OEEG Video: Fortunate Son

[Sonnenburg]

This is the one where the space pirates are killing humans, so Archer steps in... on the side of the pirates.

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[Lord Revan]

Is that line about Archer fighting superior ship in a desperate situation a reference to a certain episode or the Xindi arc in total?

[Darksider]

You know, Sometimes I feel sorry for Scott Bakula. They made him look like such a fucking retard.

[Steve]

Awwww, clearly Archer is right and the pirates just need a few huggy-wuggies. I say we volunteer him to go first.

[tim31]

I wonder if they would have played this episode with a straight face in the current media climate regarding Somalian piracy. Crews fighting back with firehoses, USN SEALs rescuing freighter captains who have given themselves up to save their crews...

[Samuel]

Why does Earth have so many freighters in deep space? I thought they just started building ships extremely recently.

[tim31]

No. Earth Starfleet was a relatively new organization; and an Earth ship with a warp 5 engine(i.e the 428 cobrajet powered NX-class) were brand spankers.

[Bounty]

Is that line about Archer fighting superior ship in a desperate situation a reference to a certain episode or the Xindi arc in total?

Later in the series he got pirated and briefly became a pirate himself, so both ends of the problem came back to bite him in the ass.

[Themightytom]

And there was the ENTIRE episode where they were putting the phase cannons together because Archer didn't want to be pushed around. if he'd taken his own advice he wouldn't have had his crew slap them together on the fly.

[Thanas]

So...a federation captain refuses to help his own citizens against pirates?

I am pretty sure there is a word for that, it starts with "t" and rhimes with "reason".

[tezunegari]

It kind of puzzled me when that dude from the freighter said he doesn't want faster engines.

First, they are under threat of pirates. New and faster engine to outrun them.
Second, 5 years for a single cargo run... new engine 6 months for a single cargo run and the guy reasons that you can't enjoy the trip anymore?!
Could this be the first hint at the communist federation of TNG lore? As they seem to be ignorant of economics (more cargo runs = more money) or just complacent with their job. ("Why faster ships. It works as it is." "And we don't need the money, you capitalist pig!")

Interestingly it is only two episodes later that Enterprise is forced to make an upgrade to their weapons (that should have happened in drydock) by installing "phase cannons" in order to survive an alien attack.

[RedImperator]

I wonder if their FX budget was running low, because otherwise, this is an obvious candidate for a PEW-PEW shoot-em-up episode.

The attitude of the freighter first officer makes more sense if you remember the freighters have developed their own culture, and that culture would almost certainly be extinguished (or at least massively altered), if they started making port calls every six months. The economics still don't make sense, but the character motivations do.

[Oskuro]

I always get the impression with the newer ST material (that is, post TOS mostly) that they set up somewhat standard scenarios, and try to solve them in a different way just to prove how morally superior Trek is. This should have been an all-out guns blazing episode, with the NX helping a freighter fend of nasty pirates. If you need a more convoluted storyline, throw in a traitor in their midst that sabotages their attempts or something.

[Setzer]

You mean, like an obstructive commanding officer who won't lift a finger to help the people he's sworn to protect?

[Samuel]

No. Earth Starfleet was a relatively new organization; and an Earth ship with a warp 5 engine(i.e the 428 cobrajet powered NX-class) were brand spankers.

Yes, but Earth after WW3 shouldn't have any ship building up and given that they would be going into alien markets that are already controlled, I don't see how they could break in.

[Setzer]

Through a plot hole, of course. Mentally, B&B are still stuck in TNG, where interstellar trade is routine. Sure they pay lip service to the new frontier setting by having pirates, but in a logical world, there would be laws in place for dealing with piracy, or at least an acknowledgement of the problem.

[Glom]

It may be just something about the several seconds of excerpts we had, but that Ryan guy sounded really annoying. I can't put my finger on it.

[CDiehl]

Sure they pay lip service to the new frontier setting by having pirates, but in a logical world, there would be laws in place for dealing with piracy, or at least an acknowledgement of the problem.

Also, considering that interstellar travel existed long before humans got into the act, there would already be agreements among spacefaring cultures that address piracy. It's not as if everyone was isolated in their separate solar systems until Earth invented warp drives.

