Dead Stop (Enterprise episode)

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Star Trek: Enterprise episode
"Dead Stop"
The automated repair station is too good to be true Dead Stop
Episode no.	31
Prod. code	204
Airdate	October 9, 2002
Writer(s)	Michael Sussman Phyllis Strong
Director	Roxann Dawson
Guest star(s)	Roxann Dawson (uncredited)
Year	2152
Stardate	unknown
Episode chronology
Previous	"Minefield"
Next	"A Night in Sickbay"

Dead Stop is the 31^st episode (production #204) of the television series Star Trek: Enterprise. It is often cited as one of Enterprise's better episodes.

1 Synopsis
2 Plot
3 Borg Speculation
4 Trivia
5 External links

[edit] Synopsis

After the Enterprise's debacle in the previous episode (Minefield), the Enterprise crew finds itself at a dead stop to repair their ship. They send a distress call and the Tellarites send the coordinates of a station — a station that drastically changes the atmosphere aboard itself and reconfigures its docking port to match the Enterprise. On the station they find a hologram of the Enterprise showing every repair needed. The cost of the repairs make it seem too good to be true, but is it?

[edit] Plot

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Four days after surviving the Romulan minefield, Archer and Trip inspect the extensive damage to the ship. Archer figures that it's about time someone helps them out for once and orders Hoshi to craft a general distress call.

A passing Tellarite freighter directs them to an automated repair facility whose replication technology is centuries ahead of Starfleet's -- the repairs will take only 36 hours. All for just 200 liters of warp plasma. Archer has a gut feeling that not everything is as it appears, but he can't put his finger on it. Tucker and Reed sneak around the station to find its computer -- not out of suspicion, but out of curiosity. When the station transports them back to the Enterprise, they have nothing to show for their adventure other than a dressing down by Archer. But the tongue-lashing is interrupted when Mayweather is discovered... dead.

When Phlox discovers that the dead Mayweather isn't actually Mayweather at all, but instead a replicated dummy, Archer goes into action mode. Reed leads Archer and T'Pol in the same air duct that he and Tucker used to find the computer. He again trips the booby trap which gives T'Pol and Archer the information needed to overcome it. They find the computer room is filled with bodies -- apparently the station takes a crewmember from every customer and uses their brain to augment its own computer. Mayweather is rescued just as the station starts attacking Enterprise in retaliation. Archer uses the warp plasma payment as a bomb to blow up the station and escape... but not to worry, the station immediately begins rebuilding itself -- ready for the next customer.

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[edit] Borg Speculation

Speculation that the repair station is somehow a precursor to the Borg is improbable due to the timeframe of the Borg established in other Star trek episodes (see The Origin of the Borg for details). Nevertheless, the similarities between the two (replicating automata that abduct members of sentient species to form a collective) is notable.

It is possible this is a 20th century Borg probe sent from the Delta Quadrant centuries earlier and reflects their technology from that era. The Borg featured in "Regeneration" are temporally displaced and represent the 2371 model. More importantly this would possibly show a connection to V'ger and could be why the Borg have chosen to assimilate in greater force, after these trick stations presumably fail in similar instances.

It is also possible that the Borg and this Station evolved from an earlier shared ancestor that also built V'ger. The Borg have no interest for history and may well fabricate their own to many different degrees. The Delta Quadrant is still quite a mystery in the show.

[edit] Trivia

This episode marks the first appearance of fully-functioning food replicators.
Episode director Roxann Dawson provided the (uncredited) voice of the repair station computer.