Shadows Of P’Jem
Following Archer’s revelation of a Vulcan listening post on the disputed planet of P’Jem, the Andorians mount an attack on that outpost, destroying it completely. The Vulcan response is swift - diplomatic relations with Earth become very chilly, and T’Pol is cited as key player in the listening post’s discovery. She is to return to Vulcan for disciplinary action, something to which Archer objects. The captain is surprised when T’Pol shows no signs of resisting her impending reassignment. Archer takes T’Pol with him for one last mission, a visit to the planet Coridan. But the routine visit turns violent when their shuttle is shot down over the capitol city by rebels. Archer and T’Pol survive their shuttle’s crash-landing, but are taken hostage by the rebels, who proceed to demand weapons from the Enterprise for their safe return. The Vulcan ship which was to take T’Pol back to her homeworld arrives, and its captain tries to take charge of the situation. Trip isn’t eager to sit back and wait for the Vulcans to intervene and launches a rescue operation of his own - and he and Reed are just as quickly captured on Coridan. Their captors, however, turn out to be Andorians - still engaged in hostilities with the Vulcans. Andorian officer Shran informs Trip that the Enterprise crew has just walked into a conflict being engineered by both the Vulcans and the Andorians…and they’re not likely to walk out alive when the shooting starts.
teleplay by Mike Sussman & Phyllis Strong
story by Rick Berman & Brannon Braga
directed by Mike Vejar
music by Paul BaillargeonGuest Cast: Jeffrey Combs (Shran), Vaughn Armstrong (Admiral Forrest), Gary Graham (Ambassador Soval), Steven Dennis (Tholos), Barbara Tarbuck (Chancellor Kalev), Jeff Kober (Traeg)
Notes: The planet Coridan is a reference to the Coridan treaty negotiated by Ambassador Sarek in the classic Trek episode Journey To Babel; that 1967 episode, incidentally, was the first appearance of the Andorians in Star Trek and made a brief mention of their conflict with the Vulcans. Also, Dr. Phlox mentions that T’Pol is not the first Vulcan officer to serve alongside humans on a Starfleet ship, but that she is the first whose tour of duty lasted more than a few weeks; the previous instances ended when, according to Phlox, the Vulcan officers found their human crewmates “chaotic and unpredictable.” Guest star Barbara Tarbuck played the part of another beleaguered alien leader in the 1991 Next Generation episode The Host.
LogBook entry by Earl Green