Strange New World (Star Trek: Enterprise)

Strange New World is the third episode (production #104) of the television series Star Trek: Enterprise.

Synopsis

The Enterprise encounters a new world much like Earth. A small crew stays on the surface over night to continue researching the planet. During the night, a violently windy storm brews and forces the crew into a local cave. There, in the cave, crew members believe they are not alone.

Plot

Teaser
Crewman Elizabeth Cutler is eating Vulcan Plomeek Broth in the Mess Hall while studying a book about the entomology of Luracas Prime. She is joined by Crewman Ethan Novakovich. The two stop their conversation when the Enterprise starts to orbit an unexplored M-class planet. "I thought we were heading for a nebula.", Novakovich comments.

On the Bridge, Archer requests a report on the planet; 17% Oxygen, 81% Nitrogen atmosphere with no signs of humanoid life. Archer orders a shuttle to be prepared for an Away Mission. T'Pol recommends automated probes to collect detailed scans, before conducting an orbital geophysical survey. The survey would take six or seven days. Archer overrules T'Pol and requests that she put the survey team together.

Act One
Crewman Cutler tries to get on with T'Pol as the shuttlepod is being loaded, talking about Plomeek Broth. T'Pol is not personable, leaving Cutler disappointed. Later, the shuttle lands in a Northern temperate zone climate - a field surrounded by deciduous trees on a bright sunny day. Porthos is the first out of the shuttlepod; "Where no dog has gone before." quips, Trip. T'Pol begins her analysing the atmosphere with her tricorder. "Put that thing away and take a minute to enjoy yourself!", says Archer. Trip gathers the landing party together to take a photograph before they split up to carry out their assignments.

Archer, Trip and Mayweather wonder around, enjoying the afternoon. Mayweather says that he couldn't think about living anywhere that didn't have a pair of warp nacelles attached. "Boomers!", sighs Trip, commenting on Mayweathers upbringing on a haulage ship. T'Pol signals to tell Archer that he is fifteen minutes late for the 1900 rendezvous. When they return, T'Pol requests that Crewmwen Cutler and Novakovich remain with her to study several nocturnal marsupial species the landing party has discovered. Trip and Mayweather also request to remain on the planet, with Archer's approval.

Later that evening, Mayweather is telling a ghost story around the campfire. Crewman Cutler points out Earth's Sun in the night sky. Novakovich complains of a headache and goes to lie down. Suddenly, a storm front approaches from the South-West. The landing party retire to their tents in order to wait the storm out. Novakovich tells Cutler that he think that he heard a person outside. Cutler tells him that it was the wind. Trip feels a scorpion-like creature in his sleeping bag, so he yells at Mayweather to give him his boot in order to squash it. The wind is relentless, so Trip suggests to T'Pol that the landing party use the cave that she discovered earlier in the day for shelter.

Act Two
Reed goes to see Archer to inform him of the storm front. Archer contacts T'Pol for an update. T'Pol reports about the cave and opines that a landing under storm conditions would be difficult. Archer tells Reed to keep the shuttlepod on standby in case Enterpise needs to pull the Away Mission out in a hurry.

In the cave, Trip discovers that in the rush to safety the food packs have been left at the camp site. Mayweather offers to return to collect them. The cave is dark, illuminated only by the landing party's torches. Out in the storm, Mayweather thinks that he has seen Trip and two others among the trees. At the cave, T'Pol reminds them that the scans revealed no humanoid lifesigns on the planet. Novakovich thinks that he hears voices in the back of the cave, and exhibits paranoid attributes. Novakovich runs out of the cave; Trip and Mayweather follow with phase pistols. T'Pol takes another pistol and walks in to the interior of the cave to look for other lifeforms, leaving Cutler alone with the remaining pistol.

Searching for Novakovich, Trip thinks that he sees a humanoid figure emerge from a large rock. Mayweather doesn't, but hypothesises that it could explain why the lifeforms don't show up on the landing party's scanners. Back in the cave, Crewman Cutler thinks that she hears voices in the back of the cave, so sets out to investigate. Rounding a corner, Cutler thinks that she sees T'Pol in conversation with an alien humanoid. Going to investigate, Cutler finds T'Pol alone, scanning the cave wall. When asked to whom she was talking, T'Pol reminds Cutler that there is no one there. The cave is bare and contains on the two of them. Cutler looks around in wonder as T'Pol leaves.

Trip reports in to Archer about his seeing an alien life form and losing Novakovich. Archer orders them back to the cave. Returning, Trip mentions the silicon-based lifeforms. T'Pol states that the rocks are composed of limestone and cormalite, nothing more. Cutler interrupts with what she thinks she saw. The landing party are now suspicious of T'Pol, thinking that she is keeping information about the imaginary lifeforms from them. Archer and Reed head down to the planet in a shuttle. Archer contacts Novakovich and orders him to return to the cave; Novakovich tells Archer to go to Hell. Reed and Archer look at each other, confused. In the cave, T'Pol attempts to convince the landing party that they are mistaken, but Trip is having none of it. His prejudices regarding Vulcans start to show, accusing them of being less-than-honest on previous occasions back on Earth. Archer radios in to request that the landing party head towards a clearing 100 metres from the cave for pick-up. The wind shear is very strong at 70 metres from the surface and forces the shuttlepod against a cliff wall, damaging a thruster and causing a plasma coolant leak. Reed says that they can't land safely with a thruster out, so the shuttlepod heads back to the Enterprise, leaving the landing party to manage until the wind dies down.

