Matt and Sean talk about seeing double. Another return to some original series tricks, but this time with very, very positive results.
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We’re also taking a look at what was going on in our world at the time of the original broadcast. So we are still in early days, we’re looking at star Trek enterprise, which means we’re looking at 2003. And who are we? Well, I’m Sean Farrell. I’m a writer. I’ve written some sci-fi, I’ve written some stuff for kids, picture books and middle grade novels.
And with me as my brother, Matt, he’s the guru and inquisitor behind the YouTube channel undecided with Matt Farrell, which takes a look at emerging tech and it’s impact on our lives. So we’ve got the storytelling covered. We’ve got the science covered. In other words, we’ve got star Trek covered. Matt, how you doing?
I’m doing pretty well. How about yourself?
I’m doing okay. I’m looking forward to talking about this episode, which without getting into details at the beginning, just wanna get a sense of where this conversation might go. What did you think big picture about this episode? Thumbs up, thumbs down, thumbs up.
I really liked it. And it’s a very emotional episode. I thought it was very good.
Yeah. I agree. I agree. I, I right out of the gate at the very beginning, I’m, I’m not a fan of the book ending structure. We’ve talked about that previously. Yeah. Um, And I have some thoughts on that. But other than that, once you get past that element, I felt like this felt almost like a perfect pairing with last week’s episode, where we talked last week about, they tried really hard to make something very original Trek.
Yes. And they succeeded, unfortunately, because the story that came up with the old west and all of that was just like, really, it felt very dated. It felt very why. . Yep. Whereas this is another old trope, original Trek star Trek. You take a character and you, and they get duplicated. Trek has done that. Sci-fi has done that for decades.
And yet they did it in a way here that I was just like, wow. They really, really did some interesting and unique stuff with this. So I’m looking forward to talking about it. Yeah. Before we get into that, as usual, we like start off with some comments about previous episodes. So Matt, do you wanna share some comments that you found in our comments?
Sure. Which is where our comments live comment that’s right. It does.
It lives in the comment. Uh, so from our last episode about north star, which was the old west episode, we were just talking about, there was one comment from Ebos that said enterprise sure was a little bit schizophrenic from time to time when it came down to episode topics and flavors.
Yes. North star was just a fun one, not too much to think about. And it was lovely to see the actors having fun and getting out and. Also it isn’t a Wiki summary without the license plate. N X oh one mentioned. It’s true. good video as always. Yeah, I thought that was really funny. And then there was a series of two comments that I think were a good kind of back to back.
But the first one is from you, hopefully not butcher his name. S Stephan Vail, you know, Nita, all he wrote was the episode. North star is very good, but you guys don’t see the good perspective I would illuminate you guys. Hmm, but he didn’t illuminate us. Right. I wanna be illuminated so Stefan, if you hear this yeah.
Add, add a comment and explain what we missed. Cause I would love to hear your perspective on it.
Yeah. Perspective to just jump in really quickly on that. Yeah. I would like, I would just like to say, you know, Matt and I come to these episodes with, for good or for bad. Our regular listeners will know the number of times that Matt and I have disagreed and like clashed over a response to an episode have not been as often as those episodes where we’re fairly unified in our response to it.
And that comes from the fact that Matt and I are practically clones. I’ll uh, this episode in certain ways and that’s yeah, again for good or for bad, you know, the, the, I think the channel, uh, works because of our ability to converse about these things in a, in a parlance that is, has a shorthand to it, so that we’re able to get into the nitty gritty of our conversations a little bit faster.
The difficulty is that there is a perspective that Stefan may be reflecting, which is maybe you just want an adventure story. Maybe you just want to be entertained. Maybe you just wanna see people on a spaceship flying around and doing stuff. And there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that. And if there is, if somebody likes tofa or any of our other listeners come to this and say like, boy, you really missed the boat of just having fun on horses.
Yeah, jump into the comments and let us know that that’s what you think, because we want to have an engaging discussion, but we also do not come to this discussion with the attitude of we have spoken. Therefore it is law. That’s not what we’re trying to do here. We really do appreciate Stefan your comment, and we’d invite you to come back and give us some more details about what you’re, what you’re thinking.
