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Matt and Sean talk about the interwebs… in space… and what to do when you want to talk TO social media.
Show Notes
https://youtu.be/l2WFK-LKBLI
Matt and Sean talk about the interwebs… in space… and what to do when you want to talk TO social media.
Matt and Sean talk about the interwebs… in space… and what to do when you want to talk TO social media.
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Follow us on Twitter: @byseanferrell @mattferrell or @undecidedmf
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Creators & Guests
What is Trek In Time?
Join Sean and Matt as they rewatch all of Star Trek in order and in historical context.
Hey, everybody welcome to trek in time. This
is the podcast that takes a look at star trek
in order and in history what we're doing is
taking a look at each episode of star trek
in chronological order. So we've started way
back when in Enterprise we're still in the
first season we're making our way to the end.
We can see the finish line from where we're
standing. We're also taking a look at how
things were in the world at the time of the
original broadcasts and then taking a deeper
dive sometimes into something about the episode
or sometimes something about the air in which
it was broadcast but it's always something
that catches our eye. And the eyes that are
doing the catching. Well that's me sean farrell
I'm a writer I read some sci-fi I write some
picture books with me is Matthew my Brother.
He's the tech guru and inquisitor behind the
Youtube channel undecided with Matt farrell
which takes a look at emerging tech and its
impact on our lives. We get in today's episode
just a quick reminder. You can directly support
this podcast by going to trek in time show
and there you will see a yawning chasm of
a black hole. You can throw some coins in
there. It goes through a warm hole that ends
up with us.
That's right.
Even if you're not able to do that. Even if
all you can do is listen and subscribe and
share us with your friends all of that really
does help the channel. Thank you so much for
being here with us Matt how you doing I'm
doing okay looking forward to talking about
this 1 We've had a.
I'm doing pretty good how about yourself.
Run in the middle of the season that felt
like oh boy and and we made our way through.
We're into the final episodes of the season
and these are ones that are feeling very star
trek to me so I'm enjoying the last week's
episode and this week's episode very much.
Yeah, like.
Before we get into the new episode which is
Vox Sola Matt you have some stuff to share
with us on listener feedback.
Yeah, from the ah episode about the oasis.
It's where they found the holograms that were
kind of helping to raise the the young woman
from pillgo sixty nine. You can have stakes
without danger or a threat of violence the
whole invulnerable Hologram thing was danger.
But it didn't raise the stakes. The stakes
didn't even have to be on the crew. The survivors
could have been in danger from a geologic
ah event or an astral body that's going to
crash into the planet or even just the survivors
making a paranoid suicide pact as their mystery
gets unraveled. Thought there was a really
good take. It's like there were so many different
ways that episode could raise the stakes where
they're really were on entire episode.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, it literally revolved around
the young woman's father saying I don't want
to leave and if anybody's dealt with yeah.
Um, exactly high stakes I don't want to go.
If anybody's dealt with parents who are reluctant
to move into retirement communities. You know
what? that's like but so today's episode we're
gonna be talking about vox sola matt what's
the synopsis for this episode.
When a strange symbiotic Alien Creature boards
the enterprise and captures several crew members
is up to ensign Hoshi Sato to decipher the
creature. The creature's complex language.
That's a odd synopsis.
Yes, it is a strangely Riton synopsis. We've
been getting our synopses via wikipedia. Maybe
it's time to start revising the synopses from
wikipedia because the. Grammar is sometimes
confusying so voxola this episode was aired
on may first 2002 it was enjoyed by 5 point
four million viewers. This is up a little
bit from previous weeks. Still lower than
the high point of the season. It was directed
by Roxanne dawson who of course was torres
from voyager this is her second directorial
spin on enterprise and the story is by Brannon
braga and Decker fred decker being the writer
who took over writing the teleplay. He also
wrote the and dorian incident. So I think
what we're seeing here is a pattern of good
writing from Mr. decker and what was going
on in the world at the time this landed. Well
we were all dancing our fannies off mat. Think
you'll remember as I do that we were enjoying
the song ain't it funny by j lo and ja rule
and I'm sure we're all happy as of this recording
that j lo and Ben a flecherbeck together.
