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Star Trek: Enterprise Season 2 Episode 24

First Flight

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8.5

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AIRED: 5/14/03

Archer tells T'Pol the story of when he and a rival named A.G. Robinson were in competition for breaking the warp 2 barrier.

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Fan Episode Reviews (6)

Probably my favorite episode

10

By fairuser, Apr 26, 2012

Extremely well done. Keith Carridine is great as always. Jolene Blalock is excellent, a hugely underrated actress. Logically, she deducts that humans and her captain needs\ to "talk it out," but that she will have to drag it out of him. A great story. I really don't understand why you nerds hate this series. I loved it. Except the finale, of course.
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A prequel series looks even further back - again!

4.3

By ProphetTenebrae, Oct 24, 2011

I find it strange that a show that was designed to be set at the start of star trek history - or thereabouts - has to look back to find stories. I suppose ideally this would have been something about Archer\'s character development but it does little more than highlight how it\'s pretty much all been covered, arrogant, impuslive and so on.

This is really just a boring episode, to be honest. I suppose on the bright side we didn\'t have to contend with another alien race that would come and go without much interest.

Ironic that this show was supposed to be about exploration but keeps going back to Earth... it also shows Archer being by the book before coming the crazy loose cannon he is in Enterprise.

Not to mention the mandatory - people getting off with a slap on the wrist for what should have been a straigh court-martial offence but it\'s ok because they did it with good intent...

All in all bland and inoffensive and pretty much totally pointless.moreless
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Captain Archer and T'Pol explore a possible Dark Matter Nebula while Jonathan recounts the events surrounded the first successful flight of Henry Archer's Warp 2 engine.

10

By Intrepyd-45, Oct 24, 2011

The rare opportunity to explore a possible Dark Matter Nebula is rattled when Captain Archer is informed that a close friend has died. Deciding to go ahead with the exploration, but preferably in solitude, Captain Archer decides to take the shuttlepod alone. T'Pol decides to tag along, despite her Captains objection.

Along the way, Jonathan recounts the events that led him to pilot the first successful human warp 2.5 ship. T'Pol is surprised to learn that it wasn't Archer who performed the first test. There were four candidates. And it was a man named A.G. Robinson who first broke the Warp 2 barrier during the first flight of the NX engine testing. However, Robinson's refusal to abort when the warp field begins to destabilize costs the ship, and nearly his life.

The Vulcans decided right then and there for Starfleet Command, that there would be no further testing until a brand new engine can be invented. A.G. testifies that the engine doesn't work, and seemingly dooms Earth to standing still, possibly forever. Nobody on the entire planet wanted to accept that. Especially not Starfleet, but the Vulcan's pressured them into taking their advice.

When A.G. informs Archer of his assistance in helping the Vulcans ground humanity indefinately a fight ensues. It takes four officers to break it up. By this time, T'Pol and Captain Archer are beginning to experience system failures common to Dark Matter Nebulas and continue their search. T'Pol wonders who would have won.

Archer goes on to explain that he put his pride aside and confronted A.G. about attempting another test flight. Jonathan is convinced if the antimatter intermix can be properly maintained, then the experiment will succeed. He and A.G. then steal the NX-Beta with Trips help. A.G. offers Archer the pilot seat and adjusts the intermix properly. The Vulcans show up just in time for Starfleet Command to be informed that they they've successfully made it to Warp 2.5!

Despite that successful flight, the Vulcans refused to believe the data collected. It took them nearly a year and a half before they finally conceded that the engine just... MIGHT work. Six months later Warp 3 is broken. Five years after that, the Enterprise began construction. Captain Archer and T'Pol ignite the Dark Matter Nebula and name it after A.G. Robinson.

I've seen some people call this episode "the bottom of the barrel" and I was deeply offended. These people are ignorant to the significance of the series if they don't understand the meaning of episodes like this one. The whole point of Star Trek: Enterprise is to tell the history of Starfleet. The events described here were the first steps Earth took toward making it into deep space, and layed the foundation for every series to come.

To all who say this episode was completely pointless. I say shut up, and go watch Friends. Star Trek is not for you.

A perfect 10.0moreless
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Much better than expected

10

By Ydnaj33, Dec 26, 2010

First Flight is one of those episodes that of most Trek's I don't look forward too - a purely flashback episode that tells the story of how an element of the series came to be.

There were some good guest stars in this one (not one of ENT's usual strong points). Keith Carradine was good as A G Robinson, and Brannagh's relatively small role as Ruby was also quite good.

