Precious Cargo (''Star Trek: Enterprise'')

"Precious Cargo" is the thirty-seventh episode (production #211) of the American science fiction television series Star Trek: Enterprise airing on the UPN network. It is the eleventh episode of the series' second season. Enterprise tried to help a cargo vessel trying to transport a women in a malfunctioning stasis pod.^[1] When Tripp tries to fix it she wakes up setting the stage for adventure.^[2] This is one of Trips love interest episodes, bordering on a romantic adventure story with some comedic elements, but it is overall more consensual than when he is date raped by an alien in "Unexpected" (S1E5). It does have blatant romantic elements culminating in the two characters being discovered by archer in sweat soaked underwear on the swamp planet they crash landed on.^[3]

Set in the 22nd century, the series follows the adventures of the first Starfleet starship Enterprise, registration NX-01. In this episode, the Enterprise answers an alien distress call and Commander Tucker (Connor Trinneer) is kidnapped and then escapes with a spoiled and beautiful alien princess Kaitaama (Padma Lakshmi). She is from Krios Prime, which were race of aliens introduced on Star Trek: The Next Generation.

The episode has been compared to the film Star Wars (1977), with the Character Kaitaama being compared to Princess Leia.^[4] The overall theme of rescuing a princess, flirtatious one liners, and crash landing on a exoplanet like Dagobah.^[5]

The episode is noted by technologists for its depiction of the Universal Translator, one of the "treknologies" real-world experts are interested in realizing.^[6] Star Trek's universal translator technology was portrayed in the 1960s television show, and by the the 21st century Enterprise the UT was also shown.^[7]

The Retellian's cargo spacecraft was designed by John Eaves.^[8]

Production

Actress/Model Padma Lakshmi stars as an alien princess

Writer David Goodman wrote the script based on the story idea presented by Berman and Braga.^[9] Goodman notes that there had been a lot turnover after the first season with writers, and the one writer, Chris who had helped him on his draft was sad about this.^[10]

The episode guest stars the Indian-American actress and model Padma Lakshmi, that later went to host shows like NBC's Top Chef by the 2010s and she also was in ABC's "The Ten Commandments" (2006).^[11]

Plot

Firek Goff, the captain of a Retellian cargo vessel, docks and asks Captain Archer for help; a passenger-carrying stasis pod is malfunctioning. Archer then offers Trip's services, while also extending an offer of Enterprise hospitality to both the captain and his brother, Plinn. When Tucker enters the cargo hold inside Goff's ship, he notices a beautiful female alien beneath the stasis canopy. Goff tells him that she is a passenger traveling home from a planet where she was studying medicine. He explains that because his ship can't travel over warp 2.2, she has to be kept in stasis because there is not enough food to support them all.

As Tucker starts working on the stasis pod, it begins to fail, and fearing that the occupant will suffocate, he releases her. Tucker is then knocked unconscious by Goff, who then flees from the faster Enterprise by disabling her engines and ionizing its warp trail, but Plinn is left behind. The female passenger, Kaitaama, is initially hostile. However, Tucker uses the translator Ensign Sato left with him, and he learns she is a high-ranking soon-to-be First Monarch being held for ransom. Tucker has a plan for escape, and though she believes that her status will keep her safe, she joins Tucker in a one-man escape pod.

Meanwhile, Archer and Sub-Commander T'Pol use a ruse similar to "good cop/bad cop" to persuade Plinn to tell them how to locate Goff's ship. The plan works and Plinn reveals the warp core's signature frequency. After finding an island on the planet, Tucker and Kaitaama soon set up camp in a swamp, and their mutual antipathy eventually gives way to burgeoning sexual tension. But Goff soon locates them using the homing beacon on the escape pod. Tucker and Goff fight until the latter is subdued by Kaitaama, just as an Enterprise rescue team also arrives. Kaitaama is later collected by a battle cruiser from her home world of Krios Prime, leaving an invitation for Tucker to visit her in the future when she is in power.

Summary of fictional content

The show introduces two new alien humanoid races, and depicts a number of science fiction technolgies.^[12]

Aliens

• Retellian^[13]
• People of Krios Prime^[14]

A Retellian appears again briefly in Borderland (Star Trek: Enterprise) (ENT S4E4), Kriosians were introduced ten years prior on Star Trek: The Next Generation in 1992 and it is visited by the Enterprise-D (~200 years later in stardate time). In The Perfect Mate (S5E21) a romantically fixated telepath named Kamala from Krios (played by Famke Janssen) falls in love with Picard (Patrick Stewart). Unlike Kamala, Kaitaama is forbidden to have romance because she is going to become ruler of that planet, which apparently has some sort of alien monarchy. There is some confusion about Krios and their may be multiple planets with this name in the trekiverse

Technolgies

• Stasis Pod^[15] (See Suspended animation in fiction)
• Warp-drive cargo spacecraft of Retellians
• Krios Battlecruiser
• Universal Translator (Federation)
• Escape pod
• Survival kit
• Space docking (Between Enterprise and Krios Battlecruiser and the Retellian's Cargo spacecraft]

Viewership and reception

Precious Cargo was played on the UPN Network with an audience of almost 5 million people.^[16] As of 2017, it had a rating of 7.3 out 10 based on 164 votes on TV.com, with Padma Lakshmi getting the most votes for the shows "MVP".^[17] The scene with T'Pol and Archer is noted for making people laugh.^[18][19]

References

See also

• Metamorphosis (Star Trek: The Original Series) (Star Trek UT introduced, 1967)
• Arena (Star Trek: The Original Series) (Alien UT shown)
• Passengers (2016 film) (2016 Theater film also about a love story involving premature waking up from stasis)
• Space opera

External links

Wikiquote has quotations related to: "Precious Cargo"

• "Precious Cargo" on IMDb
• "Precious Cargo" at TV.com

• "Precious Cargo" at Memory Alpha (a Star Trek wiki)

• "Precious Cargo" at StarTrek.com