4.12: Babel One

[Dave]

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Archer must reportedly transport Tellarite and Andorian delegates to a peace conference on Babel One.

from Trek Today

Enterprise's twelfth episode this season will reportedly pay homage to the original Star Trek outing "Journey to Babel".

In the episode, currently entitled "Babel One", Earth has volunteered to mediate in a dispute between the Tellarites and Andorians. Enterprise must transport the Tellarite delegation, headed by the rather portly Ambassador Gral, to the peace talks on Babel One. While Jonathan Archer wears his new diplomatic role well, not all crew members take so kindly to the demands of the Tellarite guests. Their constant criticism and nit-picking soon grates on Trip, not to mention the need for rooms to be heated to a higher temperature than humans are used to.

The NX-01 is also transporting the Andorian party to Babel One, which leads to on-board tensions. But the tense atmosphere is exacerbated when Archer is contacted by the Andorian authorites claming that one of their ships was recently destroyed by the Tellarites. Ambassador Gral denies all knowledge of the attack, and suggests that the Andorians may have fabricated their ship's sensor logs to incriminate the Tellarites. Nevertheless, the Andorians demand to be returned home.

Gral and his aide Naarg soon become paranoid that Archer is not truly an impartial mediator due to his friendship with Shran, and the pair even start to believe that the captain is conspiring with the Andorians. The fact that Archer has ordered guards to be posted outside the Tellarite quarters doesn't do much to ease the tensions.

With the Tellarites and Andorians at each other's throats, this situation would be enough to give anyone a headache of inter-galactic proportions. But soon a third species enters the stage, the Romulans...

Another 'unseen' Romulan episode... Hmmmm!

 

[Mariel]

Enterprise agrees to transport the Tellarites to the peace talks. The get a transmission from the Andorians saying that they were under attack from a Tellarite ship. When Enterprise gets there, Shran's ship has been distroyed and only 19 made it to the excape pods. In route to Andoria to drop Shran and crew off, Enterprise is attacked by an Andorian ship. Shran tells the Andorian ship to break off but they don't listen so he tells Reed where to target to disable sheilds but it doesn't work. Enterprise is able to escape. The readings from the Andorian ship and the Tellarite ship are analized and T'Pol finds that they both have the same energy signiture. They follow the warp trail and find the ship only to find it's neither Andorian nor Tellarite. Trip, Reed and 2 Macos got on board to figure out what kind of ship it is. All the while you see some Romulans on the ship with a guy who appears to be the pilot with all kinds of wires hooks up to him and a helmet on. The 2 Macos transport back to Enterprise but Trip and Reed are unable to because the transporter goes out. So the explore the ship and find that the brige is empty. Then it shows the Romulans on their 'ship' and it zooms out to show they are on Romulus and the ship is remote controled....
TO BE CONTINUED....
:blpaw:

 

[Dave]

Originally posted by Mariel
So they explore the ship and find that the brige is empty. Then it shows the Romulans on their 'ship' and it zooms out to show they are on Romulus and the ship is remote controled....
TO BE CONTINUED....
:blpaw:

I always had a problem with the explanation from TOS of why Romulans had never be seen before 'Balance of Terror' TOS: That the Earth-Romulan Wars were fought with primitive atomic weapons, and that the Romulan fleet was not even equipped with warp drive, and no face-to-face contact took place.

Enterprise has shown us that there is sub-space radio with viewscreens in this time period, not to mention that 'Homefront' DS9 suggested that the Romulan Wars actually reached Earth itself.

Although having remote controlled Romulan ships is a clear case of Retconning (The act of retroactively adjusting continuity) it actually makes huge sense and clears up a big Trek nit. So another 'thumbs up' from me to Mr Coto.

The only thing left to explain is why the Romulans stopped using these remote contolled ships.

 

[Mariel]

Originally posted by Dave
The only thing left to explain is why the Romulans stopped using these remote contolled ships.

The Romulans said the ship was a prototype. Maybe it didn't work out the way they wanted it to.
:blpaw:

 

[Dave]

The Romulan ship looked more advanced that anything that Earth, the Vulcans, the Andorians or the Tellarites have! Its ability to mimic seems almost more useful than a cloak, which is obviously what they traded it in for later!

I thought that the twist ending made this was another good episode, and it looks like the start of another good three-parter, though I understand why many think the storyline was a little derivative.

My only disappointment is that the Andorians are shown to be a race of two sexes (Shran and Talas), when this was not always clear in the past. It was left deliberately vague in the past about why four individuals were required at an Andorian marriage ceremony, and I believe some DS9 novels expanded this into a complex social structure very unlike anything else seen.

Until now I was not certain that Shran was 'male', he could have been something akin to a 'worker' bee or a 'soldier' ant. I would have liked them to have been shown to have some very alien family organisation, but both Shran's conversation with Archer, and the interaction of Talas with the MACOS guard makes them seem just like us.

It still doesn't explain the Andorian marriage ceremony though.

 

[ray gower]

I'll agree! Many of the episodes of this season are knocking Trek Lore into some logical sense.

In pure practical terms for there to have been a Romulan War at all both sides must have some form of warp drive or it all becomes very one sided.

Using Q-Ships (ships that disguise themselves for what ever reason) however could never become a basis for a whole naval fleet.
People catch on to what is happening and you are looking for big guns, lots of armour and a way of running away. (Look at how quickly unmarked police cars and speed traps are spotted!). But as a ruse for commerce raiding, where people are not looking too closely, it works a treat.