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Star Trek: Enterprise – Detained (Review)

Next year, Star Trek is fifty years old. We have some special stuff planned for that, but – in the meantime – we’re reviewing all of Star Trek: Enterprise this year as something of a prequel to that anniversary. This January, we’re doing the first season. Check back daily for the latest review.

Detained is well-meaning, if a little clumsy and awkward.

It is a rather conscious effort to do a “message show” in the grand tradition of the Star Trek franchise, using the show’s science-fiction premise to offer a commentary on current events. Detained is very clearly structured as a response to the 9/11 attacks, even if Archer only explicitly references the internment of Japanese Americans at Manzanar. Detained is full of interesting ideas, and its heart is in the right place, but the execution feels decidedly rushed and haphazard.  Detained works much better as a two-line moral than it does as a forty-five minute episode of television.

You can’t call him Al…

To be fair, Detained might seem a little bit overblown in hindsight. Over a decade has passed since the events of 9/11. While those terrorise attacks still loom over American foreign policy and have a significant influence on domestic policy, we are relatively far removed from the aftermath. While there is no doubt that Middle Eastern and Asian Americans have faced increased prejudice from the wider public in the wake of the attacks , making a comparison to the internment of Japanese Americans seems a little excessive.

However, it’s very hard to convey just how tense the situation was in the wake of the 9/11 attacks. The climate was incredibly charged, and there was a decidedly racial element to the anxiety. Urban legends spread like wildfire in the immediate aftermath of the atrocities about Middle Eastern and Asian Americans helped to stoke the fire. Comparisons to the internment of Japanese Americans were made almost immediately . Indeed, fringe elements of the Republican Party seemed to be suggesting it , despite the attempts of the George W. Bush White House to defuse these racist tensions in the immediate aftermath of the attacks .

Cleaning up their act…

So, Detained was dealing with some pretty heavy subject matter in April of 2002. A lot of the episode’s flaws can be forgiven on that basis. Star Trek: Enterprise is trying very hard in its first season, and Detained is very clearly constructed as a big “important” episode in the grand tradition of big “important” episodes of the franchise. It is an attempt to acknowledge that part of the franchise’s legacy and homage, and to exploit the possibility of science-fiction to frame an effective allegory.

It doesn’t quite work, though. There are lots of little reasons that Detained is unable to pull off an archetypal “Star Trek message story” , to the point where it’s possible to watch the episode and wonder if it ever might have worked. The problems are so vast and so large that they feel almost baked into the story. It’s impossible to imagine a version of Detained that isn’t so clumsy or so ham-fisted or so heavy-handed.

A ban on the Suliban?

Writer Mike Sussman has been openly critical of the script that he and Phyllis Strong wrote for the episode :

“I’m just not a big fan of allegory episodes,” he admits. “People get on their soapboxes and talk about the original series and how it was always about something – they always bring up Let That Be Your last Battlefield and Plato’s Stepchildren and the Vietnam one, A Private Little War. They were just a little too obvious for me.”

Sussman has a point here. Those are all heavy-handed episodes that barely worked in the context of the sixties, and would not work on modern television.

Travis has to fight for his lines…

However, Sussman ignores the fact that Star Trek also has a history of decidedly more low-key political commentary that isn’t as blatantly on-the-nose. The examples he cites from the original show are all big iconic “this is important!” episodes that are not necessary well-made television. However, he glosses over episodes that are effective allegories and good television. From the first season alone, episodes like Errand of Mercy , The Devil in the Dark and The City on the Edge of Forever are all classic episodes with heavy political subtext – subtext the sometimes conflicts and contrasts, but subtext nonetheless.

More than that, other Star Trek spin-offs have managed to weave political commentary into their stronger stories. Star Trek: Deep Space Nine was often about the morality of warfare and a multicultural future. In the first season of that spin-off, episodes like Duet and In the Hands of the Prophets both dealt with highly-charged subjects like war guilt and creationism. Similarly, Star Trek: Voyager could occasionally churn out a thoughtful commentary like Distant Origin .

Phlox hits a bit of a red light…

While  Star Trek hasn’t always managed to hit it out of the park when it comes to “message shows” – with misses like The High Ground or The Outcast – it has produced stories that work better than Detained . Treating the Suliban as an oppressed minority herded into detention camps for the security of a powerful nation in the wake of a series of atrocities, Detained has an effective premise. However, there are just too many flaws.

The most obvious is the fact that the Suliban and the Tandarans are rather rote aliens of the week. This is only the third time that the audience has met the Suliban. This is the only time that the show explores the idea of Suliban outside “the Cabal” , despite touching on it briefly in Broken Bow . Both before and after this point, the Suliban are largely defined as villains on  Enterprise , with Silik serving as the most developed and prolific Suliban character.

Putting their heads together…

In a way, Detained could be read as a criticism of the species essentialism that comes baked into Star Trek – the idea that all members of a particular group conform to a stereotype. Indeed, one of the stronger episodes of the second season – Judgment – will explore and subvert the idea that all Klingons are warriors. (And Mike Sussman will return to that theme for Affliction .) As such, Detained could be read as an attempt to demonstrate that not all alien cultures on Star Trek are monolithic. Despite our attempts to profile the recurring aliens, not all Suliban are gene freak bad guys and not all Klingons are warriors.

That’s a nice idea, but it doesn’t really work here. Quite simply, we don’t know or care enough about the Suliban for Detained to play out as a subversion or criticism. We have met the Suliban twice so far in the season. In Broken Bow , Silik was an adversary, but Archer did receive aid from another Suliban, Sarin. In Cold Front , Silik saves the ship. In neither of these episodes does the audience get a sense of Suliban culture or values. They feel more like generic goons backing up the ambiguous “Future Guy.”

Mayweather and Archer don’t want to be detained too long…

So not only does it feel like we hardly know the Suliban, it feels like Archer hardly knows the Suliban either. In his preliminary meeting with Colonel Grat, the subject naturally works its way around to the interned Suliban. “You’re familiar with the Cabal?” Grat asks. “Unfortunately,” Archer replies. However, it feels like a bit of an over-statement. Enterprise has invented a fairly interesting new adversary, but it has done little to develop them.

Compare the development of the Suliban to the Cardassians or the Bajorans during the later years of Star Trek: The Next Generation , even before the launch of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine . We have no idea how Suliban culture works, or what their history is like. We know that there are groups of them, and that one of those groups is working with a time-traveller. However, we know nothing of Suliban culture or philosophy or history. Are they religious? Are they artists? Are they wandering nomads?

“Ziggy says…”

Given how little we or Archer know about the Suliban, the character’s immediate reaction towards the captive Suliban here feels ridiculously heavy-handed, a clear attempt to set up the “Archer learns a lesson about prejudice” moral later in the episode. Coupled with his various outbursts about Vulcans earlier in the first season,  Detained feels like another episode that paints Archer as something of a xenophobe.

Spotting a Suliban child taking clothes off a make-shift washing line, Archer decides the best thing to do is to loudly start throwing around accusations and insinuations. “She’s a little young to be a member of the Cabal,” he remarks. “I know that you’re given genetic tricks as payment. What are they giving her?” Leaving aside the issue of whether this is the first impression Archer would want to make in front of a child , it also feels a bit extreme.

The best laid plans…

After all, the last time he met Silik, the Suliban saved the lives of everybody on his ship. Sure, he knocked out Archer and Archer did try to detain him, but that seems like a lot of hate for a character who did prevent Enterprise from randomly exploding. It’s quite clear where Detained is going, and how it plans to get there. The episode is packed with awkward life lessons and morals. Asked what he is doing in the camp if he is not a member of the Cabal, Danik sarcastically replies, “Didn’t Colonel Grat tell you? We’re dangerous. All Suliban are dangerous.”

The episode beats that drum pretty hard, and it feels like a forty-five minute lecture delivered over mega-phone on how racism is wrong. It’s an important message, but the delivery feels too blunt. “Thank you for lunch,” Archer remarks after getting the full story from Danik. Danik responds, “Thank you for listening.” All that’s missing is the shot of a human and a Suliban holding hands. “We’re not criminals, Captain, and we’re not soldiers,” Danik informs Archer. “The only thing we’re guilty of is being Suliban.”

Easy to Reed, that one…

Detained seems unable to resist the sorts of clichés that come with a story like this. There is, inevitably, an adorable Suliban child. At the climax, during a heated firefight, it looks like she might end up separated from her father. “Father!” she yells. Gritting his teeth and keeping his cool, Danik responds, “I’ll be there soon, Narra. Go. Go!” It’s the most cliché moment imaginable in a story like this, and Detained pulls it off without a hint of irony or self-awareness.

The episode might have carried more weight if Enterprise had worked to develop the Suliban. To be fair to Detained , the episode does give us a bit of history and back story. “Our homeworld became uninhabitable three hundred years ago,” Danik explains to Archer. “Most Suliban are nomadic, but some of us have assimilated into other cultures.” Now that is an interesting glimpse at a Star Trek culture, one that avoids many of the clichés of Star Trek alien cultures, by suggesting not all cultures are centralised or monolithic.

The Tandarans really aren’t very good at running an internment camp, are they?

Unfortunately, it simply feels like set-up for the events of Detained rather than an insight into Suliban culture. It doesn’t do much to contextualise what we know about the Suliban. Silik never discusses the loss of his homeworld or the realities of leading a faction of a nomadic culture. Over the run of Enterprise , we never get a sense of whether anybody dreams of uniting the wandering Suliban into a single nation, or whether the Suliban are really are galactic refugees. This is the only episode featuring the Suliban without featuring the Cabal, which makes it seem like a contrived excuse for this story rather than something that makes sense organically.

There is a rather uncomfortable subtext to Detained . The episode tries to humanise the Suliban, and it does so by trying to downplay what makes them alien and unique. Rather than having Archer learn to respect a culture foreign and alien to him, Detained instead alters that culture to make them seem more familiar. Archer only really starts to accept that Danik might be a decent person when Danik reveals that he doesn’t have the ability to alter his DNA or warp his body. Locked in a form that conforms to humanoid expectations, Archer finds it a lot easier to accept the idea of  “a good Suliban.”

Leaving the door open for future development…

This feels a little unfortunate. After all, the moral of Detained really should be that even members of foreign and alien cultures are not necessarily hostile. Instead, Detained undermines its own message of tolerance; it suggests that Grat’s policies  might be justifiable if the Suliban were  more alien. The problem with the Tandaran policies, Detained suggests, is not that they are racist and oppressive, but that they are targeting the wrong people. If Suliban outside the Cabal had genetic modifications and the ability to distort their bodies, would Grat be right to lock them up?

Then again, this an example of the franchise’s conservatism at play. For a science-fiction show about a utopian future, Star Trek seem absolutely terrified as transhumanism. It has been since  Space Seed . In Broken Bow , the idea that the Cabal would tamper with their own genome is treated as abhorrent, an efficient way of underscoring how evil they must be. After all, Phlox has his first moment of hesitation in Dear Doctor when he discovers he would be curing a flaw in the Valakians’ genetic make-up.

Shedding some light on the matter…

This all feels a tad reactionary. It is not at all even-handed or considerate. It may have been more effective to underscore the idea that whatever the Suliban choose to do with their bodies should not be treated as justification for oppression or racism. The Cabal might be judged by their actions and their atrocities, but tolerance doesn’t extend solely to those who conform to our norms and expectations.

There is one more rather sizeable problem. Outside of a brief appearance in Two Days and Two Nights , we will never see the Tandarans again. We will never see any Suliban outside the Cabal again. As such, Detained feels a little too trite and simplistic. Archer and his crew can walk away from the events of Detained without having to worry about what this means for either culture. While Grat talks about the state of war that exists between the Tandarans and the Suliban, it has not been alluded to on the show before this episode and will never be explored or developed.

Still waters…

It makes Detained feel rather light and rather insubstantial. At the end of the episode, Archer and his crew get to warp away to their next adventure, despite Archer’s ominous closing line. In a way, this is another example of how the episodic structure was weakening Enterprise as a television show. Had the Tandarans and the Suliban been properly established and set-up ahead of time, Detained might have worked better. Had we got a glimpse of the aftermath of Archer’s actions here, Detained would be the stronger for it.

To be fair to the show, it does try to demonstrate that the events of Detained have consequences. In Desert Crossing , Archer finds himself in an awkward position due to his decisions in Detained . However, Desert Crossing focuses on the consequences for Archer. What about the Suliban or the Tandarans? Did Archer at least escort the Suliban out of Tandaran space? Dialogue suggests that there are at least twenty-five other camps, including one holding Danik’s wife. What happened at those camps following this jailbreak? Archer’s actions here undoubtedly had consequences, and they arguably more interesting than the episode itself.

The painting’s on the wall…

Outside of the “message show” set up, Detained is worthy of note for the guest appearance by Dean Stockwell. Along with the casting of Ethan Phillips and Rene Auberjonois over the past few episodes, it seems like Stockwell’s appearance is a rather calculated bid for geek credibility. After all, Stockwell and Bakula had starred together in Quantum Leap during the nineties, the hit breakout science-fiction show that ran from 1989 through to 1993, overlapping with Star Trek: The Next Generation .

One of the many interesting things about Quantum Leap is the fact at the show had a lot more artistic cachet than The Next Generation . It managed to escape the science-fiction awards ghetto. No actor on The Next Generation ever received an Emmy nomination for their work on the show, but Scott Bakula was nominated for his work on all five seasons of Quantum Leap and Dean Stockwell was nominated for four of the five seasons. The Next Generation managed to get a nomination for its final of seven seasons, but Quantum Leap was nominated as Outstanding Drama Series for three of its five seasons.

Stockwell’s still a little miffed about that year he didn’t get his Emmy nomination…

There are a lot of possible reasons for this. Stockwell was a veteran performer with a slew of iconic rolls under his belt. The year that Quantum Leap went to series, he picked up an Oscar nomination for Married to the Mob . Quantum Leap was created by Donald P. Bellisario, the man responsible for mainstream hits like Airwolf or Magnum P.I. or N.C.I.S. or J.A.G. Airing on NBC, Quantum Leap had a level of prestige against which The Next Generation could not quite compete.

Whereas the casting of former Star Trek regulars like Ethan Phillips and Rene Auberjonois in the last two episodes seems like an attempt to appeal to Star Trek fans, the reunion of Emmy-nominated co-stars Scott Bakula and Dean Stockwell in an issue-driven allegory story feels like an attempt to draw in a broader demographic. Unfortunately, despite Stockwell’s best efforts, Grat never feels like a fully-formed character. He seems like a rather generic foil for Archer rather than an intriguing opponent.

“The could be the start of a beautiful antagonistic relationship…”

There are other interesting aspects of Detained . Star Trek has been anchored in American self-image since the end of the Second World War. That was the point where America emerged as world leader. In many ways, Star Trek was extrapolated from the American experience in the wake of the Second World War. The original Star Trek was produced, written and directed by many combat veterans. Indeed, The City on the Edge of Forever explicitly places the origins of Star Trek in the Second World War before the end of the franchise’s very first season. ( Enterprise returns to that at the start of the franchise’s very last season.)

As such, it’s interesting to see Enterprise explicitly critiquing America for its conduct during the Second World War, undermining the grand historical narrative that has been cultivated about that conflict. To be fair, Voyager broached the topic during its own first season with Jetrel , but that was a somewhat clunky analogy. Here, Archer explicitly acknowledges the mistakes made by the United States government during the Second World War, citing Manzanar as motivation for his decision to free the Suliban interned by the Tandarans.

A new Arch(er)-foe?

It’s worth noting that this fits quite comfortably with Mike Sussman and Phyllis Strong’s earlier scripts for the show. The duo are acknowledged fans of the original  Star Trek show, but they are also quite aware of some of the franchise’s more troubling subtext. Their work on  Enterprise plays with these ideas, suggesting that a prequel is the perfect place to explore these ideas. While building the foundations of this vision of the future, it’s worth analysing and exploring those foundations – and maybe even trying to fix some of them.

