grish suggests they leave; only 2-h remaining. Ulis challenges Muk to leave in one of Ent's "shuttlecraft"; he can take the "women" [not "females"]. Trip protests; Hoshi is his wife. He offers to show them the vault. Archer challenges him. They feign a fight; Muk and Ulis separate them. Now, all 3 distrust him with the vault's contents; 2 follow Trip out, leaving Archer with Krem. Archer feigns a pulled back muscle; an old "water polo" injury. Krem shackles him to a wall-handle and leaves to finish loading. * Turbolift. Trip leads the 3 to "the bottom deck". * Ferengi ship. Krem loads, and T'pol appears, moving seductively. "Have you come to rescue me from the humans?" "Hew-mahns?" Krem answers. "I'm a prisoner here," she lies. "They imprisoned me." Krem is smitten: "you would make a handsome wife." He asks if she knows "oo-mox". At his prompting, she strokes his lobes -- then neck-pinches him. She takes his key, then grabs a phase-pistol from a case. * Maint tube #1. Tucker leads the 3. * Corridor. Tucker leads the 3. * Maint tube #2. Tucker leads the 3. They're getting suspicious, but he finally reaches the hatch he'd been at earlier. He cunningly convinces all 3 to rush in. They see the machinery, realize it's a trap; T'pol steps from behind the hatch and stuns them. * Launchbay 2. T'pol enters, and Archer asks her to unshackle him. "Not that interesting. No sense of humor," she says coldly, dangling the key. "I'll give you five bars of gold," he offers. * Armory. Under Trip's supervision, Muk and ??? return the torpedo. * Docking port. Under the armed supervision of T'pol and a guard, they return the loot. * Launchbay 2. Archer lets Porthos out of the crate. * Ferengi ship. Archer leaves Krem in charge; the other 3 are shackled to the walls. Archer tells them he's warned the "Vulcan High Command" to watch out for them. He and Trip leave. Ulis tries to entice Krem with "my latinum pen, the one you've had your eye on", then his "beetle snuff" collection. "Makes me sneeze," says Krem, moving to the control podium. Muk tries to bribe him: he knows a "Bolian" female... * FX. Ferengi ship undocks, flies off. Ventral view. V. CONNECTIONS 1. Ferengi were mentioned in ENT-113:"Dear Doctor", as one of the species encountered by the Valakians. 2. The Menk were the servant underspecies in ENT-113:"Dear Doctor". 3. The Ferengi neural whip was introduced as a distinctive weapon in TNG-105:"The Last Outpost", but were ignored thereafter. 4. T'pol displayed her low opinion of Trip's human sexuality in ENT-105:"Unexpected". 5. The drum-shaped device Trip uses on the maintenance hatch appeared in ENT-111:"Cold Front", where it was used to lock the hatch to Cwn.Daniels's quarters. VI. ANALYSIS 1. Ferengi language. Lots of it! [Later] VII. NITS [...] VIII. NEXT WEEK A crashed starship (the standard wedge-shaped Husnock(sp)/Pakled/Bajoran freighter) from 22-y ago! A ghost crew! Rene Auberjonois sans makeup!