Daedalus (Enterprise episode)

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"Daedalus" is the name of the 86th episode from the television series Star Trek: Enterprise. "Daedalus" first aired on January 14, 2005 on the American television network UPN.

This episode should not be confused with the identically titled Star Trek: Enterprise novel, Daedalus by Dave Stern, which was published in 2003 and followed by a sequel, Daedalus' Children, in 2004.

The episode apparently got its title after the Greek mythological figure Daedalus who was the first person who could fly, by constructing artificial wings.

[edit] Plot summary

Emory Erickson, the father of the Transporter, beams aboard Enterprise with his daughter Danica.

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

The plot involves the inventor of the transporter.

Official Short Synopsis: The inventor of the transporter, Emory Erickson, comes aboard Enterprise for a risky experiment.

Official full synopsis: The crew welcomes aboard Emory Erickson, the inventor of the transporter device, set to conduct a series of experiments to test a radical upgrade to the technology. However, once Enterprise reaches the test site, Archer realizes that his old family friend has lied and is using the ship to search for his son, lost years before in a transporter mishap.

Meanwhile, T'Pol begins to reexamine her Vulcan heritage in the wake of her mother's death.

Plot details Emory discusses Sub Quantum Teleportation around a table with Captain Archer. Trip assists Emory with the Teleporter upgrade, but after being dismissed by Emory after the successful transporer test, which sent a probe 140,000 km to collect data, the farthest anything has been teleported up to this point, Trip confides in Archer that many of Emory's upgrades and modificiations to the ships power systems were not part of his Transporter test. A photonic ghost kills a crewman, then reappears. Archer, T'Pol and security engage and T'Pol gets burned by the ghost, but the scans indicate that it is Emory's son. Archer agrees to help Emory lock on to his son and reassemble his signal which has been trapped in an empty bubble of quantum space, where the first transporter tests were conducted. His son is recovered.

[edit] Trivia

"Daedalus" is the first completely standalone Enterprise episode since "First Flight" which aired nearly two years earlier. This is calculated from the fact that "Bounty", the episode that followed "First Flight", was part of a Klingon-related story arc, while all episodes from "The Expanse" (second season finale) to "Home", the third episode of season four, were all connected to the season-long Xindi arc. "Home" was followed by several "mini-arcs" before "Daedalus" aired. However, the episode's sub-plot regarding T'Pol does refer back to the previous Vulcan mini-arc, with discussions regarding the death of her mother and the curing of her neural disease, as seen in Kir'Shara.
References are made to Zefram Cochrane's drinking habits, as seen in Star Trek: First Contact.
The title of the episode is a reference to the myth of Daedalus and Icarus. Daedalus devised wax wings which his son used without caution. He flew too close to the sun, had his wings melt off and then fell to his death. This is paralleled by Emory letting his son use the transporter without fully analyzing the risks first.