I Just Rewatched ____ and Noticed ____

[CX]

I have nothing against "what if" scenarios, but I'd personally like it better if they actually meant something development-wise, and the only way that could happen was if there was no reset button so that all the characters remembered what happened.

[Whitbreads Motie]

I just re-watched "Observer Effect" and noticed that Connor and Linda played their alien counterparts almost as well as Dominic and Anthony. Connor and Linda were the only cast members, other than the aforementioned, who played the "Orgainian" versions of their characters in a way that differed from the way they played their regular characters, Tucker and Sato.

I thought Scott, Jolene, even Billingley, didn't play the aliens differently enough from their regular characters. Jolene was especially poor at it. Her alien seemed to be "T'Pol" only she was taking bigger steps as she walked, or something. Scott was...just "Scott", IMO. I don't think we saw Billingley play his alien quite long enough to make a final judgement, but what I did see didn't seem to be that different from what we see in Phlox.

[Elessar]

Interesting, I didn't notice that, I'll have to go back and look. I did recall noticing how much Hoshi's bearing and attitude changed when she became the Organian. It seems that either Linda is NOT in personality anything like the character Hoshi (shy, innocent, introverted, kind of a little mouse voice) and that therefore changing into a cold Organian wasn't hard for her, OR that she just had better acting breadth than some of those who didn't seem to change much. OR for some reason they were directed not to act differently, it's hard to say.

[Lys]

I also rewatched "Observer Effect" recently. I recall there was no trouble identifying who was who when they paired Malcolm and Travis and T'Pol and Phlox because the Organians' personalities matched well with theirs.
Now, it was more difficult with T'Pol and Archer. T'Pol is supposed to be the experienced-by-the-book Organian and Archer the naive one. I personally think they made a mistake here. By the time of season 4, T'Pol has a softer side than at the beginning where Archer has gone the opposite path, especially in season 3. I think it would have been refreshing to acknowledge those changes in their personalities by not typecasting them as Organians.
I also noticed the way Hoshi changed when she became the experienced Organian. It's understandable because we never had before Hoshi nor Trip showing hard personality traits. And that's why I think the aikido black belt story told by Hoshi is some sort of foreshadowing, some clue that she's the right one to become the cold Organian.

[Asso]

I also rewatched "Observer Effect" recently. I recall there was no trouble identifying who was who when they paired Malcolm and Travis and T'Pol and Phlox because the Organians' personalities matched well with theirs.
Now, it was more difficult with T'Pol and Archer. T'Pol is supposed to be the experienced-by-the-book Organian and Archer the naive one. I personally think they made a mistake here. By the time of season 4, T'Pol has a softer side than at the beginning where Archer has gone the opposite path, especially in season 3. I think it would have been refreshing to acknowledge those changes in their personalities by not typecasting them as Organians.
I also noticed the way Hoshi changed when she became the experienced Organian. It's understandable because we never had before Hoshi nor Trip showing hard personality traits. And that's why I think the aikido black belt story told by Hoshi is some sort of foreshadowing, some clue that she's the right one to become the cold Organian.

I agree with these remarks.
They are sharp.
And in regard to the softer side of T'Pol, please remember her words in the same episode, when she tells Archer that she would like to be informed about whichever good news of Trip.

[evcake]

I just rewatched Unexpected and during the scene in which Cap'n and Phlox discuss Trip's possible "post-natal responsibilities" I noticed anew Trinneer's comedic talents. It reminded me of a sentence in Ragua's Miscommunication: "Really, T’Pol thought as she watched him struggle to swallow, the number of expressions a human face is capable of is quite remarkable."

[CoffeeCat]

I think Connor's expressions were the bast part of the episode.

[JadziaKathryn]

Jolene did do an excellent job in her "Observer Effect" scene when she asked to be notified about any changes in Trip's status, and the look she used was great. I remember going, "Aha! She still cares!" So it was a sad moment, but at the same time a happy one. Especially since I didn't think they were *actually* going to kill Trip and Hoshi.

