"Star Trek: Enterprise" Terra Prime (TV Episode 2005) Poster

(TV Series)

(2005)

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8/10
The Beginning of the Final Frontier
claudio_carvalho7 May 2010
In Mars, the xenophobic terrorist John Frederick Paxton threatens the aliens on Earth and gives an ultimatum: they shall immediately leave the planet; otherwise he would destroy the Starfleet Headquarter with a powerful weapon that is locked on the target. The aliens question whether humans might be capable to lead their alliance process. In the Enterprise, Archer asks Reed to meets Harris that helps him giving privileged information to the invasion to the facility. Meanwhile T'Pol and Trip meet their baby and they give the name of Elizabeth; however T'Pol discovers that Elizabeth is seriously sick and needing medical assistance. Gannet discloses to Travis that she is a secret agent from the Starfleet Intelligence and she is assigned to find a Terra Prime operative that is working undercover in Enterprise.

"Terra Prime" is a good conclusion of "Demons". The guest star Peter Weller performs a contradictory villain. The best part of the episode is the relationship among T'Pol, Trip and Elizabeth. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "Terra Prime"
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9/10
A tragedy for T'Pol and Trip
Tweekums17 September 2010
Warning: Spoilers
The second part of this two-part story begins with T'Pol and Trip still in Paxton's captivity on Mars. He has issued a threat to Star Fleet that he will destroy their headquarters if all aliens have not departed from Earth within a couple of days. Archer is ordered to destroy the array but he believes there is a way to re-take it without costing the lives of the people living there. To do this he and a team from Enterprise will have to avoid detection by flying behind a comet in a shuttle. This would be difficult at the best of time without the shuttle being sabotaged. Luckily for all aboard Travis is a good pilot. They manage to retake the facility and save Star Fleet but sadly they can't save T'Pol and Trip's baby; Paxton's cloning technology was flawed so the baby was doomed from the start.

This was another fine episode with a good guest performance from Peter Weller as Paxton. Another notable performance was from Jolene Blalock who managed to show both emotion and restraint as T'Pol when her baby died. The action was fairly exciting even if the special effects for the scene with the shuttle flying behind the comet weren't too convincing. It was brave to end on a sad note with the baby dying after the success they'd had at the conference… right up until we were actually told she was dead I was convinced Dr. Phlox would come in and announce he'd found a cure, it wasn't to be though.
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8/10
Pretty strong conclusion to the story
snoozejonc6 January 2021
Paxton presses on with an ultimatum to Earth.

I enjoyed this one for the performances, plot themes and character moments.

Much like part 1 the story contains great themes and they are addressed to a satisfying conclusion. The plot unfolds in a quite exciting way but things end tragically bittersweet.

I'm not sure what to expect with the final episode of the Enterprise but based on what I've heard, I approached Terra Prime with the mindset of it being the show finale. In that respect it works quite well.

All performances are great, with most characters giving fitting contributions to the overall story of the two-parter. Peter Weller is great once more as were the main stars, but I might be getting sentimental as the show approaches its conclusion.

For me it was a 7.5/10 but I always round upwards.
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10/10
Beautiful...
trekkielife-127 February 2009
Warning: Spoilers
This was possibly my favourite episode in the whole series... Well, one of them, anyways! I absolutely adored "Terra Prime" and "Demons"; it was beautiful; the relationship between Trip and T'Pol and even with their daughter. This would have made a much, much better series finale, in my opinion, than "These Are the Voyages..." First of all, it made me cry. Okay, I cried during at least three of the Star Trek movies and during "Home", but that last scene where Trip approaches T'Pol in her quarters... Oh!! Sad!! Very, very emotionally moving.

There were a lot of memorable lines and moments here. It was one of those really unforgettable episodes. Splendid; splendid. I would have loved to see the series move on from here, especially considering the (doubtless) trauma that impacted our favourite Enterprise couple.

(By the way, for anyone who would have loved to see this go on, I suggest reading "The Good That Men Do" by Andy Mangels and Michael A. Martin. ;3 )
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10/10
This episode embodies everything Star Trek represents
WKYanks9 August 2013
Warning: Spoilers
This episode is the Enterprise series finale for me; I cannot and will not recognize the abortion that is named "These are the Voyages".

This is the second part of a story about a hypocrite that capitalizes on the fears of humans as earth enters the interstellar community.

This episode embodies everything Trek represents. It is a heart tugging story about diversity and self exploration.

Through the heroic actions of our crew, Humans, Vulcans, Andorians, Tellarites, Denobulans, Rigelians and Coridanites are discussing the formation of an alliance and Archer is called upon to address the representatives.

