EPISODE: "Exile" PROD#: ENT058 TRAN#: 3.06 RATING: PG-L AIRDATE: wed-15-oct-2003-20:00 EPDATE: [not stated] OFFICIAL: startrek.com/startrek/view/series/ENT/episode/2482.html FROM: Phillip Thorne, thorne@underbase.org POST-TO: rec.arts.startrek.tech REVIEW#: 49.0 FORMAT#: 5.0 URL: underbase.org/dept/trek/ent306_exile.txt I. INTRODUCTION This technical overview is intended to support discussion of the current episode, and to later serve as a reference: it contains PLOT SPOILERS; CONTINUE AT YOUR OWN RISK. Whenever possible, it indicates who did/claimed/knew what. 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 sometimes condense or reorder scenes, for clarity. If you have corrections or clarifications, please contact me, and I'll (eventually) make corrections. "Star Trek" and all related indicia are copyrights of Paramount Pictures, while this overview is (c)2003 Phillip Thorne. Some details provided by _The Star Trek Encyclopedia_, 1st ed., 1994. Feel free to use this document as a reference, but please give credit where due. 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, XDB Xindi database, VHC Vulcan High Command; 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. II. TERMINOLOGY TECHNICAL: Xindi database, vector analysis, gravimetric waves, interference patterns, phase-pistol, trellium-D, gravimetric distortion, cloaking barrier, microfractures, UT upgrades, covariant extrapolation TECHNICAL/ENTERPRISE: Decks B, C, E, subsections, emergency bulkheads TECHNICAL/SHUTTLEPOD: Shuttlepod One, sensor relays, circuit housings, undercarriage, descent thrusters, propulsion system, port thruster, O-2 recycler BIOLOGICAL & MEDICAL: vasodilation, prefrontal cortex, Vulcan root leaf CULTURAL: Xindi-Insectoid, Fiorella's [restaurant] on Fountain Street - San Francisco, [unnamed Arakon dessert], soba noodles, medieval Klingon LOCATIONS, POLITIES and ORGANIZATIONS: Arakon system NAME-DROPPING: Morianna Taal, Sato's grandmother, Sato's parents, her grandfather Michio [Sato?] III. ANALYSIS 1. What we get... A new alien species. New data on the Expanse. A Sato plot, with personal history. A snippet of Denobulan culture. 2. What we don't get... A date. The name of Tarquin's species. The name of the species or language of the book. MACOs. New ships. 3. The shirtless files (No, this isn't prurient interest. Fans will eventually argue over this, so we might as well have the data up front.) ... No Kirk-challenging male torsos, but Sato wears several modestly revealing outfits. 4. Arcs... The nature of the Expanse. Trellium-D. 5. Tarquin is humanoid, with limbs and facial features in the right places, but has six pairs of clawed, insect-leglike appendages on his hairless head. His skin is sandy-brown, with dark-red elliptical patches along the centerline. His species produces one telepath per 50 million births; these individuals are considered threatening, and are exiled to luxurious solo housing in other star systems. They have an unusually long lifespan; Tarquin claimed to be 400 years old, and made no mention of imminent senility. They seem to have replicator technology, at least for foodstuffs. 6. How can a simple gravimetric interference pattern cause such specific anomalies as food-flinging and staircase-twisting? Perhaps the gravimetrics merely act as a carrier for a more specific mechanism. 7. Because it lands on a flat surface, we get a good look at the shuttlepod's landing gear: it consists of six rectangular pads that telescope downwards by about 20 cm. The sensor relays are inaccessible from the cabin; instead, they're in the undercarriage, or possibly a compartment above the wing-root. That same compartment is connected to the thrusters. The O-2 recycler is near the forward (port, possibly both) thruster cluster. IV. NITS 1. How did Tarquin drain ENT's power? 2. If Tarquin is lonely, why doesn't Sato propose taking him offworld (possibly after ENT completes its mission)? Or at least giving him social radio contact. 3. Tarquin's species exiles its telepaths (in luxury) because it considers them a threat -- but Tarquin says his telepathy works with only the rare mind. Does he mean, over interstellar ranges, or with aliens? Why not provide the exiles with interstellar comm, or pen pals, or put them in a single colony? 4. Why would a species that fears telepaths have a telepathic amplifier? Is it meant for non-telepaths (under controlled circumstances), or did Tarquin's family buy it from another species? 5. Despite dropping a relay in 226-"The Expanse", there's been no mention of communication with Starfleet. 