Enterprise 3x08: "Twilight"

[Kira]

[color=#000000ost_uid0]Now [iost_uid0]that[/iost_uid0] is a good hour of television.

I can't remember the last time [iost_uid0]Enterprise[/iost_uid0] had me riveted from start to finish -- I nearly had to forego cooking supper because I was so hooked. Â I'm sacrificing a much-needed hour of sleep to watch it again as I type.

As for the episode itself, I thought it was fantastic -- by far the best we've had this season, and easily one of the best of the series to date.
[*]Normally, I'd whine about the use of the Big Shiny Reset Button, but since we all knew they weren't going to leave Earth blown up, it was to be expected. Â In fact, one of the reasons I paid so much attention was because I was curious how they'd manage it. Â And huzzah! Â They didn't pull a "Future Imperfect"/"The Search", which is pretty much what I was expecting. Â It was sort of a "Year of Hell" but I love that episode so I'm okay with that. [*]"[iost_uid0]Rosemary's Baby[/iost_uid0] -- it'll scare the Hell out of you." Â Heheheheh.[*]T'Pol with long hair? Â Love it. Â In fact, Jolene Blalock pulled out an amazing performance throughout. Â (I take back any wish to have her in a uniform -- it really doesn't suit her.)[*]I appreciated the little touches to the "older" crew, like Hoshi's hair and Malcolm's beard. Â They [iost_uid0]were[/iost_uid0] little, but they added to the feeling of time passing.[*]Poor Travis -- I think he got taken out during the big Xindi attack that destroyed the nacelle but I never caught a mention of him. Might have been nice if Archer had kept forgetting he was dead. Â (Heck, they already forget he's alive....)[*]I'm not necessarily an A/T shipper, but I liked the way they handled it here. Â It was tasteful, believable, and touching... imagine that from the series that brought you "A Night in Sickbay."[*]My one big nitpick was that the writers don't actually know what short- and long-term memory is. Â Short-term memory, if I recall my first-year psychology, only lasts seven minutes, not several hours or an entire day. Â Thus, Archer wouldn't remember anything that happened more than a few seconds ago. Â You [iost_uid0]can[/iost_uid0] keep something in short-term for longer, I think (say, repeating the number "47" to yourself for an hour would keep it in short-term memory), but due to its limited capacity Archer wouldn't actually be able to remember the events of an entire day -- or, for that matter, more than a few points of a briefing with Trip. Â But given the quality of the episode, and the fact that memory isn't something that's really well understood, I think this is one of those times when we can let it slide.

I'm curious to see if everyone else was as impressed with this outing as I was. Â Yay? Â Nay? Â Shouts of Boo-urns?[/colorost_uid0]

[PointyHairedJedi]

[color=#000000ost_uid0]It does sound like a good episode - unfortunately I probably won't get to see it for a while. I only just saw "The Communicator" (aka "Another Archer Gets Beat Up Episode") on Sunday, so that tells you how far back I am.[/colorost_uid0]

[Derek]

[color=#000000ost_uid0]Sigh. I can't seem to actually write up my thoughts. Each time I start, I dislike what I say and start over again. So this time what I write is what I write.

I liked this episode. It was engaging. I was hooked the whole way through and wasn't even paying attention to the clock to see how much time was left.

Yes, it was a reset button, but you don't start a show in the future without a reset button, so at least it was expected from the beginning.

I thought the older age makeup was great. The lines under Bakula's eyes looked very real. Everyone's hair was grayer. Kudos to the makeup dept.

Neat special effects too. Watching Enterprise and Earth get blown up was great.

Poor crew. Landing on Ceti Alpha 5. If the Xindi don't get them, Ceti Alpha 6 will. Actually, when T'Pol said they were on CA5, I wondered what was currently happening to Khan's sleeper ship. Would the Xindi find them and destroy them? Would they land somewhere and rebuild Earth's population as supermen?

Yes, in all, this was a great episode. Definitely a good way to begin sweeps. Next week's looks good too. Already has a TOS feel to it from the preview.[/colorost_uid0]

[Zeke]

[color=#000000ost_uid0]Just to let y'all know, I'm not ignoring this thread -- I just haven't seen the episode yet. I'll post when I do.

(Now to sneak back out without getting spoiled....)[/colorost_uid0]

[mudshark]

[color=#000000ost_uid0]Yeah, that was a good one, all right.

I'll have to see it again on Sunday, because I had some interruptions early on and missed a couple of things (Travis getting offed, for one) but I liked pretty much everything I saw. (Pity about the distractions, because TV reception was quite good on Wednesday, as it so often [iost_uid0]isn't[/iost_uid0] here.)

An outstanding job by Blalock, and Bakula's Archer was nearly as good (his reaction to the destruction of Earth was a standout moment.) FX especially good in the "Earth blows up" scene and the one in whch the bridge is rudely separated from the rest of the ship.

I'm still undecided on the scene in Engineering leading up to the destruction of [iost_uid0]Enterprise[/iost_uid0]. Not a direct lift, but I was conscious of the similarity to Charlton Heston's big scene at the end of [iost_uid0]Beneath the Planet of the Apes[/iost_uid0]. I'll have to try it again without the interruptions. Possibly more comments then.

Overall, though, I was quite pleased with this one. [/colorost_uid0]

[Nan]

[color=#000000ost_uid0]I actually managed to catch this episode, and I liked it.

It reminded me of "Inner Light."

I agree about the reset button, but often the best episodes happen because the writers know that they can kill everyone without consequences.

I was a little wary of that memory thing, too, Kira. Working, short-term, long-term... bleh. I don't remember at what threshold short-term becomes long-term. (Heh, no joke intended.)

