Tag: Temporal Cold War

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Enterprise Season 01 Star Trek

Broken Bow

Star Trek: EnterpriseAn 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?

Order DVDsDownload this episode via Amazon's Unboxwritten 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

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Enterprise Season 01 Star Trek

Cold Front

Star Trek: EnterpriseThe 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.

Order DVDsDownload this episode via Amazon's Unboxwritten 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

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Enterprise Season 01 Star Trek

Shockwave – Part I

Star Trek: EnterpriseThe Enterprise enters orbit of the Parogan homeworld, a planet whose atmosphere has flammable elements requiring any visiting craft to descend unpowered. But moments after Malcolm reports shutting off the engines, the planet’s atmosphere turns into a massive fireball – and a colony of 3,600 miners on the surface is instantly wiped out. Starfleet’s response is swift: the Enterprise is recalled to Earth, her mission cancelled, and the crew will be reassigned. Worse yet, the Vulcans recommend that Earth’s interstellar exploration program be postponed…by a decade or more.

As the Enterprise is en route back to Earth, Archer is visited by Crewman Daniels – an operative from the future fighting in the temporal cold war with the Suliban – even though it seemed Daniels was killed by Silik several months earlier. Daniels confirms for Archer that the Enterprise shuttle wasn’t responsible for the colony’s destruction, and that the event never happened, according to future history. He gives Archer instructions that enable him to capture a Suliban vessel, confiscate some vital data, and clear the Enterprise crew of any wrongdoing. Even though someone’s violated the rules of engagement of the temporal cold war in the future, it hasn’t ended Enterprise’s mission.

Just as the crew begins to relax, a swarm of Suliban vessels surrounds Enterprise. Silik hails Archer and tells him to board one of the Suliban pods which will dock with the Enterprise shortly. If the captain doesn’t comply, the Enterprise will be destroyed.

But according to future history, Captain Archer never boarded the pod. He became stranded in the 31st century – a victim, along with the man he knows as Crewman Daniels, of the temporal cold war.

Order DVDsDownload this episode via Amazon's Unboxwritten by Rick Berman & Brannon Braga
directed by Allan Kroeker
music by Dennis McCarthy

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), Vaughn Armstrong (Admiral Forrest), James Horan (Humanoid figure), Stephanie Erb (Receptionist), David Lewis Hays (Tactical crewman)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Enterprise Season 02 Star Trek

Shockwave – Part II

Star Trek: EnterpriseIn a staggering miscalculation, Daniels’ act of removing Archer from the timeline has had a resounding ripple effect on the future. Though Archer believes little of it, Daniels tells him that his absence will erase an organization called the United Federation of Planets from existence, dooming the future. Daniels begins to work feverishly to correct his mistake, but it will be difficult to send Archer back from a 31st century where Earth is in ruins and even electricity is a luxury beyond their reach.

Aboard the Enterprise, Silik and the other Suliban interrogate the crew, torturing T’Pol to learn the whereabouts of Captain Archer and holding the rest of the crew hostage. A delirious T’Pol receives an unusual message that appears to be from Archer, telling her that the key to retrieving him lies in Crewman Daniels’ sealed quarters. Hoshi, Reed, T’Pol and Trip launch an ambitious plan to retake the Enterprise – even if it means coming very close, perhaps too close, to destroying her.

Season 2 Regular 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)

Order DVDsDownload this episode via Amazon's Unboxwritten by Rick Berman & Brannon Braga
directed by Allan Kroeker
music by Dennis McCarthy

Guest Cast: Matt Winston (Daniels), Vaughn Armstrong (Admiral Forrest), John Fleck (Silik), Keith Allan (Raan), Jim Fitzpatrick (Commander Williams), Michael Kosik (Suliban Soldier), Gary Graham (Soval)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Enterprise Season 02 Star Trek

Future Tense

Star Trek: EnterpriseThe 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.

