Changes: Dead Stop (episode)

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Enterprise docks with a strange, automated repair space station, which proves too good to be true.

Summary

Following an encounter with a Romulan mine, Enterprise has suffered damage which requires extensive repairs. In fact, Trip Tucker estimates that he would need three to four months to complete the repairs, assuming they could even find tritanium alloy. Moreover, the damage is so extensive that Enterprise cannot travel faster than warp 2.1, leaving Enterprise about a decade away from Jupiter Station. Meanwhile Malcolm Reed is in the middle of rehabilitation following the serious leg injury he sustained while trying to disarm the mine, and is frustrated from Phlox to learn it will be another week or two before he can return to duty.

Given their dire situation, Captain Archer orders Hoshi Sato to send out a distress call asking for assistance with repairs. The call is answered by a Tellarite freighter, which points them to a repair station. When Enterprise arrives at the station, they find it to be completely automated and quite sophisticated: it can adapt its environment to its guests and possesses impressive technology such as a food replicator, a kind of protoplaser, and more. It shows Archer, T'Pol and Tucker a scan of Enterprise which displays even the most minor damage, such as Reed's injured leg and where Tucker scratched the ship with an inspection pod just before the ship launched. Even more interesting is the station's offer to completely repair the ship in less than a day and a half (work that would take Jupiter Station three months) in exchange for a choice of several nearly trivial compensations; after discussing the loss of any irreplaceable items, they settle on an exchange of two hundred liters of warp plasma. The station warns that crew members must not enter any area undergoing repair, and then sets to work.

File:Auto repair station far.jpg

The repair station

The station's work is rapid and impressive, fixing systems in minutes that it would take days for the crew to repair. It also manages to completely heal Reed's leg, leaving no sign that he was ever injured. Despite all this, Archer is troubled that the station's builders are nowhere to be found nor did they leave any kind of message. He also can't help but shake the bad feeling that such extensive repairs are being conducted for a relatively insignificant payment, but T'Pol tries to alleviate his concerns, suggesting that the station's builders may have wanted to simply help other ships and wish to remain anonymous. In the station's mess hall, Tucker shares with Reed the fact that he is mystified that the station's computer core, despite being far more advanced than the one used by Enterprise, appears to be much smaller than they would have expected. The two decide to try and access the restricted compartment to have a look, however they are detected before they get too far and are transported back to Enterprise's bridge in front of T'Pol.

Archer gives the two a dressing down for acting without authorization and setting a bad example for the rest of the crew, however this is interrupted when he is informed that Ensign Mayweather has been found dead in launch bay 1. The evidence suggests that he disobeyed orders to stay out of the sections under repair, leading to his death by isolytic shock. However, Archer refuses to believe that Mayweather was that foolish. The autopsy confirms the captain's doubts: the body is not Mayweather's, but that of a near-perfect replica: even if Mayweather was dead, there would still be microorganisms (from a Rigelian fever vaccine recently administered ship-wide after a crewmember was infected with the disease) living in the bloodstream, but they are also dead – since they thrive on isolytic energy, the shock that killed Mayweather would have, if anything, increased their number. Doctor Phlox suggests that replicating living organisms is beyond the abilities of the station.

The captain decides to investigate the matter in more detail and assembles a team to reach the computer core. They easily disable the protective mechanisms and are surprised by what they find: dozens of unconscious bodies, connected to the computer, still alive but with irreversible brain damage, as their cerebral cortices have been reorganized by the station's core.

When they unplug Mayweather, the station turns hostile. With everyone finally back aboard Enterprise, the station refuses to let the ship disembark. It threatens to destroy the ship, locking out the crew from all systems.

Auto repair station repairs itself — The repair station begins repairs on itself

Archer still has an ace up his sleeve, however, as he had arranged to place a detonator next to the warp plasma canisters that were delivered as payment for the repairs. The detonator ignites the plasma and seemingly destroys the station, finally allowing Enterprise to escape, repaired and with its entire crew.

As Enterprise warps away, however, some parts of the repair station that had been left in wrecks slowly come together and begin repairing themselves...

Log entries

"Captain's starlog, supplemental. It's been almost four days since the incident in the Romulan minefield. Repair teams have been working around the clock. Nerves are definitely frayed."

Memorable quotes

"We've answered enough calls for help over the past year – it's time someone returned the favor."

