Oasis (episode)

The crew finds a derelict spaceship from which they can salvage some supplies… only they find that the ship is not quite as deserted as they were led to believe.
== Summary ==
=== Teaser ===
Captain Archer is talking with an alien trader named D'Marr about the possibility of buying spare engineering parts and materials over a meal. Saying he specializes in exotic goods, however, D'Marr still helps by giving them coordinates where could find all that she needs. Oddly hesitating, he explains there is a ship that crashed on a nearby planet. The only problem is that it is supposedly haunted.
=== Act One ===
Enterprise enters orbit of said planet, where the crew finds the ship as predicted and, further, no power signatures or life signs. Unfortunately, the only way to get more information is to send an away team. There's some hesitation, but Archer states they'll leave if there's any opposition. Archer, Travis Mayweather, T'Pol and arrive on the planet. The possible haunting causes Mayweather to wonder why the hatch was closed, if D'Marr was in a hurry. T'Pol also thinks she hears something, but it could probably just be rodents. Tucker confirms the presence of dilithium, but, just then, T'Pol thinks she sees someone through a reflection. Then, Tucker also sees a shadow move. Blasting through a hatch, the two find an area apparently hidden by a dampening field with lush vegetation. Exploring further, they find the "ghosts" – or rather a real live crew and colony.
Joined by Archer and Mayweather, these colonists, Kantares, explain they were on their way home when they were attacked by unknown aliens and forced to crash land on that planet. They had been surviving since but were not able to get the ship flying again. They also say that no distress calls were sent to avoid giving away their position (the dampening field serving the same purpose). This happened about three years prior. Archer offers help, and Tucker thinks he can repair the ship. There's skepticism, but the colonists thank Archer.
Tucker begins to work on repairing the ship systems and fraternizes with Liana, the daughter of the ship's chief engineer, Ezral. She's shy, but interested in hanging around him. Soon, her mother arrives and insists Liana leave for other duties.
=== Act Two ===
T'Pol joins Tucker in his repairs, and warns and reminds him of his fraternization with aliens, in particular, his experience with the Xyrillian. Soon, Liana comes back with food for Tucker and he graciously eats it. They talk for a while but are interrupted by Kuulan with another problem: their computer core. Tucker agrees to have a look, but he'll have to get some gear from Enterprise. After he and T'Pol set off, Liana pleads with her father to visit Enterprise. Ezral thinks she's seen enough Humans, but eventually relents.
Meanwhile, on the Enterprise, things do not go so smoothly. Malcolm Reed and Mayweather relate to the captain a number of inconsistencies in the story they have been told: the ship's oasis is not big enough to sustain the whole colony, and they don't seem to have suffered any attack. Archer can somewhat explain away some of what they're saying, but he notes they have one of their data modules, so he has them take a look at it.
Tucker shows Liana around the engineering room and tells her about the crew. She's fascinated and they get along well together. She avoids questions about Kantare, saying it's "boring" and, instead, asks about the planets he has visited. Archer calls Tucker to his ready room, so he has someone else finish her tour. In the ready room, Archer and Reed, who has had time to examine the data module, explain the real reason they crashed. It was some malfunction which de-pressurized the ship. Further, the ship has been down on the planet for some twenty-two years previously instead of three years. They also left escape pods, one of which is still in orbit. They leave to examine it, seeing that the body in it is actually that of Shilat, who appears to be alive and living on the planet.
=== Act Three ===
On the planet, T'Pol, working on the computer, apparently also discovers something. Before she can report her discovery, however, she is captured by the colonists while investigating in a different corner of the ship. Meanwhile, Tucker, now having to have a serious talk with Liana, finds her in the mess hall. Confronting her with the evidence, she initially feigns ignorance, but soon can't keep that up. However, she doesn't provide any more information and demands to be taken back to the planet.
Archer and Reed return to the planet with Liana to get some explanations, but the colonists begin to be aggressive, forcing Tucker to perform repairs and the rest of the team to go back to Enterprise. Archer does so, and starts to assemble a rescue team. Liana objects to the situation, and goes to talk to Tucker while he's working and explains what's happening. Liana shares the secret of the colony with Tucker; everyone in the colony except Liana and her father are holograms. Soon, things get ugly as the rescue team arrives. Reed is shot from behind, and, when a phase-pistol beam passes right through a colonist, the significance of the ghost story D'Marr told earlier becomes apparent. In the computer room, Tucker pleads with Liana to stop them, and so she reluctantly starts pulling out circuits. The attackers disappear, except for Ezral.
=== Act Four ===
With no more lies needing to be told, Ezral then explains the real circumstances of the crash. They were caught in an ion storm, and the ship being too severely damaged, they had to crash land on the nearby planet. The only problem was that Ezral left his station during the landing to prevent his daughter's death, causing the death of the rest of the crew by his negligence. After he realized they were stranded on a deserted planet, he re-created the rest of the crew and Liana's mother as holograms so that Liana would not have to grow up completely isolated.
