Carbon Creek (episode)
幻游百科,影视科幻的百科全书
| Series: | ENT |
| Episode: | 2x02 |
| Original Airdate: | 2002-09-25 |
| Production Number: | 027 |
| Year: | 2152 |
| Date: | April 12 |
| Story by: | Rick Berman, Brannon Braga, and Dan O'Shannon |
| Teleplay by: | Chris Black |
| Directed by: | James Contner |
T'Pol tells Archer and Trip a story about her great-grandmother and two other Vulcans, who crash landed in a small Pennsylvania town in the year 1957.
目录 |
剧情
碳溪鎮
在慶祝特珀在企業號服役滿一年的晚餐聚會上，亞契問她，為什麼她有利用一段五天假期，造訪賓夕法尼亞州古老採礦小鎮碳溪鎮的紀錄。她說碳溪鎮事實上是人類和瓦肯人第一次接觸的地點，遠比2063年的第一次接觸事件早，而她的曾祖母在場。崔普塔克不以為然的嘲笑，但特珀說了「這段故事」。
特珀的曾祖母名字是特米爾，1957年地球上的人類地一次發射人造衛星史波尼克號，她和其他三位瓦肯人乘調查艦調查此一是件。他們的脈衝動力故障，被迫緊急降落在北美的森林裡。他們無法確定對瓦肯最高當局的求救訊號是否及時傳送出去，而且一個星期後存糧也耗盡，他們要面對如何生存下去的問題。儘管有「文化污染」的風險，密斯特爾堅持去附近的「殖民地」看看。換上偷來的衣服，把耳朵遮好，他們混入這個村莊。特米爾和密斯特爾走進碳溪鎮，進入一間名為松樹酒吧的小酒館。當他們知道「現金」是必要的，密斯特爾加入了撞球賭賽。密斯特爾很快就了解這遊戲的幾何規則，贏到足夠的錢讓他和特密爾去買一袋袋的食糧。崔普打斷特珀的故事，懷疑的和已知的「陰陽魔界」事件做比較，但亞契被他的故事迷住了，所以她繼續說下去。
他們希望營救的船艦會找到他們，這三位瓦肯人在碳溪鎮住了下來，從事安全的工作：斯特能當修水管及打雜的工人，密斯特爾當煤礦工人，特米爾被小酒館僱用。雖然他們盡力記著他們的目標，但是密斯特爾變得愈來愈被人類文化著迷，像電視和棒球賽以及鎮上的人們都吸引著他，特別是松樹酒館的主人，單親媽媽瑪姬。聽到原子彈試爆的新聞後，特米爾相信地球人證走向自我毀滅，使得他們建立子空間訊息傳送的工作更急迫。但是密斯特爾不贊成那麼悲觀的看法，他覺得這是一個有同情心和憐憫心的種族，而且具有巨大的潛能。事實上，密斯特爾找藉口離開公寓，好和瑪姬獨處。特米爾發現了，她禁止他和瑪姬進一步交往，但是密斯特爾反駁說他們必須接受無法離開這個星球的事實。
特米爾自己也對當地人起興趣，她知道瑪姬的兒子傑克是一個聰明的孩子，他很想讀大學，但負不起學費，他母親在酒吧桌上放了一個瓶子以募集他的就學基金。當至少二十名當地礦工困在地底時，這些瓦肯人捲入的這事件中。密斯特爾說服特密爾和斯特能用他們的科技幫助那些人，用墜毀船艦上拿來的粒子武器，加上特密爾用掃描器協助，密斯特爾成功的救出了那些礦工。三個月後，正當他們接受要將餘生居住於地球時，他們收到瓦肯船艦三天後將來援救他們的訊息。他們告訴雇主要回「北方」的老家。傑克知道了，他告訴特密爾他會想念她，而他和他母親募集的錢仍然不夠，所以他今年無法上大學。儘管違反了不干預原則，特珀從墜毀的船上拿了一樣東西，到大都市裡，把它賣給一個商人。那是一個後來被稱為「魔鬼氈」的新發明。她將錢悄悄的放進傑克的就學募款瓶子裡，瑪姬發現了以後，非常驚訝。
當瓦肯人準備離開時，斯特密爾宣佈他打算留下來。這是一個研究新興種族的獨特機會，他極喜愛這種族。斯特能爭辯說最高當局不可能同意，當他們到達約定地點時，特密爾告訴其他瓦肯人，密斯特爾在失事時就身亡，而遺體已經火化。
據特珀說，密斯特爾在地球度過他的餘生。亞契和崔普懷疑這個故事的真實性，最後只把它當作晚餐時間的趣談。可是當特珀回到她的艙房，她忍不住拿出一個祖傳紀念品－－那是特密爾曾在礁溪鎮用過的錢包。
T'Pol has now been on the Enterprise for exactly one year. Since Jonathan Archer has to send a report to Starfleet about her, he takes some time to know her a little more. At one point, he asks her the reason she went to visit Carbon Creek, Pennsylvania when she was still on Earth. She has qualified it as of a personal matter at first, but Trip is able to convince her to tell them "a story". So she begins the story of the first Vulcan-Human First Contact that happened in 1957 in Carbon Creek. Trip objects citing the fact that all Earth children learn in school that the first contact between Vulcans and Humans occurred in 2063 at Bozeman, Montana, but T'Pol continues her story.