6. Tucker says the sensor relays are in the shuttle's undercarriage, but the panel he fiddles with is above the winglet root. V. THIRD-PARTY COMMENTS [...] VI. EPISODE SYNOPSIS TEASER: Sato (in black shorts, white tank top, and white headband) performs ablutions in her bathroom. She hears whispers -- sees a figure in the shadows (TARQUIN) -- calls Security. Reed answers, but when she looks back, no one is there. (47 seconds) ACT 1: Archer finds T'Pol in the Command Center. Based on ENT's encounters and those recorded in the salvaged XDB, she's plotted the locations of spatial anomalies. Performing a "vector analysis" of the "gravimetric waves" emitted by the Sphere [3.02], she's deduced that the anomalies occur along "interference patterns" produced by a second source -- and it's less than 4 Ly away. On the Bridge, Reed tells Sato that he's found no sign of an intruder. "Xindi-Insectoid". In Sickbay, Phlox measures "mild vasodilation in the prefrontal cortex", which would explain Sato's headache -- but that's it. She's had a feeling of being watched for the past few days -- could anything be causing hallucinations? [No mention of Loque'eque aftereffects.] He mentions that on Denobula, it's considered healthy to hallucinate when you're under stress -- but he's never been able to. Sato works alone in CC, translating a section of the XDB for T'Pol. Suddenly, all the screens switch to display a planet. She pages Reed. The figure appears: "I can help." The screens switch to her face. She turns to run -- and finds herself in a gothic manse. [The stained-glass windows are a reuse of TNG Romulan sets.] She exits -- onto a veranda built into the crest of a snow-swept peak. Reed appears, and she exits the hallucination. Archer and Reed watch as Phlox again examines her. They leave; it's feeding time, so she drops powdered "Vulcan root leaf" into an aquarium. The intruder appears as Phlox, and admits to studying her for the past several days; his telepathy works with few minds. She's pulled into the manse again, and its arboretum. He tells her he's only 3 Ly away. In the Ready Room, Archer and Sato discuss the alien. Archer's suspicious, but Sato says he was horrified by Earth's casualties, and is willing to use his powers to locate the Xindi. Archer calls Mayweather. Later, ENT arrives at the planet; Archer, Reed and Sato take a shuttle to the mountaintop manse. Unmet at the door, they enter its candle-lit interior. In the dining room, then meet Sato's intruder -- who isn't human at all ... ACT 2: The alien introduces himself as TARQUIN. He'll need an object associated with the Xindi to retrieve information about them. [This form of ESP is called "psychometry".] It'll take a few days, and he'd like Sato to stay -- and when Archer resists, he makes it a condition. In the Ready Room, Archer and Reed feel that Tarquin is hiding something, but Hoshi feels comfortable and thinks it's worth the risk. Later, Archer hands Tarquin a component from the Probe, and sees Sato off. She reassures him that she'll "keep [a phase-pistol] under my pillow." At dinner, Tarquin provides a series of familiar dishes, the "tastes and textures" "programmed" [presumably into a replicator or the like] from her memories: a slice of pizza (from "Fiorella's" on Fountain Street, San Francisco), a burger and fries, macaroni and cheese; for desert, a delicacy from "the Arakon system." Tarquin freaks her out by referring to the "soba noodles" served by her grandmother, and the way she's felt alone ever since her parents discovered her gift for language and surrounded her with private tutors. He explains that his homeworld is 30 Ly away, where one in 50 million births is a telepath; considered a threat, they're exiled to worlds like this. Later, Tarquin shows Sato to her room, and gives her a book written in a language that's been dead for 1000 years. Leaving, he tells he she needn't feel isolated. Elsewhere, Archer impatiently bounces a water-polo ball off the wall of his Ready Room. Suddenly, it sticks -- a signal that they're approaching the second Sphere. A bulge runs through a corridor. In the Armory (crewed by at least 4), another wave twists the staircase. On the bridge, T'Pol (in red) reports anomalies on all decks; another wave causes an eruption of sparks. (Relief helmsman, mel-brun-yellow-onepip.) Outside, an irregular portion of hull-plating bubbles and explodes. ACT 3: T'Pol reports breaches on Decks B, C and E; "emergency bulkheads" are in place, but 3 "subsections" have decompressed; this Sphere is emitting much more intensely than the previous one, but is probably 75,000 km away. Reed reports a decline in structural integrity