Take your beautiful minds off the Oscars and do a little jungle boogie with the Enterprise crew.
Rogue
Planet
Cast & Crew
Director: Allan Kroeker
Story By: Rick Berman & Brannon Braga & Chris Black
Teleplay By: Chris Black
Starring
Scott Bakula as Captain
Jonathan Archer
Connor Trinneer as Chief
Engineer Charles Tucker III
Jolene Blalock as Sub-commander
T’Pol
Dominic Keating as Lt.
Malcolm Reed
Anthony Montgomery
as Ensign Travis Mayweather
Linda Park as Ensign Hoshi
Sato
John Billingsley
as Dr. Phlox
Guest Cast
Stephanie Niznik as Woman
Conor O’Farrell as Buzaan
Eric Pierpoint as Shiraht
Keith Szarabajka as Damrus
Airdate Information
Originally Aired: March 20, 2002
Season: One
Episode: Eighteen
What
Happened
En route to their next destination, the Enterprise encounters a small
planet where none were thought possible. A rogue planet, one without a star
to orbit, that has managed to develop an ecosystem of its own has intrigued
the crew and they move in to investigate.
Upon closer inspection, the crew finds a small craft on the planet surface,
one that does not respond to hails. Archer, T’Pol, Hoshi, and Reed take a shuttle
to the surface to investigate. They quickly stumble across a group of hunters.
These people use the planet for game hunting, albeit for only short stints so
as not to destroy the ecosystem.
Reed, intrigued by their techniques, asks to join them and Archer allows him
to do so. That night Archer sees a beautiful woman who calls his name. Before
he can reach her, she disappears. Assuring him that it was probably nothing,
the hunters begin their quest for some game.
While hunting, one of the alien hunters is injured and they accept Archer’s
offer of medical attention onboard Enterprise. The doctor discovers some
residue from the hunter’s mysterious attacker. Apparently the game they seek
are shapeshifters. Archer is contacted again, this time he learns a little more
about the shapeshifters, they are intelligent and are on the verge of extinction.
Pretending to be out of the loop, Archer gets the hunting party to divulge
it’s secret, that they can scan for a chemical released by the shapeshifters
when they are frightened. Asking for Dr. Phlox’s help, Archer gives the shapeshifters
a masking agent, making them once again virtually undetectable.
The hunter’s, once again on the losing end, fall back to their ship and depart.
Review
I’d have to call this episode good, but not really good. The premise was old
hat, but watching the characters solve the dilemma at hand was interesting.
Reed’s desire to join the hunting party was a great example of how "Federation
ideals" haven’t totally taken hold yet.
What really made this one stand out was the solution. Instead of the high-minded
"this is wrong, we are right" sorts of speeches we are used to from
Star Trek, the crew gets right down to it and fixes the problem, leaving the
hunters in a lurch. Maybe after they lose a few hunting parties, they’ll think
twice about messing with the inhabitants.
High Point
"I promise I won’t kill anything." Funny!
Low Point
The scene where Archer finally confronts the mystery woman. Kind of a letdown.
The Scores
Originality: Been here, done this with the Herogin in Voyager. 3
Effects: Pretty good shots of the planet itself and the shapeshifters. Come
a long way from Odo’s morphing. 5
Story: It became pretty predictable, but the ending caught me off-guard in
how the crew does not tell the hunters what’s been done to keep them from detecting
their prey. 4
Acting: The mystery woman was bland, but the hunters were a passable group.
3
Emotional Response: Not much of one, but I was delightfully surprised in the
end. 3
Production: The jungle was well-done and set the appropriate mood. 4
Overall: Better than most, but not by much. 3
Total: 25 out of 42
Episode Media
- A bright
light distracts Archer - 20-second
episode preview (QT, WMP) - Archer
can’t believe his eyes - Archer
makes his way through the thick brush of Dakala - Is she
real or a hallucination?
From StarTrek.com
Next Time on Enterprise (Mar 27, 2001)
AcquisitionWhen the Ferengi, a group of intergalactic thieves, stun the Enterprise crew
and try to rob the ship, it’s up to Trip to work covertly to stop them. After
the Ferengi awaken the Captain to force his assistance in pillaging his ship,
Trip secretly reveals to Archer that he has inadvertently escaped the effects
of the noxious gas and they work together to try to surreptitiously thwart the
robbery and save the crew.
Guest stars include: Ethan Phillips (Neelix from Voyager), Jeffery Combs
(Brunt/Wayoon from DS9), and Clint Howard.
