The Shipment
Following a lead given to Hoshi by Tarquin, Archer, Reed and Major Hayes infiltrate a shipping depot on a planet in the Expanse. According to Tarquin’s information, a shipment of components vital to the superweapon being prepared by the Xindi will arrive soon at this outpost, and Archer plans to intercept it. Archer and his team capture and question Gralik, the inoffensive Xindi-Sloth cargo master, at his home, and Archer is unusually rough with him – but the captain begins to question his own methods when Gralik expresses surprise and regret that his outpost may be moving shipments meant to kill massive numbers of innocent lives. But is he outraged enough to help Archer sabotage the next shipment of weapons components?
written by Chris Black & Brent V. Friedman
directed by David Straiton
music by Jay ChattawayGuest Cast: Randy Oglesby (Degra), John Cothran Jr. (Gralik), Steven Culp (Major Hayes), Jack Alsted (Sloth #2), Sam Witwer (Sloth #3), John Eddins (Xindi Reptilian)
LogBook entry by Earl Green
It’s a dark and stormy night in the town of Perfugium, and old friends have gathered at a stately Edwardian mansion to celebrate the birthday of their mysterious friend, Dr. John Smith. Only it’s not really his birthday – it’s the tenth anniversary of the day that the amnesiac, seemingly horribly burned, and yet compassionate-to-a-fault Smith first appeared in Perfugium. His inability to remember anything beyond the past ten years troubles Dr. Smith greatly, but he has become even more concerned recently with thoughts that seem to betray his gentle nature – thoughts that can only be described as pure evil. Even more unnerving is the arrival of a strange little man, also claiming to be a doctor, who begins to drop disturbing hints that Dr. John Smith does indeed have a past – a past in which he was known as an irredeemably evil genius called the Master.
The Doctor and Charley arrive in Italy as the country celebrates its 1982 World Cup victory. But something more sinister lurks behind the revels: two aliens – Threllips – are scouting the Earth for conquest and colonization. And while the Threllips have the strength of a dozen humans, technology at least on a par with the Sontarans, and the willpower to subjugate the entire human race, they’re also a little short on brainpower. With that in mind, the Doctor and Charley set the pair of invaders up to fail under the weight of their own egos.
The Doctor, now in his ninth generation, finds himself in 2003 England. The small town he has been sent to (by powers unknown) has been overcome by strange, ground-dwelling creatures known as the Shalka. The Shalka keep the townspeople under their thrall with the ever-present threat of destruction. The Doctor comes to realize that the Shalka use sound as their weapon and turns that weapon against them. What he doesn’t realize is that the plan is much bigger than simply taking over one small town in England. All over the world similar towns are being invaded, their populations being slowly, subtly altered. Once complete, these humans can be used as a conduit to bring about the destruction of the Earth by way of a scream that will alter the Earth’s atmosphere, making it habitable for the Shalka, but little else. While combating this latest threat to the Earth, the Doctor tries to deal with the demons of his past and find his way in the Universe.