Episodes One and Two "Broken Bow"
The first episode of Enterprise, the story opens with a young Jonathan Archer building a model starship with his father (who builds the Enterprise his son will command in later years). Back to present day, a Klingon crashes on Earth chased through an Oklahoma cornfield by the Suliban, the recurring villians of the series. Shot by the owner of the cornfield, the wounded Klingon ends up at Starfleet. Archer is ordered to return him to his homeworld of Qo’nos despite objections of Earth’s new allies, the Vulcans, who have been supervising Earth’s exploration of the galaxy after “First Contact”. Archer and a hastily pulled together crew including head off in the Enterprise to do so. Not far into the mission the Suliban, lead by a creature named 'Silik' who himself is taking orders from an unknown power in another time, attacks and kidnaps the Klingon - forcing the crew to find where they've taken him and why they so desperately want him back in their clutches. Along the way they visit an exotic alien underground marketplace, fly through the liquid atmosphere of a gas giant, and learn space can be a very dangerous place. Orion slave girls were expected to be seen (though I think I missed them) probably in the underground marketplace - where Reed and Mayweather visit a red-light district and have a pimp try to hustle them. This is a sort of tribute to the pilot of the original series which showed Vina (Susan Oliver) as a slave girl in one fantasy scenario The Keepers played for Captain Pike. One location that was used for the pilot is near Redondo Beach, California - a historic beachside community also used for Baywatch and Pacific Blue among other series. No word on what was filmed there.

Episode 3 "Fight or Flight"
The Enterprise finds another ship dead in space. Archer and crew board her when they cannot get any response to hails (against T'Pol's wishes) and finds the entire crew has been killed. Their bodies are suspended from the ceiling on hooks being drained of all fluids in attempt to gain a substance (Triglobin which is also found in humans) from them. Both the aliens that killed the crew and the race that owned the ship return, and it is up to Hoshi to try to communicate with the aliens to avoid the destruction of Enterprise.

Subplot involves Hoshi Sato wrestling with whether or not she wants to be in space and stay a member of the crew. Also touches on the moral issue of helping another species though it may endanger the ship and crew. Features the Anaxar who were mentioned in the original series in “Whom Gods Destroy” and “Court Martial” as Kirk having received the Palm Leaf of Axanar.

Episode 4 "Strange New World"
In exploring an uninhabited planet, the crew encounter what they believe to be a hostile alien species. However, things are not always what they appear. And to complicate things, the crew is infected by an alien pollen that induces hallucinations and paranoia. Under the influence, Tucker suspects T’Pol of being in league with imaginary natives on the planet. Archer must find a way to save them before they turn dangerously on one another. This episode shows that technology is not always perfect on the Enterprise yet including a wind storm on the planet that causes a shuttle landing to be aborted and a transporter problem that fuses rock with the crewman’s body. Also shows additional tensions between Vulcans and Humans and the level of mistrust still present on both sides.

Episode 5 "Unexpected"
When malfunctions start to occur on the Enterprise, the crew discover an alien ship hiding in their exhaust wake. The Xyrillians are there trying to recharge their ship to get home. The Enterprise engineer, Charlie ‘Trip’ Tucker, goes over to the aliens to help them repair their ship - but unwittingly becomes pregnant in the process!!  He and an alien reach into some granules which enables them to read each others minds, and the next thing he knows, he has nipples growing out of his arm. Apparently they also exchanged genetic material via the granules. Trip fixes the ship which goes on it’s way before the crew realize he’s pregnant. A hunt for the aliens causes another encounter with the Klingons which surprisingly T’Pol supports...though the Klingons will only let the aliens go unharmed if the Xyrillians trades them their holo-technology. The first comedic episode of the series and features the first mention of holographic technology.