Tucker agrees to assist in repairing the holographic system, but still says that Liana deserves more than to live her life alone with her father on that forgotten planet. Ezral says that he is happy there, but, he is finally convinced by Archer that what is best for him may not be the best for his daughter. In the end, Ezral decides to accept Archer's help, getting the required components from Enterprise to fix his ship.
Later, the crew is back and Tucker brings some supplies and kisses Liana good-bye.
== Extended scenes ==
For this episode, there are two extended scenes that can be found on the ENT Season 1 DVD. A note preceding each scene states, "The color portion of the following was lifted from the show – the black & white portion was retained in the final version."
=== Oasis deleted scene 8 ===
As in the aired version of the episode, Tucker and T'Pol explore the crashed ship, using flashlights to see in the darkness of the alien environment. When T'Pol becomes certain that she has just heard something, Tucker suspects she is imagining things due to her fear of the situation but the Vulcan insists that nothing frightens her. In the extended version of the scene, T'Pol continues the discussion by claiming that "fear is a primitive emotion". Certain that something must evoke that particular response in her, Tucker wonders whether T'Pol is scared by heights or spiders, to which she finally reveals that, when previously recalled from Enterprise by the High Command, she discovered the crew was preparing a "going-away" party and found the idea "somewhat frightening".
=== Oasis deleted scene 21 ===
The aired section of this scene includes Tucker and T'Pol finding the "crew" of the crashed ship, several of whom are armed with hand weapons aimed at the Enterprise officers. The extended portion then progresses with T'Pol asking the people she sees before her whether the ship is theirs, to which they do not respond. She consequently takes out her communicator, provoking a curious look from Ezral, and activates the device, asking the alien group whether they can understand her. When they still do not react, Tucker nevertheless announces his suspicions that the group is surprised to see the visitors and probably think they are scavengers. After Tucker admits that their suspicions are correct but that he and T'Pol thought the ship had been abandoned except for ghosts, the armed members of the group lower their weapons.
== Memorable quotes ==
"I thought Cajun food was hot!"
:- Tucker, after trying Hajjlaran spice
"No power signatures. It appears to be deserted."
"But are your sensors calibrated for ghosts?"
:- T'Pol and Tucker
"Vulcans don't imagine things."
:- T'Pol
"What, don't you get frightened every once in a while?"
"No."
"Not by anything?"
"No."
"Too bad. Nothing like a good scare."
:- Tucker and T'Pol, while on the Kantare ship
"Why do I feel like it's feeding time at the zoo?"
:- Tucker, to Liana while she watches him eat
"I've made all the friends I need."
:- Ezral, to Tucker
"Maybe you can tell me how I'm being guarded by a dead man."
:- Tucker, to Liana
"What if she gets hurt? What do you do then? Program a… holographic doctor?"
:- Tucker, to Ezral
== Background information ==
=== Story and script ===
* The final draft script of this episode was issued on .
=== Cast ===
* Rene Auberjonois (Ezral) is better known as Constable Odo in and Colonel West in . Rudolph Willrich also guest-starred in DS9 as the Bolian Starfleet Academy Commandant in .
=== Continuity ===
* The premise of this episode is very similar to . Rene Auberjonois saw the similarities (Odo and Jadzia Dax had played the roles played by the Enterprise crew in this episode) and told Scott Bakula that DS9 had done a similar episode. Auberjonois commented, "That was not really a putdown, but when you've done that many years of writing stories, there will be recurring themes."
** The episode is also similar in that Su'Kal's mother created holographic characters for him to grow up with while the was stranded in the Verubin Nebula. 
* Ezral and Liana are also very similar to the characters of Prospero and Miranda from William Shakespeare's The Tempest and the characters of Dr. Edward Morbius and Altaira Morbius in the 1956 film , which was largely based on The Tempest (Forbidden Planet, in turn, was also a source of inspiration for ). They also share similarities with Flint and Rayna Kapec from .
* When questioning Ezral about what he would do if Liana was ever to get hurt, Tucker sardonically suggested that he might program a holographic doctor to treat her. This is an allusion to the concept of the Emergency Medical Hologram, and specifically The Doctor of .
* Archer asks Travis Mayweather if this is turning into one of his famous ghost stories. Mayweather previously told ghost stories in .
* While talking with , T'Pol references his escapade with the female Xyrillian engineer seen in .
* Brannon Braga referred to this installment of Enterprise, in , as a "terrible episode." ("To Boldly Go: Launching Enterprise, Part III: First Flight", ENT Season 1 Blu-ray special features)
* On the first broadcast of this installment, the episode achieved a Nielsen rating of 3.3 and was watched by a total of 5.64 million viewers. 
