Jonathan Archer, who's now a captain, and Charles "Trip" Tucker inspect the Enterprise in dry dock. Then, Archer is called to Starfleet Medical, where he attends a meeting with several higher-ups discussing Klaang. Among the people at the meeting are Admiral Forrest, Soval, Tos, and T'Pol. He also meets an alien doctor who is caring for Klaang. The humans want to return Klaang to his planet, but the Vulcans worry that'll start drama. However, Archer convinces Forrest to let him return Klaang.
On the ship, Malcolm Reed and Travis Mayweather discuss the new transporter and Travis waxes nostalgic about his childhood on cargo ships. They then go to engineering and meet Trip. Meanwhile, Archer goes to Brazil to recruit a linguist named Hoshi Sato. T'Pol also joins Archer's crew as a science officer, and he introduces her to Trip and gives her an assignment, and the alien doctor joins the crew too. Admiral Forrest gives a speech and the Enterprise is launched. Meanwhile, on an alien complex, a Suliban promises to provide evidence (that was apparently in the hands of Klaang) to a mysterious figure.
Back on Enterprise, Archer observes a jar of worms in sickbay. The doctor, whose name is Phlox, tells him not to shake them. Archer helps Phlox unpack his medical equipment, plus his pet whose droppings are used in medicine. Meanwhile, Travis shows Trip the "sweet spot" on the Enterprise, where the artificial gravity is reversed. That evening, Trip has dinner with Archer and T'Pol.
During a test of the warp reactor, T'Pol and Hoshi start arguing. Later, while Archer, Hoshi, and Phlox are trying to interrogate Klaang, the power cuts out. Alien soldiers board Enterprise and start attacking officers, and Klaang identifies them as Suliban before being abducted.
On the bridge, Archer asks in annoyance why the sensors didn't detect the Suliban. Malcolm said that they did detect a disturbance if not the actual Suliban, so Archer orders an investigation. T'Pol wants him to contact Starfleet, believing he'd be hopeless on his own, but Archer vetoes the idea and forbids her from contacting them. Phlox shows Archer a dead Suliban who was left on the ship, revealing that he's genetically engineered.
In engineering, T'Pol helps Trip review the sensor data. Archer and Hoshi enter and, through Hoshi's translations, Archer learns that Klaang visited Rigel X before his ship crashed. Archer tells Travis to set a course for the Rigel system. Meanwhile, on the alien complex, a Suliban interrogates Klaang, asking him where he left an item. Klaang claims ignorance and claims he was sent to meet a Suliban woman named Sarin, who didn't give him anything. When Enterprise reaches the planet, Archer tells an away team that Klaang is a courier and to find the person who gave him what he was carrying.
The team travels to Rigel X and search a trade complex. A man claims he saw Klaang and convinces Malcolm and Travis to watch a show involving two aliens and some butterflies. However, they begin to doubt his honesty and leave. As Trip and T'Pol investigate, they find an alien woman who appears to be suffocating her son, but it turns out she's just "weaning" him onto oxygen. Meanwhile, Archer and Hoshi meet some Klingons. The whole away team is then attacked and taken away by Suliban.
Trip, T'Pol, and Hoshi are imprisoned, while Archer is taken to a woman who initially looks human, but then after she kisses him, she turns out to be the Suliban woman named Sarin. She tells him that she used to be in the Suliban military - the Cabal - and that the Cabal are following orders from a faction in the "Temporal Cold War". She reveals that the Suliban were trying to sow discord among the Klingons and Klaang was transporting evidence of this to his home world, Qo'onos, to prevent a civil war. Sarin offers to help Archer find Klaang, but Cabal agents enter and attack. Sarin frees Archer's crew, who manage to escape, but Sarin herself is killed. With T'Pol temporarily in command, Archer passes out and dreams about being a kid.
Back on Enterprise, Trip and T'Pol go through decon to clean a spore off their bodies. Trip wants to be in command instead of T'Pol, noting that she's just an observer and worrying that she'll cancel the mission. Six hours later, Archer comes around. T'Pol and Trip enter and T'Pol informs Archer that they've tracked a Suliban ship. This surprises Archer, who had expected her to abort the mission.