We’d
revisit it on that point, Sean. There is a comment that kind of agrees with us. And it’s from robo Trav. He said he really liked the part at the end where the sheriff was watching the lesson and raised his hand to see the picture. He seemed so humbled. He said, he thought it was a good moment.
Otherwise he agrees that this is a rather odd episode. Mm-hmm and he asked the same question I asked, where did all the horses come from? Yes. So it’s yeah. So it’s like, it’s definitely interesting to hear, you know, obviously there’s people that agreed with us, but like you mentioned, if Stefan has a different point viewpoint, I definitely wanna hear it.
And then related to today’s episode, I thought this was a nice one from Ms. Dana Fox. Oh, it was about the episode Twilight, uh, wrote Archer and T’Pols relationship is what kept me tuning in probably my favorite episode of enterprise ever. Glad you guys liked this one too. Yeah. And. I wanna relate that to this one, because this episode for me, the relationship between T’Pol and the captain is one of my favorite parts of the series as well.
Yeah. But I also love the relationship with trip yeah. Between trip and T’Pol and trip and, and the captain. So it’s like, there’s interesting relationships there. I like to see explored in this episode. Man drives that home. And there was so much in this episode, I was getting to get a little weepy on. So it’s like, I’m I’m I really appreciate the character building the relationships between some of the key characters.
Yep. I agree. So that noise you’re hearing in the background, usually when Matt’s wrapping up the comments that alarm starts going off in the background and anybody who’s confused by that alarm, don’t worry. It’s just the read alert. It’s time for Matt to read the Wikipedia description and Matt don’t blink or you’ll miss this one.
I, I haven’t even read it, but just the size of it. I’m gonna tell you, I love this description already. similar to is the 10th episode from the third season of the television series star Trek enterprise. It first aired on November 19th, 2000. And was the 62nd episode of the series, captain Archer orders, a short lived clone of trip, Tucker to be made in order to save Tucker.
This is how all the descriptions of star Trek should be written. thank you. Whoever wrote this for Wikipedia.
Yeah. I even excised some things from it because they weren’t actually about. Within the episode summary. So there was an additional comment which I’ll get to later. But when I saw the length of this, I literally scrolled up and down on the page to make sure am I seeing it all?
Is this it because how could that possibly, I don’t know, Wikipedia. Where did you go? so, as Matt just said, this is from season three it’s episode 10. It was directed by fan favorite LeVar Burton. When I saw that it didn’t surprise. Like this really I’m I really have earned an appreciation for his directorial talents in spotting his name again and again, in the way that we’re watching the series and recognizing wow.
When it comes to interpersonal, when it comes to emotional depth, he’s the guy who’s involved in a lot of those episodes. And I really, really liked it. This episode was written by Manny Koto and Manny Koto. I believe it’s one of the first times we’re seeing him as a writer on the series. He will go on to be a major hand in the final season of enterprise.
He becomes an executive producer and showrunner of the show in its in its final season. He was also an executive producer on four seasons of 24, and he was an executive producer and writer for the fifth season of Dexter on Showtime. So this is a guy who. Has had his hand in a lot of different types of shows.
He originally entered Hollywood and getting into entertainment through the sci-fi and fantasy lens. But clearly he’s a guy who knows how to hit a lot of beats across genre, 24 Dexter enterprise. Those three programs are not very similar in a lot of ways, but the storytelling in this one, I think demonstrates a really.
Keen eye for strong storytelling as the relationships between the characters. Doesn’t matter if they’re on a spaceship, doesn’t matter if they’re working for the us government. Doesn’t matter if they’re a serial killer. Well, let me rephrase that. This episode also featured music by VEON Ray bunch. I don’t normally mention the music when we’re talking about synopsis, but I pointed out here because this episode won an em.
For composition. So this, this episode was a strong attention getter from pretty much every perspective. The original air date was November 19th and guest appearances included max million or Ryan Kemo who played SIM trip at four Adam Taylor Gordon, who played SIM trip at eight and Shane sweet, who played SIM trip at 17.
