Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | RSS | More
Sometimes, you’ve got to spread your wings and fly. Not to be confused with “Project Daedalus” from Star Trek: Discovery, “Daedalus” finds the crew of the Enterprise escorting a famous scientist into a mysterious region known as “The Barrens” to perform an experiment. It’s all a bit obvious, though, that something is up. The inventor, Emory Erickson, and his daughter have secret conversations. A mysterious energy being keeps appearing and killing crew members. Erickson won’t let Trip adjust his doo-hickey. Could all that sorrow about a lost son be building towards something?
The Wikipedia plot summary for “Daedalus”:
Old family friends of Captain Archer, Doctor Emory Erickson and his daughter Danica, beam aboard Enterprise to test new sub-quantum transporter technology Erickson has developed. Catching up, Danica confides in Archer that her father has not been himself since the loss of her brother, Quinn, some 15 years ago in an early transporter experiment. After they arrive in “the Barrens” — a sub-space node void of starlight for a hundred light years — in order to test Erickson’s new work, a strange anomaly is detected on the ship. Crewman Burrows is sent to investigate but is found dead, having been exposed to high levels of delta radiation.
In the meantime, Commander T’Pol takes time to rediscover herself in the light of recent events: the teachings of Surak held in the Kir’Shara; the death of her mother; the annulment of her marriage; her cure from Pa’nar Syndrome; and her relationship with Commander Tucker. Tucker assists Erickson with the test, but is brushed aside when he seeks to learn more about the technology. Following a successful trial-run, which sets a new record for the longest transport ever conducted, Tucker confides in Archer that many of the upgrades and modifications to the ship’s power systems were not necessary for the test.
The “photonic ghost” reappears, and T’Pol manages to visually scan it, revealing that it is Erickson’s long-lost son. Archer now realizes that his old family friends have misled him, and are simply using the ship to somehow rescue Quinn from the node. Erickson freely admits the deception, and asks Archer to trust and help him. Despite the deception, he agrees, aggressively ordering a reluctant T’Pol and a dissenting Tucker to comply. Finally, Tucker and Erickson manage to recover Quinn, but he suffers severe cellular degeneration in the process and dies soon after. Erickson, aware of the consequences he may now face, is happy to finally bring him home and put him to rest.
In this episode of the podcast, Wes and Clay discuss “Daedalus” and the Star Trek trope of “megalomaniacal inventors and the inventions that un-do them”. Plus! The guys chat about why something “feels” like Star Trek, the return of Angry Archer, and the end (?) of the Trip and T’Pol relationship.