Story-wise, First Flight is a bit predictable some might say - but it has some nice, touching dramatic moments and fits in nicely to the story arcs established by Enterprise.

It's a pity Trip, Archer & Forrest look exactly the same in the flashback at in real time - but atleast Bakula does some work to try and appear the slightly fresher captain he appeared in 'Broken Bow'.moreless
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Archer tells tpol the story of how earth broke the warp two barrier

9.2

By dregj, Dec 26, 2010

The best episode of the entire series

I love the different archer

stiffer than an HB pencil and about as much fun

the plot was great

you could sense the disapointment and frustration in archer

when robinson gets the first flight,

then screws the pooch above jupiter

and when the vulcans cancel the warp 5 program

this goes along way to explain

why the archer we met in broken bow

was so predjudiced against vulcans

Im a big fan of space exploration endevours

so i thought Archer empassioned speech to forest at the end was utterly fantastic

The actor playing robinson is superb

he has chemistry with archer

and seems like a real ,fully rounded character

he is arrogant willful disobiedint and likes a whisky.

a cyring shame they didnt bring him in as

the nx o2 captain a bit of rivally and ribbing

for the sometimes preachy archermoreless
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Cast & Crew: STARS

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Jolene Blalock	Sub-Commander T'Pol
Connor Trinneer	Commander Charles "Trip" Tucker III
Linda Park	Ensign Hoshi Sato
Scott Bakula	Captain Jonathan Archer

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Cast & Crew: RECURRING AND GUESTS

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Keith Carradine	A.G. Robinson	Guest Star
Victor Bevine	Flight Controller	Guest Star
Michael Canavan	Vulcan Advisor	Guest Star
Vaughn Armstrong	Admiral Forrest	Recurring Role

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Trivia, Notes, Quotes and Allusions

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TRIVIA (3)
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- Trivia: Ruby, a barmaid who both Malcolm and Tucker were in love with ("Shuttlepod One"), appears in this episode. She is portrayed by Brigid Brannagh.
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- Trivia: This episode reveals how/when Archer and Trip met.
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- Trivia: The episode reveals the meaning of Commander Tucker's nickname "Trip". His father and grandfather are both named Charles Tucker, thus he is Charles Tucker III (the third, or Triple, shortened to "Trip").
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QUOTES (4)
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- Flight Controller: We just got a call. New Berlin's detected the NX Beta.
  Forrest: What?
  Flight Controller: Internal sensors show it's still in the hangar.
  Forrest: Has anyone bothered to look?
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- T'Pol: The readings could be misleading.
  Archer: As Doctor Phlox would say, optimism.
  T'Pol: Optimism doesn't alter the law of physics.
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- Robinson: (to Archer) You're a great pilot. Maybe as good as me. But you're never gonna get out into deep space by playing it safe. When the first warp 5 starship is built, it's captain won't be able to call home every time he needs to make a decision. He won't be able to turn to the Vulcans... unless he decides to take one with him.
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- Archer: You remember what Buzz Aldrin said when he stepped on the moon?
  Ruby: No.
  Archer: Nobody does because Armstrong went first.
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NOTES (7)
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- The director of this episode, LeVar Burton, previously played Lieutenant Commander Geordi LaForge on Star Trek: The Next Generation.
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- The 602 Club seen in this episode was named after a tavern that had been in business from 1951 to 1994. Students at UW-Madison often spent time at the place, including Rick Berman during his college days.
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- Archer's rival, A.G. Robinson, is named after actor Andrew G. Robinson, who played Garak, the Cardassian spy/tailor in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.
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- Although credited, John Billingsley (Dr. Phlox), Dominic Keating (Lt. Malcolm Reed) and Anthony Montgomery (Ensign Travis Mayweather) do not appear in this episode.
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- Trip mentions working on an engineering team headed by a Captain Jefferies. The unseen character was named after Matt Jefferies, designer of the original Enterprise from The Original Series, and whom the Jeferries Tubes are named after.
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- The cockpit of the NX-Alpha/NX-Beta is a redress of the cockpit from the Phoenix, Cochrane's warp ship from the film Star Trek: First Contact.
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- Co-stars Kathy J. Grant, James D. Frey and Thomas P. Hunt served on the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise during filming.
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ALLUSIONS (1)
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- Buzz Aldrin's First Words on the Moon
  
  Archer asked Ruby what Aldrin's first words were, to imply no one remembers because he was second on the Moon. But Aldrin's words were, "Looks like the secondary strut had a little thermal effects on it right here, Neil."
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