[Asso]

Jolene did do an excellent job in her "Observer Effect" scene when she asked to be notified about any changes in Trip's status, and the look she used was great. I remember going, "Aha! She still cares!" So it was a sad moment, but at the same time a happy one. Especially since I didn't think they were *actually* going to kill Trip and Hoshi.

Exactly!

[evcake]

I think Connor's expressions were the bast part of the episode.

Especially with his mouth full...

[Elessar]

Jolene did do an excellent job in her "Observer Effect" scene when she asked to be notified about any changes in Trip's status, and the look she used was great. I remember going, "Aha! She still cares!" So it was a sad moment, but at the same time a happy one. Especially since I didn't think they were *actually* going to kill Trip and Hoshi.

I know! I found myself hoping he'd come inches from death so she'd run down there and sobbingly confess "I LOVE YOU!" through the cold divisions of one's EVA suit

[Lady Rainbow]

I also noticed the way Hoshi changed when she became the experienced Organian. It's understandable because we never had before Hoshi nor Trip showing hard personality traits. And that's why I think the aikido black belt story told by Hoshi is some sort of foreshadowing, some clue that she's the right one to become the cold Organian.

Yeah, that seemed to be an interesting contrast of personalities (Hoshi vs. the cold Organian). Kudos to Linda Park.

I never thought of the aikido black belt in that way, but yeah, I suppose you could call it foreshadowing. My only thing is that that aside from that one mention, you never see or hear of the black belt again, and I can think of at least one time when using aikido would've gotten her out of a tight spot (on the Xindi Sphere, for instance, when she was Dolim's "guest".)

Okay, I'm gonna put on my slicker and brave the rotten veggies. I actually liked Twilight. I completely agree with the nature of the "reset" episodes...where you can explore character relationships that might not be "allowed" by TPTB. Yeah, unfortunately, the creative writers have to fight tooth and nail for interesting storylines/relationships that make the TPTB and the networks nervous. Unfortunately, that's the nature of the TV business. It doesn't make a lot of sense but...

I also saw T'Pol's decision to stay with Archer as more of a debt to humanity in general, and not just Archer. And I could also see her using her scientific knowledge to help the Ceti Alpha V colony. I cheered when she turned down Soval's request that she go to Vulcan...obviously, T'Pol's hung around humanity enough to put her foot down and say, "I want to do this and THIS is my decision."

As far as she and Archer...I didn't get the feeling that her feelings towards him had "evolved". She's friends with him, but that's about it. Honestly, if you wanted to see how the characters might have evolved in a different way, look at Trip, Hoshi and Malcolm. (Part of the reason why I wrote "Do Not Forget Me" on ff.net). Granted, it still ended with Super!Archer (ARGH! Anyone else think his "heroic demise" was like Lon Suder's on Voyager? I mean, how many times do you have to shoot the guy?? Was Archer wearing the equiv. of anti-laser Kevlar under his clothes, including his underwear????? ) Plus, I HATED the last "joke" about how T'Pol woud've been a great nurse. ARGH! No wonder she didn't want her relationship with him to "evolve".

Don't get me wrong...I think Scott Bakula's a great actor, but for a starship captain, TPTB and some of the writers really made him out as a bigoted (against Vulcans, at the beginning of the series, at least until the Kirshara eps), spoiled idiot. It took me a while to actually get to like Archer's character...but now I kinda like the guy.

As for ANIS...*CRINGE* I mean, the guy's DOG takes precedence over the crew??? Though I did like when he and Phlox tried to catch the bat and Hoshi ended up doing it. (Archer with braids and a chainsaw? With his senior officers watching? Trip should've been taking pictures w/his camera....)

RE: Hatchery and the MACOs. I know soldiers are SUPPOSED to follow orders. That what makes Hayes a good MACO...he follows orders. The problem is when you follow orders that are obviously so screwed up...Hayes follows 'em anyway. That's how he's been trained and if he'd had any second thoughts, he'd probably convinced himself that at least he did his job. Not to defend the MACOs ('cause, yeah, it makes 'em seem like stupid automatons), but I can understand why Hayes and Malcolm ended up on different sides of the mutiny. Malcolm, at least, questions orders that doesn't make sense.

