DIRECTED BY
AIRED ON
September 8, 2002
RUNTIME
42 minutes
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VIEWS
157
LAST UPDATE
2024-09-12 18:53:32
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Version 1
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SUMMARY
Daniels and Archer must find a way back to the 22nd century in order to make sure history plays out as it should. Meanwhile, on board Enterprise, the Suliban have taken over the ship, but Reed, Trip, and T'Pol formulate a plan to eject the aliens.
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REVIEWS
Equinox
Written by
Pike on 2018-04-06
★
★
★
★
★
ODD FEELING
The new season is having a very different, and odd, feeling. Jeanie Boulet is nowhere to be seen and Anna Del Amico, who clearly became a very interesting character, is, as we know, no longer in the series. And we can see this effect. Suddenly, the series is becoming boring, the same way it did in the second half of the third season, soon after the character of Susan Lewis left the series.
THE BEGINNING OF THE END
Ironically, the episode ends with Peter Benton playing a vinyl of John Coltrane. The name of the record, Equinox, is quite revealing. In a way, it may be also the equinox of the series. Susan Lewis left the series. Anna Del Amico simply vanished without any character closure. The excellent Dr. Morgenstern left as well. And George Clooney will leave soon.
SUMMARY
I give it only a 5, and just because of the very short final scene of Peter Benton putting a vinyl of John Coltrane. The series become boring.
TRANSCRIPT
ARCHER [OC]: Last time on Enterprise.
(The explosion in the atmosphere of the Paraagan mining colony.)
HOSHI: (in Sickbay) There's nothing left. No buildings, no trees, no people.
ARCHER: That's impossible. There were thirty six hundred colonists.
ARCHER: (Ready room) The mission's been cancelled.
TUCKER: I can't believe you're letting them do this to us. You've waited all your life to command this ship.
DANIELS: (Archers apartment) History never recorded the disaster. Someone violated the Temporal Accord. Someone who doesn't want your mission to succeed.
ARCHER: Are you telling me that Enterprise didn't cause that explosion?
ARCHER: (Ready room) He brought me back ten months, but I knew everything I know now. How is that possible?
ARCHER [OC]: The Suliban destroyed that colony. (attack on cloaked cruiser) We're going back to get proof.
FUTURE MAN: (Temporal chamber) Have your ships bring me Archer.
T'POL: (Bridge} Captain Archer is no longer aboard Enterprise.
SILIK [on viewscreen]: I thought he was smarter than this. He could have saved all your lives.
REED: It's targeting our warp core.
DANIELS: (Devastated building) You're in the thirty first century, Captain.
ARCHER: If bringing me here caused this, then send me back. I'll take my chances with Silik.
DANIELS: You don't understand. The time portals have been destroyed. Everything's been destroyed. There's no way to send you back.
ARCHER [OC]: And now, the conclusion.
[Bridge]
T'POL: He's not on board. You must have sensors that can confirm that.
SILIK [on viewscreen]: You've lied to me before. If you don't tell me where he is I'll have no alternative but to
T'POL: Come see for yourself, or send your soldiers. You'll realise I'm telling the truth.
SILIK [on viewscreen]: Drop out of warp and prepare to be boarded.
(Ends transmission.)
REED: Security teams to docking ports one, two, and three.
T'POL: This is Sub-Commander T'Pol. All security teams remain where you are.
TUCKER: Are you crazy? How do we know how many Suliban are coming aboard? They could try to take over the ship.
T'POL: There are thirty armed vessels surrounding us. Unless I'm mistaken their weapons are still targeting our warp core. Mister Reed? So, unless you have a better suggestion?
(The Suliban pods dock with Enterprise.)
[Wrecked plaza]
ARCHER: If this place was destroyed as long ago as it seems to have been, then what are you doing here? You and your watchdog buddies don't exactly fit in with all this.
DANIELS: You're thinking of time travel like we're in some H.G. Wells novel. We're not. It's far more complicated. There's no way for you to understand.
ARCHER: Try me. Listen, I realise your little utopia is gone, and I sympathise, but if you're telling me the truth, if you've brought me eight hundred years into the future, into this future, I think I deserve some answers.