Shadows of P’Jem was very much an indictment of American foreign policy, presenting the future Federation members as colonial powers. The scripted suggested that the Federation has to be more than just an extrapolation of contemporary United States into the future, as it has been on previous shows. In Detained , Archer finds himself trying to atone for a historical injustice committed during an era that the franchise tends to romanticise and idealise. While not enough to redeem Detained , it does give the episode a bit more depth and nuance.

Not so green any more…

Detained has its heart in the right place, even if it makes a host of awkward mistakes and miscalculations. It’s another example of how Enterprise is trying to do something effective and meaningful, but isn’t quite able to get across that finish line.

You might be interested in our other reviews of the first season of Star Trek: Enterprise :

• Fight or Flight
• Strange New World
• The Andorian Incident
• Breaking the Ice
• Civilisation
• Fortunate Son
• Silent Enemy
• Dear Doctor
• Sleeping Dogs
• Shadows of P’Jem
• Shuttlepod One
• Rogue Planet
• Acquisition
• Fallen Hero
• Desert Crossing
• Two Days and Two Nights
• Shockwave, Part I

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Filed under: Enterprise | Tagged: 9/11 , allegory , dean stockwell , enterprise , essentialism , klingons , metaphor , mike sussman , phyllis strong , quantum leap , racism , Scott Bakula , star trek , star trek: enterprise , suliban , xenophobia |

9 Responses

I know Quantum Leap is technically a sci-fi show but in many ways its themes and ethos seemed far more fantasy – a mystical quest for atonement and much talk of destiny and fate. That isn’t a condemnation – in the 90’s and 00’s television fantasy was often every bit as entertaining, thought provoking and insightful as contemporary sci-fi and comparing Voyager and Enterprise with Whedon’s shows is not a comparasion that flatters captain’s Janeway and Archer.

I suppose what I mean is that really the Next Generation and Quantum Leap are apples and oranges. Often quite straightlaced apples and amusing, humanist oranges.

Yep. I think that might expalin why Bakula seems such an awkward fit for Archer in much of the first and second seasons. Bakula is one of the most charming performers working, but Star Trek has a very firm and rigid idea of what a commanding character should be. The points where Archer comes closest to working as a character are the points where he seems least like a stereotypical Star Trek captain.

(To pick a random example, Canamar is the second season’s most surprisingly endearing moment for Archer, where he poses as a blue collar smuggler and bonds with the hijacker to the point where he tries to save him, even as the ship disintegrates. Or Judgment, where Kolos mounts a surprisingly convincing defense of Archer that boils down to, “He’s a bumbling idiot, but his heart is in the right place.”)

I assumed at the type (perhaps ) that the crew’s abhorrence of genetic tampering was a nod to the Eugenics War. Transhumanism was once considered the new frontier, you know — Khan and his ilk destroyed all that, so man had to turn to the stars to find a slower path toward evolution. I always liked the romance of that.

But in hindsight, it reflected Europeans’ mistrust of science. Everyone knew the genome would be cracked, and there was some hullabaloo about handing it over the private power and companies “patenting” our genes. Stem cell research is still anathema to Americans, left, right and center (South Park is my personal barometer for the nation). Seven’s quest for humanity didn’t end until she had her robotic eye removed — apparently it’s all that was keeping her a rude, humorless a**hole. (Seven shilling transhumanism to anyone who’ll listen is my favorite gag on that show. She’s like the Ron Popeil of cybernetics. XD )

I think that might have been interesting to broach explicitly, but the first season of Enterprise is so wary of Star Trek continuity that they wouldn’t dare mention the Eugenics Wars. (After all, look at Future’s End in Voyager. “Eugenics Wars? What Eugenics Wars?”)

That said, I do like that Soong does get to make some reasonably valid points about how genetic research might have saved Archer’s father. Of course, he’s still an idiot for going full on “raise an army of children from an experiment that almost destroyed humanity”, but at least the episode acknowledges that sometimes scientific research into the human body helps people. (Which seems like a very weird thing to type about Star Trek.)

Aw, geeze. I like morality plays, but I like them subtle, along the lines of “The Devil in the Dark.” THIS episode, on the other hand, is so heavy handed that I think I may have a concussion!

And in order to make its points, the script forces Archer to be an incredible idiot. That’s not NEW, sadly, but I keep hoping that Archer will start using his brain, in addition to his heart.

Thanks for pointing out the context for this episode, that it took place in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, when a reminder not to scapegoat all Muslims for the actions of a handful of people was necessary. Unfortunately, with Trump running for office, something this obvious and heavy-handed is probably needed again. Some days I wonder what my fellow Americans can possibly be thinking … a good reason to seek refuge in the 23rd century or in Mr. Spock’s cool and clear-headed logic (leavened with his particular dispassionate compassion).

Yep. I can understand why Detained was necessary, and I do like that they tried. But it is not a good script.

And the Suliban… are not a great adversary.

I am very interested in what Fuller has planned for 2016/2017 Star Trek.

“artistic cachet”, not “cache”. Different words with different pronunciations, although both derived from the same French word. This seems to be a common mistake, and I must admit it drives me bonkers to see it wrong more often than not,

https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/cache-and-cachet-whats-the-difference

Thanks Doug. Corrected now. And no worries.

Well, I think it is worth having a Trek episode that bluntly critiques American policy rather than German, Russian, or another easy villain. But I also sighed a bit at this episode because every line of dialogue was directly in service of the plot. This is not just a symptom of the stand-alone episode format, but of a writing choice that mirrors the 1950s-60s sci fi of Asimov or Heinlein. Both Voyager and Enterprise suffer from all events and dialogues existing to serve the plot and/or mechanical technology – events and things. Almost nothing is done to world-build, particularly with regard to character development.

Archer and Travis wake in a prison cell. There is not one scene of them talking about creature comforts they miss from their quarters on the ship, or from their original homes. In fact, we know almost nothing about Archer’s hometown, his childhood, his young adulthood, or really…anything about him. Whereas on DS9, O’Brian might have had some scene relating something about Keiko or another backstory point, here we have none of that. Every line and scene must move the plot and action forward. Even the “slow” scenes.

It not only renders the characters into flat featureless banalities, but also makes all the exploration boring. Every new race is essentially the same, and/or we never see them again. Just an endless succession of ‘foreheads-of-the-week’ with no backstory, no history, no impact on galactic power structures, nothing. It is a cardboard show, inch-deep.

Yet I will make it through this time. I just have to watch it with a bit of booze to make it tolerable.

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Star Trek: Enterprise

“Detained”

Air date: 4/24/2002 Teleplay by Mike Sussman & Phyllis Strong Story by Rick Berman & Brannon Braga Directed by David Livingston

Review by Jamahl Epsicokhan

"The last thing we wanted to do was build these detention centers, but we had no choice. When the Cabal began their activities there was a great deal of fear among the Tandarans. There were instances of violence. Fourteen innocent Suliban were killed in one day alone. We had to find a way to keep them out of danger." — Grat, undoubtedly revealing only part of the story

Review Text

In brief: Reasonable and relevant — albeit not at all groundbreaking — social commentary.

You decide: "Detained" is either (1) a reasonable social commentary that sells out to superficial action by the end, or (2) an average action show elevated by an underlying foundation of social commentary. Is there a difference? Perhaps. It seems wrong to take relevant allegorical themes and wrap it all up with a safe and simplistic action conclusion — whereas it seems almost admirable to create an action show that actually tries to insert relevant social points. It's all in how you look at it.

I'm kind of torn. "Detained" goes to great lengths to make fairly obvious points and yet I don't feel it should be faulted for that. For the even remotely informed it will come as old news, revisited lessons. Of those people, how many will it make a real impression upon?

Consider: Mere weeks after the Sept. 11 attacks, The West Wing aired a reactionary drama, much of which played like an hour in Talking Down to the Audience. Among the messages: generalizing of people and cultures is bad, not being familiar with how the world works is a potentially dangerous form of ignorance, and in difficult times we might be tempted away from better judgment in favor of quick, comforting would-be fixes. Well, intelligent people already presumably know these things and ignorant people are not likely to be educated by the likes of Aaron Sorkin, so who exactly is the benefactor?

Perhaps the point is simply to reinforce ideas that we should be thinking about in times when emotions are allowed to run rampant. I see no problem with such reinforcement. I also want to stress that "Detained" does little to break the mold. But it has Good Intentions and for the most part good execution, so that's probably all you need to know.

That said, the writers have done a fairly interesting thing by tying this all back into the Suliban, who aren't all simply "bad guys" but are a nomadic people with a subset of Cabal operatives waging the temporal cold war.

The never-veiled allegory is, of course, the current-day need to draw the distinction between Arabs and the much tinier subset of Arab terrorism. The issue of internment camps, of course, hearkens back to Japanese Americans being rounded up and held in the U.S. during World War II (a decidedly better choice for metaphor than the current-day situation of detainees in Camp X-Ray/Delta at Guatanamo Bay, Cuba — a situation far too new and uncertain for me to comfortably draw conclusions about).

Archer and Mayweather wake up in a holding cell in a detainee camp where Suliban prisoners are being held indefinitely by the Tandarans, with no charges pending. Right from the beginning the episode makes a point about assumptions when Archer makes an assumption and finds out he's quite wrong: These Suliban are not genetically engineered members of the Cabal and are not prisoners because they committed any crime. Their crime is that they happen to be Suliban.

In charge of the detainee facility is Tandaran Colonel Grat (Dean Stockwell), who explains to Archer why he and Mayweather are here — their shuttle wandered into Tandaran space and was captured as potentially hostile. Tandarans are not too forgiving toward trespassers, it would seem. Considering they are apparently on one of the fronts in the temporal cold war, perhaps their apprehension is justifiable.

Grat is not a bad or unreasonable man; he's simply a product of his situation. That itself may serve as a warning statement, since he has come to accept that the Suliban may never again have rights in any real sense, and that they may live the rest of their lives as innocent prisoners. The line of thought going on here is that they're Suliban and that's unfortunate for them, but nonetheless necessary for Tandaran society to lock them away in the interests of safety.

Interesting how Grat cites not just the safety of Tandarans but the safety of the Suliban. The Suliban no longer have a habitable homeworld (at least, not if one isn't genetically engineered to survive there), so they mostly live among other cultures. The Suliban who lived among the Tandarans were a part of their society until the temporal war broke out and they became automatic Cabal suspects. Tandaran citizens were quick to accuse the Suliban among them, leading to violence against the Suliban. The internment camps were seen as a temporary solution to curb this problem. The road to hell is paved with good intentions. Or in this case, self-serving intentions have their own convenient built-in justifications.

We see the Suliban point of view through a character named Sajen (Christopher Shea) a man with a daughter who is also in this facility and a wife who is in another facility far away, and whom he hasn't seen in years. Shea brings just the right balance of bitterness and personal defeat to the character, creating a believable and sympathetic figure who speaks in raspy whispers that nonetheless reveal a great amount of textured emotion.

Grat, meanwhile, turns more sinister and self-serving every time Archer defies him, eventually believing Archer to be a resource as much as a troublemaker stirring up prison intrigue. Grat's intelligence reports reveal Archer's previous encounters with the Suliban. It's interesting and perhaps all too true how the question "What do you know?" becomes as much a grounds for being held as "What have you have done?" Especially frustrating and disturbing is the prospect of being held because you're a potential witness, not because you're suspected of having done anything wrong.

As a matter of plot, I enjoyed the continuity references ("Have you ever been to Oklahoma?" Grat asks Archer suspiciously) to the Enterprise 's previous Suliban run-ins in " Broken Bow " and " Cold Front " (strange and also kind of fun, seeing Bakula and Stockwell exhibit increasing tension here after their easy rapport in their years on Quantum Leap ).

What perhaps seems too simplistic for this story, then, is turning it into a jailbreak concept where Archer, with the help of the orbiting Enterprise , decides he's going to help some of the innocent Suliban escape. This seems a little on the cavalier and short-sighted side, especially considering the lesson Archer learned in " Dear Doctor " concerning non-interference. Yes, there is an injustice here. Yes, the episode addresses Archer's previous decision in favor of non-interference and calls this case an "exception." But such exceptions are exactly the sort of thing likely to get Archer and Starfleet burned, and the exception made here gets generous assistance from tunnel vision.

This leads to the typical action payoff, i.e., the phaser shootouts, a crew member in disguise (Reed as a Suliban), and even the episode resorting to use of the transporter, something that has been generally and thankfully avoided for most of the season save the first few episodes. The action seems to substitute for an ending that could've come to some sort of revelation or dramatic insight, but doesn't find it. It bothers me a bit. Fortunately, the episode seems to realize that it doesn't solve these Suliban individuals' problems so much as create further uncertainty for them, and for that I'm glad.

But still — this is the sort of ending that makes you mull the unconsidered consequences, like the kind of grilling Sajen's wife is likely going to be in for in the wake of her husband's escape from another detainee facility. What does she know? I can almost hear the Tandaran interrogators asking.

I cannot cheer for the story's oversimplified solution to a complicated situation so much larger than Archer, this one prison, or this one society. Archer presumes to know everything he needs to know to interfere in an alien society. Does he know enough? Would it have been better to do nothing instead of something? I'm not sure. But it might've been nice for the episode to point out the possible consequences of all this action. Imagine how the U.S. government would respond if a foreign country managed a prison break at Camp Delta.

Next week: First contact with a giant fungus?

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Comment Section

53 comments on this post.

Stop looking for "groundbreaking" in every episode, or you will be disappointed in every television series you watch. I don't need that when I visit the Trek universe- I just want to spend some time in an interesting place with interesting people. With 500-some previous Trek stories, it's even more of a challenge for Enterprise to be "groundbreaking" when the ground is so well-trod. If I get one or two '"groundbreaking" shows a season, and mostly good stories (even if they are variations on a familiar theme) I'm satisfied.

@David. Agree 100%

I disagree David. I for one am not looking for "groundbreaking" in every episode, but settling for mediocrity isn't my M.O. either. Like you said, the Star Trek ground is well-trod with quality material. So it isn't unreasonable for a Trek find to expect quality in what they are watching. Unfortunately everything Trek from TOS to Voyager has raised the level to a standard ST Enterprise seems unable to live up to. "Detained" is another good example, because as Jammer pointed out the good intentions of providing social commentary and background info on the Suliban situation, is simply negatively counterbalanced with poor execution and selling out the phaser action sequence (TM). On a sidenote, I have been a Quantum Leap fan for many years. Alas even the reunion between Scott Bakula and Dean Stockwell (which the producers undoubtedly though would create some buzz around this episode) is botched, a poor script making their interaction somewhat uninteresting.

This is such a different Star Trek than with TNG. Here we have a captain who believes the prisoners on their story, does not tell the Tandarans simple and possibly helpful information on his experiences with the Suliban, let his ship attack military ships and an a detention camp, indirectly kills at least three guards and destroying parts of the facility ánd set free near to a hundred prisoners that steal impounded ships and then run like hell. If this would not be considered an act of war, I would be surprised. There was barely anything on whether those prisoners were really so innocent or whether they might actually join the Kobal. Nor did it show anything on the bigger picture such as the other camps or the issue of officially setting them all free. Not every show has to be super intelligent and thought out, but this was just about a captain who, after only one day, disagreed with the internal affairs of an unknown society and therefore decided to blow them to hell and fly off afterwards.