Order DVDsDownload this episode via Amazon's Unboxwritten 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

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Enterprise Season 02 Star Trek

The Expanse

Star Trek: EnterpriseThe Enterprise is recalled to Earth in the wake of a devastating attack that pulverizes a heavily populated strip of Earth’s surface from Florida to Venezuela. En route back to Earth at warp 5, the Enterprise is accosted by Suliban ships, and Archer is kidnapped and taken aboard one of them. Silik and his shadowy ally from the far future warn Archer about the Xindi, the race whose probe just killed millions on Earth. Having learned from other combatants in the temporal cold war that humanity will cause their extinction sometime in the 26th century, the Xindi have launched a pre-emptive strike to destroy Earth…and the probe’s attack is but the first wave of that strike. Archer’s only chance to repel the attack is to head off the Xindi at their home system in the Delphic Expanse, a vast uncharted region that even the Vulcans avoid. Returned to the Enterprise with this knowledge, Archer then has to fend off an attack by Duras, the Klingon whose honor can only be restored by capturing the captain and returning him to serve out his prison sentence on Rura Penthe. The Enterprise is helped out of this tight spot by an attack group of smaller Starfleet vessels and escorted safely home.

On Earth, Vulcan Ambassador Soval strongly discourages Archer and Admiral Forrest from acting on Silik’s intelligence. Furthermore, Soval recalls T’Pol from the Enterprise, reassigning her to a post on Vulcan. Trip learns that his younger sister perished in the Xindi attack on Earth, and takes on a tough attitude, eager to go to the Expanse to avenge her death. Captain Archer requests a platoon of Earth soldiers to accompany the Enterprise into the Expanse, and gives members of his crew the option to remain on Earth. Dr. Phlox elects to stay aboard, certain that Archer will need his expertise in the inevitable battles to come. The Enterprise is repaired and upgraded by Starfleet, including the latest armaments, photon torpedoes. The ship is relaunched, with a flight plan that includes dropping T’Pol off on Vulcan on the way to the Expanse. T’Pol ultimately decides to resign her commission from the Vulcan Science Academy, feeling that she’s uniquely qualified to help Archer on his new mission. But before the Enterprise can enter the Delphic Expanse, Archer must fight – and survive – a final battle with Duras.

Order DVDsDownload this episode via Amazon's Unboxwritten by Rick Berman & Brannon Braga
directed by Allan Kroeker
music by Dennis McCarthy

Guest Cast: Gary Graham (Soval), John Fleck (Silik), Vaughn Armstrong (Admiral Forrest), Daniel Riordan (Duras), James Horan (Humanoid figure), Bruce Wright (Dr. Fer’at), Gary Bullock (Klingon Council Member), Dan Desmond (Klingon Chancellor), Josh Cruze (Captain Ramirez), Jim Lau (Maitre’d), David Figlioli (Klingon crewman 1), L. Sidney (Klingon crewman 2)

Notes: Scenes featuring Serena Scott Thomas as “Rebecca,” a love interest for Archer, were edited out of the episode for time. The Expanse marked the beginning of a “rethink” of Enterprise by series creators Rick Berman and Brannon Braga, intended to give the show a clearer direction and raise its flagging ratings.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Enterprise Season 03 Star Trek

Twilight

Star Trek: EnterpriseWhile 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.

Order DVDsDownload this episode via Amazon's Unboxwritten 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

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Enterprise Season 03 Star Trek

Carpenter Street

Star Trek: EnterpriseFor 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.

Order DVDsDownload this episode via Amazon's Unboxwritten 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

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Enterprise Season 03 Star Trek

Proving Ground

Star Trek: EnterpriseAt a meeting of the multi-species Xindi war council, it is announced that a prototype of the next sphere weapon – this one on a larger scale intended to take Earth out in a single strike – is nearly ready. If the leaders of the various Xindi species approve of the weapon’s test firing, the genuine article could be on course for Earth in a matter of mere weeks.

Using the traceable kemosite planted by Gralik, Archer and the Enterprise crew find the location where the Xindi plan to test their weapon – but that proving ground is tucked away behind a dense field of the spatial anomalies that have severely damaged the Enterprise in the past. An attempt to navigate the anomalies fails, and the Enterprise becomes stuck in what seems to be a hopeless situation – until a tractor beam pulls her to safety. Archer is stunned, and T’Pol is suspicious, to see that Captain Shran of the Andorians has followed them simply to offer his help – with surprisingly few strings attached. When Shran is all too eager to help Archer hijack the test weapon, Archer must consider destroying his prize if only to keep Shran from using it to develop a weapon of mass destruction for use against the Vulcans.

