Twilight (Star Trek: Enterprise)
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| Star Trek: Enterprise episode | |
| "Twilight" | |
.jpg/250px-Twilight_(ENT_episode).jpg) Enterprise is affected by an anomaly and soon after Archer is unable to form new, long-term memories. |
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| Episode no. | 60 |
|---|---|
| Prod. code | 308 |
| Airdate | November 5, 2003 |
| Writer(s) | Michael Sussman |
| Director | Robert Duncan McNeill |
| Guest star(s) | Gary Graham Brett Rickaby |
| Year | 2153 |
| Stardate | unknown |
| Episode chronology | |
| Previous | "The Shipment" |
| Next | "North Star" |
"Twilight" is the 60th episode of the television series Star Trek: Enterprise that was broadcast midway through the show's third season.
[edit] Plot summary
Like TNG's "Yesterday's Enterprise" and Voyager's "Year of Hell", this episode involves an alternate timeline. While rescuing T'Pol from a spatial anomaly, Archer is infected by subspace parasites in his cerebral cortex, resulting in anterograde amnesia. His condition, reminiscent of Alzheimer's Disease, prevents him from forming new long term memories. In other words, Archer remembers everything prior to the accident, but any new memories would fade within a few hours. It becomes clear that Archer is not fit for duty, and he is subsequently relieved of his command. Admiral Forrest of Starfleet grants T'Pol a field commission to Captain. Unfortunately, the mission fails. Earth and every human colony is wiped out by the Xindi. The only surviving convoy of humans is led by Enterprise under T'Pol's command to Ceti Alpha V.
Twelve years pass and Dr. Phlox finds a cure. Unfortunately, the Xindi track Phlox right to the human colony and begin to attack. This, however, corrects the timeline – Phlox discovers that when he uses radiation treatments to kill one of the parasites in Archer's brain, the parasite also vanishes from every medical scan Phlox took – as if the parasite never existed. Phlox and Enterprise crewmen devise a plan in which Archer will be subjected to repeated radiation treatments which will eliminate all of the parasites in his brain; therefore, since Archer will never have been infected, he would have remained captain and possibly prevented Earth's destruction. Unfortunately, the ship is attacked by Xindi vessels before the treatments can be completed. Phlox noted before that a subspace implosion would also destroy the parasites. Phlox, T'Pol, and Archer set the ship to create a subspace implosion. Their plan works and the ship is destroyed; the subspace parasites are destroyed by the implosion (which exist outside the normal space/time realm). The next scene goes back to Archer in sick bay after being injured from the anomaly. However, since the parasites have been retroactively destroyed, Archer's memory is normal and he remains captain.
[edit] Trivia
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Trivia sections are discouraged under Wikipedia guidelines. The article could be improved by integrating relevant items and removing inappropriate ones. |
- At the start of the episode, an allusion is made to Scott Bakula's other hit sci-fi series, Quantum Leap (1989–1993), when Captain Archer sees himself out of sorts in the mirror.
- Ceti Alpha V is the planet that Captain Kirk would deposit Khan Noonien Singh on in The Original Series episode "Space Seed". Reference is also made to the Mutara Nebula, where the climactic battle between Captain Kirk and Khan occurs in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1983). This is also meant to be a cruel irony as Ceti Alpha V would be forever changed into a wasteland in the 23rd century by the destruction of Ceti Alpha VI. Thus humanity would be doomed regardless.
- The Ceti eel does not seem to be a problem for the human colonists; perhaps the creature became a menace after the environment was altered, but that is not consistent with the non-canon novel "To Rule In Hell: The Exile of Khan Noonian Singh", in which the eel was found to cause problems while the ecosystem was healthy.
[edit] External links
- Episode information from STARTREK.COM
- Twilight article at Memory Alpha, a Star Trek wiki
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