Earth vessel (31st century)

This Earth vessel was a small craft was first encountered by in 2152. The craft was approximately six meters long, but, due to the advanced application of an unknown spatial phenomenon, was actually bigger on the inside than on the outside.
According to information retrieved by Captain Archer and Sub-Commander T'Pol from ' database, the pod originated almost nine hundred years in the future, and was powered by a temporal displacement drive, allowing it the ability to time travel. The pod also had the ability to absorb electromagnetic radiation, allowing it to remain undetected by the sensor technology of the 22nd century. The pod was equipped with organic circuitry, much more advanced than the technology known to the Enterprise crew, and had no visible means of propulsion. The hull of the pod was composed of a number of materials, one of which was in a semi-fluidic state.
While in the 22nd century, the pod apparently suffered some sort of critical disaster, leaving it heavily damaged by the time it was discovered by Enterprise. Investigating, the crew discovered the lone pilot of the craft, killed by the accident. It was also discovered that the pod was emitting a form of temporal radiation which had time-distorting and disorienting effects on crew members in close proximity to the craft. Although the pod's ultimate function was a mystery to the crew of Enterprise, Captain Archer surmised that the pilot may have been a historian, based on an earlier conversation with Daniels which indicated that, in the future, historical studies will be carried out using time travel.
Unfortunately, both the and Tholian Assembly also learned of the pod's existence and sent vessels to retrieve it. Their plans were thwarted, however, when Commander Tucker managed to reactivate the ship's temporal beacon. Within seconds of the beacon being activated, the pod, the dead pilot, and the beacon itself, all vanished, presumably having been retrieved by operatives from the future. ()
File:Earth vessel 31st century adrift.jpg|Time travel pod adrift in space
File:Earth vessel 31st century launch bay.jpg|Time travel pod in the launch bay
File:Earth vessel 31st century schematics.jpg|Time travel pod schematic as depicted in Daniels' database
== Appendices ==__NOTOC__
=== Background information ===
In the final draft script of "Future Tense", the time-travel pod was initially referred to as "a sleek, futuristic vessel", with a subsequent sentence stating, "The one-man craft is heavily damaged and scorched, the victim of a disastrous accident." The vessel was scripted to be so "charred" that it had a "blackened hull." The exterior was also described as having "a couple of access panels" which could be opened to reveal "exotic circuitry that's been partially melted."
The vessel's hatch was scripted to be pulled open by Captain Archer and Lieutenant Reed. However, in the final edit of the episode, Archer pulls it open, using a device. The craft's cockpit was described in the script as "darkened" and "cramped" with multiple "control surfaces" and "an exotic-looking pilot's chair". A statement commented, "The interior of the craft has been incinerated as well."
The time-pod prop was actually a redress of the cockpit of Zefram Cochrane's Phoenix from .
The nature of the timeship as being "bigger on the inside" is a reference to the long-running British science-fiction series Doctor Who, in which the main protagonist, the Doctor, travels through time and space in a Type-40 TARDIS – a vessel which outwardly appears to be a 1960s-era police box and is much bigger on the inside than it is on the outside. Michael Sussman, co-writer of , noted, "My idea of the ship morphing into a police call box was immediately nixed by the producers!" ()
Although the information as presented by Daniels' database was chaotic and visually unorganized, it appeared that the following information could have been associated with the time travel pod: "RetroFitted Dorsal Carrier, Design XRT-55D, Commission Date 3125". Additional text that appeared throughout the scene includes: "2991 Series 24 Craft Body Style A" and "3391 Series 69 Hull Design C", as well as a rogue element: "Hull Design: C 4-00, Commission Date: 2975. The last one is most likely the craft, as it launched “almost 900 years” after 2153, per Archer’s comment."
=== Apocrypha ===
The time pod appears in the video game Star Trek Online, and was revealed to be the property of . The ship was loaned to 27th century scientist Kal Dano (the dead pilot), so he could use his invention the Tox Uthat to reignite the Lukari star in the year 2410. However, a Tholian attack damages the pod and causes it to travel back to the 22nd century.
=== External link ===
* 
de:Zeitkapsel (31. Jahrhundert)
Category:Shuttle classes
Category:Time travel technology