The Crossing

Star Trek, Enterprise, Season 02 - premiered on Wednesday, April 2, 2003

Star Trek: EnterpriseThe Enterprise stops alongside a derelict alien craft, but the crew’s seemingly fruitless exploration of the ship has allowed alien visitors to stow away on the Enterprise herself. The vaporous life forms inhabit Trip first in a process they call the crossing, and introduce themselves to Captain Archer as fellow explorers. But as more of the gaseous beings take over the bodies of Enterprise crewmembers, Archer decides that the aliens’ explorations of his crew must come to an end. Soon, however, so many of the crew are taken over that the uncompromised officers take shelter in one of the warp nacelle catwalks - one of only a very few places inpenetrable by the beings in their ethereal form. Anyone risking a journey into the rest of the ship to stop the aliens is likely to be taken over themselves, leaving the crew with only one hope - Dr. Phlox, immune to the visitors’ crossing.

Get this season on DVDDownload this episode via Amazon's Unboxteleplay by Rick Berman & Brannon Braga
story by Rick Berman & Brannon Braga and Andrè Bormanis
directed by David Livingston
music by Paul Baillargeon

Guest Cast: Joseph Will (Rostov), Steven Allerick (Ensign Cook), Alexander Chance (Crewman #1), Matthew Kaminsky (Crewman #2)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Judgment

Star Trek, Enterprise, Season 02 - premiered on Wednesday, April 9, 2003

Star Trek: EnterpriseThe Enterprise is cornered by Klingon vessels after a humanitarian aid mission which led Archer to order evasion tactics that crippled another Klingon ship. Taken to Qo’nos to stand trial, Archer is introduced to his defense attorney, Kolos - who stands silently and offers no objects, no evidence and no testimony of his own at Archer’s trial. Duras, the captain of the Klingon ship disabled by the Enterprise, and now reduced in rank, presents his own version of events, alleging that Archer took an extremely hostile stance against him. But when Archer’s own defense won’t even allow him to speak at his trial, how can he avoid spending the rest of his life performing hard labor on Rura Penthe…and can T’Pol convince his crew not to create further diplomatic strife by rescuing him?

Get this season on DVDDownload this episode via Amazon's Unboxteleplay by David A. Goodman
story by Taylor Elmore & David A. Goodman
directed by Jim Conway
music by Velton Ray Bunch

Guest Cast: J.G. Hertzler (Kolos), John Vickery (Orak), Granville Van Dusen (Magistrate), Daniel Riordan (Duras), Helen Cates (Klingon First Officer), Victor Talmadge (Asahf), D.J. Lockhart (Klingon Cell Guard)

Notes: The set design of the Klingon court chamber and Rura Penthe are, of course, based on similar scenes from Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (which, technically, takes place over a century later, hence the slight differences in the sets); the Duras character is intended to be an ancestor of Star Trek: The Next Generation’s Duras, whose father betrayed the Klingons to the Romulans at Khitomer and then shifted the blame to Mogh, leading the High Council to dishonor Mogh’s son Worf for the crime. Guest star J.G. Hertzler played the curmudgeonly Klingon General Martok in the fourth through seventh seasons of Deep Space Nine. John Vickery has also appeared in past Star Trek segments, though SF fans may better recognize him as the recurring character of Neroon from Babylon 5.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Horizon

Star Trek, Enterprise, Season 02 - premiered on Wednesday, April 16, 2003

Star Trek: EnterpriseAs Enterprise is en route to study a planet whose sudden orbital shift has drastically changed its environment, Ensign Mayweather requests leave time so he can visit his family aboard the freighter Horizon, an early cargo-hauler capable of reaching just under warp two. Mayweather particularly looks forward to seeing his father, who had to relinquish his command of the Horizon during an illness. What the Enterprise’s helmsman doesn’t know, however, is that the illness has claimed his father’s life, leaving the ensign’s brother Paul in command. During his visit, Mayweather tries to help upgrade the ship (and boost morale), and neither effort meets with the approval of the Horizon’s new captain. Mayweather’s Starfleet discipline clashes with his family’s fly-by-the-seat-of-their-pants frontier lifestyle, and he may not be able to reconcile his feelings before an attack by alien pirates puts them all in jeopardy.

