Broken Bow (episode)
Earth launches its first starship of exploration, Enterprise, on a mission to return an injured Klingon to his homeworld. (Series premiere)

Summary

Teaser 

In San Francisco of the year 2121, a young boy named Jonathan Archer paints a model of his father's spacecraft. When he recites a famed quote from a  by Zefram Cochrane, Henry Archer tells him the inventor of the warp drive would be proud of him. Jonathan curiously asks about his father's upcoming ship, wondering if it will be bigger than "Ambassador Pointy's" ship. Henry corrects his son, noting that the ambassador is actually named Soval, an extremely helpful Vulcan. Jonathan responds that – according to Billy Cook, an acquaintance of his – Humans would already be flying at warp five, if the Vulcans had not intervened. Although Henry Archer does not fully understand the reasons behind the Vulcans' constraint, he believes that there must be an explanation.

Thirty years later, the Broken Bow Incident takes place in Broken Bow, Oklahoma, on Earth. A pair of aliens pursue Klaang through a corn field, the Klingon pilot of a crash-landed  scout ship, attracting the attention of a farmer named . Although Klaang eventually manages to kill the aliens by blowing up a corn silo with them in it with his disruptor, he is shot with Moore's plasma rifle.

Act One 

Aboard a inspection pod, Orbital 6, Jonathan Archer, now a captain in Starfleet, and Commander Charles Tucker inspect the prototype  starship  in the Orbital Drydock Facility, a spacedock orbiting Earth. After being urgently called back to Starfleet Medical, Archer attends a meeting where a group of high-ranking Starfleet officers, including Admiral Forrest, discuss Klaang with several Vulcan dignitaries: Ambassador Soval, Tos, and Sub-Commander T'Pol. Archer also meets an alien doctor who is providing Klaang with medical care. Eventually, it is decided that Enterprise will launch ahead of schedule on a mission to return Klaang to the Klingons' homeworld, Qo'noS. The Vulcans completely disagree with this; they had objected to Humans returning Klaang out of fears that a perceived provincial attitude and accompanying volatile nature of Humans would complicate Human contact with the Klingons so soon. However, Archer manages to convince Forrest to approve Enterprise delivering Klaang to Qo'nos over Soval's protests. After the Vulcans leave, Forrest reminds Archer to not "screw this up." Archer looks at the alien doctor treating Klaang and taps on the glass to get his attention.

Aboard Enterprise, Lieutenant Malcolm Reed and Ensign Travis Mayweather discuss the vessel's transporter, a brand-new piece of equipment first installed on their ship. As they walk through a corridor, Mayweather reminisces about his childhood aboard cargo ships, particularly about their artificial gravity. When they enter engineering, Reed introduces Mayweather to Commander Tucker. Meanwhile, Archer travels to Brazil to recruit linguist Hoshi Sato as his communications officer. Sato is reluctant at first, but Archer plays a Vulcan recording of Klingonese, and tells her to think that she would be the first Human to talk to these Klingons. "Do you really want somebody else to do it?" She smiles at him.

Another addition to Archer's crew is Sub-Commander T'Pol, whose assignment for the position of executive officer and science officer was obligatory in exchange for Enterprises use of the Vulcan star charts. In the captain's ready room, T'Pol is introduced to Commander Tucker by Archer and she gives him a PADD confirming her new assignment. An embarrassing encounter with the captain's dog, Porthos, then follows, since Vulcan females have an heightened sense of smell. Along with T'Pol – whom Archer saw as a Vulcan "chaperone" – the doctor he met before, at Starfleet Medical, is also added to Enterprises crew.

At Enterprises launching ceremony, Admiral Forrest makes a speech and remarks there is no better person to captain the first warp 5 starship than the son of its inventor, Jonathan Archer. After this, a recording of a speech by Doctor Zefram Cochrane is played, from the dedication ceremony of the Warp Five Complex, 32 years ago.

"On this site, a powerful engine will be built. An engine that will some day help us to travel a hundred times faster than we can today. Imagine it. Thousands of inhabited planets, at our fingertips. And we'll be able to explore those strange new worlds and seek out new life, and new civilizations. This engine will let us go boldly, where no man has gone before."

As these historic words are spoken, Archer remembers his childhood, when he and his dad placed an anti-gravity controller into the model. Mayweather then asks for instructions. He responds, "Take her out, Mr. Mayweather. Straight and steady." And so, the NX-01 Enterprise leaves spacedock and jumps into warp.

Meanwhile, in a strange chamber aboard an alien complex, a Suliban officer confers with a mysterious silhouetted figure and promises to recover evidence that the figure requires. This evidence apparently was in the hands of Klaang when he was pursued by the Suliban.

Act Two 
Aboard Enterprise, Archer observes a jar full of immunocytic gel worms in sickbay. The doctor he met earlier, a Denobulan in the Interspecies Medical Exchange program named Phlox, asks the captain to make sure that he doesn't shake the worms. Archer helps Phlox unpack medical equipment and an Altarian marsupial, an animal that makes the captain squirm because its droppings are used as medicine. Meanwhile, Travis Mayweather shows Commander Tucker the "sweet spot", an area of every ship where gravity is reversed. Mayweather is a well-traveled "space boomer" and has visited the planets Trillius Prime, Draylax, and both the Teneebian moons. Later, when Tucker enters the ship's mess hall, he is offered a seat by Crewman  but the engineer replies that he has already been asked to the captain's mess. There, the engineer eats with Archer and T'Pol while they discuss Human evolution.

However, all is not well – during a test of the ship's warp reactor, a verbal conflict between Hoshi Sato and T'Pol arises. When Ensign Sato insults T'Pol in the Vulcan language, the science officer retorts that she herself was instructed to speak English during her assignment aboard the ship and expects Sato to do the same. Later, the vessel loses main power while Archer, Sato, and Phlox are in sickbay, trying to interrogate Klaang. Alien soldiers board Enterprise and attack the Starfleet officers. Klaang recognizes the aliens as Suliban and, although Archer manages to shoot one of the aliens, the Klingon is abducted from the ship.

Act Three 
On the bridge, an irritated Archer asks his crew why the Suliban were not detected by Enterprises new state-of-the-art sensors. When Lieutenant Reed tells him that the starboard sensor logs did record a spatial disturbance, the captain orders the bridge crew to conduct a full investigation into the incident. T'Pol advises Archer to consult the astrometrics computer in San Francisco, believing that he himself has no hope of finding Klaang. However, the captain decides not to take her advice and forbids T'Pol from contacting Starfleet. In sickbay, Phlox shows Archer the corpse of the alien soldier that was left aboard Enterprise. The doctor has learned that the alien has Suliban DNA, but its anatomy has been radically altered by very sophisticated genetic modifications.

In engineering, T'Pol helps Tucker to review the sensor data. Archer and Sato soon enter. Using both Sato's translation of Klaang's words as well as T'Pol's reluctant assistance, Archer learns that Klaang visited Rigel X just before his scout ship crashed on Earth. The captain contacts the bridge and orders Mayweather to set course for the tenth planet in the Rigel system. Meanwhile, an alien officer aboard the Suliban complex interrogates Klaang in Klingonese. This Suliban officer asks Klaang where he left a particular unnamed item, but the Klingon claims ignorance. He tells the officer that he was sent to meet a Suliban woman named Sarin on Rigel X but that Sarin did not give him anything. As Enterprise approaches the planet, Archer and T'Pol brief an away team in the ship's launch bay. Archer informs the officers that Klaang was a courier and tells them to find the person who gave the Klingon whatever he was carrying, so they might find out why the Suliban have captured Klaang.

The team travel to Rigel X in  and search in a trade complex on the planet's frozen surface. Reed and Mayweather are persuaded, by a man who claims that he saw Klaang, to watch a pair of alien females performing with butterflies. The pair of officers doubt the man's honesty and soon leave. While T'Pol investigates, Tucker finds difficulty with accepting several aliens that he encounters, including a Lorillian mother and son. Archer and Sato meanwhile catch a fleeting glimpse of a group of Klingons. Soon after, the entire away team is attacked and captured by Suliban.

Act Four 

Sato, T'Pol, and Tucker are imprisoned by the alien soldiers in a section which is sealed by a force field. Archer is taken to a woman who looks Human but who changes her appearance after she kisses the captain. The woman's name is Sarin – the same Suliban female that Klaang met on Rigel X earlier. Sarin was once a member of the , the Suliban military. She informs Archer that the Cabal are following orders from a faction in the Temporal Cold War, a conflict which is being fought through time. The Suliban are promoting internal strife within the Klingon Empire, making it appear that one house is attacking another and Klaang was transporting evidence of this back to Qo'noS to prevent a civil war.

Sarin offers to help Archer find the Klingon, but agents of the Suliban Cabal discover them and open fire. Sarin frees the Starfleet officers but is killed in the fight between the Cabal and her small group of renegade Suliban. Archer, injured while on the run, manages to escape in the . With a damaged thruster, the shuttlecraft ascends into the atmosphere as T'Pol contacts Enterprise and announces that she is taking command of the ship. When Captain Archer starts to lose consciousness, he dreams about himself as a child flying his model spacecraft on a beach with his father. He is disappointed when the model crash-lands in the sand, and his father tells him that he can't be afraid of the wind as T'Pol watches from the shore.

Act Five 

After Shuttlepod 1 has returned to Enterprise, T'Pol and Tucker use the decon chamber to rid themselves of a protocystian spore they picked up on Rigel X. Here, Tucker questions whether he should take command rather than T'Pol, because she was only assigned to the ship as an "observer". The engineer worries that T'Pol will not continue the search for Klaang if she takes command.

Six hours later, Archer regains consciousness in sickbay. Phlox removes, from Archer's leg, an osmotic eel that the doctor used to cauterize the captain's wound. T'Pol and Tucker visit and the Vulcan informs Archer that they have tracked a Suliban ship that left Rigel X just after the captain was injured. Archer is surprised that T'Pol didn't order a course back to Earth, but the Vulcan states that, as acting captain, she was obligated to anticipate Archer's wishes. Archer responds that, as acting captain, she could have done whatever she wanted.

As Enterprise continues to follow the Suliban ship, Archer, back in his quarters, is making a log entry, pausing the log several times to question himself about T'Pol's motives to continue the mission.

"Enterprise starlog, Captain Jonathan Archer – April 16, 2151. We've been tracking the Suliban ship for ten hours, thanks to our… science officer, who came up with a way to tweak the sensors. I have no reason to believe that Klaang is still alive, but if… what the Suliban woman told me is true, it's crucial that we try to find him. I still haven't decided whether to ask Sub-Commander T'Pol about this 'Temporal Cold War.' My instincts tell me not to trust her."

