Future Tense
- FIRST SHOWN (US)
- 19 February 2003
- ON
- UPN
- STARDATE
- None given
- DIRECTED BY
- James Whitmore Jr.
- PRODUCTION NO.
- 042
WRITTEN BYWritten by Mike Sussman & Phyllis Strong
Enterprise salvages a tiny derelict ship holding a dead human pilot, and suddenly both the Suliban and the Tholians want it very badly.
Red alert: the full plot, ending included. Haven't watched yet?REVEAL SYNOPSIS
Enterprise finds a small derelict pod with a long-dead human pilot inside. The crew wonder whether he could be an early warp pioneer, but his DNA contains Vulcan, Rigelian and other alien traces, and the pod is somehow bigger inside than out. A Suliban ship arrives to claim the wreck, and Archer refuses. Daniels' database reveals the pod comes from the 31st century. Investigating it, Tucker and Reed find themselves living the same moments over again in a time loop. Then Tholian ships appear, also demanding the pod and warning of temporal radiation, and Enterprise is caught between the two powers. A Vulcan ship called to help is disabled. Archer and Reed booby-trap the pod and set it adrift, but the Tholians disarm the trap. Finally Tucker activates a device inside, apparently a distress beacon, and the pod vanishes. The Tholians leave, and Enterprise helps the stricken Vulcan ship.
- 01The working title was “Crash Landing”.
- 02Reviewers compared the pod, bigger on the inside than the outside, to the TARDIS of Doctor Who.
- 03Mostly filmed on existing sets. New builds included the wreckage of a salvage vessel and a Suliban viewscreen wall.