The.
I Have no response for that.
You have no response I thought you were gonna
let out a big woohoo and the top movie of
the week when this episode aired was once
again, the scorpion king it added another
18 million to the 36 million it
Ah, yeah.
Received in its first week in the theaters.
You'll all remember that this is the dwayne
quote the rock close quote Johnson's first
lead in a movie and on television. Well we
were all watching csi. 26000000 of us I was
not 1 of those 26 million I don't know if
you were so you're to blame.
I was I just watched the I just watched the
new premiere of Csi Vegas because they rebooted
the show and oh boy, not good.
As ja rule would say it's murder and in the
news continuation of the sadder storylines
that we've been dealing with from previous
weeks. The midi's crisis was continuing u
s was trying to work. With saudi arabia to
bring peace to the middle east especially
around israel and the pressure on the palestinian
communities there arafat was being pressed
and prime minister sharon in Israel was the
power figure on that side and was the player
that the us was trying to work with. Course
those talks would continue and still continue
to this day but I wanted to focus on a lighter
news story from the new york times on this
day which is I felt trek related in the sense
that it's dealing with the hubble telescope.
Headline being telescope opens window on dawn
of the universe using its new main camera
the rejuvenated hubble space telescope has
produced a sunning set of images of dynamic
processes in the far reaches of the universe
scientists said today in some of the first
pictures from the device. The advanced camera.
Surveys the telescope has produced clear images
of galaxies colliding and spewing trails of
stars in their wakes billowing pillars of
dust acting as star nurseries and enormous
gas fields splash with the colors of an abstract
painting and this was after the hubble telescope.
Needed effectively glasses it needed cataract
surgery. It went doorbit with a lens that
was the wrong shape and so it didn't work
as well as it was hoped and after they put
a giant contact lens on it well things shaped
up.
Classes. Hidden.
I'm going to pause here to turn off my dehumidifier.
I don't know if you could hear that Matt okay,
do you want me to redo the thing or is that
something you could be taken out ignore it.
I could. It can't be taken out but we can
just I'll I'll bring it up to our. He'll be..
He'll be watching this Hopefully he can E
Q it out a little bit if it's if it's a problem.
So into this episode just quick hits before
we get into discussing the plot Matt were
you? What were your big picture thoughts on
this 1
I I know you like this 1 I thought it was
I thought it was good. Um, overall but it
was a little um it was a little slow for me,
but there was some really good character development
and there was some really good use of all
the characters in the bridge crew. Like some
good use of Sado some good use of you know
trip and the captain everybody kind of got
their moment except for the doctor but everybody
kind of got their moment and got to contribute
to solving the problem and that was something
that felt very star trek to me which was a
nice synergy between all the characters where.
Yeah, yeah.
And episodes that we've been complaining about
it's it's all about the captain or it's all
about different character or it's all about
saddo but it's poorly written it's this was
1 of the few that has happened recently where
it felt like everybody kind of got their due
in their fair shake which I really enjoyed.
Are right.
Yeah I also disagree with you slightly I think
even the doctor has a moment. It's I think
this is I think this is 1 of those episodes
where as you mentioned everybody gets their
moment and the moment stands up as being a
good 1 and it's a strong piece of writing
and I think it's also a strong piece of directing
I think that.
He does. It's It's small. Yeah.
Yes.
This 1 Rex and Dawson demonstrates a lot of
of good skill behind the camera. It's I think
a very impressiveive directorial take on how
to put this all together. But let's start
here with the beginning of the episode sometime
in late January Twenty One fifty 2 Onboard
The enterprise there is a diplomatic kfluffle.
It is. They're referred to as the kretasans
and they are pissed. They are effectively
ah bull rushing the airlock to get off the
enterprise.
Has.
While being pursued by most of the bridge
crew including Sado who is trying desperately
to figure out what their how to get their
language to be processed by the universal
translator lot of complications in doing this.
She's saying things like something about.
Eating something about mouths something about
reproduction. It's very confusing as to what
is happening but they are clearly upset and
they get to the exit they demand their way
off the ship archer lets them go with confusion
and hurt feelings all around and archer is.