Archer hears the warp drive changing and looks out his window to see that the ship has dropped out of warp. He contacts T'Pol, who asks him to come to the bridge.

There, a class 7 gas giant is displayed on the viewscreen. T'Pol tells Archer that the Suliban craft entered the planet's radiation belt a few hours ago, scattering the vessel's warp trail. T'Pol instructs Reed to run a spectral analysis on fragments he has detected nearby. The bridge crew finds that the fragments were left from fourteen different ships. Realizing that Enterprise has found an area used frequently by the Suliban, Archer orders Reed to activate the ship's weapon systems and to polarize the hull plating. The captain then directs Mayweather to lay in a sixty degree vector that will take the ship into the planet's atmosphere.

Act Six 
Aboard the alien complex, the Suliban officer talks with the mysterious figure. The officer is unsure whether Sarin gave the Enterprise crew anything, but he knows that Enterprise has followed a Suliban ship and is nearby. He promises the figure that he will destroy the Human vessel before it locates the helix, the complex that he is currently on. The figure says that he didn't intend for Humans or Vulcans to become involved yet, and demands that the officer must stop Sarin's message from reaching Qo'noS.

In the atmosphere of the gas giant, Enterprise almost loses the warp trail. T'Pol estimates that the ship's condition should improve, shortly before the bridge starts to shudder. She uses a viewer at her station to determine that the quakes are being caused by unexpected liquid phosphorus. When the ship's condition improves, the officers detect two s and the helix. Sato reads more than three thousand bio-signs aboard the alien station, but is unable to find Klaang with the ship's sensors. When Suliban ships start attacking, Enterprise returns to the phosphorus layer, where the enemy vessels can't find the Starfleet craft. T'Pol reports that the helix seems to be comprised of hundreds of other vessels, locked together by magnetic seals. When Sato finally detects Klaang aboard the complex, Reed suggests using the transporter to get him out but Archer finds Reed's plan too risky. The captain decides to use Enterprises grappler to retrieve one of the attacking cell ships and bring it aboard Enterprise.

In the situation room, aft of the bridge, Mayweather questions Archer and Tucker about the workings of the captured Suliban vessel. As the engineer seems to be slightly unsure of the craft, Mayweather believes that he would make a better pilot. Archer replies that the ensign is needed on board Enterprise and Tucker believes that piloting the Suliban vessel won't be as hard as it seems.

In the captain's ready room, T'Pol attempts to discourage Archer from leaving. She suggests that he appeal for support from a nearby Vulcan ship. The captain suspects the Vulcan is displaying emotional concern, but T'Pol claims that the Vulcan High Command will hold her responsible if anything happens to Tucker or the captain. Reed enters, carrying two cases into the room – one holds a magnetic device and the other holds two newly-designed weapons called phase-pistols. According to the lieutenant, the weapons have two settings – stun and kill. He advises Archer not to confuse the two.

Archer and Tucker leave Enterprise and use the captured cell ship to travel to the helix, where they eventually locate Klaang. Although the Klingon is initially hostile, Archer threatens the alien with his phase-pistol so he will cooperate with the captain's orders. Together, the three men move through the helix and attack any Suliban guard that approaches them. The captain instructs Tucker to return to the cell ship with Klaang while he stays behind and tries to separate the helix using the magnetic device. After doing so, Archer contacts Tucker and tells the engineer not to return for him, but to take Klaang to Enterprise. Tucker complies as several of the drifting enemy ships surrounding the commandeered cell ship collide.

Act Seven 
Tucker ignites the cell ship's thruster exhaust, giving Sato, on board Enterprise, the opportunity to tell T'Pol what to look for. When T'Pol detects Tucker's position, she thanks Sato in the Vulcan language.

Aboard the helix, Archer fights with the alien officer. The alien nearly kills Archer with his own phase-pistol, but the captain moves out of the way just in time. The alien chases Archer into another room where a strobing, pulsating light throbs. Just as the alien shoots again, Archer is beamed aboard Enterprise. Tucker apologizes for using the transporter, but claims it was the only way to recover the captain. Enterprise immediately leaves the gas giant and jumps to warp speed. 

After arriving on Qo'noS, Archer, Klaang, Sato, and T'Pol enter the Klingon High Council Chamber. As Klaang addresses the High Council in Klingonese, Sato tries her best to interpret his words. According to the linguist, Klaang says something about disgracing the Klingon Empire and mentions that he's ready to die. The Klingon Chancellor approaches Klaang and makes a small cut in his hand with a jagged dagger. The Klingons then pour some of Klaang's blood into a vial which they examine with a large scientific device. The extracted DNA from his blood contains a wealth of Suliban information. The Klingons shout in gruff approval, but soon quiet again. The chancellor approaches Captain Archer and, holding the dagger against the captain's throat, says something in Klingonese that Archer interprets as a thanks. Once the Chancellor leaves, Sato comments that the captain's interpretation was incorrect, and claims that Archer wouldn't want to know what the Klingon actually said.

Aboard Enterprise, Archer tells his crew that the starship's mission is to continue forward. Tucker begins work on repairing the starship as Archer orders Mayweather to set a course for an inhabited planet nearby. Although there is an ion storm between the starship and its destination, the captain tells Mayweather that they can't be afraid of the wind. He orders Enterprise to engage at warp four.

Archer remembers himself as a child, standing beside his father as his model spacecraft flew across the sunny morning sky.

Deleted scenes 
Three deleted scenes from this episode were included in the DVD release of the first season. The attached numbers indicate where those scenes would have located in the finished episode.

Deleted scene 092 

Archer and Sato are meeting with an alien dockmaster in a landing port control tower, asking questions about Klaang, and querying what business he had on Rigel X. Although the dockmaster is preoccupied monitoring the traffic to the planet's trade complex, including a craft he calls Elkan Nine, he is curious to learn that the officers are Human and, with some persuasion from Archer, researches Klaang in Rigel X's records. He informs the officers that the Klingon visited the planet in a K'toch-class vessel seven days earlier, but does not elaborate on what Klaang did, or whom he met, stating that visitors to Rigel X "value their privacy". When Archer mentions the Suliban, the dockmaster claims he has never heard of the word, and suggests that the officers' translator must be malfunctioning. Sato, holding the translator, confirms that the device is not at error, however.

Deleted scene 099 
This scene features Reed and Mayweather, moments after having observed the butterfly dancers on Rigel X. The same alien who persuaded them to watch the dancers follows them through a crowded, narrow arcade and presents them with the opportunity to view an "inter-species performance". Seeing Reed consider this, Mayweather realizes that the alien knows nothing about Klaang and advises Reed that their "guide" is trying to take advantage of their interest in the new surroundings. Reed declines the offer and, as he and his companion walk away from the alien, Mayweather exclaims disbelief that they were almost fooled by the man. While the officers move past an entertainer demonstrating fire-breathing skills, Reed replies by reminding his companion that they are explorers.

Deleted scene 154-155 

In this scene, Sato and Reed discuss the symptoms of frost bite (as Sato is convinced she has it) while Enterprise tracks the vessel they are following. When an alarm rings, and Mayweather alerts T'Pol (who we see, for a split second in her original look) to the fact they are losing sight of the ship, she orders an increase in speed. Mayweather reminds her that he cannot do so without authorization, which they subsequently receive from engineering.

Memorable quotes 
"Where no man has gone before."
 - Young Jonathan Archer, quoting Zefram Cochrane
This was the very first line of the series.

"How big will it be?"
"Pretty big."
 - Jonathan Archer, asking his father Henry about the upcoming starship to have the first warp five engine

"Neptune and back in six minutes."
 - Archer, marveling at Enterprise

"Great… you scratched the paint."
 - Archer, after a small inspection pod piloted by Tucker bumps into the bottom of Enterprise

"Where'd he come from?"
"Oklahoma."
"Corn farmer named Moore shot him with a plasma rifle."
 - Archer, asking about Klaang, a Klingon, with Williams and Forrests response

"Volatile? You have no idea how much I'm restraining myself from knocking you on your ass."
 - Archers first words to T'Pol, in response to her claim that Humans are not ready to make their own decisions

"Don't screw this up."
 - Forrest, after Archer declares he and the crew of Enterprise will return Klaang to Qo'noS

"It's a Klingot."
"A Klingon."
 - Admiral Leonard and Tos, while observing Klaang

"Listen to me, you're making a mistake!"
"When your logic doesn't work, you raise your voice? You've been on Earth too long."
 - Soval and Archer

"You're upside down, Ensign."
 - Tucker, to Mayweather while in the sweet spot of Enterprise"I heard this platform's been approved for bio-transport."
"I presume you mean fruits and vegetables."
"I mean armory officers and helmsmen."
"I don't think I'm quite ready to have my molecules compressed into a datastream."
 - Mayweather and Reed, discussing the ship's brand new transporter

"Keep your shirt on, loo-tenant."
 - Said twice, first by Malcolm Reed doing an impression of Trip Tucker, then by Tucker himself

"Four days and four days back. Then she's gone. In the meantime we are to extend her every courtesy.""I don't know. I'd be more comfortable with Porthos on the bridge." - Archer and Tucker, discussing T'Pol 

"I took a shower this mornin', how about you, cap'n?"
 - Commander Tucker, making fun of T'Pol's heightened sense of smell

"You ever slept in zero-G?"
"Slept?"
"It's just like being back in the womb."
 - Mayweather and Tucker, while upside down in the "sweet spot"

"T'Pol tells me she's been living in the Vulcan compound in Sausalito."
"No kidding. I lived a few blocks nearby when I first joined Starfleet. Great parties in the Vulcan compound."
 - Archer and Tucker 

"Grandma taught me to never judge a species by their eating habits."
 - Tucker, in response to T'Pol's criticism over Humans still eating the flesh of animals

"On this site, a powerful engine will be built. An engine that will someday help us to travel a hundred times faster than we can today. Imagine it – thousands of inhabited planets at our fingertips… and we'll be able to explore those strange new worlds, and seek out new life and new civilizations. This engine will let us go boldly… where no man has gone before."
 - Zefram Cochranes speech from the dedication ceremony for the Warp Five Complex, in 2119

"Take her out, Mr. Mayweather… straight and steady."
 - Jonathan Archer, ordering Mayweather to leave space dock

