When Captain Archer and his crew left for deep space in Enterprise NX-01, they probably never imagined coming into contact with a species like the Suliban. Both terrifying and fascinating, they gave a layer to the show that made both the crew and viewers uneasy.
While the Suliban played a major antagonistic role throughout Star Trek: Enterprise, how much do we really know about them? Let's delve into their history and recall how they came into contact with Captain Archer and his crew.
The Suliban home world and the nomadic period
The Suliban originally lived on a planet in a sector charted as 3641. The inhabitants were generally non-aggressive and ruled their planet with a worldwide governing style.
Unfortunately, around 1850 in the Earth timeline, an environmental disaster destroyed the Suliban homeworld, and it became unable to support life. The Suliban had little choice but to leave and start new lives elsewhere. Many traveled to other worlds and assimilated themselves into the existing culture. Others wandered as nomads.
The Cabal
Some time before 2151, a faction of Suliban met an agent from The Temporal Cold War, a conflict between time travelers, with each of them working to ensure their preferred timeline becomes reality. Perhaps recognizing their potential usefulness, the agent gave these Suliban highly advanced technology and physical abilities, like the ability to change shape and camouflage themselves like chameleons. This new faction of Suliban called themselves the Cabal.
The aftermath of the Cabal attacks
When the Cabal began their attacks on other planets around 2241, non-Cabal individuals who had settled on these worlds began to experience bigotry as the general outlook on their people turned toward suspicion and anxiety. Some experienced internment in camps as fear of their species increased.
The Broken Bow incident
The Cabal Sulibans first came in contact with Captain Archer and his crew when two of them pursued a Klingon, Klaang, to Earth, where he crash-landed in Broken Bow, Oklahoma. He carries intelligence regarding the Suliban and their abilities, which he planned to deliver to Kronos and the Empire.
The Cabal then attacks Enterprise, and several of them manage to board the ship during the conflict. They manage to kidnap Klaang, but Enterprise and the crew intervene, and at last deliver the wounded Klingon back to his home world.
Of course, this is not the last time we see the Suliban and the extent of their strange abilities. The Cabal, in particular, continues to wreak havoc over the course of the next several years, including furthering their involvement in the Temporal Cold Wars. Perhaps we'll see them again if Star Trek: United, Enterprise's follow-up starring Scott Bakula, ever gets to television.