DANIELS: I don't have any answers. And you're right, I shouldn't be here. Which means you shouldn't be here either, but you are. We are. We brought you here to protect the time line. We did quite a job.
ARCHER: What's wrong?
DANIELS: It's gone.
ARCHER: What's gone?
DANIELS: The monument. It was right here on the same street as the library. It was obviously never built.
ARCHER: Why is that a problem? Who did it commemorate?
DANIELS: Not who.
ARCHER: Then what?
DANIELS: An organisation. The Federation. It doesn't exist for you, not yet.
ARCHER: But it will? Fine. Keep your missing monument to yourself. Where's this library you were talking about?
DANIELS: It should be right down there, if it was ever built, and even it was, it will be of no help. All the data's stored electronically.
(They head to an impressive neo-classical building with a low central dome, triangular portico, tall windows, which looks very intac.t)
[Library]
(Massive bookshelves, librarians ladders, light streaming through the broken dome skylight.)
DANIELS: Books made with paper. There aren't supposed to be books here.
ARCHER: Well, there are. So, I suggest we use some of them to figure out what you did to the last thousand years when you brought me here this morning.
[Bridge]
(The Suliban are going through the ship in groups of three, scanning for something room by room. A Suliban refers to the data discs.)
SULIBAN: They haven't been duplicated.
(Silik threatens Hoshi with a weapon.)
SILIK: Is he correct?
T'POL: Don't you believe your scanners?
SILIK: Is he correct?
HOSHI: We didn't have time to make a copy.
TUCKER: Leave her alone!
SILIK: Lower your weapon. (does likewise) If we find Captain Archer aboard this vessel, you'll all be punished for lying to me.
RAAN: He's not here, unless he's dead, but we did find this.
(He shows Silik a scanner reading.)
SILIK: Where?
RAAN: In that lift. It's an hour old, maybe two.
SILIK: When I saw him last, your Captain spoke of a Temporal Cold War. What was he talking about?
T'POL: Captain Archer believed Crewman Daniels was from the future, but if I recall, you killed him.
SILIK: What else?
T'POL: Nothing else.
SILIK: There's a temporal signature in your turbolift. What do you know of that?
T'POL: The last time we saw Captain Archer, he was entering that turbolift.
SILIK: Perhaps you haven't been lying to me. (to Tucker) You, shut down all comm. systems and computer terminals with the exception of Engineering and the Bridge. Confine all of them to their quarters. If anyone resists
RAAN: Understood.
(one grabs Trip, he shoves back and weapons are drawn again)
T'POL: Under the circumstances, it would be best to do what he says, Commander.
[Starfleet Headquarters, San Francisco]
(It's a beautiful sunny morning.)
SOVAL: They're three days overdue.
FORREST: I told you, Ambassador. Archer said he was returning with proof that they weren't responsible for the tragedy on Paraagan Two.
SOVAL: You also told me Starfleet had ordered him to deliver Sub-Commander T'Pol and his medical officer to the Vulcan ship D'kyr. They're three days overdue.
WILLIAMS: The D'kyr has long range sensors. Have they detected Enterprise?
SOVAL: Captain Archer's negligence caused the death of three thousand colonists. Your superiors instructed them to return to Earth. Their mission is over. They haven't followed those instructions.
FORREST: You didn't answer the Commander's question. Has your ship detected Enterprise?
SOVAL: The D'kyr said they were joined by a number of other vessels. They're no longer within sensor range.
WILLIAMS: What kind of vessels?
SOVAL: They were at too great a distance to identify. Enterprise has ignored our hails and defied Starfleet's orders. I have no choice but to send the D'kyr in pursuit.
FORREST: Jonathan Archer doesn't report to you.
SOVAL: No, he doesn't, but Sub-Commander T'Pol does, and since she would never comply with his present actions I have to conclude that she's being held against her will.
WILLIAMS: I know you don't think much of Archer, Ambassador, but he is not in the habit of kidnapping Vulcans.
FORREST: Fine. You send your ship. Whatever Archer's up to, I'm sure he's got a good reason. He knows what he's doing.
