Episode News

222 - Cogenitor

• Official description: While studying a star in the early stages of going supernova, Enterprise encounters a race called the Vissians. The two crews get along famously, until Trip Tucker gets a little too curious about a member of the species' third gender -- a nameless individual called a "cogenitor."

• The episode was directed by LeVar Burton and written by Rick Berman & Brannon Braga.

• Sources: StarTrek.com and TrekToday

223 - Regeneration

• Official description: An arctic research team on Earth discovers debris from an alien vessel, nearly a century old, buried in a glacier along with the bodies of two cybernetically enhanced humanoids. Once those beings are thawed for investigation, they come to life and abduct the scientists and their transport vessel. Enterprise is called to intercept, but Captain Archer and his crew find these cyborgs to be an intractable, insidious enemy.

• An arctic research team in 2152 discovers fragments of an alien ship buried in the glacial terrain, along with the frozen corpses of two cybernetically enhanced humanoids. Except they aren't really corpses -- once they're allowed to thaw they come back to life and put their nanoprobes to work. They abduct the scientists and hijack their transport ship, modifying it for higher warp speeds. That's where the NX-01 comes in. Captain Archer's crew gives chase, and learns what an insidious threat these cybernetic beings pose.

• The episode opens at the Arctic Circle, Earth. Three humans - Doctor Moninger, Rooney, and Drake - are crossing the glacial terrain. They encounter a jagged hull fragment, "twenty or thirty feet high," which the script identifies as a "Borg Sphere that crashed in the Arctic Circle almost a century ago." As they examine the fragments of the Borg ship, Rooney uncovers a Borg drone frozen in the ice. "We'd better call Starfleet," Drake says, and the screen fades to black.
  
  Act One begins with the researchers examining two Borg drones they have recovered from the debris. Doctor Moninger has discovered that the two drones are not of the same species, which puzzles him. Meanwhile, Rooney, who has been conducting a metallurgical analysis, has found out that the debris has lain in the Arctic circle for one hundred years. "If their ship hadn't been destroyed, our First Contact might've been with these people," Drake muses.
  
  We catch up with the threesome again a few hours later. Doctor Moninger has discovered that the Borg are being repaired and regenerated by their nanoprobes. Drake comments that the Denobulans have experimented with nanotechnology, but not to this extent. Later, Drake and Rooney make another significant discovery while out in the field - a Borg Warp Coil.
  
  Back at the lab, Doctor Moninger is astonished as the Borg drone comes to life before his very eyes. He attempts to make contact with the drone, when the scene suddenly switches back to Drake and Rooney exploring the debris. They hear a weapons blast coming from the lab, and they rush back, only to discover a massive hole in the wall, and Doctor Moninger lying on the floor, slowly being assimilated. As Drake tries to help the doctor, who is still alive, the Borg drone reappears, and grabs Rooney!
  
  After this, the scene moves to Starfleet Command, with Commander Williams telling Admiral Forrest they've lost contact with the excavation team. Forrest orders Williams to ready a fully-armed shuttle...

• The episode was directed by David Livingston and written by Mike Sussman & Phyllis Strong.

• Sources: StarTrek.com and TrekToday

224 - First Flight

• Official description: While Enterprise is investigating what appears to be a dark matter nebula, Archer receives news that A.G. Robinson, his old rival in the early days of the NX test program, has died. During a shuttlepod mission into the dark matter phenomenon, Archer reminisces to T'Pol about the time he and Robinson were pilots competing for the honor of being the first to break the Warp 2 barrier.

• The Enterprise crew discovers what appears to be a dark matter nebula, and just as they begin to investigate, Archer hears from Admiral Forrest that an old colleague of his, A.G. Robinson, died in an accident. During a shuttlepod mission into the nebula, a despondent Archer relates to T'Pol how he competed with Robinson for "first flight" -- the attempt to break the Warp 2 barrier.
  
  Most of the episode takes place in flashback, to the days of the NX Test Program when Archer was a commander, Forrest was a commodore, and Trip Tucker was a lieutenant working on the engineering team headed by Captain Jefferies (an homage to Matt Jefferies, who created the saucer-and-nacelle design of the original Starship Enterprise in the '60s).
  
  We will get to see some of the test vehicles post-Phoenix and pre-Enterprise, and the facilities those early warp pilots worked in.
  
  Plus... remember in Shuttlepod One when Trip and Malcolm talked about a little bar in Mill Valley where all the Starfleet trainees used to go, with a waitress that both guys had a thing for? Well, we'll get to visit the 602 Club and meet the beautiful Ruby.