More politically-correct propaganda. In times of war of course that potential fifth columnists are kept under close surveillance and sometimes even interned or deported. Given what we know about the Suliban and their masquerading skills, I'd say internment in what seemed like quite comfortable accommodations was in no way disproportionate or uncalled for. Yes, it's unfair, but if I was a Tandaran, I wouldn't take my chances letting members of my enemy species roam around unchecked. Jammer: This is not comparable to Gitmo. The Suliban are not prisoners but mere detainees. Their situation is more comparable to the various Jewish ghettos in Eastern Europe in days of yore, with the proviso that the Jews forced into them were not actually at war with their host nations or any kind of threat to them, whereas the Suliban are. Of course, the writers simply HAD to portray the Tandarans as increasingly malevolent and violent, leaving the average viewer with little choice but to side with the Suliban. After all, a big bad Tandaran manhandles a little Suliban girl. A pathetic, cynical attempt to play at our heart-strings. And, of course, idiot Archer walks right slap-bang in the middle of the dispute and starts dishing out his wisdom and getting all self-righteously indignant. Ironically, the more the show cast the Tandarans is a negative light, the more I supported them. It was just blatant, and issues are very rarely black and white. I'm halfway through the episode and now Archer is agitating for an escape bid. This beggars belief: He spends two days in an obviously relatively comfortable detention facility, speaks to a couple of inmates, sees someone sent to solitary confinement for a night, and he's already so certain about the rights and wrongs of the situation that he is planning to spring the detainees out of the facility. What a bunch of bullshit. In short: Simplistic to the point of offensive, hypocritical, unrealistic, emotive. Crap. 1* I'm outta here.

Captain Jim

"Quite comfortable accommodations"? Are you serious? Then maybe you wouldn't mind having someone imprison you for nothing other than your race? Sheesh, this guy is unbelievable. Three cheers for Archer, who did the right thing. Of course it didn't solve the larger problem, but at least it gave this group a chance for a new life. I don't even see this as a "noninterference" issue, since Enterprise wasn't interfering in Tandaran culture as much as they were stopping the Tandarans from interfering in Suliban culture. I'm also with David and others in not needing something "groundbreaking" each episode.

So heavy-handed. I feel like a gauntlet just took me full in the jaw. When that Suliban fellow said, "They said when the Cabal was destroyed we could go home. Well it's 8 years later and we're still here!" all I could think was, well, the Cabal is still around. Sit tight. I also agree with Michael, in that the more the episode tried to demonize the Tandarans, the more I began to side with them. I also pictured the Suliban as Jews in the Middle Ages. The "chance for a new life" for the Suliban probably lasted all of 20 minutes. Tandarans have to assume that those Suliban are Cabal soldiers and I bet they won't bother with diplomacy when they catch up with all those little shuttles. And Mayweather... he's just nothing. Nothing that looks like it is going to cry. All the time.

I had no idea so many conservatives and libertardians watch Star Trek. Tell you what, I'll give you a million bitcoins to move to an underwater utopia and die.

@Sintek: While your political ideology goes unstated, I believe I can safely assume you are a liberal/progressive. I thought Liberalism/Progressivism are/were supposed to be about the free exchange of ideas with no respect or disrespect to the expresser of those ideas based on their age/color/gender/ideology? You know, one earth, one sky, one people. Where is honest debate in telling those who merely disagree with you to die? Is it a cold disregard for a segment of humanity that disagrees with you that drives your statement? Or is it just hate? You now have some idea of who those people watching Star Trek around the globe with you are. For some this might lead them to re-think their pre-disposed notions and perhaps consider that almost all men have a brighter vision for the future. You could even engage those with opposing ideologies directly referencing Star Trek as a basis for debate and discussion leading to a free exchange of ideas towards how we can achieve such a bright future. Or perhaps in wishing death on all who have opposing viewpoints you really are trying to shape the future into Star Trek. After all, warp-drive was created by capitalistic greed amidst the ashes of a war that devastated the world. I think I'd rather live to see that future though.

Me and my dad watched this episode recently, and for the most part, it was a good episode. But the ending. Christ, the ending. It sucked! What happened? Did the prisoners escape to the stars? Where did they go? Did they get destroyed? We don't know!

And remember, Grat spelled backwards is targ.

This episode is boring. There is very little tension or drama here. Everyone is relatively well treated, there is little urgency and the reunion of the Al and Dr Beckett is a letdown because it doesn't go anywhere and doesn't have any drama. How did aliens attack and abduct Enterprise's captain without Enterprise knowing what's going on? It seems like an indictment of American prisoner of war camps holding potential terrorists, except in this case the view is that the suspects are all innocent and the camp itself is the real criminal.

eastwest101

I thought you were a bit kind on this one Jammer - after watching it, I thought of a 3rd option: either or (3) a derivative heavy handed social commentary that sells out to superficial action by the end The social commentary was very clunky indeed, and from the moment when Archer basically say "screw it - lets interfere despite our lessons apparently not learned in Dear Doctor." the show lost me. The resolution was also cliched, superficial and stock material that has been done a million times before by just about everyone including various Trek episodes.

Too heavy-handed in the social commentary to warrant a 3-star rating, and additionally brought down by a by-the-books action-packed ending. I get the idea of making some Suliban not a part of the Cabal and being under suspicion by other species for potentially being subversives. But the story could have been written with a lighter touch and more nuance, and hence, more interesting.

Couldn't stop grinning with the scenes between Dr. Beckett and Admiral Calavicci. All I kept thinking was "Goodbye, Dean. Goodbye, Scott!" Awesomeness.

It was made clear that the only thing the prisoners were guilty of was possibly being recruited into the cabal. Minority Report decided the issue of whether people should be arrested and punished before committing a crime, at least for me, and the answer is no. In the season's 2nd episode Fight or Flight, in which the Enterprise flies away leaving a dead crew hanging from the ceiling, Archer turns the ship back saying that there are human values he needs to stay true to, in this case contacting the dead crew's home world to advise them of the situation. In the case of Detained, all Archer did is give the prisoners the choice to try to escape. He stayed true to one of the highest human values, personal autonomy.

@Deborah: So, nobody may ever be deprived of his/her liberty unless and until they commit a crime? Good luck with the schizophrenic, lunatics, terrorists, and other such "innocents" freely roaming the streets in the world you live in.

This episode was definitely heavy-handed and direct but that's OK. The most extreme and un-supported part was Archer's certainty that the Suliban wouldn't join the Cabal but the episode almost admits that that's a gut response, really a judgment about Japanese American internment, rather than a reasoned judgment about the present conditions. It's a true and important message that you shouldn't impose extreme measures even during an armed conflict when they will only or primarily affect minorities or when the conflict is thought to be temporary but actually will be perpetual. The episode was also probably about as generous toward the Tandarans as it could have been, claiming that most in the general society were decent and even the guards felt they were (and may have been partially) really justified but they had been corrupted by having such authority over the prisoners.

Diamond Dave

It seemed briefly like this was going to turn into something quite interesting when Grat started referring to the Temporal Cold War, but sadly we subsided back into what turned out to be a fairly standard prison/jailbreak episode. The lessons were indeed fairly heavy-handed, but all fairly well played and kudos for the Quantum Leap reunion. And the non-interventionist policy didn't last long for Archer, did it? "I'm making an exception" indeed. 2.5 stars.

Yeah, Archer shouldn't have done anything..... that's so "trek". Good lord folks.... an episode that brings in both sides of the Japanese Interment Camp discussion into play and that's somehow not trekkie enough? Good trek makes you think. This one does that, because both sides have compelling and real world points. WTF was Archer supposed to do? I mean really.... shed a fucking tear with the dad that has the kid and is separated from his wife, tell Grat what he wanted to know and leave, give some sort of speech preaching the morals of one side or the other looking out his window on Enterprise? There is no Federation for him to take an issue like this to, like Picard has in TNG. He acted... unlike 'Dear Doctor' where he learned nothing. The Suliban said they knew somewhere to go and were willing to take the risk. I'll credit him here. I thought Travis having to work at identifying Reed was pretty funny, even funnier when Archer did it in a second :-) To even mention GTMO in discussion of this episode this is just plain naïve. 3.5 stars here. Not a 4.0 classic, but outstanding trek here.

This episode among others brings up something I see a lot of us overlook, even forget. Take for example the discussion above on Archer's "non-intervention" policy. Please remember... 1. Federation hasn't been founded yet. 2. The Prime Directive, therefore, doesn't yet exist. You can't compare apples to oranges that literally. There aren't any hard rules on intervention yet.... Otherwise, I expected more out of Stockwell. He worked splendidly with Bakula in QL. What happened here? The potential in Stockwell to be a villainesque sort is clear. WIthin the next couple of years, he'd do a killer job as Cavil on BSG.

Alien holocaust. (***)

I'm sorry but with episodes like this its really difficult to take the characters or the show seriously. The warden guy Grat was reasonable from the start - he was in a difficult position but was accommodating to Archer and Mayweather and was prepared to release him as quickly as possible. When he was asking Archer for intel and Archer clammed up I could not have been any more confused: this is an enemy which is very dangerous, threatened the Enterprise and its crew, and is working with some shifty guy from the future. Why not give them any information about the Cabal? Why was it necessary to antagonize them? I could only think that, if Picard had been in this situation, he would have waited out his time, then made an appeal to the government of this planet and went through the proper political channels to solve this, without violence. How many of the guards at that facility were murdered? Was it worth making an enemy of this entire civilization to save 90 prisoners from one interment camp? Any Earth vessels in the future which are attacked on sight by this civilization will have no one else but Captain Archer to blame; their blood is on Archer's hands.

OrangeCube Fri, Oct 28, 2016, 3:06am (UTC -5) That would have been very selfish and uncaring of Archer. See my post above.

Dennis Christopher played Danik, the man with the daughter. Christopher Shea did play Sajen, his suspicious friend. Surprised no one else pointed this out.

Stupid and self-righteous Archer makes up his mind about a complex situation in 2 seconds and decides to endanger the lives of all Suliban in all detention camps with a stupid escape attempt, while basically declaring war on a species they just met, instead of answering some simple questions to help the Tandarans fight their common enemies in the temporal cold war. Also, when T’Pol and her fake-ass lips are in charge of the bridge and talking to the planet, why does everyone think they can shout from their chairs at the screen?

This story worths at most 2 stars, no more. It mentioned Internment of Japanese Americans, and also questioned the captain's actions in the end, that's why it worths 2 stars. All others are just junks. First of all, who gives authorities for the Enterprise to break into other country's territory and even fire at their ships? Just because Enterprise is strong? Well, in that case, Klingon empire can send 100 bird-of-pray to earth and do anything they want. Earth has no power to defend, thus it is right. I know a phrase for that: might is right. Second, why the Enterprise crews always think legislations in other countries are unjustice, uneven, and cruel? Because it gives them excuses to interfere with other legislations. So that they can do anything they want and go freely without being punished. It happens in Star Trek series many times. Third, what the captain did really helping? I highly doubt that. He "freed" 89 persons, that's right. Then, where would they go? Moreover, there were thousands of persons in other concentrate camps, what kinds of "treatments" would they receive after this? Stupid writers, stupid story.

John Harmon

The most interesting thing about this episode is that both of the main Suliban guys previously played Vorta in DS9

For a typical prison break action adventure, this one was a bit better than the traditional ENT fare in that it gave some color to the Suliban, and played off prior episodes relating to the Cabal. Thought the plan to break out was well done and reasonably believable by Trek standards. And you got the racial stereotype bits with how the Suliban are regarded by the Tandarans but also how they have subtle prejudices against humans (as we look similar to Tandarans). So there's more meaning backing the action. Interesting that the Suliban are nomads and perhaps they get wiped out by the Tandarans subsequent to this episode (aside from the Cabal) and so we never hear from them on TOS/TNG/DS9. So the non-Cabal Suliban are personable just like humans -- and not vile enemies or whatever. At least this emphasizes the danger the Cabal bring (genetic enhancements, TCW). Enjoyed watching Archer deal with Grat's questions about past ENT episodes as this one went on. Grat would have let Archer go had he not been such a key person in the fight against the Cabal so I liked how this aspect got integrated into making the situation progressively worse for Archer/Travis -- it wasn't just arbitrary bad guy stuff. That Archer risks his life for saving the non-Cabal Suliban is the right thing to do morally, although who knows how successful they'll be in evading the Tandarans and if they'll join the Cabal. But that's no longer Archer's problem. Yes he's interfering in somebody else's conflict but I don't think it's a decisive blow or turning the tables drastically. 3 stars for "Detained" -- nothing exceptional and well-worn territory but gets back a bit to the main arc of the series and gives it an added dimension with background on the Suliban (the main new species contribution by ENT). Of course, "Detained" is analogous to a real world problems (detentions, stereotypes etc.) which never hurts. Thought the detention scenes and prison routine were well done and Dean Stockwell did a decent job as Grat.

I agree that this episode was hugely preachy and self-righteous. I'll also add that the prison break should've failed. Why is every prison warden incompetent when Archer the Superman decides he wants to break out in a couple of days?

At around 21:30 Bakula and Stockwell are stood talking, with Stockwell holding some kind of handheld device. I was almost expecting Grat to start hitting the device and telling Archer what percent chance Ziggy gives of him freeing the Suliban.

So Michael and Rosario think the Jewish ghettos were alright as well and a good thing to strive for in the future? And Michael thinks schizophrenic people and lunatic people should all be locked up? And then you wonder why you receive hostility in response? Get out of here. Please do. For the episode. 2 or 2.5 stars. It's okay, but Maywearher's acting is so poor and it's all just so predictable. You can see the whole story coming from miles away.

Startrekwatcher

3 stars. A very entertaining hour The Suliban characters were enjoyable Grat was good The VFX were outstanding The story had some relevance The Suliban makeup always impressed me Interesting to see more of the Suliban this time the innocent civilians A few weaknesses : Tpol’s acting when she was giving hoshi time to overload the Tandaran sensors We really didn’t learn anything new or interesting about the temporal Cold War or the Tandarans. Mainly just namedropping earlier events And the ending was abrupt. Never saw what happened to the two Suliban characters

Given what the creators originally said about the Suliban (supposedly a nod to current events involving the Taliban) - is this the last episode which features Cabal factions? My friend and I cane up with a better idea for the Suliban. Their species is facing certain extinction and they lack the technology to fix whatever was wrong. Future Guy is trying to stop the Federation being formed as they would affect Romulans in future (come on, we all know from those shoulders that he was Romulan). FG offered a deal the Suliban couldn't refuse: work with us as our tools and assets, and we will enhance your bodies; you will never go extinct with our support, and no-one else in your timeline can save you. The decline of their species is being suppressed by the Cabal, hence why non-Cabal Suliban are resisting: they don't want their species to get involved in wars and stuff. Well, it's certainly better than "creepy, unheard-of alien race allies with random future guy for reasons unknown, only to vanish after season 2".

Cesar Gonzalez

So a few episodes ago Archer let an ENTIRE race of beings die because he couldn't interfere. Now, however, he has no problem interfering with a society to save 89 people. Hypocrite

I think you’re way too kind to this one, Jammer. This episode REALLY bothers me; it’s so cavalier and uninterested in thinking through the consequences of Archer’s actions that to me it actually becomes unethical. So Archer doesn’t share his info on the Cabal because, “I don’t like being strong-armed. And I don’t like what they’re doing to these people.” WTF? Of course we’re supposed to feel sorry for the Suliban being herded into internment camps. But did anyone stop to consider that befriending the Tandarans might be a better way of helping the Suliban than, oh say, riding in like cowboys to bust loose 90 people out of potentially millions? That sharing info on the Cabal, *a mutual enemy,* might hasten the demise of the Cabal and end the need for internment in the first place? There’s an even better real-world analogy today than in 2002 when Jammer wrote this review: China’s internment of the Uighur Muslims. If a team of American Marines parachuted into China and just liberated a single camp, it would be an outrageous, blatant act of war. And it would accomplish nothing for the Uighur Muslims as a whole. The entire world agrees that internment is wrong, but because this is the real world and the great powers all have nuclear weapons, we outside of China can’t do much about it except apply sanctions and diplomatic pressure. What does Archer think will happen to the rest of the Suliban being held elsewhere? Does he really think the Tandarans won’t crack down on them harder, perhaps hide them away more carefully so other races won’t see what’s going on? Is he that stupid to make a new enemy when the sum total of humanity’s interstellar might is the starship Enterprise? The Suliban he liberated are either going to 1) get shot down immediately, 2) get captured again and probably subjected to much harsher treatment, 3) escape and be used by the Tandarans as symbols that the Suliban can’t be trusted. Assuming the sympathetic Suliban guy doesn’t make a run on the camp holding his wife and make things worse. But the episode doesn’t care about any of that. We’re supposed to blindly root for the good guys. Hey look, they freed some people. Great job! They might have just ignited a full-blown genocide. Good Star Trek is about sitting down to think, reasoning through the possibilities, thinking through the consequences of your actions. This episode fails on that most basic level. ** from me, hovering on the edge of *1/2.

