First Flight (Enterprise)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Star Trek: Enterprise episode
"First Flight"
Archer issues commands.
Episode no.	50
Prod. code	224
Airdate	May 14, 2003
Writer(s)	John Shiban Chris Black
Director	LeVar Burton
Guest star(s)	Brigid Brannagh Vaughn Armstrong Keith Carradine
Year	2153
Stardate	unknown
Episode chronology
Previous	"Regeneration"
Next	"Bounty"

"First Flight" is the title of a Star Trek: Enterprise television episode from season two.

1 Plot
2 Show arcs
3 Ship paintings
4 References

[edit] Plot

Captain Jonathan Archer receives word that his friend, Captain A.G. Robinson, has been killed in a climbing accident on Earth. Saddened by this news, and wanting to be alone for a while, Archer decides to take a shuttlepod to examine what is believed to be the first dark matter nebula ever observed. Sub-Commander T'Pol insists on going along; although her stated reason is scientific curiosity about the nebula, it's clear she wants to provide some sort of support for her friend.

During the mission, Archer tells T'Pol about Robinson, leading to a series of flashbacks to the earliest days of the NX program, in which Robinson and Archer were colleagues and rivals for the first command of a Warp 5 starship. Archer relates how he befriended his future chief engineer Charles Tucker III and how early experiments with warp power nearly ended the NX program a decade before the launch of Enterprise.

[edit] Show arcs

Since the next episode Bounty is part of a Klingon-related story arc, and the entire third season consisted of one story arc, "First Flight" would be the last completely standalone Enterprise episode until "Daedalus" aired midway through season 4.

[edit] Ship paintings

On the wall of the 602 Club, a bar frequented by Starfleet personnel, are paintings of several historical vessels:
- One is of the ringed Enterprise originally seen in Star Trek: The Motion Picture.
- A picture of Zefram Cochrane's Phoenix also appears.
- There is also a picture of the DY-100 class sleeper ship, S.S. Botany Bay, which Khan Noonien Singh had used in the original series episode "Space Seed" and Star Trek II: The Wrath Of Khan.