Order DVDsDownload this episode via Amazon's Unboxwritten by Chris Black
directed by David Livingston
music by John Frizzell

Guest Cast: Jeffrey Combs (Shran), Molly Brink (Talas), Randy Oglesby (Degra), Scott MacDonald (Xindi Reptilian), Tucker Smallwood (Xindi Humanoid), Rick Worthy (Xindi Sloth), Granville Van Dusen (Andorian General), Josh Drennen (Degra’s Assistant)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Enterprise Season 03 Star Trek

Azati Prime

Star Trek: EnterpriseThe 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.

Order DVDsDownload this episode via Amazon's Unboxteleplay 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

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Enterprise Season 03 Star Trek

The Council

Star Trek: EnterpriseCaptain 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.

Order DVDsDownload this episode via Amazon's Unboxwritten 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

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Enterprise Season 03 Star Trek

Countdown

Star Trek: EnterpriseThe Xindi-Reptilians and Xindi-Insectoids have commandeered the sphere-weapon and abducted Hoshi from the Enterprise by transporter. They can’t arm and launch the huge sphere until they’ve obtained a third launch code from another member of the Xindi Council, but none of the other races are willing to step forward in support of the frontal assault on Earth. In fact, Archer is negotiating with the Xindi-Aquatics, the most powerful of the Xindi species opposing the war, to help him launch an attack to destroy the weapon before it can be launched. Archer correctly assumes that during his meetings with the Council, Hoshi impressed the Reptilian commander with her linguistic abilities – and he hopes to harness her gifts to crack the remaining launch code for the weapon.

Major Hayes and his MACO commandos launch a desperate mission to recover Hoshi, with an all-out attack by the Enterprise and the other Xindi races as a cover. The Sphere Builders, furious that events are turning the timelines toward their own extinction at the hands of a combined human/Xindi force, intervene and give the Reptilians and Insectoids the means to launch the weapon. Hoshi is rescued and returned to the Enterprise, critically injured by repeated injections of neural parasites to wear down her resistance to the Xindi, but Major Hayes perishes in the rescue operation. The Weapon launches toward Earth at a speed greater than the damaged Enterprise can hope to reach. Archer enlists Reed and several of the remaining MACOs to take on a mission to intercept the sphere in Degra’s fast but vulnerable ship, hoping to stop the sphere by any means necessary, also bringing Hoshi with him over Dr. Phlox’s dire protests. Trip and T’Pol are left in command of the Enterprise, which will remain behind to destroy the network of other spheres that still controls the Expanse.

Time to the sphere’s arrival at Earth: 10 hours.

Order DVDswritten by Andrè Bormanis & Chris Black
directed by Robert Duncan McNeill
music by Dennis McCarthy

Guest Cast: Steven Culp (Major Hayes), Scott MacDonald (Reptilian Commander), Rick Worthy (Xindi-Arboreal), Tucker Smallwood (Xindi-Humanoid), Randy Oglesby (Degra), Josette DiCarlo (Sphere-Builder Woman), Bruce Thomas (Reptilian Soldier), Andrew Borba (Reptilian Lieutenant), Mary Mara (Sphere-Builder Presage), Ruth Williamson (Sphere-Builder Primary), Paul Dean (Reptilian Technician)

Note: This episode won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Special Visual Effects For A Series in 2004.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Enterprise Season 03 Star Trek

Zero Hour

Star Trek: EnterpriseHoshi is barely able to summon up memories of the sphere-weapon’s design, let alone the strength to relay that information to Archer, but the captain presses her to recall the information as Degra’s ship speeds toward Earth and an attempt to intercept the Xindi weapon. In the meantime, the Enterprise’s mission proves to be more dangerous than expected: the Sphere Builders have erected dimensional distortion fields around their network of spheres controlling the Expanse, and if the Enterprise gets close enough to destroy even the weakest link in that chain, the instability could easily shred the ship and her crew. Hoshi is finally able to remember enough about the weapon to give Archer a way to disarm and destroy it, though Archer and his small force are unable to stop the Xindi-Reptilians from reaching Earth first and destroying an orbital station.

Archer alone takes responsibility for disarming the weapon, assigning Reed and the MACOs the task of fending off the small crew of Xindi-Reptilians aboard. The attempt to disable the Sphere Builders’ network in the Expanse is successful, though it almost succeeds in destroying the Enterprise and everyone aboard as well. The battered starship meets up with Degra’s vessel, where Reed and Hoshi report that the sphere-weapon was destroyed before getting a single shot off at Earth – but they also report that Archer went down with it, unable to beam off the sphere before it exploded.

