“Strange New World” is episode four of season one of Star Trek: Enterprise.
In the Enterprise‘s mess hall one crewman, Ethan Novokovich, sits with another, Elizabeth Cutler. Cutler is trying Vulcan broth and reading about insects. They chat and then light shines in through a port. Everyone goers to take a look. There’s a planet outside. Vegetation is abundant, but there are no signs of cities.
On the bridge, T’Pol reports on the planet. It sounds habitable and has a diverse ecology but no signs of humanoid life. Archer has them check to see if there’s anything laying claim to the planet. There isn’t. He tells Trip to prep a shuttlepod; they’re going down. T’Pol explains how the Vulcans do it, sending automated probes down then a week in orbit scanning, even if it appears to be Minshara class. ‘M-class’ as habitable worlds have been referred to in Star Trek. That’s clearly not going to happen. Archer asks if she’ll assemble a survey team.
Whilst prepping the shuttlepod, Cutler talks to T’Pol about the Vulcan broth she had and thanks T’Pol for choosing her. T’Pol chose Cutler because she’s a specialist in entomology and this world has a diverse insect population. Trip tells Cutler she will have better luck making friends with a housefly.
It seems that the Vulcan idea of caution has been thrown out the window. The shuttlepod contains Archer, Trip, Travis, Cutler, T’Pol, Novokovich and Porthos. T’Pol; starts scanning the atmosphere on arrival. Archer tells her to put it away. They’re walking on a world lightyears from Earth or Vulcan; doesn’t that impress her? T’Pol has been on 26 M-class planets; this one is only marginally different. Trip takes a photo of them anyway.
They wander around, or continue with assignments, and Trip is chatting to Travis. Travis, being raised on a ship, can’t call a place home unless it comes with a pair of warp nacelles. T’Pol contacts Archer; is there a problem? No, why? They were scheduled to meet 15 minutes ago. Returning to the shuttlepod, T’Pol wants to remain overnight with Novokovich and Cutler. Travis and Trip want to stay as well, Trip states. This is news to Travis. T’Pol states this is an away mission, not shore leave. Archer says it can be a bit of both.
That night, around the campfire, Travis tells a ghost story, which T’Pol picks apart the logical flaws in. Trip guesses there are no ghost stories on Vulcan. Novokovich has a headache and goes to lie down. Cutler mentions the fireflies are gone. The wind starts picking up and they head to their tents; Novokovich claims he heard someone out there. Trip finds an insect in his sleeping bag and wants to squash it. Travis asks if they’re allowed to squash alien lifeforms. If they’re in your sleeping bag, yes. Where are the phase pistols? Travis thinks that might be an overreaction. T’Pol contacts them to find out what is going on. The wind is really picking up and starting to uproot the tent pegs. Trip checks with T’Pol; she reported seeing a cave. They may have to go there.
On the Enterprise, Reed reports the windstorm to Archer and says that the survey team has taken shelter, but he recommends pulling them out. Archer contacts T’Pol; she says the landing will be difficult and they are protected where they are.
In the cave, it seems the food has been left. Travis volunteers to get it. He catches it as it blows away. The sees a humanoid, followed by two more. He returns and asks if anyone else was outside. No. Travis explains eh saw three people, and no, this isn’t a ghost story. T’Pol reminds him they detected no humanoid lifeforms. She scans again. They still don’t.
Novokovich claims he hears voices in the cave, and runs out. Trip and Travis arm themselves and head out after. T’Pol takes another phase pistol and heads deeper into the cave to check. Cutler takes the remaining pistol. Outside, Trip sees a humanoid figure start emerging from the rock. Cutler hears voices and sees T’Pol talking to two aliens. T’Pol denies it.
The humans are starting to act a bit erratically, and definitely paranoid. Then T’Pol starts getting a bit emotional. When the Vulcan starts becoming emotional, that tends to be a sign that something is definitely wrong. And it is. The increasingly erratic survey team is stuck on the planet as the windstorm makes landing a shuttlepod too dangerous.