"Let's go."
 - Archers order to engage warp and depart Earth

"Optimism, captain!"
 - Phloxs advice to Captain Archer, before the Denobulan doctor smiles a massive grin

"Ponfo mirann!"
- Hoshi Satos Vulcan insultAccording to Rick Berman and Brannon Braga, this phrase can be translated as "Go to hell!" (Episode's audio commentary, ENT Season 1 DVD)

"I'm not interested in what you think about this mission, so take your Vulcan cynicism and bury it along with your repressed emotions." - Archer, to T'Pol 

"How complicated can it be? Up, down, forward, reverse… I'll figure it out."
 - Tuckers response to learning the controls of the captured Suliban vessel

"He says, 'his wife has grown ugly'?"
 - Hoshi Sato, translating Klingon spoken by Klaang

"I think the doctor's right, captain; unless "stinky boots" has something to do with all this?"
 - Hoshi Sato, after Phlox explains that Klaang has no idea what he is saying

"Do you know how to tell him to shut up?"
"Shut up!"
 - Archer, asking Sato to translate his request into Klingon, and Sato, not even bothering to do so

"Now get the hell out there and make yourself useful."
 - Archer, to T'Pol

[Klaang says something in Klingon]
"I don't particularly like the way you smell either!"
 - Trip Tucker, while flying back to Enterprise with Klaang

"Ensign Mayweather tells me that we'll be at Kronos in about eighty hours. Any chance he'll be conscious by then?"
"There's a chance he'll be conscious within the next ten minutes. Just not a very good one."
 - Archer and Phlox, discussing Klaang's condition

"Your superiors don't think we can flush a toilet without one of you to assist us."
 - Archer, to T'Pol

"A seven-foot Klingon doesn't go unnoticed."
 - Archer, on Klaang

"That's… never happened before."
 - Archer, to Sarin after she kisses him and transforms into a Suliban

"Bridge, we're taking damage down here! What's going on?"
"Just a little trouble with the bad guys."
 - Tucker and Archer

"I'll take that as a thank you."
"I don't think they have a word for thank you."
"What did he say?"
"You don't want to know."
 - Archer and Sato, in reference to the Klingon chancellor's response to Klaang's return

"I hope nobody is in a big hurry to get home. Starfleet seems to think that we're ready to begin our mission."
 - Archer

"I'm reading an ion storm on that trajectory, sir. Should I go around it?"
"We can't be afraid of the wind, ensign. Take us to warp four."
 - Travis Mayweather and Jonathan Archer, quoting Archer's father Henry

Log entries
 "Enterprise starlog, Captain Jonathan Archer, April 16, 2151. We've been tracking the Suliban ship for ten hours, thanks to our science officer, who came up with a way to tweak the sensors. I have no reason to believe that Klaang is still alive, but if what the Suliban woman told me is true, it's crucial that we try to find him. I still haven't decided whether to ask Sub-Commander T'Pol about this 'Temporal Cold War.' My instincts tell me not to trust her."

Background information 

 This is the first episode of , then called simply Enterprise, and the only feature-length episode of the entire series.
 The name of this particular episode (pronounced "Broken Boh", like the weapon; rhymes with "low") was chosen around the same time as the identically named town featured herein received its moniker. The name was used as this episode's title partly because it – in episode co-writer Brannon Braga's opinion – worked "great" as a title, another reason being that it integrated well with the naming of both the town and the Broken Bow Incident. ()

Story and script
 At first, Rick Berman and Brannon Braga did not plan to write this episode together. Braga recalled, "I don't know why we decided to write the pilot of Enterprise together […] We were working out the story; beating out the story, scene by scene, and one of us just said, 'We're practically writing this together. Let's do it!"  Braga clarified, "I think maybe Rick said, 'What if we wrote this together? And I was like, 'Sounds great. You know, I don't want to write a two-hour thing by myself." ("To Boldly Go: Launching Enterprise, Part I: Countdown", ENT Season 1 Blu-ray special features) Summing up the experience of writing this episode with Berman, Braga stated, "It went really well." ("In Conversation: Rick Berman and Brannon Braga", ENT Season 1 Blu-ray special features) The experience was an important milestone in their careers, as it was the first time they wrote together, and it obviously set a precedent for subsequent episodes of the same series.
 The writing duo set out with a particular aim in mind, as admitted by Brannon Braga: "Our goal, as lofty and pretentious as it sounds, was to do the best pilot ever for Star Trek." () How they would try to achieve this underwent much consideration, while the plot formed. Braga commented, "We had to basically come up with a story that would give Enterprise a reason to go on its first mission, other than: 'let's just launch and go out and have our first adventure.' We wanted to give Archer a specific noble goal – a test; an incident that would test humanity's ability to prove themselves, and kinda piss off the Vulcans, too. I had an image of Klingons in small-town America. My first image was, 'What if we show Klingons attacking Iowa?' Then we pared it down to, 'What if a Klingon crash-landed in a cornfield?" Braga also noted that the mission he and Rick Berman decided upon – returning Klaang to his people, in defiance of the Vulcans – additionally enabled the writers to bring T'Pol on board the ship. ()
 After conceiving of the contortion abilities exhibited by the Suliban, Rick Berman and Brannon Braga consulted Visual Effects Producer Dan Curry, ensuring that it would be possible to show such flexibilities on-screen. (, p. 27)
 Several of the guest characters' names were invented as homages to . These consist of Admiral Forrest (named after DeForest Kelley), Admiral Leonard (Leonard Nimoy), Commander  (William Shatner), and Tos (an abbreviation of The Original Series).
 Farmer  was named after Ronald D. Moore, a former Star Trek staff writer and friend of Brannon Braga. ("Broken Bow" text commentary, ENT Season 1 DVD)
 In the revised final draft script of this episode, an ultimately unused exchange of dialogue – involving Commander Tucker, whose nickname was "Charlie" at that point, and Captain Archer, when they are touring Enterprise in an inspection pod – went:

                                     CHARLIE
                         If I didn't know better, I'd think 
                         you were afraid of flying.

                                     ARCHER
                         If I'm afraid of anything, it's the 
                         scrambled eggs I had for breakfast.

                                     CHARLIE
                         Pretty soon you'll be dreaming 
                         about scrambled eggs. I hear the new 
                         resequenced protein isn't much of an 
                         improvement.

                                     ARCHER
                         My number one staffing priority was 
                         finding the right chef. I think 
                         you'll be impressed.

                                     CHARLIE
                         Your galley's more important to you 
                         than your warp core. That's a 
                         confidence-builder.

                                     ARCHER
                         A starship runs on its stomach, 
                         Charlie. 

 The two Teneebian moons that Ensign Mayweather visited when he was young were originally scripted to be two Andorian moons.
 References, in this episode, to Phlox having enjoyed Chinese food in San Francisco were inspired by the creators of Enterprise, Rick Berman and Brannon Braga, having originally written, in the development stages for the series, virtually contemporaneous scenes set in Chinatown. Also, San Francisco was used because it had been established as the primary location of Starfleet. ("In Conversation: Rick Berman and Brannon Braga", ENT Season 1 Blu-ray special features)
 This episode's script was entirely written without any of the show's regular cast having yet been selected. (, p. 22)

Cast
 Scott Bakula waited until after he and Paramount Television executives Kerry McCluggage and Garry Hart had read this episode's script before accepting the role of Jonathan Archer. Bakula later recalled, "Garry Hart told me when he read the script he immediately thought of me." (, p. 12) The script gave Bakula a similar impression. "They had him pretty much on the page when I got the pilot script," Bakula said of the character. (, p. 14) His approval of the script actually helped convince Bakula into committing to portray Jonathan Archer over the course of the forthcoming series. (, p. 12) The actor subsequently commented, "Actually, the monumental event of the [first] season, for me, was the pilot." () Compared with later installments of the series, he found this outing was "very physical." In addition, of all Captain Archer's lines of dialogue from ENT Season 1, Bakula reckoned that his line here, "Let's go!" was the most like a catchphrase, such as, "Engage," "Make it so," or "Do it!" from the other series. ()
 Similarly to Scott Bakula, T'Pol actress Jolene Blalock auditioned for her role only after she read the script of this episode. "It was just brilliant," she later reminisced. ()
 It was a foregone conclusion that the main performers who were cast for this episode were about to become series regulars on Enterprise. However, Connor Trinneer's agent told him about this arrangement only after Trinneer – who had been auditioning for Charles "Trip" Tucker in extreme ignorance about the part – was cast in the role, with the agent stating, "This isn't a pilot. This is a show. This is episode one." Thereafter receiving and reading the script of this installment informed an initially surprised Trinneer that his role would be an extensive one in both this episode and the subsequent series. ("To Boldly Go: Launching Enterprise, Part II: Boarding the NX-01", ENT Season 1 Blu-ray special features)
 Hoshi Sato actress Linda Park was thrilled that this episode depicts the linguist at her place of work, Amazon University. "That side of her is great because we see her doing what she loves to do," Park enthused. Of Sato's dispute with T'Pol in this installment, the actress stated, "What she finds so annoying about the Vulcan is she seems to look down on people who are vulnerable and passionate and act with a sense of childishness. Hoshi thinks the Vulcan is arrogant and full of herself." ()
 Malcolm Reed actor Dominic Keating initially felt apprehensive about appearing in this outing but was eventually very pleased with it. He recollected, "I was so nervous […] Having seen the pilot, though, I have to say it's a wonderful piece of work […] I can be terribly self-critical most of the time, but even I came away from watching the pilot thinking, 'You know what, I did a good job.' There was enough there to give audiences a rough idea as to who Malcolm Reed is, but at the same time enough of a smudged edge that left you with plenty of questions about him." (TV Zone, issue #147, p. 30)
 When the time came to play the lead parts in this episode, tensions among the main cast were high in general, though the performers were also ultimately satisfied with the installment. Remembered Dominic Keating, "I'm sure everyone in the cast felt a certain degree of trepidation. I think we all must have looked at one another and thought, 'So-and-so's character seems so well-defined and they're a perfect fit in the role. Why aren't I as good as they are. I really have no idea who my character is. I'm just standing here saying their lines.' Because we're such a tight cast and quickly became close to each another we all admitted to having those initial feelings of total inadequacy […] All of us were really proud of the final product." (TV Zone, issue #147, p. 30) In terms of the performances, Travis Mayweather actor Anthony Montgomery noted, "We were giving everything we had from the very first episode." ("Part Two: Front Lines", ENT Season 3 Blu-ray special features)
 While playing the Suliban's mysterious benefactor herein, actor James Horan was not given a copy of the full script but was instead provided with only the pages featuring his own dialogue. (, p. 44)
 This episode features the first time that Vaughn Armstrong, who holds the record for playing the most alien guest characters on the various Star Trek series, played a Human role, appearing as Admiral Forrest.
 This episode features the second of three guest appearances of a (former)  superstar on Star Trek (in this case, Tommy 'Tiny' Lister, Jr.). The other two were The Rock and The Big Show.
 Though he usually worked on Enterprise as a stunt coordinator, Vince Deadrick, Jr. enjoyed performing as a security guard who – during the scene wherein Klaang is kidnapped from Enterprises sickbay by invading Suliban – gets attacked and fires at the Suliban. "It was nice to have a little one-on-one between Scott [Bakula] and myself, holding that big old rifle," Deadrick stated. "It's fun playing that kind of stuff." ()