SOVAL: Does he really?
(The Vulcan group leave.)
[Helix]
RAAN: Have you cycled through the sub-temporal harmonics?
SILIK: He's never failed to respond before.
RAAN: Perhaps he's angry that we didn't return with Archer.
SILIK: Archer wasn't on Enterprise. Why isn't he responding? I need instructions.
RAAN: He said to destroy Enterprise if we couldn't bring him Archer. We should tow them out of the nebula and do it now.
SILIK: That temporal signature, it changes everything. If Archer was pulled through time, we need new instructions. Where is he?
RAAN: If he's angry with you, you'll be punished again. We should destroy Enterprise.
SILIK: Have the surgeons prepare, then bring me the Vulcan.
[Library]
ARCHER: I haven't found a single reference to this Federation you talked about.
DANIELS: I doubt you will.
ARCHER: Because that monument wasn't there?
DANIELS: Because you weren't there.
ARCHER: So I disappear one day and all history changes?
DANIELS: I've looked through the twenty first and twenty second centuries. Everything looks right up until the Warp Five programme. After that, nothing looks right.
ARCHER: There were a lot of people involved in the Warp Five programme.
DANIELS: We didn't bring a lot of people here this morning. We just brought you.
ARCHER: (reading a book title) The Romulan Star Empire. What's that?
DANIELS: Maybe you shouldn't be reading that.
ARCHER: I don't get it. What could I have done that could have been so important?
DANIELS: It wasn't just you, it was events you helped set in motion.
ARCHER: This timeline, the one you say no longer exists. What can you tell me about it if my mission had continued?
DANIELS: It would have led to others.
ARCHER: And? (silence) Okay, what about this Federation? Was Earth part of it? Was I part of it?
DANIELS: Silik wanted you, not the data disks. The people he answered to were more interested in capturing Jonathan Archer than in blaming Enterprise for the destruction of the colony. They obviously knew what role you were going to play in the months or years to come. By taking you away from the twenty second century I caused exactly what I was trying to prevent.
ARCHER: You've lost me.
DANIELS: The only chance I have of restoring my century is by getting you back to yours.
ARCHER: Sounds like you've got a chicken-or-the-egg problem. You said your time portals are gone. All your technology. There isn't even electricity here. You going to find a bicycle, turn it into a time machine?
DANIELS: Maybe we don't need a time machine. Do you have your communicator?
ARCHER: (hands it over) And my scanner.
DANIELS: May I? The people the Suliban were working for came from about three hundred years ago. They couldn't travel through time, but they did develop a way to send back images of themselves, to communicate through time.
ARCHER: You can't do that with those.
DANIELS: No, it's a little bit more complicated, but not much. We learned how to do it in high school, but we're going to need a few things that might not be too easy to find.
ARCHER: What are we waiting for?
[Helix - interrogation room]
(Enterprise is docked with the Helix. T'Pol is down to her underwear, in a metal chair with a heavy device around her neck. She is being given drugs.)
SILIK: Where is Archer?
T'POL: I don't know.
SILIK: Who are you working with from the future?
T'POL: The Vulcan Science Directorate has determined that time travel is impossible.
SILIK: Does Captain Archer agree with that opinion?
T'POL: It's not an opinion.
SILIK: Does Archer agree with that determination?
T'POL: Captain Archer believes Crewman Daniels comes from the future.
SILIK: But Daniels is dead.
T'POL: Captain Archer claims he saw Daniels two days ago.
SILIK: Your captain is gone. Did Daniels take him into the past or the future?
T'POL: The Vulcan Science Directorate has determined that time travel is impossible.
[Wrecked city - outdoors]
ARCHER: I can't be sure, but I think that's copper.
DANIELS: Well done. I need you to unwrap it and pound it into small strips no more than a millimetre thick.
[Reed's quarters]
(Malcolm is pacing up and down when weird sounds come out of the door comm.)
REED: Hello? Please repeat. I can't understand. I still can't understand you. Try modulating the sub-carrier wave.
TUCKER [OC]: Malcolm, can you hear me?
REED: Barely. You're going to need to boost the signal.
TUCKER [OC]: Any better?
