An unidentified alien craft slams into a cornfield in Broken Bow, Oklahoma, and its sole surviving pilot immediately abandons the wreckage, running from two other aliens in close pursuit. A fierce battle is waged on the adjacent farmland, but just when it seems that the crash survivor has prevailed, the farmer who owns the field fires a plasma rifle at him, stunning him.
Starfleet’s flagship, Enterprise, is still in spacedock orbiting Earth. Capable of reaching warp 5, Enterprise is the fastest ship in the fledgling Earth space fleet. Her captain, Jonathan Archer, is giving her the once-over from a shuttlecraft piloted by chief engineer “Trip” Tucker. His tour is cut short by an urgent summons from Starfleet, whose medical division has taken custody of the pilot of the ship which crashed in Oklahoma. Soval, the Vulcan ambassador to Earth, informs Starfleet that their patient is a member of a barbaric warrior race known as the Klingons. The Vulcans, who have been guiding Earth’s first steps into the interstellar community since making first contact with warp pioneer Zefram Cochrane a century earlier, insist that the Klingon’s corpse must be returned to his homeworld.
Captain Archer, who has been growing tired of Vulcan’s influence over Earth, resists this idea, pointing out that it’s within the realm of Earth medicine to nurse the Klingon pilot back to health and return him alive. Despite Soval’s warnings about Klingon customs, Archer insists upon launching Enterprise early to take the pilot back to his home. Soval protests, warning of offending the entire Klingon race, but Starfleet gives Archer his marching orders. He assembles his other crew members – linguist Hoshi Sato, tactical officer Malcolm Reed, and helmsman Travis Mayweather – and is joined aboard Enterprise by Vulcan science attache’ T’Pol and Phlox, an alien doctor who has been practicing at Starfleet Medical. As opposed as he is to any interference from the Vulcans, Archer isn’t especially concerned with making T’Pol’s time aboard his ship comfortable.
But the mission to return the Klingon to his planet isn’t that simple – more aliens, like the ones who pursued him to Earth, knock out Enterprise’s power systems, board the ship in a hit-and-run attack and kidnap him. Just before the Klingon is taken from the ship’s sick bay, he identifies his abductors as Suliban. Over T’Pol’s protests, Archer insists that the mission should now be one to find and recover their lost patient, not to return to Earth to accept failure. However, Dr. Phlox is more concerned when he investigates the body of a Suliban who was killed during the raid. Genetic alterations which go beyond the Suliban’s technology in the 22nd century – let alone Earth’s – indicate that someone is assisting them, or perhaps using them. When it is later revealed that the Suliban are being augmented by someone centuries in the future, Archer begins to wonder if he and his crew are in over their heads if they track down the Suliban…and before long, he’ll have to worry about who will take command of Enterprise should he be injured. Can T’Pol be trusted to carry out his standing orders?
written by Rick Berman & Brannon Braga
directed by James L. Conway
music by Dennis McCarthy
series theme “Where My Heart Will Take Me” written by Diane Warren, performed by Russell Watson
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), Melinda Clarke (Sarin), Tommy “‘Tiny” Lister, Jr. (Klaang), Vaughn Armstrong (Admiral Forrest), Jim Beaver (Admiral Leonard), Mark Moses (Henry Archer), Gary Graham (Soval), Thomas Kopache (Tos), Jim Fitzpatrick (Commander Williams), James Horan (Humanoid figure), Joseph Ruskin (Suliban Doctor), James Cromwell (Zefram Cochrane), Marty Davis (young Archer), Van Epperson (Alien man), Ron King (Farmer), Peter Henry Schroeder (Klingon Chancellor), Matt Williamson (Klingon Council member), Byron Thames (Crewman), Ricky Luna (Carlos), Jason Grant Smith (Crewman Fletcher), Chelsea Bond (Alien mother), Ethan Dampf (Alien child), Diane Klimaszewski (Dancer), Elaine Klimaszewski (Dancer), and Porthos
Notes: Broken Bow, Oklahoma, the site of humanity’s first encounter with the Klingons according to the new Star Trek series, is actually a real place. Situated in southeast Oklahoma, about 30 miles from the Arkansas border and 45 miles from the Texas border, Broken Bow was originally an Indian village called Con Chito. When settlers moved in, it underwent a variety of name changes, ultimately being named Broken Bow in the early 20th century in honor of Broken Bow, Nebraska (confused yet?). As of 2001, the population of Broken Bow was about 4,000 people. Its original industry was lumber, but these days Broken Bow serves as one of southeast Oklahoma’s nicer tourist traps. It’s about two hours away from theLogBook.com’s home base in Arkansas.
LogBook entry by Earl Green
Stardate not given: A survey mission comes to an unexpected end when a shuttle carrying Chakotay and Seven encounters a powerful energy barrier surrounding a primitive world. The shuttle is nearly destroyed, and Chakotay suffers major injuries on impact. Worse, the barrier prevents any contact with Voyager, so help isn’t on the way. Seven and Chakotay discover that the inhabitants of this world are not only intelligent, but imitative – after first seeing Chakotay, they tattoo themselves in a fashion similar to the first officer’s facial ornamentation. But the primitives’ behavior extends beyond the superficial. Chakotay and Seven worry that they may begin to understand, even duplicate, the technology of Voyager’s shuttle. Seven sets about on a more determined effort to lower the barrier preventing Voyager from finding them. When she succeeds, only to find that someone else has been waiting for the barrier to come down so they can land, it appears that the tainting of the planet’s indigenous people has only just begun.