- Archer

"It can't be ethical to cause a patient this much pain."
"It's unethical to harm a patient; I can inflict as much pain as I like."

- Reed and Phlox

"Your inquiry was not recognized."

- Automated repair station

"Evenin' subcommander!"

- Tucker, after he and Reed are transported onto the bridge

"These repairs are one hell of a bargain at only two hundred litres of warp plasma, don't you think?"

- Archer, to T'Pol

"We're explorers. Where's your spirit of adventure?"
"I left it in a Romulan minefield."

- Tucker asks a reluctant Reed to join him in getting a look at the automated repair station's computer

"Computer, begin recording. Subject's name: Ensign Travis Mayweather, Human male. Weight: 72 kilograms. Age: 26 Earth years. Far too young to be on this table."

- Phlox beginning a post mortem on Mayweather's "corpse"

"I wanted to say goodbye."
"You may find this disturbing."
"I've seen a body before, fifteen of them on that alien ship."

- Sato asks Phlox if she can see Mayweather's "body"

"It might comfort you to know, he felt very little pain – an isolytic shock instantly impairs the...(the doctor starts to lose concentration when he looks at his PADD) the nervous...(looks up at the biobed scan) that's odd...they're dead! All of them!"

- Phlox, comforting a distraught Sato during Mayweather's autopsy, only to realize her grief might be premature

"Did you find something?"
"As a matter of fact, I did – this is not Ensign Mayweather!"

- Archer and Phlox, revealing the shocking truth

"It's ironic, in a way. The station can duplicate a dead Human body in all its exquisite detail, yet a living, simple one-celled organism is beyond its capability."

- Phlox describing the station's bio-replicator

"The station's got us by the thrusters."

- Tucker, as Enterprise is trying to get away from the repair station

"You look pretty good for a dead guy."

- Archer, to Mayweather

"I think it's time we deliver our payment."

- Archer, ordering Reed to ignite the warp plasma on the station

"But what about all those other people?"
"According to T'Pol's scans, most of them had been there for... years. The damage to their brains was irreversible."

- Mayweather, concerned for the other lifeforms kidnapped by the station, and Phlox

Background information

Story and script

In the audio commentary for this episode, the writers reveal that this episode was an attempt to diverge from previous episodes of Star Trek in which a ship is critically damaged in one episode, but miraculously repaired in the next, with no mention of repair work.
As evidenced by its script, this episode had the working title "Slip Two". The final draft of the installment's script was issued on 8 October 2002.

Production

The automated repair station's medical re-generator was clearly a modified reuse of the exocomp from TNG: "The Quality of Life".
The prop in the middle of the diagnostic room was evidently a re-use of the artificial intelligence from the episode VOY: "Think Tank".
The access tunnel hatch seems to be nothing more than a white furnace filter, designed and marketed by 3M.
Roxann Dawson not only directed this episode, but also performed as the voice of the automated station.

Reception and aftermath

This episode was nominated for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Special Visual Effects for a Series.
Several costumes and props from this episode were sold off on the It's A Wrap! sale and auction on eBay, including a diagnosis hologram component from the automated repair station. [1]

Continuity

The plot of this episode continues from "Minefield", with Enterprise seeking repairs after being damaged in that episode, as well as Reed still recuperating from the injuries suffered during the encounter. This is one of relatively few episodes outside of the Xindi arc to carry on directly from the previous episode without being a two-parter.
Trip Tucker makes reference to scratching the hull in an inspection pod. This is reference to "Broken Bow", where he does indeed scratch the hull. "Broken Bow" took place about a year before this episode, and the time reference is correct.
This episode shows taken-for-granted Federation technologies, such as the food replicator and medical regenerator, before Starfleet has devised them for themselves.
This was the second time Roxann Dawson voiced a spacecraft. Previously, she played the Cardassian computer in VOY: "Dreadnought" (although in that case it was specifically stated that B'Elanna Torres, also played by Dawson, had reprogrammed Dreadnought's original computer voice to her own, out of frustration with the original voice).
Ensign Mayweather has a model of the Nomad probe, in its initial configuration, in his quarters. The probe originally appeared in TOS: "The Changeling".
Among the many alien bodies are a Klingon, a Vulcan, a Cardassian, a Xepolite, a species that closely resembles the Vaadwaur, and a member of Kago-Darr's species. This marks the only appearance of the Cardassians in Star Trek: Enterprise, although they are later mentioned in ENT: "Observer Effect".

