Terra Prime (episode)

A Human isolationist leader threatens to destroy Starfleet Command unless all aliens leave the Sol system immediately. (Part 2 of 2)

Summary
The Enterprise crew hurries to avert disaster. John Frederick Paxton is set to fire at the Starfleet Command complex by using their verteron array. Time is running out. While T'Pol and Trip Tucker are held hostages by Paxton, Paxton shows them the Vulcan-Human hybrid baby. In the meantime, the crew of Enterprise devise a plan to disguise the shuttle in a comet heading toward Mars' North pole. When the crew manages to get on the surface, the Carl Sagan Memorial Station plaque is observed. Tucker has to help Paxton to fix his weapons. When Tucker is caught sabotaging the weapons, Paxton orders him to be put into the detention center, from which he then escapes. When Archer, Reed, Phlox, and Mayweather infiltrate the Orpheus Mining Complex, they find Tucker and team up. They manage to get into the control room, where Josiah tries to prevent Tucker from shutting down the array, shooting him. Josiah is also shot and a firefight ensues between Paxton and Archer. A phase pistol shot misses and hits the window, causing the room to start to depressurize. Reed is hit. While Archer puts his mask on Tucker, Paxton speaks about Henry Archer and tells Captain Archer the reason why he turned against Humanity. He says it was because Henry wanted the warp five engine badly. The window at this point breaks and Paxton arms the weapon. The beam fires into the Pacific Ocean killing some aquatic life, and not at San Francisco, as a result of Tucker's intervention. Then, after Paxton is arrested, the crew discover that there is a Terra Prime operative on Enterprise. The crew scrambles to save Nathan Samuels from harm. When Archer finds the operative, the operative shoots himself.

Meanwhile, Dr. Phlox scrambles to find a cure for the baby, named Elizabeth (for Tucker's late sister) by T'Pol, who is dying due to defects in the Terra Prime doctors' attempts to reconcile Human and Vulcan DNA. Unfortunately, Phlox is unable to save the girl.

Later, Tucker arrives in T'Pol's quarters, and Tucker informs T'Pol that the delegates want to attend Elizabeth's memorial; though they are both still mourning their devastating loss, Tucker tells T'Pol that Phlox has determined that the flaws in the cloning process are correctable, and that in the future, Humans and Vulcans could have a child. In an ironic turn for the woman who refused to shake his hand when they first met, T'Pol takes the sobbing Tucker's hand in hers as they sit together.

Memorable Quotes
"There's nothing normal about it."

"She's not an 'it'!"
 * - Paxton and Tucker, discussing Elizabeth

"If this coalition of Archer's works, then you'll be busier than ever."

"Quite right. So I suspect this is the last time we'll ever meet."

"Always the optimist."
 * - Harris and Malcolm

"You can't stop it from firing, I locked it."
 * - John Frederick Paxton

"She's dying."
 * - T'Pol

"Terra Prime... forever."
 * - John Frederick Paxton's final words on screen

"There are protesters chanting outside the Andorian embassy... and they're using words that aren't in the universal translator."
 * - Ambassador Thoris

"Hello. I'm your mother. You're going to need a name.  We'll discuss that with your father."
 * - T'Pol, to the as yet unnamed baby Elizabeth

"Well, that was fun. Can we do it again?"
 * - Malcolm Reed, after the shuttlepod follows the comet into the atmosphere

"'32!"

"Hmm?"

"This is the 32nd planet I've set foot on!"

"248!"


