The first episodes of Star Trek: Enterprise gave us an introduction to the crew and the follow up episode focused mainly on a single character. In Star Trek Enterprise: Strange New World the crew is faced with a new challenge. An environmental problem. I’ll be reviewing this episode today.

If you want to know the chronology of the episodes I’ll be watching, I’ll be going down this list. If you notice I’ve missed an episode, let me know and I’ll correct it. And if you missed my first post about Star Trek, you can check that out right here.

Vulcan cuisine and protocols

The episode starts out with two crew members eating in the mess hall. Crewmen Cutler and Novakovich have a brief conversation about the kind of food they are eating. Cutler enjoys Vulcan cuisine but Novakovich says it doesn’t taste like anything. Cutler is looking at a book about insects. She’s an entomologist. Their conversation is cut short when Novakovich looks out of the viewport. They see a huge earth like planet. Everyone there is hopeful for first contact and they point out features they can see.

On the bridge T’Pol scans for life. They don’t find any intelligent life forms. Archer asks for a shuttle to be prepared. T’Pol objects because they are not following strict protocol. I think there are times when T’Pol has a good point about this sort of thing but here she definitely seems to be a bit excessive with going through the checklist. We find out this is a Minshara-class planet. In later series we just hear them referred to as M-Class but apparently Minshara is a Vulcan word. And without going down to the planet we have no story so, of course we get an away party who will go down to the planet.

This strange new world looks… familiar

The away crew consists of crewmen Cutler and Novakovich, Trip, T’Pol, Mayweather and Captain Archer. Oh, and Porthos gets to go down too to get some exercise. While getting ready T’Pol is pretty cold and analytical to Crewman Cutler. The humans on the shuttle are very impressed with the planet. When Porthos gets out of the shuttle, Trip says, “Where no dog has gone before.” Gotta say, I thought that was a pretty good dad joke right there.

As the crew wander around, you might notice this place looks familiar. It looks a heck of a lot like Griffith park in L.A. That’s because they shot it there. They even go into the Bronson caves you can find there later in the episode. The crew genuinely seems amazed at what they find. But we’ll forgive the familiarity because you have to film somewhere right?

T’Pol is the only one who seems unimpressed. She’s more concerned with collecting data than admiring the scenery. Definitely sticking to Vulcan tendencies here.

Campfire stories

After wandering around a bit, the group comes back together. T’Pol wants to keep Cutler and Novakovich there overnight to do a little more research. Trip and Mayweather also want to stay so they can sleep under the stars. Archer grants permission, saying research is not the only reason they’re out there.

That night, sitting around a campfire, Mayweather tells a ghost story. It goes over fine with the humans but T’Pol is decidedly unimpressed. Then Cutler points out our own sun in the sky. This is one of those Star Trek moments I love. It’s a small thing but just imagine being so far from home you could experience our own sun not as a sun but as one of billions of stars in the sky. How incredible would that be? Maybe someday we’ll get there.

Later that night, some kind of scorpion gets into Trip and Mayweather’s tent. Shortly after that, intense winds start to blow. Crewman Novakovich thinks he hears someone outside of his tent. The winds intensify. The crew are forced to seek more permanent shelter in the caves.

Into the caves

On Enterprise Malcolm Reed informs Captain Archer of the wind storm. Archer contacts T’Pol and asks if he should go down and get them. T’Pol points out it will be difficult under the windy conditions. They’ve found shelter in the caves so they are in relative safety but Archer does ask for the shuttle to remain on standby.

As they settle in, the crew realizes they left their food packs at the campsite. Mayweather goes to retrieve them and he thinks he sees people out there. T’Pol confirms the scans don’t show any signs of people other than them on the whole planet. Novakovich swears he hears someone deeper in the caves. Novakovich panics and runs out of the caves. Trip and Mayweather go after him.

T’Pol leaves Cutler where she is to go see if she can find someone deeper in the caves. Maybe they don’t have scouts on Vulcan but use the buddy system people! You’re absolutely safer in pairs.

We’re getting worried

Outside the caves, Trip thinks he sees rock people come out of the solid rock. Cutler swears she hears T’Pol talking to someone else. And Novakovich is nowhere to be found. Trip and Mayweather decide the conditions are too dangerous to continue looking. Trip tells Captain Archer what is going on so Archer takes Reed and they fly the shuttle down to the planet for a rescue attempt.

