Enterprise Review: “Zero Hour” (Season Finale)

The Xindi story arc comes to an end. Or does it?

Zero Hour (Season Finale)

Cast & Crew

Director: Allan Kroeker
Written By: Rick Berman & Brannon Braga

Starring
Scott Bakula as Captain
Jonathan Archer
Connor Trinneer as Chief
Engineer Charles “Trip” Tucker III
Jolene Blalock as Sub-commander
T’Pol
Dominic Keating as Lt.
Malcolm Reed
Anthony Montgomery
as Ensign Travis Mayweather
Linda Park as Ensign Hoshi
Sato
John Billingsley
as Dr. Phlox

Guest Cast
Scott MacDonald as Reptilian Commander
Rick Worthy as Xindi-Arboreal
Tucker Smallwood as Xindi-Humanoid
Josette DiCarlo as Sphere-Builder Woman
Bruce Thomas as Reptilian Soldier
Andrew Borba as Reptilian Lieutenant
Matt Winston as Daniels
Mary Mara as Sphere-Builder Presage
Ruth Williamson as Sphere-Builder Primary
Jeffrey Combs as Shran
Gunter Ziegler as Doctor
J. Paul Boehmer as Officer
Zachary Krebs as Andorian

Episode Information

Originally Aired: May 26, 2004
Season: Three
Episode: Twenty-Four
Production: 076

What Happened

Aboard Degra’s ship, Archer, Reed and Hoshi work with the Arboreals and Humanoids to chase the Reptilians and stop the Xindi Weapon from decimating Earth. Archer’s plan is to board the weapon and try to overload the power systems, but he’ll need the help of an ailing Hoshi to read the weapon schematics.

Back in the Delphic Expanse, T’Pol leads the NX-01 in an attempt to obliterate Sphere 41 in hopes of disabling the entire network of Spheres. But the crew’s time is limited, as that region of space has a degenerative effect on their bodies, and the furious Sphere-Builders try to tear Enterprise apart.

Review

Excellent episode save for the very end. Was that necessary? We tied up some loose ends, got to see the Andorians and some cool fights. My question is, how are they going to reconcile this one? Enterprise didn’t do anything special. Are the Aquatics effected? The Andorians?

High Point

Must I pick? OK, the destruction of the spheres. Tense acting and great effects.

Low Point

For a moment I’d forgotten that B&B had written the episode. That was, until the “twist” ending. Damn, it was all going so well. By the way, that was a Reman at the episode closing (since virtually no one watched Nemesis, I figured some clarification was in order).

The Scores

Originality: Straight forward “Save the World” plot. 3 out of 6.

Effects: Very cool. 6 out of 6.

Story: A fairly satisfying end to the whole arc, and the twist (however far-fetched) will have us tuning in next Fall. 5 out of 6.

Acting: I like Shran. I really do. 4 out of 6.

Emotional Response: Very tense, right through to the end. 5 out of 6.

Production: Excellent as always. 5 out of 6

Overall: A bang-up finale. I’ll be waiting with baited breath for the outcome. 5 out of 6.

Total: 33 out of 42

Next Time on Star Trek: Enterprise

That’s it folks. Enterprise goes into Summer rerun mode till Fall. When it returns, it will be on Fridays. More info on Season Four will be posted here as I get it. Have a great Summer everyone!

Additional Notes and Comments

If you’re interested in what’s in TheAngryMob’s review queue, check out my What’s Coming page.

TheAngrymob

28 replies on “Enterprise Review: “Zero Hour” (Season Finale)”

  1. I thought it was pretty lame….(Spoilers)
    I sat through the whole thing, and really wondered why at the end. I mean, the effects were good and it’s a nice thing that the earth is safe again, but that was some really bad writing.

    Where to begin? OK, how about the 11th-hour rescue by Shran? WTF?!? So, we meet the guy in the expanse something like 10 episodes ago (no, I didn’t count) and he allegedly goes home. Then, right when it’s obvious that Archer (Luke) isn’t going to be able to defeat the Weapon (Death Star) before it destroys Earth (Yavvin), Shran (Han) appears out of nowhere and saves the day. Wow. That was original.

    Of course, that wasn’t even the end of the Death Star similarity. Not only do the bad guys have a big, sperical planet-killer, but it’s got some really great bridges over a terrible chasm…perfect for fighting, almost falling, etc. I found myself wondering where the light sabers were.

