Tag: Temporal Cold War

The Enterprise happens upon a ship carrying religious pilgrims en route to view an astronomical event in a stellar nursery – something they view as holy. During a tour of the ship, one of the pilgrims slips away in engineering and breaks an antimatter conduit – a bit of sabotage that becomes fortuitous when a plasma discharge from the nearby nebula ignites an antimatter cascade which would have destroyed the Enterprise had the conduit been in place. Shortly afterward, Captain Archer is approached by Crewman Daniels, one of the ship’s waiters, who tells the captain that he’s actually from the 31st century and is here to prevent Suliban interference in the timeline. Daniels also informs Archer that the visitor who broke the conduit was, in fact, none other than Silik – the Suliban with whom Archer barely survived a life-and-death struggle during the Klingon rescue incident. Daniels asks Archer to give him access to modify the Enterprise’s sensors so he can find and neutralize Silik, but when Silik later appears to Archer, the treacherous Suliban says that Daniels is the interloper out to derail Earth’s history.

written by Steve Beck & Tim Finch
directed by Robert Duncan McNeill
music by Jay Chattaway

Cast: Scott Bakula (Captain Jonathan Archer), Jolene Blalock (Subcommander T’Pol), John Billingsley (Dr. Phlox), Dominic Keating (Lt. Malcolm Reed), Anthony Montgomery (Ensign Travis Mayweather), Linda Park (Ensign Hoshi Sato), Connor Trinneer (Commander Charles “Trip” Tucker III), John Fleck (Silik), Matt Winston (Daniels), Michael O’Hagan (Captain Fraddock), Joseph Hindy (Prah Mantoos), Leonard Kelly-Young (Sonsorra), and Porthos

Note: Talk about man’s best friend – it’s strongly implied in one scene that an Earth dog can detect the presence of a cloaked individual (including a Suliban). And stellar nurseries aren’t just science fiction – the Hubble Space Telescope has observed several, including the spectacular Eagle Nebula (also known as M-16), whose triple-pillared stellar nursery clouds have been used as background in movies (Contact) and other science fiction shows (Babylon 5’s Into The Fire episode).

LogBook entry by Earl Green

The Enterprise encounters a derelict ship of unknown design and origin – and its single occupant, though dead, reveals a number of surprises. Dr. Phlox determines that the pilot of the charred ship has human, Vulcan, Rigellian and Terellian DNA (among other species), apparently through natural breeding and not genetic engineering. Trip and Malcolm Reed scour the interior of the ship for clues, and discover a hatchway the leads to the lower decks of the capsule…even though it isn’t big enough to have those decks. They discover a data module in the dimensionally-impossible bowels of the ship, and moments later a Suliban ship appears, its commander demanding to take possession of the derelict from Archer. Archer refuses the request and bluffs his way out of the encounter, and the Suliban retreats to gather reinforcements. Not long afterward, another ship appears, its occupants identifying themselves as the Tholians. They too want the mysterious vessel, and they will let nothing stand in their way – not the Enterprise, not Archer, and not even an entire fleet of Suliban warships.

written by Mike Sussman & Phyllis Strong
directed by James Whitmore Jr.
music by Dennis McCarthy

Guest Cast: Vaughn Armstrong (Admiral Forrest), Cullen Douglas (Suliban Soldier)

Notes: This episode’s original title, Crash Landing, was hastily changed after the tragic loss of the space shuttle Columbia on February 1, 2003. Despite that event, images of the shuttle lifting off remained in the series’ main titles. This episode also marks the first appearance (though not the first mention) of the Tholians since the third season of the original Star Trek in The Tholian Web.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

While investigating an orderload in the starboard warp nacelle systems, Captain Archer and T’Pol encounter an unusual spatial anomaly, and Archer is overcome by it after pushing his science officer out of the way. Archer awakens in the sick bay of the Enterprise, told by Dr. Phlox that a parasitic infection he contracted is preventing him from retaining any short-term memory. After this condition makes it apparent that Archer is unfit for duty, T’Pol is made the ship’s Captain. Phlox attempts a more aggressive treatment, and when Archer awakens from it, an older T’Pol tells him that twelve years have passed – none of which he can remember – during which the Xindi have destroyed Earth and are now systematically hunting down the last 6,000 surviving humans who escaped the planet’s destruction.

written by Michael Sussman
directed by Robert Duncan McNeill
music by Dennis McCarthy

Guest Cast: Gary Graham (Soval), Brett Rickaby (Yedrin Koss), Richard Anthony Crenna (Security Guard)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

For the first time since the Xindi first attacked Earth, the enigmatic Crewman Daniels appears to Captain Archer – who turns on him angrily for not having ever warned him of the impending strike. But Daniels insists that 31st century history records no Xindi war with Earth – therefore, the entire struggle is an enormous disruption in the timeline, and Daniels is here to warn Archer of a new threat. Xindi-Reptilians have been detected interfering with Earth’s timeline in the early 21st century. Archer and T’Pol travel back to the year 2004 to find the Xindi and stop them from wiping out humanity a hundred years before the Enterprise’s time – but they must first figure out why people are disappearing in a run-down part of Detroit, and how the kidnappings connect to an attempt at genocide.