Speaking as someone with an often impaired memory (if you don't sleep right, the memory gets weird), I can sympathize with Archer's position.

Although I REALLY hope I'm not going to wake up one day and suddenly be 12 years older.

Didn't like T'Pol's shirt, though. Geh. Lousy cut.[/colorost_uid0]

[NeoMatrix]

[color=#000000ost_uid0]I thought there was something called like instant memory, like a feeling you felt when you touched something, you would forget it as soon as it occured, but it would go to short term memory if needed to be remembered, like pain. As for short term memory, wouldnt something stay in short term as long as you keep it in your mind all day? If you stop thinking about it, then it would be forgotten, if not, go to long term memory. Archer could have processed info over and over again while he was awake so he wouldnt forget anything for that day, but would forget it as soon as he went to sleep. Am I making sense?

Think of it this way. You hear a song on the radio. After the song is over, its still in your mind. You start singing it in your mind, then it feels like it is stuck in your mind because you sing it over and over again. The more you think about it, the longer it is in your short term memory. When you stop thinking about it, it will either go to long term memory, or you will simply forget it.[/colorost_uid0]

[Nan]

[color=#000000ost_uid0]Actually, the pop-song is a phenomenon known as a cognitive itch (which you can only scratch it by listening to the song over and over).

There's working memory, short term, and long-term. Working becomes short-term after some point, and then short-term becomes long-term at some point.

There's some threshold at which the information is reclassified as short-term etc. Not sure when.[/colorost_uid0]

[Kira]

[color=#000000ost_uid0][quoteost_uid0="Nan"]I agree about the reset button, but often the best episodes happen because the writers know that they can kill everyone without consequences.[/quoteost_uid0]
That's a good point. Â If the writers are going to use a reset button, they're more likely to take risks with the storytelling and the characters. Â It's a shame they don't do that often without the reset button.

As for short-term memory, the definition from my Psych 110 book is "an immediate memory for stimuli that have just been perceived. It is limited in terms of both capacity (7 +/- 2 chunks of information) and duration (less than 20 seconds)." The chapter also has a case study of a guy with a long-term memory disorder who is re-introduced to the same man in the span of a few minutes with no memory of who he is.

However, I still maintain that this slip-up is acceptable in light of the fantastic storytelling. :bigsmile:[/colorost_uid0]

[PointyHairedJedi]

[color=#000000ost_uid0][quoteost_uid0]That's a good point. If the writers are going to use a reset button, they're more likely to take risks with the storytelling and the characters. It's a shame they don't do that often without the reset button.[/quoteost_uid0]

What's would be cool is episode where you can't tell if there's going to be a rreset button at the end. For just about every show I've ever seen that's used this gimmick it's always been blatantly obvious within five minutes (or less) that that is how the episode is going to end. Takes some of the fun out of it really.[/colorost_uid0]

[Derek]

[color=#000000ost_uid0]^ I don't think that would really be cool. The audience would feel even more cheated by it than they do when they know it will be a reset. It would be annoying to invest yourself in an episode and then suddenly have that all taken away.

It's like those middle school creative writing assignments where students always end their stories with "...and then I woke up. Phew, it was all a dream."[/colorost_uid0]

[Celeste]

[quoteost_uid0="Guest"][color=#000000ost_uid0]I'll have to see it again on Sunday, because I had some interruptions early on and missed a couple of things (Travis getting offed, for one)[/colorost_uid0][/quoteost_uid0]
[color=#000000ost_uid0]I think i've blinked or something because i've watched it twice now and I still can't see where Travis gets it? What happens and where is it?[/colorost_uid0]

[catalina_marina]

[color=#000000ost_uid0]It's not a significant event, and they don't mention it either. When they are attacked, there is a redshirt at the helm who gets killed. That's Travis. Or at least I think it's Travis. It went by real fast.[/colorost_uid0]

[Kira]

[color=#000000ost_uid0]I didn't notice until the second time I watched it. T'Pol was kneeling over someone on the bridge and I was like "Hey, is that Travis?" I'm pretty sure it was. I think it was right before Enterprise rammed the Xindi ship and lost their nacelle.[/colorost_uid0]

[Zeke]

[color=#000000ost_uid0]Yes, that was definitely Travis. Poor blastard.[/colorost_uid0]

[PointyHairedJedi]

[color=#000000ost_uid0]You mean 'baxtard', surely.[/colorost_uid0]

[Zeke]

[color=#000000ost_uid0]Actually, I mean "dsokdpach."[/colorost_uid0]

[mudshark]

[quoteost_uid0="Kira"][color=#000000ost_uid0]I didn't notice until the second time I watched it. Â T'Pol was kneeling over someone on the bridge and I was like "Hey, is that Travis?" Â I'm pretty sure it was. Â I think it was right before Enterprise rammed the Xindi ship and lost their nacelle.[/colorost_uid0][/quoteost_uid0]
[color=#000000ost_uid0]Yeah, it's not really obvious and very short in duration, but takes place right next to Travis' station. A bit later, T'Pol takes the joystick (Travis not around to do the fancy flying) to scrape off the docked Xindi ship against the other one.[/colorost_uid0]

[Celeste]

[color=#000000ost_uid0]Ahhh. Got it. It lasts 2 seconds, T'pol moves down next to Reeds console. You see Malcom on the floor and she moves his head back and forth a couple times really fast to show two wounds on his face. [/colorost_uid0]

[FatMatDuhRat]

[color=#000000ost_uid0]Poor Travis, he gets no love.
(Except from the AU version of Hoshi.)
:lol:[/colorost_uid0]