Yeah.
Clearly not just upset but angry that this
is how this first contact situation has gone
and he goes back to his ready room and and
just basically sequesters himself back there
to deal with his his bad feelings then in.
The.
1 of the cargo holds. There are a couple of
crewmen who are working on something and there's
a power loss in a and a storage facility and
it's crewman's rostoff and kelly and quick
side note and we've had this happen a couple
of times in previous episodes. It's going
to continue. More as we move forward through
all of the episodes star trek always has interesting
casting going on and in this episode we have
crewman kelly who sadly doesn't have that
many lines. She's got a few lines ah it's
renee e goldsberry who. Broadway fans may
remember is the tony award-winning actress
from hamilton who played angelica schyler
skyler so this is an impressive guest artist
at a very early stage in her career up to
this point she had had.
Yes.
Minor roles in tv shows including a recurring
role on allie mcbeal as a backup singer in
fantasy sequences. So this is when she first
appeared on camera in this episode I did a
big double take because I was just like.
Yeah, so did I.
Is that angelica should I be singing should
they all be singing. Are we gonna learn about
history turns out sadly that her lines are
all basically relegated to this first opening
scene and.
That's it.
She and krumen rostoff are working trying
to figure out what's causing the power loss.
We've seen when the Kretasan ship pulls away.
We see an alien entity sneak in the door of
the airlock just before it closes. So when
rostoff goes to check on the power loss. In
the storage room he finds goo he finds effectively.
It looks like ectoplasm and early on in this
episode I think this is another case where
it felt to me like they were almost using
horror imagery. As the end for the story the
in for the threat because the alien entity
right from the beginning looks very wispy
and it's all cgi. It's dated cgi I'm sure
you felt that way as well. That as you're
watching it like okay this is cgi in it and
it would be so much better if it were done
today. But.
Oh yeah, yep.
For the time they were pushing the boundaries
that they could I think it's very effective.
It's very alien. There are tendrils and what
look like layers of Wispy fiber. So it has
a very ghost like image.
The.
So when rostov gets to this dark room and
he's walking around with a flashlight and
he finds what looks like a broken air vent
and a bunch of what looks like ectoplasm dropping
on the ground it starts to take on a sort
of horror movie feel. Yeah, the season has
you has.
This has happened a lot in the season. Yeah.
Has doubled down on the sort of Camp Fire
spooky story motif even when not directly
referencing it. There have been episodes where
they very clearly doubled down on it by having
somebody tell a gary story but in this 1 it
just seems to be an imagery that is evocative
so they've. Created this dark and spooky corner
of the ship where the Crewman turns the corner.
There's a tendril going around to a cargo
container and then something gets him something
grabs him.
This would actually be a perfect time to kind
of take a little detour on a little bit of
a deeper dive with fred decker who wrote this
episode because he wrote a handful of episodes
and then he basically disappeared from the
show and he was like 1 of the I think he was
a given producer credit on the show. Um.
Listen.
Then then.
Season 1 and I found a fascinating article
that was a big deep dive interview with him
after the show was ended about his impressions
of working on the show and it was not positive.
Um, he basically unloaded in this article
basically saying.
Um.
When they brought him on he had had some successes
writing so horror movies and kind of like
campy bee movies that had had some success
and so on this show he came in and he was
basically as he put it I was particularly
excited about taking the edict of exploring
new life and new civilizations and really
running with that. Early on Brandon bragg
who co-created the show talked about enterprise
is something that would be weird and spooky
and I thought that sounded fantastic but apart
from a really really fine first season episode
from a first season episode that we produce
called fight or flight I don't think we ever
accomplished that.
M.