A Vulcan ship was performing a survey from orbit after the recent Sputnik I launch by the humans. Unfortunately, they had impulse manifold problems and were forced into an emergency landing. Their captain died in the crash, leaving T'Mir (T'Pol's second foremother (great-grandmother) who bore a striking resemblance to T'Pol) in command of the three surviving Vulcans. They did not want any contact with humans but were eventually forced into contact when they ran out of emergency rations. After five days of starvation, Mestral decided to seek some food (they encountered two deer, but since Vulcans are vegetarians, they decided they were not yet desperate enough to eat these).
The adventurous Vulcan provided his crewmates with local currencies when he convinced T'Mir to let him play a game of pool (that wouldn't even have challenged a Vulcan child with its simple geometry). Beginning to consider that their distress call had not been received, the three built a life for themselves, finding employment and an apartment. Eventually, Mestral became very interested in human culture and made many friends. He even defended them when T'Mir said they were worthless people, only trying to destroy each other by any means they had.
Even if T'Mir was not willing to make deeper contact with the humans, her opinion changed a bit when she had a conversation with a boy named Jack, whose mind was very open (he showed interests in meditation and astronomy, as well as other things).
A little after, there was an accident in the mine where Mestral was working and he convinced T'Mir to let him save the miners, his friends, with the help of Vulcan technology. They were careful to keep away from the humans.
After about four months, a Vulcan ship finally arrived, saying their distress call made it to Vulcan through a Tellarite freighter. Mestral decided he didn't want to go back to Vulcan as he didn't want to let the chance slip by to study an emerging civilization (he was probably still alive and on hand when the Phoenix first went to warp). T'Mir also showed that her time on Earth had some effects on her and decided to sell Velcro (an invention that would change the world) to help Jack enter college. When the rescue shuttle arrives, T'Mir said that Mestral died in the crash together with the captain, letting her crewmate stay on Earth.
Back in the present, Archer and Trip just don't know what to think as this has never been told to humans before. T'Pol says that the event is very well documented in the Vulcan archives, but maintains the ambiguity by saying that she just told "a story". It seems that they were real events however, since T'Pol returns to her quarters and takes out the purse her great-grandmother had while on Earth.
Background Information
- Dominic Keating (Lt. Malcolm Reed), John Billingsley (Dr. Phlox), Anthony Montgomery (Ensign Travis Mayweather) and Linda Park (Ensign Hoshi Sato) do not appear in this episode.
- This episode takes place on the first anniversary of T'Pol's assignment to Enterprise. It is also revealed that the previous record for a Vulcan serving on an Earth starship was ten days.
- J. Paul Boehmer previously played Vornar in the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode "Tacking Into the Wind".
- In reality, Velcro was invented by George de Mestral. This is where Mestral got his name.
- New, lighter blue-colored Starfleet jumpsuits were produced for the second season, but not seen until this episode. At first worn by only the regular cast members, the new uniform color eventually became more widely used as the season continued.
- This episode was shot before "Shockwave, Part II", though aired after.
- This episode's opening scenes and premise are very similar to an earlier novel, "Strangers from the Sky", which described a pre-first contact crash of a Vulcan scout ship on Earth.
- Mestral mentions that he is an avid fan of the television show I Love Lucy. This is an homage to the fact that Star Trek was first produced by Desilu Productions.
- In the scene where T'Mir leaves the patent office, a shot of an older design of an U.S. $50.00 bill is shown in her purse. However, in the next scene there is a clear shot of the back of a modern U.S. $50.00 bill in the change jar.
Links and References
Guest Stars
- Jolene Blalock as T'Mir
- J. Paul Boehmer as Mestral
- Michael Krawic as Stron
- Ann Cusack as Maggie
- Hank Harris as Jack
- Clay Wilcox as Billy
- David Selburg as Vulcan Captain
- Ron Marasco as Vulcan Officer
- Paul Hayes as Businessman
References
alcohol; aliens; Armstrong, Neil; annual crew evaluation; astronomy; atomic bomb; baseball; Bozeman; Buddhist monks; Carbon Creek; Carlsbad Caverns; Cochrane, Zefram; cryogenics; deer; distress call; Doylestown; D'Vahl; emergency rations; fakirs; First Contact; frozen fish sticks; Garrett, Mrs.; Gavin; geometry; India; I Love Lucy; Mars; Mechanical engineering; Moe; Montana; movie; nuclear device; particle weapon; Pennsylvania; Phoenix; Pine Tree; pool; President of the United States; protein replicator; quartz; satellite; Sausalito; Sputnik I; subspace transceiver; Tellarite freighter; Tellarite; Tellus; television; Three Stooges, The; Tibet; Tim; TV dinner; Twilight Zone, The; warp field engineer; waveform discriminator; Velcro; Vulcan; Vulcan High Command; Vulcan Science Directorate; Vulcan Space Council; Vulcan survey vessel; Vulcans; Yellowstone Park.
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