Pre-production
 This is the second of two feature-length episodes of Star Trek directed by James L. Conway, the other being . Rick Berman originally contacted James Conway about the prospect of directing this installment on Friday , when Conway received a phone call from Berman. "He says, 'I'm gonna ruin your weekend. I want you to direct the Enterprise pilot. It's a $12 million production.' Biggest production they've ever done, biggest production I would've ever done," recollected Conway. ("To Boldly Go: Launching Enterprise, Part II: Boarding the NX-01", ENT Season 1 Blu-ray special features) Scott Bakula agreed, "They spent a fortune on this pilot." (Cinefantastique, Vol. 33, No. 5, p. 21) Conway continued, "I had a wonderful weekend thinking about it." ("To Boldly Go: Launching Enterprise, Part II: Boarding the NX-01", ENT Season 1 Blu-ray special features)
 James Conway found that directing this episode easily fit into his schedule as an executive vice-president at Spelling Television. "They've often called me and wanted me to come and do a Star Trek show and I was not able to, but this time, because the pilot episode fell between seasons, we were just finishing our own pilots and I was available," Conway remembered. "When Rick [Berman] called, I was thrilled that he asked me, and thrilled that I was able to come in!" (, p. 46)
 As James Conway was available to direct this episode, official arrangements were made for him to do so, which took place over the next couple of weeks after the weekend of 17 and 18 February 2001. "We got Kerry McCluggage, president of Paramount, to sign off and UPN to sign off," the director said. "So, I started prepping Enterprise." ("To Boldly Go: Launching Enterprise, Part II: Boarding the NX-01", ENT Season 1 Blu-ray special features)
 When James Conway arrived to helm the episode, its script was finalized. "When I first read it, I said, 'This is a wonderful script, but I can't believe they're ever going to let us do it; it's so expensive!' There was a lot of action and a lot of visual effects – much more than you'd ever find on a television show. But they let us do it!" (, p. 46)
 This episode's preproduction period included five weeks of casting the performers, a process which James Conway was highly involved in. ("To Boldly Go: Launching Enterprise, Part II: Boarding the NX-01", ENT Season 1 Blu-ray special features)
 In total, the making of this episode involved the creation of forty-three different sets. (, p. 86) "It was definitely like a movie workload," noted Senior Illustrator John Eaves, who was tasked with designing the interiors and exteriors of the   as well as designing the other vessels that appear herein. (, p. 48) Concerning the over-forty sets used in this episode, James Conway remarked, "We'd never walked on to [them] before – and that means you have to prelight and light all these sets for the first time." (, p. 47)
 James Conway recalled that, once the sets for the interiors of Enterprise were built, he "sat in there probably for four or five hours over a number of days imagining, visualizing each scene and where the camera would go, trying to discover every possible place, interesting place, to put a camera and get a cool shot." He did this keeping in mind that other directors of later Enterprise episodes would likely arrive on the set with their first question being, "What angle hasn't been shot?" Conway told himself that he would like the answer to be that he had already shot every conceivable angle. ("To Boldly Go: Launching Enterprise, Part II: Boarding the NX-01", ENT Season 1 Blu-ray special features)
 Both the Interspecies Medical Exchange ward and the observation deck of the Orbital Drydock Facility were mostly redresses of a set that went on to represent Enterprises armory, during the series run. (text commentary, ENT Season 1 DVD)
 The model starship which young Jonathan Archer plays with in s throughout this episode was designed by illustrator Jim Martin and built by the Paramount Pictures prop shop. (text commentary, ENT Season 1 DVD)
 The ENT makeup staff enjoyed creating many alien designs for this installment. "We had a ball on the different characters in the pilot episode, 'Broken Bow', where they land on the planet and the Enterprise crew members are walking through the bazaar," explained Makeup Supervisor Michael Westmore. "You just wish the camera had stayed on a few of them a little more." ()
 The osmotic eel that Phlox uses on Archer's leg was created by Michael Westmore. (, p. 112)
 Upon initially reading the pilot script, Costume Designer Robert Blackman was intrigued with the idea of creating clothing designs that were not products of the extremely distant future. "With that, came a lot of interesting things we hadn't done before," he said. ()
 Robert Blackman produced full-body sketches of both the pair of butterfly dancers and alien man who, on Rigel X, invites Reed and Mayweather to watch them perform. Creating the look of the dancers entailed a collaboration between Blackman's costume department and Michael Westmore's makeup department. (, pp. 92 & 93)
 The producers at first hoped for production on this episode to begin in May 2001. However, as the costuming department prepared to start their efforts on Enterprise while simultaneously wrapping up work on , threats of an actors' strike loomed on Hollywood, endangering this plan. ()
 After five weeks of preproduction, a cast reading at Paramount gave the regular cast members their first chance to meet each other. James Conway stated about the episode, "It came alive right then and there […] And then had a day rehearsal after that." ("To Boldly Go: Launching Enterprise, Part II: Boarding the NX-01", ENT Season 1 Blu-ray special features)

Production
 This episode entered production very soon after the finalization of the making of Voyager. Noted Denise Okuda, "As soon as we could, we started in earnest on Enterprise." ("To Boldly Go: Launching Enterprise, Part I: Countdown", ENT Season 1 Blu-ray special features) Scott Bakula clarified, "They had two weeks off [after Voyager], I think, and then we were right back on it again." ("To Boldly Go: Launching Enterprise, Part III: First Flight", ENT Season 1 Blu-ray special features)
 The beginning of this episode's filming was one or two weeks after Jolene Blalock was cast as T'Pol and around three or four days to possibly a week after the official casting deal was made for Scott Bakula to play Archer. ("To Boldly Go: Launching Enterprise, Part II: Boarding the NX-01", ENT Season 1 Blu-ray special features) Owing to the quickness of the intermittent period between the making of the Voyager series finale  and the production of this episode, Bakula had anxiety regarding the professionalism of the production team. "My biggest fear coming here was that the [stage] crew that's been here forever, and had just rolled over the last huge Voyager episode and had a week off and were back shooting the pilot, would be, like, 'Yeah, just get in the chair, whatever, and we'll shoot you." Bakula found, much to his relief, that he had no need to worry in such a way. ()
 Around the same time as shooting began on this outing, Vince Deadrick, Jr. presented Scott Bakula with a gift, to start their relationship off. "I knew he'd be doing a lot of stunts," Deadrick related. "So I gave him a little stunt bag with his name on it with a set of elbow and knee pads, and said, 'Here we go. These are for you.' I also told him we'd add as we go along, meaning probably a spine pad, hips and everything else." ()
 The first scenes to be shot on the first day of this pilot episode's production were scheduled to be the bridge scenes that form part of Enterprises launch, scenes supervised by James Conway. (text commentary, ENT Season 1 DVD) Preparing the bridge set for this footage at first proved troublesome; although each screen on the set for Enterprises bridge was run by its own computer, there was some initial difficulty with the computers, all of which were in a video control room commonly referred to as "video village." Reflected Denise Okuda, "We got there the day of the shoot, the very first time on the pilot, at four-thirty in the morning, and we had technical difficulties. I can't even explain what it felt like. They had never all been fired up at the same time. So, we had some that were up, some that weren't. When we were getting that close to action, I really thought I was gonna have to go out and tell the first AD, 'Hey, we got a problem. We can't roll camera.' I did not want to do that." The difficulty was not completely resolved, with every computer firing up, until thirty seconds before the camera rolled. "Then we went to Craft Service, got a cup of coffee, went back up to the Art Department and collapsed," concluded Denise Okuda. ("To Boldly Go: Launching Enterprise, Part I: Countdown", ENT Season 1 Blu-ray special features) Also regarding the first day's filming, Dominic Keating remembered, "When I took that first step up onto the bridge, and Jim Conway said, 'Action,' it was like… well, here goes." ("To Boldly Go: Launching Enterprise, Part II: Boarding the NX-01", ENT Season 1 Blu-ray special features)
For one of his auditions, Dominic Keating was supposed to receive plasma coils for a prop for the scene and instead received another prop in the mail. He ended up going to the audition pretending that the water bottle he had brought with him was a plasma coil. In the episode "Broken Bow," during the first scene featuring Lt. Malcolm Reed, something similar occurred where Reed was supposed to receive plasma coils and instead received something else. Whether or not this is a reference to Keating's audition is uncertain.
 The first day of this episode's production that involved John Billingsley incorporated the shooting of a scene he had auditioned with, when trying out for his role as Phlox. Though Billingsley had incorporated bird-like squawking in the scene consistently throughout his audition process as well as in front of James Conway, performing the same sounds during filming turned out to be unsuccessful. Dominic Keating happened to be on the set at the same time as the scene was being shot. Conway, meanwhile, was behind the video control room when Billingsley delivered the animal noises. In response, the director suddenly started repeatedly shouting, "Cut." "And Jim walked out from behind video village on to the set," continued Keating, "and looked John square in the eye and went, 'Are you shitting me?!' And […] poor John. He just went, 'Listen, I'm not married to it." Nonetheless, the scene stayed exactly the same as it had been when Billingsley had auditioned with it. ("To Boldly Go: Launching Enterprise, Part II: Boarding the NX-01", ENT Season 1 Blu-ray special features)
 One of Vince Deadrick, Jr.'s favorite stunts came in this episode. This stunt had a Suliban-playing performer drop from the ceiling right into the camera, showing Klaang's perspective of a Suliban dropping down on top of him. Remembering how the performer who played the Suliban was involved in this successful stunt, Deadrick stated, "We had him on a ratchet or decelerator, and his nose actually ends up touching the frame of the lens […] That was a fun shot to do. I felt really proud of that one." ()
 Having witnessed the enormity of the making of the pilot episode for science fiction television series Terra Nova, Brannon Braga feels "Broken Bow" was made on an even bigger scale than that other pilot episode, which was touted by the media as "the biggest, most expensive pilot ever made." Braga pointed out, "Enterprise was the biggest pilot I've ever worked on. Even adjusted for inflation, it probably was more expensive too. And the number of days… It was like a feature film." The making of this outing was a mixed experience for Braga, who later described it as "a ton of fun," "great" but also "stressful" and "a miserable time." Braga especially found it difficult to completely enjoy the filming of this episode, because he was extremely anxious about hiring a regular Enterprise writing staff before the pilot wrapped production. ("To Boldly Go: Launching Enterprise, Part II: Boarding the NX-01", ENT Season 1 Blu-ray special features)
 Unsure whether Enterprise would be broadcast with an aspect ratio of square-like 4:3 or widescreen 16:9, James Conway framed shots in this episode so that they were suitable regardless of whichever aspect ratio was used. ("To Boldly Go: Launching Enterprise, Part II: Boarding the NX-01", ENT Season 1 Blu-ray special features) The episode's production was at first complicated by the fact that the type of film initially used for shooting the series had to be compatible with DVD formats, causing Director of Photography Marvin Rush to make some choices he might otherwise have made differently. Production Designer Herman Zimmerman later noted, "We had some learning curves we had to assimilate the first few days of shooting, knowing that we were heading in that direction." ()
 During the first week of this installment's shooting period, Rick Berman and the principal cast of Enterprise took a break from filming on the Enterprise bridge set, which was on Paramount Stage 18. This was done in order to film a short presentation in which Berman introduced Scott Bakula, who proceeded to introduce the rest of the cast, including John Billingsley without Phlox's makeup and costume. ("Cast Introduction", ENT Season 1 Blu-ray special features)
 This episode's production schedule consisted of more than seventeen days, at which point, Rick Berman stated, "We're half-way done with [it]." () James Conway once referred to his duration on the episode as having been "five months." ("To Boldly Go: Launching Enterprise, Part III: First Flight", ENT Season 1 Blu-ray special features)
 This episode's production incorporated an unusual amount of location filming. Noted James Conway, "It was a very location-heavy show […] We were on location more than we weren't. And we had very specific looks we had to do." ("To Boldly Go: Launching Enterprise, Part II: Boarding the NX-01", ENT Season 1 Blu-ray special features) Conway elaborated, "We did two days in Bakersfield [California] […] and then we were three days at a water treatment plant and one day in an electrical power plant, and one day at Malibu, so we were out quite a bit." (, p. 47) Bakersfield was used for the sequence depicting the Broken Bow Incident, standing in for Broken Bow itself, whereas Malibu stood in for Hoshi Sato's Brazilian outdoor classroom as well as some of its surroundings and Malibu's Zuma Beach was used for the beach scenes that feature in Archer's flashbacks. (text commentary, ENT Season 1 DVD) Rigel X scenes were filmed at the Redondo Power Plant and Hyperion Water Treatment Plant. ( text commentary, ENT Season 4 DVD) James Conway and Herman Zimmerman had "a lot of fun" capturing footage at the power plants and in Bakersfield respectively, though Conway later described the location work at the power plants as "the most difficult thing we shot," due to the fact that arranging these locations turned out to be "very time-consuming." There were several additions made to the locations for this production; a futuristic-looking grain silo and newly grown corn were added to the site selected in Bakersfield and atmospheric elements such as steam, dripping water and lights were taken to the power plants, with soap flakes used as snow in the seemingly outdoors footage set on Rigel X. ("To Boldly Go: Launching Enterprise, Part II: Boarding the NX-01", ENT Season 1 Blu-ray special features) The filming in Malibu likewise involved the addition of a yawning and the classroom itself. (text commentary, ENT Season 1 DVD) The footage taken in Bakersfield was shot on 12 and 13 June 2001, whereas the scenes captured in Malibu were filmed on 19 June 2001. ("Broken Bow" call sheets & production reports) The late June filming of the Malibu scenes was near the end of the episode's shooting schedule. (text commentary, ENT Season 1 DVD)
 On a night before one of the days which was scheduled for filming at the water treatment plant, a party for foreign advertising was held on the Paramount lot, at which free alcohol was served. After a considerably drunk Connor Trinneer took four bottles of alcohol from behind the bar without authorization and went home, he participated in the film shoot the next day then proceeded to return home, where he received a phone call from Rick Berman. Trinneer, regretting his actions during the previous night, worried that Berman was calling to fire him for stealing the bottles but Berman's motive for making the call, much to the actor's relief, was actually because the producers of Enterprise had decided to change the first name of Trinneer's role from Spike to Trip. ("To Boldly Go: Launching Enterprise, Part II: Boarding the NX-01", ENT Season 1 Blu-ray special features)