And what was the world like? On November 19th, 2003. When this episode aired well, Matt, you were still dancing your little heart out to hear without you by three doors down. a song which if you put a gun to my head and asked me to sing it, I would be a dead man. And at the movies, people were showing up to see elf, which earned 26 million in the theaters this week as a pre Thanksgiving film and little fun fact, Matt, I don’t know if you know this.
Our mother refused to see elf for years. Yep. I recommended to her once you should see elf, it is really in your wheelhouse. This is your kind of movie. And she said, no, no. I refuse to see it because I do not like will Ferrell. And I said, why don’t you like will Ferrell? And she said, cuz he’s so dirty. And I said, really, you think he’s dirty?
Why do you think he’s dirty? And she said, well, ever since I saw the 40 year old Virgin, I thought I’ll never see another will Ferrell movie, which I thought was interesting because will Ferrell is. In the 40 year old version. so thank you, Steve. Corll for making our mother hate will Ferrell
and on television on this day, the 19th of November, what were people watching? Well, unfortunately they really weren’t watching enterprise. 4.6 million viewers tuned in for enterprise. Whereas 6.4 million viewers showed up for Smallville. Proving once again, the Smallville is the perfect inverse of enterprise 9.5 million showed up for ed.
That seventies show and that seventies show on Fox back to back episodes were getting almost 10 million viewers. 10 million viewers were showing up for 60 minutes to electric Baloo, which was talking about among other things, human growth hormone for children, general Wesley car discussing his PE presidential campaign.
And the last time I mentioned Wesley Clark to my girlfriend, I said, do you remember Wesley Clark? And she just said, yes, he was hot. Okay, there we go. And 12 million last time you brought photos were showing up for my wife and kids and 10 million for it’s all relative
And in the news, I wanted to go a little bit wider on the news scope in this one main story. In the New York times on this day, revolved around victims’ families, response to plans to rebuild the world trade center. After the nine 11 attacks in 2001, Glen Collins wrote victims’ families yearned to touch the bedrock where the world trade center stood.
Firefighters had to see their buddies names listed together, artists, streamed of a revelation, the fiercely protective hope for an expression of the essential horror of the tragedy and the spirit of what the city endured and. Multiple versions of a replacement building at the world trade center. And all of them were viewed as either inappropriate or boring.
So that was part of the long debate about what kind of tower and what kind of Memorial would replace the lost twin towers. Other headlines included a chess champion and a computer coming to a draw for the first time. Britain’s fearing that their prime minister Blair was too much in president Bush’s wake and Michael Jackson had been arrested on child molestations charges, but I wanted to talk a little bit about the year 2003 and what it meant for cloning the episode.
We’re gonna talk about revolves around a clone. And I kept thinking there’s something about this. That just seems too perfect. So I did a little digging and I dug up some information about Dolly, the sheep. I don’t know if any of our listeners will remember do. But Dolly was a female finish Dorsett sheep.
And she was the first mammal cloned from an adult somatic cell. She was cloned by associates of the Rosalind Institute in Scotland using the process of nuclear transfer from a cell taken from a memory gland. She was named after Dolly part. I will let that sink in. She was named after Dolly Parton. She was cloned from a memory land.
Don’t tell me the Scots don’t have a sense of humor. Yeah, her cloning proved that a cloned organism could be produced from a mature cell from a specific body part, contrary to popular belief. She was not the first animal to be cloned the employment of adult somatic cells in lieu of embryo on embryonic stem cells for cloning emerged from the foundational work of John G who cloned African Claude frogs in 1958 with his.
the successful cloning of Dolly led to widespread advancement within stem cell research, including the discovery of induced PLU, potent stem cells. So what we’re talking about was a major breakthrough. The stem cell research here that led to Dolly stem cell research was involved in creating the vaccine mm-hmm for COVID 19.
So it’s an interesting line to draw from. We’ve cloned a sheep in Scotland to we’re helping to fight a global pandemic. It’s an interesting line. And I think it’s an important one to remember that this kind of research isn’t about, well, we need more sheep. It’s doing something else. It is looking at what can we do with.
