Enterprise is in a severe state of disrepair which would take Trip three to four months to repair, and he can't even begin since they need to find tritanium alloy and can't move faster than warp 2.1, so Archer has Hoshi send a distress call. Malcolm, meanwhile, is getting treatment in sickbay for his leg injury that he sustained in the previous episode.
A Tellarite freighter responds to the distress call with coordinates to a space station, which they arrive at in three days. It doesn't answer Archer's hail and has an atmosphere of liquid helium, but after it scans the crew, the atmosphere changes to accommodate them. They board to find no people but a lot of technology, including a holographic map of Enterprise that shows all the broken areas and a diagram of Malcolm's injury, and the writing is in English.
The computer speaks, asking for payment. Archer asks to speak to someone, but the computer claims not to understand. It says it will finish its repairs in 34.2 hours (which, according to Trip, is surprisingly fast) and lists various options for payment. After rejecting some, they decide on some warp plasma, then the computer goes to work repairing the ship, telling the crew to leave and go to a room which it claims is for "recreation".
Archer, T'Pol, and Trip explore the room, which is pretty nondescript except for a window and a replicator. When it makes food for Trip, they realise that it must have scanned their database in order to find out what the food was, worrying Archer, who goes to the bridge. Meanwhile, Phlox takes a device from the station and uses it to heal Malcolm's injured leg.
In the ready room, T'Pol reports the progress to Archer, who is disturbed that the station's builders are nowhere to be seen and didn't send any messages, and that such extensive repairs are being done for such a small payment. T'Pol, however, is less concerned, stating that the builders may simply be trying to lend a helping hand while remaining anonymous.
Later, in the recreation room, Trip and Malcolm talk about the station's technology, with Trip being impressed at how advanced, yet small, the computer is. They try to have a closer look at it, only to be beamed onto the bridge. Archer tells them off and confines them to quarters, then asks Travis to meet him in launch bay 1. When Travis gets there, however, Archer isn't there, and soon after, Archer is told that Travis has died.
Phlox determines that Travis died of isolytic shock and suggests that he disobeyed orders to stay out of the areas being repaired, though Archer doesn't buy Travis being that foolish. He orders an investigation and for security to be posted around the areas under construction, then when Trip notes that Travis was last seen dining with Hoshi, orders to be interviewed. Archer then tries asking the computer for a record, but it again claims not to understand.
While Phlox performs the autopsy, Hoshi tearfully says goodbye to Travis, while Archer and Malcolm investigate his quarters, but then Phlox discovers that the body isn't Travis's after all, but a replica. He knows this to be true because he recently gave everyone a vaccine containing microbes, which would be alive if Travis were dead (since they thrive on isolytic energy), but they're also dead.
Archer assembles a team, consisting of himself, T'Pol, and Malcolm, to reach the computer core, while Trip distracts the computer by talking to it. Malcolm is beamed onto the bridge again, but Archer and T'Pol shoot down the trigger that he tripped and blast through the door, to find many unconscious people hooked up to the computer.
They find that, with the exception of Travis, their cerebral cortices have been reorganized by the technology. They unplug Travis, only for the station to turn off various systems on Enterprise. Trip and T'Pol are locked out, but blast through the wall and beam back. The station doesn't let them leave, but Archer had put a detonator near the warp plasma, so the station blows up... but possibly temporarily. Regardless, the Enterprise still manages to escape.
Tropes in this episode include:
- A.I. Is a Crapshoot: The station is fully automated, and its amazing processing capability is the result of using living humanoids integrated into the computer core. It seems to routinely abduct crewmen, after faking their deaths, as a hidden payment. Although eventually destroyed, it was seen piecing itself back together in its final scene.
- Aliens Speaking English: Justified. The station probes Enterprise's computer core, and thus selects English as the default language for the user interface.
- Blatant Lies: When ordering Hoshi to compose a distress call, Archer tells her not to go into too much detail, offering "minor repairs" as a suggestion, even though any necessary repairs would be far from minor if you're sending a distress call.