 Encompassing seven layers of foul-smelling latex, the physical design of the butterfly dancers took nine hours to be painted. Diane Klimaszewski, who played the blue butterfly dancer, passed out and vomited due to the appliances. Despite these physical reactions to the latex, she considered the episode as being worth the discomfort. Regarding the experience of creating the scene in which she herself and twin sister Elaine Klimaszewski played the pair of aliens, Diane recalled, "We each had our own trailer and we were filming by the beach, near a water treatment plant. I had my trailer door open, so passers-by would look in and freak out to see this alien!" ()
 The scene showing Archer being transported, while running, from the Suliban Helix to the transporter platform aboard Enterprise involved live-action footage whose filming was organized by James Conway. ("To Boldly Go: Launching Enterprise, Part II: Boarding the NX-01", ENT Season 1 Blu-ray special features) The shot took a long time to prepare for filming, as it challenged the visual effects artists. "I am sure most of the crew wondered why we took so much time setting up that shot, but it was really hard and took a lot of time to make it work right," stated Visual Effects Supervisor Ronald B. Moore. ("Introduction", Flying Starships) Moore continued, "We had set up a shot and Jim really wanted to get it. It was getting close to the end of the shoot […] When Jim set up the camera for this thing, he [Scott Bakula] was running right towards the camera." ("To Boldly Go: Launching Enterprise, Part II: Boarding the NX-01", ENT Season 1 Blu-ray special features)
 While directing this outing, James Conway endeavored to embellish it with "as many dynamic angles as I could find a way to put in." (, p. 47) He filmed "every possible, cool angle I could find on the [Enterprise ship] sets." Conway went on to recall, "I also wanted the style of the show, as I directed the pilot, to not look like the other shows. And so, if you look at the show, you'll see one shot becomes another. There's often times that the camera's on somebody and it racks to this, or it's on somebody and it pans to that. So, the camera is helping discover us along the way, instead of the classic big wide shot, medium shot, close-up. I tried to use the camera in a very interesting way, to make it feel different and stand out." ("To Boldly Go: Launching Enterprise, Part II: Boarding the NX-01", ENT Season 1 Blu-ray special features) Despite thinking that the eventual version of the episode includes "a lot of dynamic shots" as well as "a lot of pace and energy," he also believes it contains no filming techniques that set it too far apart from the earlier-made Star Trek productions. (, p. 47)
 Ultimately, James Conway – a director of fourteen previous televised Star Trek episodes – discovered that he was well-suited to the shooting of such an historically important installment of Star Trek as this. "Having been a fan, and having directed all those episodes and being fluent with all of the Star Trek stuff," he related, "it enabled me to completely understand all of the jokes and all of the subtext and be able to translate them to film." (, p. 47)
 James Conway additionally found that the episode's production "ran very smoothly." "Our hours weren't too bad […] Given all those things [the multitude of new sets and complex action sequences as well as the rare length of time spent on location], and with all the complications that we had, I thought it went incredibly well." (, p. 47) In addition, Conway reminisced, "The shooting was a delight, I had a great time every day […] [It was] a great way to spend five months." ("To Boldly Go: Launching Enterprise, Part II: Boarding the NX-01", ENT Season 1 Blu-ray special features)
 Although the production team were initially told Enterprise would be shown with a boxy aspect ratio of 4:3, this was not the selection made by television network UPN. "At the last minute," said James Conway, "UPN finally said, 'Okay, we'll go widescreen.' So, I went back in and […] every scene, I had to reframe visually in the bay, and futz with almost every shot to make sure it was framed properly." ("To Boldly Go: Launching Enterprise, Part II: Boarding the NX-01", ENT Season 1 Blu-ray special features)

Sets 
 The large wooden door of the Klingon High Council Chamber was later re-used as the door to the Vulcan monastery at P'Jem in the first season episode . ("The Andorian Incident", text commentary, ENT Season 1 DVD special feature)