As the Enterprise continues its mission, Archer makes a log entry in his quarters. He then notices that the ship has dropped out of warp and contacts T'Pol, who asks him to come to the bridge. There, a gas giant is nearby, which T'Pol reveals scattered the Suliban ship's warp trail. She has Malcolm analyse some fragments, which turn out to be from fourteen different ships. Archer, realising that the Suliban frequent this area, orders the weapons and hull plating put online before entering the atmosphere.
On the alien complex, the Suliban officer is once again talking to the mysterious figure. The officer doesn't know if Sarin gave the Enterprise crew anything, but does know that it followed a Suliban ship and is nearby. He promises to destroy the ship before it locates the complex, which is called the "helix". The figure, noting that he didn't plan for humans or Vulcans to be involved, demands the officer to prevent Sarin's message from reaching Qo'nos.
In the atmosphere of the gas giant, the Enterprise starts shaking. T'Pol determines that it's because of liquid phosphorus. The shaking stops, and the officers detect the helix, along with two Suliban cell ships. Hoshi detects over a thousand bio-signs but can't find Klaang. The Suliban ships attack, causing Archer to fly back to the phosphorus layer, where they can't be detected. T'Pol notes that the helix seems to be made of many vessels joined together with magnetism, and Hoshi detects Klaang. Malcolm wants to beam him aboard, but Hoshi is unsure. Archer decides to bring a cell ship on board with a grappler.
In the situation room, Travis asks Archer and Trip about the workings of the captured Suliban ship. Trip is unsure, so Travis wants to pilot it, but Archer thinks Travis is needed on the bridge. Then, in Archer's ready room, T'Pol tries to dissuade him from leaving. Archer thinks she's concerned, but she actually just doesn't want the Vulcan High Command to get her in trouble for anything bad happening to Archer or Trip. Malcolm brings Archer two cases, one containing a magnetic device and the other containing phase pistols.
Archer and Trip leave in the captured cell ship and go to the helix, where they find Klaang. He initially tries to attack, but relents when Archer draws his phase pistol. After a while, Archer tells Trip to bring Klaang back to the cell ship, while he stays behind and tries to separate the helix with the magnetic device. When Trip complies, Archer tells him to bring Klaang back to Enterprise, which Trip does. Trip ignites the cell ship's thruster exhaust, alerting Hoshi, who tells T'Pol, who finds him.
On the helix, Archer fights an alien into a room with a pulsing light, then is beamed onto the Enterprise, and the Enterprise leaves. Soon, Archer, Klaang, T'Pol, and Hoshi enter the Klingon High Council Chamber on Qo'nos, where, according to Hoshi, Klaang mentions disgracing the Klingon Empire and being ready to die. The Klingon Chancellor cuts Klaang on the hand and analyses his blood, revealing it to contain Suliban information.
Back on Enterprise, Archer tells his crew to continue forward. Trip sets to work repairing the ship and Travis, despite an ion storm, sets a course for a nearby planet. Archer then has one last childhood flashback.
Tropes in this episode include:
- Abuse Mistake: When Trip sees an alien boy wearing a gas mask, which his mother keeps putting on and taking off, he thinks she's suffocating him. However, it turns out that their species' children breathe different gas until they're four, so she was just "weaning" him onto oxygen.
- Action Prologue: Klaang being chased by two Suliban before blowing them to high heaven.
- Alien Abduction: Suliban end up capturing the away team on Rigel X.
- And Here He Comes Now: When Malcolm and Travis are in the shuttlepod and Travis reports that he can't locate human bio-signs in the trading complex, Malcolm tells him to scan for Vulcan bio-signs. A second later, T'Pol knocks on the pod's side hatch.Travis: I found her!
- Artistic License – Biology: For a race that has been studying Humans for centuries, they should know that we're omnivores. She erroneously refers to humans as carnivores, which implies that humans only eat meat. Good job ignoring that non-meat, human-baked breadstick!
