Category: Enterprise

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Enterprise Season 04 Star Trek

In A Mirror Darkly Part I

Star Trek: Enterprise100 years after a Vulcan ship landed in Bozeman, Montana, where a hungry human mob killed its crew and stripped the ship of its technology, the Earth Empire is already carving a swath of fear across the galaxy. Humanity’s greed for technology and territory has made the Empire’s Starfleet a formidable force, especially its flagship, the Enterprise, commanded by Captain Forrest. Forrest’s ambitious first officer, Jonathan Archer, is keen to follow up on leads regarding unusual activity in Tholian space. When Forrest dismisses Archer’s plans to see what the Tholians are up to, the Empire’s typical policy of attrition comes into play: Archer relieves Forrest of command by force, but leaves the captain alive and in the brig. Archer sets a course deep into Tholian space and locks the Enterprise’s helm controls. En route, an incident in engineering cripples many of the ship’s systems and sensors, and marks the beginning of another uprising – this time, science officer T’Pol and the other Vulcan crewmembers, who have survived only by existing in near-slavery to the Empire, sabotage the ship and free Forrest.

But their efforts are far too late – the Enterprise is already in Tholian territory, where they’ve found a ship that seems to be based on Earth Empire technology, but is far more advanced than the Enterprise. Archer theorizes that it could be from an alternate timeline, but again finds little support for his idea. Despite misgivings about Archer’s loyalty, the reinstated Captain Forrest sends his first officer on a mission to salvage the massive ship – the U.S.S. Defiant – but also sends T’Pol along as well, with orders of her own: Archer isn’t to return from this salvage operation alive. But before Forrest can see his orders carried out, the Enterprise becomes the Tholians’ primary target.

Order DVDswritten by Michael Sussman
directed by James L. Conway
footage from Star Trek: First Contact directed by Jonathan Frakes
music by Dennis McCarthy & Kevin Kiner
music from Star Trek: First Contact by Jerry Goldsmith

Guest Cast: Vaughn Armstrong (Captain Forrest), Franc Ross (Grizzled Human)

Appearing in footage from Star Trek: First Contact: James Cromwell (Zefram Cochrane), Cully Frederickson (Vulcan)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Enterprise Season 04 Star Trek

In A Mirror Darkly Part II

Star Trek: EnterpriseArcher’s gambit to salvage a ship from a hundred years in the future works as he watches the destruction of the Enterprise from the bridge of the U.S.S. Defiant. Liberating the Defiant from the clutches of the Tholians is no easy matter, however, and even once the ship is free from their asteroid salvage yard, Archer discovers an unwelcome passenger aboard. With the most advanced ship in the fleet, Archer experiences delusions of grandeur and power, but after hearing the service record of the Captain Archer who lived in the alternate universe from which the Defiant came, he begins to experience other delusions as well. The Empire’s top brass proves incapable of removing Archer or his mighty new ship, and an uprising among the enslaved Vulcans proves no more effective. But Hoshi, lusting for a power beyond what she can achieve as the “captain’s woman,” may just succeed where Archer’s other opponents have failed…

Order DVDsteleplay by Michael Sussman
story by Manny Coto
directed by Marvin V. Rush
music by Dennis McCarthy & Kevin Kiner

Guest Cast: Gary Graham (Soval), Gregory Itzin (Admiral Black), Derek Magyar (Kelby), John Mahon (Admiral Gardner), Pat Healy (Alien), Majel Barrett (Computer voice)