A cell from an organism, regardless of where that cell came from, what part of the body can we actually duplicate it? And they managed to do. Doley lived at the Roseland Institute through our entire life. She produced several lambs and she was euthanized at the age of six due to a progressive lung disease research into the cause of her lung disease could not find a relationship to her cloning.
So. Her lung disease may have simply been the result of the fact that all of the researchers smoked like chimneys around her. We do not know Dolly’s body has been preserved and was donated to the Rosalind student in Scotland, by the Rosalind and student in Scotland to the national museum of Scotland, where it has been regularly exhibited since 2003.
So she was euthanized at the beginning of the year in 2003. And here we are at the end of the year, 2003 with an episode about a clone and I can’t help, but wonder was the presence of Dolly’s end of life in the news part of spurring on the idea of doing an episode like this. I don’t think it seems too far fetched to think that that might have played a part.
Yeah. It may have played a part. So as for the episode, I mentioned at the beginning, I’m not crazy about bookend storytelling, where you start off and you show something. And then you say two weeks earlier, two weeks earlier. Yeah. I’m a big fan of you start where the story starts. That’s what I try and do in my own writing.
That’s what I like to see. Unless there is a very strong cause for, for doing it. Alternative way in this episode, it is very much a gotcha sort of book ending, which I think is a weak starting point because what they want you to do is feel hooked by the fact that they are holding a funeral, aboard the enterprise.
And when they lower the camera to show us who is being eulogized, it is trip. We have all grown very accustomed to burial practices in the star Trek universe, you grab your nearest photon torpedo tube. You put your body in that, and then you release the, the photon torpedo into space. And so we see that again here we see trip in, we see the entire crew talking about him.
The captain is eulogizing him, very movingly of. His loss has led not only to the survival of this ship and its crew, but to all of humanity potentially. And then they would go to the opening credits. So what did you think about this as a hook at the beginning of the episode?
So you and I might be on different pages on this one.
I, I gen in general agree with you. I don’t like the book ending of you, show something from the end and then you go to the beginning. It sometimes feels like a cheat. However, from the point of view of you gotta grab a viewer by the throat, right at the beginning to get them to go what the, and we’ll keep watching.
And the reason I feel that way. Make YouTube videos and you have to grab people right at the beginning, get their attention and go, please watch this and then go back and start explaining it. So for me, what I actually wrote in my notes was good opening hook because holy cow gets your attention in the first 30 seconds of this episode, they’re showing you a dead trip.
One of everybody’s favorite characters and it’s, it makes you go what happened. And so it makes you want to find out more. So it’s like, I, in general, I agree with you that I don’t like that as a storytelling technique. Mm-hmm but when you’re talking about, you’re fine to get as many people to watch as episodes as you possibly can, and you have seconds to get their attention.
I thought this was actually a really good approach. Mm-hmm because in general, this episode, I’m not gonna talk about everything, but like, there’s not a lot of. Plot or action in this. This is a classic Trek, ethical dilemma. Lots of people sitting around talking about stuff, but it’s gripping drama. Yeah.
And so it’s like you, you gotta get people’s attention right up front of you’re gonna wanna watch this. Because we’re gonna be tackling with something that’ss gonna be kind of emotional drips dead. And so it’s like, you wanna watch it? So it’s like, I, I kind of forgive them for using that technique because I think it was something they kind of felt like they had to do to try to get people’s attention.
Right.
I, I felt like there was another starting point to the episode that would’ve for me offered as much of a hook. As much of an insight into the ethical dilemma of what the episode was going to be about. Would’ve been as effective and would’ve given more room for some of the post clone creation storytelling, which is really for me where the heart of this episode took place there’s stuff.
At the beginning of this episode, the opening hook being the burial scene and then some scenes. Where you see Toal and trip in their now very clearly regular massage therapy sessions, which I actually really liked that epi that scene in this one particular mm-hmm because I felt like it demonstrated they had the awkwardness is now completely gone.
