“Broken Bow” is episode one of season one of Star Trek: Enterprise.
This more imaginatively named pilot episode, which is sometimes shown as a feature length version, begins with a boy painting a model of a spaceship. He asks his father when his father’s ship will be ready to fly, and about Ambassador Pointy-Ears. His father says the Vulcans have been very helpful and he’s asked his son not to call Ambassador Soval that. The son says they would be flying at warp 5 by now if not for the Vulcans. The father says the Vulcans have their reasons. Though God knows what they are.
Thirty years later, a ship has crashed into a cornfield in Broken Bow, Oklahoma. A Klingon is being pursued through the corn by two aliens shooting at him. The farmer sees the smoke and flashes of gunfire. The Klingon enters some kind of silo as the farmer exits his house with a rifle. The other aliens arrive at the silo; one flattens to get in under the door and lets the other in. The Klingon then jumps out of the job and shoots the silo, which explodes, evidently having lured them in. The farmer then arrives. Neither understands each other and the farmer shoots the Klingon.
Some sort of shuttle pod is approaching a ship in spacedock. There are two people on board; one in uniform piloting, the other wearing a hat with ‘NX-01’ on it. The pilot is telling the other what has been done. The ship is beautiful and fast. They are contacted and the one in the hat, Captain Archer, is told that Admiral Forrest needs him at Starfleet Medical right away.
The Klingon is being treated there and Vulcans, led by Ambassador Soval, and Starfleet officers, led by Admiral Forrest (Vaughn Armstrong) are discussing the situation. The other aliens were incinerated and the Vulcans believe a stealthed ship was involved. Soval says the Klingons made it very clear they want the Vulcans to expedite matters.
Archer arrives and is filled in. The Vulcans have maintained close contact with Qo’nos, the Klingon homeworld. The Klingon is a courier. Soval thinks the ship’s launch should be delayed; the last thing they need is to make an enemy of the Klingon Empire. True, as it happens. If the Vulcans hadn’t convinced the Klingons to let the Vulcans bring the corpse back, they’d be facing a squadron of warbirds.
Archer asks if the Klingon is dead. He speaks to the doctor, who says no, and he probably isn’t going to die either. The Vulcans tell Archer that the Klingons are warriors; if the injured Klingon was seen like this he would be disgraced. Archer says they can take the Klingon back alive. He’s asked about his crew; his com officer is in Brazil and he hasn’t selected a medical officer yet. Admiral Forrest agrees. Soval raises his voice, which Archer points out, suggesting he’s been on Earth too long. He knocks on the glass and beckons to the doctor.
Two officers are at the transporter, discussing it. It’s been cleared for organic matter. The armoury officer, Lt. Malcolm Reed, doesn’t think it should be tested on them. Some of what he ordered has come wrong. The helmsman, Ensign Travis Mayweather, asks why they need weapons. Reed asks if he’s read about the Klingons. They end up in engineering where the pilot from earlier, Cmdr. Charles Tucker III, is working.
Archer arrives where a woman is teaching a language class. He tries to convince the woman, Ensign Hoshi Sato, that he needs her back now, not in three weeks’ time. She’s proving resistant to this, until Archer plays her a recording of Klingon speech. The Vulcans gave them a sample of their linguistic database. The chance to learn new languages, and to be the first human to talk to the Klingons, convinces her.
Archer is in his quarters on the ship with Tucker. They’ve been assigned a Vulcan science officer, as the Vulcans gave them maps to Qo’nos. Think of her as a chaperone. Tucker thought the point was to get away from the Vulcans. She’ll only be there for four weeks; then they can be rid of her. The Vulcan, who was with Soval’s group, arrives. Sub-Cmdr. T’Pol. Tucker introduces himself as ‘Trip.’ She’s not exactly happy – for Vulcan definitions of happy – to be on the ship either. Already, there is friction.
Admiral Forrest speaks to a crowd about launching the NX-01, with its warp 5 engine designed by Henry Archer. His son, Jonathan Archer, will be the captain. The bridge crew arrive on the ship as Forrest plays a speech that contains some very familiar elements given by Zefram Cochrane at the dedication of the Warp 5 complex, and the NX-01, the Enterprise, pulls out of spacedock.
The mission is not as easy as it might seem. The aliens who tried to catch the Klingon still want to get him, and are being given orders by some unknown being who, going by references, appears to have access to time travel. Captain Archer’s new doctor is Phlox, the alien who was treating the Klingon. Dr Phlox’s methods seem to involve the use of a lot of other creatures, rather than technology. As yet, Starfleet doesn’t have a working universal translator, which makes things difficult. T’Pol is not making friends, though she does make some good points. All in all, they are off to a rocky start.
The story continues in the next episode, “Broken Bow, Part II”.