Next week’s notes
It says
Why no comment after Clint Howard? Shouldn’t it be “Clint Howard (Balok from TOS)“? Isn’t it worth noting that the three guests played aliens in three different Trek series?
Re: Next week’s notes
Didn’t realize that. All I knew was that he’s Ron Howard’s brother and has appeared in everyone of his brother’s films. Checking his IMDB filmography I see that he does indeed go all the way back to TOS. He also had a guest appearance on DS9 (Grady in “Past Tense: Part 2”).
jbrecken is only partially correct though, we have guest actors from ALL four previous Star Trek series, not just three. Howard has been on TOS, Phillips was a regular on Voyager as well as two guest appearances on TNG (episode “Menage a Troi” and movie First Contact). Jeffery Combs was darn near a regular cast member of DS9, playing ferengi Liquidator Brunt and the vorta, Wayoon (occasionally both in the same episode!).
Sorry for missing a huge piece of trivia gang! Shall we schedule the public floggings for, say, tomorrow noonish?
Re: Next week’s notes
Almost. Ron Howard didn’t think there
was a role that suited him in Ransom and
didn’t cast him. He got so much hate mail for it that
he’ll never leave him out again.
Re: Next week’s notes
I may be wrong in this, but doesn’t Jeffrey Combs play an Andorian in ENT? Isn’t this how he should be listed? Or did the person playing the Andorian captain play a different Vorta?
Re: Next week’s notes
Yes, he’s played an Andorian twice, so
these actors have managed to cover every generation of
the Star Trek franchise. As to how he should
be billed, his history as an Andorian could probably
be added to this description.
Ferengi!!!
ST:TNG made it quite clear that the Ferengi were a first-contact for Enterprise-D crew. They were difficult to understand, because they were an unknown. Now we have a Ferengi first contact before ST:TOS?!? I am going to be seriously upset if this whole season doesn’t get wiped from reality by some twist of the Time-War.
Re: Ferengi!!!
I’m betting this whole season IS a twist of reality from some Time War…just wait, the Borg will show up in the season finale…
Re: Ferengi!!!
Just chant with me:
“Eight months till Nemesis…”
“Eight months till Nemesis…”
“Eight months till Nemesis…”
Re: Ferengi!!!
Wonder when they’ll feature Q.
Yanno, ya really have to admire the bold directions the writers have taken to introduce entirely new and unseen aliens/environments in this show. They’ve truely broken from the mold of the various older serious to….
Aww crap, who am I kidding.
Next on Enterprise:
Tribble Troubles
Romulan Rampage
Kahn, The Younger Years
Rogue Science
A planet without a sun hat has a TROPICAL RAIN FOREST and isn’t completely iced over??? You’re as likely to find a tropical rain forest on Pluto for heaven’s sake :( – in fact MORE likely.
Blech! Another stupidly bad science episode. B&B give me a break!
Re: Rogue Science
Yeah, I kinda agree, but I was betting on it being a result of some intense geothermal activity. They didn’t really explain it, though. Just a little hint from those vents emitting white light. White light! From a geothermal vent! Now that’s hot!.
Re: Rogue Science
That would only have plants around the vent itself, assuming photosynthesis using light in the visible range. They’re much better off with geothermal activity producing IR, and having the Enterprise away team (with the exception of T’Pol, who’s seen it all before) marvel at photosynthesis without chlorophyll, or that other black stuff that photosynthsyzes, too. (I don’t remember the name of the black stuff. It’s described well in “The Gripping Hand” by Niven and Pournelle. There’s small amounts of it in spinach, and it’s carcinogenic.)
Re: Rogue Science
Exactly. I was cringing during this episode. I believe the hunters said they’d been going to the rogue planet for generations…where is the source for all this residual geothermal heat? No incoming radiation, no tidal action from a gravity well. The planet must have a _highly_ radioactive core, and none of it seems to be leaking to the surface.
Re: Rogue Science
Re: Rogue Science
I didn’t want to hack into this one in my review, but it was a major problem. Planets really can’t make their own heat (the Earth gets its geothermal heat from the sun and moon). Maybe the planet had a moon that we didn’t see. Maybe…just maybe…
Re: Rogue Science
Some planets can. They will eventually run out of heat and settle down, but they can. (Saturn and Jupiter are obvious examples of brown dwarves.) I don’t see
a way for a planet that active to develop life, though. It would settle down too soon. Had they written the story as though the planet had been seeded by vegetation and animals designed to live there, and that the morphing creatures had evolved there afterwords, it might have worked.