Impulse
- FIRST SHOWN (US)
- 8 October 2003
- ON
- UPN
- STARDATE
- None given
- DIRECTED BY
- David Livingston
- PRODUCTION NO.
- 057
WRITTEN BYTeleplay by Jonathan Fernandez; story by Jonathan Fernandez & Terry Matalas
Answering a distress call from a Vulcan ship adrift in an asteroid field, Archer leads a team aboard and finds that something has gone terribly wrong with its crew.
Red alert: the full plot, ending included. Haven't watched yet?REVEAL SYNOPSIS
Enterprise answers a distress call from the Vulcan ship Seleya, found adrift in an asteroid field rich in trellium ore. Archer, Reed and T'Pol board her and are attacked by the crew, who have become violent and almost mindless. T'Pol begins to show the same symptoms and is tormented by a terrifying nightmare. Meanwhile, Tucker and Mayweather take a shuttlepod into the field to collect ore samples, and their shuttle is damaged. Trapped in the Seleya's engineering section, the away team uses an override that shuts down the warp core's containment, and both teams escape just before the Vulcan ship explodes. Phlox discovers that trellium is a neurotoxin to Vulcans. The Seleya's crew could not have been saved, but T'Pol's exposure was limited and she will recover. Although enough ore has been gathered to shield the forward hull, Archer orders it sealed away in biohazard containment until a way is found to deal with its effects.
- 01Director David Livingston named it his favourite of the episodes he directed. The production team, especially cinematographer Marvin Rush, approached it as a zombie film.
- 02Story co-writer Terry Matalas was a production associate at the time. He later became showrunner of “Star Trek: Picard” for its second and third seasons.
- 03The teaser, at about eighteen seconds, is often cited as the shortest in Star Trek history.