Dawn (Enterprise)

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Star Trek: Enterprise episode
"Dawn"
Trip has to survive alongside a hostile alien
Episode no.	39
Prod. code	213
Airdate	January 8, 2003
Writer(s)	John Shiban
Director	Roxann Dawson
Guest star(s)	Gregg Henry Brad Greenquist
Year	2152
Stardate	unknown
Episode chronology
Previous	"The Catwalk"
Next	"Stigma"

"Dawn" is the 39th episode (production #213) of the television series Star Trek: Enterprise. This episode bears a marked similarity to the 1985 film Enemy Mine both in plot and the appearance of the Arkonians.

[edit] Synopsis

Trip is fired upon by an Arkonian ship and is stranded on a desert moon with his attacker.

[edit] Plot

Trip tests autopilot technology on a shuttle pod -- using a gas giant planet and its sixty-two moons as traffic cones -- when his ship falls under phaser fire from another shuttle-sized ship. He loses main power and sets to crash land on a moon.

The Enterprise starts a search and are joined by an Arkonian ship. The Arkonians are territorial, aggressive, and have their own tainted history with the Vulcans. While they want the Enterprise out of this system, the captain joins with Archer in searching for the lost shuttles -- sixty-two moons are a lot to search.

While keeping a running log entry, Trip tries to repair communications to get help. This task isn't made easy since his attacker also crashed on the moon and isn't the sharing type. They trade off taking each other hostage, but Trip never loses sight of the need to use the surviving technology from both shuttles to get the transmitter working.

Trip contacts the Enterprise. As the sun is rising, the temperature on the moon is getting dangerously hot. Because the moon's atmosphere will cause any shuttle pod to lose power, the Enterprise will have to transport. But the alien, who, according to Tucker, is unable to sweat, is in too much physical distress to survive it, and Trip won't abandon his new friend, and for some reason no one thinks of beaming down a translator, shelter, or even some water. Archer has the Arkonians launch a shuttle modified to repel the power- shutting- down particles in the planets atmosphere. While Arkonians are still territorial and aggressive, T'Pol concedes that Archer has accomplished friendlier and more productive relations with the species in one day than the Vulcans did in a hundred years.

The plot of this episode bears much in common with the storyline of Enemy Mine (film).