Visual effects
 For the visual effects artists who participated in this episode's creation, the aim was simply (in Dan Curry's words) "to do the best work we've ever done." The workload they were presented with was an extraordinary challenge, though. "The pilot has over 300 effects shots in it; a lot of movies don't have that many, and they probably have more than a month or two to do them!" exclaimed Ron Moore. (, p. 24) Given the pilot's extreme workload of visual effects shots, Moore considered it fortunate that the episode was the only one which his department had to concentrate on, at that time. ("To Boldly Go: Launching Enterprise, Part II: Boarding the NX-01", ENT Season 1 Blu-ray special features)
 In order to tackle the massive amount of work, the in-house VFX team from Paramount brought in both of their regular CGI vendors, Foundation Imaging and Eden FX. Foundation was assigned to handle most of the space shots whereas Eden was principally brought in to deal with CG elements which had to be added to live-action footage. (, p. 24)
 The workload was so enormous that, at Foundation Imaging, Robert Bonchune had to divide his supervising duties with David Morton. "This is the biggest thing we've ever done for Star Trek. We had over 70 shots, so it's a huge show," related Bonchune. "Dave Morton and I split the roles on the pilot. He supervised the gas giant stuff; I supervised model construction and space sequences." (, p. 24)
 To make sure all the visual effects could be approved as quickly as possible, Dan Curry and his boss, Supervising Producer Peter Lauritson, regularly visited the CGI vendors instead of waiting for the companies to deliver their input. This freed Ron Moore from having to supervise the incoming shots and, as an alternative, he devoted himself to overseeing the compositing work at CIS Hollywood. (, p. 24)
 The pace was frantic, especially because the VFX artists were unwilling to compromise on quality. (, p. 24) "The thing that I stressed to our vendor companies and the staff," said Dan Curry, "is that the technology to create visual effects is available to anyone who wants to invest in the hardware, so what we have to do is make sure that we try to approach everything with superior artistry and thinking; we try to make sure that each shot informs the audience about what's going on and delights them with images and surprises." (, p. 25) Curry relished the adrenaline involved in the frenetic approach to delivering the VFX and the process worked well, with all the shots being completed on time. (, p. 24)
 One of the first shots that Eden FX did for this episode was that of the wrecked Klingon ship in the cornfield. In common with the other shots they delivered, this involved adding a CG element to live-action footage. (, p. 27) An establishing wide shot of Amazon University was an obvious visual effect. Subtler VFX were used to expand the spacedock observation deck, adding an additional level to the room and making the audience larger. Phlox's immunocytic gel worms were also depicted with CGI. (text commentary, ENT Season 1 DVD) Additionally, Eddie Robison added digital tongue-extensions for the butterfly girls. ()
 Showing the Suliban's extraordinary physical maneuvers and some of their technology in this pilot episode represented other challenges. In fact, adding a pre-echo effect to all the footage set in the temporal chamber was one of the most difficult effects in the whole episode. (, p. 28) Midway through the installment's post-production schedule, Dan Curry explained, "Ron [Moore] has, working with Paul Hill at CIS, been focusing on the temporal chamber stuff […] And I've been focusing on, among other things, the Suliban's [dislocation ability], again working with John Teska out of Foundation." ()
 As the live-action footage of Scott Bakula running aboard the Suliban Helix had been filmed without blue screen, the task of getting a matte for the visual effect shot of Archer simultaneously being transported off the Helix was made much more difficult. It thus challenged the visual effects artists to an enormous degree. "It was very, very complex," admitted Ron Moore. "It was a very hard shot, which always surprised me [because] it was [simply] a transporter." ("To Boldly Go: Launching Enterprise, Part II: Boarding the NX-01", ENT Season 1 Blu-ray special features) Moore even found the visual effect was the most difficult one in this whole episode. ("Introduction", Flying Starships)
 Entirely CG models were used for not only the Suliban but also the starship Enterprises senior officers; this signified the first time such models were utilized for the regular characters of a Star Trek series. Regarding these digitized versions of Enterprise crew members, John Gross – a co-founder of Eden FX – said, "They were used a lot in the pilot." (, p. 28)
 By the time the group finished their task of completing a total of over three hundred VFX shots, all members of the team were exhausted but happy with the experience. (, p. 30) Recalling his favorite shots from the first two seasons of Enterprise, David Morton remarked, "I quite enjoyed working on the pilot, actually." He found devising the look of the gas giant's blue cloud interiors was fun and Fred Pienkos similarly cited the Rigel X complex as a favorite example of his own work from the same timespan, whereas Eddie Robison enjoyed depicting the butterfly girls' enormous tongues. ()

Music and sound
 The episode's score, composed by Dennis McCarthy, was recorded on  and  at Paramount Stage M. Despite the events of the second day and the offer to postpone the recording session, McCarthy and the orchestra decided to continue with the schedule. McCarthy later described this, in the liner notes to the episode's soundtrack release, as "the hardest recording session of my entire career."
 The score was released by Decca Records in .
 At one point, Dennis McCarthy cited this episode, which had an enormous impact on the style of music typically used for the series of Enterprise, as one of his favorites from all the Star Trek outings he ever worked on. "Rick [Berman] came in and I played the first cue, which was thunderous," remembered McCarthy, "and he just said, 'Great, that's our style down." (In Conversation: The Music of Star Trek: The Next Generation, TNG Season 5 Blu-ray special features)
 During shots set on the NX-01 bridge, background sound effects from the TOS Enterprise bridge can be heard.
 An instrumental version of the Enterprise theme song, "Where My Heart Will Take Me", plays over the closing credits of this episode.

Continuity
 By Star Treks fictional chronology, this is the earliest episode of all  TV series.
 Like previous spin-off premieres, the new crew of Enterprise was sent off by a character who made a crossover from a previous role; in this case, Zefram Cochrane returned, having previously appeared in both  and  (played by Glenn Corbett and James Cromwell respectively, the latter of whom reprised the role in an uncredited capacity for this installment). Unlike previous spin-off premieres, Cochrane was not a main character from a series that directly preceded the new series. In the previous cases, Doctor McCoy was seen briefly in the  pilot, ; Captain Jean-Luc Picard appeared in the  pilot, ; and Quark had a cameo appearance in the  pilot, , in which Morn also appeared.
 Sections of Zefram Cochrane's speech were taken from the opening narrations heard in the title sequences of The Original Series and The Next Generation.
 Porthos is the only character, besides the regulars, to appear in both this episode and the finale of the series,  (although technically, all Enterprise-related characters in the last episode are holograms created by the 's holodeck).
 Young Jonathan Archer's miniature starship that features herein reappears in the Season 3 episode .
 The series finale of Enterprise, "These Are the Voyages…", establishes that Rigel X was additionally the last place visited by Enterprise before its decommission in 2161.
 This episode marked the first appearance of the Denobulans, in the form of Phlox, although the name of his species was not revealed until .
 This episode portrays the first contact between Earth and the Klingon Empire. In , Jean-Luc Picard stated that "disastrous" first contact with Klingons led to "decades of war". The Klingon-Human first contact as depicted in this episode did not appear to be "disastrous" or lead to war. However, his comment could be a 24th century re-interpretation of those events or even refer to the Vulcan-Klingon first contact in 2016, which indeed ended in the destruction of a Vulcan ship and was followed by several violent encounters.
 Both Vulcans and Klingons had been prominently featured in every Star Trek series prior to their appearance in "Broken Bow". Similarly, Benzites, Corvallens, Rotciv, and Markalians (in a deleted scene) all appear in "Broken Bow" after already appearing in an earlier Star Trek production.
 This episode establishes that the facial appearance of the Klingons, prior to the 23rd century, was much as it was in the 24th century; the Klingons in this outing appear with distinctive forehead ridges, in common with how they were established in Star Trek productions created subsequently to the making of the original series, set in the 23rd century. An explanation for the differences between how they are depicted in this era and their appearance in TOS was finally provided in the ENT Season 4 episodes  and .
 The events of this episode, including Klaang's rescue and Archer's encounter with the Klingon High Council, are subsequently referenced in , , , , and . Furthermore, the Broken Bow Incident is one of the items Grat discusses with Archer in .
 The Temporal Cold War plot, which began in this episode, was continued in  and concluded in . The arc was intended to carry throughout the run of the series, but was mostly scrapped when the series took on a "new direction" in its third season.
 The scene in which Archer inspects Enterprise in drydock with Tucker is reminiscent of the scene in  in which Kirk looks over the  with Montgomery Scott, or less notably, the scene in  featuring Captain Picard and Lieutenant Yar.
 Although Enterprise sets course for an inhabited planet at the end of the episode, the next episode, , establishes that no lifeforms were encountered after this episode except for Sluggo.
 The feelings of hostility and distrust that many Humans, including Jonathan Archer, are shown to feel towards Vulcans is reminiscent of doctor Leonard McCoy's feelings about Vulcans. Additionally, as a child Archer used the derogatory nickname "Pointy" to refer to Soval. McCoy also references Spock's pointy ears when calling him names.