 * - Malcolm Reed and Phlox, after getting out of the shuttlepod on Mars' surface

"When you invited me to join this crew, I thought it would be an interesting... diversion, for a few months... some time away from the complications of family - which on Denobula can be extremely complicated. I didn't expect to gain another family... it hurts as if she were my child."
 * - Dr. Phlox, breaking the bad news about Elizabeth to Archer

"Up until about a hundred years ago, there was one question that burned in every Human, that made us study the stars and dream of traveling to them. Are we alone? Our generation is privileged to know the answer to that question. We are all explorers driven to know what's over the horizon, what's beyond our own shores. And yet the more I've experienced, the more I've learned that no matter how far we travel, or how fast we get there, the most profound discoveries are not necessarily beyond that next star. They're within us, woven into the threads that bind us, all of us, to each other. A final frontier begins in this hall. Let's explore it together."
 * - Captain Archer

"If a Vulcan and a human ever decided to have a child, it'd probably be okay. That's sort of comforting."
 * - Tucker

Background Information

 * Gary Graham (Ambassador Soval) and Eric Pierpoint (Harris) were previously regulars on the television series  together. They played Matt Sykes and George Francisco, respectively. Interestingly, here their roles are reversed: Graham plays an alien while Pierpoint plays a Human.
 * Manny Coto originally pushed to have the short, gold-skinned species from attend the Coalition of Planets conference, but it proved too expensive. He named the species Ithenite which was mentioned in  before.
 * This is the only episode where Hoshi Sato is seen in command of the during a mission.
 * This episode originally aired on the same night as the series finale,
 * Ambassador Thoris was originally intended to be Shran, but the producers decided they wanted him in "These Are the Voyages..." instead, so they wrote him out of the script.
 * This is the final appearance of Ambassador Soval (Gary Graham) on the series.
 * An original version of the script had T'Pol singing a lullaby in Vulcan to her baby, when she says "Hello, I am your mother."
 * This is the final episode of Star Trek: Enterprise that is actually set in the 22nd century, as the series' finale, "These Are the Voyages...", is set in the year 2370.
 * Among the items from this episode which were sold off on the It's A Wrap! sale and auction on eBay is a pair of LCARS style button boards.
 * The book Star Trek 101, by Terry J. Erdmann and Paula M. Block, lists this episode as one of the "Ten Essential Episodes" from Star Trek: Enterprise.
 * The Carl Sagan Memorial Station plaque was the final piece of art design Michael Okuda created for the Star Trek franchise. (ENT Season 4 DVD audio commentary)

Starring

 * Scott Bakula as Captain Jonathan Archer
 * John Billingsley as Doctor Phlox
 * Jolene Blalock as Commander 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

 * Harry Groener as Nathan Samuels
 * Gary Graham as Vulcan Ambassador Soval
 * Eric Pierpoint as Harris
 * Adam Clark as Josiah
 * Peter Mensah as Daniel Greaves
 * Johanna Watts as Gannet Brooks
 * Derek Magyar as Commander Kelby
 * Joel Swetow as Andorian Ambassador Thoris

Special guest appearance by

 * Peter Weller as John Frederick Paxton

Co-stars

 * Josh Holt as Ensign Masaro
 * Amy Rohren as Tactical Officer

Uncredited co-stars

 * Nancy Avila as a Starfleet commodore
 * Ron Balicki as an Orpheus miner
 * Daphney Dameraux as
 * Alien ambassador
 * Operations division ensign
 * Amy Earhart as a Vulcan delegate
 * Evan English as an alien ambassador
 * Tarik Ergin as a Tellarite delegate
 * Nikki Flux as Denobulan ambassador
 * Glen Hambly as
 * Operations division ensign
 * Andorian delegate
 * Dieter Hornemann as a Vulcan delegate
 * Chase Hoyt as a Starfleet lieutenant
 * John Jurgens as an operations division crewman
 * Mark Major as Rigelian ambassador
 * Melissa O'Keeffe as an alien ambassador
 * Woody Porter as a Rear admiral
 * Pablo Soriano as a Tellarite delegate
 * Trey Stokes as a Tellarite delegate
 * Ator Tamras as a science division ensign
 * David Venafro as Andorian delegate
 * James Ward as an alien ambassador
 * Unknown performers as
 * Alien ambassador
 * Female Rigelian ambassador
 * Orpheus miner

Stunt double

 * Shawn Crowder as stunt double for Connor Trinneer