Get this season on DVDDownload this episode via Amazon's Unboxwritten by Andrè Bormanis
directed by James Contner
music by Mark McKenzie

Guest Cast: Corey Mendell Parker (Paul Mayweather), Joan Pringle (Rianna), Nicole Forester (Nora), Philip Anthony Rodriguez (Juan), Adam Paul (Crewman Nichols), Ken Feinberg (Alien Captain)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

The Breach

Star Trek, Enterprise, Season 02 - premiered on Wednesday, April 23, 2003

Star Trek: EnterpriseDr. Phlox asks Captain Archer to make a course change to retrieve a team of Denobulan mineralogists who are on a planet where, due to a change in government, they won’t be welcome for much longer. As the Enterprise arrives and Trip, Malcolm and Mayweather prepare to find the Denobulans, another ship has been fired upon by that planet’s new security forces, forcing Archer to take it aboard. Phlox is shocked to find that the ship’s survivors include Antareans, a race locked in a centuries-old war with the Denobulans. When one Antarean patient refuses to allow Phlox to perform a life-saving surgery, the doctor won’t budge to save him…but is it because his patient has asked him not to, or because his patient is an enemy? And will Archer’s order to perform the surgery regardless of the patient’s wishes be carried out?

Get this season on DVDDownload this episode via Amazon's Unboxteleplay by Chris Black & John Shiban
story by Daniel McCarthy
directed by Robert Duncan MacNeill
music by Jay Chattaway

Guest Cast: Henry Stram (Hudak), Mark Chaet (Yolen), D.C. Douglas (Zepht), Laura Putney (Trevix), Jamison Yang (Crewman)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Cogenitor

Star Trek, Enterprise, Season 02 - premiered on Wednesday, April 30, 2003

Star Trek: EnterpriseWhile coming closer to a giant star than any human starship has ever dared to go, the Enterprise is hailed by a Vissian ship which is venturing even closer. The Vissian captain is an amiable man open to technological and cultural exchanges between the two crews, and even offers Captain Archer the chance to accompany him on a close survey of the star’s surface aboard a Vissian “stratopod.” Meanwhile, Trip and Malcolm become friendly with some of the Vissians paying a visit to the Enterprise. Trip is fascinated to learn of the Vissians’ three-gender society, in which the third sex serves as a cogenitor during reproduction. But when he learns that the cogenitors are treated as second-class citizens, receiving few rights and no education, Trip tries to show the one cogenitor aboard the Vissian ship a new way of life. The cogenitor learns fast, picking up fluent English in only a day. When the cogenitor requests asylum, Trip’s well-intentioned interference could mean the end of friendly relations between the two crews.

Get this season on DVDDownload this episode via Amazon's Unboxwritten by Rick Berman & Brannon Braga
directed by Levar Burton
music by Dennis McCarthy

Guest Cast: Andreas Katsulas (Vissian Captain), F.J. Rio (Vissian Engineer), Larissa Laskin (Calla), Becky Wahlstrom (Cogenitor), Stacie Renna (Traistana), Laura Interval (Vissian Woman #2)

Notes: Andreas Katsulas played Narn Ambassador G’Kar in the pilot movie and all five subsequent seasons of Babylon 5, also appearing in the one-off spinoff The Legend Of The Rangers. Sharp-eyed Trek fans may also remember him as the devious Romulan Commander Tomalok in such Next Generation episodes as The Enemy, Future Imperfect and All Good Things; this was one of his last television performances before his death in 2006. Again, photon torpedoes are mentioned here as a technological advance that several other races - now adding the Visians to the Klingons - have made ahead of Earth.

LogBook entry by Earl Green