4.05: Cold Station 12

[Dave]

Second Dr. Noonian Soong story, following on from 'Borderland'.

Archer rescues an abandoned "inferior" Augment while Dr. Soong and his group take over a medical facility run by Phlox's colleague, Dr. Jeremy Lucas.

[Dave]

Soong and the Augments break into the CS12 medical station to steal the embryos of thousands of Augments, planning to gestate them to build an army and threatening to kill the station's staff with pathogens stored in the station.

This is a transcript of the UPN promo:

from TrekToday

WITH EVERY GREAT DISCOVERY COMES THE THREAT OF GREAT DESTRUCTION.

[People with flashlights walk through a dark laboratory.]
[A man in a laboratory coat holds up his hand to another man.]
[Red and white pathogens appear on a viewscreen.]
[Soong stands on the bridge of the Klingon ship, surrounded by Augments at various controls.]
[Soong touches a panel with a white emblem.]
[The screen flares white.]

UPN FRIDAY, ONE MAN WITH THE SECRET TO LIFE ITSELF...

[Text: 'FRIDAY']
[White strands of DNA move on a screen.]
[Dr. Soong appears on the screen.]
[A human fetus floats in a laboratory chamber.]

...HAS CREATED AN UNSTOPPABLE FORCE.

[An Augment slams Archer's head into a laboratory console, then tosses him into a wall.]
[The wall panel explodes, hurling Archer forward.]
[Persis smiles at an Enterprise crewmember, then punches him so hard he flips over.]
[Archer stands in front of a viewer with a schematic of a ship.]
Archer: "This only ends one way, Doctor."
[Tucker witnesses an explosion in engineering.]
[Soong sits in his command chair.]
Soong: "Prepare to be boarded."
[Malik walks toward a laboratory panel, pointing it out to Soong.]
Malik: "Thousands of pathogens in here..."
[Scientists lie on the floor of the laboratory as a gas shoots out of a vent.]
[A scientist with a bloody face looks out imploringly from a glass wall.]
[Malik leans over to speak to Archer, whose mouth is bleeding.]
Malik: "...which one will kill you first?"
[Enterprise flies through space.]

BRENT SPINER RETURNS IN A CONTINUING STAR TREK EVENT.

[Text: 'BRENT SPINER']
[Soong grabs a man and crushes him back to a wall.]
[Augments surround Phlox, Archer and Reed.]
[A bloody-faced man in a laboratory coat speaks to Soong.]
Man: "You son of a..."
[Malik strikes the man across the face.]
Soong: "Actually, Mother was a chemist."

STAR TREK ENTERPRISE.

[The Klingon ship flies through an asteroid field.]
[Text: 'STAR TREK ENTERPRISE']
[Enterprise flies in pursuit after the ship.]

from http://scifi.about.com/mbody.htm
And what is it with the clothes these guys were? Are there genetically superior moths in their closets?

I need to see this episode now. Please tell me what he means!

[Mariel]

Pretty good episode, the augments are getting meaner and not really listening to Soong. I'm wondering if this arc is gonna end with them killing Soong.
Dave, the quote was refering to the augments cloths, the have many holes in them. There were no mutant moths in the episode.
:blpaw:

[Dave]

I'm not sure why their clothing was that way, they had been isolated on an inhospitable planet for 11 years, but they had access to hi-tech equipment, I'm sure they could weave a little cloth. Or at least steal some new clothing since they left.

I thought this was one of the best episodes for ages. I'm not happy that I missed last weeks!

I do have a few questions though -- Why after 20 years, has the security at Cold Station 12 still not improved? Anyone can transport in there or have access with a single alpha-numeric code.

But it is a very strange place anyway:

Exactly which parts of it are cold? The embryo 'cold storage' room wasn't cold, it looked quite warm.

And when was it built? Soong worked there before he stole the embryos, but I found it strange for Starfleet to build such a high security facility so far away from Earth before it had Warp 5 capable ships. And where did they store the embryos for the 150 years prior to that?

Then, there are those humanoid sized cabinets they have for releasing lethal pathogens -- what are those usually used for? They couldn't really be used to infect humanoids with lethal pathogens could they? I don't think I'll sign up to work there.

Yet, it seems like everyone has worked there; at least every medic that we have heard of before on 'Enterprise' has worked there or is there now. Would it be compulsory for a Starfleet medic to work at a Chemical and Biological Research Station?

And is every Denobulan a medic, or do they have a special affinity to work in Medicine? We were told that they have mastered Genetic Engineering. This must be why they have Hobbit-like feet, Jar Jar Binks-like tongues and exploding heads. I'm sure those things are top of my list for my next DNA upgrade!

And Archer told Smike that he could return to Earth, get an education, be accepted into society. Was he lying in a very cruel way? It would be very unlikely that he could; just like Julian's friends on Deep Space Nine, any Augments would either have to hide the truth of their origins or end up institutionalized.

[ray gower]

Originally posted by Dave
Why after 20 years, has the security at Cold Station 12 still not improved? Anyone can transport in there or have access with a single alpha-numeric code.

Perhaps it is like Tuttenbeck an official embarrassement that people find much easier to forget than do something about?

Originally posted by Dave
And is every Denobulan a medic, or do they have a special affinity to work in Medicine? We were told that they have mastered Genetic Engineering. This must be why they have Hobbit-like feet, Jar Jar Binks-like tongues and exploding heads. I'm sure those things are top of my list for my next DNA upgrade!

It strikes me that perhaps Denobulans spend less time wishing they were bigger, stronger, younger and generally better than the bloke looking at them in the mirror than humans do (the sums spent on cosmetic surgery are staggering!).
Therefore they used their expertise to actually do something useful, like eradicating cancer or Downs Syndrome?

Originally posted by Dave
And Archer told Smike that he could return to Earth, get an education, be accepted into society. Was he lying in a very cruel way? It would be very unlikely that he could; just like Julian's friends on Deep Space Nine, any Augments would either have to hide the truth of their origins or end up institutionalized.

I think this is simply a case of Archer being naively stupid and wearing rose tinted lenses than anything sinister

[John Thiel]

Good thing it didn't have Cold Lazarus on it.

[Dave]

Well this was Enterprise and I think by this point anything was possible, even reviving brains in jars. Hmmm.... hasn't Futurama already done that?

[John Thiel]

Cold Lazarus might be the brand name of a form of champagne---Trip would drink some of that.