REED: Yeah.
[Tucker's quarters]
REED [OC]: I thought the comm. was offline.
TUCKER: It is. I'm routing the signal through the EPS grid. I can talk to any doorbell on B deck.
[Reed's quarters]
REED: Are you all right?
[Tucker's quarters]
TUCKER: Same as you, I guess. Locked in tight.
[Reed's quarters]
REED: And the others?
TUCKER [OC]: I can't get in contact with T'Pol for some reason,
[Tucker's quarters]
TUCKER: And Hoshi and Travis are on C deck.
REED [OC]: Any thoughts about how we're going to get rid of these Suliban?
TUCKER: One step at a time. The first thing I need to do is figure out how to tap into the door comms
[Reed's quarters]
TUCKER [OC]: On C-deck. I'll get back to you. Sit tight.
REED: I wasn't planning on going anywhere.
[Wrecked city - outdoors]
(Daniels is doing the tech stuff while Archer hits metal with a piece of concrete.)
ARCHER: Any luck?
DANIELS: I still have the spatial coordinates of Enterprise, but without a quantum discriminator it's going to be very tricky to contact the ship on the same day you left.
ARCHER: I thought you built these things in high school.
DANIELS: Where quantum discriminators were on every desk.
ARCHER: Why is the same day so important? What would be wrong with making contact a week before I left or even a month before?
DANIELS: I made the biggest mistake in the history of time travel this morning. I don't intend to make it any worse.
[T'Pol's quarters]
(Two Suliban dump her back on her bed then leave. Trembling she bathes her face, then lies down again, cuddling a cushion.)
ARCHER [OC]: This is Captain Archer. Can you hear me? T'Pol, this is Captain Archer. Can you hear me?
(His head is visible in the room).
ARCHER: I don't think it's working.
T'POL: I don't know where he is.
(T'Pol is still dopey from the drugs and interrogation.)
ARCHER [OC]: You don't know where who is? Sub-Commander, this is Captain Archer. I'm having trouble understanding you.
T'POL: Captain Archer's gone. A temporal reading in the turbolift. I don't know where he is.
ARCHER [OC]: Daniels brought me to the future. That's what the temporal reading was all about. Are you all right?
T'POL: Science Vulcan Directorate has determined that time travel is not fair.
ARCHER [OC]: Whatever you say. Just tell me, are you all right?
T'POL: We're all confined to our quarters.
ARCHER [OC]: Where are you?
T'POL: I told you, in my quarters.
ARCHER [OC]: No, I mean Enterprise. Where's Enterprise?
T'POL: There's a Helix out my window.
ARCHER [OC]: T'Pol, listen to me. I need your help. You're going to have to find a way to get to Daniels' quarters. Do you understand me?
T'POL: You're on the ceiling. Why aren't you on a monitor?
ARCHER [OC]: There's no technology where I am.
T'POL: I thought you said you were in the future.
ARCHER [OC]: T'Pol, do you remember when I asked you to keep an open mind?
T'POL: Yes.
ARCHER [OC]: There's a lot more at stake here than bringing me back, or the mission. I need you to listen to me very carefully. I need you to trust me.
[Tucker's quarters]
TUCKER: It won't work. We can only access the decoupling pins from outside our quarters.
[Travis's quarters]
TRAVIS: So if we can't pick the locks, what about the shafts that house the EPS conduits?
[Reed's quarters]
TRAVIS [OC]: They're adjacent to the air ducts.
REED: They were pretty much blocked off when the ship was completed.
[Tucker's quarters]
REED [OC]: It would be too tight a squeeze.
TUCKER: What's your definition of too tight?
[Reed's quarters]
REED: Well, you or I couldn't get through them.
[Tucker's quarters]
REED [OC]: Maybe a child, or
TUCKER: Or Hoshi?
REED [OC]: It's possible, but it would be difficult.
TUCKER: What do you say, Hoshi?
[Hoshi's quarters]
TUCKER [OC]: You willing to give it a try?
HOSHI: Isn't there some other way that I can help out? Something that needs translating? You know how claustrophobic I am.