    And what’s with Phlox? That guy’s a wealth of just-in-time information. He comes up with a gas that will protect the crew from the spatial distortions right when it’s necessary…not in any previous episodes when it might have helped. Then when it’s apparent it won’t be effective long enough, he says, “OK, how about I give you more time?” It’s like listening to a used-car dealer. Then, after the sphere-builders start blowing people up and kneading all sorts of random equipment like bread dough, it’s the old doc to the rescue again: “hey, maybe you guys ought to modulate the frequency of your phasers to 3.257 blahblah.” Yeah, thanks doc. I’m glad you remembered that little bit o’ trivia AFTER THEY WERE ALREADY GETTING THEIR ASSES KICKED.

    Tha whole thing was like B&B were sitting around one day and regressed to 10 years old.
    Berman says, “well the aliens can’t be stopped by your phasers.”
    Braga says, “oh yeah? Well, I modulated my phasers so they can kill you now.”
    Berman: “Well, my aliens will just walk through the wall to get away.”
    Braga: “Umm…I’ll shoot the sphere with kryptonite.”
    Berman: “Great. Let’s write the next scene now.”
    Braga: “OK, but I don’t think that last scene had enough Nazis.”

    Look, I know it’s Star Trek and I’m a lifelong fan of the whole shebang. I really love Star Trek and have seen everything from every series and movies. Many Times. I have watched the last few episodes and been thrilled that the quality has gone up and there wasn’t much truly stupid stuff. I just think they were crippled by incompetent writing and the fact that they should have had 2 hours to wrap up the Xindi arc instead of 1. There wasn’t enough time to resolve all the outstanding issues in a way that would be consistent with the rest of the season.

    So now we’re supposed to wait until the fall to see how this turns out? Am I supposed to be excited? Breathless with anticipation? Even mildly interested?

    Well, I’m not. Honestly, I think this show just jumped the shark. Not just the shark, but all of Sea World. After finally pulling the series up to an acceptable standard of writing and getting an interesting storyline going, they dumped the whole thing in favor of the frighteningly original “time-travel back to 20th-century Earth.” Not only did they resort to the second-most-asinine recurring plot (running close behind the holodeck episodes) in the whole history of the Star Trek franchise, but they tried to make it look interesting by magically transporting Archer from an exploding death star to Nazi Germany. (by the way, how exactly did he travel back in time AFTER the evil Xindi blew up a 22nd-century orbital space platform? He never left orbit, right?)

    It wasn’t bad enough to find spaghetti-western cowboys on some distant planet or to time-travel back to Detroit to stop the least-dangerous criminals in the city, they had to dig deeper into the time-travel schtick and make alien Nazis. I agree that it was a complete surprise, but not exactly a good one. These kinds of surprises usually involve paper bags, fire and dog poop.

    So, will I watch next season? Probably. Am I completely sick of the crap that passes for writing on this show? Yeah, you could say that. Will Star Trek survive this latest indignity and improve? Only if somebody puts berman in an airlock until he promises to leave the writing to people who can construct real plots and stories.

    There. I’ve committed a heresy. Flame away.

    • Re: I thought it was pretty lame….(I hate Berman)

      Look, I know it’s Star Trek and I’m a lifelong fan of the whole shebang. I really
      love Star Trek and have seen everything from every series and movies.

      Star Trek is dead. What Berman is feeding you is the hollow husk that he is
      maskarading as ST. An unholly, undead thing, that writhes and pulsates with
      the dark infusions of clichés and recycled ideas that its revolting executive
      producer sees fit to feed it.

      Just because they own the name “Star Trek” doesn’t mean it is
      Star Trek. Sorry to break it to you.

    • Re: I thought it was pretty lame….(Spoilers)

      There. I’ve committed a heresy. Flame away.

      *confused look* what part was the heresy?

      Totally agree with you about the light sabers, by the way…

    • Re: I thought it was pretty lame….(Spoilers)

      There. I’ve committed a heresy. Flame away.

      If that’s heresy, someone better call the Inquisition, as we’re all freaking heretics.

      And just to head off the obvious:

      No one expects the Spanish Inquisition!

    • Re: I thought it was pretty lame….(Spoilers)

      I sat through the whole thing, and really wondered why at the end. I mean, the effects were good and it’s a nice thing that the earth is safe again, but that was some really bad writing.

      Actually, I thought it was one of the better episodes — it was suspenseful and made good use of many of the characters including building on past episodes.

      Where to begin? OK, how about the 11th-hour rescue by Shran? WTF?!?

      I have to confess, my first thought was something along those lines, but think about the character: there’s no way he went home. It’s perfectly in character for him to follow archer to see what he gets up to, as well as look for an opportunity to make Archer owe *him*.