- As Long as It Sounds Foreign: Hoshi says she doesn't think that Klingonese has an expression for "thank you", but The Klingon Dictionary includes the verb tlho' for "to thank" (in context it would be conjugated as matlho', "I thank all of you"). This may be Hoshi's mistake, but more likely it's a misplaced attempt to invoke Language Equals Thought.
- Bait-and-Switch Sentiment:
- Archer thinks T'Pol is concerned for his well-being when she tells him not to leave, but she's actually telling him to avoid getting in trouble with the Vulcan High Command.
- When the Klingon Chancellor says something to Archer, Archer thought it meant "thank you". According to Hoshi, however, it actually meant something negative.
- Big "SHUT UP!": When Archer tells Hoshi to stop Klaang's Klingon ranting, Hoshi yells, "SHUT UP!" in English.
- Bilingual Dialogue:
- Between Moore and Klaang, even though neither man can understand the other.Moore: (pointing a rifle at Klaang) Drop your weapon! I mean it!
Klaang: (shouting in Klingonese)
Moore: I don't understand a word you're saying, but I guarantee you I know how to use this!
Klaang: (more shouting in Klingonese) - Between Hoshi and T'Pol, including an instance of Pardon My Klingon.
- Played for Laughs between Trip and Klaang, when Trip responds to Klaang's ranting with comebacks like "You tell 'em, big guy," and "I don't particularly like the way you smell either!"
- Between Moore and Klaang, even though neither man can understand the other.
- Bizarre Alien Biology: How the hell does a species evolve to breathe a different gaseous mix before and after the age of four?
- Boldly Coming: Alluded to while the crew prepares to visit Rigel X; T'Pol tells them that the doctor cautioned against "intimate contact" on the planet. Travis and Malcolm smirk at this.
- Brief Accent Imitation: Malcolm imitates Trip's southern accent when anticipating his reply to supply problems: "Keep yer shirt on, Lyoo-tenant."
- The Cameo: The appearence of James Cromwell allows the continuation of the Star Trek pilot tradition of a cameo from an earlier work.
- Captain Crash, or rather Commander Crash: Barely five minutes in, Trip bumps the inspection pod against Enterprise's hull.Archer: Great. You scratched the paint.
- Captain Obvious, or rather Ensign Obvious: When Enterprise is flying towards the helix to rescue Archer while cell-ships are firing on her:
- Ceiling Cling: One of the Suliban's preferred tricks. Among other things, Klaang is abducted by a Suliban dropping on him from above.
- Continuity Nod: Archer has a statuette of Zefram Cochrane with arm outstretched, just as Geordi described it in Star Trek: First Contact.
- Deal with the Devil: Archer tells Silik that his people "struck a deal with the devil".
- Distracted by the Sexy: Malcolm is very interested in the dancing girls on Rigel X. Travis does a better job staying focused on the mission.
- Dodge the Bullet: Archer dodges a phaser beam in the Bullet Time room.
- Early-Installment Weirdness:
- The jackets lose their padded look come the next episode and remain that way for the rest of the series.
- The pilot seems to be setting up Reed and Mayweather as Those Two Guys. In the rest of the series, Reed would be much more commonly shown interacting with Tucker than with Mayweather.
- The end credits are accompanied by an instrumental version of "Where My Heart Will Take Me", instead of "Archer's Theme", which is used for nearly all of the remaining episodes.
- The small bolts of energy fired (some say 'plasma cannon') from Enterprise at the Suliban cell ships and missing, is never used as a weapon in any subsequent episode.
- Epic Launch Sequence: Of Earth's first warp 5 starship, which also represents the launch of humanity's efforts to truly explore the galaxy.Archer: Take her out, Mr. Mayweather. Straight and steady.
- Establishing Series Moment: A Klingon crashes into a cornfield and the farmer comes out to investigate wielding what looks like a cross between a ray gun and lever action shotgun. Rather firmly establishes a more rugged depiction of the future than prior Star Trek shows.
- Everyone Meets Everyone: The command crew being assembled prior to launch.
- False Flag Operation: Archer and Trip use a stolen cell ship to infiltrate the helix and rescue Klaang.
- Fanservice: The Decontamination Chamber scene—Trip and T'Pol in their undies, rubbing gel on each other.