@Mon, Jun 29, 2009 David @Fri, Oct 22, 2010 Marco P I gotta agree with Marco P on this one. Why would anyone want to settle for mediocrity on anything? If a TV epsiode can do better, can be more significant, can reach much deeper, then why shouldn't the viewer want more? If you're frustrated about the things Jammer looks for in a story, than don't read his reviews.

I am giving ENT a second run, mostly because I am curious to experience again this show after watching Discovery, the JJ Abrams movies and Picard. This episode is an example of what I am feeling towards ENT in general right now. More trek than the new stuff, that is for sure (with the exception of a couple of Picard episodes), but too lazy and linear writing. And characters that are either not relatable, flat or simply out of place. In this specific example, the social commentary is nice, but too linear, and there are too many things that are left out, which bother me to the point of finding the whole thing meh, despite the good intentions. As others have mentioned, what about the Suliban's wife? The guy just leave like that? Really? What about the fate of the prisoners fleeing? What about the other camps, in which most probably there will be reprisals? The whole thing seems just coming out of another of Archer's mercurial caprices. The "bad" guys of the moment are at war with the cabal, and given that it seems that they have a common enemy, they ask him Intel. But he does not like "being asked things by force" by people never met before, so let's blow up the whole camp. Who is this, Clint Eastwood? Risks for the enterprise, supposedly in an exploration/peaceful mission? Who cares. Diplomatic repercussions? Who cares. Superiors' opinion? Who cares. True identity of 90 sulibans interned there? Who cares. He just follows his instincts. Which would be even okeyish as a personality trait, if in "Dear doctor" we did not get an entirely different picture. But even if we had seen a more consistent Archer in "Dear doctor" and the mercurial behavior of the captain was not even a thing, I would have still liked to see the episode dealing more with the above mentioned questions. Even if the ultimate answer would have still been blowing up the camp. At least we could get the whole picture, and relate/debate more about dos and donts. But the writing seems to be just too lazy and linear for that, here and in many other episodes. Other characters are just flat or out of place, and again it feels just lazy writing. Tucker acts like a cowboy, which, being me European, I find just hilariously stereotypical and flat. His attitude in this episode confirms me that. The episode is really not the ideal place for having Travis in such a central role. I liked him in "fortunate son" but also other space-based or wilderness-based episodes, being him a pilot born in open space. I really wonder what is his role here. Malcolm, with his militarist views, would have been a way better fit. Why not, there could have been even room for heated exchanges with Archer, given that Malcolm would have probably been more keen to side with the "security" reasons of the bad guys. That would have been an example of good writing, similar to the centrality of both worf and Picard in the drumhead. It would have highlighted more the drama and the nuances of the situation, with conflicted characters and opinions. But the more I go through ENT, the more i see examples in which writers just do not seem interested to do that. With some very pleasant exceptions, e.g. Vulcan/human/andorian dynamics.

No-one seems to mention it but the Japanese internment idea is a reference to Sulu/Takei who was interred as a child.

Sean J Hagins

This is completely off the topic of the episode review, but I have a question that maybe someone can answer: I wonder how they have child aliens. I mean I know that the rules of child actors are that they can only work limited hours and must have a tutor on site. I was wondering about this, because the alien actors on Star Trek usually have 2 hours each for makeup application and removal. I would think that by the time the child actors go thru that, there would be very little time left for actual acting! I asked that in a review for the Voyager episodes with the Borg kids too-anyone know the answer?

Ok, now my review of the episode: There are many different things this episode can be associated with from real life events. It is a shame, but as Ecclesiastes 8:9 says, "Man has dominated man to his harm" I know a lot of people here do not believe this, but I look to God's Kingdom to correct the problems in the world as it soon will. This includes this kind of treatment after the wicked are destroyed and the earth is a paradise. The episode itself gave a touching example of how these things happen. Racism, fear and prejudice run rampant today, whether it is internment camps, or peoples personal ideas (eg: Someone from Race "A" did something bad to me, so all people from Race "A" are bad) What helps me to fight this prevalent attitude is remembering that "God is not partial, but in every nation the man who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him.”​—Acts 10:34, 35.

Not a fan of Archer having to interfere in every affair he comes across just because he doesn't agree. You barely know the whole story and still what gives you the right? Also here goes Trip ready to immediately go guns blazing on a rescue mission like what is wrong with these guys? This is my second watch and these two are more annoying than I noticed at first. Archer is too self righteous and Trip is half cocked and it's bad because they'd swear they're doing the right thing.

If I were the Tandarans, I'd be fuming. And I'd probably have a small fleet halfway to Earth, all set to demand Archer's head on a pike. But that's true of the half a dozen planets that Enterprise has pissed off over the course of its mission, I guess. The Vulcans must have a scary enough interstellar reputation that everyone thinks twice about attacking one of their allies. By-the-numbers prison break episode. Fun enough, neat action sequences, but too many loose ends. I did enjoy T'Pol's call to Grat's office, offering him dinner and distracting him with a massive data transfer - as soon as the signal breaks up, her face goes from "earnest and pleasant" to an expression of total disgust (controlled, of course) at having to act so much like a human!

RIP Dean Stockwell, one of the best guest actors on ENT.

Love the Quantum leap reunion.

zzybaloobah

OK up to the point that Archer decides to get stubborn and not share intel on a common enemy. If I were Grat, I'd probably toss him in solitary as well. And getting caught with a communicator is not likely to end well. And we don't know *anything* about the background -- maybe there was open terrorist acts from most of the Suilban. Why does Archer assume *any* of the Suliban are innocent? The Tandarans *might* reasonably be trying to make the best of a bad situation. Grat seemed pretty reasonable until Archer turned against him. And, is a jailbreak really the best solution? It seems that ENT is either the strongest ship in the galaxy, or the weakest, depending on the requirements of the plot. And (as so many have pointed out), what happens next? situation.

I see mentions of Gitmo, but, to me, I saw more apt parallels with the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War 2. While there is certainly some kind of satisfaction at seeing Archer help wrongfully imprisoned people escape from a prison, I can't help but look at the plot points of this episode and come to the conclusion that what he did was incredibly stupid. Of course, this show takes place long before the establishment of the principles that end up defining Starfleet. However, Archer's.....intervention, to put it kindly, almost certainly made things worse for the tens or even hundreds of thousands of innocent Suliban who live on other Tandaran worlds. What he and Enterprise did was also almost certainly an act of war. To me, at least, orchestrating a prison escape just seems like an incredibly short-sighted act that was motivated by emotional recklessness rather than calm and rational thinking. The episode was pretty good, but I think it could have been way better if it had veered towards dialogue and debate rather than an action-filled finale. Even if Archer ended up failing to successfully convince the Tandaran government to set the imprisoned Suliban free.

One other thing, there was a brief moment where Mayweather yells at the Suliban sidekick. I forget his name. Anyway, Mayweather yells at the guy who's lived in an internment camp for years for not immediately trusting him because he and Archer just suddenly appeared and were trying to orchestrate a prison escape. Mayweather accuses him of being, essentially, a racist. I can't, man. This is some next-level audacity on Mayweather's part.

Okay, one last comment. Two things on T'pol: 1. I found it highly uncharacteristic for her to okay a violation of Tandaran space. It kind of contradicts all of the advice she's given to Archer throughout this season. Perhaps she HAS spent too much time with humans. 2. It was delightfully unsettling to watch her video call with Grat. A Vulcan playing nice is not a Vulcan I'd want to mess with. Great acting by Jolene.

I have to wonder when this episode was written and recorded. They invoke Japanese internment camps, but the rhetoric around Cabal and the perils of persecuting an entire reli-- I mean species in the name of safety for the radical actions of the few would have been a very timely discussion in April of 2002. Also, imagine how miserable it must have been to work on one of these Suliban episodes. That's a lot of make-up!

This show is not anywhere as bad as people make it out to be. Yes, it's far worse than TNG, Voyager and DS9, but I'm really enjoying the first season so far. This is the first truly terrible episode that was so bad I decided to comment. Reusing the other Trek's material in episodes that don't fit this time period (Ferengi, Holodeck, other things Jammer and others mentioned) was pathetic, but a Quantum Leap reunion, wow, vomit. Watch Quantum Leap again. It's far worse than you remember. A massive reason was the chemistry between Bakula and Stockwell. They are both just quality porn actors and they play off each other terribly despite working together so long. Ziggy was the best actor on QL. It's a joke, but I'm damn near serious. The Suliban story is fantastic and this would be in my top five Enterprise episodes if it wasn't for Bakula and Stockwell's scenes. The acting is absolute trash, especially when you combine it with Bakula's goody two shoes against Stockwell's Nazi who thinks he isn't the baddie cliche. Every other scene is near perfect. It's a well executed concentration camp story. 0.5 just because of those two. The main reason this whole show is poor is Bakula. Trip and the godawful writing for Travis (reminds me of Uhura, it's a bit racist, he has nothing to do and says almost nothing) along with the main three speaking characters being white upsets me. T'Pol says a bit, but Malcolm seems more of a main character than her. Again, I really do love this show, but I only like the supporting cast. Archer and Trip bother me in several ways. The next episode's spiderweb of sperm is embarrassingly laughable as well.

It’s interesting watching this post covid the nimber of times archer forces people to shake his hand. Not even all human cultures shake hands but he pretty much man-handles all visiting guests into touching him. Hopefully by the time we are meeting actual aliens we’ll be a little more respectful

Ok, I apologize ahead of time but I'm gonna nitpick a meaningless detail. Why would they keep the impounded ships within the same walls that the detention center is in? It seems like they are asking for an escape attempt in that case. Any serious detention complex or prison would be purposefully engineered to reduce the chance of escape as much as possible. Extreme cases would be prisons built on isolated islands where there is literally no access to escape without outside assistance. I'll admit this place comes across as a little lower security than an outright prison, but if they had any sense at all, they would at least have the impounded ships outside of the main walls and in their own separatly walled off area (even if its close by). That way, if someone wanted to break out of the detention center and get to the ships, they would need to sneak out, get over the main wall, get to the neighboring location where the ships are, get over that wall, and break into whatever building the ships are kept in. That would reduce the chances of a successful escape immensely.

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Star Trek: Enterprise

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Star Trek: Enterprise: Detained

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"Detained" is the twenty-first episode of the first season of the science fiction television series Star Trek: Enterprise .

• 1 Colt Seavers
• 2 Jody Banks

Enterprise: “Detained”

April 30, 2002.

Somebody got detention. Find out how and why!

Cast & Crew

Director: David Livingston Story By: Rick Berman & Brannon Braga Teleplay By: Mike Sussman & Phyllis Strong

Starring Scott Bakula as Captain Jonathan Archer Connor Trinneer as Chief Engineer Charles Tucker III Jolene Blalock as Sub-commander T’Pol Dominic Keating as Lt. Malcolm Reed Anthony Montgomery as Ensign Travis Mayweather Linda Park as Ensign Hoshi Sato John Billingsley as Dr. Phlox

Guest Cast Dean Stockwell as Colonel Grat Christopher Shea as Sajen Jessica D. Stone as Narra Dennis Christopher as Danik David Kagen as Major Klev

Airdate Information

Originally Aired: April 24, 2002 Season: One Episode: Twenty-one

What Happened

The opening teaser show Mayweather and Archer unconscious in a bare room. Both look bruised. Mayweather gets up to explore their unfamiliar surroundings. He looks out the door only to spot several Suliban walking around. Apparently their shuttlepod drifted too close to a restricted area.

The two men soon learn from Colonel Grat, the detention center commander, that this is where his people keep the Suliban they capture as the wage war against the Cabal. Archer also discovers (after an altercation with Sajen, a Suliban detainee) that these Suliban are not genetically enhanced and want nothing to do with the Cabal. In fact most of them are just normal people trying to live a normal life.

Appalled by this revelation, Archer confronts Grat about the problem. While sympathetic to the Suliban’s plight, he feels he’s doing everyone, including the Suliban, a favor. His reasoning is that once the Cabal capture these Suliban, they’ll be brainwashed and altered. He urges Archer to stay out of this and he and Mayweather will be home in a few days.

Drawing parallels between this situation and the one from United State during World War II, Archer feels it is his duty to help these people escape. Meanwhile, Grat discovers information about the Enterprise , most notably their two previous encounters with Silik and the Cabal (“Broken Bow” and “Cold Front”). He demands that Archer turn over any information or else they may “miss” their transport off the planet.

Fortunately, Enterprise , has managed to locate Archer and Mayweather’s position and are moving in to evacuate their friends. Archer tells Enterprise to hold back while he and Mayweather execute their plan.

What follows is a high-action rescue operation with Trip using a shuttlepod to blast the camp’s defenses and Reed, disguised as a Suliban, helping the two detained crewmembers get the Suliban to their ships. Having succeeded, Enterprise turns tail and leaves the restricted space.

Not too bad really. Good acting turns from everyone save for Montgomery, who is still trying to figure out his character. It’s the first season, no sense on ragging on him. Though I had higher hopes for the character. Something along the lines of young-but-wise since he’s had so much time in space.

Another nice element to the episode was the amount of information revealed. We now know that not all Suliban are members of the Cabal. We know that another race is aware of the “Temporal Cold War.” We also know that the Suliban have no homeworld, no government. Just a nomadic people trying to integrate into other cultures. Something they were becoming very good at until the Cabal surfaced.

All told, good dialogue, nice effects, and (finally) a few answers.

Great dialogue pieces between Archer and Sajen. Great depth of emotion and sorrow for the Suliban’s predicament.

Maybe it was the hype (fan-generated, not UPN) about Dean Stockwell’s appearance on the show, but I just didn’t think there was much to the episode for him.

Originality: A retelling of Earth’s past. Not really original, but it is a hallmark of Star Trek. 4

Effects: Cool combat shots of the shuttlepod making a mess of the internment camp. 5

Story: A good way of moving the story arc along. I’m always for that. 4

Acting: Smart work from just about everyone in the cast. 4

Emotional Response: Nothing too unpredictable, but still a satisfying end to the episode. 4

Production: The interiors looked all right, but nothing that really stood out. Excellent work though on Reed’s Suliban make-up. 4

Overall: Good action, gobs of information (by Star Trek standards), and some standout dialogue and acting. 4

Total: 29 out of 42

Episode Media

• Major Klev and some Suliban children
• Colonel Grat, in charge of the Tandaran camp
• Archer has to restrain a bloodied Mayweather
• Archer and Mayweather in Grat’s office
• Archer in the Tandaran internment camp

From StarTrek.com

Science Flub of the Week

OK, now I’m just feeling like an ass for creating this section. So far I’m 1 for 3. No noticeable flubs this week.