Episode 6 "Terra Nova"
Terra Nova means “New Land” in Latin and is the name of one of the first Earth colonies created on an alien planet colonized before fast interstellar travel was possible. After the colonists settled down, they refused to allow more colonists to land. All contact with the colony was lost shortly after that and no investigation team was ever sent. The Enterprise investigates the fate of the colonists. When they arrive, they find descendents of the colonists who have become more alien than Archer could ever have imagined. Reed is taken hostage and in the process of trying to establish an understanding with the colonists, who call themselves Novans, they discover a meteor crashed into the Northern hemisphere causing poisonous gas to spread killing the adults. Only children young enough to adapt survived, but the build-up of toxins in the water supply over the years will kill them all unless they leave the planet or relocate to the unaffected Southern hemisphere.

Episode 7 "The Andorian Incident"
Jeffrey Combs (DS9's Brunt and one of the Vortas) plays an Andorian terrorist that attack a Vulcan meditation monestary they believe is hiding a long-range sensor array. Enterprise happens to drop in at the wrong time when Captain Archer decides to visit the monastery to engage in some interstellar cultural site-seeing. The crew walk into an ambush and Archer must come up with a plan to defeat the Andorians without the help of the pacifistic Vulcans (shades of the Organians and “Errand of Mercy”). Archer, T’Pol and Tucker are stranded on the planet as Reed and the rest of the crew try to come up with a way to free them. In the process, Tucker explores the ancient Catacombs where the most sacred Vulcan relics are stored...and repairs an old transmitter. The Andorians are more complicated and textured than the simple blue-skinned, antennaed white-haired aliens seen in TOS “Journey to Babel”, the antennae now move and change attitude according to their emotions.

Episode 8 "Breaking the Ice"
Concerns the betrothal of T’Pol and her deciding to marry or continue her mission on the Enterprise. Trip learns that T'Pol is transmitting secret messages to a Vulcan ship, which has been shadowing Enterprise for weeks. Meanwhile, Archer must attempt a dangerous rescue to recover Reed and Mayweather stranded on a rapidly disintegrating comet.

Episode 9 "Civilization"
The Enterprise discovers a planet with a technological level similar to that of late 19th-Century Earth. The crew decide to study this planet’s culture and send an away team altered to resemble the alien population. The away team is drawn into a deadly mystery that has already cost the lives of several locals. Archer meets a beautiful scientist named Tyala, who falls in love with him as the two work to solve the mystery. Another alien in the episode is Garos, a local merchant with a devious secret. This episode also reveals at least a primitive version of the Prime Directive is already in place at Starfleet - a Starfleet code that states that unless the natives have a certain level of technology, we shouldn’t contact them because it might upset their natural development. But apparently someone on the planet does have technology (shades of “A Private Little War”?). This is also the first episode to show the crew being altered to fit in with the natives as Archer is dressed in doublet and hose and forehead ridges.

Episode 10 "Fortunate Son"
The Enterprise is dispatched by Starfleet to check out a distress call from an Earth freighter, the Fortunate. When the arrive, they find the crew rather unappreciative of their offer of help.

The commander, Captain Keene, was seriously wounded in an attack by Nausicaan pirates. Its first officer, Ryan Cross, a man about 30 years old who has spent his entire life on cargo ships, takes over and distrusts Archer and his crew leading to tensions.

Cross plans to seek revenge on the Nausicaan’s putting his ship and the Enterprise in serious danger. We find out more about Mayweather’s life growing up aboard freighters as he bonds with Cross and his knowledge of freighters actually saves the day.

Episode 11 "Cold Front"
When the Enterprise comes in contact with an alien vessel transporting stargazers to observe a spectacular stellar event, Archer invites them aboard the ship not realizing that Silik, a Suliban enemy, is among the passengers. Archer quickly realizes that Silik is engaged in a nefarious time-traveling mission and must stop him before he can tamper with the course of history. This is the first appearance of the Sulibans since the debut episode. It also introduces a Starfleet officer, Daniels, working to stop the Temporal Cold War which is really the first suggestion we’ve had of Starfleet’s time-travel capabilities.