They’ve shown the evolution of that part of their relationship, that the two of them come together and they’re touching bodies. Queing body parts doing all sorts of stuff. And the most that they’re getting out of it is to Paul is like, oh, that’s too hard. Don’t do it that hard. So it’s, I thought that was a nice evolution to showing how this has become a part of their day and they are talking shop while they’re doing it.
They’ve clearly like gotten past any level of awkwardness. And this has a, a sort of cherished. That they are exhibiting. I thought that was the part of the opening 10 minutes, 15 minutes of this episode. That was the one part that I was just like, okay, that’s worth keeping. But I thought there was an alternate way of starting the episode, which would have you didn’t need, except for action purposes, you didn’t need to show the accident.
You didn’t need to show the warp core test. It was it. From a certain perspective. Interesting. And it was gripping, but ultimately you didn’t need it to tell the story that they told by the, the last two thirds of the episode. I think you could have started this very strongly showing Dr. Flocks caring for a baby.
And talking lovingly to the baby. And what are we gonna name you? That scene to me could have been a great opening to then pull back. And he’s trying to name the baby. And if they had had a moment with Archer standing there saying, why are you trying to name it? we know what it’s for. And then you pull the camera back and you should trip in the bed with the electrodes on his head.
And he is in a coma. I think that could have been as compelling, a starting point, because then you could just, yada yada, yada, he was injured by an explosion in the engineering section. And then you would’ve had more room within the episode for more exploration of the interpersonal stuff. Having said that my entire reason.
For suggesting all of that is simply because I tend not to like bookend storytelling. Right. Right. I think if you have bookend storytelling, this episode does it about as well as you could. it doesn’t do. One thing that I think is usually the best form of bookend storytelling. It didn’t make you forget what the opening was.
Yeah. You go through this entire episode, knowing that, that you watch this entire thing, knowing it was a gotcha opening, you know how this episode is going to end. So here’s no problem there
on that note. The one thing I thought of as we were watching the episode as I was watching the episode, the at one point in the episode, SIM as he’s called trips clone.
Um, when he gets to a point where he discovers just as quick synopsis, there’s this thing from some planet that if you inject it with DNA, from whatever the host is, it’ll basically create a clone of that thing. Right? And so flock, basically injects DNA from trip into this thing. And then Wawa, you have this fast growing, uh, SIM that will take 15 days from birth to death.
And they can harvest organs from it. So it’s a really interesting ethical dilemma. Uh, but somewhere along those lines where SIM finds out that there is research that shows there’s a certain enzyme that you can give one of these clones that will slow down their growth to what would be a normal amount of growth.
So in theory, you could start giving SIM enzyme injections every day and he would age like a normal trip. I think they could have leaned more heavily into that element. Yeah, because then it would’ve created a fork of like, as a view. Wait, which one was in that? Which one was that? Yeah. Which one was one that died?
Was it SIM or was it, was it actually the real Tucker that he actually died? The trip actually died. And the new one that we’re gonna have is actually the SIM cuz like as I’m watching it, I had forgotten that that was even a plot line. Yeah. Or I, I remember, but even as I watching this, it’s like, it never was in my mind of even a remote possibility.
They were gonna do that. Yeah. Because that would be a ballsy move, but I thought wouldn’t it have been awesome if they had done that. It would’ve been so cool that you would have this new. Trip who’s the old trip, but a new trip. And it would’ve created this whole dynamic that would’ve been really interesting to go down that path, but you know, they’re never gonna be that, that ballsy and, and take that shot.
So it’s, I agree with you, it’s it never, at any point, I forget that that’s gonna be the SIM in the, in the box. It’s like, I never thought anything otherwise. And because of that, it did kind of weaken the impact of having that cold open. I really
like your suggestion of like, if you incorporated my suggestion of you.
Post accident. You just start with trip in a, in the bed, in the, in the sick bay, he was severely injured. It’s a brain injury, but I think we can fix it because we were able to create this clone, using that thing, just yada yada, yada your way through it. And then you have more time when trip on his own when SIM discovers, oh, there’s this enzyme potentially.