• Enterprise will take a look at the birth of Starfleet's long-distance space programme. Featuring flashbacks set several years before Broken Bow, the episode will revolve around the testing of the Warp 5 engine, which was developed by Captain Jonathan Archer's father, Henry Archer. However, the original test in space failed, destroying the ship, although the pilot managed to survive. Because of this, the Vulcans accuse Starfleet of moving too fast with their tests, and advise them to be more cautious, even going so far as telling Starfleet that their engine design is unstable.
  
  In addition to Jonathan Archer, one of the Starfleet officers on the project is a young Lieutenant Charles Tucker. After the failure of the first test, it is Tucker who helps Archer and another officer, Robinson, take the NX-Beta on a test flight -- without approval from Starfleet. However, as soon as Archer launches the NX-Beta out of the hanger, a flight controller informs Admiral Forrest that the ship has been detected in orbit...

• The episode was directed by LeVar Burton and written by John Shiban & Chris Black.

• Sources: StarTrek.com and TrekToday

225 - Bounty

• Official description: A Tellarite bounty hunter captures Archer intending to turn him over to the Klingons for a substantial reward. Meanwhile, T'Pol is infected with an alien pathogen that unleashes her primal Vulcan urges.

• The episode picks up on the events of Judgment whereby Captain Archer is considered a fugitive from the Klingon justice system. He is abducted by a Tellarite bounty hunter who intends to hand him over to the Klingons for a substantial reward. Meanwhile T'Pol has returned from an away mission infected with an alien pathogen that is unleashing her ... shall we say ... "primal" Vulcan urges.

• the Klingons have put a price on Archer's head, and he soon finds himself in the clutches of a bounty hunter named Skalaar.
  
  As he is such a valuable prisoner to the Klingons, Skalaar isn't the only money-grabbing bounty hunter after Archer. An alien named Kago-Darr soon turns up to claim the captain, and a fight ensues between the bounty hunters' vessels, seriously damaging Kago-Darr's ship and leaving Skalaar free to deliver Archer to the Klingons.
  
  While this is playing out, the crew of the Enterprise have been valiantly searching for their missing captain. After encountering Kago-Darr, Trip, now in command, hails the bounty hunter and explains the situation. But the mercenary refuses to divulge any information, thinking that Trip is trying to get his hands on Archer in order to claim the bounty for himself.
  
  Reed and Trip deduce that only the Kligons could have put a price on their captain's head, and lay in a course for the Klingon Empire. But they might already be too late, for Skalaar has delivered Archer into than hands of a burly warrior, Captain Gortoth, and his fate seems to be sealed...

• The episode was directed by Roxann Dawson and written by Hans Tobeason and Mike Sussman & Phyllis Strong (teleplay) and Rick Berman & Brannon Braga (story).

• Sources: StarTrek.com and TrekToday

226 - The Expanse

• Official description: A probe from an unknown alien source unleashes a devastating assault upon Earth. Enterprise is recalled, and along the way home Captain Archer acquires information that the perpetrators come from a region of space known as the Delphic Expanse -- a place where very bizarre things happen, and from which few ships that enter ever return. Starfleet must now decide whether to risk sending the NX-01 into the Delphic Expanse to prevent a possible second attack.

• An alien probe of unknown origin launches an assault upon Earth that is so devastating that Admiral Forrest recalls Enterprise. During the journey home Captain Archer receives information that the perpetrators of the attack come from a region of space known as the Delphic Expanse. Ambassador Soval informs Archer that the Delphic Expanse is notorious for bizarre occurrences, and few ships that enter it are ever seen again ... leading Archer to liken it to the Bermuda Triangle. Believing there will be a second attack, Archer tries to convince Starfleet to let him take Enterprise into the Delphic Expanse to seek out this mysterious new enemy.

• As the episode opens the Klingon Chancellor is smarting because Archer not only outwitted Duras and escaped confinement in Rura Penthe in Judgment, but the captain also managed to escape from the bounty hunter who captured him when the Klingons put a price on his head in Bounty. The Chancellor offers the disgraced Duras a change to regain his command (and his honor), by recapturing Archer.
  
  But the Enterprise has more pressing matters to attend to -- there's been an attack on Earth. Before the crew can reach Earth, Duras leads an attack on the NX-01, disabling the Starfleet ship's phaser cannons. The Klingons are just about to lead a boarding party when three Starfleet vessels (but only of the warp two variety) fly in, weapons blazing. Faced with such superior firepower, the Klingons are forced to withdraw.
  
  When the crew finally reach Earth, the extent of the massive devastation is revealed -- a large scar of destruction through Florida and Cuba...

• The episode will reportedly feature a romance for Jonathan Archer, in the form of Rebecca, who the NX-01 captain renews his relationship with while he is back on Earth.

• The episode was directed by Allan Kroeker and written by Rick Berman & Brannon Braga.

• Sources: StarTrek.com and TrekToday