* 's "Ultimate Guide" rated this episode 3 out of 5 arrowhead insignia. ()
* The unofficial reference book Beyond the Final Frontier (p. 367) comments about this episode, "An old-fashioned story, one that could have (and, to some extent, already had) appeared in any previous incarnation of Star Trek. Rene Auberjonois is good, but his presence only emphasizes that this is nothing new."
* A script from this episode was sold off on the It's A Wrap! sale and auction on eBay. 
=== Video and DVD releases ===
* UK VHS release (two-episode tapes, Paramount Home Entertainment): Volume 1.10, 
* As part of the ENT Season 1 DVD collection
* As part of the ENT Season 1 Blu-ray collection
== Links and references ==
=== Guest stars ===
* Tom Bergeron as D'Marr
* Annie Wersching as Liana
* Claudette Sutherland as 
* Rudolph Willrich as 
;And
=== Special guest star ===
* Rene Auberjonois as Ezral
=== Uncredited co-stars ===
* Adam Anello as operations division crewman
* Jef Ayres as Haynem
* Deborah Bean as Kantare
* Sally Berman as Kantare
* Brennan Beyt as Kantare
* J.J. Boone as Kantare
* Solomon Burke, Jr. as 
* Esther Cameron as Kantare
* Lloyd Cameron as Kantare
* Mark Correy as Alex
* Dawn Drake as operations division crewman
* Evan English as Tanner
* Joshua Feinman as Kantare
* Stacy Fouche as operations division crewman
* Hilde Garcia as Rossi
* Glen Hambly as operations division ensign
* Charlie Hirsch as Kantare
* Dearing Hockman as Kantare
* John Joire as operations division crewman
* John Jurgens as command division crewman
* Cameron Loong as Kantare
* Donald Sage Mackay as 
* Marty Murray as security crewman
* Percy Simpson as Kantare
* Mike Stanosek as Kantare
* Scott Topper as Kantare
* Donnell Turner as Kantare
* Thelma Tyrell as operations division crewman
* Michelle Van Den Broeck as sciences division crewman
* Mark Watson as operations division crewman
=== Stand-ins ===
* David Anderson – stand-in for Anthony Montgomery
* Gina Chai – stand-in for Linda Park, Annie Wersching, and Claudette Sutherland
* Marijane Cole – stand-in for Annie Wersching
* Evan English – stand-in for Dominic Keating, Tom Bergeron, and Donald Sage Mackay
* Simone Montanti – stand-in for Jolene Blalock, Donald Sage Mackay, and Claudette Sutherland
* Louis Ortiz – stand-in for Rene Auberjonois
* J.R. Quinonez – stand-in for John Billingsley and Marty Murray
* Richard Sarstedt – stand-in for Scott Bakula
* Pablo Soriano – stand-in for Rudolph Willrich
* Mark Watson – stand-in for Connor Trinneer and Marty Murray
* Unknown performers as
** Hand double for Jolene Blalock
** Hand double for Dominic Keating
** Hand double for Connor Trinneer
=== References ===
2123; 2129; 2131; 2148; Ah'len; airponics bay; antimatter injector; antimatter reserves; atmosphere; "batting a thousand"; beryllium; biosign; bridge systems; bulkhead; Cajun food; captain; ; chief engineer; colony; computer terminal; coffee; colony; computer core; computer room; corpse; courage; crash land; creeps; cross circuit; dampening field; data module; daughter; Denobula; diagnostic gear; dilithium; dilithium crystals; dilithium matrix; dilithium ore; distress call; dog; duratanium; ear; Earth; encore; engineer; engineering; environmental systems; escape pod; escape pod port; father; feeding time; final resting place; foothills; gentleman; ghost; ghost story; gun; hajjlaran; haunted; helm control; hologram; holographic doctor; holographic systems; hull fracture; hull plating; hungry; ice cream; ion storm; Kantare; Kantare (planet); Kantare escape pod; Kantare supply ship; ; kilogram (aka kilo); Kotara Barath; Kuulan; lady friends; laugh; living area; lorella; lunch; main power; mammal; marooned; marshmallow; Maya; mess hall; name; nut; oasis; optronic relay; oxidation rate; pet; plasma; plasma conduit; plasma feed; plasma relay (aka "relay"); Porthos; Preenos; protein resequencer; Pyrithian bat (aka "bat"); quadruped (aka "four-legged"); raider; rat; ready room; Rocky Road; root; salvage rights; scavenger; Shilat; shunt; ; spice; spirit; "strip it"; supply ship; tea; tomb; tour; trader; transport vessel; transporter; Triaxian silk; unnamed planet (moon); vanilla ice cream; vital functions; Vulcan; warlord; Xyrillian; Xyrillian ship; zoo
=== External links ===
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