- Call-Back:
- The episode brings back, and promptly resolves, the floor squeak in Archer's ready room.
- Not to mention Trip scratching the hull with a shuttlepod.
- When Archer dresses down Trip and Malcolm, he recalls the latter's statement in the previous episode about lax shipboard discipline, sourly noting that he may have been right.
- Call-Forward:
- Trip says that with the processing ability of the station, Starfleet could build ships that run themselves; the computers of later Starfleet ships, especially in the 24th Century, would be on par with the abilities of the station (minus the integrated humanoid brains, though the bio-neural gel packs come close).
- We also see a replicator in the station's recreation area.
- A Tellarite ship communicates the existence of the repair station to Enterprise. They're a founding species of the Federation, and wouldn't appear in the flesh in this series until "Bounty".
- Catchphrase: The station's "Your inquiry was not recognized."
- Creator Cameo: Episode director Roxanne Dawson (who played B'Elanna Torres on Star Trek: Voyager) provides the voice of the station computer.
- Crying Wolf: Downplayed. Apparently, when she first learned that Travis was (apparently) dead, part of her wondered if it was another one of his pranks.
- Distress Call: Archer reluctantly sends out a general distress signal, since Enterprise can't warp home in anything less than a decade and the ship has two giant holes in its defenses.
- The Drag-Along: Trip wants answers about the station, while Malcolm prefers to stay put and has to be pressured.Trip: We're explorers. Where's your spirit of adventure?
Malcolm: I left it in a Romulan minefield. - Drama-Preserving Handicap: The sizable damage from last time has not been repaired off-screen, due in large part to Enterprise having fewer resources than Jupiter Station. The damage has also affected various systems, including warp capability, which makes returning home for repairs impractical. Meanwhile, Malcolm needs physical therapy for the leg injury he sustained, and Phlox estimates another a week or two for him to fully recover.
- Dr. Jerk: Phlox isn't gentle with Malcolm's painful rehab.Malcolm: It can't be ethical to cause a patient this much pain!
Phlox: It's unethical to harm a patient. I can inflict as much pain as I like. - The End... Or Is It?: The station is shown rebuilding itself after Enterprise has left.
- Explain, Explain... Oh, Crap!: It's while trying to assure Hoshi that Travis didn't suffer that Phlox reads the medical readout and learns the truth.
- Fanservice: Travis putting a tank top over those hundred abs of his.
- A Father to His Men: When Travis is presumed dead, Archer is pissed and wants answers about how this could've happened. When it becomes clear Travis is still alive, Archer is part of the rescue party.
- Foreshadowing: When Travis enters the launch bay, he expected to find Archer there. After Travis is presumably killed, Archer questions what he was even doing in there in the first place, making it clear to viewers that something is up.
- Freeze-Frame Bonus:
- A Klingon, a Cardassian, and a Vaadwaur are among the aliens linked to the stations' computer core.
- After Archer selects warp plasma as the compensation method, the screen changes to a list of repairs to be made that is mostly legible and logical.
- The Gadfly: Hoshi reminisces about how Travis pranked her by convincing her to attempt First Contact with a "gelatinous lifeform" that turned out to be strawberry gelatine.
- Godzilla Threshold: To get free of the station's remaining docking arm, Reed has to fire torpedoes at very close range.
- Imposter Forgot One Detail: Travis' dead body is perfect, except that microbiotic organisms in the bloodstream that should still be alive are also dead, and the way the body is implied to have been killed would've been harmless to the organisms.Phlox: It's ironic, in a way. The station can duplicate a dead human body in all its exquisite detail, but a living, simple one-celled organism is beyond its capability.
- Informed Attribute: Travis is said by Hoshi to be quite a prankster. Not that we actually see any of this (all we get is Hoshi describing one Noodle Incident involving strawberry gelatin), but that's Mayweather for you.
- Matter Replicator: Archer, T'Pol, and Trip find these in the recreation area of the station, built into the center of the tables. T'Pol uses it to request a glass of water, while Trip orders a panfried catfish and is suitably impressed. Industrial-scale versions are equipped to the repair arms, allowing the station to fabricate and install custom parts for Enterprise in a fraction of the time it would take their own facilities to do the same.
