The Battle is Joined

From Hidden Frontier

Star Trek: Hidden Frontier Episode 5.06

"The Battle is Joined"

Audio Play/Teleplay by Carlos Pedraza

Story by Rob Caves and Carlos Pedraza with Jonathan Foertsch

Directed by Carlos Pedraza and J.T. Tepnapa

Production Information Season: Season 5 First Aired: December 2004 Format: QuickTime Vimeo Runtime: 29:38 Languages: English, German (subtitled)

Episode Summary

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Synopsis

Knapp and Naros lead the Antietam on a surveillance mission that gets out of control, while Zen and Aster's relationship is threatened by someone from the Trill's past.

Lieutenant Aster and Ensign Zen celebrate their one-year anniversary together, but they are interrupted by an unexpected visitor from Zen's past. Zen's mentor from the Trill initiate program, Cassius Dao, announces that he is dying. Dr. Henglaar informs Aster and Zen that Dao suffers from an incurable disease. The Dao symbiont must be removed if it is to survive. Dao reveals that he can seek no help from Trill because he has been expelled for the crime of reassociation, which forbids joined Trills from continuing romantic relationships from the life of a previous host. Dao pleads with Zen to accept the symbiont, even though the sentence of explusion from Trill will follow the symbiont. Zen tries to figure out what to do.

Zen (Adam Browne) and Aster (J.T. Tepnapa) get the prognosis for an ailing Trill symbiont and his host.

Meanwhile, Son'a Ambassador O'Faur arrives to ask for Federation help to deal with Tholians and Breen who have violated Son'a space to reach the McAllister Nebula in their search for tetrahedrons. The nebula, Tolian Naros speculates, is an ejected part of the Briar Patch, so it may likely hold hidden tetrahedrons. Admiral Alynna Nechayev gets orders from Starfleet Command to send one ship on a reconnaissance mission to the McAllister nebula. Naros assumes he is to command the mission, but Nechayev picks Commodore Knapp instead, aboard the USS Antietam since he is the senior officer with the most experience in the nebula, where he last commanded the Devonshire in Starfleet's first encounter with the Grey.

After the meeting, Naros confesses to Captain Shelby his puzzlement at the Admiral's lack of confidence in him. Shelby advises him to work to build Nechayev's trust. As Naros looks out into Deep Space 12's docking bay upon the Antietam, he is approached by a fellow El-Aurian, Lieutenant Keran Azhan, the newly assigned counselor aboard the USS Intrepid. Azhan, a family friend of Naros', echoes Shelby's advice.

Zen goes to Shelby for advice. She assures him that the command staff will keep his joining a secret for as long as they can. He worries about his possible explusion from Trill society. Shelby advises him that in choosing loss over regret, he can recover from loss, but regret can eat away at him for the rest of his life.

The Antietam reaches the McAllister Nebula, where they pick up the trail of a Tholian-Breen fleet that entered a planetary system within the nebula. Rigged for silent running, the crew discovers the Tholians and Breen. After 36 hours of observation, Naros observes that the Tholians are focusing their search for tetrahedrons on the planet surface, ignoring the possibility the tetrahedrons are in orbit. Knapp overrides Commander Darwin's objections to Naros' recommendation that they search more actively themselves for tetrahedrons in orbit over the planet. This gets the Tholians' attention, who unsuccessfully attack the Antietam.

On Deep Space 12, Lieutenant McCabe and Ensign Ro continue their research into the Grey's behavior in their previous encounters with tetrahedrons. Ro advances the theory that the Grey are purposefully destroying the tetrahedrons, as they did in the Osiris System ("Encke"). If that's so, Shelby worries, the Antietam may be in danger; they should be warned.

Zen tells Aster that he will accept the symbiont. Aster worries that Zen will be very different once he's joined but encourages Zen to do what he thinks is right. They share a final kiss.

The Antietam receives Shelby's warning about the Grey. Naros concludes the Grey are likely to appear. Three Grey battleships enter the system and attack the Tholian-Breen fleet. The Antietam observes as the fleet is decimated. But the Tholians have found a tetrahedron, raising the stakes with the Grey. The Grey eventually begin firing on the Antietam then begin a self-destruct mechanism in the planet's tetrahedrons. Darwin worries the ship won't be able to escape the planet's destruction by the tetrahedrons' self-destruct mechanism activated by the Grey. Naros discovers a hidden subspace current that allows Antietam’s escape, while Grey, Tholian and Breen ships are destroyed behind them.

On the Excelsior, Henglaar completes the transfer of the symbiont to Zen. The Cassius host dies. Hours later, in the recovery room, Aster wonders aloud how much of Zen is left in Jorian Dao. "Enough," the newly joined Trill tells him.

In the mission debriefing following Antietam’s return, the crew wonders why the Grey are purposefully destroying tetrahedrons instead of using the tetrahedrons' energy to keep their dying star alive. Naros suggests redoubling their research efforts with the Ba'ku tetrahedron.

Background Information

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Memorable Quotes

• "You never let me make you tea. It's a very comforting custom, you know." (Cassius Dao, when he's terminally ill and close to death)
• "I have recently come to know a little bit about loss and regret. And I would choose loss over regret every time. See, you can recover from loss, but regret is something that can eat at you for the rest of your life." – Captain Shelby

Production Notes

• Unlike most episodes, two scenes for "Battle" were shot in advance of the regular shoot dates for the episode. In order to accommodate Arthur Bosserman's final appearance as Ensign Ro and guest star Christopher Clarkson's visit to Los Angeles in July 2004, their two scenes were filmed early.
• "The Battle is Joined" makes mention of the Scottish production, Star Trek: Intrepid. Hidden Frontier's Risha Denney (Captain Shelby) appears in Intrepid's first episode "Heavy Lies The Crown". This marked the beginning of crossovers between Hidden Frontier and Intrepid productions that has continued with Orphans of War and Star Trek: Operation Beta Shield.
• In the script, Dao's first name was spelled Kassius.
• The story concept behind Zen's joining was suggested by Jonathan Connor, the series' technical consultant.
• The music for this episode was primarily derived from the Star Trek: Bridge Commander video game soundtrack, composed by Danny Pelfrey.

References

See Also

Joining (Trill) ; Osiris III ; Reassociation ; Star Trek: Intrepid ; tetrahedron

Cast and Crew