Bounty (episode)

Archer is captured by a Tellarite bounty hunter who plans to hand him over to the Klingons; a microbe induces the pon farr in T'Pol who finds herself confined to the decon chamber with Phlox.

Summary
The is exploring an uninhabited planet when a shuttle suddenly arrives. Captain Jonathan Archer and Charles Tucker return to the ship to greet a friendly Tellarite who eventually offers them to be their guide for a shore leave, as he pretends to know the planet well. Unfortunately, as soon as Archer is in physical proximity, the Tellarite abducts him, disabling the Enterprise starboard warp nacelle before going to warp. Lieutenant Malcolm Reed then orders everyone on the planet to return. Subcommander T'Pol and Doctor Phlox bring back an unusual microbe and have to go through decontamination, leaving Tucker in command.

From the discussion between Archer and Skalaar, we learn that the Tellarite is a bounty hunter and that he is planning to return the captain to the Klingons, since they offered a big reward after Archer's escape from Rura Penthe. Even if Skalaar had not been hunting criminals all his life – he was a freighter captain until the Klingons seized his ship, the Tezra – he seems to be pretty experienced and sends the Enterprise in the wrong direction with a beacon emitting a false warp signature.

A short while after, another bounty hunter, Kago-Darr, shows up to steal Archer from Skalaar. The Tellarite prefers to let Archer take the helm instead of having him taken away and they are able to knock off Kago's engines before they are also forced to land in order to make external repairs. Archer's attempt at sabotaging the ship is unsuccessful.

In the Enterprise's decon chamber, the microbe is giving T'Pol a hard time. She has difficulty controlling her emotions and eventually enters an artificially induced pon farr. Phlox is able to stay very professional in spite of the science officer's attempts at seduction. Unfortunately, T'Pol soon becomes aggressive and escapes from the chamber, but she doesn't go far as the deck is soon sealed and the Vulcan is stunned.

After a stop at his brother's workshop, Skalaar learned that the Klingons already cannibalized his dear Tezra and he becomes more compassionate towards Archer. He "locks" Archer with false handcuffs, a wise move since the Klingon captain, Goroth, decides to give him only 6,000 of the 9,000 promised darseks. On the Klingon ship, Archer eventually escapes from his holding cell and is able to make it to an escape pod. The Enterprise has no difficulty finding him after Skalaar gives them the Klingon ship's position. They get back their captain after disabling Goroth's ship's weapons.

In the end, Phlox's treatment seemed to have worked fine on T'Pol and Skalaar wishes best of luck to Archer, for the Klingon bounty will probably double after this new escape.

Memorable Quotes
"Your endorphine and hormonal levels are dangerously high!"

"You don't understand, I'm not ill."

"These are hardly normal readings!"

"They're normal for a Vulcan in my condition."
 * - Dr. Phlox and T'Pol, isolated in decon

"I'm hungry."

"Our meals will be here soon."

"I wasn't referring to food."
 * - T'Pol and Phlox

"Don't be frightened. I won't hurt you."

"You're disturbing my serum!"
 * - T'Pol and Phlox

Background Information

 * The selection of this episode's antagonist came early in the writing of the installment. Brannon Braga recalled, "When we sat down to develop the episode, we thought, why not make it a Tellarite bounty hunter. Why do Klingons again?" (, p. 31)
 * Robert O'Reilly is better known for his role as Gowron in Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. Jordan Lund also appeared in both those series, playing Kulge in – in which O'Reilly also appeared – and Woban in.
 * This is the first appearance of the revised Tellarite makeup by Michael Westmore and first appearance of the Tellarites since, discounting stock footage.
 * The interior of Skalaar's shuttle was a redress of the Class 2 shuttle set from Star Trek: Voyager.
 * The space station visited by the bounty hunter Skalaar and Archer was a reuse of the Cardassian repair facility CGI model from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. They appeared in the Monac shipyards in, as the Kelvas repair facility in and one was seen in orbit of Cardassia Prime in.
 * A Vulcan ship can be seen docked at the station with its warp ring in a horizontal position. This is the first and only time we see the ship in this type of configuration.
 * This is the last episode of the "original direction" of the series occurring just before the Xindi attack on Earth, as is depicted in . The premise of Enterprise being a ship of exploration was scrapped in favor of the year-long Xindi arc in season 3 and the usually short arcs (as well as a few single episodes) that were more often closely related to Star Trek: The Original Series in Enterprise's fourth season.
 * Captain Archer ejects in an escape pod off the Klingon vessel, though T'Pol claimed that Klingon vessels did not have escape pods in.
 * A Klingon stunt button panel from this episode was sold off on the It's A Wrap! sale and auction on eBay.

Starring

 * Scott Bakula as Captain Jonathan Archer
 * John Billingsley as Doctor Phlox
 * Jolene Blalock as Subcommander T'Pol
 * Dominic Keating as Lieutenant Malcolm Reed
 * Anthony Montgomery as Ensign Travis Mayweather
 * Linda Park as Ensign Hoshi Sato
 * Connor Trinneer as Commander Charles "Trip" Tucker III

Guest stars

 * Jordan Lund as Skalaar
 * Robert O'Reilly as Kago-Darr
 * Ed O'Ross as Gaavrin

Co-stars

 * Michael Garvey as Captain Goroth
 * Louis Ortiz as a Klingon Warrior

Uncredited co-stars

 * Eddie Conna as a Klingon warrior
 * Daphney Dameraux as an operations division ensign
 * Scott Hill as Ensign Hutchison
 * Ben Scott as a Klingon warrior

Stunt double

 * Mark Ginther as stunt double for Jordan Lund