And what if SIM entailed. To Paul in helping conduct research in that vein. Yeah. And she thinks she might find a breakthrough, then you end up with them on their personal level. Like he exposes his growing romantic feelings for yeah. To Paul. This is a key element for the rest of the series where that door is now.
It was always like cracked, open. This character literally goes and just pushes it open. And he is like, I can’t think about anything, but you. in what I think is a very, there’s a great moment where he says, I don’t want to make you feel uncomfortable, but I feel like this is so important. I have to share this with you.
And I really liked the framing of, I’m not sure if I’m feeling this way, because it’s just me, or if I’m tapping into long term memories and feelings of yeah. Trip, I don’t know which this is, there is a terrific sequence to the storytelling showing younger trip, younger SIM who as memorising. Yeah. Right from the beginning, he has feelings for her.
The way his memories are unlocking, as he gets older, is done in such a loving way toward the character. It’s not meant to be horrific for this child that he’s suddenly like, where are my parents? He’s turning to people that on a certain level, he views as parental figures. He turns to captain arch. And says, where are my parents?
And it’s clear this child trusts the captain. There is something about this evolving being that is trusting and loved by the crew. The episode ends with an incredibly loving moving connection between flocks and SIM. Oh man. Yeah. It gets you right in the fields. When he says to him, like you were a great father.
And I would’ve liked again, if my version of introduction to the, this episode took place, you could have had more parenting, you could have shown flock, raising him more, which would’ve made that gut punch all the more Guttier it could have been. Yeah. So there’s really, really hit you. Can
I add to that?
There there’s two lines in the episode that got me right here. And I was like, I was on the verge of weeping a little bit. It was the line. I don’t know if they’re my feelings or his, when he’s talking to TOPA. Yeah. It was such a wonderful thunder moment. And it was like, oh my God. And her reaction to those words.
Like once again, I will say I love Jolene bla lock’s performance as to Paul. I think she’s phenomenal. And that scene was just one of those moments of like, this is why I love her as that character. Um, and then the moment when he says to flock, you’ve been a, like a father to me. Yeah. Was just like, somebody just came into the room and punched me in the stomach and it was just like, oh, that’s such a, oh my God.
But it felt like another missed opportunity to me because they showed him raising. Yeah, like in a, in a montage for like, for like a three minute sequence, but it would’ve been great if they had a couple of additional moments where SIM and these moments of like, when he has that argument with the captain about you don’t, you’re just gonna kill me.
Right. You’re like, You’re sentencing me to death. And the captain says I would do anything to save him. Basically. He basically threatens SIM. Yeah, like, you’re gonna do this. I’m gonna force you to do this. It would’ve been great. If the next scene was him going to his father going to Fox and basically just unloading and looking to him for help.
And like, why aren’t you helping me with this? Yeah. And like, you could have had this wonderful tender moment between the
two of them and it challenging moment too, that it could have been a challenging moment of like, why did you create me to. How is this ethical
flock every time from the very moment when he suggests this to the captain with this like little like albino, like squishy sponge.
When he says that the captain, I can do this from the very moment FLOX has this, the performance looks like. He’s really questioning if he should even bring this up. Yeah. He looks, he looks like he’s grappling with ethical dilemma for this before he even suggests the problem. Yeah. And he looks clearly emotionally WRT over the entire episode.
So if you had a moment like that, flax could have been left, basically bawling by himself in the, the in the emergency room area. So it’s like, you could, it would’ve. It would’ve made the line when he says you’re been like a father to me, it would’ve made it from a, I almost wept to a, I would’ve been balling like a baby moment.
Yeah. So it’s like, it felt like a slightly missed opportu. but you can understand why, when you think about the entire episode, why they structured it the way they did. Yeah. You can understand why they did the scenes. They did. So it’s like, I’m not trying to rewrite it to make it a better script. I’m just kind of, from my perspective, seeing these kind of gaps where they could have maybe yeah.
Strengthened those
emotional beats. Yeah. I feel like in this one, this is not us putting on a rewrite hat, which we have clearly done many times in this podcast. Uh, I feel like I’m putting on my fan fiction hat. There are scenes that I. Could exist in my own cannon about this episode. Yeah. Those moments you mentioned, uh, to Paul Julian Blalock.
