The Catwalk

In this science fiction story, a starship takes on some passengers and encounters a space storm, that necessitates them taking refuge in a cramped tube-like section of ship.[1] However, as the time passes tensions rise and the motives of the passengers they took on are questioned by their behavior.[1]

Captain Archer prepares to lead a survey team to an uninhabited planet, when Enterprise is hailed by a trio of aliens, who warn him that a deadly neutronic wavefront, many light years across, is quickly approaching at a speed close to warp 7. Since his warp 5 ship cannot outrun the storm, Archer soon concludes that everyone must take shelter in order to survive the storm's radiation. Commander Tucker suggests that the one heavily shielded place on board that might suffice for the eight-day ordeal is the catwalk, a maintenance shaft that runs the length of each nacelle. Only one problem – the temperature there can reach 300 °C (573 K) degrees (572 degrees F) when the warp coils are online, so he will have to keep the main reactor offline.

With only four hours to prepare, everyone evacuates to the catwalk. The storm soon envelops the ship, and as the days wear on, nerves fray  – particularly with the alien guests, who start up a barbecue near a flammable conduit. To make matters worse, Tucker and Archer discover a problem in Engineering as the injectors have come online. Tucker cannot shut them down from the catwalk, and his EV suit will only protect him for 22 minutes. In Engineering, he soon notices an alien ship docked alongside, and alien intruders, who appear to be interfering with the ship's systems. Doctor Phlox deduces that the aliens are actually immune to the effects of radiation.

When confronted, the trio confesses that the other aliens are actually looking for them. They explain that they were officers in the Takret Militia, but they deserted when they learned that the commanding officers were corrupt. To defend the ship, Archer, Sub-Commander T'Pol, and Lieutenant Reed suit up, and while T'Pol and Reed work to shut down the warp reactor, Archer hails the alien leader, pretending to be the sole surviving crewmember from the effects of the storm. He demands they leave, and then, playing a game of chicken with the intruders, orders Ensign Mayweather to head straight for a plasma eddy. As T'Pol and Reed finally succeed in shutting the reactor down, the intruders abandon ship. Soon after, as they clear the storm, the original alien visitors apologize for all the trouble they have caused, and depart.

The first home media release of "The Catwalk" was as part of the season two DVD box set, released in the United States on July 26, 2005.[2] A release on Blu-ray Disc for season two occurred on August 20, 2013.[3]

In a 2013 review of the season 2 Blu-ray box-set, The Morton Report felt this was one of the standout episodes of the season.[4]

In 2014, The A.V. Club noted this episode as one of ten of this series that epitomize what the show is about.[5]

In 2016, Vox rated this one of the top 25 essential episodes of all Star Trek.[6] They remark "The Catwalk" is a fun look at the rough-and-tumble early days of Starfleet."[6]

• "The Catwalk" on IMDb
• "The Catwalk" at TV.com

• "The Catwalk" at Memory Alpha (a Star Trek wiki)

• "The Catwalk" at StarTrek.com