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"Terra
Nova"
Production 006
10/24/2001
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Synopsis:
Archer and the Enterprise crew set out to learn what
happened to the lost human colony of Terra Nova, and
discover a tribe of human-hating cave dwellers.
Over 75 years ago the spaceship Conestoga left Earth on a
nine-year one-way mission to establish the first human
colony outside the solar system, called Terra Nova. The
colony thrived on their beautiful new planet, and was such
a success the Space Agency on Earth decided to send
another vessel. The colonists protested and angry messages
were traded, then one day all transmissions from Terra
Nova ceased. Decades later the Warp 5-capable Enterprise
NX-01 is dispatched to find out what happened to that lost
colony.
After the ship enters orbit over Terra Nova, Captain
Archer's hails go unanswered and scans show no bio-signs,
but low levels of mysterious radiation are detected.
Archer leads an away team to the surface and finds the
colony structures deserted and rusting. T'Pol determines
that the radiation levels 70 years ago would have been
lethal, but no bodies are found. But then Lt. Reed detects
a humanoid moving through the forest, and the away team
tracks the figure to the mouth of a network of caverns.
Archer and Reed go in to explore and encounter a society
of cave dwellers wearing scaly body armor. Attempts at
friendly communication are met with gunfire, and Reed
takes a bullet in the thigh. Archer has no choice but to
escape the barrage and retreat with the other crewmen,
leaving Reed behind. While they take off in the shuttlepod,
T'Pol's scans indicate the attackers are human.
Back on Enterprise, new scans reveal 52 bio-signs
underground, all human, but right now Archer is only
interested in the injured Reed. As they examine the cavern
geology to plan a rescue, Archer and T'Pol conjecture that
the cave dwellers are descendents of the original
colonists, driven underground by the radiation. Archer
takes Dr. Phlox with him back to the surface and they let
themselves be captured. The cave dwellers speak to them in
an odd dialect of English, calling themselves Novans. The
aged Jamin and his sickly mother Nadet express their
resentment toward humans, whom they blame for the "poison
rain" many years ago. Archer tries to convince the Novans
that they're descended from humans, and wants to help them
determine the true cause of the radiation. And after Phlox
diagnoses Nadet with lung cancer, Archer offers to treat
her aboard his "sky ship." Jamin consents, on the
condition that Reed stay behind despite his injury, and he
and Nadet ride the shuttlepod with Archer and Phlox to
Enterprise.
Although Nadet is a troublesome patient, Phlox is able to
determine a treatment for her. While he synthesizes
medicine, Archer shows the guests archived pictures from
the early days of the Terra Nova colony, but Jamin accuses
Archer of lying and trying to confuse them. Meanwhile
T'Pol discovers an impact crater on the surface indicating
that an asteroid collision caused a radioactive cloud
about 70 years ago that enveloped the northern hemisphere
where the colony was located. Also, ensigns Sato and
Mayweather unearth from the colony's communications tower
a transmission still in the data buffer, from a colony
leader accusing Earth of making an attack. Archer surmises
that only the colony's young children survived the
radiation and began living underground, and their last
memories were of their parents blaming humans for
destroying the colony. Dr. Phlox then informs Archer that
the Novans are suffering from micro-cellular decay caused
by contaminated groundwater, which he cannot treat. Archer
attempts to explain the situation to the Jamin and Nadet
and convince them the Novans need to leave the planet and
come to Earth. They are resistant and accusatory as usual,
so Archer shows Nadet another archived photo that he
found, one that includes her mother and herself as a
child. It sparks her memory, but Jamin insists on
returning to the surface, threatening that Reed will be
"gutted" if they are not back before daybreak. Since
Archer refuses to take the Novans by force, T'Pol offers
an alternative that won't destroy their unique culture:
relocate them to the southern hemisphere, which is
unaffected by the asteroid. On the shuttlepod ride back,
Archer appeals to Jamin and Nadet to consider that
proposal and talk to their people about it.
When the shuttlepod lands, the ground collapses beneath
them and they fall into the underground caverns. They
escape the shuttle unhurt, and Jamin sets out to guide
Archer back to where Reed is, but then they hear the cries
of a Novan man who has become trapped by a large fallen
root in a deep pit rapidly filling with water. In order to
save him, Jamin and Archer have to work together, and
Jamin decides to trust Archer to use his phase-pistol to
cut the root in half so they can pry it off the injured
man. Later, though, it is Nadet who appeals to the other
Novans to listen to the humans, finally acknowledging that
she was the little girl in that picture and that she is
herself human. After the Enterprise crew helps the Novans
relocate, thus saving them from extinction, Archer gives
Mayweather the honor of writing the report for Starfleet
describing how the Terra Nova puzzle was solved at last.
Cast:
Scott Bakula as Captain Jonathan Archer
Connor Trinneer as Chief Engineer Charles Tucker III
Jolene Blalock as Sub-commander T'Pol
Dominic Keating as Lt. Malcolm Reed
Anthony Montgomery as Ensign Travis Mayweather
Linda Park as Ensign Hoshi Sato
John Billingsley as Dr. Phlox
Guest Cast:
Erick Avari as Jamin
Mary Carver as Nadet
Brian Jacobs as Athan
Greville Henwood as Akary
Creative staff:
Director: LeVar Burton
Written By: Rick Berman & Brannon Braga
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