Fantastic job. In this episode at the beginning, her interactions with SIM are clearly about avoidance. She does not like being reminded that trip is in sick bay and potentially will pass. She cannot really interact with this individual because she’s too reminded by SIM of trip. But once she is forced to interact their interactions, then become one where every time she’s on camera to Paul is about to cry.
Yes. Every single time, it looks like Jill Blalock probably spent a couple of minutes before each shot not blinking. So that the entire time she is looking at trip, her eyes are full of tears in every single one. And it’s clear that she is wrestling with her absolute fear of losing trip. They had that episode, they had that scene.
I mentioned previous of showing the two of them having their massage therapy. I think that the way that this conversation takes place between SIM and her, where he reveals her feelings, and then she reciprocates by the end of the episode, coming to see him when he is now, like I’m gonna go die now. And he is sitting in the cabin, which I really like the scene where the captain finds SIM in trips cabin and is offend.
Like the captain in this one, the moral dilemma, the ethical dilemma of this episode in Archer’s choices, his willingness to create a life to end that life is never really resolved. There is no winner here and that’s remarkable from a storytelling perspective, they manage to make you leave the episode, still willing to like characters who have done things that.
Really questionable. Yes. Archer pushes back on SIM having any right to being in trips. Quarters SIM is making a very strong argument of I am trip. Yep. You are creating a separation that doesn’t exist, but at the end, he is now allowed in that. In those quarters, he is hanging out in those corners, spending his last hours, hanging out with Archer’s dog.
I thought that that was symbolically a lovely depiction of Archer. Has Archer understands more? Yes. About who he is dealing with. And Archer is on a certain level, uh, caving on caving inward. He. He feels terrible about what he has done. And it’s hard to say at the end of the episode, that Archer, if you could go back and remake decisions, would he make the same decisions?
I do not know, but at the very end, when TOPA shows up outside the door, it doesn’t say a word and simply kisses SIM, then you as a viewer, I thought that that was such a powerful way to say like, yeah, This is where their relationship is headed. Yep. This is a, this is a shortcut to that in a way, but it makes sense.
She is in safe territory with somebody who is literally going to go die. Now she’s in safe territory to say, I can reveal myself to you in this way, and I need to, because you are as much that individual I love as he is. She reaches a logical conclusion of it is okay for me to let you know that I love you because it is finite in this moment.
She’s not yet ready to tell the original trip, but she can tell this one. I thought that was really fantastic.
I also wanna play, pay a, a compliment to the shows, exceptional efficient storytelling, because there are moments and there are ways that they. Through the cinematography through the special effects and through a couple of key moments, they are able to communicate sometimes on a subconscious level, sometimes on a very on, on the nose level, but they’re very efficient in detailing the issues.
Cause we haven’t talked about the plot of how the, the ship is trapped in this like weird Nebula where this basically this magnetic yeah. Uh, stuff collecting on the outside of the ship. And if they don’t get out, it’s a ticking clock. So if they don’t get outta there at a certain moment, they’re gonna basically be dead stranded in the all eye.
Yeah. So there’s this wonderful bit of just like, I, I don’t know whose idea it was, whether it was the writers or whether it was LeVar Burtons or whoever’s. I thought it was wonderful. The windows, it was just the windows. Cause you can see the stuff collecting on the ship. And the beginning of the episode is this like, like little.
Like splotches of snow hitting a windshield and then halfway in it’s kinda like somebody needs to run the wipers. It’s getting kind of thick. And then by the end, it’s like, it feels oppressive. Yeah. Because it’s so thick. Like the captor’s captain’s cabin, his, his cabin looks dark and kind of foreboding because it’s so coded.
And it was like just that element of the cinematography and filmmaking was like such a brilliant way to kind of remind. Without anybody going, Hey, look at all that stuff collecting on the window. Yeah. It’s just in the background. Yeah. And you as a viewer are just subconsciously picking up on the oh crap.
