Star Trek: 10 Greatest Filler Episodes
3. Daedalus
Star Trek: Enterprise's fourth season saw several longer-form stories take over, though nowhere near the season-long arc of the third year. Nestled between stories about Augments, Soongs, and Kir'sharas, there is Daedalus.
The human inventor of the transporter, Dr Emory Erickson, arrives on Enterprise to conduct experiments to improve the technology. An old friend of Archer's, their embrace is truly heartwarming. His true presence aboard - the attempt to save his son - is then heartbreaking.
With so much else going on in that final year for Enterprise, it's easy to overlook Daedalus as filler to pad the numbers but that would be an unfair assessment. It's another strong performance piece, it's got some important Starfleet history to boot, and serves a little breath of air before the action-packed second half of the season kicks off.