My first meetings about enterprise I thought
we could create alien life forms that were
almost unimaginable sentient clouds every
new worlds and stuff like that. But in the
end we ended up like all previous incarnations
of star trek character actors with foam rubber
appliances speaking english and he went on
to say how the show. Promise of what lured
him to the job from Brand and braga and Berman
was we're going to do something different
here and in in his and the interview he talked
about how part way into the season they changed
the show which was originally called just
enterprise and they changed it to star trek
enterprise. And they were going back to ferringgi
and they were going back to enddorians they
were going back to all the tried and true
stuff and he kept he talked about how many
ideas he was throwing out there for script
ideas and they would just go nowhere and even
the ones he did write. He complained about
how much they were completely rewritten. By
braga himself that he he would just gut his
scripts. So even this this the episodes that
have his name on it. They aren't exactly his
script. They've been heavily rewritten to
make them more star treky and so he he basically
was just totally disillusioned with the whole
thing. He loved the actors he thought they
were. Amazing. But it's clear. He has a big
axe to crynd against ah Bragham beprint. Yeah.
And I don't blame him for that. That's it's
it's evident that the show through this first
season up to this point has definitely felt
like it's trying to find its way forward with
its eyes closed in a dark room and that's
unfortunate. It's. And this episode in particular
stands out as a strong episode that I wish
it had this season had had more like this
that really pushed into the weirdness of of
space. The alien entit that that they meet
it's refreshing that that's the focus of this
show and this this episode in particular I
wanted to point out. We've had other episodes
where you've got the a plot and the b plot
and the 2 of them have a pretty large gap
between them and it takes a little effort
at the end to tie them together this episode
the a plot and the b plot the b plot is effectively
focused in on sato where her concerns about
her capabilities. Her self-doubt is causing
tension between her and to paul that b storyline
is so critically interwoven into the a storyline
that it doesn't feel like it's a separate
storyline. It is a very strong focusing arc
everybody's getting a few moments in the episode.
She's getting the most. But it's so clearly
a strong b-line storyline that is interwoven
with the a it feels like 1 great plot and
thankfully it's about this alien entity that
is so foreign and wispy and ghost like as
opposed to it being about the cretaceans who
are.
This is.
Exactly what decker complained about they
are human actors with foam faces and ultimately
the story around them is far less important
but but I also appreciate that when they come
back into the story. They are merely there
as a touch point but that they do play a role.
Every single part of this episode touches
that a plot and I think it's well well rendered
so they end up having K Crewman Rostoff who
then is followed by K Crewman Kelly. Who is
then followed by a whole cohort of people
going to figure out like why do people keep
disappearing disappearing in this room going
to the cargo area. It's captain archer Commander
Tucker Lieutenant Reid and another Crewman
and they all get taken by the entity. And
they quickly discovered that this entity not
only is it holding itself up in this cargo
room but it is growing so it is wrapping them
all in tendrils that seem very web-like and
parts of the creature. The tendrils have an
almost tentacle-like aspect to them. Other
parts of it just look like webbing and this
entity is getting bigger and bigger and it's
absorbing these people connecting them into
this web of itself and it won't be long before
Dr Flox realizes that there's something special
about these these creatures they are when
Reid flees The. Cargo Room. He's able to shut
the door behind himself and in doing so chops
off a tendril. So Now they're examining the
tendril and this is the flox moment that I
thought was so well Rendered. He's in a full
hazmat suit. He is conducting scientific experiments
inside this hazmat suit.
This is.
And dealing with a completely alien thing
they have never seen anything like this before
the tendril even though it's disconnected
from the main body is still moving around
on the table as he's trying to analyze it
and when it starts to climb up his arm. He
very calmly says Oh no, no more of that and
it's like he's talking.
Um, yeah.
To a rabbit that is refusing to stay in its
cage. It is such a pleasant little moment
that for me that stood up as like that was
enough like flocks got his moment so he's
looking at this thing and he and to paul.
Okay.
Examining the data that they're getting from
this determined that this entity is not only
does it have intelligence but what it is doing
is slowly consuming the individuals that it
has captured so that they eventually will
become a part of it so it is critical that
they figure out how to free. Their fellow
crewmen before they get absorbed to the point
of no return at this point, there's an interest
in trying to communicate it with with it that
sado proposes. Maybe there's something about
the interference. She's been detecting in
her communications arrays. Maybe that white
noise she was picking up is actually something
that's created by the creature as a form of
communication. There's a little bit of weak
writing at this moment where sado isn't doing
anything else so to paul could very easily
say yeah, that's a great idea. Why don't you
look into that Meanwhile we're gonna go do
this other thing with light emitters.