Reception
 Rick Berman was extremely enthusiastic about this episode during its production. Seventeen days into the installment's shooting schedule, Berman gave an interview in which he said of the pilot, "It is everything I had hoped it would be," and remarked that the episode's revelation of the Vulcans having been "rather patronizing" to Humans historically is "learned by the audience in a very entertaining fashion." Berman also commented about the selection of James Conway as the director of this outing, saying, "He couldn't have been a better choice because […] the stuff we're getting from him is all pure gold." () Berman has repeatedly expressed, in hindsight, that he thinks this episode was "terrific." (; "In Conversation: Rick Berman and Brannon Braga", ENT Season 1 Blu-ray special features) During production on the third season of Enterprise, he cited it as the episode he was "probably" most proud of, out of all the installments he wrote. "It's something I'm very proud of," he commented. () In , he named this episode as one of his favorites from all the outings he himself worked on.  In , Berman revealed a fondness for how one of the antagonist Vulcans is assigned aboard Enterprise but he criticized the first uses of both the phase-pistol and, at least for beaming a lifeform, the transporter in this episode, saying these came too early in the run of the series. ("In Conversation: Rick Berman and Brannon Braga", ENT Season 1 Blu-ray special features)
 Brannon Braga was generally happy with this installment too; he termed it "certainly the most ambitious" of Star Treks pilot episodes and went on to say, "If you look at the sheer amount of action sequences and production value, it was pretty impressive." () Braga also expressed, "I don't wanna sound self-aggrandizing, but I think it's the best Star Trek pilot all around. Maybe in part because the people making it had been there a while and they'd worked on all of them and perfected what they were doing. I don't know […] One of the great things in the pilot I love is a really simple premise, that we have to take a Klingon back to his homeworld, and we lose him," said Braga with a chuckle, "like, in the first leg of the journey." Braga also agreed with Rick Berman's opinion that, once used in this episode, the novelty of the phase-pistol and biological transporting wore off. ("In Conversation: Rick Berman and Brannon Braga", ENT Season 1 Blu-ray special features)
 James Conway was ecstatically pleased with how this pilot episode wound up, from a creative perspective. "I was very happy with the quality of what we were getting," he reflected. "When I saw the edited movie, I said, 'This is really good." ("To Boldly Go: Launching Enterprise, Part II: Boarding the NX-01", ENT Season 1 Blu-ray special features)
 In a 2012 interview, David A. Goodman called this outing "the best pilot of any of the sequel series." 
 After Ron Moore finished his work on this outing, Scott Bakula discussed the episode's visual effects with him. "[He] asked me what the hardest effect we did on the show was," recalled Moore. "He was surprised when I told him that it was a transporter shot where he was running toward the camera when he beamed out." ("Introduction", Flying Starships)
 The first footage from this episode that was seen by Connor Trinneer was viewed by him after he had completed his work on seven episodes of the series; he glimpsed sections of the pilot while rerecording lines of dialogue in a "looping" session. In an interview with Star Trek Communicator later that day, Trinneer declared, "The graphics and effects are unbelievable. It all looks outstanding. And it's a real experience seeing yourself in it all." ()
 Prior to the show's telecast premiere, UPN ran a pre-recorded message in which Scott Bakula urged viewers to donate blood to the  in the aftermath of the . The episode premiered just two weeks after those attacks.
 TV commercials promoting the series premiere incorporated the song "Wherever You Will Go" by The Calling.
 A certain amount of controversy was sparked when it was decided to have the Klingons appear as they did after The Original Series – with their trademark forehead ridges. This at first caused much speculation and debate among fans as to how the race had evolved from having bony ridges on their foreheads, in this episode, to having smooth foreheads in Kirk's era. ()
 This pilot episode was given a special premiere at the Paramount Theater, at Paramount Studios.  While the episode's end credits were being shown at the cast and crew screening, Fred Dekker began to suspect the forthcoming series might be received well by fans, despite the fact the debut broadcast was set for just a fortnight after the September 11 attacks. "It was terrific and exciting, watching that first episode," Dekker commented, "and I think we all felt like we were part of something very special." ()
 On its network premiere, this episode achieved a Nielsen rating of 7.0 and was watched by a total average of 12.54 million viewers, gaining a 16% share among adults aged eighteen to forty-nine, the show's target audience.  Regarding the Nielsen figure, Brannon Braga rhetorically asked, "Do you know how big that is by today's standards?" ("To Boldly Go: Launching Enterprise, Part III: First Flight", ENT Season 1 Blu-ray special features) Consulting Producer David A. Goodman remarked that the episode received "great ratings." ("Part One: Call to Arms", ENT Season 3 Blu-ray special features) The fact that the episode was viewed by an average of 12.5 million viewers made it UPN's best Wednesday night rating, and its second highest-rate night of all time (after its launch night, when  premiered). () Furthermore, Mayweather actor Anthony Montgomery proclaimed, "We had the second-highest numbers for 'Broken Bow', our pilot episode, of any show in Star Trek history." ("Part Two: Front Lines", ENT Season 3 Blu-ray special features) The pilot was well received by not only fans but also critics, earning positive reviews. James Conway was thrilled with the reactions to the episode. "The reviews were fantastic, and then the sixteen share. Not only that; it went up every half-hour, which is what you wanna see," he elucidated, "so nobody tuned out at any point and the ratings went up. Every half-hour, it got higher and higher and higher. So, that was the icing on the cake. So, in all ways, critically, audience-wise, creatively for me […] it was just the best." ("To Boldly Go: Launching Enterprise, Part II: Boarding the NX-01", ENT Season 1 Blu-ray special features) Of the episode's success, Braga commented, "We pretty much accomplished what we set out to do […] And the icing on the cake was the overwhelming response of the audience and critics. That was something we hoped and prayed would happen, but it exceeded our wildest expectations." ()
 When this episode first aired, its audience included Garfield and Judith Reeves-Stevens. "We loved it, and there were, you know, two great things in there that I remember seeing at the time," Garfield Reeves-Stevens reminisced. "One is the scene where Captain Archer runs across the snow-covered rooftop…" Laughing, Judith Reeves-Stevens added, "Guns blazing!" Her partner continued, "…with two phaser guns going, which was great." Judith Reeves-Stevens recalled, "Gar said, 'This is my kind of world." He himself went on to say, "And then, what was particularly good, we thought fit into the history of Star Trek so well, is that in the pilot of Enterprise, the Vulcans were bad guys." By depicting the Vulcans as antagonists, this episode, in the opinion of the Reeves-Stevenses, meshed well with the rest of Star Trek often portraying how species initially hostile to Humans later became their friends, such as with the Klingons in the 23rd century of TOS compared with how they are depicted in the 24th century of TNG. ("Before Her Time: Decommissioning Enterprise, Part One: New Voices", ENT Season 4 Blu-ray special features)
 This episode won the 2002 Emmy Award for Outstanding Special Visual Effects for a Series, beating out a later episode, , in the same category. "Broken Bow" also received Emmy nominations for its prosthetic makeup designs and for its sound editing. Although many people at Paramount treated the news of the Emmy win as old hat because Star Treks Emmys were most often won by the technical departments, Ron Moore liked coming to the set the next morning, as he had work there that day, and enjoyed talking to all his collaborators who were pleased for the visual effects artists. While Moore was on the set the same morning, one of the show's Assistant Directors let Moore know he had a phone call, a very rare event for him while on the set. The caller turned out to be Scott Bakula, who was calling to thank and congratulate the visual effects team, from New York. There, Bakula was holding up a show, which he was about to act in, just so he could make the call. Moore reminisced about the call, "It was the nicest thing, I'll never forget that." ("To Boldly Go: Launching Enterprise, Part III: First Flight", ENT Season 1 Blu-ray special features)
 When this installment was released on VHS,  rated the episode 5 out of 5 arrowhead insignias. () In the same publication's "Ultimate Guide", however, the episode was given only 4 out of 5 arrowhead insignias. ()
 The book Star Trek 101 (p. 260), by Terry J. Erdmann and Paula M. Block, lists this episode as one of the "Ten Essential Episodes" from Star Trek: Enterprise.
 The unofficial reference book Beyond the Final Frontier (p. 358) says about this pilot episode, "An excellent start, a clever bend of Star Trek traditions, like Klingons and alien dancing girls, and intriguing new elements like the time-traveling baddies and the spiky relationship with the Vulcans. An episode that introduces the new characters well, it has some nice variations in tone, from comedy to action. It's a shame the transporter is used as a deus ex machina – it's not so much that you see the solution coming, it's that after 700 previous episodes of Star Trek it's hard to get excited about seeing it."
 Several items from this episode were sold off on the It's A Wrap! sale and auction on eBay, including a language lecture computer  and a Suliban interrogation device.  The disruptor rifle used by Klaang at the beginning of this episode was also auctioned off in It's A Wrap! (item #2890), along with a Denobulan medical chest used by Phlox (item #480).

Production history 
 : Second draft script
 : James L. Conway receives a call from Rick Berman, asking him to direct this episode
 17-18 February 2001: James Conway considers the option of directing this episode, eventually accepting
 : Final draft script 
 : Original final draft script
 : Revised final draft script
 : Archival final draft script
 14 May 2001: Production commences
 22 May 2001: Several scenes are filmed at the Hyperion Water Treatment Plant, which stands in as Rigel X
 25 May 2001: Several scenes are filmed at the Redondo Power Plant, which stands in as Rigel X
 : Several scenes are filmed on Paramount Stage 18, including the "sun porch" flashback scenes, bridge scenes, and the scenes in the cramped crawlspace
 12 June 2001: Several scenes are filmed on location in Bakersfield, California, which stands in as Broken Bow, Oklahoma
 13 June 2001: Several scenes are filmed on location in Bakersfield, California, which stands in as Broken Bow, Oklahoma
 19 June 2001: Final day of principle photography, with four scenes filmed on location in Malibu
 : First day of recording on the episode's score at Paramount Stage M, conducted by Dennis McCarthy
 11 September 2001: Despite two large-scale terrorist attacks that take place in the USA on this day, Dennis McCarthy and the orchestra elect to continue recording on the score at Paramount Stage M, rather than postpone the session
 26 September 2001: Premiere airdate

Video and DVD releases 
 UK VHS release (two-episode tapes, Paramount Home Entertainment): Volume 1.1, catalog number VHR 5325, 
 As part of the UK VHS collection Enterprise 1.1-1.3 Collectors Edition: 
 As part of the ENT Season 1 DVD collection
 As part of the Star Trek: Fan Collective - Klingon collection
 As part of the ENT Season 1 Blu-ray collection

Links and references

Also Starring 
 John Fleck as Silik
 Melinda Clarke as Sarin
 Tommy 'Tiny' Lister, Jr. as Klaang
 Vaughn Armstrong as Maxwell Forrest
 Jim Beaver as Daniel Leonard
 Mark Moses as Henry Archer
 Gary Graham as Soval
 Thomas Kopache as Tos
 Jim Fitzpatrick as 
 James Horan as the Humanoid Figure
 Joseph Ruskin as Suliban Doctor

Co-Stars 
 Marty Davis as Young Archer
 Van Epperson as Alien Man
 Ron King as 
 Peter Henry Schroeder as Klingon Chancellor
 Matt Williamson as Klingon Council Member
 Byron Thames as Crewman
 Ricky Luna as 
 Jason Grant Smith as Crewman 
 Chelsea Bond as Alien Mother
 Ethan Dampf as Alien Child
 Diane Klimaszewski as Dancer
 Elaine Klimaszewski as Dancer

