Critters from "Star Trek: Enterprise", Season 1 Quiz

Answer: Canis lupis familiaris

Engineer Tucker made a joke about having had a shower that day, and asked the Captain if he'd had one. But since Vulcan females have a heightened sense of smell, T'Pol smelled Porthos, the Captain's cute little beagle.

Porthos probably wondered about T'Pol's smell, too; he did jump up on her right before she left the Captain's quarters. Beagles have one of the most sensitive of canine noses; they can have over 200 million smell receptors (humans have a mere five million). And although I don't know how many smell receptors Vulcan female noses have, I'll bet it's less than 200 million!

Corynebacterium is one of the critters that lives on human skin that helps to break down sweat, contributing to the unpleasant odor sweat can have. So is Staphylococcus epidermidis, but this one is also used in cheesemaking (cheese is Porthos' favorite food). Meerkats are African desert carnivores related to the mongoose. Canis lupis familiaris is the scientific name for the domestic dog.

Answer: They contain regenerative enzymes

In "Broken Bow", Dr. Phlox noticed Captain Jonathan Archer holding the animal's cage and told him to be careful. The cage shook violently, and the unseen creature emitted a trilling hiss. Dr. Phlox retrieved the cage and imitated the marsupial's sound, which soothed the creature.

Apparently, this animal's poo contains special enzymes, proteins that take on the role of biological catalysts for the chemical processes of other substances. So probably these enzymes in the Altarian marsupial's poo would aid the body's own regenerative processes by adding additional catalytic boosters to speed healing of tissues damaged by wounds or illness.

Want to know a cool thing about enzymes? They do their thing without using up their own substance in the process. They "take a lickin' but keep on tickin'".

Answer: Osmotic eel

Even though the little critter looks like a four-armed sea star, it is called the "osmotic eel". Dr. Phlox placed it directly over the wound on Archer's leg, and was pleased at the level of healing that was revealed when he later removed the eel. Phlox allowed Archer to leave the sickbay, but told him he had to return for another session of eel healing.

The process of osmosis can be useful in wound-healing. Any substance or process that draws lymph fluid from deeper tissues through the wound keeps the wound bed moist, and the movement of the lymph fluid helps remove tiny particles of dirt and debris from deeper in the tissues. Historically, people have used both honey and sugar for this purpose, and in 2014 there were commercially-prepared osmotic dressings that use both sodium chloride and honey as active osmotic ingredients.

Answer: He wants to feed it to his bat

Hoshi got her pet slug when visiting a planet, and then became concerned when the creature's health began to fail. She came to believe that it had been a mistake to remove the slug (called "Sluggo" by Trip) from its planet in the first place. Talking to Sluggo, she told it that Dr. Phlox would do everything he could to keep it alive and make it healthy again. The doctor corrected her, telling her the real reason he was working so hard to help keep Sluggo alive. Referring to his Pyrithian bat, he told Hoshi, "He won't eat anything once it's dead!"

Hoshi relocated her slug on a planet that was similar to the one Sluggo came from. Next time, Hoshi will be a decent, responsible person and get a puppy or kitten from an intergalactic animal shelter.

Answer: A Xyrillian zygote

Trip made friends with Ah'len, the Xyrillian engineer. On a break from making the necessary teraphasic-coil repairs, Ah'len showed Trip the Xyrillian holo-chamber and invited him to play a Xyrillian game. The two pushed their fingers into a container filled with transparent beads. When the beads lit up, Trip and Ah'len were able to read each other's minds.

This is how Xyrillians transfer genetic material for impregnation: the female Xyrillian transfers the material to make a clone of herself to the male, who carries and gives birth to the clone. Ah'len had no idea it would work between species! The Enterprise catches up with the Xyrillian ship and the fetus is removed from Trip and implanted into a Xyrillian male for the remainder of the gestation period.

I have a question, though: if the Xyrillians only give birth to clones of the females, how do they generate the males to carry the fetuses?

Answer: Diggers

The digger is a burrowing animal native to Terra Nova. Captain Archer and Lieutenant Reed caught a glimpse of a live one after just a few minutes in a Terra Novan cave. The hind end disappearing into the dirt looked very much like the hind end of a Terran armadillo. They found a pile of digger skins in another chamber, and later observed the Novans wearing parts of digger shells as armor.

I couldn't find any Earth culture that used armadillo shells for armor, but we do make purses and baskets and musical instruments from them. Some native Americans made jewelry and fetishes from various parts of the animal.

Answer: Serpent worms

A Klingon delicacy, gagh is usually eaten live, although it can be eaten chilled or stewed. There are more than one variety, including the pink version found aboard the Klingon ship Somraw.

The Klingons may be on to something. Earthworms (Anellida Glossoscolecidae) contain comparable protein and calcium content to dairy products, and provide some iron, magnesium, potassium, phosphorus, and copper.

Flobberworms are from the world of Harry Potter, and the candirú is the tiny Amazon river catfish starring in the myth about being able to leave the water to swim up a urine stream and into the urinating man's urethra.

Answer: Targs

The spiked, boar-like creatures called Targs are used by the Klingons for food, sport, and as pets. They were kept chained near the galley because, as T'Pol told Hoshi, "Klingons prefer their food freshly slaughtered".

Earth vessels have a history of storing live meat too. Men from sailing ships used to harvest many sea turtles and stack them upside-down on the decks. The turtles stayed alive for months, providing safe, fresh meat to the sailors.

Wargs are J.R.R. Tolkien's evil wolves, and of course you recognized Monty Python's killer rabbits of Caerbannog, from "Monty Python and the Holy Grail". I'd go looking for the grail too, but I "already got one!"

Answer: False

Dr. Phlox is able to examine a severed tip of one of the creature's tendrils. He tells T'Pol "This is no earthworm. Look at the synaptic activity. This organism possesses a very sophisticated nervous system. It could be capable of higher mental functions."

And it turned out he was correct. After Hoshi and T'Pol figured out how to communicate with it, the creature was able to communicate the exact latitude and longitude of where it wanted to be delivered on its home planet. ET got to go home, courtesy of the Enterprise.

Answer: Mexican hairless (dog)

The oldest trick in the book: "Gee mister, have you seen my dog?" Keyla was more interested in the information she thought she could get from the Captain than in the Captain himself. I'll bet Captain Kirk would have been more successful; he was an infamous alien-woman-wooer!

Two other creatures mentioned in the episode are Risen sea turtles (Keyla steps on one while wading, injuring her ankle) and Regulan blood worms (Dr. Phlox wanted to use them to filter out the toxins in Ensign Mayweather's blood).

Am I the only one who thinks it's weird that a woman on Risa, a pleasure planet light-years away from Earth (and no-one on Risa has ever heard of Earth, let alone been there), just happens to own a dog that's a dead-ringer for a Mexican hairless?