Notes: This episode marked the first appearance of the Gorn since the original Star Trek episode Arena; there were some notable physical differences, with some subtle touches lost in the rubber suit-to-CGI transition, but those can probably be chalked up to evolutionary differences between “our” Star Trek universe and the Mirror universe. The Defiant’s service records of the 22nd century Enterprise crew note that Archer was considered that century’s pioneering explorer and has even had planets named after him (possibly including Archer IV from Yesterday’s Enterprise), and also credits Hoshi Sato, in her late 30s, with the development of the Linguacode translation matrix first mentioned in Star Trek: The Motion Picture. Guest star Gregory Itzin appeared with Scott Bakula once before in a 1993 episode of Quantum Leap; he has also appeared in Max Headroom, twice (as different characters) on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, and in the Critical Care episode of Star Trek: Voyager. He also appeared alongside classic Trek alumnus George “Sulu” Takei in the TV movie DC 9/11: Time Of Crisis, in which Itzin portrayed Attorney General John Ashcroft to Takei’s Norman Mineta.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Enterprise Season 04 Star Trek

Demons

Star Trek: EnterpriseThe Enterprise returns to Earth to be on hand for four weeks of talks between Earth, Andorian and Tellarite officials to lay the groundwork for a peaceful interplanetary league of worlds. But during a reception after the first discussions, a wounded woman approaches T’Pol, gives her a hair sample and a warning that “they’re going to kill her” – and then dies. Dr. Phlox analyzes the hair sample and concludes that it comes from a six month old child who happens to be the offspring of T’Pol and Trip. Trip confronts T’Pol about this news, but she denies ever having been pregnant – and yet she cannot deny her instinct that the child is theirs. Reed investigates, even re-opening some of his severed contacts at Section 31, and discovers that the dead woman was a member of a human separatist movement called Terra Prime. Further investigation reveals that the woman had recently been to a mining colony on Earth’s moon, and also exposes a visiting reporter (and old flame of Mayweather’s) as a Terra Prime spy. Trip and T’Pol infiltrate the mining colony, but are quickly captured by Terra Prime loyalists who use the colony as a recruiting ground. They are taken to meet Paxton, the leader of the Terra Prime movement, and are helpless to watch as he commandeers a verteron array based on Mars, intended to deflect comets from the inner solar system, but now twisted into an interplanetary weapon. Paxton demands that all aliens vacate Earth space immediately, or he’ll train the array on a populated target.

Order DVDswritten by Manny Coto
directed by LeVar Burton
music by Paul Baillargeon

Guest Cast: Peter Weller (John Frederick Paxton), Harry Groener (Nathan Samuels), Eric Pierpoint (Harris), Peter Mensah (Greaves), Patrick Fischler (Mercer), Adam Clark (Josiah), Steven Rankin (Colonel Green), Johanna Watts (Gannet Brooks), Tom Bergeron (Coridan Ambassador), Christine Romeo (Khouri)

Notes: The character of Colonel Green was first glimpsed as a historical figure recreated by the Excalbians in the original Trek episode The Savage Curtain (also the third-from-last episode of its respective series, coincidentally), in which Phillip Pine played the character of a genocidal military leader whose reign of terror ended at least a generation before Archer’s Enterprise was launched. Harry Groener appeared in the Next Generation episode Tin Man, and in Voyager’s Sacred Ground installment. Peter Weller may be best known in SF circles for originating the role of the title character in the first two Robocop films, and as heroic guitar-slinging scientist Dr. Buckaroo Banzai, as well as starring in Manny Coto’s Showtime series Odyssey 5. In some respects, Terra Prime is very similar to the ethnocentric, anti-alien Home Guard organization which was a recurring threat in the first season of Babylon 5.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Enterprise Season 04 Star Trek

Terra Prime

Star Trek: EnterpriseWith Paxton aiming his array on Starfleet Command in San Francisco, Archer backs the Enterprise off – and the ship still suffers damage when Paxton blasts a low-power warning shot toward it, demonstrating that he’s more than capable of destroying a target on Earth. Trip and T’Pol are trapped with Paxton, who confesses that he created the baby with samples of their DNA to serve as a scare tactic to recruit more humans for his Terra Prime movement. Archer tries another approach, leading a team from the Enterprise to reach Mars by hiding a shuttlepod in the wake of a nearby comet, but that mission almost becomes a disaster – someone aboard the Enterprise has sabotaged the shuttle’s systems. Mayweather is able to bring the shuttle in for a smooth landing under manual control, but even if Archer and his team can thwart Paxton’s plan, will the threat derail the conference on Earth?