      Of course, that wasn’t even the end of the Death Star similarity. Not only do the bad guys have a big, sperical planet-killer, but it’s got some really great bridges over a terrible chasm…perfect for fighting, almost falling, etc. I found myself wondering where the light sabers were.

      And my pet peeve: outrunning the explosion. Not to mention all the whirly things. Talk about fragile and unreliable!
      Oh well… I can live with that…

      And what’s with Phlox? That guy’s a wealth of just-in-time information. He comes up with a gas that will protect the crew from the spatial distortions right when it’s necessary…not in any previous episodes when it might have helped. Then when it’s apparent it won’t be effective long enough, he says, “OK, how about I give you more time?”

      That’s *why* he hasn’t said anything before — they’ve always needed a long term solution in the past… well, perhaps while passing through a bubble, but those usually happen so quickly there’s not time to do anything. At least that’s my assumption…

      Then, after the sphere-builders start blowing people up and kneading all sorts of random equipment like bread dough, it’s the old doc to the rescue again: “hey, maybe you guys ought to modulate the frequency of your phasers to 3.257 blahblah.” Yeah, thanks doc. I’m glad you remembered that little bit o’ trivia AFTER THEY WERE ALREADY GETTING THEIR ASSES KICKED.

      Likewise, until that point, they hadn’t had to *fight* the “guardians”. It was probably buried in a report somewhere that no one’s had time to read.

      dumped the whole thing in favor of the frighteningly original “time-travel back to 20th-century Earth.” Not only did they resort to the second-most-asinine recurring plot (running close behind the holodeck episodes)

      Nazis: yes. Holodeck: that’s what I expected when they introduced them, but surprisingly, some of those were the best of the next generation and ds9 episodes: Elementary Dear Data, Ship in a Bottle, It’s Only a Paper Moon. Geordi using as a simulator, which is exactly how you’d use something like that for non-recreational purposes, Barclay’s addiction, which *would* be an issue if something like that were real, and as a friend just pointed out, the Doctor on Voyager was one of the best parts of that show.

      So I can’t fault the holodeck…

      (by the way, how exactly did he travel back in time AFTER the evil Xindi blew up a 22nd-century orbital space platform? He never left orbit, right?)

      The weapon was presumably designed or at least heavily influenced by the “guardians” — I assume that the explosion caused a temporal or dimensional rift of some sort. Actually, I’m expecting the latter and to find that this world is the predecessor of Mirror, Mirror. Well, I would like to see that, but they probably won’t. I would like to see more stuff tied in to the formation of the future (but not *too* much!).

      Not to take this too seriously like it’s for real or anything ;-) but we do expect these things to be plausible…

    • Re: I thought it was pretty lame….(Spoilers)
      Heresy?

      AYYYYY-MEN brother, AYYYYYYYYY_MEN! Let the church doors open! Let word be heard in the Wilderness of the Laming!

      For after ALL that they still manage to screw up so bad that both Archer AND HIS SHIP wind up in an alternate history?.

  2. The ending… whyyyyyyyyyyyyyy?!??
    *sigh*

    You know, I don’t want to know what happens next season. Or ever again. Seriously, I don’t care. In my mind it’s all been neatly tied up. Archer gave his life, Earth is saved, Enterprise is too trashed to be useful anymore, end of story, done, finished, over, full-stop, period.

    Despite the incredible predictableness of this episode, it was still very fun to watch. Although I prefer my idea that Hoshi planted something in the weapon that mjust makes it self-destruct when armed was better. Could’ve had them all fail horribly, only to have the weapon trash itself anyway.

    The andorians showing up was kinda nice. Yeah, predictable again (I was thinking Vulcans, but close enough) but still nice.

    The crappy twist ending ruined it for me. And therefore it never happened.

    • Why? Well, we’ve ripped off one good trilogy….

      The andorians showing up was kinda nice. Yeah, predictable again (I was thinking Vulcans, but close enough) but still nice.

      The crappy twist ending ruined it for me. And therefore it never happened.

      I was hoping they’d go for both Vulcans and Andorians waiting for the weapon at Earth – the whole “Well, that Archer fellow was a pretty stand up guy, so we thought that we’d let the humans help us negotiate a peace treaty. Of course, that means we can’t let you blow up their planet today, so go away before we get mad at you.” Perhaps with a dash of “We’re from the future, stop messing with our past” for good measure. That would have been fine – a little cop-out-ish, but it is B&B, so we can’t expect Shakespeare.

