“North Star” is episode nine of season three of Star Trek: Enterprise.
Men on horseback ride into what looks like an Old West town at night and string someone up from a tree.
The next day, the lynched man, who isn’t human, is in a casket. The sheriff asks who’s paying for the box and he hopes there aren’t plans to bury the dead man in the cemetery. A woman, Bethany, says that the deceased’s people don’t bury their dead, but she doesn’t expect the sheriff to know that. The sheriff is sorry he didn’t get there in time to stop it. Bethany asks what difference that would have made. The sheriff says there would have been a trial; Bethany replies that the same people who lynched him would have been on the jury. According to the sheriff, self-defence or not, killing is a hanging offence for a Skag.
Bethany walks past Captain Archer, who is dressed appropriately. The captain speaks to T’Pol, who confirms the people are human. Trip says the buildings look pretty authentic. The captain wonders how humans got here from Earth. He contacts Enterprise; Reed says they’ve scanned 90% of the surface. Human settlements are clustered around, about 6,000 people. The aliens, there are fewer than 1,000; the closest encampment is 10 km away. No signs of technology. The earliest structures are about 250 years old but made from local materials.
The captain asks T’Pol and Trip to check out the aliens. For that, they need a horse; when asked what happened to their own – it’s a long way to the next town – T’Pol claims they died of heat exhaustion. Instead of buying a horse, Trip trades his harmonica and leaves his revolver as security to rent it. T’Pol asks what Trip’s riding experience is. He’s watched Westerns.
The captain enters the saloon; he chats to the bartender, who it seems is descended from Cooper Smith, the man who overthrew the Skags. The lynch mob rolls in; the bartender does not look pleased to see them. The mob’s leader, Bennings, who is also a deputy, invites a Skag, Draysik, to sit with them and toast to dead Skags. Bennings says Draysik’s friend must have had a few in him. Draysik says the dead man didn’t drink. Bennings protests shock that a sober Skag would have the nerve to kill a man. Perhaps Draysik can demonstrate? The captain interrupts and asks for his coffee filling up first. The sheriff arrives at this point; he saw Archer earlier. After the captain goes, the sheriff tells Bennings to make sure he leaves town.
T’Pol and Trip have found a crashed ship at the Skag settlement. It dates back at least two centuries. T’Pol wants to get closer.
Archer has arrived at the school; it seems Bethany is the teacher. He wants to know more about the Skags – Skagarans. There aren’t any where he lives. Absolutely true. Bethany heard what Archer did in the saloon and asks why he’d risk jail or worse. Because he doesn’t consider Skagaran life less valuable. Bethany asks if he’d like to meet more. He would. They head out in a carriage and Bennings watches them go.
At the settlement, T’Pol calls out to the captain; he introduces her and Trip to Bethany. Bethany is going to teach the Skagaran children soon. T’Pol and Trip have found data modules; the captain wants them to return to the ship and see what they can find out.
Bethany asks the children to tell Archer how humans and Skagarans came to live together. The Skagarans’ ancestors took humans from their world and brought them here to make them work. This didn’t work out so well. Bennings shows up at this point with friends and both Archer and Bethany are taken into custody.
Quite obviously, this is a Western episode. It’s got nothing to do with the Xindi threat; it’s more that Enterprise stumbled across humans and got curious. With them being human, Captain Archer is more open to intervention.