2.13: Dawn

[Dave]

Archer must work together with the Arkonians, a militant species not on good terms with the Vulcans, to rescue Trip after he crash-lands on a moon in their territory.

 

[skoon]

oooh, when's this one to air? I like Trip...I'm not sure where in the season we are, I just know there's one on tonight.

 

[Dave]

According to the official site, the next episode to air on UPN is 'Carbon Creek'! Now I'm sure you've been shown more than that. And they wonder why the ratings are down, when they don't know themselves which ep they are showing!

We (in the UK) have to wait until January 2003 for 'Shockwave'.

From Trek Today
Trip Tucker is alone on a test mission aboard Shuttlepod One when he is fired upon by a territorial alien and forced to land on the night side of a moon. As he tries in vain to contact Enterprise, he discovers his alien foe has also made an emergency landing nearby, and the two nemeses must contend with each other as the extremely hot rising sun threatens their survival.

It began a seven-day production schedule on Monday, November 4, 2002 with most of the shoot taking place on sets representing the moon's exterior.

Zho'Kaan was named Sha'Khana in an early draft of the episode.

This is the plot of the film 'Enemy Mine' (1985) with Dennis Quaid & Louis Gossett Jr. IIRC it may be based on an even earlier story about two fighter pilots in WWII, one American, one Japanese. So it's as old as the hills!

My! My! They really are mining the wastebins of Hollywood for plots now. Except I think in 'Enemy Mine' the alien gets pregnant. They cant use that, because they've already had that story about Trip Tucker too!

 

[Dave]

I've been reading the comments on this ep. and they aren't good.

'Enemy Mine' frequently comes up. One thing that I forgot was that this story has been done before in 'Trek' too. In TNG 'The Enemy' Geordi La Forge was trapped with a Romulan on Galorndon Core.

The dialogue is trite, apparently, largely due to the alien being unable make himself understood. But Connor Trinner excels himself and makes a bad script better

 

[skoon]

Funny enough, I really really liked this episode & even watched it again when it repeated on Saturday (we get it Wednesdays & Sats).

Trip is shot down but both him & the Arkonian end up on a moon that's going to be really really hot when the sun comes up. Something in the atmospher disabled their ships or something. Of course bother their communicators are down. They have there spats between each other but in the end they get on friendly terms & Trip is able to combine the 2 communicator to contact Enterprise.

Sounds like an easy enough plot, but I found it enjoyable. I also love Trip so the bare chest thing did wonders...:blush:

 

[skoon]

I did have one beef though. Why didn't Entreprise at least beam down some supplies? e.g. water, something to shade them, etc.?

 

[Mariel]

I know that this was a rip off of Enemy Mine but it was still a good episode. I also wanted to know why they didn't have supplies beamed down. They were ready to beam Trip up but not supplies down.
:blpaw:

 

[Dave]

According to Roxanne Dawson, the director of the episode, in an interview in Star Trek Monthly #102, it has a fight scene between Trip and the alien (played by Gregg Henry) that she was told by the producers would be "the most extensive fight sequence that Star Trek History had ever seen."

That was my challenge, and it ended up being the turning point in the script. It was choreographed to within an inch of it's life. Of course, because of the time factor, our actors could not see it until the day that we shot. I'd given them an idea of what would be involved, and we also had stunt doubles, even though both actors did a lot of it on their own.... it took almost the entire day to shoot the fight sequence.

It ends up at about 2.5 minutes of airtime. A long time to be fighting, but it's important to the story that they can't fight any more and so have to reconcile. Does it work?

 

[skoon]

I think it did. Even when they made truces they tried to continue to fight but when they were both so physically exauhsted, what else can you do but put up with each other? When you stop fighting & start listening sometime you find out things about other people you would other wise not. I really enjoyed this wp...of course I like Trip best...

 

[Dave]

Now I've seen this I would say that it was much more like Picard and Darmok than 'Enemy Mine'. I liked it too, not the best ST ep, but not in the bottom league either.

Originally posted by Mariel
I also wanted to know why they didn't have supplies beamed down. They were ready to beam Trip up but not supplies down.

It was the heat that was the main problem by that point, but a protective environmental suit, or some of whatever it was the Arkonian drank would have helped.

The Arkonians -- I wonder what happens to them in the next 300 years? Another race wiped from the spirals of the galaxy! <Huge sigh!>

 

[Brit Chick]

Not the worst ep I've seen, but I was certainly having deja vu for the TNG Ep 'The Enemy' - even had the same problem of having to get a beacon going (similar anyway)

Also, similarities to Darmok

And whats the name of the TOS where Kirk was left on a planet to fight a big bad monster - although the storyline may have been way different on that one - I have to confess my knowledge of classic trek is not a good as TNG

We are kinda getting a lot of Trip tho - the last two eps have revolved around him.

 

[Dave]

Originally posted by Brit Chick
And whats the name of the TOS where Kirk was left on a planet to fight a big bad monster - although the storyline may have been way different on that one - I have to confess my knowledge of classic trek is not a good as TNG.

The episode was called 'Arena'. Kirk has to fight a Gorn Captain. And yes, there were similarities there too.