Terra Nova (Enterprise episode)

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Star Trek: Enterprise episode
"Terra Nova"
The Enterprise solves the mystery of the Terra Nova colony, Terra Nova
Episode no.	5
Prod. code	106
Airdate	October 24, 2001
Writer(s)	Rick Berman Brannon Braga
Director	LeVar Burton
Guest star(s)	Erick Avari Mary Carver Brian Jacobs Greville Henwood
Year	2151
Stardate	unknown
Episode chronology
Previous	"Unexpected"
Next	"The Andorian Incident"

Terra Nova is the 5^th episode (production #106) of the television series Star Trek: Enterprise.

1 Synopsis
2 Plot
3 External links

[edit] Synopsis

A long unexplained mystery back on Earth is the disappearance of the colony 70 years prior. When the crew of the Enterprise arrives, they discover that the radiation levels at the site of the colony 70 years prior would have been lethal. However, they find people still there and living underground.

[edit] Plot

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Mayweather and Hoshi are on the Bridge, looking over the logs of the Terra Nova colonists. Archer enters to ask if they have arrived at the colony. Mayweather wonders whether the records contain a clue to the fate of the colony. Hoshi wonders whether anyone is still alive in the colony; Archer says that they'll find out in three hours seventeen minutes, their ETA.

[edit] Act One

In the Captain's Mess, T'Pol shows her ignorance of the history of Terra Nova. Archer tells her that it was called the 'Great Experiment', discovering if humans could colonise deep space. Terra Nova was colonised after New Berlin was built on the Moon, Utopia Planetia on Mars and some asteroid colonies. It was less than 20 light years from Earth and took the explorers nine years to reach and another nine to return. The colonists went silent after arguing with Earth about receiving more colony ships. They protested and Earth received no more communications for seventy years. T'Pol asks why no ships were sent to rescue the colonists; Archer reminds her of the journey time. Vulcan ships are quicker, T'Pol argues. Favours from Vulcans carry too high a price, says Trip.

Later, the Enterprise arrives at Terra Nova, an Earth-like class M planet. Hails are unanswered and there are no bio-signs but the colony appears intact. T'Pol detects low-level radiation (800 millirads) but cannot tell the source. The colony looks like a ghost town on the main viewer. Archer hands the Bridge to Trip and takes a shuttlepod down to the colony with Mayweather, Reed & T'Pol.

On the surface, tumbleweeds blow across dirt tracks as the landing party make their way towards the buildings. T'Pol doesn't detect signs of weapons fire. Archer sends Mayweather to the communications tower to see if the data buffer is intact in order to copy their last transmissions. Reed scouts the perimeter. T'Pol notes that the radiation levels seventy years ago would have been lethal; perhaps the colonists left the planet? Archer notes that the buildings are built out of the colony ship - it was designed to be disassembled when the colonists made planetfall.

Reed detects a humanoid presence in the forest at the edge of the colony and radios Archer before pursuing. The figure is male, two metres tall and has scales on his face. Reed chases to the edge of an opening in some rocks as Archer and T'Pol meet up with him. T'Pol detects a network of caverns beyond the opening. Archer radios Mayweather to meet them, going via the shuttle to get flashlights first.

T'Pol and Mayweather guard the entrance with phase pistols as Reed and Archer descend. They discover signs of human habitation in the cavern. Reed looks around to see faces watching them from a ledge at the top of the cavern. Archer puts down the penknife that he was examining and speaks slowly, asking the figures if they know what happened to the colonists. The humanoid from earlier runs in to the cavern with a gun and Archer quickly stuns him. The faces disappear from the ledge in the distraction. Another humanoid appears and shoots at them with bullets. Archer and Reed escape in to the tunnels. T'Pol hears weapons fire and radios Archer. He asks for directions to the exit. Reed is hit as they escape, then jumped by another humanoid. Archer turns back to find Reed's flashlight and is then fought back with gunfire.

On the surface, a humanoid jumps from the cave mouth on to Mayweather, knocking him on to his back. T'Pol stuns him before scanning the body. They escape to the shuttle and back to the Enterprise. T'Pol reveals that the attackers are human, not alien.

[edit] Act Two

Back on the ship, Archer talks to Trip. Scans have revealed the cave network and fifty-two bio-signs, including Reeds. He is ninety meters below the surface and not answering hails. In the Situation Room, the map of the tunnels is displayed along with Reed's location. He is too deep to be transported out. A rescue attempt is planned but Archer wants to talk to the colonists, not attack them. Archer returns to the surface with Phlox, leaving T'Pol to discover the source of the radiation and Mayweather and Hoshi to work on the data buffer.

