Star Trek Enterprise: Terra Nova presents the crew with a new kind of challenge. This problem is not a confrontation with an alien species, it’s not exploration of a new planet, it’s not even a conflict among the crew. This is a colony of lost humans who no longer understand who they are and where they came from. It’s an episode that sets up an intriguing premise but doesn’t quite deliver the goods.
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.
Mayweather is fascinated
Ensign Travis Mayweather is what is known as a “boomer.” This means he was born traveling out in space rather than on Earth. And as such, he’s had a fascination with one of the earliest human space colonies. At the beginning of the episode he is looking through old photos of these colonists along with Hoshi and Captain Archer. It seems this colony had been well established but there was a sudden loss in communication and no one has heard from these people in decades.
Mayweather is especially excited because he knows he’s about to get answers to one of the biggest space mysteries known to humans. The Enterprise will soon be landing there and seeing if they can make contact with the humans again.
The legend of Terra Nova
Captain Archer, Commander Tucker, and Science Officer T’Pol are eating together in the Captain’s mess. T’Pol, despite having spent significant time on Earth is not familiar with Terra Nova or its history. Tucker is shocked by this news and says humans had to learn all about the early Vulcan expeditions. When T’Pol asks him to name one he just says, “History was never my best subject.”
Archer tells T’Pol it was called the “great experiment.” It was to see if humans could colonize deep space. Apparently there was already a colony on the moon called New Berlin, something called Utopia Planitia on Mars and even some asteroid colonies. But this was all within our own solar system. Deep space had not yet been explored by humans. And he describes a nine year journey to get to the livable planet where Terra Nova was established.
While these colonists’ transmissions were followed at the beginning, no one has heard from them in more than seventy years. Things had become strained when Earth wanted to send a second crew out to the planet. Tensions built and suddenly communications stopped. And getting there to see what happened would have taken too much time. T’Pol does ask why humans didn’t ask Vulcans to help. Tucker says asking favors from Vulcans comes with too high a price. In a show of encouragement T’Pol does says she’s learned humans are resourceful and thinks the colony might still be there.
This is Terra Nova
The Enterprise gets to the planet which looks very much like Earth. Mayweather is ecstatic because he promised his dad he’d see the place. Archer tries to establish communications but there is no response. There are no bio signs but the colony itself is intact. And T’Pol detects some surface radiation. Where that came from is not clear. The colony itself appears empty but they do decide to go down there anyway.
The away team is Captain Archer, T’Pol, Lieutenant Malcolm Reed, and Ensign Mayweather. On the planet they do find an empty town with old Earth artifacts like bicycles, welcome mats and housing units. They explore around a bit. T’Pol gets enough readings to know the radiation levels seventy years ago would have been lethal. But there are no bodies to be found.
T’Pol thinks they left before it could affect them. But Archer points out the housing units were built out of ship parts. There was no return trip possible.
We’re not alone
While exploring, Reed sees someone in the trees running around. Reed pursues this person and Archer and T’Pol race to catch up to him. The person runs into a cave and Archer asks Mayweather to grab some flashlights and meet them there.
Reed and Archer go into the caves where they see an armadillo like creature burrowing in the caves. T’Pol and Mayweather stand guard outside. In the caves Archer and Reed find evidence of human tools and see a bunch of faces staring at them. These faces are covered with rock and dirt but it’s apparent they are human. Archer tells these people they aren’t going to hurt them. One of them pops out with a gun pointed at them and Reed stuns him with his phase pistol. So much for not hurting them I guess.
Another one of these people chases Reed and Archer through the caves, firing at them. Archer tells T’Pol they are under attack and asks for help navigating to an exit. Even with the help, they get turned around but Malcolm gets shot in the process. He’s injured but alive. On the surface one of these people attack Mayweather but T’Pol stuns the attacker. Archer escapes the caves but has to leave Malcolm. Archer, T’Pol and Mayweather make it to the shuttle where T’Pol confirms these were humans attacking.
Back on Enterprise
Mayweather is confused by why humans would attack other humans. But I have to say, the crew of the Enterprise did sort of show up out of nowhere then shot a guy and ran away. Seems pretty hostile to me. And I guess the caverns were too thick to find the bio signs but I thought the sensors would have been more sensitive. Still, it’s early days of the technology in this series so I suppose I can give them that. But after the run in with the humans in caves, the sensors can pick up at least 52 bio signs.
Archer realizes if these people are the descendants of the original colonists and they’ve been living in these caves for such a long time, they might actually think humans are aliens. In the situation room, Archer, Tucker, T’Pol, Mayweather, and Hoshi start to piece a puzzle together. They figure these people headed underground after whatever caused the radiation and have been living that way ever since, feeding on the underground flora and fauna.