- Noodle Incident: About a month earlier, the crew were at Tessik Prime, but Crewman Fisher got sick from Rigelian fever. Everyone else in the crew was consequently and immediately given the vaccine. No trace of the vaccine in "Travis" is how Phlox convinces Archer that some trickery has occurred.
- Not Quite Dead: Archer has their payment of warp plasma detonated to destroy the station. However, once they jump to warp, we're shown that the station is beginning to repair itself...
- Poor Communication Kills: The Tellarites who inform Enterprise of the station do so over a garbled transmission that attempts to warn them of the "price", obviously not referring to the suspiciously good deal the station offers for repairs. But since most of it goes unheard, little is thought of it and they go ahead. Not much choice, anyway.
- Powered by a Forsaken Child: The Repair Station secretly takes away crewmen of the ships that it repairs to hook up to its computer core to increase and better its processing power, while leaving behind a dead corpse copy in its place. Travis almost suffered this fate before he was saved.
- The Prankster: According to Hoshi, Travis occasionally pulls pranks.
- Pre-Asskicking One-Liner: Archer quips "I think it's time we deliver our payment.", followed by Malcolm detonating the drive plasma they selected as their method of payment.
- Properly Paranoid: Trip and T'Pol are quite impressed, but Archer thinks the station's just a little too good at what it does. His suspicions are proven right, and it's not pretty.
- Reset Button: Averted as Enterprise is still trying to repair the damage from the previous episode, while Malcolm is still recovering from his leg injury. By the end of the episode, however, Enterprise is back at 100%.
- Restricted Rescue Operation: Archer and T'Pol only have the time and ability to rescue Travis, leaving all the other victims of the station to be blown up with it. However, Phlox reassures them all (especially Travis, who understandably feels guilty about being the only one to survive) that most of the people had been there for years by this point and the damage to their rewired brains was irreversible; for all intents and purposes they were already dead.
- Riddle for the Ages: While expressing his belief this is all Too Good to Be True to T'Pol, Archer wonders who built this station in the first place and where they are now. Archer tries to force the issue when inquiring to the station computer about what happened to Travis, but his inquiry is not recognized. No answers are given in the end, leaving the backstory a mystery for the viewers to sort out themselves.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: When Archer and T'Pol manage to get through the station's security system, Trip is still arguing with the computer. Once a klaxon sounds, he bolts as he realizes the station is probably about to get really angry.Trip: (backing towards the door) Sounds like you got more important things to deal with. (flees)
- Shirtless Scene: Travis is shown changing out of his uniform at one point. No other reason, just need to get the viewers somehow!
- Too Dumb to Live: Archer accuses Trip and Reed of this, saying they could've been beamed into space while sneaking around the station the way they were.
- Too Good to Be True: The station is able to repair the damage to Enterprise in a day and a half, while Jupiter Station (Starfleet's best shipyard) would take three months, and completely heals Malcolm's leg injury without so much as a scar. And all for the low, low price of just 200 liters of warp plasma. Naturally, Archer is put off by this, and his instincts later prove him right.
- Tranquil Fury: Archer questions the station computer about what happened to Travis, barely able to mask his anger and frustration. His inquiries being ignored cause him to stop being tranquil.
- Unconventional Food Usage: According to Hoshi, Travis once pranked her by pretending some strawberry gelatin was an alien.
- Unsatisfiable Customer: Trip plays this role to stall on payment."On my world, we have an expression: 'The customer's always right.' Maybe you should make that part of your program. I want to know how to file a grievance around here."
- Wetware CPU: The station grabs a crewmember from all the ships it fixes to augment its processing power, rewriting their cerebral cortexes in the process. This also allows our characters to feel less guilt about not being able to rescue any of the victims besides Travis; the other people been there for so long that their brains were damaged beyond repair.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Archer chews Trip and Malcolm out for sneaking into the station's computer core. However, he then asks if they saw anything interesting.