5 years for a single cargo run

I can't imagine how you can have interstellar trade if it takes that long to move stuff. It's like the people who wrote this assume that trade is just something people do, not a business designed to make money. Really, they make it look like the Fortunate flies one way for five whole years with no stops, just to move one load of cargo, when that's insane. Just the costs of supplying the ship for such a journey would be prohibitive. I'd understand if they flew to a bunch of different systems and traded goods in a big circuit, but they make it look like a one-way, five-year ride.

[Patrick Degan]

5 years for a single cargo run

I can't imagine how you can have interstellar trade if it takes that long to move stuff. It's like the people who wrote this assume that trade is just something people do, not a business designed to make money. Really, they make it look like the Fortunate flies one way for five whole years with no stops, just to move one load of cargo, when that's insane. Just the costs of supplying the ship for such a journey would be prohibitive. I'd understand if they flew to a bunch of different systems and traded goods in a big circuit, but they make it look like a one-way, five-year ride.

Most of the cargo space aboard the ship would be given over not to it's actual freight but the supplies for the crew. And that's five years shut up in a metal box. With no women, no recreation, no intellectual stimulation, no entertainment other than the same shit they packed up with them or loaded into the computer. A five year solitary confinement with just the same group of people. I'd say insanity is a very likely outcome for at least some of the crew and perhaps a murder or two when crewmen start getting fed up with being in each other's company with no break for five fucking years.

[Glom]

Did they mention what goods they were carrying even? And how do they get customers for their haulage services when their ships are so slow? You'd be better off sending the package with Royal Mail.

[Bounty]

I'd hope that "five year round trip" is not a straight line between planets but a route along various systems and space stations - like a modern-day tramp freighter. At 1.8c the ship should cover about 40 light years in five years; that's a pretty sparse route assuming their home port is the Sol system, but if they move a lot of luxury cargo (perhaps they specifically cater to human settlers on alien worlds who pay a premium for genuine Earth product?) and make a stop at anything that resembles permanent settlement, at least they'd have some variety.

Too bad none of that is even touched upon in the episode.

[Patrick Degan]

I'd hope that "five year round trip" is not a straight line between planets but a route along various systems and space stations - like a modern-day tramp freighter. At 1.8c the ship should cover about 40 light years in five years; that's a pretty sparse route assuming their home port is the Sol system, but if they move a lot of luxury cargo (perhaps they specifically cater to human settlers on alien worlds who pay a premium for genuine Earth product?) and make a stop at anything that resembles permanent settlement, at least they'd have some variety.

Too bad none of that is even touched upon in the episode.

I think you meant Warp 1.8 instead of 1.8c, I trust. That translates to a radius of action of ~17.6 light years round-trip, a bit over 36 light years total (based upon the TNG-era scale which seemed to be plugged into Boobyprise technobabble as well). Only the delivery of highly valuable cargoes (items worth their weight in plutonium) rather than bulk freight would make such slowboat runs profitable to any extent (and would make pirate attacks on such ships logical), but this ship seemed to be carrying bulk freight which, given the timeframes involved, would not generate any appreciable profit to justify the expense of the mission. Nothing about the vision of space freight-hauling in this episode makes sense, and the objection to faster engines expressed by Ryan is insane no matter how anybody cuts it.

[Big Phil]

I'm wondering something - if freighters take five years to travel their trade routes, presumably taking several years in between port calls, why are the pirates hanging out for them in deep space? Even assuming it's a well traveled routed, what's the point of hijacking cargo from a few ships and taking months/years to get back to your base to enjoy the spoils? Wouldn't it make more sense to hijack them as they pass near your territory or base (like real pirates do)?

And that "enjoy the trip comment" sure sounded like it was laced with homo-erotic undertones...

[CaptainChewbacca]

It was fun, but I think the part where you say "Mayweather says 'Yessah Boss'" could be considered racist.

[Ted C]

It was fun, but I think the part where you say "Mayweather says 'Yessah Boss'" could be considered racist.

I think he's pointing out the "token black guy" treatment of Travis in the series.