in the "forward hull." Archer calls Tucker about the status of the engine, and about "insulating" a shuttle; the engineer estimates a day to refine the ore, and 12 hours to "reconfigure the hull." Archer reminds T'Pol to stay clear of the Launchbay [because trellium-D is a poison to Vulcans]. Sato (in a grey-blue sundress) comes upon Tarquin, who's holding a blue-glowing ellipsoid and concentrating on the Xindi component; he reports a "great deal of conflict" between the five Xindi species. She's already half through the book; the language reminds her of "medieval Klingon." The orb was given to him by his family at the time of his exile, and extends the range of his TP. It's safe for a non-TP to use, with guidance; he helps her. She experiences a cascade of images [from previous eps of ENT], then a flash of a Xindi-Reptilian. Later, Sato wanders through the arboretum, and out onto the windswept deck. She discovers a quartet of graves. Tarquin arrives, and is briefly angry; then explains that the deceased were former companions, whom he outlived (he's over 400 years old). The first was named "MORIANNA TAAL"; the last died over 100 years earlier. He tries to persuade her to become number five, and reminds her that the last person she was truly close to was her late grandfather "MICHIO". Archer and Tucker fly Pod 1 to the Sphere. Despite readings of "gravimetric distortion", the cabin is calm. They travel 79,000 km, with no sign of the "cloaking barrier"; T'Pol provides directions. They submerge, suffer "microfractures" and power fluctuations; backup power activates, and they surface. Tucker tries to scan, but the "sensor relays" are damaged, and the "circuit housings" are in the "undercarriage", inaccessible from the cabin. Archer uses "descent thrusters" to land them on the Sphere, and they step out in EV suits. ACT 4: Tucker is working at an opened panel above the port wing root, and tells Archer he has two more relays to bypass. Suddenly there's a spark, the port nose thruster fires, and the shuttle lifts slowly off the Sphere. "What happened?" asks Archer. "The port thruster ignited!" says Commander Obvious. "I can see that." He concludes he somehow "triggered a surge in the propulsion system." They decide to shoot the thruster. Archer almost hits the "O-2 recycler", but finally they bring it down. It falls and tumbles to a stop. They return to ENT with their readings, and head back for Sato. Sato (in lavender nightgown) is reading the book when Tarquin tells her he's received news from Archer. Later, she's donning her jumpsuit when Archer enters. In fact, it's Tarquin's image, trying to trick her into staying. "UT upgrades". On ENT, they spontaneously lose main and auxiliary powers, engines and life support. The replacement officer at Comm is mel-brun-blue-onepip. Sato barges in on Tarquin, who reluctantly threatens her with ENT's paralysis. "You would kill over eighty people to keep me here?" "I don't want to kill anyone." She threatens him in turn by grabbing the amplifier; he'll eventually need it once she dies. He concedes. In the Command Center, T'Pol (in purple) shows Archer her analysis. The output of the two Spheres is insufficient to account for the known anomalies; a "covariant extrapolation" indicates at least *50* are needed. Archer proposes: could someone have built the Spheres to *create* the Expanse? In her quarters (again in shorts and tank), Sato finishes the book. Tarquin appears, and reassures her it'll be the last time. He doesn't want her to get hurt (and she may change her mind), so he has information. Later, Sato reports to Archer in his Ready Room: the coordinates of a Xindi colony, where part of the weapon is being built. VII. VFX SHOTS ENT at impulse. ENT banks, enters warp. ENT approaches the planet. Shuttlepod is deployed (POV from above). Shuttlepod launches from fwd-stbd bay. Shuttlepod heads for manse's landing pad. ENT at warp. Hull plating explodes. Shuttlepod launches from fwd-stbd bay. Land on the Sphere, exit. Power returns to ENT. ENT at warp. 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: Maury Sterling as Tarquin Philip Boyd as Com Officer : male, brun, bluestripe, 1 pip [Someone] as [spare Helm Officer] : male, brun, yellowstripe, 1 pip CREATIVE STAFF: Directed by Roxann Dawson ["B'Elanna Torres"] Written by Phyllis Strong NEXT WEEK: A repeat of 3.01-"The Xindi". See: www.startrek.com/startrek/view/series/ENT/episode/1729.html On 10/29, 3.07-"The Shipment", in which Archer, Reed and Hayes infiltrate the Xindi-Sloth colony discovered by Tarquin. See: www.startrek.com/startrek/view/series/ENT/episode/2664.html