- First-Name Basis: Silik calls Archer "John" just to taunt him.Silik: You're very curious, John. May I call you "John"?
Archer: Am I supposed to be impressed that you know my name? - Food Porn: We get a nice shot of the Trip's steak dinner, the first of many, many scenes of the crew eating on this show. T'Pol's salad looks quite elegant, as well.
- Guns Akimbo: During the firefight on Rigel X, Archer briefly wields two pistols.
- Handshake Refusal: T'Pol snubs Trip's offer of a handshake, as well as his request to call him by his nickname.
- He Knows Too Much: Silik originally plans to let Archer leave the helix unharmed, until Archer reveals that he knows about the Temporal Cold War.
- Help Mistaken for Attack: When Trip observes an alien woman repeatedly taking her son's gas mask off, he assumes she's suffocating him, but actually she's "weaning" him onto oxygen.
- Hypocrite: The human tendency to unjustly judge other cultures by their own cultural standards is just one of the many reasons the Vulcans look down on them for not measuring up to their cultural standards.
- I Don't Think That's Such a Good Idea: Archer thinks Malcolm's plan of beaming Klaang up is too dangerous.Malcolm: We could always try the transporting device.
Archer: We've risked too much to bring him back inside-out. - Improbably Predictable: Malcolm's Brief Accent Imitation mentioned above gets its payoff a minute later when Trip responds exactly as expected.Malcolm: Pardon me, but if I don't realign the deflector, the first grain of space dust we come across will blow a hole through this ship the size of your fist.
Trip: Keep your shirt on, Lieutenant. Your equipment'll be here in the morning. - Insufficiently Advanced Alien: Both T'Pol and Phlox mention that the Suliban shouldn't be at the technological or evolutionary level that they are.
- Internal Homage: Archer and Tucker inspecting the NX-01 in drydock is similar to Kirk and Scotty's inspection of the refit Enterprise in Star Trek: The Motion Picture.
- Intimate Lotion Application: Trip and T'pol have to rub each other with decon gel to decontaminate, with the scene obviously fueling their Unresolved Sexual Tension.
- Invisibility: One of the Suliban's abilities. Phlox notes that it's not supposed to be part of their genome.
- Jerkass Has a Point: Despite establishing himself as an "Ass" in Ambassador, Soval is right about how Earth shouldn't piss off the Klingons.
- Jurisdiction Friction: When Archer gets injured, T'Pol and Trip argue over who takes command. T'Pol wins.
- Let Me Get This Straight...: Archer summing up how the Vulcans want to pull the plug on Klaang even though he could still live.Archer: Let me get this straight. You're going to disconnect this man from life support even though he could live. Now where's the logic in that?
Soval: Klaang's culture finds honor in death. If they saw him like this, he'd be disgraced.
Tos: They're a warrior race. They dream of dying in battle. If you understood the complexities of interstellar diplomacy—
Archer: So that's your diplomatic solution, to do what they tell you? Pull the plug?
Tos: Your metaphor is crude, but accurate. - Mid-Season Upgrade: Oddly enough in the first episode! The away team on Rigel comes armed with EM-33 Plasma Pistols and fights off the Suliban with them, but then later on before boarding The Helix, Archer gets introduced to their new Phase Pistols... which were apparently in a box in storage on the ship the whole time! Makes you wonder why didn't the away team just go to Rigel with the Phase Pistols instead of their old guns.
- A Minor Kidroduction: We first meet Jonathan Archer as a boy with his dad.
- Multiboobage: According to Travis, Draylaxian women have three.
- Mythology Gag:
- The three admirals whom Archer meets with are called Williams, Leonard, and Forrest, named after Star Trek: The Original Series stars William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, and DeForest Kelley.
- One of the Vulcan ambassadors is named Tos, a nod to "TOS", the abbreviation for Star Trek: The Original Series.
- The Nose Knows: T'Pol is very sensitive to smells coming from humans, let alone Archer's dog Porthos.
- Out Sick: T'Pol takes command when the Suliban gravely injure Archer.
- Pardon My Klingon:
- Hoshi cusses T'Pol out in Vulcan at one point.Hoshi: Ponfo mirann.