Episode 12 "Silent Enemy"
When Enterprise is attacked by an unidentified enemy ship, the crew must work frantically to get their new phase canons to operate. Meanwhile, Archer realizes that no one knows Reed well enough to give him a personalized birthday present. An unknown ship trails the Enterprise, attacking mercilessly and repeatedly. The ship doesn’t answer to hails or other attempts to communicate, but does fire on the Enterprise and even boards her to obtain info on the ship and crew. The Enterprise crew are far outclassed by the aliens, who seem to be invulnerable to both the ship’s weapons and the crew’s hand weapons. Archer orders the ship to return to Jupiter to have its cannons installed. Even as the ship rushes back to Jupiter, however, Tucker and Reed work overtime to try and install the weapons themselves and get some kind of defense against the alien ship. According to Dominic Keating (Reed), they get to “kick some serious butt” in this episode.

Episode 14 "Dear Doctor"
This episode will give us more information about Dr. Phlox as he writes a letter to a colleague about a crush that Ensign Cutler (first seen in "Strange New World") develops for him and we see some of his Denobulan past. Meanwhile, on the Bridge, Capt. Archer is faced with his first pre-Prime Directive dilemma ... should he provide warp technology to a pre-warp race? The Enterprise encounters a pre-warp shuttle that is less than a light-year away from an M-Class planet. The occupants are taken aboard the ship and Phlox discovers they are dying from an unknown disease. When one of the aliens is awakened, he tells Archer he is from the nearby planet of Valakis and that everyone there is dying from the disease. He is one of four astronauts sent out into space hoping to find someone that could help them, but while on their trip, they started to develop symptoms of the disease -- which can lie dormant for years.  T'Pol warns Archer that they should not contaminate a pre-warp civilization, but he ignores her and sets course for Valakis anyway. At the planet, he finds Essak, the director of the research center dedicated to finding a cure, who informs him that little progress has been made. Archer and crew learn that Esaak's race is not alone on the planet, and that a completely different species -- the Menk -- are also indigenous to it. Esaak also informs them that the Enterprise is not the first warp-capable species that has come to visit. Other aliens include the Maelins and even the Ferengi, both races of which even the Vulcans have never heard of. Both races left quickly after finding out about the disease, and refused to share their warp technology. Archer wonders if the Vulcans were right in keeping warp technology out of humans’ reach for so many years. Also said to feature the first mention of the Ferengi. This is a moral and ethical story with both Phlox and Archer struggling with difficult choices.

Episode 14 "Sleeping Dogs"
The Enterprise encounters a Klingon Raptor-class scout ship drifting through the outer layers of a gas giant. Archer decides to board the ship and discovers all the Klingons aboard are unconscious, infected by a virus (another one?) Archer tries to help the Klingons, but is hindered by the only Klingon aboard who avoided being infected by the virus, a Klingon Cook named Bu’kaH who is the embodiment of Klingon paranoia. Supposedly a “fun” episode.

Episode 15 "Shadows of P'Jem"
Since P’Jem was the name of the Vulcan monestary in The Andorian Incident, this episode will be another encounter with the Andorians...though this time with Shran coming to Archer’s aid. Archer gets caught in a civil war with the Andorians coming to their rescue when he and T’Pol are kidnapped by a militant faction on the planet. The crew is also dealing with T’Pol being ordered back to Vulcan by the Vulcan High Command though she does not want to leave the Enterprise.

Episode 16 "Shuttlepod One"
Tucker and Reed are stranded on a shuttlepod when returning from a mission - and find Enterprise apparently destroyed. Focuses heavily on Reed and serves to bond the two characters as they face limited oxygen and almost no chance of being rescued. They battle their annoyance with one another while also coming to terms with their mortality. I’ve got to wonder about the photo above...is it a dream of Reeds, or????