ARCHER: "Up until about a hundred years ago, there was one question that burned in every human, that made us study the stars and dream of traveling to them, Are we alone? Our generation is privileged to know the answer to that question. We are all explorers, driven to know what's over the horizon, what's beyond our own shores. And yet, the more I've experienced, the more I've learned that no matter how far we travel, or how fast we get there, the most profound discoveries are not necessarily beyond that next star. They're within us, woven into the threads that bind us, all of us, to each other. The final frontier begins in this hall. Let's explore it together!"

Then you have the background of T'Pol, whom had professed her feelings for Trip and Trip sharing those feelings then staying away. Then the two of them, Vulcan and Human, brought together because the epitome of a "anti IDIC human" like Paxton, using the fire of xenophobia, created Elizabeth for the sole purpose of isolating humanity from the newly found diverse community of aliens. A helpless, completely unaware, innocent little Elizabeth, with no understanding of her importance or control of her fate, ends up being the magnet that led to Paxton's demise and the reunification of Trip and T'Pol. T'Pol's very simple line while holding her emotions at bay as Trip struggles to contain his, holding the Vulcan IDIC given to her by her mother… "She was important" symbolizes the very heart of Trek - Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combination.

This episode speaks not only to the exploration of space, but to inner exploration and tolerance and calls for all to put aside our petty differences and join together.

Season 4's finest.
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10/10
The best love story and the saddest in years
littleparis8 October 2006
Warning: Spoilers
There is a lot to say about this particular episode. First of all I hate the fact that there isn't a fifth season coming up, seeing that this fourth season was unbelievable. I can say it was perfect. Well, as any true Star Trek Enterprise i will consider this particular episode as being the last. It is also the best. I can truly say i will miss this series, especially since the relationship between Trip and T'Pol has had a very beautiful development toward a future together. I felt chemistry between those two since I saw the first argument. What else can I say? Brilliant, very sad (but they do have a child in the future) and perfect. Best love story I've seen in years!
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9/10
An exciting conclusion.
planktonrules10 June 2015
This is the penultimate episode of "Star Trek: Enterprise" and it does a great job of setting the stage for the ending of the series. In it, Enterprise must sneak into the compound on Mars of the nut-case (Peter Weller) who is threatening to destroy the Federation before it can begin. In other words, while the humans and their new alien friends are about to sign a treaty forming the Federation, this idiot plans on destroying all this due to his xenophobic dream!

Part two focuses on the infiltration of the compound and then setting the wheels in motion for the Federation. Each was accomplished well and in an exciting fashion. Because of this, it makes a fine addition to the Trek franchise--well worth seeing and Weller makes an excellent baddie.
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8/10
Truly pulls at one's heart
MiketheWhistle1 January 2020
Warning: Spoilers
I resisted putting a spoiler in the title, but if you have lost a child as I have, this will be a truly emotional episode. The story was well written and performed, and it absolutely made my heart hurt.
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8/10
Enterprise hits a home run on it's way out.
create27 May 2013
In the beginning...

In 2001, I started to watch the series Enterprise because something about the concept intrigued me. I had not gotten into The Next Generation, and I was too busy for DS9. I watched the re-runs of the Original Series when I was a kid, and that was the appeal that led me to Enterprise.

Enterprise debuted around the same time the 9/11 terrorists attacks came. Although the show had been planned months ahead of time, and was hyped throughout the summer of 2001, the show had the misfortune of bad bad timing. Anyone who watches Enterprise now, and wasn't alive or old enough back then probably can't imagine how big of a change that was for even someone such as myself - who at the time taught students how to file forms for government services. But the whole world stopped, and there was little time for the distractions of fictionalized TV. Some of these episodes were canceled, and broadcast during the wee hours of the night. Some came during very important war announcements.

Sometime in late November 2001, a friend who had started watching Enterprise in the beginning as I had, asked if I was able to keep up. When I said that I wasn't, he informed me that UPN - the now defunct network that broadcast the show - was going to air a marathon to get viewers up to speed. I then told my friend that I would forgo the show for its original run, and watch it during its re-run period, because there was no way to get back into it, and judge it fairly.

"And," I said, "this show is going to have a hard time showcasing Science for Peace when most of America is suffering from a blood-lust."

What I didn't know is that those re-runs would never come...

Earlier this year, though, I had a chance to go through the whole series on Amazon Prime. I wasn't impressed. The first two years of the series were a mess. The characters were ill-defined, and sloppily utilized. The situations were banal. And, from the stories that were presented, the writers' interest in science was small.

The third season was at least coherent. The writers gained an interest in some science - the science of war. The Enterprise characters gained characterizations. And - finally! - there was a reason for Trip.

But it was the fatal fourth season that turned in the best episodes. And none better than Terra Prime.