      What do we get instead? Nazis. B&B finish ripping off the only good ideas George Lucas ever had, so, hey, why don’t they rip off Spielberg’s Indiana Jones too? We could do that with Enterprise! Plus we can throw in those Remen guys from Nemesis, ’cause everyone loved them!

      Jackasses finally bring Enterprise up to snuff, and then they just throw it right back down the crapper. The worst part is that it was so good right up to the last part – I was almost cheering when Shran showed up. They just had to go and violate Godwin’s Law.

  3. I knew I had seen that alien somewhere before …

    By the way, that was a Reman at the episode closing (since virtually no one watched Nemesis, I figured some clarification was in order).

    Maybe this means we’ll end up in the Romulan war after all? But, TIME TRAVEL AGAIN? :(((

    http://www.treknation.com/reviews/enterprise/zero_hour.shtml has another review of this episode. I think they like the Reman in the Nazi uniform. I halfway expected to hear “vell, vell, Doktor Chones, ve meet again”, and Archer to look up and say “oh boy.”

    I prefer to believe the episode was only 50 minutes long, and ended with everyone receiving the bad news about Archer. Porthos didn’t end up spaced, but maybe he’ll pine away. Phlox can feed the corpse to his critters. :)

    -Joe

    • Re: I knew I had seen that alien somewhere before …

      http://www.treknation.com/reviews/enterprise/zero_hour.shtml has another review of this episode. I think they like the Reman in the Nazi uniform. I halfway expected to hear “vell, vell, Doktor Chones, ve meet again”, and Archer to look up and say “oh boy.”

      Ah ha! That’s what happened! The weapon blew up and threw Archer over to Quantum Leap…

      My kingdom for a reappearance by Dean Stockwell in the S4 opener!

  4. My “high point” and “low point”

    High Point: Archer died!

    Low Point: No, he didn’t!

    No. Really, I was shocked and impressed when I thought he really was dead. That would have been a GREAT way to end the season…

    • Re: My “high point” and “low point”

      Yeah, we started watching the show mid-season after bailing last year. I wish we hadn’t.

      Two possibilities regarding the after-ending ending:

      1. They remain in their proper era, but somehow the timeline has been altered. “City on the Edge of Forever” and First Contact both establish that the crews of ships named Enterprise remain unaffected by events which otherwise completely change history. We finally find out why this is so next season.

      *cough*

      2. They are in the past, and the events of the next season will establish a new timeline that matches established continuity. The Romulan War will occur as scheduled, while the Xindi will be wiped out accidentally (the Founders, uh, Guardians, were telling the truth after all), thus explaining why we never see them in the future.

      Yeah, that’ll definitely happen.

  5. Ah! I got it!
    After watching the ending I was very confused. What is that supposed to mean? I mean really…. Nazis? WTF?

    But then I got it!

    When the deathstar was blown up, Sam Beckett had saved the Earth and successfully completed this leap. Then he did a quantum leap into his next mission, the body of Dr. Indiana Jones.

  6. At Least The Romulan War Begins
    This episode was another 50/50 for me. I thought it was one of the better episodes this season but far from the best and lacking in many areas.

    The Good
    I thought that much of the character reactions were very well done and logical, including Hoshi’s guilt, Archer’s lunacy, T’Pol’s “Vulcan could be next”, and Shran showing up to help out. The actions definately met my expectations.

    Also, I know everyone here hated the ending but I was surprised by it and I am interested in what happens next season.

    I couldn’t figure out how I recognised the alien at first (must have been the Nazi uniform), but later that night I realized it was a Reman and that the Romulan war will now begin.

    The Bad
    The episode did not need to end in the 1940’s with Nazis. That was just stupid.

    A better ending would have been for the return to earth to be as expected (with Archer still presumed dead). Everyone is being commended at Star Fleet HQ and the camera pans out and out and out to reveal a single Reman spying on star fleet.

    In fact, the Remans should have had nothing to do with the temporal cold war but rather the Romulans should be been worried after Minefield since the unknown ship (the enterprise) had a good compliment of weapons and technology AND had managed to destroy a couple of Klingon battle ships Later on. The Romulans and Klingons historically know each other, no?

    And when Archer does come back, use another faction rather than Daniels’ group. Daniels bringing him back would be TOO cliché. No, maybe have a time-traveling Cardasian save Archer because in the year 3400 the Cardasians are friends with the federation.

    Moving along, much of it was predictable. Like when everyone left Archer to blow up the device, my wife said, “Oh, there’s one more bad guy.” Sure enough…

    The Xindi didn’t blow up earth. Big shock!

    Archer didn’t die. Big shock!