Unfortunately. Lieutenant Reed is too deep in the caves to be transported out. But they do find a way to get back into the caves without going through the whole tunnel complex. However, this would involve using more weapons on the colonists. Archer has a moment of self doubt realizing if he can’t make first contact with humans, he has no business being out in space. He decides to bring Dr. Phlox with him to the surface and tasks T’Pol and Tucker with figuring out where the radiation came from. He also asks Hoshi and Mayweather to finish their data buffer to find out any final transmissions from the colony.
Back on Terra Nova
Archer and Phlox surrender to the humans on the planet and ask to see Malcolm. The humans are surprised to see Dr. Phlox. They speak in a bit of an odd dialect and don’t seem to think they are humans. They also speak in a lot of rock and tunnel metaphors, saying things like, “You track from Earth, we lived on the over-side, we hid from poison rain.” And they call anything they think is a lie “shale.”
Archer tries to convince them of the truth of what happened in the past. Dr. Phlox is able to diagnose one of the older people here that she has lung cancer based on his biomedical scan. And he tells her it’s easily cured. Man, wouldn’t that be a nice world to live in if we could easily cure lung cancer?
Archer tells her they can help but they have to take her to their “sky ship.” The woman and her son reluctantly agree to go. But they won’t release Malcolm until they come back. Seems fair to me since Malcolm is in pain but not imminent danger and they did shoot and stun a couple of these colonists.
Terra Novans learn the truth
On Enterprise they treat the woman, show her pictures of the original colonists, and try to convince them of where they came from. The people are still skeptical but T’Pol does find out the radiation came from a large asteroid hitting the planet causing radioactive clouds.
On the planet, Reed recognizes the make and model of the weapons the guards are using. And he eats some of the “digger” meat. And he starts to experience a little of the culture these people have developed, including music they play.
Hoshi finds the last transmission. It seems the leaders of the colony think they’ve been attacked by humans or Vulcans. This would have been the last human message the Novans have seen. Only the youngest kids survived the rain and they know their parents blame humans for the death they see. So they think they are not human and that humans are the enemy.
The real problem
Dr. Phlox cures the cancer of the woman named Nadet. But there is a larger issue. The underground water supply is contaminated by the radiation. Basically, these people are going to need to move from their homes or die. Only the smallest kids survived the original onslaught of radiation. So only the oldest of them, including Nadet, has any memory of when they lived on the surface. But Nadet is still skeptical. However, T’Pol points out that she and Dr. Phlox are not human and they have both helped the Novans.
Archer does manage to find a photo of one of Nadet’s ancestors. And she’s holding a daughter named Bernadette. This is the earliest picture of Nadet. Archer is angry but he only vents his anger privately to T’Pol. She suggests they use stun grenades to collapse the tunnels, forcing the people to move. Archer is dead set against this and says they have to convince them to come back to Earth. But T’Pol points out doing this would wipe out the culture they have developed. There doesn’t seem to be any easy solution here.
Meanwhile, Tucker has found a radiation free southern continent on the planet. Archer asks him to look for similar cave structures to what they live in currently. Archer explains this to Nadet and her son. He agrees to return Malcolm if the members of Enterprise promise to leave. Archer agrees but asks the man to talk to his people and tell them the problem on the planet and the possible solution of moving to the southern continent.
That’s a problem
When the shuttle lands back on the planet, it sinks through the ground into some of the tunnels. They are precariously placed. Jamin, Nadet’s son has to help Archer navigate to Malcolm. There’s a sequence where they have to help one of the Novans who is trapped under a tree but together they rescue the man. Jamin comes to trust Archer and does tell his people about the southern continent. Ultimately they agree to go.
Back at the Captain’s mess, Archer, T’Pol, Mayweather, and Tucker are having dinner. Mayweather asks T’Pol if she’s heard about famous Earth explorers who went missing, including Amelia Earhart. She’s unaware of any of them. Mayweather is thrilled they not only solved the mystery of Terra Nova but he also gets to put together the report about the incident which is sure to become famous on Earth.
Star Trek Enterprise: Terra Nova conclusion
Star Trek Enterprise: Terra Nova is one of the slower moving episodes of the series. While the problem it presents is interesting, especially the tension about needing to move the Novans, it all comes together just a bit too easily. The solution is found too quickly and I think it would have been far more interesting if the team had to decide between sending these people back to Earth or leaving them there to die. That’s a really tough and complicated problem. But the convenience of having a similar environment on a southern continent makes the solution just sort of appear without much effort on the part of the crew.
And while there was an interesting problem here, Star Trek Enterprise: Terra Nova does little to further the plot of the overall series. We get to see Archer overcome a challenge but he’s done that before. There’s not much other character development here, although we do get to learn a little bit about Mayweather.
In the next episode we’ll get a lot more background and the beginnings of an intriguing ongoing conflict in The Andorian Incident.
Until next time, live long and prosper.