Archer and Phlox walk through the woods. Archer calls out that he is unarmed and wants to talk. They are arrested by two colonists at gunpoint and led in to the caverns. Reed is being guarded as they arrive. He has lost blood but is otherwise ok. Archer is approached by Jamin and Nadet, old colonists who speaks English. Jamin calls his people Novans and asks if the Enterprise is there to "gut the rest of us". Archer says that he came to help the colonists. Jamin orders the crew back to the surface. Archer persuades him to let Phlox treat Reed before they leave. Nadet says that the humans brought poison rain that burnt their skin. The caverns were the only place to hide. Archer offers to work with the Novans to find out what happened. Phlox scans Nadet, who is Jamin's mother, and tells Jamin that she has lung cancer. Archer offers to take Nadet back to the Enterprise to cure her. Jamin agrees but Reed is to remain behind. Archer agrees and they leave for the shuttlepod.

[edit] Act Three

The shuttlepod rises to meet the Enterprise in orbit. Archer tells Jamin and Nadet that it resembles their colony ship, the Conestoga. They are taken to Sickbay where Phlox scans Nadet. Her lung cancer has spread to her lymphatic system, so Phlox needs to give Nadet some cytolitic injections. While they wait, Archer shows the Novans the colony records Mayweather read earlier. Jamin sees it as lies and refuses to read.

"Captain's starlog, supplemental. Subcommander T'Pol has discovered the remnants of an impact crater that could explain the radiation."

T'Pol reports that the asteroid impacted 500km north of the colony, fracturing the regolith down to nearly 2000 metres. The asteroid impacted approximately seventy years ago. It was comprised mainly of barisium ore and the thermo shock cloud would have been radioactive and covered the northern hemisphere for more than a year.

On Terra Nova, Reed talks to the guard about his gun and body armour. The guard is silent. The guard begins to eat Digger meat and offers some to Reed, who eats it too. Another Novan plays an instrument made from a Digger skull, while a third plays a horn.

On the Enterprise, Mayweather and Hoshi present Captain Mitchell's last message to Archer:

"No matter how angry Logan's threats may have seemed, there had to have been a better way of dealing with this other than attacking us. Nearly half the adults are dead, including Doctor Tracey, and everyone else is getting sick, except for the younger children. If they have any chance of surviving the least you can do is have the Vulcans send a ship for them. But for all I know, they were the ones you talked in to attacking us. You wanted Terra Nova enough to do this? Well it's yours now, but I doubt you'll be very pleased with what you'll find when you get here."

Mayweather tells Archer that Logan was the leader of the opposition, who threatened to fire on any ship that entered orbit. Hoshi says that the message never reached Earth due to the radiation in the atmosphere. Archer now understands that the children who survived were taught that humans were the enemy by their parents' curses.

Archer is summoned to Sickbay by Phlox. He has detected that Nadet and Jamin have signs of microcellular decay in their endocrine systems, probably from a polluted water supply. Phlox can't treat it and it will only get worse. Later, in the Situation Room, Archer and Phlox try to convince Jamin and Nadet to leave the planet. Archer shows Nadet a photograph of a family group outside a dome. She identifies them as human and the photo was taken before the poison rain. Nadet looks confused, as she perceives humans to be enemies of Novans. Archer zooms in on a young girl sitting next to her mother - her name was Vera Fuller and the daughter was called Bernadette. Nadet makes the connection but Jamin reminds Archer that Reed will be killed if they are not returned.

In the Ready Room, T'Pol recommends relocating the Novans by force if they will not go peacefully. T'Pol reminds Archer of the alternative and questions whether educating the Novans to be human back on Earth is the right thing to do. Archer summons Trip, who shows the extent of the asteroid's debris cloud, 10 or 12 degrees north of the equator. The southern hemisphere was unaffected by the impact. Archer asks Trip to locate similar caverns in the south and to transfer the information to a PADD. Archer tries to convince Nadet and Jamin on the way back to the colony. The shuttlepod lands and falls through the landing site.

[edit] Act Four

Trip radios to say that the shuttlepod has landed eight metres down on the floor of a stable tunnel. Jamin and Nadet lead the way through the tunnels to Reed, Archer handing Jamin his phase pistol first. Mayweather stays with the shuttlepod, armed. They hear cries for help and Nadet identifies the person as Akary. He is at the bottom of a water-filled shaft, his leg broken by a tree trunk that pins him to the ground. Jamin leads the way down for Archer to help. Archer asks for his pistol, then cuts the trunk to free Akary. They help him back to the Novan camp where Reed is held. Nadet tells Jamin to tell the other Novans Archer's plan for relocation to the south.

[edit] Act Five

In the Captain's Mess, T'Pol, Reed and Mayweather eat with Archer. Mayweather asks T'Pol if she has ever heard of Judge Crater or Ameilia Earhart, as neither of those mystery disappearances holds a candle to Terra Nova. The Enterprise saved their lives, not just solved the mystery, says Trip. Archer asks Mayweather to put together the report for Starfleet. "'The Terra Nova Puzzle, Solved At Last', as told by Ensign Travis Mayweather" quips Trip.