But the winds really are too strong and the shuttle can’t land. Novakovich is hailed but he tells Archer to, “Go to hell.”

In the cave, Trip confronts T’Pol, thinking she is yet again hiding something from the crew. He points out Vulcans don’t have a reputation for being completely honest with humans. He is correct about that but Trip is visibly more agitated than he should be.

Novakovich is in bad shape

Because the wind was so strong, the away crew has to make it through the night in the caves. Archer instructs Trip to try to make contact if he sees any aliens again. Cutler and Mayweather settle in to a corner where they basically remain for the rest of the episode. Trip starts yelling at T’Pol and she points out he’s being irrational. To add to the problems, they are running low on water. T’Pol tries to do the reasonable thing and go grab some water from a water source deeper in the caves. (I’m just gonna assume they have some kind of high tech filter if they need it)

But before T’Pol gets anywhere, Trip pulls out his phase pistol and tells her to sit down. Tensions escalate through the episode between the two of them from here on out.

Enterprise tries to contact Novakovich but he’s just screaming in pain. Reed has to transport him back to the ship. Novakovich shows up unconscious, sprouting leaves and twigs from his body. Reed calls sickbay for the medical emergency.

Trip gets paranoid

In the caves Trip starts to get angrier with T’Pol. He becomes incredibly paranoid and Mayweather goes right along with it. T’Pol realizes they are delusional but she starts expressing anger and slips into Vulcan.

Dr. Phlox realizes Novakovich has been infected by something called tropolicene (no idea how that’s actually spelled so forgive me). It’s a hallucinogen which can cause delusions. This explains the paranoia happening to the people in the caves. Dr. Phlox thinks it will wear off in a few hours. But the crew will need to get further into the caves because this pollen is carried on the wind.

It seems like Trip is the most affected as he starts firing at the walls and screaming at people who aren’t there. Archer contacts T’Pol who tells the Captain she has a phase pistol pointed at her head. Captain Archer tries to explain what has happened but Trip is essentially too paranoid to accept reality.

Archer does all he can to get Trip to trust him but it’s touch and go.

Play acting

Trip tries to get Mayweather on his side but he’s too out of it to remain conscious. Cutler is also out for the count. T’Pol starts responding to everything in Vulcan. When Trip walks away, talking to someone no one else can see who he refers to ask Mr. Velik, T’Pol grabs a phase pistol herself.

On Enterprise they realize they can’t land a shuttle for at least 9 more hours. And worse, Dr. Phlox missed something vital in Novakovich’s diagnosis. In addition to the hallucinogen there is an undetectable toxin and Novakovich might die. Thankfully, Phlox whips up a vaccine. They plan to beam it down to the away crew.

There is a standoff between T’Pol and Trip. She has to speak to Hoshi through Vulcan so she can disarm Trip and administer the cure. Archer concocts a scheme to play into Trip’s delusions but T’Pol has to also play act in order to distract Trip. This is no easy feat for a Vulcan.

Ultimately, the ploy works and T’Pol administers the dose to everyone. She does have to stun Trip with a phase pistol and do a Vulcan nerve pinch on Mayweather, however. Trip remembers being shot the next day. Mayweather just wakes up thinking he slept wrong.

Star Trek Enterprise: Strange New World Conclusion

Trip realizes how out of line he was. Mayweather was hoping it was a bad dream. T’Pol forgives him. Maybe that’s not the right word. She acknowledges Trip was under the influence of the pollen and admits she was too. Trip says, “Challenge your preconceptions or they’ll challenge you.” Apparently this is something Mr. Vellik, Trip’s tenth grade biology teacher would say. He was the first Vulcan Trip ever met. T’Pol tells Trip it’s not too late to follow his advice.

The shuttle arrives and everyone gets to go back to Enterprise safe and sound. And that’s where the episode ends.

While this was not as strong of an episode as the last one, I do like the idea of environmental threats. This won’t be the last episode in this series where minds are altered, either. Captain Archer has to use quite a bit of diplomacy in the episode even though he’s only speaking with his own crew. And both Trip and T’Pol show some of their own biases here. It does feel like Crewman Cutler and Novakovich are just kind of along for the ride. That’s pretty standard for Star Trek but I guess they should be glad they weren’t wearing red shirts. It’s a fun episode in the series but ultimately it’s kind of skippable. There are definitely better, and worse, episodes to come.

The next episode is titled Unexpected so who knows what we’re gonna get.

Until next time, live long and prosper.