The science dilemma of the show is how science advancements leave people behind. Don't just assume that the victims of advancements are the villains, such as the xenophobe John Frederick Paxton. No, everyone gets victimized for the furtherment of science: from Capt. Archer in DEMONS, the first part of this two episode story; to the very sad exploitation of T'Pol and Trip.

Yes, science is a tool that can be used for good or bad. This was the tale of those got stomped by it.

It's a pity that it took Enterprise four years to come up with a great Sci-Fi story.

(And can you believe they came up with one of the worst televised shows ever in the next installment?)
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7/10
Enterprise's Series Finale (Sort Of)
Samuel-Shovel8 March 2018
Warning: Spoilers
In "Terra Prime", Paxton gives his ultimatum for aliens to leave Earth, threatening to destroy Star Fleet headquarters if no one complies. Trip & T'Pol meet their child. Paxton forces Trip to help calibrate the weapon. Archer, Reed, Travis, and Phlox piggyback off a comet to sneak onto the Mars surface undetected. They storm Paxton's operation and rescue Trip, T'Pol, and the baby. Paxton is able to deploy the weapon but Trip's recalibrated it to fire harmlessly into the ocean. The clone baby of T'Pol & Trip has genetic issues and dies as the episode draws to a close. They name it Elizabeth in honor of Trip's sister. Archer gives a rousing speech at the conference, motivating the reluctant parties to form the alliance after all.

I'm watching the entirety of the Star Trek-verse in chronological order (shout out to the Star Trek Chronology Project website). Viewed this way, this is basically the series finale of Star Trek: Enterprise ("In a Mirror" & "These Are Voyages" come much later, after TOS, so I'm skipping those for now). In this respect, this episode kind of works as a sendoff to the series. We tidy up all the lose ends: the Federation is moving forward thanks to the crew of the Enterprise, T'Pol & Trip's will they/won't they romance seems to be official now, the Earth has been saved once again. There aren't any obvious open plot lines that don't get resolved.

The plot of the episode itself isn't exactly mind blowing but, like I said, it does its job. I'm actually a bit sad to be leaving ST:E, which is something I never thought I'd say. I've really grown attached to its characters, mainly Phlox, T'Pol, and Trip. I still think Bacula as Archer is a terrible character but the rest of the cast kind of makes up for this. Even Hoshi, my least favorite for most of the series, had really begun to grow on me in the latter seasons. It's a shame that the show got canceled just as it was beginning to hit its stride.
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10/10
The real Series Finale and a dire warning for 2017, which was ignored.
XweAponX24 February 2017
"These are the fantasy TNG Holodeck Voyages", I don't consider it as part of this show even, it was Braga's final failed attempt to make one more TNG Ep.

So from now on I ignore it. That episode should NEVER have been made. To Blazes with Braga, because of him, many talented people lost their jobs. I'd rather see the cast and crew doing what they are best at: Making TREK shows, rather than remembering Trek shows at Conventions.

I had dismissed and panned this show, mostly cos of the canon- breaking writing and too-human Vulcanians. Imagine the head of the Vulcanian government in collusion with Romulans and acting like one himself? The excess emotions and bombing a sacred temple with people in it not a big enough CLUE? I could not swallow the multiple 24th century anachronisms, the multiplex time paradoxes, although the one on "Carpenter" Street" in Season 3 was great. I thought T'Pol sucked, but that was before I knew she had been exposed to a toxic emotion- causing Trellium-D Overdose. Now that I can see the progression of her Character, Jolene did a swell job at playing a Vulcan on the deteriorating side.

So, I had mostly ignored Enterprise all these years. But that was MY Bad. After Binge Watching the whole show just now, there are many good things about it. "Is it Star Trek?" YES. And this episode here, and the one prior to it, are the appropriate Series Finales this show deserved.

Season 4 was quite a bit different. It was made during the great "Change" - Shows no longer had 26 Eps per season, like Enterprise 1st 2 seasons. Season 3 got 24 Eps and season 4, only 22. But those 22 were not individual episodes, but rather little 2-3 Ep vignettes, which propelled the story toward THIS Ep.

I had trouble with "Arik Soong" and his Mulleted "Arguments" I like to call them, and I had a lot of trouble with the "Vulcanians with Testosterone" Eps. But even those had some good things and some great story elements.

But these last 2 Eps, which are the actual season and series finale, reflect the crappy things that are happening in the US this year, Xenophobia has made it into the White House. These episodes were merely a warning made during the last time we had a reactionary governing us, people forget that this country was almost destroyed that time too. How fast can 8 years of forward progress be eradicated?

So it is best to remember this episode: And also the fact that most decent people in this country won't put up with what John Frederick Paxton (Peter Weller) and the Xenophobe in the White House are pushing.