Video and DVD releases

As part of the ENT Season 2 DVD collection.
As part of the ENT Season 2 Blu-ray collection.

Links and references

Starring

Scott Bakula as Captain Jonathan Archer
John Billingsley as Doctor Phlox
Jolene Blalock as Subcommander T'Pol
Dominic Keating as Lieutenant Malcolm Reed
Anthony Montgomery as Ensign Travis Mayweather
Linda Park as Ensign Hoshi Sato
Connor Trinneer as Commander Charles "Trip" Tucker III

References

2126; access port; automated alien medical device; automated repair station; bloodworm; bolt-coupling; Britain; catfish; cerebral cortex; Chef; computer core; confined to quarters; cytokinetic enzyme; deuterium; duranium; Earth; EPS grid; ethics; Fisher; gelatin; gremlin; Hayes; isolytic surge; Jupiter Station; Mayweather, Rianna; meter; metacarpus; phalanges; plasma conduit; polarized hull plating; practical joke; Regulan bloodworm; replicator; Rigelian fever; Romulan; strawberry; subspace amplifier; Tarkalean; Tellarites; Tellarite freighter; Tessik Prime; transporter; transtator; ventricular fibrillation; warp coil; warp plasma; water

Previous episode:
"Minefield"

Star Trek: Enterprise
Season 2

Next episode:
"A Night in Sickbay"

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 === References ===
-[[2126]]; [[access port]]; [[automated alien medical device]]; [[automated repair station]]; [[bloodworm]]; [[Old Britain|Britain]]; [[catfish]]; [[cerebral cortex]]; {{dis|Chef|Enterprise NX-01}}; [[computer core]]; [[confined to quarters]]; [[cytokinetic enzyme]]; [[deuterium]]; [[duranium]]; [[Earth]]; [[EPS grid]]; [[Ethics (philosophy)#"branches of ethics#medical ethics|ethics]]; [[Fisher (Crewman)|Fisher]]; [[gelatin]]; [[gremlin]]; {{dis|Hayes|Crewman}}; [[isolytic surge]]; [[Jupiter Station]]; [[Rianna Mayweather|Mayweather, Rianna]]; [[meter]]; [[metacarpus]]; [[phalanges]]; [[plasma conduit]]; [[polarized hull plating]]; [[practical joke]]; [[Regulan bloodworm]]; [[replicator]]; [[Rigelian fever]]; [[Romulan]]; [[strawberry]]; [[subspace amplifier]]; [[Tarkalean]]; [[Tellarite]]s; {{dis|Tellarite freighter|22nd century}}; [[Tessik Prime]]; [[transporter]]; [[transtator]]; [[ventricular fibrillation]]; [[warp coil]]; [[warp plasma]]; [[water]]
+[[2126]]; [[access port]]; [[automated alien medical device]]; [[automated repair station]]; [[bloodworm]]; [[bolt-coupling]]; [[Old Britain|Britain]]; [[catfish]]; [[cerebral cortex]]; {{dis|Chef|Enterprise NX-01}}; [[computer core]]; [[confined to quarters]]; [[cytokinetic enzyme]]; [[deuterium]]; [[duranium]]; [[Earth]]; [[EPS grid]]; [[Ethics (philosophy)#"branches of ethics#medical ethics|ethics]]; [[Fisher (Crewman)|Fisher]]; [[gelatin]]; [[gremlin]]; {{dis|Hayes|Crewman}}; [[isolytic surge]]; [[Jupiter Station]]; [[Rianna Mayweather|Mayweather, Rianna]]; [[meter]]; [[metacarpus]]; [[phalanges]]; [[plasma conduit]]; [[polarized hull plating]]; [[practical joke]]; [[Regulan bloodworm]]; [[replicator]]; [[Rigelian fever]]; [[Romulan]]; [[strawberry]]; [[subspace amplifier]]; [[Tarkalean]]; [[Tellarite]]s; {{dis|Tellarite freighter|22nd century}}; [[Tessik Prime]]; [[transporter]]; [[transtator]]; [[ventricular fibrillation]]; [[warp coil]]; [[warp plasma]]; [[water]]
 {{ENT nav|season=2|last={{e|Minefield}}|next={{e|A Night in Sickbay}}}}