[Travis's quarters]
TRAVIS: There's no one else that can get through those crawlspaces, unless we could reach Crewman Naiman.
[T'Pol's quarters]
TRAVIS [OC]: She's pretty small.
T'POL: There's no time. If this is going to work, we need to begin now. Ensign Sato.
HOSHI [OC]: How far would I have to go to get to the Doctor's quarters?
T'POL: Forty metres, maybe forty five.
[Hoshi's quarters]
HOSHI: Then how far to Lieutenant Reed's?
TUCKER [OC]: It's not that far, Hoshi.
[Tucker's quarters]
TUCKER: You can do it. We need you to do it.
[Crawlspace]
(Hoshi is having to slither and wiggle in the small space between pipes and stuff. At one point she looks down through a grill to see two Suliban patrolling a corridor. She gets to Phlox's quarters and knocks on the grill. He has been preparing some hyposprays.)
PHLOX: Hoshi?
HOSHI: Good guess.
PHLOX: How are you holding up?
(Hoshi reaches down through the grill.)
HOSHI: Great. If you don't mind I'd just like to get this over with.
(Phlox gives her the hyposprays.)
PHLOX: Good luck.
(She continues on, then punches out a grill into a corridor and starts to lower herself down. Her vest gets caught on a hook and she drops to the floor, leaving it behind.)
[Reed's quarters}
(The door opens to reveal - Hoshi with her arms crossed in front of her naked breasts.)
HOSHI: Whatever you're about to say I don't want to hear it. Just get me a shirt.
[Transporter alcove]
(Two Suliban come across T'Pol dressed and sitting on the floor, muttering to herself.)
T'POL: Third dimension, timeline. Timeline, first, second,
SULIBAN: What are you doing?
T'POL: First, third dimension.
SULIBAN: Stand up, Vulcan. Up!
(He kicks her then hauls her to her feet.)
T'POL: No! No! No!
(Tucker and Reed drop down from the ceiling.)
T'POL: No! Stop!
(They hypo the Suliban and drag them away.)
[Reed's quarters]
T'POL: You certainly took your time. He had this pressed against my head.
(A Suliban weapon.)
TUCKER: Had to be sure they were preoccupied. You positive you're willing to do this? It could get pretty ugly.
REED: I'm positive.
TUCKER: You've got thirty minutes.
REED: Good luck.
T'POL: If they regain consciousness don't hesitate to use these.
(The hyposprays.)
HOSHI: Don't worry.
TUCKER: Let's go.
(Reed makes it to Daniel's quarters after evading Suliban patrols, and undoes the magnetic lock. Inside, he retrieves the database projector from the back of a cupboard and leaves, replacing the lock, turns and sees two Suliban.)
[Bridge]
SILIK: Did you think we wouldn't be watching Daniels' quarters?
(Reed has been beaten up.)
REED: I guess I wasn't thinking.
SILIK: I guess you weren't, but you should be thinking now. Thinking about what will happen to you if you don't answer my questions. Are you thinking about that Lieutenant Reed? Good. Now tell me what this is. What does it do?
REED: I don't know.
(He gets hit again.)
SILIK: What does it do?
REED: I don't know. Please!
SILIK: Yes?
REED: I was told to destroy it. I don't know what it does.
SILIK: Who told you to destroy it?
REED: Captain Archer, before he left. He didn't want you to find it.
SILIK: And why would that be?
REED: He thought you would use it to contact someone. I don't know who. I swear it!
SILIK: Have the Lieutenant returned to his quarters.
[Engineering]
(Two Suliban are hit by weapons fire, and the third is taken out by a Vulcan neck pinch.)
T'POL: Ready.
(Tucker rushes to the warp controls. Over on the Helix, Silik is trying to use the future device.)
[Bridge]
(Alarms are going off.)
RAAN: Engineering, how did this happen? Engineering!
[Helix - Temporal communications chamber]
SILIK: What is it?
RAAN [OC]: The antimatter stream has been compromised.
SILIK: Shut down the warp reactor.
RAAN[OC]: Our engineers aren't responding. I've sent soldiers.
SILIK: Keep me informed.