Ironically, this is not the first time Peter Weller plays a reactionary Meathead in Trek, he was a similar Meathead in "Into Darkness". In Fiction, the reactionaries get their just desserts. Sometimes, they get what they deserve in real life, too.
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10/10
The true series finale
carolhendry-2512628 July 2023
This should have been the final episode of Enterprise. It was sad that the show was cancelled, but this episode would have wrapped up the series in a worthy manner.

The episode set the stage for future Star Trek and the Federation. It gave all of the main crew a chance to shine.

The episode confronts the bigotry of humanity and shows how Archer and her crew helped Earth to rise above it. To me, this aspect makes the show consistent with Gene Roddenberry's vision of the best in humanity rising to the top.

While the entire episode was special, the final scene with Trip and T'Pol was particularly heartwarming and heartbreaking. I commend this episode to your viewing.
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10/10
Nicely Done/Not Simplistic
Hitchcoc31 March 2017
So our overblown zealot had feet of clay. Good. This is an excellent episode with great pacing and a story of love and loss. It also sets up much of what happens next for the lineage of the Enterprise. Suspicion and hatred for those things we don't know is the most destructive force we deal with. It would be nice if our leadership would take a hard look at themselves at times. Yes, there are dangers. Address them. But don't paint the whole world with the same brush. Excellent concluding two part episode. One thing. I wonder how many sea lions were lost when that heat ray hit the water?
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10/10
"Your not only a terrorist, you're a hypocrite."
sugarmountainf22 August 2018
The "Terra Prime" episodes are a fitting, prescient, concluding commentary on American society from 2008-2020. The Terra Prime organization is a glove-like fit to the current Marxist Party of Hate that fosters an apocalyptic revulsion of conservative Americans. While the Terra Prime people use weapons of mass destruction to achieve their xenophobic goals, the Party of Hate uses its Brownshirt thugs to attack patriots and destroy American culture by burning books, shutting down free speech, and destroying monuments. "War is peace, freedom is slavery, ignorance is strength," shout the Brownshirt terrorist hypocrites! "We've seen what humans can be at their worst," says Nathan Samuels.

Beginning with TOS, the writers tried to comment on social issues, and by accident they nailed it in this two-parter. It even contains the mandatory white-woman-lusting-after-a-black-man. (It's never a black woman desiring a white man.)

Even so, I believe this Star Trek franchise series has the most dislikable crew of all of them. Yeah, McCoy was irritating with his whining, but Enterprise has an arrogant, narcissistic, hot-tempered jock for a captain; a hot-tempered good 'ol Floda boy for a chief engineer, a whiney communications officer, and a seedy, whiney British tactical officer.
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8/10
Clap louder - that's an order!
tomsly-4001520 April 2024
This double episode is a worthy conclusion to this rather average series. And it also marks the birth of the United Federation of Planets.

The actual events in this episode are rather lame though. The mining facility's weapon is so powerful, you have to wonder why you've never seen anything like it on Starfleet ships before. The whole story about the cloned baby hybrid of human and Vulcan DNA didn't convince me at all either. Firstly, with just one cloned baby you would hardly be able to gain supporters for your racial madness - the current "threat" to people on Earth still seems far too small to me at this point. Apparently it is not the case that Earth is overpopulated by aliens, that humans can no longer find jobs or apartments and that crime and violence have increased (all reasons for comparable arguments in our day when it comes to immigrants). Secondly, this whole exaggerated emotional attachment of Trip and T'Pol to this baby is a bit far-fetched. Yes, the baby is genetically their offspring. But it's also a test-tube baby, a pure clone. From stolen DNA. This emotional connection that they both portray in the episode doesn't seem authentic. T'Pol was neither pregnant with the baby nor was it taken from both of them at an early stage. There wasn't even an act of conception.

And also: Why did this insane human supremacy supporter need DNA from T'Pol and Trip to create a clone? He could have taken any Vulcan or human and created a clone from their DNA. Maybe even an Andorian and a human to make the result even more vivid. Ultimately, it was all about presenting an alleged abomination to his followers in order to further incite their racial madness and stir up hatred and violence.

Mayweather also proves once again in this double episode that he is a really bad actor and was just an extra in the entire series anyway. And this unsympathetic reporter/agent then added fuel to the fire and completely ruined the already boring scenes with him.

This episode also once again shows that the concept of a phaser set to stun is still not understood. With a weapon that doesn't kill or cause injury, you can basically just shoot away. So why do Archer and the others storm the command center of that mining facility and not just take out everyone they find there - no questions asked. Instead, the villain is of course spared and has time to strike back. Typical Star Trek!

And why is Hoshi still an ensign? After all these years and even saving Earth from annihilation, a promotion would have been absolutely necessary. What do you actually have to do in Starfleet to become a lieutenant or commander when apparently even preventing the destruction of Earth doesn't qualify?
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