Daedalus
Date: Unknown
Original Airdate: January 14, 2005
By Morbo

The Story
Enterprise prepares to receive Emory Erickson, the inventor of the transporter. Trip is understandably excited to met one of his idols, a fact which Archer gently ribs him for. Emory beams aboard with his daughter Danica. Emory muses that he never thought Archer would be more famous than he, but once their experiment is complete, Starfleet may just be obsolete.

Tucker talks to T’Pol about how much she’s been keeping to herself. She claims that she’s been busy reading the Kir’Shara, and rebuffs his suggestion that she’s been affected by her mother’s death. Later in the Captain’s Mess, the group talks about the upcoming experiment involving sub-quantum transportation. In theory, the distance that could be travelled using such technology would be limitless. He recalls the conversations he used to have with Archer’s father, about whether the future was in the warp drive or transporters. They toast to his memory.

The arrive at the Barrens, a region of space 100 light years from any star systems, the perfect conditions for Emory’s tests. While preparing, Trip gushes, and Emory kindly takes the praise. However, when Trip asks if he can hook up Emory’s power converter, he politely, but firmly, says no.

Archer shows Danica the ship, and marvels at her intimate knowledge of the ship. When he asks her why she never joined Starfleet, she tells him that she could never leave her father, especially after his son Quinn died, fifteen years ago. She returns to her quarters to give Emory his daily treatment, and tells him about her reservations about lying to the crew. She asks why they can’t just tell them the truth, but Emory tells her that Archer’s first duty is to his ship.

In the armoury, a power failure strikes. Ask Reed and a redshirt creep to find the source of the lightshow, the lightshow engulfs and kills him. The redshirt. In sickbay, they discover that an intense burst of delta radiation did him in. For Danica, his death is the last straw, but Emory once again calms her down and convinces her to continue with the plan.

They begin the first test, successfully beaming a buoy 40,000 km, the furthest anything had ever been beamed before. Trip reports to Archer afterwards, informing him that most of the work Emory had him do was busy work, not really related to the test. Archer’s also found out that he’d lied about never having seen the lightshow entity before: 5 years ago on his research vessel a similar incident took place.

The entity appears again, this time passing briefly through T’Pol, leaving her hand badly scarred. Using visual readings, they discover that the entity’s actually Quinn. Emory confesses the true purpose behind his research: trying to get his son back. He’d let his son go through during one of the first tests of the quantum transporter, but it left his signal trapped in a bubble in subspace.

When Trip and T’Pol protest Archer’s declaration that the tests will go ahead, he chews them out. They both reluctantly return to work. Quinn appears again, this time in the shuttlebay. When he travels through a nearby wall, he causes a massive explosion, nearly killing Emory. However, Emory gets the needed readings and predicts when his son will appear next.

At the next interval, they are able to get a lock on Quinn, but the signal’s not stable. The pattern begins to fade and his lifesigns grow weaker. Phlox warns that he’s suffered massive cellular deterioration; if they complete the transport, Emory will die. They urge him to let Quinn go. Emory completes the transport, and says goodbye to his son. He later tells the others that it’s better to be alive or dead, not somewhere in between.

Analysis

The Good

• Well, uh... I like the title

The Bad

• Horrible direction. Just... horrible. What was up with the zooming in at weird moments? I suppose they were trying to up the tension, but isn’t the tension already at the max? Stop trying make a transport sequence seem like an action sequence? Trying to give a new style of shooting episodes is admirable. A shake-up could be needed. But integrate it into the whole show, not two misplaced shots where it sticks out like a sore thumb. This isn’t a music video.
• Archer. Just... What else needs to be said about this guy. He’s obviously unbalanced, an emotional basket case, and someone who obviously doesn’t have his priorities straight. Nobody can question him. As he clearly says, any decision he makes is the right one and no one’s to question it. I guess if that’s the sort of ship he wants to run, that’s his purgative. Emory’s dead wrong when he claims Archer’s first duty’s to his ship though.. It’s whatever the hell kind of mood he’s in.

The HUH??

• How could Emory have so completely fooled Starfleet?
• If Emory has a research vessel (as T’Pol mentions), why does he even need Enterprise? A little clarification would have been appreciated.
• Why did Emory deny seeing anything like the entity before if it was mentioned in the records of his last visit to the region? Seems a little pointless, wouldn’t a genius figure they’d check out their computer for similar events and find out anyway. Exactly like they *did*?
• For that matter, why didn’t he tell Starfleet about Quinn’s disappearance and ask for their aid? No mention of the reason for staying outside official channels was made. It couldn’t be trying to cover his reputation. I know Archer’s dumb, but I think he would have noticed when on the way home they had an extra person. Unless that death was actually *planned*. Hmm...
• When talking to Emory Trip notes that he's going to need more power, and that he'll take it directly from the warp core. Later he ominously tells Archer that Emory didn't even use a fraction of the power he requested (even though Trip decided Emory needed more), and that all the modifications he had him do was busy work, like the blah and the blah and the blah blah blah, and rerouting power directly from the warp core. Trip's truly of this decade: volunteering to do unnecessary work and then blaming an old man when he's found out.

The Funny

• Photoshop’s awfully good in the future. All you have to say is ‘Enhance’ and the computer knows exactly what you mean (and what area to enhance).A common occurrence in Star Trek, it happens often with sound as well.
  

Grade: 3/10 (F)

Cast:
Scott Bakula as Jonathan Archer
John Billingsley as Dr. Phlox
Jolene Blalock as T'Pol
Dominic Keating as Malcolm Reed
Anthony Montgomery as Travis Mayweather
Linda Park as Hoshi Sato
Connor Trinneer as Charles Tucker

Guest Cast:
Bill Cobbs as Emory Erickson
Leslie Silva as Danica Erickson
Donovan Knowles as Quinn Erickson
Noel Manzano as Ensign Burrows

Creative Staff:
Director:  David Straiton
Written By: Ken LaZebnik & Michael Bryant

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