(He returns to the device. In Enterprise's Engineering the monitors declare a core breach is in progress. The soldiers retreat as bits start exploding.)
SILIK: Yes?
RAAN [OC]: These humans are greater fools than I thought.
[Bridge]
RAAN: They'd rather commit mass suicide than submit to us.
SILIK [OC]: Did you correct the problem?
RAAN: It's too late. The reactor's going to breach.
[Helix - Temporal communications chamber]
SILIK: We can't endanger the Helix. Evacuate your soldiers and have Enterprise towed out of the nebula.
[Bridge]
RAAN: There's very little time. Will you alert the tractor teams?
[Helix - Temporal communications chamber]
SILIK: You do it. I'm busy.
(Something is trying to come through on the time pad. The Suliban evacuate Enterprise and pods tow her away from the Helix. A figure starts to appear on the time pad. Silik looks like a worshipper at an altar.)
SILIK: Is that you? Can you hear me?
(The Suliban pods sheer off as Enterprise's nacelles explode - or do they? Suddenly they light up blue and she goes to warp.)
[Bridge]
T'POL: Report, Ensign.
TRAVIS: The antimatter stream's back to normal.
T'POL: You may have overdone your pyrotechnic display. The scorching on the starboard nacelle is extensive.
TUCKER: I'll try to remember that next time we have to fake a reactor breach.
(Hoshi is at T'Pol's station.)
HOSHI: Cell ships, thirty of them, thirty five, approaching at high warp.
T'POL: Maintain your course and speed, Ensign.
[Helix - Temporal communications chamber]
SILIK: I've tried to reach you. I tried for two days. I did what you told me, but Archer wasn't on Enterprise. There was some kind of temporal signature. I need instructions. I don't know how to operate this device. I need your help. (a shadow figure starts to form) I hear you, but I don't understand. Repeat what you said. Please, repeat what you said.
(The figure jumps off the pad and drop-kicks Silik.)
ARCHER: I said, you're an ugly bastard.
(He puts Silik's own gun to his head.)
ARCHER: You try shape-shifting on me, or pulling one of your chameleon routines and I promise you, Silik, I'll blow your head off. Has Enterprise left the nebula?
SILIK: Can you see? I've brought you Archer! He's here! Archer's here! There's no need to punish me.
ARCHER: Where's my ship, Silik?
SILIK: They've left. They're gone.
ARCHER: How many Cell ships did you send after them? Silik!
SILIK: I don't know. Twenty, thirty.
ARCHER: You're going to call them off, and then you're going to give me those data discs back. Now get up.
SILIK: My soldiers won't let you leave.
ARCHER: Shut up.
(He shoots up the time pad.)
ARCHER: Get going.
[Bridge]
(Enterprise is under attack.)
TUCKER: Hoshi, any sign of the Vulcan ship?
HOSHI: Not yet.
(Explosions.)
TRAVIS: Hull plating on the port-aft quarter's down.
T'POL: Alter course ten degrees starboard.
TRAVIS: They're closing.
(Tucker deploys a phase cannon and takes out one ship.)
HOSHI: The lead ships are overtaking us.
TRAVIS: Port hull plating's down. Ventral plating as well.
(Then it goes quiet.)
HOSHI: Why'd they stop firing?
TRAVIS: Why waste ammunition? They have us surrounded.
T'POL: Are long-range sensors still operational?
HOSHI: No Vulcan ship.
(The cell ships start to veer off.)
TRAVIS: Sub-Commander?
T'POL: I see them.
TUCKER: Son of a bitch, he did it.
TRAVIS: One Cell ship approaching aft.
T'POL: Stand down weapons. Open a channel. Enterprise to Suliban vessel.
ARCHER [OC]: Go ahead, Enterprise.
TUCKER: Good to hear your voice, Captain.
[Cell ship]
ARCHER: Good to hear yours, too. I feel like I've been away for a thousand years.
[Bridge]
ARCHER [OC]: Is everyone all right?
T'POL: Lieutenant Reed suffered some minor injuries, but he's recovering in Sickbay. Captain, I'm curious. Why didn't the other Cell ships try to stop you?