What they don’t know is that prior to embarking on his fateful mission, Archer received a visit from time-hopping Crewman Daniels, giving him a glimpse seven years into the future at the founding of a united federation of planets – something Daniels says Archer is instrumental in creating.

And what they don’t know until they return to Earth is that, by being aboard the sphere when it was destroyed, Archer may have irrevocably changed the course of that future, and the Earth the Enterprise is returning to is not the Earth that her crew remembers.

Order DVDsDownload this episode via Amazon's Unboxwritten by Rick Berman & Brannon Braga
directed by Allan Kroeker
music by Jay Chattaway

Guest Cast: Scott MacDonald (Reptilian Commander), Rick Worthy (Xindi-Arboreal), Tucker Smallwood (Xindi-Humanoid), Josette DiCarlo (Sphere-Builder Woman), Bruce Thomas (Reptilian Soldier), Andrew Borba (Reptilian Lieutenant), Matt Winston (Daniels), Mary Mara (Sphere-Builder Presage), Ruth Williamson (Sphere-Builder Primary), Jeffrey Combs (Shran), Gunter Ziegler (Doctor), J. Paul Boehmer (Officer), Zachary Krebs (Andorian)

Notes: This episode was nominated for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Prosthetic Makeup For A Series, Miniseries or Special in 2004, but the award instead went to the pilot episode of the FX Network’s black comedy about plastic surgeons, Nip/Tuck. The writers of the episode have since admitted that they had no idea how to resolve the World War II cliffhanger, but apparently new executive producer Manny Coto did have an idea.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Enterprise Season 04 Star Trek

Storm Front Part I

Star Trek: EnterpriseArcher awakens in a primitive 20th century battlefield hospital on Earth, apparently in the 1940s. But he hasn’t gone back to become a part of history. He discovers that the timeline has been altered, leading to a Nazi invasion of the east coast of the United States – and the Nazis seem to have advanced alien help. Aboard the Enterprise, T’Pol and the crew are coming to grips with the unlikely fact that they seem to have traveled into an alternate timeline of Earth’s past, but as far as they know, Archer died about the Xindi sphere. Archer escapes his captors and is found and helped by a member of an underground resistance movement fighting to retake America from the Nazis. Aboard the Enterprise, the enigmatic Crewman Daniels appears suddenly in Dr. Phlox’s sick bay, but this time the time traveler is near death, barely able to warn the crew about what has happened: the temporal cold war has heated up and erupted into open conflict, and all of history – Earth’s and otherwise – is the battleground. When Silik appears in the shuttlebay and steals a shuttlepod after stunning Trip, it appears that Daniels is telling the truth. On Earth, Archer’s captors discover that he’s from the future, despite his escape, and Archer himself is having trouble convincing the resistance fighters that aliens are influencing their history…until he’s able to show them the evidence in person.

Season 4 Regular 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)

Order DVDswritten by Manny Coto
directed by Allan Kroeker
music by Jay Chattaway

Guest Cast: Golden Brooks (Alicia Silvers), Joe Maruzzo (Sal), Jack Gwaltney (Vosk), Tom Wright (Ghrath), John Harnagel (Joe Prazki), Steven R. Schirripa (Carmine), John Fleck (Silik), Matt Winston (Daniels), Christopher Neame (German Guard), Sonny Surowiec (Nazi Soldier #1)

Notes: This episode marks the beginning of executive producer Manny Coto’s tenure as “showrunner,” the producer primarily responsible for the creative content of a show, following a last-minute pickup by UPN. It also marked the first full-time use of widescreen digital video as the primary means of shooting a Star Trek series; prior to this season of Enterprise, while video was occasionally used for inserts, pick-up footage and monitor shots, the primary means of shooting the series was on film. With this season, the series also moved to a Friday night time slot, a move which made many fans apprehensive since the final season of the original Star Trek failed to achieve high enough ratings for a fourth-season pickup on Friday nights in 1968-69. It would turn out that the comparison wasn’t entirely unfounded.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Enterprise Season 04 Star Trek

Storm Front Part II

Star Trek: EnterpriseArcher 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?

Order DVDswritten 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