Order DVDsteleplay by Judith Reeves-Stevens & Garfield Reeves-Stevens and Manny Coto
story by Judith Reeves-Stevens & Garfield Reeves-Stevens and Andre Bormanis
directed by Marvin V. Rush
music by Jay Chattaway

Guest Cast: Peter Weller (John Frederick Paxton), Harry Groener (Nathan Samuels), Gary Graham (Soval), Eric Pierpoint (Harris), Adam Clark (Josiah), Peter Mensah (Greaves), Johanna Watts (Gannet Brooks), Derek Magyar (Kelby), Joel Swetow (Thoris), Josh Holt (Ensign Masaro), Amy Rohren (Tactical Officer)

Notes: Guest star Joel Swetow appeared as Gul Jasad in the two-hour premiere of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, and later as a Yridian information merchant named Yog in the First Born episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation. Dr. Phlox confirms here that human and Vulcan DNA are compatible in a natural mating – Paxton’s genetically-engineered child was created with flawed cloning techniques. Jay Chattaway‘s music was somewhat reminiscent of a score he composed for another television program involving Mars, the 1992 PBS documentary Space Age; Chattaway joined the Star Trek franchise in 1990, scoring the third-season Next Generation episode Tin Man, which also guest starred Harry Groener, and this was his final musical score for the series.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Enterprise Season 04 Star Trek

These Are The Voyages…

Star Trek: EnterpriseCaptain Archer is nervously preparing his speech for the ceremony marking the ratification of a full alliance between Earth, Andoria, Vulcan, the Tellarites and many other worlds. It has now been ten years since the Enterprise originally left spacedock, and after the ceremony, the ship is headed for its own final frontier – decommissioning. But Archer and his crew unexpectedly heed one last call to adventure when their old ally Shran, an Andorian commander who everyone believes to have died three years ago, contacts them. His daughter has been abducted by some shady business associates he accumulated after falling out of favor with the Andorian Imperial Guard, and he’s calling in old favors to rescue her. Despite protests from his crew about everything from the timing of this mission to his own personal safety, Archer is confident that the Enterprise crew can rescue Shran’s daughter without incident. Unfortunately, Archer has miscalculated, and the entire future of the United Federation of Planets is in peril unless a member of his crew makes a supreme sacrifice to save his captain. And in the future, struggling with an ethical dilemma precipitated by the reappearance of his own first commanding officer, Commander William T. Riker watches these decisive moments play out on a future Enterprise’s holodeck.

Order DVDswritten by Rick Berman & Brannon Braga
directed by Allan Kroeker
music by Dennis McCarthy

Guest Cast: Jonathan Frakes (Commander William Riker), Marina Sirtis (Counselor Deanna Troi), Jeffrey Combs (Shran), Jonathan Schmock (Alien), Solomon Burke Jr. (Ensign), Jef Ayres (Med Tech), Jasmine Anthony (Talla), Brent Spiner (voice of Lt. Commander Data), Majel Barrett (Computer voice), Mike Fincke (Engineer), Terry Virts (Engineer)

Notes: The script for These Are The Voyages… was actually written by executive producers Rick Berman and Brannon Braga a year before the episode was produced and broadcast; in the event that the show had gotten cancelled before its fourth season, they considered it a fitting end for the series. The voices of William Shatner and Patrick Stewart were lifted from the introductions those actors recorded during the original broadcast run of Star Trek and Star Trek: The Next Generation. Two of the engineers working with Trip aboard the Enterprise were real-life astronauts: International Space Station veteran Mike Fincke and Terry Virts. Fincke reportedly kept up his Enterprise viewing habit even during his months in orbit.

LogBook entry by Earl Green