ARCHER [OC]: I know it's not standard Starfleet procedure
[Cell ship]
ARCHER: But I took a hostage.
(Silik is on the floor by him.)
ARCHER: By the time he wakes up, we'll be long gone.
[Bridge]
ARCHER [OC]: Request permission to dock.
T'POL: Permission granted.
Captain's Starlog, supplemental. We've joined the Vulcan ship D'kyr. It seems that Starfleet and the High Command are eager to discuss the future of our mission.
[Bridge]
SOVAL [on viewscreen]: While your explanation of how you obtained these disks is somewhat implausible, it's obvious that Enterprise was not responsible for the destruction of the colony.
ARCHER: It may see somewhat implausible to you, but
SOVAL [on viewscreen]: Please allow me to finish, Captain. In less than a single Earth year you've engaged in armed conflicts with over a dozen species. You've escalated the conflict between my people and the Andorians which included the destruction of one of our most sacred monasteries. You helped eighty nine Suliban escape from detention. You may claim to be on a mission of exploration. I, however, consider you reckless and irresponsible.
[Starfleet Headquarters]
SOVAL: A danger to the Quadrant. Regardless of the evidence presented here, I plan to advise the Vulcan High Command not to change its recommendation to Starfleet. Enterprise should be recalled.
[Bridge]
TUCKER: You guys have wanted to scrub this mission from day one. We proved to you that we didn't kill those thirty six hundred people, but you don't want to hear it. You're pathetic!
FORREST [on viewscreen]: That's enough, Commander.
[Starfleet Headquarters]
FORREST: No one's more pleased than I am that Enterprise wasn't responsible for the tragedy, but Ambassador Soval's argument may be valid. Starfleet Command has a difficult decision to make here.
[Bridge]
ARCHER: When I was in my early twenties on a trip to East Africa I saw a gazelle giving birth. It was truly amazing. Within minutes the baby was standing up, standing up on its own. A few more minutes and it was walking and before I knew it, it was running alongside its mother, moving away with the herd. Humans aren't like that, Ambassador. We may come from the same planet as those gazelles but we're pretty much helpless when we're born. It takes us months before we're able to crawl. Almost a full year before we can walk. Our deep space mission isn't much different. We're going to stumble, make mistakes, I'm sure more than a few, before we find our footing. But we're going to learn from those mistakes. That's what being human is all about. I'm sorry you can't see that.
[Starfleet Headquarters]
SOVAL: Your analogy is very colourful, Captain, but I question whether it addresses the consequences of your actions.
T'POL [on viewscreen]: The concept of learning from one's mistakes shouldn't be difficult for a Vulcan of your wisdom to understand, Ambassador. Our ancestors
[Bridge]
T'POL: Discovered how to suppress their volatile emotions only after centuries of savage conflict. You spoke of the destruction of the monastery. What about the Vulcan listening post that Captain Archer found there? I would hope that our people have learned from those events that using a sacred sanctuary to spy on others was a dishonourable practice, to say the least. I don't wish to contradict Captain Archer, but learning from one's mistakes is hardly exclusive to humans. Their mission should be allowed to continue.
(The Vulcans sweep out of the room at Starfleet, and leave Enterprise's Bridge as well.)
FORREST [on viewscreen]: The Command Council will review the evidence and listen to what's been said here today. I'm sure they'll hear from the Vulcans as well. I'll let you know as soon as there's a decision. Good luck, Jonathan. All of you.
(Ends transmission.)
[T'Pol's quarters]
(She's in bed when the door bell sounds.)
T'POL: Come in.
ARCHER: I can't be certain, but Crewman Fuller might have seen me coming in here.
T'POL: She tends to be discreet. What can I do for you?
ARCHER: I think you put it over the top. Forrest said none of the others could believe it when you went to bat for us, not to mention that little listening-post lecture you gave to Soval.
T'POL: You spoke to the Admiral?
ARCHER: He woke me up in the middle of the night. Can you believe that?
T'POL: I assume with good news.
ARCHER: I think you put it over the top.
T'POL: I still don't believe in time travel.
ARCHER: The hell you don't.
2024-09-12 18:53:32 -
Pike:
Added the transcript.