Featured Star Trek Web Site

Learn more about the Japanese-American Internment camps during World War II:

• War Relocation Authority Camps in Arizona, 1942-1946 (Univ of Arizona)
• Japanese-American Internment in WWII Photo Exhibit (Univ of Utah)
• The Japanese American Internment (Geocities)
• Children of the Camps (Documentary)

Next Time on Enterprise (May 1, 2002)

A strange, symbiotic alien creature boards the Enterprise capturing a few of the crew members, including Archer and Trip, and cocoons them in its web feeding off their bodies to survive. With the captured crewmembers’ lives in jeopardy, Hoshi, under T’Pol’s command, faces her biggest challenge by trying to find a way to communicate with the lifeform in order to return it to its home planet.

Related Links:

[ 20-second episode preview (QT, WMP) ]

7 replies on “Enterprise: “Detained””

Score Don’t worry, I’m sure that score will improve when theangrymob gets around to filling out the “Overall” section.

Don’t worry, I’m sure that score will improve when theangrymob gets around to filling out the “Overall” section.

D’oh!

About time for some more action I like this episode quite a bit. I prefer more action, intrigue, and new ideas. The only problem I had with it was the extremely poor excuse for why they ended up in the camp. I don’t mind starting the show not knowing, but when explaining time comes, they should do a better job at drawing the line between before and during the show.

Another thing I noticed was the lack of space scenes when Enterprise dealt with the other ships. They launched a torpedo or two and that was pretty much that. I geuss they had no time to show the explosions.

Re: About time for some more action

Another thing I noticed was the lack of space scenes when Enterprise dealt with the other ships.

I see this a lot. It’s a budget cheat. Another trick to watch for (especially in older Treks) is the transporter/replicator often works off-screen. Though, I will say the transporter off-screen effect was a nice piece of cinematography. We knew something was beamed, but what? Cudos to the director.

Enterprise improving… I’m seeing Archer and Trip emerge as show favorites here, especially after watching the latest show with the web alien.

Hoshi is shaping up too.

So many bad decisions… … I would have forgotten them, if a friend and I hadn’t started making a list:

• Archer didn’t tell Brak stuff about the Cabal. (The enemy of my enemy should at least be considered for friendship.)
• Turning down the Vulcan legal council.
• Deciding to free the Suliban.
• They didn’t beam the communicator back up.
• Leading Suliban to nearly certain doom.
• Actually freeing the Suliban.
• Sabotaging relations with Tandarins for years to come.
• Almost certainly killing several Tandarins to free Suliban.

The only thing that could have saved the ending would have been the Cabal capturing the Suliban. That would have been so sweet. Maybe we will see them working for the Cabal in a later episode.

Why didn’t they just use the transporter? What I can’t figure out is why they didn’t just transport everybody out. Would have been a lot quicker, easier and safer.

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Recap / Star Trek Enterprise S 01 E 21 Detained

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Travis wakes up in prison, next to an unconscious Archer and not knowing how he got there. Travis opens the door to see two Suliban in the corridor, then walks down the corridor to find that everyone in the cells are Suliban. He returns to his cell, where Archer, now awake, asks who might have attacked their shuttle, but Travis doesn't know. Travis looks outside and sees a five-meter high wall and what appears to be a guard tower, but no one around.

He takes another walk down the corridor, this time with Archer, and they run into a Suliban prisoner who calls them the "new arrivals". An alarm goes off, prompting the Suliban to exit their cells and guards to enter the area. One of them shocks one as a punishment for dropping a cup, and a major asks Archer and Travis to follow him. They're taken to the man in charge, Colonel Grat, who explains that his species, the Tandarans, are at war with the Suliban and wrongly detained Archer and Travis due to mistaking them for disguised Suliban. He claims that he's planning on having them released soon, but doesn't have the authority to do it himself, and they can't call Enterprise , so they'll have to wait it out before appearing before a magistrate. He then tells them not to get too close with the Suliban prisoners and takes them back to their cell.

They are fed food they don't like and Archer goes to refill his cup. He meets a little Suliban girl named Narra hanging the clothes out with her dad, and talks to the dad, whose name is Danik. He tells Archer that not all Suliban are cabal or genetically-enhanced, and that Danik and Narra are normal civilians. The alarm goes off again and Klev comes in and puts Danik in isolation for being up past his curfew.

Meanwhile, Enterprise is searching for Archer and Travis. T'Pol and Trip want to talk to Archer, but Grat won't let them. He says that they're fine and that the magistrate's office will contact them on arrival. After a discussion on what the best course of action is, the crew decides to go to Tandar Prime.

At the prison, Danik tells Archer that the Suliban have been nomads for three hundred years ever since their planet has become uninhabitable, and that the ones living near the Tandarans have been all detained for the duration of the war between the Tandarans and the Cabal. Danik's friend Sajen gives him a letter saying that his wife's appeal has been rejected, then when the alarm goes off again, the Suliban leave, with Sajen telling Archer that he fears he's working for Grat. Later, in the common area, Grat speaks with Archer, wanting information on the Cabal, since he's learnt that Archer knows about them. Archer doesn't cooperate because he doesn't want to take sides, so Grat warns Archer that if he doesn't get the information he wants, he may miss the transport, and another won't won't come for sixty days.

Grat then postpones the hearing for a few days in hopes of extracting information from Archer, and informs the Enterprise of the postponing. He suggests talking to an ambassador, but by then, they have traced the signal to the prison camp, giving T'Pol other plans.

Back in the complex, Danik suggests that Archer tell Grat what he knows about Suliban, but Archer refuses, since he sees that approach as "strong-armed". He asks if anyone has tried to escape, and Danik says that three Suliban did (via a docking bay) but were killed because Grat lied that they were armed. Archer says that Enterprise is coming and will be willing to help the prisoners escape. Meanwhile, Travis tries to have a conversation with Sajen, but he behaves coldly towards him.

Archer looks over the schematics of the camp, when a communicator is beamed next to him. He contacts the Enterprise and finds out they're in orbit. Trip suggests beaming Archer and Travis out before the Tandarans find them, but Archer wants to help the Suliban escape instead. Archer tries getting the Suliban in on it, but Sajen refuses because he thinks it's hopeless and he'd be killed. Danik, however, agrees. Grat questions Archer on some unusual energy readings coming from his cell and Archer denies any knowledge, when a beat-up Travis is brought in with the communicator. Archer still refuses to talk, so he's put in isolation. Grat contacts Hoshi with Travis's communicator, threatening the Enterprise if they come near his patrol ships.

Tropes in this episode include:

• Be as Unhelpful as Possible : Archer refuses to cooperate with Grat once he realizes the truth of the situation.
• Call-Back : Colonel Grat grills Archer about the events of "Broken Bow" and "Cold Front."
• Children Are Cruel : The Tandaran children would sing a nursery rhyme portraying the Suliban as Always Chaotic Evil .
• Cold-Blooded Torture : The Tandarans beat the crap out of Travis. They're also pretty fond of their shock-prods.
• Curb-Stomp Battle : Enterprise disables the Tandaran patrol ships with one torpedo each, while taking negligible damage herself.
• Ditto Aliens : Grat's racism leads to this, since he clearly doesn't recognize that there's a Suliban there who shouldn't be. It's Malcolm Reed in disguise.
• Does This Remind You of Anything? : A government at war preemptively and indefinitely "detains" everyone of the same race as their enemies, even though they've done nothing wrong, are uninvolved with with the conflict, and some of them have been loyal citizens for generations. Archer explicitly compares the situation to the US imprisoning Japanese-Americans during World War II
• Fantastic Racism : The Tandaran attitude towards the Suliban, even those who aren't with the cabal, is that they're dangerous.
• Faux Affably Evil : Colonel Grat initially seems entirely polite and apologetic about the situation, presenting himself as stymied by bureaucracy, and willing help to resolve the situation. He even seems sincere in his belief that his camp is the only way to protect the Suliban. But when Archer becomes uncooperative, he quickly shows his true colors, refusing Archer and Travis their right to a trial, and ultimately insisting that all Suliban are potential enemies who can't be trusted with freedom.
• Foreshadowing : Reed is not seen on the bridge while T'Pol gives Grat the business. Afterwards, she contacts Phlox, who is doing something we can't see and comments that he's almost done but isn't happy with the nose. Then Trip beams down something offscreen. It's Reed, disguised as a Suliban.
• Gunship Rescue : Enterprise and the second shuttlepod come in shooting.
• Mistaken for Aliens : Zigzagged — the Tandarans had Archer and Travis locked up because they mistook them for disguised Suliban. However, they aren't Suliban but they are humans, which are still an alien species from the perspective of the Tandarans.
• Obstructive Bureaucrat : Grat decides to keep Archer and Travis detained unless they provide information about the Suliban.
• Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right! : Archer decides to violate his own policy of not interfering with other cultures because of what the Tandarans are doing to the Suliban.
• Unconventional Food Usage : Discussed when Travis jokes that his and Archer's prison food would be better used as a valve sealant for Trip.
• Weird World, Weird Food : Travis isn't too impressed by what the Tandarans call a "proper meal."
• What the Hell, Hero? : Travis yells at one of the Suliban for not letting go of his Fantastic Racism towards humans. Travis: I'll admit, when I first came here it wasn't easy to see past my preconceptions about the Suliban, but I did. Why can't you?
• Star Trek Enterprise S 01 E 20 Oasis
• Recap/Star Trek: Enterprise
• Star Trek Enterprise S 01 E 22 Vox Sola

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• Star Trek: Enterprise

While exploring a planet, Archer and Mayweather accidentally enter a "military zone" and are detained in an internment prison by an alien race called Tandarans, who are at war with the Suliban. While the  Enterprise  crew's previous encounters with the Suliban have been disastrous, Archer and Mayweather find themselves held with some Suliban detainees who they believe are wrongly imprisoned. This situation leads to a clash of wills between Archer and the Tandaran commandant.

Cast Appearances

Scott Bakula

John Billingsley

Jolene Blalock

Dominic Keating

Anthony Montgomery

Connor Trinneer

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Dean Stockwell

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He was perhaps best known for his four-time Emmy Award-nominated role as Rear Admiral Albert "Al" Calavicci in Quantum Leap from 1989 through 1993, in which he co-starred with future Enterprise star Scott Bakula . It was his prior association with Bakula that would land him the role of Grat. Regarding the pair of actors, Enterprise co-creator and Executive Producer Rick Berman remembered, " We always thought it would be fun to get the two of them together, and I spoke to Scott, and he thought it would be a great idea […] [Stockwell] was delighted to do it [too]. It was a lot of fun. " ( Star Trek: Communicator  issue 138 , p. 20) In fact, the making of the episode was likewise enjoyable for the actors. One week after the episode's production, Bakula commented, " We had a ball. " ( Star Trek: Communicator  issue 138 , p. 85)

• 1 Early life and career
• 2 Later career
• 3 Other Trek connections
• 4 External links

Early life and career [ ]

Stockwell was born in Hollywood, California. He began acting as a child, making his film debut at the age of nine in 1945's The Valley of Decision , co-starring Star Trek: The Original Series guest actor John Warburton . He followed this with a supporting role in the Frank Sinatra musical film Anchors Aweigh that same year.

He remained extremely busy throughout the 1940s and early '50s, with major supporting roles in such classic films as Gentleman's Agreement (1947, with Jane Wyatt ) and The Secret Garden (1949). Most notably, he co-starred with Errol Flynn in the 1950 adventure Kim , in which Stockwell played the title role. Fellow Star Trek alumni Arnold Moss , Michael Ansara , and Hamilton Camp also had roles in this film.

Stockwell remained active in the acting business throughout his adulthood. In 1957, at age 21, he co-starred with Jeffrey Hunter and Stanley Adams in the Western Gun for a Coward . He also gave acclaimed performances in Compulsion (1959, with Orson Welles ) and Long Day's Journey Into Night (1962), winning Best Actor awards from the Cannes Film Festival for both.

In 1965, Stockwell played the recurring role of Dr. Rudy Devereux on the NBC drama series Dr. Kildare , working with Andrew Prine . The other television programs on which Stockwell appeared during the 1950s and 1960s include an episode of Playhouse 90 (with George Takei ), an episode of The Twilight Zone (with Leonard Nimoy ), multiple episodes of Wagon Train , and episodes of Schlitz Playhouse of Stars (with James Gregory ), The Dick Powell Show (with Whit Bissell and Yvonne Craig ), The Alfred Hitchcock Hour (with Susan Oliver and Bert Remsen ), Kraft Suspense Theatre (with Bill Erwin ), and Bonanza (with Susan Howard and Harry Townes ).

Throughout the 1970s, Stockwell guest-starred on Mission: Impossible (with Jack Donner ), The Streets of San Francisco (with Sharon Acker , William Smithers , and Tom Troupe ), Three for the Road (with Parley Baer ), Cannon (with Phillip Pine and Morgan Woodward ), Ellery Queen (with Keene Curtis and Clyde Kusatsu ), McCloud (starring Ken Lynch and Diana Muldaur ), and Tales of the Unexpected (with Robert Pine ). He also appeared in multiple episodes of the anthology series Police Story , including one with William Shatner . In 1978, Stockwell co-starred with Ted Cassidy , Jeff Corey , Ed Lauter , Julie Parrish , Nehemiah Persoff , and John Schuck in the mini-series Greatest Heroes of the Bible , directed by James L. Conway .

Later career [ ]

Stockwell had roles in two films from director David Lynch : 1984's Dune , co-starring Brad Dourif , Virginia Madsen , and Star Trek: The Next Generation star Patrick Stewart ; and 1986's Blue Velvet , also featuring Brad Dourif. Stockwell also appeared in two films starring Christian Slater : The Legend of Billie Jean (1985) and Tucker: The Man and His Dream (1988). In addition, he had a supporting role in Paramount Pictures ' Beverly Hills Cop II (1987, with Ronny Cox , Paul Guilfoyle , Darryl Henriques , John Hostetter , Stephen Liska , Tommy "Tiny" Lister, Jr. and Valerie Wildman ).

Stockwell earned an Academy Award nomination for his performance in the supporting role of Tony "The Tiger" Russo in the 1988 comedy film Married to the Mob . Charles Napier and Tracey Walter had roles in this film as well.

Some of his later film credits include The Player (1992, with Whoopi Goldberg , René Auberjonois , Paul Dooley , Louise Fletcher , Sally Kellerman , Malcolm McDowell , Bert Remsen , and Ray Walston ), Air Force One (1997, with Bill Smitrovich , Glenn Morshower , and Boris Krutonog ), and The Manchurian Candidate (2004, with Charles Napier , Jude Ciccolella , and Miguel Ferrer ). On television, Stockwell guest-starred on such shows as Hart to Hart (with Ray Walston), The A-Team (starring Melinda Culea and Dwight Schultz ), Miami Vice (with Jerry Hardin and Rosana DeSoto ), Murder, She Wrote (with Eugene Roche ), Burke's Law (with Joanna Cassidy ), Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman (starring Teri Hatcher , K Callan , and Tracy Scoggins ), Chicago Hope (with Jeffrey Nordling ), Nowhere Man (starring Bruce Greenwood ), The Drew Carey Show (with Diedrich Bader and John Carroll Lynch ), and Stargate SG-1 (with Joel Swetow ). In 2000, Stockwell (along with Terri Garr , Frank Welker , and Tara Strong ) provided voice for Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker . He also provided his voice for the animated series Captain Planet and the Planeteers , which also featured the voices of LeVar Burton , Whoopi Goldberg, and Frank Welker . Stockwell played the regular villain "Duke Nukem".

