Terra Nova (episode)

Enterprise investigates the mystery of a lost Earth colony whose inhabitants disappeared decades before. But that doesn't mean they left.

Summary
The crew of Enterprise is going to investigate what happened to the Terra Nova colony. This was the first extra-solar Earth colony, and they lost all contact after a couple of unfriendly transmissions. When they arrive at the colony, they find no one, only a ghost town. The site also has a low level of radiation that would be harmful to Humans in the long term.

An away team composed of Travis Mayweather, T'Pol, Jonathan Archer and Malcolm Reed is dispatched. They make an unfriendly First Contact with strange Humans, resulting in Lieutenant Reed being taken hostage. Archer and Phlox then return, unarmed, to try to build trust with the residents. The doctor offers to take Nadet to Enterprise to treat her lung cancer.

It turns out that the Novans were opposed to a second convoy of Humans going to live in the home they struggled to build. Following that, relations with Earth degraded and, when an asteroid hit the planet, the colonists erroneously concluded that Earth was taking the colony back by force. The ensuing radiation from the impact left only the children surviving, which led to three generations of hatred for off-worlders and a migration to the "underside," a network of caverns where there was no radiation. With this insight, it becomes clear why the Novans are still suspicious, even when Phlox offers his help.

Phlox later discovers that the water supplies of the underside have recently been poisoned by radiation and that could lead to the colonists' descendants' extinction. T'Pol suggests that the Novans be relocated in caverns in the southern hemisphere where there is no radiation. Jamin's first impression is that Archer has simply found a plan to take their home from them, but he finally agrees to talk to his people about the idea.

When they return to the planet, the rescue of a wounded Novan helps build trust between Nadet's son and the captain. When they finally reach the other Novans, Nadet insists on telling them what awaits them and they finally accept the relocation plan, avoiding extinction.

Log Entries

 * Captain's starlog, supplemental. Sub-Commander T'Pol has discovered the remnants of an impact crater that could explain the radiation.

Memorable Quotes
"I'm not familiar with the early years of Human space exploration."

"Really? Every school kid on Earth had to learn about the famous Vulcan expeditions."

"Name one."

(after long pause) "History was never my best subject."
 * - Trip and T'Pol

"Asking favors of the Vulcans usually ends up carrying too high a price."
 * - Trip, to T'Pol

"My experience with Humans is limited, but I've come to learn that they are quite resourceful."
 * - T'Pol, to Captain Archer

"If those aliens killed the colonists they could kill Malcolm, too."

"Those weren't aliens. They're Human."
 * - Mayweather and T'Pol

"I'm leg broke!"
 * - Akary

"If these are the descendants of the original colonists, they've never seen other Humans before. Maybe, we look as strange to them as they did to us."
 * - Archer, after realizing who the Novans really were

"Ever heard of Judge Crater?"

"Crater?"

"Disappeared in the early 20th century. How about Amelia Earhart?"

"No."

"1937. Never found a trace of her. A lot of people spent years – decades – trying to figure out what happened to them. But neither of those mysteries holds a candle to Terra Nova. And we solved it!"
 * - Mayweather and T'Pol

"He speaks in shale."
 * - Novan, saying "He lies"

" What the hell do you think this is, a slave ship?"
 * - Archer to T'Pol

Background Information

 * Stunt coordinator Vince Deadrick, Jr. was pleased with the amount of space that the stunts for this episode were given. He later reminisced, "We had Scott [Bakula] dangling from a ledge, and we had him on a cable, which was great. We had some meat there." (Star Trek: Communicator issue 138, p. 42)
 * Erick Avari previously played Vedek Yarka in and B'iJik in.
 * This episode is one of seven Star Trek episodes with Latin names, in this case meaning "New Earth." (It also happens to be the Latin name for Newfoundland.) The others are, , , , , and.
 * Near the end of the episode, Mayweather mentions the mystery of Amelia Earhart. This mystery was solved 220 years later by the crew of USS Voyager in.
 * This is the first episode to name Phlox's species, Denobulan.
 * In a interview, Brannon Braga cited this as his least favorite episode from the entirety of Star Trek: Enterprise. "There happens to be an irony there. It was about finding a lost colony of humans, but it was boring and it was unfortunate that it was such an early episode," Braga critiqued.
 * In an apparent nod to TOS, when Archer and Reed enter the abandoned surface colony, Reed spins the wheel of an overturned bicycle--just like Dr. Leonard McCoy did in the desolate city in.

Video and DVD releases

 * UK VHS release (two-episode tapes, Paramount Home Entertainment): Volume 1.3,.
 * As part of the UK VHS collection Enterprise 1.1-1.3 Collectors Edition:
 * As part of the ENT Season 1 DVD collection.
 * As part of the ENT Season 1 Blu-ray collection.

Starring

 * Scott Bakula as Captain Jonathan Archer

Also Starring

 * 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

 * Erick Avari as Jamin
 * Mary Carver as Nadet/Bernadette Fuller

Co-Stars

 * Brian Jacobs as Athan
 * Greville Henwood as Akary

Uncredited Co-Stars

 * Steve Blalock as a Novan
 * Solomon Burke, Jr. as Billy
 * Cecilia Conn as a command division crewman
 * Clay Drayton as a Novan
 * Trinity Drayton as a Novan girl
 * Evan English as Ensign Tanner
 * Chad Evans as a Novan teen
 * Tracy Foley as a Novan woman
 * Stacy Fouche as an operations division crewman
 * Bryan Heiberg as an operations division crewman
 * Dieter Hornemann as a Novan guard
 * Redondo Philip as a Novan guard
 * Prada as Porthos
 * Moses Storm as a Novan boy
 * Unknown performers as
 * Bernadette Fuller (child; photograph)
 * Vera Fuller (photograph)
 * Six male Conestoga passengers (photographs)
 * Two female Conestoga passengers (photographs)

Stunt doubles

 * Vince Deadrick, Jr. as stunt double for Scott Bakula
 * Kiante Elam as stunt double for Anthony Montgomery
 * Steven Lambert as stunt double for Erick Avari