Yeah, but he forces her to she forces him
to stop? yeah.
Because they know that the creature doesn't
like light. Yeah instead she's like no, don't
do that. We're going to go do this thing with
light they discover quickly that light would
in fact, harm the creature but the creature
in turn is then going to harm and potentially
kill the crew members who are captured so
they give up on that. Paul turns back to sado
and says hey you know that thing I told you
not to do go do it so now saddo and with the
assistance of de paul a very nice moment of
saddo turning to depa and asking for help
I thought that that was a great moment I think
that the 2 of them having conversations around.
Their interaction style sado is complaining
about the fact that she feels like she's being
second guested to paul explains I hold you
to a high standard because I believe that
high standard is where you belong and I believe
you should be there and you can be there.
That's what I mean that's why I respond in
the way I do so it's about Personalnel styles.
Personal conflict and getting through those
conflict through open communication really
having that moment of like can we check in
and figure out why we're rubbing each other
wrong in the the way we are meanwhile everybody
else is off doing things and there's a great
sequence where mayweather who has.
Yes.
Been tasked with let's find those aliens because
the only place that this Alien life form could
have come from is when we were linked with
the crate Critasan Vessel mayweather. Not
only does he discover. Not only is he able
to figure out where the warp trail of this
other vessel. Is. He's able to lay in a course
and gets the enterprise on course to find
them and catch catch up to them and then on
his own. He's He's the only person on the
bridge when they respond to the hail and at
this point the cretaceans at this point have
figured out how to speak English so.
It has an entire conversation.
When he communicates with them and they are
suddenly turning and saying what do you want?
He literally looks around the bridge and a
beautiful moment looks around the bridge and
realizes I'm the commanding officer on deck
and he leads then the successful first contact
that archer was looking for the entire time.
Communicating with these people and the communication
is the theme of this episode if we all just
take a moment and talk about things and try
and figure out what are the differences that
we're having trouble with you can have a breakthrough
he discovers that the problem that they had
had with the humans was that. See eating as
being as private an act as reproduction. So
seeing people eat in public with something
so egregious that they couldn't even stay
in the room and I love this sequence maywether
having to apologize. Yes.
The apology he gives which is very genuine
and I love as soon as he gives that apology
the the cretace captains is like okay how
can I help you.
Yeah, What do you need? the Cretacean reveals.
Oh yeah, that creature we've seen it before
and he's very stunned and says oh we've seen
that before and it's on a planet. We Visited.
We didn't do this and mayweer very quickly
said we didn't think you did. But we need
to figure out where that planet is meanwhile.
There are multiple lines of research going
on with to Paul Insado investigating Communications
Reid talks to satto or to Paul about Yeah,,
there's this theoretical.
Yeah.
Force field that Starfleet has been looking
into so on his own. He's figuring out how
to rig up starfleet but using the specs from
Starfleet he's able to rig up a small emitter
so that now for the first time in our prize
we're seeing force fields. The shielding that
we're so accustomed to from all the other
series they're able to go into the cargo Bay.
Yeah.
Before before you go before you go into the
cargo Bay talking about communication and
the conflict between characters is another
really nice scene I thought was really good
between the doctor and Reid because Reid is
trying to fine tune the emitters to be able
to stop the creature without killing it. And
he goes into the Sick Bay is basically gonna
start zapping the little tendril they've got
and seeing how far he can push it without
killing it and the doctor basically stops
in front of him and says no I'm not gonna
let you basically torture this thing to do
this, you're gonna do this my way and the
2 of them have a really nice like. Vibrant
argument between the 2 of them but just like
you're saying communication is key they reach
that middle ground read like says. Okay I
will do it your way and they figure it out
together.
So they do end up going into the cargo bay
they set up these emitters and sado and to
paul come in and saddo the begins an attempt
at first contact with this alien entity by
creating white noise that she then interrupts
with signals to create patterns. See if she
and this creature can start to communicate
and it in fact, does work. She's able and
it's a great sequence with white noise with
pulses in it when the creature starts responding.