Episode 17 "Fusion"
Revolves around the Vulcans and T’Pol as the ship encounters a group of renegades who have rejected logic and set out to explore different ways of life. May include Tucker befriending one of the Vulcans who has become estranged from his father. Also features a love interest for T’Pol named Tolaris...wonder how that will affect her betrothal?

Episode 18 "Rogue Planet"
The Enterprise crew encounters a hunting species known as the Eska. They possess advanced camouflage equipment they use to hunt - even the crew’s nightvision gear can’t detect them. Apparently, T’Pol gets into a bit of trouble trying to explain her aversion to hunting with Archer intervening to explain Vulcans don’t eat meat. He also apparently states that hunting went out of style on Earth a 100 years ago....though he does love a good steak. Reed is mostly impressed by the hunters equipment and has the chance to try it out when he accompanies a hunting party going for a rare Dakalan Elk - which is only permitted to be hunted for 4 days out of the year. Archer meets a mysterious telepathic, shape-shifting woman who claims her species is the Eska’s prized prey when he, Trip and T’Pol investigae volcanic steam vents in another area. The shapeshifters pleed with Archer to help stop the slaughter of their species.

Episode 19 "Acquisition"

Features Ethan Phillips (Voyager’s Neelix) as a Ferengi. In the episode, four Ferengi pirates manage to render the Enterprise crew unconcious and begin to plunder it. Luckily, Tucker was in the decon chamber when the Ferengi released their knock-out gas and is able to wake up Archer and T’Pol who manage to take the ship back. In order not to conflict with the continuity established by the NG episode “The Last Outpost”, the Enterprise crew will apparently never learn the name of the race. Jeffrey Combs will play a Ferengi very different from Brunt whom he played in DS9.

Episode 20 "Oasis"
An alien trader named D’Marr tells the crew about an abandond, haunted ship on a nearby planet that may contain duratanium - a resource the Enterprise is looking for to replenish its hull plating. The ship appears abandoned though T’Pol and Tucker discover an alien oasis inhabited by the Kantare, who claim to have crashed there 3 years ago. Tucker apparently falls for an alien woman, Liana, with T’Pol becoming somewhat jealous. Turns out they may have been there much longer, however, and when T’Pol finds something she shouldn’t, the aliens seize her.

Episode 21 "Detained"
We will finally learn more about the Suliban in this episode as Archer and Mayweather are held in a Mazarite detention center along with several Suliban, including Narra, a child. These Suliban are not members of the Cabal that the villainous Silik works for and are being held because the Mazarite’s fear the reprisal of the Cabal. Archer and Mayweather befriend some of the Suliban’s and we finally learn about the species’ past. Danik tells them that the Suliban left their homeworld over a thousand years ago becoming nomadic and settling peacefully across the quandrant with races like the Mazarites (who are human-like in appearance) and the Tiburon. Seven years ago, the Cabal began attacking non-aligned Suliban settlements on these worlds, causing the Suliban to be ostracized and even imprisoned. Colonel Grat of the Mazarite lays the groundwork for joining with Archer in a battle against the Cabal. This episode is one of the most timely of the series with parallels about the treatment of innocent civilians during war time. Archer forms a plan to take over several Suliban vessels in order to get back to Enterprise and relocate the Suliban civilians to Tiburon - a plan not all Suliban appreciate.

Episode 22 "Vox Solis"
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.

Episode 23 "Fallen Hero"
When a Vulcan ambassador is accused of secretive criminal misconduct, Enterprise is asked to transport her back to the Vulcans. Following an attack by a corrupt alien race, T'Pol defends the Ambassador and, for the first time, asks Archer for his help. Meanwhile, after the Vulcan diplomat boards the Enterprise, alien weapons begin firing from hostile ships, putting everyone's lives at risk.

Episode 24 "Desert Crossing"
When Archer and Trip are invited to a desert-like planet by an alien leader after they help fix his ship, they discover he is a terrorist who has lured them onto his planet under false pretenses. Meanwhile, T'Pol, while in command, faces a tough decision when she cannot locate Archer and Trip in the desert.
 

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