Act Three
Back in the cave, the landing party waits. Trip slowly becomes more paranoid about the imaginary life forms. The landing party are running low on water. T'Pol offers to go and collect some, bringing Trip along to ensure that she has no ulterior motive. Trip pulls a phase pistol on her and order's T'Pol to sit. Back on Enterprise, Archer requests an update on Novakovich's situation. Hoshi reports that his bio-signs are erratic. Novakovich screams in to the communicator when contacted. Archer orders Novakovich beamed aboard. When Novakovich is beamed aboard, leaves and twigs being blown around in the storm are integrated in to his body by the transporter. Reed calls for medical back-up.

T'Pol works quietly on scanning data that she took earlier in the afternoon. Trip paces up and down, suspiciously. T'Pol reports when questioned that the scans reveal nothing of scientific interest and that the Away Mission was a waste of time. Trip confiscates the Vulcan scanner as possible evidence of T'Pol's conspiracy with the imaginary lifeforms. T'Pol states that the one thing of interest that she has found is information on human behaviour; humans are a far more dangerous species than she previously believed. Trip rants on about how the news back on Earth will report that the bodies of all 82 Enterprise crew members were found on an uninhabited planet by a Vulcan ship six weeks in to their mission, their cause of death a mystery. T'Pol snaps angrily that all she sees is a delusional engineer. Trip taunts her that she can't keep her emotions under control, before firing a phase pistol at the walls.

On the Enterprise, Phlox says that Novakovich will make a full recovery. Phlox also mentions that Novakovich's bloodstream is filled with tropolisine, a hallucinogenic psychotropic compound. It probably came from pollen and was blown down from the mountains by the storm. Archer calls T'Pol to discover that Trip is pointing a phase pistol at her. Trip rants on about T'Pol conspiring with silicon lifeforms. Archer tells the landing party about Phlox's findings. Trip is not convinced, so Archer orders him to lower his weapon and sends the landing party deep in to the caves to avoid the pollen.

Trip rants to T'Pol, who answers in Vulcan. He then shouts at the walls again, ordering the imaginary aliens to show themselves before firing another phaser shot. T'Pol looks around and sees an unattended phase pistol near a light. Trip then starts talking to an imaginary Mr Velik about how he has to protect his crew. T'Pol uses the distraction to retrieve the phase pistol and levels it at Trip, a Mexican stand-off.

On the Enterprise, Reed reports that the centre of the storm has passed over the cave, but that the weather system spans 500 kilometres and that they won't be able to land a shuttlepod before dawn, nine hours away. Phlox orders Archer to sickbay. Novakovich is dying, poisoned by an unexpected side-effect of tropolisine. Phlox feels guilty for not having run a sub-molecular scan that might have picked up the complication. Archer needs to know if the landing party will survive another nine hours on the surface; Phlox has no answer.

Act Four
In the cave, the Mexican stand-off continues. Trip keeps the landing party awake to avoid a surprise attack. Archer signals the landing party. T'Pol reports in English that Trip is irrational and that Mayweather and Cutler are nearly unconscious. Archer reports about the toxin in troplisine. Archers tells them that Phlox is preparing injections of inapropoline to counter the effects of the toxin. Trip is gripped by his paranoid delusions and continues with the conspiracy theory. T'Pol speaks in Vulcan and Hoshi responds; she reports that Trip is ready to kill her. Archer tries to convince Trip to take the injection when it arrives. Trip imagines that he sees another silicon-based lifeform behind T'Pol and refuses the order. Archer buys time to think of a way to defuse the situation. After Reed has beamed the inapropeline down to the cave, Archer tells Trip that their orders from Star Fleet were to make contact with a silicon-based life form on the planet. T'Pol was the only person granted clearance to speak to the aliens. Trip wonders why they were all allowed to spend the night on the surface when the mission was Top Secret. Hoshi and Archer explain that the winds were stronger than expected - they never thought that the landing party would be driven into the caves. Archer convinces Trip to let T'Pol speak to the imaginary aliens. To do that, Trip needs to lower the phase pistol. If he doesn't, Archer will have Reed destroy the cave in order to save the Enterprise from the imaginary aliens. Hoshi tells T'Pol in Vulcan to play along with the story; T'Pol says that she will do her best. Trip lowers his weapon and T'Pol stuns him. She then retrieves the inopropeline and injects the landing party before injecting herself, giving Mayweather a Vulcan nerve pinch when he weakly attempts to resist.

Act Five
The next morning, the storm has abated and the landing party recovers. "Challenge your preconceptions or they'll challenge you.", says Trip. He goes on to say that Mr Velik said the original words, a Vulcan scientist who came to teach exobiology to Trip's tenth grade class. Mayweather asks about Novakovich and T'Pol reports that he will be fine. Crewman Cutler looks out of the mouth of the cave on to another bright sunny day with rolling countryside spread out below. In the sky, a shuttlepod makes a landing to retrieve the Away Mission.

Trivia

Computer records taken from the USS Defiant reveal that the planet discovered in this episode will eventually be named Archer IV, in honor of Captain Jonathan Archer.

External links

• Strange New World at Memory Alpha