[CX]

I would rant about the evils of Twilight and reset buttons in general, but I'd probably be wasting my breath. I'd simply argue that since we all knew Earth wasn't in any real danger for the series as a whole, what TPTB should have done is made it so we had a more personal interest in the characters, and put them in real danger. After all, while Earth is still around in the 24th Century, we have no clue what's supposed to happen to the characters. Naturally they're too pussy to kill off main characters unless its a reset button or the actor is no longer going to be on the show after that episode. And actually with reset buttons that seems to be a requirement, namely to kill off all or most of the main character, and blow up the main ship. But I'll stop there before I start ranting again about reset buttons.

[Lady Rainbow]

I would rant about the evils of Twilight and reset buttons in general, but I'd probably be wasting my breath. I'd simply argue that since we all knew Earth wasn't in any real danger for the series as a whole, what TPTB should have done is made it so we had a more personal interest in the characters, and put them in real danger. After all, while Earth is still around in the 24th Century, we have no clue what's supposed to happen to the characters.

Yeah, I agree that it does ruin the suspense when you know it'll be "corrected" at the end (like DS9's "Children of Time" *CRINGE*). And in the end, it doesn't matter a damn for the rest of the "canon" series. That's why I usually watch it (and judge it) based on its own merits, "what might have been if..." Though Sela did show up later in TNG. (And I LOVE HopefulRomantic's series w/ Lorian and Karyn Archer). And yeah, that's why we have fanfic so we can write about what COULD happen to the characters in the future.

Naturally they're too pussy to kill off main characters unless its a reset button or the actor is no longer going to be on the show after that episode. And actually with reset buttons that seems to be a requirement, namely to kill off all or most of the main character, and blow up the main ship. But I'll stop there before I start ranting again about reset buttons.

Yeah, that's the one beef I've got with "resets". Maybe that should be a writing challenge: write a "reset" story where NO ONE DIES and THERE IS SOME CONSEQUENCE IN THE "REAL UNIVERSE". But I suppose that defeats the standard definition of a "reset", huh? LOL.

[Elessar]

RE: Hatchery and the MACOs. I know soldiers are SUPPOSED to follow orders. That what makes Hayes a good MACO...he follows orders. The problem is when you follow orders that are obviously so screwed up...Hayes follows 'em anyway. That's how he's been trained and if he'd had any second thoughts, he'd probably convinced himself that at least he did his job. Not to defend the MACOs ('cause, yeah, it makes 'em seem like stupid automatons), but I can understand why Hayes and Malcolm ended up on different sides of the mutiny. Malcolm, at least, questions orders that doesn't make sense.

And that's a really poor misunderstanding of military officers that I can't believe still perpetuates. Even the Marines - and I say even because people tend to think of the Marines like the MACOs in the sense that they would follow orders to the letter with blinders on, more than any other branch, without regard to any mitigating circumstances, like because Marines are all hard-charging jarheads that don't think. To a lot of people the phrase "Marine officer" sounds like an oxymoron for that reason, and it's in line with this perception of military as brainwashed automotons that don't think for themselves. As far as I am aware based on my relationships with Army officers from NCOs in the range of SFC and Sergeant Major and commissioned officers in the range of LtCol and Col, AND Marine officers from 2nd Lt to Capt, an officer is trained and expected to take initiative when orders don't make sense or when your superior is compromised or when higher orders are merely unavailable. They would not be able to function without that skill. Popular media seems to often represent the "your CO has gone mad" scenario as if it's something that the training philosophy just never thought of. So everybody is all "oh my god, our captain is nuts, omg omg omg what do we do?" when in reality the scenario of the CO that becomes unfit for duty is historically not uncommon and because it's so difficult to work with - i.e., relieving your commanding officer of duty and facing possible court martial of your superiors don't later find in your favor - it's covered in officer training in extreme detail. It's a very serious part of every officer's training - and should be written as such for MACOs, too.