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While in a shuttlepod performing tests, Tucker is attacked by a hostile alien and forced to crash-land on a desolate moon. Tucker and his alien attacker find themselves unable to communicate and facing a dangerous “Dawn”: once the sun comes up, things are going to get even hotter. “Dawn” is Enterprise’s version of “Darmok” and, unfortunately, it has a hard time living up to one of the great Star Trek episodes of all time.
The Wikipedia plot summary for “Dawn”:
Commander Tucker is off-ship testing the new autopilot technology on one of Enterprise’s shuttle pods. Without warning, his craft is approached and fired upon by an unknown ship. With the main systems damaged and central power lost, he is soon forced to crash-land on one of the planet’s many moons. On the moon, Tucker survives the crash relatively unscathed, and tries to repair the communications systems. He soon realizes that he is not alone, however, and is ambushed by another alien, who has also crashed on the moon. After taking each other hostage, a truce of sorts occurs as they both realize that surviving is their main goal.
Meanwhile, having lost contact with the shuttle, Enterprise commences a search of the area. They are soon intercepted by a large ship belonging to Arkonians, who claim this region as their own. The Arkonians are territorial and aggressive, and have their own strained history with the Vulcans. While they demand that Enterprise immediately set course out of their system, their captain is reluctantly persuaded by Captain Archer to agree to a combined search of the sixty-two moons – it seems the aliens have lost one of their shuttle pods as well.
Finally, Tucker is able to use the surviving technology from both shuttles to get the transmitter working, managing to contact Enterprise. To complicate matters, the sun is slowly rising, and the temperature on the moon is becoming lethally hot. Moreover, since the moon’s atmosphere interferes with the shuttle pods’ power systems, Enterprise will have to beam the survivors up. However, the alien, Zho’Kaan, is in too much physiological distress to survive the trip, and Tucker won’t abandon his new friend. Archer then has the Arkonians launch a shuttle modified to function in the moon’s atmosphere. Later, with the crew back on board, Sub-Commander T’Pol concedes that the rescue has allowed for friendlier and more productive relations with the Arkonians in one day than the Vulcans managed over a hundred years.
In this episode of the podcast, Wes and Clay discuss “Dawn” and why shade from the sun is overrated. Plus! The guys talk about re-doing superior episodes, the direction of Roxann Dawson, and the upcoming US Presidential election (just to date the podcast even more quickly).