T'Pol: I was instructed to speak English on this trip, and I'd appreciate it if you'd respect that. - Inverted later, when T'Pol thanks Hoshi for being helpful.T'Pol: Shaya tonat.
Hoshi: You're welcome.
- Hoshi cusses T'Pol out in Vulcan at one point.
- Road Apples: Phlox uses the droppings of one of his animals in medicine.
- Running Gag: Both times when Trip pilots a small craft, he manages to bump into something—first Enterprise, then the Suliban helix.
- Sci-Fi Writers Have No Sense of Scale: In this case, they have no sense of either distance or velocity. Here's how: Archer says that Enterprise can get to "Neptune and back in six minutes"; a bit later, he says that it will take them less than four days to get to Qo'noS. Later still, he says that they're traveling at 30 million kilometers per second, which is broadly consistent with the Neptune travel distance (it would mean a round trip of five minutes rather than six, but maybe their speed is slightly greater later in the voyage). Doing the math will show that for all statements to be true, Qo'noS would have to be less than one light-year from Earth. (For comparison, the closest star system — Alpha Centauri — is 4.3 light-years from Earth. At this speed, it would take 19 days to get there.) Whoever wrote the dialogue fails math forever. (Granted, that math assumes instant acceleration.)
- This episode also gives us a look at a brand new re-scaled set of SI units. Unless, of course, they actually intended for a starship to move slower than a car over distances comparable to that between two nearby towns.
- Series Continuity Error: While dining together, Archer and Trip are puzzled to see T'Pol eat a breadstick with a fork, leading her to explain that Vulcans don't touch their food with their hands, something that never was an issue with other Vulcan characters throughout Star Trek.
- Solid Gold Poop: One of Phlox's pets' droppings is used in medicine.
- Son of an Ape:Silik: Are you aware, Captain, that your DNA is almost identical to that of an ape? The Suliban don't share humanity's patience with natural selection.
Archer: So to speed things up a little, you struck a Deal with the Devil. - Spinoff Sendoff: Since this spinoff takes place two hundred years before Voyager, there's no way any Voyager character could do the sendoff, so James Cromwell, who played Zephram Cochrane from Star Trek: First Contact does it.
- Straw Vegetarian: T'Pol wastes no time deriding Archer and Trip for eating meat, when humans are supposed to be "enlightened."
- Suddenly Shouting: Soval, when he fails to convince Admiral Forrest to accept his advice.Soval: Listen to me. You're making a mistake!
Archer: When your logic doesn't work, you raise your voice? You've been on Earth too long. - Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: While Vulcans have a generally positive relation with Earth, humans have a chip on their shoulder feeling that Vulcans have been obstructive regarding their efforts to develop their technology and expand out into the galaxy. With a viable mission to return a Klingon back to their people Starfleet sees this as a good opportunity for the maiden voyage of their first warp five ship, while the Vulcan embassy is dismissive of their gung-ho attitude. This is why T'Pol is brought on board, hoping someone with a bit more experience could temper the humans desire for trial by error.
- Tempting Fate: After the battle with the Suliban, Archer says, "Let's hope that's the last time somebody takes a shot at us." Seriously, John?
- Time for Plan B: T'Pol tells Trip this when docking with the helix to rescue Archer isn't a viable option, so they use the transporter instead.
- Timey-Wimey Ball: The chamber where Silik speaks to his mysterious future contact, with pre-echoes of what everyone says and does. Not to mention the whole idea of a Temporal Cold War, which confuses the hell out of Archer. Good thing Janeway's not here...
- Translation Convention: Zig-Zagged during Klaang's interrogation—Silik speaks to him in Klingon, but sounds like he's speaking English to his Number Two.
- Truth Serum: Silik drugs Klaang while interrogating him. It doesn't help.
- With Due Respect: Forrest arguing with the Vulcans.Forrest: Ambassador, with all due respect, we have a right to know what's going on here.
Soval: You will be apprised of all pertinent information.
Williams: And just who gets to decide what's pertinent information? - You Do Not Want To Know: When Archer asks Hoshi what the Klingon chancellor said to him at the end, Hoshi says this in response.