written by Rick Berman & Brannon Braga
directed by Mike Vejar
music by Dennis McCarthy

Guest Cast: Matt Winston (Daniels), Leland Orser (Loomis), Michael Childers (Strode), Jeffrey Dean Morgan (Xindi-Reptilian #1), Tom Morga (Xindi-Reptilian #2), Erin Cummings (Prostitute #1), Donna DuPlantier (Prostitute #2), Billy Mayo (Cop #1), Dan Warner (Cop #2)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

The Enterprise arrives at Azati Prime, the construction site of the sphere-weapon which could destroy Earth. Using a stolen Xindi ship, Trip and Mayweather make a reconnaissance run, collecting sensor readings on the weapon as it is assembled underwater on a nearby planet. The most obvious solution to the problem of the weapon seems to be detonating a large-yield explosive at the construction site – and Archer refuses to send any of his officers on this suicide mission, volunteering to deliver the deadly cargo himself. But then he’s whisked away – by Daniels, his occasional contact from the 26th century. Daniels treats Archer to an awesome sight: a pitch battle between Federation forces and a race he calls the Sphere Builders, from the vantage point of a ship called the Enterprise-J. Daniels explains that the Federation – an alliance that includes Earth, the Vulcans, the Andorians, the Klingons and the Xindi – beats back an invasion attempt by the Sphere Builders in 400 years’ time. To undo that defeat, the Sphere Builders have gone back in time to offer their technology to the Xindi – and the price of Xindi superiority in the 22nd century is the eradication of the human race. Daniels points out that Archer could turn the tide of events by extending an offer of peace to the Xindi now – but for the captain, anything less than destroying the Xindi weapon is unacceptable, even if it unravels the future.

teleplay by Manny Coto
story by Rick Berman & Brannon Braga and Manny Coto
directed by Allan Kroeker
music by Jay Chattaway

Guest Cast: Matt Winston (Daniels), Randy Oglesby (Degra), Scott MacDonald (Reptilian Commander), Tucker Smallwood (Xindi-Humanoid), Rick Worthy (Xindi-Arboreal), Christopher Goodman (Thalen)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Captain Archer presents the Xindi Council with evidence that the Sphere Builders have been manipulating the Xindi into declaring war on Earth. But for many of the Xindi races, the Sphere Builders are revered as gods – and to regard them with suspicion is sacrelige. Archer’s evidence splinters the Council however, and the enraged Xindi-Insectoids strike a secret pact with the Sphere Builders to seize control of the Council for themselves. While Archer is presenting further evidence at a tense second meeting of the Council, a team led by T’Pol and Reed is infiltrating the sphere-weapon intended to eliminate Earth, but their mission comes at a high cost – and it could become even higher when the Xindi-Insectoid leader kills Degra for protecting Archer, and launches the weapon ahead of schedule. With some of the Xindi races now acting as his allies, Archer attempts to destroy the weapon – and fails as the weapon begins hurtling out of the Expanse and toward a fateful rendezvous with Earth.

written by Manny Coto
directed by David Livingston
music by Velton Ray Bunch

Guest Cast: Randy Oglesby (Degra), Tucker Smallwood (Xindi-Humanoid), Rick Worthy (Xindi-Arboreal), Scott MacDonald (Reptilian Commander), Josette DiCarlo (Sphere-Builder Woman), Sean McGowan (Hawkins), Bruce Thomas (Reptilian Soldier), Andrew Borba (Reptilian Lieutenant), Mary Mara (Sphere-Builder Presage), Ruth Williamson (Sphere-Builder Primary), Eric Lemler (Helm Crewman)

Note: This episode was nominated for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Special Visual Effects For A Series in 2004, but the award went to the next episode, Countdown.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Archer escapes from the alien-assisted Nazis via transporter, but he is forced to bring Alicia, a member of the New York City resistance cell, with him. Trip and Mayweather, having pursued Silik to the surface in a shuttlepod, have been captured by the Nazis. But the alien assisting the Nazis, Vosk, isn’t an ally of Silik’s – even Silik considers Vosk a radical element responsible for heating up the temporal cold war. Archer returns to Earth, leading his crew and the resistance against the Nazis, and hoping to disable the equipment Vosk is using to change history. Vosk tries to make an ally out of Archer to bring the temporal war to an end…but would this alliance restore history to its proper course?

written by Manny Coto
directed by David Straiton
music by Dennis McCarthy

Guest Cast: Golden Brooks (Alicia Silvers), Jack Gwaltney (Vosk), John Fleck (Silik), Matt Winston (Daniels), Christopher Neame (German General), Steven R. Schirripa (Carmine), Mark Elliot Silverberg (Kraul), David Pease (Alien Technician), Burr Middleton (Newsreel narrator)

LogBook entry by Earl Green