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"Civilization"
Production 009
11/14/2001
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Synopsis:
The Enterprise crew encounters a pre-industrial society
that is afflicted with a plague caused by exploitative
secret visitors.
Excitement is brewing onboard Enterprise as the starship
enters orbit of a Minshara-class planet with 500 million
lifeforms. Visual and acoustic scans reveal a
pre-industrial society called the Akaali. Over T'Pol's
protestations of protocol, Captain Archer decides the crew
should explore the civilization first-hand, rather than
use probes. But the mission becomes more critical when
neutrino emissions are detected on the surface, indicating
an antimatter reactor on a world that doesn't even have
indoor plumbing. So Archer sends himself, Ensign Sato,
Commander Tucker and T'Pol down to the planet disguised as
Akaali to investigate.
Split into two groups, the landing team follows their
scanners through the night toward the telltale emissions.
T'Pol and Sato are disturbed to see that many of the
people on the streets of the city are afflicted with
lesions. Archer and Tucker determine the antimatter
reactor is located underneath a small curio shop, and upon
breaking into the shop they find that the entrance to the
reactor is protected by an energy barrier. Suddenly a
crossbow is trained at them by a striking Akaali woman who
accuses them of causing a local plague with their "evening
deliveries." T'Pol arrives and stuns the woman with her
phase pistol. With dawn arriving, Archer sends the others
back to the shuttle while he stays behind with the woman,
whom he learns is an apothecary named Riaan. When she
wakes up, Archer tells her he's an investigator from
another city who is as curious as she is about the strange
goings-on at the curio shop and how they're related to the
epidemic. When the shop opens, Archer and Tucker confront
the owner, Garos, mutually realizing each are not of this
world. Garos, a Malurian, claims to be an explorer like
them who grew fond of the Akaali and chose to stay, and
the antimatter reactor is nothing more than a fabrication
device for food and clothing. He further claims the plague
is caused by an indigenous virus, and Riann's accusations
toward him are baseless. Archer is skeptical, so he visits
Riaan in her lab with T'Pol. While T'Pol surreptitiously
gathers data, Archer learns from Riaan that her brother
was one of the first victims of the epidemic, which
started shortly after Garos arrived. And suspicious
deliveries are taking place at night from Garos' shop to
different places outside the city. Later, Dr. Phlox
determines from T'Pol's readings that the city's
groundwater is contaminated with tetracyanate 622, a toxic
compound primarily used as an industrial lubricant, which
appears to be responsible for the plague.
That night Archer and Riaan watch the curio shop, waiting
for one of those deliveries. Their stakeout turns
awkwardly romantic when Archer's translator malfunctions
and he has no choice but to kiss Riaan to cover while
fixing it. But then they see a man hauling crates out of
Garos' shop, and they follow him to a forest clearing.
They watch as an alien shuttlecraft procures the crates
with a tractor beam. Riaan is shaken by these sights, and
Archer is about to confess his true identity when they
come under attack by the delivery man. Archer fights with
the attacker and succeeds in stunning him, in the process
undoing his prosthetic disguise to reveal his scaly-gray
alien skin. Archer pockets the alien's weapon, shop key
and a remote control unit, then explains everything to
Riaan as they return to the city. The enter the curio
shop, use the remote to disable the energy barrier, and
take a stairwell to find a massive underground drilling
operation operated by scaly-gray aliens. Archer determines
they're mining a veridium isotope, which is used to
manufacture explosives, and their drill bits are saturated
with tetracyanate. Determined to shut down the operation,
Archer tells Tucker to use the transporter to beam out the
reactor, once he can disengage the dampening field that
envelopes the entire mine. But he and Riaan misread the
alien controls and set off an alarm.
While a Malurian ship approaches Enterprise and opens
fire, Garos confronts Archer in the mine and warns him to
leave and never return. As Enterprise evades its
assailant, Archer manages to disable the dampening field
and escape with Riaan into the city where they get into a
phase-pistol fight with the aliens in front of the shocked
locals. Meanwhile Tucker tries to get a transporter lock
on the reactor while Enterprise fails to fend off the
Malurian ship. He gets the idea to beam the reactor into
space and fire a spatial torpedo at it, creating an
antimatter explosion that disables the attacking ship. On
the ground, Riaan uses her scientific prowess and
instructs Archer to shoot his phase-pistol into an oil
lamp on the street above Garos and his henchmen, exploding
it and thus giving Archer the upper hand. Defeated on each
front, Garos and his men leave the planet. The Enterprise
crew removes all the mining equipment and provides an
antidote for the plague, all without the Akaali knowing
what's really going on, with one exception: Riaan, who
doubts anyone would believe her anyway. Archer shares one
last kiss with her before trekking back into the unknown.
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:
Diane DiLascio as Riann
Wade Andrew Williams as Garos
Charlie Brewer as Alien/Akaali #1
Creative staff:
Director: Mike Vejar
Teleplay By: Phyllis Strong & Michael Sussman
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