Uncredited Co-Stars 
 Tyler Abrams as linguistic student
 Antony Acker as Vulcan delegate
 F. Alekseyeva as Human civilian
 Paul Ambrose as Klingon council dignitary
 David Keith Anderson as Human civilian
 Adam Anello as Starfleet guard
 Jef Ayres as Haynem
 Michael Bailous as Klingon council guard
 Kenneth Beck as Human civilian
 Suzanne Bianqui as alien woman
 Richard Bishop as Klingon council dignitary
 Woody Bosco as Human civilian
 Connie Bosmans as Vulcan delegate
 Rafael Boza as linguistic student
 Margery Bradbard as Starfleet admiral
 Michael Braveheart as Klingon council guard
 Solomon Burke, Jr. as 
 B. Burton as Human civilian
 Paulo Caillile as linguistic student
 Sofie Calderon as sciences crewman
 Yvonne Carlson as alien woman
 Mario Carter as operations crewman
 Manuel Cazz as linguistic student
 Gina Chai as Human civilian
 Michael Chong as scientist
 Glenn Clarke as Starfleet Medical doctor
 Marijane Cole as Human civilian
 Darrick Collins as Klingon council member
 Cecilia Conn as command crewman
 Mark Correy as Alex
 James Cromwell as Zefram Cochrane
 Irina Davidoff as scientist
 Vince Deadrick, Jr. as security crewman
 Kitty DeCarlo as alien woman
 Janet Dey as Human civilian
 Sandro DiPinto as sciences crewman
 Milton James Donaldson as Human civilian
 Dene Doucette as alien hooker (deleted scene)
 Renae Duran as linguistic student
 Bob Earns as Vulcan delegate
 Evan English as Tanner
 L. English as Human civilian
 Alyssa Espinoza as linguistic student
 Heather Ettinger as alien woman
 Mimi Fisher as 
 Susan Foley as Starfleet Medical nurse
 Stacy Fouche as operations crewman
 Devinna Garcia as linguistic student
 Edwin Garcia as linguistic student
 Hilde Garcia as Rossi (deleted scene)
 Lindly Gardner as operations crewman
 Hank Gartrel as Human civilian
 N. Gehr as Human civilian
 Maria Celeste Genitempo as Human civilian
 Angela Giampietro as alien Woman
 Mel Gold as alien man
 Amos Goss as Klingon council guard
 Nelson Grande as linguistic student
 Ken Gruz as Klingon council member
 Whitney Hall as Lorillian woman
 J. Harris as Human civilian
 Alberto Hector as linguistic student
 Jason Henson as Klingon council member
 Dieter Hornemann as Vulcan delegate
 Aldric Horton as operations crewman
 Cheri Isabella as operations crewman
 Clynell Jackson III as Klingon council member
 Roman James as Starfleet Rear Admiral
 Lydia Jay as Guppi
 Betty Jimenez as linguistic student
 Connie Kang as linguistic student
 Debra Lamb Bailleaux as female "fire eater" alien (deleted scene)
 Steven Lambert as Suliban agent
 Kristin Lindquist as Human civilian
 Sven Lindstrom as linguistic student
 James Lozano as linguistic student
 Judy Maizel as Guppi
 Mark Major as Rigel X alien
 Betty Matsushita as Human civilian
 Christy Melendrez as linguistic student
 R. Michael as Human civilian
 Marlene Mogavero as operations crewman
 Simone Montanti as Human civilian
 Shauna Moore as scientist
 Gilbert Morales as linguistic student
 Erika Mueller as alien woman
 Arthur Murray as Markalian dock crewman (deleted scene)
 Nikole as alien hooker
 Carmen Nogales as operations crewman
 Bart Noggle as Klingon council member
 J. Nunez as Human civilian
 Stephanie Nunez as linguistic student
 W. Oldford as Human civilian
 Glenn Ota as Benzite on Rigel X
 Sonia Parikh as linguistic student
 Monica Parrett as command crewman
 Deryl Patterson as Klingon council member
 Susan Pingleton as Guppi (deleted scene)
 Alexander Xavier Ponce-Bonano as Suliban soldier
 Woody Porter as Starfleet rear admiral
 Prada as Porthos
 Sandra Quoos as linguistic student
 Leslie Redden as alien hooker
 David Richards as Markalian dockmaster (deleted scene)
 Larry Richards as Rigel X Central Security officer
 Cesar Rodriguez as linguistic student
 R. Rosenberg as Human civilian
 Willis Sands as Klingon council member
 Mark Savant as Starfleet Medical doctor
 Tobias Schonleitner as Vulcan delegate
  as Human civilian
 Mernoosh Shazadi as Starfleet vice admiral
 Paul Sklar as Suliban
 Pablo Soriano as
 Human civilian
 Klingon council member
 Joel Steingold as Human civilian
 Darryl Stewart as Starfleet admiral
 Quint Strack as command crewman
 Max Thayer as Human civilian
 A. Thomas as Human civilian
 M. Tucker as Human civilian
 Thelma Tyrell as operations crewman
 Cynthia Uhrich as operations crewman
 John Wan as operations crewman
 Mark Watson as Human civilian
 Mike Watson as Suliban agent
 Gary Weeks as operations crewman
 Todd Wieland as Starfleet guard
 David Williams as scientist
 K. Williams as Human civilian
 Curtis Wong as Klingon council member
 Stuart Wong as Klingon council member
 Jon Wright as Markalian dock crewman (deleted scene)
 Unknown performers as
 Two aliens with ridged brows
 Corvallen female
 Guppi 1
 Markalian visitor
 Two Rotciv males
 Rigel X aliens 4, 5, 6

Stunt Doubles  
 John Duff as running double for Tommy 'Tiny' Lister, Jr.
 Diamond Farnsworth as stunt double for Scott Bakula
 Lisa Hoyle as stunt double for Jolene Blalock
 Jeff Sanders as stunt double for Tommy 'Tiny' Lister, Jr.
 Mike Watson as stunt double for Connor Trinneer

Stand-ins 
 David Anderson – 
 Stand-in for Anthony Montgomery
 Stand-in for Peter Henry Schroeder
 Stand-in for Paul Sklar
 Stand-in for Steven Lambert
 Stand-in for Mike Watson
 Stand-in for John Fleck (splinter unit)
 Kenneth Beck – stand-in for Vaughn Armstrong
 Larry Carroll – stand-in for Tommy 'Tiny' Lister, Jr.
 Gina Chai – stand-in for Linda Park
 Amy Kate Connolly – 
 Stand-in for Melinda Clarke
 Stand-in for Linda Park
 Utility stand-in
 Evan English – 
 Stand-in for Dominic Keating
 Stand-in for John Fleck
 Stand-in for Ricky Luna
 Anthony Gaffe – stand-in for David Richards
 Gregory Hinton – stand-in for Tommy 'Tiny' Lister, Jr.
 Simone Montanti – 
 Stand-in and hand double for Jolene Blalock
 Stand-in for Diane Klimaszewski
 Stand-in for Elaine Klimaszewski
 Mike Muñoz – stand-in for Marty Davis
 J.R. Quinonez – 
 Stand-in for John Billingsley
 Utility stand-in
 Richard Sarstedt – 
 Stand-in for Scott Bakula
 Stand-in for Mark Moses
 Stand-in for Joseph Ruskin
 Stand-in for Steve Lambert
 Stand-in for Ron King
 Stand-in for Jason Grant Smith
 Stand-in for James Horan
 Pablo Soriano – 
 Stand-in for Vince Deadrick, Jr.
 Stand-in for Mike Watson
 Stand-in for Scott Bakula (splinter unit)
 Utility stand-in
 Mark Watson – stand-in for Connor Trinneer

References 
2119; 2121; ability; Altarian marsupial; alveoli; ambassador; analogy; anatomy; analysis; April; armory officer; astronaut; atmosphere; autonomic system; autosequencer; auxiliary power; : bearing; bio-mimetic garment; bio-transport; Big Sur Aquarium; boomer; boot; bow plate; Brazil; breadstick; breathing; Broken Bow; Broken Bow Incident; bronchial lobe; butterfly; ; California Clipper; cannibal; cargo ship; carnivore; case; cauterization; ; century; chaperone; ; Chinese food; clock; ; color; communications officer; corn; cornfield; corpse; Corvallen; courier; crash landing; cyclohexane; data stream; decay rate; decontamination chamber; dedication ceremony; deflector; density; dialect; distant future; DNA; doctor; Draylax; Draylaxian; droppings; dust; Earth; Earth sea level; egg drop soup; endocrine system; ethical beliefs; espionage; exam; farmer (corn farmer); fifth grade; fire; First Contact; flattery; ; ; fourth grade; fruit; gas giant; generation; genetic engineering; geothermal energy; Grand Canyon; grav generator; hay; heart; helmsman; hologram; honor; hull; immunocytic gel worm; inspection pod; Interspecies Medical Exchange; intimate contact; ion storm; Jelik; Jupiter; Klingon; Klingon disruptor; Klingon Empire; Klingon High Council; Klingon language; Klingon warbird; lateral sensor array; lead; lead ship; leave of absence; lightning; life span; linguistic database; liquid; logic; long range sensor; Lorillian; mag-lock; McIntyre; medical officer; metaphor; meter; methane; methyl oxide; military installation; Milky Way Galaxy; model; molecule; nacelle housing; natural selection; Neptune; neural function; newcomer; nitrogen sulfide; non-humanoid; noun; Oklahoma; Orbital 6; Orbital Drydock Facility; osmotic eel; paint; paint brush; phase-pistol; phonetic processor; phosphorus; pitch control; Plan B; plasma coil; plasma rifle; plating team; pointy; polarity; postcard; prefrontal cortex; primitive species; protocystian spore; Qo'noS; radiation; ranking officer; regenerative enzyme; remote control; remote controlled model spaceship; reprimand; retina; Rigel X; Rigel X shuttles; Rigel system; Rigelian; San Francisco; sarcasm; Sausalito; science officer; scope; scout ship; Sector 3641; sense of smell; sensor log; shower; ; Shuttlepod 2; silo; sixth grade; snowstorm; spatial disturbance; ; spectral analysis; spy; squadron; starbase; Starfleet Medical; stealth; stethoscope; storm; subcutaneous pigment sac; suffocation; Suliban; ; ; Suliban helix; Suliban homeworld; Suliban pistol; sweet spot; syntax; teeth; Teneebian moons; thermosphere; Tholia; tick; toilet; tongue; transporter (transporting device); tricyclic plasma drive; Trillius Prime; Tucker's grandma; valve sealant; vegetable; vegetarian; Vulcan; Vulcan Compound; Vulcan High Command; Vulcan ship; Vulcan star charts; Vulcan transport; warp; Warp Five Complex; warp five engine; warp trail; warrior; weaning; womb

Dedication plaque
; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; Flight Software; Flight Test Crew; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; Mission Operations; ; ; ; ; ; ; Orbital Ergonomics; ; ; ; Propulsion Systems; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; Spaceframe Engineering; Starfleet Charter; Starfleet Command; ; ; ; ; ; ; United Earth Space Probe Agency; ; Vehicle Development; ; ; ; ; ; ; ;

Opening credits
1889 V; 1892 III Holmes; 1892 V; Air Materiel Command; ; Apollo Lunar Module; Arabian Sea; Arctic Circle; ; Asia; ; atmosphere; Australia; balloon; Barnard; Bay of Bengal; Biela's Komet; blackboard; ; Ceylon; Deep Flight 1; d'Arrest; De Vico's Komet; ; Dutch language; ; ; ; Enke's Komet; ; ; equator; Faye's Komet; Finley; Flatey; Flight Test Division; g; German language; Glamorous Glennis; ; ; Huallfiord; Human explorers; Iceland; Indian Ocean; International Space Station; Italian language; Kara Sea; Long Island; Luna; Lunar colonies; Lundey; Mercury capsule; Mercury-Redstone Launch Vehicle; New Guinea; OV-165; Phoenix; Qo'noS capital; Rolsker; Saturn V; ; Sojourner; Solomons; space shuttle orbiter; Spacehab; Spirit of St. Louis; Tiornes; Winnecke's Komet; Wright Field; Wright Flyer; ; "Yogi"

Meta references 
Intertitle

Deleted material
amputation; appendage; approach vector; blister; biohazard clearance; dockmaster; Elkan Nine; explorer; frostbite; gangrene; ; privacy; pronominal base; radian; syntax

Unreferenced material
breakfast; Charlie; scrambled eggs; transport; stomach; warp core

External links 
 
 
 

cs:Broken Bow (epizoda)
de:Aufbruch ins Unbekannte, Teil I
es:Broken Bow
fr:Broken Bow (épisode)
it:Prima missione (episodio)
ja:ENT:夢への旅立ち
nl:Broken Bow
pl:Broken Bow (odcinek)
sv:Broken Bow
ENT episodes