Rogue Planet (Enterprise)

ST episode
name =Rogue Planet


series =Enterprise
ep_num =17
prod_num =118
date =March 20, 2002
writer =Rick Berman
Brannon Braga
Chris Black
Teleplay by:
Chris Black
director =Allan Kroeker
producer =Dawn Valazquez
guest =Stephanie Niznik
Conor O'Farrell
Eric Pierpoint
Keith Szarabajka
stardate =unknown
year =2151
prev =Fusion
next =Acquisition

"Rogue Planet" is the seventeenth episode (production #118) of the television series "".

ynopsis

While exploring an uncharted planet, Enterprise crew members encounter a group of aliens who are hunting down indigenous creatures for recreation.

Plot

Teaser
On the Bridge, Trip is trying to take a picture of Archer in order for an artist to paint a portrait to be hung in Starfleet Headquarters. A planet appears on sensors, adrift and without a solar system. As Archer orders the ship to investigate, Trip takes his photo.

Act One
T'Pol scans the planet. Lifeforms are clustered around vents where superheated gas erupts from the planets' interior. Reed detects a ship near the equator. It doesn't respond to Hoshi's hails.

Archer, T'Pol, Reed and Hoshi take a shuttlepod down to the surface. They track the ship with tricorders and nightsights. Archer and Reed find out that they were both Eagle Scouts; Archer had 26 merit badges and Reed had 28. The Away Team find the remains of a campsite 200 metres from the alien shuttle. T'Pol and Reed go off to locate the shuttle while Archer and Hoshi remain to meet the aliens if they return.

As T'Pol and Reed walk through the jungle, they are tracked by Burzaan and Shiraht, two of the Eska hunting party. Their tricorders do not register the Eska properly, allowing them to be surprised. Both parties holster their weapons and make their way back to the camp, where they find Archer and Hoshi with an Eska called Damrus. The Eska call the planet Dekala and say that it is a special place for them. They allow the Away Team to spend the night with them.

Over dinner, Damrus explains that the Eska have been visiting Dekala for nine generations to hunt the wildlife. They leave the higher primates alone. Reed asks to be allowed to join in a hunt in order to see how the Eska move without being detected by the Away Team's nightsights. Damrus agrees with Archer's consent.

:"Captain's starlog, supplemental. Trip and Malcolm are bringing Hoshi back to "Enterprise" and putting together some camping gear to bring back to the surface."

Archer, T'Pol, Trip and Reed are joined by Damrus around the campfire. He says that the Eska will begin their hunt in six hours' time. The Away Team turn in for the night, leaving Archer with the fire. Later, he is dozing when he hears a woman's voice calling his name. A rustle in the trees attracts Archer's attention. Archer leaves the camp with a flashlight and finds a blonde woman in a clearing, who runs away as he approaches.

Act Two
Later, none of the Eska nor the Away Team report seeing anything unusual, and the "Enterprise" reports no other ships in orbit or on the surface. None of the party believes that Archer really saw a person but he maintains that he did and more so that he knew her. Later, the hunting party set out to track a pack of fire wolves near some volcanic vents.

Archer, T'Pol and Trip set out to map the geological features. As T'Pol goes to investigate a geothermal shaft, Archer explains to Trip that he felt that he had no control over his actions, that he was being drawn towards the woman the previous night. At the same time, the hunting party see a wraith ahead on the trail. To Reed, it appears to be a sensor ghost. Damrus sends him away with Shiraht while he and Shiraht track it.

As Trip takes photos of the steam vents, Archer sees the woman again and moves in to the jungle to follow her. She tells Archer in English that he is different from the others and then looks distressed, exclaiming "Harm!" At the same time, elsewhere in the forst, the Eksa shoot at something. Archer is distracted by Trip and finds that she has disappeared when he looks back.

Back at the hunters, Damrus and Burzaan pause to scan the jungle. They detect a wraith which then jumps on Burzaan.

Act Three
Archer has Burzaan sent back to the "Enterprise" for treatment by Phlox. He and T'Pol remain behind and Archer tells T'Pol of seeing the woman again. T'Pol suggests that Archer reconsider returning to the ship. Archer insists on going to find the woman again - alone. T'Pol wonders if his insistence would be so great if the person were a scantily-clad man.

In Sickbay, Phlox reports to Trip that he has found cellular residue in Burzaan's wound. The cells are mutating, trying to turn in to something but they don't quite know what.

By the steam vents, Archer encounters the woman again. She says that her kind can assume the form of anything on the planet. She is a human female because that it what Archer wanted to see. The woman says that her kind are the highest-prized prey for the Eska and the wraiths want it to stop.

Act Four
The hunting party and the Away Team are gathered around the campfire. When questioned, Damrus explains that the reason the Eska visit Dekala is because the prey can sense their thoughts, making it difficult to hunt and kill. Damrus goes on, saying that the wraiths emit a chemical signature when they are afraid, one that the Eska scanners can detect. Back onboard the "Enterprise", Archer asks Phlox if he can find a way for the wraiths to mask their chemical signature using the tissue sample Phlox found earlier. That way, the playing field would be levelled between the hunters and their prey.

In the Mess Hall, Archer tells Trip about a poem by W. B. Yeats that his mother would read to him when Archer had trouble sleeping, [http://www.bartleby.com/146/9.html"The Song of Wandering Aengus"] . The subject of the poem is a man who finds a magical fish that transforms in to a beautiful woman who asks him never to hunt her again. The man spends the rest of his life trying to find her. The form taken by the wraith is the same as the woman imagined by the young Jonathan Archer when he listened to the poem. Phlox hails to say that he has found something for the wraiths.

Act Five
On Dekala, the hunting party are having problems detecting the wraiths. They make it back to camp after being attacked by a wraith that they were tracking to encounter Trip and Archer. Damrus wonders why they have failed to track a wraith at the same time as they have encountered the "Enterprise". Archer blames it on bad luck. The Eska depart and Archer encounters the woman for the final time. She says that she gave the other wraiths the masking agent and thanks Archer. He tells her that he finally remembers where he first encounered her and the woman tells him to "never stop looking for what seems unobtainable". As she moves off in to the forest, the wraith assumes its natural form, a large gastropod and Archer shakes his head in surprise.

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