They do have some kind of storage, when the water plant died, someone mumbled something about having 3000 gallons left on board.
Haha, missed that line, that’s more than enough to sustain 300 crew for 6 days, even without strict water rationing.
I have the feeling they were “adrift” at sea for more than 6 days.
-
The RO units were damaged pulling out of Guantanamo Bay, and they’re very power intensive and the ship was low on power.
-
Solar stills are an incredibly shitty way to try to get water. A solar still in moist conditions working very well might be able to produce half a gallon of water per day. In desert conditions, it’ll be closer to 8 ounces of water per day. That’s a tiny fraction of the daily needs of an adult human in hot weather, multiplied over 300 people.
-
3000 gallons isn’t all that much water. The Navy specifies ships should be able to provide 50 gallons of water per person per day. For a 300 person crew that’s 15 thousand gallons a day. The guidelines for ration conditions specify at minimum 2 gallons per day per person, that means using up the 3000 gallon reserve in 5 days, and that’s not counting any water you might need to lubricate or cool shipboard equipment, or any kind of cleaning or bathing, and the episode specified the conditions were baking hot, which would increase water needs even more.
I’m surprised that I felt this was the least stupid episode yet. I thought I was supposed to be the poster most critical of this show.
My objections were primarily 1) I don’t buy that the parachutes provided enough sail area 2) Lt.'s pep speech to the captain was mind-numbingly awful and 3) the whole thing was a big filler episode. An hour’s casing mostly filled with story by-products.
The vibe of the show is starting to feel more and more like part of the Star Trek franchise. Not necessarily in terms of quality, but in terms of the show structure. A single (star)ship out on its own, out of contact with (star)fleet command. Episodes focus on which planet/island they visit this week, with occasional completely arbitrary equipment breakdowns when convenient to provide tension. Last episode involved a confrontation with the Klingons. This episode was mostly shipboard, the warp core broke down, but Scotty was in sick bay so she couldn’t fix it in half the time promised. Next week’s episode visits the island of Harry Mudd.
At least they don’t need any friggin’ Prime Directive.
You could probably fire up the first season of Voyager on Netflix and see every plot they have planned right now.
I’m just hoping to see them make it to Costa Rica. So the ship can, at some point, be overrun with tribbles…uh, I mean monkeys.
Alas, there is some joy to Sunday night!
“The Last Ship is a blockbuster hit in its first season, not only among total viewers but also among key adult demos. The action-packed drama from executive producer Michael Bay has averaged more than 7.2 million viewers in Live + 7 delivery in its first season and currently ranks as basic cable’s #1 scripted series this summer with adults 18-49 and adults 25-54. The show is also cable’s #1 new series for the year-to-date among total viewers and adults 25-54.”
And the bad news:
“TNT has ordered 13 episodes of The Last Ship, an increase over its first-season order of 10 episodes.”
I love the show for what it is…stretch it out…under the dome it…meh…
I agree. I wish American television would do more miniseries with a beginning, middle and definite end. This is one of those shows that really needs closure after a set number of episodes.
I disagree, because this show ‘ends’ with the development and delivery of the vaccine. That can be put off forever, unlike other types of show endings. For instance, even if they develop the vaccine this season, it still means nothing unless people can start using it to vaccinate the survivors on a large scale. You could have an entire season just working on that problem. Plus there’s the plot development that I’m sure is coming, where they are stuck in the ship at one location for a prolonged period of time. Maybe they are stopped somewhere for supplies and it turns out the place is a perfect spot to live. So some of the crew decide to stay permanently, enough of the crew so that the ship can’t operate and leave. An entire season could be spent resolving that alone.
And on… and on… and on. That’s precisely my point. A good story, tautly told over a fixed number of episodes, is much better than an endless dragging on of the problem of the week.
Exactly! I was so looking forward to E10 “No Place Like Home” to see how everything ended…now not so much.
Perhaps they can pull it off and make it series, but I’m not very confident about that.
E11: You Can’t Go Home Again
E12: Home Was Kind Of A Shithole Anyway
My point is that this kind of story is about the journey not the destination. Imagine the final episode, they have the vaccine and hand it over to the people who are prepared to immediately distribute it among survivors. You’re in a rush to get to that scene?!?! Why? The fun, if there is any, is watching all the shenanigans it takes them to get to that place.
A variation of this concept that would work in a limited series is if they were in a race to bring the vaccine before the pandemic wiped out humanity. That’s because that type of story is an either/or story, either they succeed or they don’t. There’s no need to string that type of story out since the audience’s main concern is if humanity is saved or not, not in the adventures the ship has getting there.
Ok I was enjoying this show, in guilty pleasure sort of way, until this episode. In what possible universe with the fate of the world in their hands does the unarmed and out numbered middle age NAVY officers turn around and launch a Navy SEAL type operation.
Seriously all they have to do is go back to the ship which is what hours away get reinforcement (including the Marine detachment which is suspiciously missing on the shipment) and come back the next night…
I was so rooting for them all to be killed and a GIANT GAME OVER signed to be flash at the end.
Me too Strollen. I expected them to go back to the ship and get reinforcements, since from the beginning you knew they’d kill all the bad guys eventually. Instead we got this weird night attack thing by what, 4 guys?
Surprisingly, this did not bother me. Yes, of course it was clear that the smartest thing to do was go back to the ship and get more bodies, better trained bodies. They didn’t because they didn’t want the little girl to get raped, which is what would certainly happen if they delayed. The whole “bring me your younger daughter” bit was there to give the rescue some urgency.
As for how plausible it was, they live in a universe where enemies, even enemy soldiers, are bumbling incompetents (episode 1), where any average Navy seaman is a crack shot (episode 2), and where the Captain and his XO leave the ship on missions (all episodes so far). This thing about a Navy Commander leading ground missions is straight out of the original Star Trek. Before you ask “why did the Captain turn around?” you should ask “WTF was he doing there in the first place?”
Within that universe, I immediately understood why he thought 4 Navy guys were enough, strike that 3 since the ship’s top-ranking NCO stayed behind to babysit the casualty. This is Kirk and Worf and a SEAL commander. They fully expected that they’d silently ambush the first three thugs they met in the dark, take their weapons, and pick everyone off one by one. Which is how it worked. As long as they’re only encountering bad guys 4-5 at a time, they have them outnumbered. Which is how it was in every Star Trek, they were all masters of hand to hand, even Bones, if the script called for it.
Kudo’s for using Dire Straits’ Ride Across the River.
Oh I already made peace with at least 2 and sometimes all four of Kirk and Spock, and Bones, and Scotty go on all the away missions. Cause after all speaking parts are expensive. But even in Star Trek they officer tended to take advantage of the fact that Enterprise was often in a position to either send reinforcement, the only difference between a teleporter and RIB, is you don’t need a cut scene with the teleporter, or deliver a pinpoint phaser attack… Also did they lose UAV, It seems to me that providing air recon for missions like this is sort what we have been using drones for last several years.