(1x18) You Talkin' to Me?: Rogue Planet!

[entkayjay]

This is the discussion thread for S1E18, Rogue Planet! All Delphic Expanse rules of engagement apply.

Written by: Rick Berman and Brannon Braga, and Chris Black (Fallen Hero, Two Days & Two Nights, Carbon Creek, Singularity, Cease Fire, The Breach, First Flight, Raijin, The Shipment, Proving Ground, Doctor's Orders, The Forgotten, Countdown)
Directed by: Allan Kroeker (Fight or Flight, Shockwave 1&2, Canamar, The Expanse, The Xindi, Azati Prime, Zero Hour, Stormfront 1, Home, Bound, TATV)

There is a Rewatch Chat scheduled for 1am GMT on Tuesday, May 24 87pm EST)at Tinychat.com. Or whenever anyone else wants to watch and chat!

ETA; I had the wrong time! Sorry, it's at 8EST!!!

[Aquarius]

I love all these tag lines you think of for the eps!

[entkayjay]

Makin' it as fun as I can, lol! Glad it's not just my sick sense of humor....

[Hummingbird2]

I like this episode (although I put it in the 'good not great' category).

My favorite part is the teaser, which has a delightful father/son moment between Jon and Trip: Archer says, "Give it a rest, Trip," then gives him 'The Dad Look' (dun, dun, duuuun!).

[Honeybee]

And, Rogue Planets have been in the news lately:

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/ ... lf-planet/

[Brandyjane]

This episode is a lot better than I remembered it being. I don't think I ever watched it again after the initial airing; I remembered it as being pretty terrible, but actually it's not that bad.

I agree with Hummingbird2 - the teaser is great! Poor Trip just wants to take a great picture! Archer and Trip had a few nice scenes together. I noticed that when Trip wants to question Jon about the woman he saw, he waits for T'Pol to go away into the caves. He doesn't seem to believe that Jon really saw a woman, but he's loyal enough to his friend to question him privately.

I'm curious about everyone's insights into why Archer was thinking about that poem. Who (or what) is it he's chasing? Is it a real person or thing, or is it an unobtainable dream?

I thought it was pretty funny how Malcolm and Hoshi were teasing Trip about bore worms. I wouldn't be surprised if there were no worms and they just made it all up to have a little fun with him.

Finally, I'm probably just weird for thinking about this, but I wonder what Malcolm and the others who ate with the Eska were thinking when they realized that they'd basically eaten people. Yuck!

[entkayjay]

Brandyjane, I thought that too at first but it's those hog things they were eating. Not the Wraith.

Re: the poem, well, I have my own thoughts and I may just expound on it in a fic

[mareel]

In addition to featuring one of my favorite poems, I really like this episode for the light it shines on what drives Jonathan. It was clear from the opening scene that he is a reluctant (at best) celebrity, and certainly isn't out there for the fame.

I think it's interesting that what the alien chose to draw upon as most likely to compel Jon's attention was a half-forgotten memory of a poem. It was important to him as a child, and I think remembering it now is significant. In my interpretation, the images are not literal, but symbolic of the dreams he's had all his life – to keep searching and exploring beyond the next star, 'till time and times are done.' This was a reminder to him to keep seeking the seemingly unattainable, and not to let anyone kill his dreams (literally or figuratively).

On a side note, I was amused by Jon echoing Malcolm's stock response to 'are you all right' - "I'm fine" - even less convincingly than when Malcolm says it. And I love the relaxed teasing between Jon and Malcolm about their respective Boy Scout experiences.

[asearcher]

DARN!!!!!

Missed it again. Thought it was going to be on Wednesday.

Oh well...

[Honeybee]

I hadn't seen this episode since the first time I saw it, years ago. I remember then thinking it was pretty heavy-handed, and I'm a vegetarian who has never so much as thought of going hunting. I also remember thinking that TOS, which was what they were tonally going for at this point, was beyond heavy-handed with its allegories at times so it didn't bother me.

But upon the rewatch, I've decided it's not as over the top as one would think (bare with me) because it's clear the hunters know damn well the shape shifting slugs are sentient and don't care. While I've heard of rare/anomalous cases of people hunting people or wanting to hunt people like on the border of Arizona, hunting sentient intelligence for sport is not cool on Earth by any reasonable moral standard whether you hunt or not. If the hunters hadn't been aware of the shape shifters' intelligence, you would have opened up the question of "how can you truly know if something is sentient" before you hunt it, and we would have gotten to see the reactions of the hunters when they realized their way of life was morally indefensible, but we didn't get that. They were simple black hats. Seriously, I'm the vegetarian, and I have always had a tinge of guilt when I've gotten rid of ant hills - since it feels like I'm wiping out a tiny city of creatures who might just be intelligent - just unable to communicate with me. Yes, these thoughts cross my mind.

The rogue planet concept was very cool, as was the design of the planet. The lighting was eerie and the cgi worked well with the lights.

There were a lot of nice, small moments between the crew. T'Pol was there playing Scully, but she also seemed pretty sure Archer wasn't crazy - that something was screwing with his head. There was a nice reference back to Strange New World in the script. Trip was great as a supporting player. Malcolm and Jon's boy scout competition banter was funny.

The whole pretty girl appears to the captain was fine, although I still think if I were one of those wraiths I'd have appeared to the visitor that doesn't hunt or eat meat, the Vulcan. On the other hand, the telepathy may have indicated Jon's tendency to stick his nose in other people's business, which T'Pol doesn't have.

The solution they come up with is fine at the end, clever and non violent.

It's not one of my favorite episodes, but it's well put together. Even the heavy-handed morality part doesn't bother me, never did, because episodes like this have always been a part of Trek.