Enterprise 1.6 FAQ

What’s it called?

“Terra Nova.”

What does Herc secretly call this episode when no one is looking?

“Cave Dudes!”

Who’s responsible?

Teleplay is credited to the improbably named Antoinette Stella (“Melrose Place,” “Providence”).

What does TV Guide say?

“Archer's determination to solve the mystery of Terra Nova, a legendary lost deep-space colony, leads to a tense encounter with a tribe of human-hating cave-dwellers.”

The big surprises?

We finally learn the name of Dr. Phlox’s species. (Turns out he’s a Denobulan! I think.) Phlox also tells us lung cancer is easily cured.

What is TV Guide not telling us?

Those cave dwellers talk a lot like the plane-crash kids from “Beyond Thunderdome”: “Take that one and don’t track back!” “I lived on the overside!” “Our go-before shared the same path!”

Lost deep space colony? How long ago were they lost?

Some 70 years prior to this episode. It took the colonists nine years to reach Terra Nova using Zepfram Cochrane’s primitive warp technology. Five years after settling there, the moody colonists told Earth to send no more Terrans. The Earthers apparently did not care for this prohibition, but did abide by it.

What does the Enterprise crew find on arrival?

A highly irradiated atmosphere.

From whence does this radiation hail?

Shades of Khan! A very large radioactive asteroid apparently covered a good portion of the planet in a deadly cloud shortly after the colonists arrived.

Any other surprises?

Turns out the Novans – a bunch of creepy, gun-toting mole-people – claim to hate humans. There is irony afoot, for T’Pol learns in the first act that the Novans themselves are (mud-covered) humans.

How is the mystery of the Terra Novans solved?

The colonists’ last, 70-year-old transmission (one that never made it to Earth) is found in a communications buffer.

What’s in that final message?

An indication that the colonists were more than a little mixed up about the origins of the deadly asteroid.

What’s good?

I continue to enjoy how T’Pol cooly refuses to get sucked in to all the shipboard Vulcan-baiting. (There’s some lingering resentment over the fact that Vulcan ships were a lot faster than the Earth ship that transported the colonists.)

What’s not so good?

No Khoms! No Yangs! No Grups! No one tries to piece together a half-baked rendition of the Pledge of Allegiance! Also, I was hoping for a better explanation as to why the early Novans so against the idea of a second wave of colonization. Oh, and the writers need to work on their epilogues; “Enterprise” episodes all seem to end a little too abruptly.

How does tonight's episode end?

The crew must act when it’s discovered that the caves no longer offer effective refuge from the local radiation.

Herc’s rating for “Enterprise” 1.6?

**1/2

The Hercules T. Strong Rating System:

• ***** better than we deserve
• **** better than most motion pictures
• *** actually worth your valuable time
• ** as horrible as most stuff on TV
• * makes you quietly pray for bulletins

I warn you not to defy me!! Mmm cookies!!

I am – Hercules!!

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