In 2002, Stockwell had a recurring role as Senator Edward Sheffield on the short-lived CBS drama First Monday created by Quantum Leap producer Donald Bellisario, starring with Gail Strickland . The series was canceled but Bellisario decided to transfer the Sheffield character to JAG between 2002 and 2004. On JAG Sheffield was elevated to Secretary of the Navy. Sheffield was promoted to replace the ousted Theodore Nelson who was portrayed by Paul Collins . During his time on the latter series, Stockwell worked with fellow Star Trek alumni David Andrews , Steven Culp , Chip Heller , Clyde Kusatsu, Ed Lauter, Scott Lawrence , Derek Magyar , J. Patrick McCormack , Richard McGonagle , Zoe McLellan , Christopher Neiman , Randy Oglesby , Andrew Robinson , William Sadler , Jennifer Savidge , William Windom , Ray Wise , and Jamison Yang .

Stockwell and fellow Enterprise guest star Rick Worthy appeared on the Ronald D. Moore 's Battlestar Galactica , each playing one of the twelve Cylon agent models. Stockwell also worked with Kate Vernon and Michelle Forbes on this series.

Stockwell reunited with Scott Bakula once more in 2014 for an episode of NCIS: New Orleans , which was one of his final screen appearances.

Dean Stockwell passed away on 7 November 2021 . He was 85 years old. [1]

Other Trek connections [ ]

Additional film and TV projects in which Stockwell appeared with other Star Trek performers include:

• The Happy Years (1950 film, with Hamilton Camp)
• The Twilight Zone – A Quality of Mercy (1961 TV with Leonard Nimoy )
• The Dunwich Horror (1970 horror movie, with Jason Wingreen )
• Paper Man (1971; with Marcy Lafferty and Jason Wingreen)
• Columbo: The Most Crucial Game (1972 TV movie, with James Gregory, Susan Howard, and Don Keefer , written by John T. Dugan )
• Another Day at the Races (1975 film, with Alan Oppenheimer and Barry Atwater )
• Won Ton Ton, the Dog Who Saved Hollywood (1976, with Terri Garr and Ricardo Montalban )
• Born to Be Sold (1981 TV movie, with Lloyd Haynes )
• Papa Was a Preacher (1985 film, with Robert Pine)
• Kenny Rogers as The Gambler, Part III: The Legend Continues (1987 TV movie, with Marc Alaimo , Michael Berryman , Ann Gillespie , Colm Meaney , Tony Plana , and Jimmie F. Skaggs )
• Palais Royale (1988 film, with Kim Cattrall )
• Son of the Morning Star (1991 TV movie, with Terry O'Quinn , Nick Ramus , and Tim Ransom )
• Friends and Enemies (1992 film, with Roger Rignack )
• Chasers (1994 film, with Seymour Cassel )
• Naked Souls (1995 film, with David Warner )
• Mr. Wrong (1996 film, with Camille Saviola )
• The Rainmaker (1997 film, with Virginia Madsen )
• Sinbad: The Battle of the Dark Knights (1998 film, with Anthony De Longis and Andrew Hawkes )
• The Shadow Men (1998 TV movie, with Andrew Prine and David Bowe , directed by Timothy Bond )
• Restraining Order (1999 film, with Franc Luz )
• They Nest (2000 TV movie, with John Savage )
• Face to Face (2001 film, with Mädchen Amick and Jonathan Banks )
• American Black Beauty (2005 TV movie, with Daniel Roebuck )

External links [ ]

• Dean Stockwell at the Internet Movie Database
• Dean Stockwell at Battlestar Wiki
• Dean Stockwell at Wikipedia
• 3 Star Trek: Discovery

Whatever Happened To The Cast Of Star Trek: Enterprise?

The sixth series in the long-running "Star Trek" franchise," "Star Trek: Enterprise" ran from 2001 to 2005 on the UPN Network (now The CW). The series, created by Rick Berman and Brannon Braga, took place approximately a century before the events depicted in " Star Trek: The Original Series " (TOS) and followed the crew of the first starship named Enterprise (not the one depicted in "TOS") as they had their first encounters with the show's most iconic alien races, such as the Klingons and Vulcans. Scott Bakula was at the helm as Captain Jonathan Archer, leading his diverse crew through four seasons of science fiction adventure before the show's abrupt cancellation in 2005.

Like all "Star Trek" alumni, the cast of "Enterprise" has enjoyed a certain degree of acclaim long after their series left the air, thanks to the ardent "Trek" fanbase. Some have continued to act and gain even greater fame, while others have settled comfortably into careers split between doing new work and looking back nostalgically at their "Trek" experiences. Following is a list of the primary cast members of "Enterprise," as well as several actors who played recurring roles, and what they've been up to since the mighty starship was permanently parked in spacedock.

Scott Bakula as Captain Jonathan Archer

As Captain (and later Starfleet Admiral) Jonathan Archer, actor Scott Bakula led the crew of the Enterprise through four seasons of adventures on "Star Trek: Enterprise." Bakula was arguably the best-known cast member on the series, having earned a Golden Globe and multiple Emmy nominations as the time-traveling hero of the original "Quantum Leap." Bakula was also visible to film and TV audiences through appearances in high-profile projects like "American Beauty" and "Murphy Brown," as well as extensive work in Broadway theater productions.

After "Enterprise" completed its final mission in 2005, Bakula remained extremely active as both a leading man and guest or recurring player. He starred as Special Agent Dwayne "King" Pride in seven seasons of "NCIS: New Orleans," for which he netted a People's Choice Award nomination in 2015. Bakula also starred in the critically-acclaimed, Peabody Award-winning comedy-drama "Men of a Certain Age" with Ray Romano and Andre Braugher, and guested on series ranging from "The Simpsons" to a very funny episode of "What We Do in the Shadows," in which Nandor and Nadja confuse him for Count Dracula. 

On the film front, Bakula has collaborated with Steven Soderbergh on several occasions, including the 2009 feature "The Informant!," the TV drama "Behind the Candelabra" — which earned him a fifth Emmy nomination in 2013 — and most recently, the 2023 science fiction thriller "Divinity," which Soderbergh produced.

Jolene Blalock as Science Officer T'Pol

Landing the role of Science Officer (and later First Officer) T'Pol on "Star Trek: Enterprise" proved to be the big break for Jolene Blalock's acting career. It also turned out to be her most notable screen role: the former model enjoyed guest appearances on series like "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation" and "JAG" prior to joining the cast of "Enterprise." While appearing on the series, she also turned up twice on another small-screen sci-fi drama, "Stargate SG-1," and co-starred with Ray Liotta in a thriller, "Slow Burn," which was filmed in 2003 but released in 2007.

Blalock gave only a handful of film and TV appearances after "Enterprise" ended in 2005. The majority of these were guest appearances on "CSI: Miami" and "House," and co-starring turns in the Jason Segel comedy "Sex Tape" and several direct-to-video features, such as "Starship Troopers 3: Marauder." She appears to have stepped away from acting after 2017, preferring instead to focus on her marriage to Live Nation CEO Michael Rapino, with whom she has three sons. The couple also oversee the Rapino Foundation, a charitable organization that benefits developing nations.

Connor Trinneer as Chief Engineer Trip Tucker

Washington State native Connor Trinneer graduated from stage work and bit parts on television to romantic hero status when he was cast as chief engineer Charles "Trip" Tucker on "Star Trek: Enterprise." Trip's primary storyline was an on-and-off relationship with T'Pol throughout all four seasons of the series, though the pair eventually settled for friendship prior to his apparent death in the final episode of the series. For his work on "Enterprise," Trinneer earned Saturn Award nominations in 2002 and 2003.

Trinneer's post-"Enterprise" work has featured a recurring run as the villainous Wraith Michael on "Stargate: Atlantis" and guest roles on numerous series, including "9-1-1," "NCIS: Los Angeles," "and "24." Film projects included a lead in the SyFy original movie "Star Runners" in 2009 and "Unbelievable!!!" a broad comedy featuring 40 cast members from various "Trek" series, including his "Enterprise" co-stars Linda Park, Dominic Keating, and John Billingsley. 

More recently, Trineer appeared in the Tom Cruise drama "American Made" (as President George W. Bush) and Steven Spielberg's "The Fabelmans." In 2023 he reprised the role of Trip Tucker in an episode of the animated short series "Star Trek: Very Short Treks." He's also co-hosted several popular "Star Trek" podcasts, including "The Shuttlepod Show" and "The D-Con Chamber," with "Enterprise" co-star Dominic Keating.

Dominic Keating as Tactical Officer Malcolm Reed

British-Irish actor Dominic Keating was already well-known in his native England for roles on series like "Desmond's" before crossing the pond to play Tactical Officer Malcolm Reed on "Star Trek: Enterprise." Keating came to the United States in the late 1990s and landed guest roles on "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and other series before joining "Enterprise" for all four seasons on the UPN Network.

Keating remained busy as both a live-action and voice-over actor in the years after "Enterprise." A four-episode arc as an Irish mobster on "Heroes" and guest roles on series like "Prison Break" and "Sons of Anarchy" kept him on screen into the mid-2010s, while video games like "Diablo 3" and "World of Warcraft: Legion" made excellent use of his vocal talents. Keating also played an '80s-era British pop star in a series of TV spots for Sprint/Nextel in the 2010s. More recently, as noted earlier, Keating teamed with Connor Trinneer to co-host the "Star Trek" podcasts, "The Shuttlepod Show" and "The D-Con Chamber."

Linda Park as Communications Officer Hoshi Sato

Shortly after graduating from Boston University in 2001, Linda Park embarked on both her screen acting career and her tenure as a "Star Trek" hero by landing the role of communications officer Hoshi Sato on "Star Trek: Enterprise." Park, who made her feature film debut that same year with a small role in "Jurassic Park III," remained busy with other projects during the series' four-year run, including the 2004 feature "Spectres" starring fellow "Trek" vet Marina Sirtis. She also made her debut as a producer with the 2003 short film "My Prince, My Angel."

Park quickly segued to series regular work on the short-lived "Women's Murder Club" and a recurring role on Starz's "Crash," which was inspired by the 2004 film of the same name. Guest roles on "NCIS" and "Castle" kept her busy for much of the next decade, though she revisited the "Trek" universe in the short fan film "Star Trek: Captain Pike" in 2016. The following year, she joined the cast of "Bosch" for three seasons while also appearing on shows like "The Affair" and "Grey's Anatomy."

John Billingsley as Dr. Phlox

John Billingsley had been active on television and in films for over a decade prior to landing the role of Dr. Phlox on "Star Trek: Enterprise." His work included roles in features like "High Crimes" and on network series like "Northern Exposure" and "The West Wing," as well as a recurring turn as serial killer George Marks, the only criminal to escape capture on "Cold Case."

When "Enterprise" came to a close in 2005, Billingsley resumed his busy TV and film schedule , which included recurring roles as the creepy, vampirized coroner Mike Spencer on "True Blood," scientist Shenandoah Cassidy on the short-lived "Intelligence," and conspirator Terrence Steadman in Season 1 of "Prison Break." 

By the mid-2010s, Billingsley was appearing in multiple series per year: between 2014 and 2019 alone, he was in episodes of "Bones," "Twin Peaks," "The Orville," and "Lucifer," while also enjoying recurring roles on "Turn: Washington's Spies" (as the father of Revolutionary War spy Robert Townsend) and the Freeform series "Stichers," in addition to his work on "Intelligence." His busy streak has continued well into the next decade, with guest turns on "Station 19," "Manhunt," and "Pam and Tommy."

Anthony Montgomery as Ensign Travis Mayweather

Ensign Travis Mayweather served as the Enterprise's navigator and helmsman throughout the four-season run of "Star Trek: Enterprise." As played by actor Anthony Montgomery, Mayweather lent stalwart support to the Enterprise crew's adventures, and on occasion, became the focus of an episode. Among these was the Season 2 episode "Horizon," which introduced viewers to Mayweather's family and his complicated relationship with his father and brother.

Montgomery, whose grandfather was the legendary West Coast jazz guitarist Wes Montgomery, was familiar to TV viewers prior to "Enterprise" through a recurring role on the WB series "Popular," a short-lived early TV credit for Ryan Murphy. When "Enterprise" completed its final mission in 2005, Montgomery moved on to guest roles on "Grey's Anatomy" and the rebooted "Magnum, P.I." and recurring roles on series like "Greenleaf." He also returned to series regular work with the BET limited series "The Family Business" in 2020. 

In addition to his acting career, Montgomery also released a pair of albums of original music and created a graphic novel series, "Miles Away," with writer Brandon Easton.

Vaughn Armstrong as Admiral Maxwell Forrest

Though Vaughn Armstrong's name may not seem immediately familiar to you, he holds something of a celebrated place in the "Star Trek" universe. Armstrong played 12 different characters on four separate "Trek" series, including nearly every alien race in the show's vast array of extraterrestrials, including multiple Klingons, a Borg, and a Romulan. However, he's probably best known as Starfleet commander Admiral Maxwell Forrest, who initiated the Enterprise's missions, on 14 episodes of "Enterprise." True to form, Armstrong also played Klingon and Kreetassan commanders on the series as well.

The LA theater veteran, who appeared in episodes of "Wonder Woman," "Days of Our Lives," and "Melrose Place" prior to his run on "Enterprise," remained very busy after the show's conclusion. Guest and recurring TV credits include "Mad Men," "Modern Family," and "Crazy Ex-Girlfriend," while Armstrong also turned up in several independent features (including "Unbelievable!!!") and lent his voice to several "Star Trek" video games. In addition to his acting work, Armstrong also led the Enterprise Blues Band, a folk and blues group that featured several other "Trek" performers in its lineup, like Richard Herd and Casey Biggs.

Gary Graham as Ambassador Soval

Though science fiction fans may often associate actor Gary Graham with the mostly forgotten "Alien Nation" spinoff series and its many made-for-TV features, the Long Beach, California native also made several appearances in another long-running sci-fi franchise. Shortly after guest-starring on an episode of "Star Trek: Voyager," Graham played the Vulcan ambassador Soval on 12 episodes of "Star Trek: Enterprise," and reprised the role in the short "Star Trek" fan film "Prelude to Axanar." He also turned up in two other "Trek" fan films, "Of Gods and Men" and "Renegades," as well as the slightly more professional "Unbelievable!!!"

Graham's pre-"Trek" and "Alien Nation" credits included the films "All the Right Moves" and Stuart Gordon's "Robot Jox," and after "Enterprise," he appeared in episodes of "Nip/Tuck" and "Crossing Jordan." He kept busy with roles in low-budget independent films throughout the 2000s, including the critically panned "Jeepers Creepers: Reborn" in 2022, and also played in various amateur bands. The 73-year-old Graham died of cardiac arrest on January 22, 2024.

Randy Oglesby as Degra

Randy Oglesby was another character actor who found regular employment on various series within the "Star Trek" universe. He made his first appearance on a Trek series in an episode of "The Next Generation" and later played multiple characters on "Deep Space Nine," while also enjoying a guest shot as a Brenari refugee on "Voyager." He is perhaps best known for playing Degra, the architect of the world-destroying Xindi weapon, on 10 episodes of "Enterprise." He also played a Xyrillian on "Unexpected," the fifth episode of Season 1, before taking on Degra in Season 3.

Oglesby began acting in the early 1980s, appearing in films like "Pale Rider" and on series like "Dallas" under the names Thomas or Tom Oglesby. After adopting his middle name (Randall) for screen work, Oglesby appeared steadily through the 1990s and 2000s in projects like "Independence Day" and "Pearl Harbor" before making his "Enterprise" debut. He continued to appear on other series during this time period, most notably on "The Practice" and "JAG"; post-"Enterprise" roles included guest shots on "Mad Men," "True Blood," and most recently, "WandaVision" (as Wanda's doctor). Oglesby also enjoyed a recurring role on " For All Mankind " as the conservative governor and later vice-president Jim Bragg.