Oh crap. Yeah. Is getting worse. Oh crap. Um, I love that. And to tie back to the. Captain’s horrible reaction of like, I’m gonna kill you. Yeah. Cause we gotta save trip to the simplicity of Portos being in the cabin with him and he’s petting him. It just that, without anybody saying a freaking word. Yeah. You know, the captain has kind of turned a corner.
He’s kind of realized what he is. Yeah. And he is supporting him. because Portos the support P yeah. Is there on his lap getting pet. And it was just a wonderful tender moment. And so, and the kiss it’s like, there were so many little elements like that that are subtle, but they say so much yeah. With a word being spoken.
So it’s like, if you can’t tell, I love this episode. Great. I think this is one of the, one of the better written episodes. I think it’s one of the better performances of episodes. You mentioned how it won an Emmy for, you know, the composition. Uh, this to me feels like this could have been an Emmy winning episode for acting, writing.
Yeah. Everything. So it’s all the actors in
it are terrific episodes. I thought that not only were the main actors in the episode. Terrific. Baula Blalock trip, flocks. Like they’re all fantastic. but the child actor is playing younger SIM mm-hmm the, the one who plays the, the youngest version of him, the, the, the one who flies the remote controlled aircraft, that little actor does a tremendous job with like, I am connecting to you as a father figure.
And I am wondering why I have memories that take place. In other places. I have memories that are showing up about people who are not here, where are my parents? The, the conflict that he is able to demonstrate in that moment is terrific. And that scene also included one of my favorite things, and it was clearly a blooper, but it’s left in, they’re flying the remote controlled craft.
It crashes on the ground in the. Cargo rule what you’re saying, where they are. Yeah. Young SIM and Archer converge on it in order to see if it can be repaired and Portos walks up and clearly stands on the remote controlled aircraft because suddenly his little butt is up in the shot and Baula without missing a beat.
Simply pats the dog and pushes him off of this thing. That is not even on camera, but in that moment, I was just like, what a great tender moment and what a terrific moment that, that dog decided I’m gonna stand on this because this is where the people are. Yep. so listeners, viewers, uh, what did you think about this episode?
Do you agree that this is one that gets you right in the field parts of your body, the, the, does it hit you square in the gut with a emotional gut punch? Or did you find it a little too quiet for your taste? Let us know in the comments as usual, you can find the contact information in the podcast, Des. or on YouTube, you can go beneath this video of our smiling faces and leave a comment there.
And next time, Matt, we’re gonna be talking about the episode carpenter street, any expectations there about what we’re gonna be talking about?
Uh, I’m gonna guess trip into the captain, start doing some woodworking. I
think so. I think that’s what they’re doing. Yep. Before we go, as usually we like to remind people about other things we’ve got going on.
For me, you can always go to Sean for herald.com or you can go to your local bookstore, or you can go to Amazon Barnes and noble.com. Wherever you get your books, you can find my books there, keep an eye out as we move forward through time. Time time for my book. That’ll be coming out next year, which is the sinister secrets of singe.
It is a book for middle grade readers, but I hope that adults will enjoy it as well. Matt, what do you have coming up next week on your channel? Well, at the time
that this video is probably gonna come out, the video that’s gonna be live on undecided is about solar panel recycling because 90% of solar panels here in the United States are not recycled.
They’re just chucked into a. so what can we do about that? Is it something we need to be concerned about? So I have a video exploring that
knee jerk reaction. I’m gonna say yes, we should be concerned about that. yes. Yeah. Don’t forget. If you’d like to support the show, you can review us on apple, Google, Spotify, wherever it was.
You found this go back there and you can give us thumbs up. And if you’d like to more directly support us, you can go to Trek in time.show, click on the, become a supporter button, and you can throw some coins at our heads. We appreciate the welts. And when you do that, it also gains you access to our out of time program in which we talk about things that are not necessarily a part of.
Cohesive timeline of episodes. So we might talk about other star Trek programs. We might talk about star wars, Marvel, whatever catches our eye. More recently, we’ve talked a little bit about the Sandman program on Netflix, and we’ve also talked about a few movies we’ve been checking out. So when you sign up to become a supporter, you become a cadet and you get access to out of time.
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