It's very close encounters. The creature responds
in a far more sophisticated set of patterns.
But you can tell that communication is actually
happening.
It's very close encounters.
And the creature responds in a very positive
way releasing the crew the crew the crew that
ah have been trapped inside this creature's
body. Their life signs returned to normal
flocks calls for a medical crew to come and
get them out of the cargo Bay and. The Enterprise
arrives at the planet. Not only does it arrive
at the planet. The creature gives longitude
and latitude coordinates so that when they
get to the planet. They're able to take this
creature back to the specific place where
it should be and when they return there they
find that there is effectively. The rest of
this creature. It is depicted as being.. It
is all 1 thing and it is massive. It looks
like it goes on to the horizon so it is effectively
a kind of giant space brain on this planet
and when they return I Love the sequence showing
them in space suits carrying a giant box.
This is.
Open up the box and the creature from the
cargo bay crawls out and reunites. It's very
again, the cgi looks very 2002 but I think
it's effective. It's very strange it.
The.
Very different from what we've seen in previous
episodes I Really love this ending because
it has a kind of it's very different from
2001 but it has a 2001 weirdness to it. It's
this What is this Alien planet like that has
this arguably 1 giant creature that covers
most of the planet. That thinks and I just
love the depiction of that.
I like that you like the ending so much and
this is where a beautiful melody is being
played and they hit a wrong note it like oh
oh geez that I did not like why were the coordinates
so specific if it's 1 giant creature. They
could have put it anywhere. It wouldn't matter
for the specific coordinates if it's all over
the planet.
Right.
So for me that was kind of like okay that's
kind of stupid and then the second thing was
they're on the planet. They just release it
and I can't remember who the character was
turns to the doctor and says why did it even
take our crew and his response is who knows
and it was like wait. You were just talking
to this thing you couldn't have said a ah
why'd you take our crew. It's like you could
have you know how to talk to it. You could
have asked. It. It's like that was the dumbest
dumbest response.
Yeah I think that they I think that they got
close to it though. His response was effectively
like I don't know but it's possible that because
of its interconnected nature. It was lonely
that it needed like he did say that.
Um, yes, it.
He did say that but it wasn't that wasn't
in the forefront. It was largely a shrug with
that. Yeah.
His you know, but he actually said who knows
and it was like who knows the thing you just
released knows and you could have had a conversation
with it. It's not that we had to see the conversation
with it. You could have said like he could
have said right? then it was like it was Lonely.
It was looking for a connection. It's like
it could have been something simple as that.
But the fact he said who knows it was like
this wrong note of just like in this beautiful
melody of Wow This ending's really kind of
cool and oh what? what was that.
So at the end I would I would say that this
episode for me was a good solid b plus maybe
even an I'm a minus I like I put it up there
as like 1 of the better of the season that
we've watched so far.
Yeah I'd put it.
Um, yeah I think it's like a B or a B plus
for me it was It was a it was definitely is
definitely better than the middle run of the
stuff we were going through but it's it. There
were some off notes for me.
And I'm looking forward to hearing responses
from the listeners and my question to all
of you am I making too much of this or did
you kind of pick up on something I did I mentioned
this to Matthew previously before we recorded
I don't think it was intentional. But at the
end of the episode I thought wow they inadvertently
created an amazing metaphor for the internet
effectively finding a thing on a planet that
is a completely interconnected thing that
thinks in math and when people have differences.
Is this.
And come together through it. The connections
are life changing so it almost seemed like
did anybody consciously think about that or
was this just kind of an accidental metaphor
of yeah, the internet changes. Everything
let us know if you think I'm onto something
there or if I'm just chasing my own tail I've
been known to do that And next time we're
gonna be talking about Fallen Hero Matt What
do you think? Fallen Heroes about um I.
Um I think it's a hero who's fallen. He can't
get out.
Can't get up Matt is it anything you want
to share with the listeners before we sign
off.
Just to check out my youtube channel undecided
with Matt ferrell I'm covering a lot of really
interesting topics. Got stuff coming up about
like nuclear fusion breakthroughs a lot of
fun stuff. So check it out.
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