Jeffrey Combs as Commander Shran

Actor Jeffrey Combs is perhaps best-known for his horror film roles, including mad scientist Herbert West in the "Re-Animator" trilogy, along with "I Still Know What You Did Last Summer" and "Would You Rather." But Combs also has a long history of film and television roles outside of the horror genre; like Gary Graham, these included guest and recurring appearances on numerous titles in the extended "Star Trek" universe. One of his best-known "Trek" turns came as the flinty Andorian commander Shran on 11 episodes of "Enterprise" between Seasons 1 and 4.

Combs' "Trek" work also included multiple characters on "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine," as well as appearances on "Star Trek: Voyager" and voice-acting on "Star Trek: Lower Decks" and several "Trek" video games. Combs' post-"Enterprise" roles have been firmly divided between live-action and animated projects: the former included episodes of "The 4400," "Cold Case," "Gotham" and "Creepshow," while Combs could also be heard voicing characters on "Transformers: Prime" (as Ratchet), "Ben 10: Omniverse," "The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes" (as The Leader) and "SpongeBob SquarePants."

Rick Worthy as Jannar

Like Jeffrey Combs, Gary Graham, and other versatile character actors on this list, Rick Worthy turned up in several different film and television projects within the "Star Trek" franchise. The most substantial of these was a recurring appearance as the sloth-like Arboreal named Jannar on 10 episodes of "Star Trek: Enterprise," but eagle-eyed viewers can also catch Worthy as a Klingon on "Deep Space Nine," two different androids and a Starfleet crew member on "Voyager," and as an Elloran officer in the 1998 feature "Star Trek: Insurrection." Two years prior to that appearance, Worthy also lent his voice to the 1996 video game "Star Trek: Klingon."

Worthy's credits prior to "Enterprise" included appearances on "NYPD Blue" and "Stargate SG-1," and he remained exceptionally busy on TV after the "Trek" series came to a close in 2005. He played the humanoid Cylon Simon in eight episodes of the "Battlestar Galactica" reboot and later turned up in multiple episodes of "Heroes," "Supernatural" (as the Alpha Vampire), and "The Vampire Diaries" (as the father of Kat Graham's character, Bonnie Bennett). More recently, Worthy enjoyed lengthy runs as Resistance member Lem Washington on "The Man in the High Castle," and as Henry Fogg, dean of the magic university Brakebills, on "The Magicians."

Court is the final frontier for this lost ‘Star Trek’ model

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In April, Heritage Auctions heralded the discovery of the original model of the U.S.S. Enterprise, the iconic starship that whooshed through the stars in the opening credits of the 1960s TV series “Star Trek” but had mysteriously disappeared around 45 years ago.

The auction house, known for its dazzling sales of movie and television props and memorabilia, announced that it was returning the 33-inch model to Eugene “Rod” Roddenberry Jr., son of series creator Gene Roddenberry. The model was kept at Heritage’s Beverly Hills office for “safekeeping,” the house proclaimed in a statement, shortly after an individual discovered it and brought it to Heritage for authentication.

“After a long journey, she’s home,” Roddenberry’s son posted on X , (formerly Twitter).

But the journey has been far from smooth. The starship model and its celebrated return is now the subject of a lawsuit alleging fraud, negligence and deceptive trade practice, highlighting the enduring value of memorabilia from the iconic sci-fi TV series.

The case was brought by Dustin Riach and Jason Rivas, longtime friends and self-described storage unit entrepreneurs who discovered the model among a stash of items they bought “sight unseen” from a lien sale at a storage locker in Van Nuys in October.

“It’s an unfortunate misunderstanding. We have a seller on one side and a buyer on the other side and Heritage is in the middle, and we are aligning the parties on both sides to get the transaction complete,” said Armen Vartian, an attorney representing the Dallas-based auction house, adding that the allegations against his client were unfounded.

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The pair claimed that once the model was authenticated and given a value of $800,000, they agreed to consign it to an auction sale with Heritage planned for July 2024, according to the lawsuit. However, following their agreement, they allege the auction house falsely questioned their title to the model and then convinced them, instead of taking it to auction, to sell it for a low-ball $500,000 to Roddenberry Entertainment Inc. According to the suit, Eugene Roddenberry, the company’s chief executive, had shown great interest in the model and could potentially provide a pipeline of memorabilia to the auction house in the future.

“They think we have a disagreement with Roddenberry,” said Dale Washington, Riach and Rivas’ attorney. “We don’t. We think they violated property law in the discharge of their fiduciary duties.”

The two men allege they have yet to receive the $500,000 payment.

A surprise discovery in a Van Nuys storage unit

For years, Riach and Rivas have made a living buying repossessed storage lockers and selling the contents online, at auction and at flea markets. In fact, Riach has appeared on the reality TV series “Storage Wars.”

“It’s a roll of dice in the dark,” Riach said of his profession bidding on storage lockers. “Sometimes you are buying a picture of a unit. When a unit goes to lien, what you see is what you get and the rest is a surprise. At a live auction you can shine a flashlight, smell and look inside to get a gauge. But online is a gamble, it’s only as good as the photo.”

Last fall, Riach said he saw a picture of a large locker in an online sale. It was 10 feet by 30 feet, and “I saw boxes hiding in the back, it was dirty, dusty, there were cobwebs and what looked like a bunch of broken furniture,” he said.

Something about it, he said, “looked interesting,” and he called Rivas and told him they should bid on it. Riach declined to say how much they paid.

There were tins of old photographs and negatives of nitrate film reels from the 1800s and 1900s. When Rivas unwrapped a trash bag that was sitting on top of furniture, he pulled out a model of a spaceship. The business card of its maker, Richard C. Datin, was affixed to the bottom of the base.

A Google search turned up that Datin had made “Star Trek” models, although the two men didn’t make the connection to the TV series.

“We buy lots of units and see models all of the time,” Riach said. He thought they would find a buyer and decided to list it on eBay with a starting price of $1,000.

At once, they were deluged with inquiries. Among Trekkies, the long-lost first starship model had attained a mythical status.

The original “Star Trek’’ debuted in 1966 and aired for three seasons. Although its original run was brief, the show has generated numerous films and television spinoffs and is one of the most lucrative entertainment franchises, with an enormous fan base.

In 2022, at a Heritage auction of 75 props and items, a Starfleet Communicator from the 1990s series “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine” sold for $27,500 while a pair of Spock’s prosthetic Vulcan ear tips from the original series went for $11,875, more than twice the amount they brought when they were sold in 2017 for $5,100.

The starship’s design was crucial to the series’ success. “If you didn’t believe you were in a vehicle traveling through space, a vehicle that made sense, whose layout and design made sense, then you wouldn’t believe in the series,” Gene Roddenberry said in the 1968 book “The Making of Star Trek,” according to the auction house.

For years, the show’s creator had kept the 33-inch model on his desk. It became the prototype for the 11-foot model used in subsequent episodes. That version was later donated to the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. But that first model disappeared around 1978 when the makers of “Star Trek: The Motion Picture” borrowed it.

A missing starship model

In 1979, Roddenberry wrote to then Paramount executive Jeffrey Katzenberg stating that he had “loaned” the model to the studio more than a year earlier.

“My problem is simply that of getting my model back,” Roddenberry wrote, according to a copy provided by Washington. “It is a fairly expensive piece of model making but its real value to me is what it represents.” He added that no one he had spoken with “had the slightest hint as to who got it or what happened to it.”

Roddenberry died in 1991 .

After the massive interest sparked by the eBay listing, Riach and Rivas pulled the sale and began researching the model more intently. They discovered the connection between Datin and the TV series but also learned that the original model was the same size as the one they had found and it had gone missing. “I said wow, do we have something here?” said Riach, and then reached out to Heritage.

Riach admitted that “Star Trek” wasn’t really on his radar. He was a die-hard “Star Wars” fan, having collected vintage memorabilia from the space films since he was 8 years old.

But given the treasure he unearthed, he now says, “I love ‘Star Trek.’

“There are people buying storage units for 20 years and you will never find anything this great,” he said. “It’s like buying a lottery ticket. It was a very great find.”

Things took an unexpected twist, Riach said. In March, he and Rivas signed an agreement to sell the model for $500,000 after it was pulled from the planned auction and they were told Roddenberry Entertainment had a “strong claim” to the model’s title and “would tie them up with its ‘powerful legal team.’” But then they were given a new transfer agreement to sign with a new set of terms. Riach declined and, instead, he and Rivas called Washington.

Heritage “moved the goalposts,” said their attorney. Under the new agreement, Riach and Rivas would be paid a “finder’s fee,” which Washington called a “reward,” converting it from a transactional payment to a potentially voluntary payment.

They claimed that by April, when Heritage announced the model had resurfaced, the pair came to believe the house failed to disclose the item’s value was much greater than they had been told.

Joe Maddalena, Heritage’s executive vice president, made public statements calling it “priceless.” “It could sell for any amount and I wouldn’t be surprised because of what it is,” he told the AP . “It is truly a cultural icon.”

They also had not been paid.

On April 28, 10 days after Heritage announced it had returned the model to Roddenberry, Riach and Rivas’ lawyer sent a letter to the auction house’s attorney outlining their claims and asking for the payment promised; they also proposed mediation.

Vartian, the lawyer representing Heritage, said that Riach and Rivas became “impatient” about getting the transaction done, and disputes the house had a fiduciary duty to them.

“This is an arm’s-length business relationship,” Vartian said. “They bring something to the auction house and are trying to get the most possible amount as quickly as possible, that is [Heritage’s] position and what they did.”

Still, Vartian is confident that they will soon conclude the transaction, saying, “Various things including scheduling have taken longer than it would.”

For his part, Riach says this experience is much like that of the crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise — “a strange new world.”

“I’ve never experienced anything like this. I’ve sold fine art at auction and other places, I got my check and went on. I’ve never had this roller coaster.

“Storage is a hard game. Sometimes you win and sometimes you lose,” he added. “We’ve bought a $10,000 unit and everything was complete garbage. But if you play long enough, you can get lucky.”

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Stacy Perman is a Company Town reporter working on investigations and enterprise stories covering the entertainment industry. Before joining The Times in 2018, she was a writer and correspondent for Time and Businessweek; her work has appeared in a number of publications including the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Fortune and the Hollywood Reporter. She is the author of three books including the New York Times bestseller “In-N-Out Burger: A Behind-The-Counter Look at the Fast-Food Chain That Breaks All the Rules.”

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Screen Rant

Every strange new worlds character who knew each other before the enterprise.

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Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 3 Wraps Filming & Anson Mount Hangs Up His Boots [UPDATED]

Ruby sunday's "73 yards" story makes no sense after doctor who's time skip, jeri ryan's seven of nine costumes in star trek: voyager made no sense.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 1 established that many characters knew each other before being assigned to serve together on the USS Enterprise. With a 99% Fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes, Strange New Worlds has been met with nearly universal praise, and many of those reviews cite the characters and their relationships as a strong point of the series. The characters of Strange New Worlds feel like full individuals and their stated or implied history with one another makes this crew of the Enterprise feel more like a family.

While several of the characters of Strange New Worlds met for the first time on the USS Enterprise, many of them knew one another before being assigned to the United Federation of Planets' flagship. Strange New Worlds season 1 did not have time to explore the past of every character, but they often referred to shared events from their past that had never been depicted on screen. Not only does this make viewers curious to know more, but it also helps to establish a camaraderie between the Enterprise crew and makes the universe of the show feel bigger and more complete.

11 Captain Pike & Number One

Throughout Strange New Worlds season 1, it is clear that Captain Christopher Pike (Anson Mount) and Number One (Rebecca Romijn) are close personal friends with obvious respect for one another. Commander Una Chin-Riley is one of the few people Pike tells about the tragic future he glimpsed in the Star Trek: Discovery episode "Through the Valley of Shadows," and, in turn, Una confides to Chris about her Illyrian heritage . At some point before their time on the Enterprise, both Pike and Number One served on the USS Antares. Number One's disappearance in the pilot episode of Strange New Worlds prompts Pike to retake command of the Enterprise to lead her rescue mission, and Pike vows to fight for her when she is arrested for being an Illyrian in Strange New Worlds' season 1 finale.

10 Number One & Lt. La’an Noonien Singh

Lt. La'an Noonien Singh (Christina Chong) grew up on a colony ship that was attacked by the Gorn when she was a child. The only survivor of this massacre, La'an was rescued by the USS Martin Luther King Jr. on which Una Chin-Riley served as an Ensign. Una helped La'an work through her traumatic experience and they became the closest of friends. When Una went missing in the pilot episode of Strange New Worlds , La'an took the position of acting First Officer on the Enterprise in part to help save her friend. Throughout Strange New Worlds season 1, Una and La'an have many personal conversations both about La'an's past and about Una's Illyrian secret.

9 Captain Pike & Dr. M’Benga

When Dr. Joseph M'Benga (Babs Olusanmokun) arrived on the Starship Enterprise, Captain Pike greeted him as a close friend, clearly happy to have M'Benga as the ship's new Chief Medical Officer. As revealed in the pilot of Strange New Worlds , Pike and M'Benga had given each other tours of their respective homes, Mojave and Kenya. While the show does not give us much insight into how or when the two met, they have clearly known each other for some time and would consider one another friends.

8 Dr. M’Benga & Nurse Christine Chapel

While Strange New Worlds season 1 did not reveal much about the history of Dr. M'Benga and Nurse Chapel's (Jess Bush) relationship, there were hints that they had known each other for a while. The two work well together and have an established rapport that suggests they knew each other before they were assigned to the Enterprise. The trailer for Strange New Worlds season 2 shows M'Benga and Chapel in more action scenes and Babs Olusanmokun and Jess Bush confirmed that season 2 will explore their shared history.

7 Lt. Spock & T’Pring

As revealed in the Star Trek: The Original Series episode, "Amok Time," Spock and T'Pring (Gia Sandhu) were bonded at age seven and were expected to marry when they were older. By the time of Strange New Worlds season 1, the two are involved in a romantic relationship and spend time together as often as they can. T'Pring patiently supports Spock's dedication to Starfleet and accepts his human side. In the Strange New Worlds episode "Spock Amok," the two accidentally switch bodies, which helps them better understand one another. While the two seem to have a strong relationship now, they will no longer be involved by the time of TOS . Whether this has anything to do with Spock's burgeoning romance with Nurse Chapel remains to be seen.

6 Lt. Erica Ortegas & Nurse Christine Chapel

When given the opportunity for shore leave or downtime on the Enterprise, Nurse Chapel and Lt. Ortegas (Melissa Navia) often spend the time hanging out together. The two seem to be good friends and are often seen joking with one another about various incidents from their past. In the Strange New Worlds episode "Spock Amok," Ortegas pokes fun at Chapel about a past relationship that apparently ended with Chapel running from phaser fire. This exchange implies the two not only knew each other before being assigned to the Enterprise, but they've been close friends ever since.

5 Captain Pike & Lt. Erica Ortegas

While Strange New Worlds has not yet revealed much about Lt. Erica Ortegas' backstory , her casual rapport with Pike suggests the two knew each other before her assignment to the Enterprise. Whether he acted as a mentor for her or they met in some other way, hopefully, Strange New Worlds season 2 will reveal more about their shared history. Ortegas' confidence and witty comebacks have made her a welcome presence on Strange New Worlds , so it will be interesting to see more of her story, including any connections she has to Captain Pike.

4 Captain Pike & T'Pring

Considering the closeness of Spock and T'Pring's relationship, it is no surprise that T'Pring would also be friends with Captain Pike. T'Pring refers to Pike as "Chris," indicating their closeness and that they have likely known one another for a while. Pike's friendship with T'Pring is also interesting considering that Captain James T. Kirk (William Shatner) never even knew Spock had a fiancée. This indicates that something happens between the time of Strange New Worlds and the Star Trek: The Original Series episode "Amok Time" that prompts Spock to never mention T'Pring to Kirk.

3 Captain Pike & Admiral Robert April

Before becoming Captain of the USS Enterprise, Pike served as its First Officer under Captain Robert April (Adrian Holmes). The pair became close friends during their time serving together, and Pike continued to refer to April as "Bob" even after April was promoted to Admiral. April chose Pike to be his second in command and came to know Pike well over the course of their friendship. When Number One went missing on a mission to Kiley 279, Admiral April personally visited Pike at his home to encourage him to lead the rescue mission. April also spoke up to defend Pike and Spock after they violated the Prime Directive on Kiley 279.

2 Captain Pike & Minister Alora

In the Strange New Worlds season 1 episode "Lift Us Where Suffering Cannot Reach," Captain Pike encounters an old flame named Alora (Lindy Booth), who is now the minister of Majalis. They had met ten years previously when Pike was a lieutenant, and he saved her shuttle from a pulsar. While they rekindled their relationship in the episode, Pike was later horrified to discover that the planet of Majalis relied on a child connected to the planet's power systems to keep the city afloat. Though Alora attempted to explain, Pike was not swayed, and he brusquely beamed off the planet, ending their briefly rekindled romance.

1 Captain Pike & Lt. Sam Kirk

Though Lt. George Samuel Kirk (Dan Jeannotte) plays a relatively minor role in Strange New Worlds season 1, the season does establish his friendship with Captain Pike. As revealed in the pilot episode, Pike personally requested Sam to join the crew of the Enterprise for the mission to rescue Number One on Kiley 279. The two greet each other as friends, with Kirk referring to Pike as "Chris" before correcting it to Captain, and Pike asking about Kirk's family. In the finale of Strange New Worlds season 1, Pike asks Sam about his brother, Captain James T. Kirk (Paul Wesley), in an attempt to get a read on the more famous of the Kirk brothers. Lt. James Kirk will have a recurring role in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 2, and it remains to be seen whether he will hit it off with Pike like his brother.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 2 premieres Thursday, June 15, on Paramount+.

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Richard m. sherman dies: disney legend and two-time oscar winner was 95, simon kinberg in talks to produce new ‘star trek’ film at paramount.

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Simon Kinberg is in negotiations to produce the next Star Trek film at Paramount Deadline has confirmed.

Deadline first reported the project with Toby Haynes directing with Seth Grahame-Smith handing the screenplay. Plot details are being kept under wraps but sources say the film will be an origin story that takes place decades before the 2009  Star Trek  film that rebooted the franchise. 

Kinberg is best known for producing such box office hits as The Martian and the first two Deadpool movies. The news was first reported by the What I’m Hearing… newsletter.

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Celebrity birthdays for the week of June 2-8

Awkwafina attends the 30th annual Accessories Council ACE Awards Gala at the Pierre Hotel on Tuesday, May 7, 2024, in New York. (Photo by CJ Rivera/Invision/AP)

Emily Ratajkowski attends The King’s Trust Global Gala at Casa Cipriani on Thursday, May 2, 2024, in New York. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP)

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Celebrity birthdays for the week of June 2-8:

June 2: Actor Ron Ely (“Tarzan”) is 86. Actor Stacy Keach is 83. Actor-director Charles Haid (“Hill Street Blues”) is 81. Singer Chubby Tavares of Tavares is 80. Film director Lasse Hallstrom (“Chocolat,” “The Cider House Rules”) is 78. Actor Jerry Mathers (“Leave It To Beaver”) is 76. Actor Joanna Gleason is 74. Actor Dennis Haysbert (“24″) is 70. Comedian Dana Carvey is 69. Actor Gary Grimes (“Summer of ’42”) is 69. Bassist Michael Steele of The Bangles is 69. Singer Tony Hadley of Spandau Ballet is 64. Actor Liam Cunningham (“Game of Thrones”) is 63. Actor Navid Negahban (“Homeland,” ″24″) is 60. Singer Merril Bainbridge is 56. TV personality Andy Cohen is 56. Rapper B-Real of Cypress Hill is 54. Actor Paula Cale (“Providence”) is 54. Actor Anthony Montgomery (“Star Trek: Enterprise”) is 53. Comedian Wayne Brady is 52. Actor Wentworth Miller (“DC’s Legends of Tomorrow”) is 52. Keyboardist Tim Rice-Oxley of Keane is 48. Actor Zachary Quinto (“Heroes”) is 47. Actor Dominic Cooper (“Mamma Mia”) is 46. Actor Nikki Cox (“Unhappily Ever After”) is 46. Actor Justin Long (“Accepted,” ″Dodgeball”) is 46. Actor Deon Richmond (“Van Wilder,” ″Scream 3″) is 46. Actor Morena Baccarin (“Gotham,” ″Homeland”) is 45. Drummer Fabrizio Moretti of The Strokes is 44. Country singer Dan Cahoon of Marshall Dyllon is 41. Singer-songwriter ZZ Ward is 38. Actor Awkwafina (“The Farewell,” “Crazy Rich Asians”) is 36. Actor Brittany Curran (“The Magicians,” “Men of a Certain Age”) is 34.

June 3: Actor Irma P. Hall (“Soul Food”) is 89. Singer Ian Hunter is 85. Singer Eddie Holman is 78. Actor Tristan Rogers (“General Hospital,” ″The Young and the Restless”) is 78. Actor Penelope Wilton (“Downton Abbey”) is 78. Bassist Too Slim of Riders in the Sky is 76. Singer Suzi Quatro is 74. Singer Deniece Williams is 74. Singer Dan Hill is 70. Actor Suzie Plakson (“How I Met Your Mother”) is 66. Actor Scott Valentine (“Family Ties”) is 66. Guitarist Kerry King of Slayer is 60. Bassist Mike Gordon of Phish is 59. TV journalist Anderson Cooper is 57. Country singer Jamie O’Neal is 56. Singers Ariel and Gabriel Hernandez of No Mercy are 53. Actor Vik Sahay (“Chuck”) is 53. Singer Lyfe Jennings is 51. Actor Arianne Zucker (“Days of Our Lives”) is 50. Actor Nikki M. James (“The Good Wife”) is 43. Actor Josh Segarra (“Chicago P.D.”) is 38. Actor Lalaine Dupree (“Lizzie McGuire”) is 37. Actor Anne Winters (“13 Reasons Why,” “Grand Hotel”) is 30.

June 4: Actor Bruce Dern is 88. Saxophonist Roger Ball (Average White Band) is 80. Singer-actor Michelle Phillips (The Mamas and The Papas) is 80. Jazz saxophonist Anthony Braxton is 79. Bassist Danny Brown of The Fixx is 73. Actor Parker Stevenson is 72. Actor Keith David (“Barbershop”) is 68. Blues musician Tinsley Ellis is 67. Singer El DeBarge is 63. Actor Julie White (film’s “Transformers,” TV’s “Grace Under Fire”) is 63. Actor Lindsay Frost (“Crossing Jordan”) is 62. Actor Sean Pertwee (“Gotham”) is 60. Singer Al B. Sure! is 56. Actor Scott Wolf (“Party of Five”) is 56. Ron Huebel (“What To Expect When You’re Expecting”) is 55. Comedian Horatio Sanz (“Saturday Night Live”) is 55. Actor James Callis (“Bridget Jones”) is 53. Actor Noah Wyle (“ER”) is 53. Bassist Stefan Lessard of The Dave Matthews Band is 50. Actor Russell Brand is 49. Actor Angelina Jolie is 49. Actor Theo Rossi (“Sons of Anarchy”) is 49. Actor Robin Lord Taylor (“Gotham”) is 46. Bassist JoJo Garza of Los Lonely Boys is 44. Model Bar Refaeli is 39. Drummer Zac Farro (Paramore) is 34.

June 5: News correspondent Bill Moyers is 90. Country singer Don Reid of the Statler Brothers is 79. Singer-performance artist Laurie Anderson is 77. Guitarist Fred Stone of Sly and the Family Stone is 77. Country singer Gail Davies is 76. Financial expert Suze Orman (“The Suze Orman Show”) is 73. Drummer Nicko McBrain of Iron Maiden is 72. Jazz drummer Peter Erskine (Steps Ahead, Weather Report) is 70. Singer Richard Butler of Psychedelic Furs is 68. Saxophonist Kenny G is 68. Actor Beth Hall (“Mom,” ″Mad Men”) is 66. Actor Jeff Garlin (“The Goldbergs,” ″Curb Your Enthusiasm”) is 62. Actor Ron Livingston (“Sex and the City,” ″The Practice”) is 57. Singer Brian McKnight is 55. Musician Claus Norreen (Aqua) is 54. Actor-singer Mark Wahlberg is 53. Actor Chad Allen (“Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman”) is 50. Bassist P-Nut of 311 is 50. Actor Navi Rawat (“Numb3rs”) is 47. Actor Liza Weil (“How To Get Away With Murder,” ″Gilmore Girls”) is 47. Bassist Pete Wentz of Fall Out Boy is 45. Guitarist Seb Lefebvre of Simple Plan is 43. Actor Chelsey Crisp (“Fresh Off the Boat”) is 41. Actor Amanda Crew (“Silicon Valley”) is 38. Musician Harrison Mills of Odesza is 35. Musician DJ Mustard is 34. Actor Sophie Lowe (“Once Upon a Time In Wonderland”) is 34. Actor Hank Greenspan (“The Neighborhood”) is 14.

June 6: Singer-songwriter Gary “U.S.” Bonds is 85. Country singer Joe Stampley is 81. Jazz pianist Monty Alexander is 80. Actor Robert Englund (Freddie Krueger) is 77. Playwright-actor Harvey Fierstein is 72. Actor-comedian Sandra Bernhard is 69. Record producer and musician Jimmy Jam (The Time) is 65. Actor Amanda Pays is 65. Comedian Colin Quinn is 65. Guitarist Steve Vai is 64. Singer-bassist Tom Araya of Slayer is 63. Actor Jason Isaacs (“Harry Potter” films) is 61. Bassist Sean Ysealt (White Zombie) is 58. Actor Max Casella (“Analyze This,” ″Doogie Howser, M.D.”) is 57. Actor Paul Giamatti is 57. Singer Damion Hall of Guy is 56. Guitarist James “Munky” Shaffer of Korn is 55. Country singer Lisa Brokop is 51. Singer Uncle Kracker is 50. Actor Sonya Walger (“Lost”) is 50. Actor Staci Keanan (“Step By Step,” ″My Two Dads”) is 49. Jazz singer Somi is 48. Actor Aubrey Anderson-Emmons (“Modern Family”) is 17.

June 7: Director James Ivory (“A Room With A View,” “Howard’s End”) is 96. Actor Virginia McKenna (“Born Free”) is 93. Singer Tom Jones is 84. Talk show host Jenny Jones is 78. Actor Liam Neeson is 72. Actor Colleen Camp (“Die Hard: With A Vengeance”) is 71. Actor William Forsythe is 69. Record producer L.A. Reid is 68. Latin pop singer Juan Luis Guerra is 67. Singer-guitarist Gordon Gano of Violent Femmes is 61. Drummer Eric Kretz of Stone Temple Pilots is 58. Guitarist Dave Navarro is 57. Actor Helen Baxendale (“Friends”) is 54. Actor Karl Urban (2009′s “Star Trek”) is 52. TV personality Bear Grylls (“Man Vs. Wild”) is 50. Guitarist-keyboardist Eric Johnson of The Shins is 48. Actor Adrienne Frantz (“The Bold and the Beautiful,” “The Young and the Restless”) is 46. Comedian Bill Hader (“The Mindy Project,” ″Saturday Night Live”) is 46. Actor Anna Torv (“Fringe”) is 45. Actor Larisa Oleynik (“3rd Rock From The Sun,” ″Boy Meets World) is 43. Actor Michael Cera (“Juno,” ″Arrested Development”) is 36. Actor Shelley Buckner (“Summerland”) is 35. Rapper Iggy Azalea is 34. Model-actress Emily Ratajkowski (“Gone Girl”) is 34. Rapper Fetty Wap is 34.

June 8: Actor James Darren is 88. Singer Nancy Sinatra is 84. Singer Chuck Negron (Three Dog Night) is 82. Singer Boz Scaggs is 80. Actor Kathy Baker (“Picket Fences”) is 74. Actor Sonia Braga is 74. Singer Bonnie Tyler is 73. Actor Griffin Dunne is 69. “Dilbert” cartoonist Scott Adams is 67. Actor-director Keenan Ivory Wayans is 66. Singer Mick Hucknall of Simply Red is 64. Keyboardist Nick Rhodes of Duran Duran is 62. Singer Doris Pearson of Five Star is 58. Actor Julianna Margulies (“The Good Wife,” ″ER”) is 57. Actor Dan Futterman (“Judging Amy”) is 57. Actor David Sutcliffe (“Private Practice,” “Gilmore Girls”) is 55. Actor Kent Faulcon (“Tyler Perry’s For Better or Worse”) is 54. Singer Nicci Gilbert of Brownstone is 54. Actor Kelli Williams (“The Practice”) is 54. Actor Mark Feuerstein (“West Wing,” ″Good Morning, Miami”) is 53. Guitarist Mike Scheuchzer of MercyMe is 49. Actor Eion Bailey (“Once Upon A Time”) is 48. Rapper Ye (formerly Kanye West) is 47. TV personality Maria Menounos is 46. Singer-songwriter Sturgill Simpson is 46. Guitarist Derek Trucks (Allman Brother Band, Tedeschi Trucks Band) is 45. Singer Alex Band of The Calling is 43. Fiddler Sara Watkins of Nickel Creek is 43. Actor Torrey DeVitto (“Pretty Little Liars”) is 40.

The Black Keys Quietly Cancel International Players Tour 2024

By Steven J. Horowitz

Steven J. Horowitz

Senior Music Writer

• The Black Keys Quietly Cancel International Players Tour 2024 14 hours ago
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The Black Keys have quietly canceled their upcoming International Players Tour, which was scheduled to bring them to arenas throughout North America.

The tour, announced in early April, was scheduled to kick off in September, with dates set for New York City’s Madison Square Garden and Los Angeles’ Kia Forum. The 31-date trek would have brought them across North America, with stops planned in Seattle, Boston and Milwaukee before concluding at Detroit’s Little Caesars Arena on Nov. 12. All dates have been marked as canceled on Ticketmaster’s website.

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Management and publicity for the Black Keys did not respond to Variety ‘s requests for comment.

After news broke on Saturday that the tour had been canceled, the group posted on Instagram explaining that they had to reconfigure their tour to bring a similarly “exciting, intimate experience” for fans and that tickets for the original trek would be refunded in full.

“The band wants to assure everyone that Dan & Patrick are alive and well,” reads the caption. “Following the recent run of shows in the UK & Europe, including stops at iconic venues like Brixton Academy and the Zenith in Paris, we have decided to make some changes to the North American leg of the International Players Tour that will enable us to offer a similarly exciting, intimate experience for both fans and the band, and will be announcing a revised set of dates shortly. Everyone who had purchased tickets and/or VIP to the initial tour dates will be fully refunded – and when the new plans are announced, will be the first to be able to buy tickets. Thank you for your understanding and apologies for the surprise change… We’re pretty sure everyone is going to be excited when you see what we have in mind though, and look forward to seeing everyone soon.”

The Black Keys, which consists of Patrick Carney and Dan Auerbach, were set to kick off the tour in support of their most recent album “Ohio Players,” which released in April. On Wednesday, the pair appeared on NBC’s “The Voice,” where they performed “Beautiful People (Stay High).”

The band also recently debuted the documentary “This Is a Film About the Black Keys,” which had its world premiere at SXSW last month. The film explored the historical tensions between the bandmates as well as what united them. “We’ve figured each other out, for the most part,” said Auerbach in the doc. “We’re just two very opinionated, hard-headed people, trapped for eternity together.”

View this post on Instagram A post shared by The Black Keys (@theblackkeys)

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