    The doctor managed to be a fountain of instant useful information. Big shock!

    They successfully destroyed the sphere network. Big shock!

    In addition, there was an aweful lot of Star Wars parallels. I too was waiting for the lightsabers to come out. On the weapon it was very much like the SW:PM lightsaber fight.

    Summary
    So, I now think the show is just worth saving, but B&B are not. Dear B&B: Wanna produce? Fine, whatever. Just stop writing, you jack-asses!

    • Re: At Least The Romulan War Begins

      A better ending would have been for the return to earth to be as expected (with Archer still presumed dead). Everyone is being commended at Star Fleet HQ and the camera pans out and out and out to reveal a single Reman spying on star fleet.

      An even better ending would have been:

      Xindi-Aquatics bring Enterprise back to Earth
      Hoshi hails Starfleet HQ, gets no answer
      T’Pol scans Earth
      Starfleet HQ doesn’t exist!
      [Fade to black]

      Then, if they still wanted to do this stupid Nazi plot (I have no idea what it’s all about, but I can tell it’s gonna be stoopid), they could start with Trip and NavigatorGuy going down to SF and getting shot at by WW2-era planes. That would make a good end for a teaser. And keep Archer’s survival and circumstances hidden from the viewers until at least the end of the first ep and from the crew for even longer. Make it a continuing plot: “the search for Capt. Archer”. Hell, maybe that’s part of what they have planned.

  7. Acher vs the Nazis!
    Oh yeah, bring it on. This is so straight-from-the-original-series-silly that I actually like the idea. I mean, Kirk had to deal with Romans and Mobsters, really, Mobsters! Consider that and then rethink “Archer vs the Nazis”. The very idea makes me chuckle a bit each time I start to rethink the possibilities.

    So anyway, Zero Hour. Hmmm, you want a side of ham with your bucket of cheese? Still, I think I liked it in a sick kind of guilty pleasure type way. From the “gee if you don’t already not like them, take a look at the Reptilians eating cute little squeky mice” (wouldn’t Picard just play along with this strange custom in the interest of good diplomacy?), to “the ship fires the wiz-bang, blue techo-babble beam while everyone shouts about not having enough time”, to “our intrepid captain runs through the hall of flashpot explosions on the super-mega-death-ray-thing.”

    Ummm, a little plot hole here. Did the people that just saved earth, Reed, Hoshi, etc, try to talk to Starfleet command or anyone after saving the planet? Are we supposed to buy that they just flew away from their homeworld that was just in imminent peril of destruction without saying anything to anyone!?

    This is way sillier than their being no armada defending earth when the weapon got there. But, why was that again?

    It all hindges on when the NX-01 is at. Did they time-travel, or has history been altered? Well a little thought shows that even if they did time-travel, history has still been altered, unless it somehow works out that the Nazi employment of Remans (or more likely Reman employment of Nazis) gets overlooked by the history books. Oh how I hope not.

    So about that lack of a defensive armada, was that due to timeline changes? If so, Reed and Hoshi would have seen that when they tried to talk to earth before they left to go find the NX-01. But the existance of the orbital research station isn’t consistant with the WWII level of tech on earth when the NX-01 got back. So if the lack of an armada was a timeline change, then history shifted a couple of times before we knew it.

    Also, if the Federation never gets formed, because the Nazis win with alien help, can Daniels still be coming back to help? I suppose future Starfleet always have people stationed in “protected from timeline shift” zones, ready to come back and fix stuff that other people break.

    Anyway, I hope that it isn’t time travel, but is a history shift. Why think that the Romulans+Remans aren’t in the temporal cold war too? So they came back, slowed earth development down a bit, and WWII got started late or has run long (maybe a bit of both). Also it would be cool if the Remans told the Nazis not to waste time and resources killing various ethnic groups. That way, in order to set right what someone put wrong, Archer has to condemn a few million to death. Yeah, a twisted version of history would be sweet. The Nazis aren’t morally evil, but are just puppets of the Remans. The Allies won’t take any help from the NX-01 because the acting captian is a alien woman. This could be such great fun.

    Also, if the sphere-builders came to Archer’s time to try what they failed at a few centuries in the future, wouldn’t they just move back a few more centuries when they fail in Archer’s time? Maybe the Remans are their new puppet species.

    • Re: Acher vs the Nazis!

      Also, if the sphere-builders came to Archer’s time to try what they failed at a few centuries in the future, wouldn’t they just move back a few more centuries when they fail in Archer’s time?

      You’re forgetting Trek‘s Temporal Prime Directive, “time travel shall not be used intelligently by those who possess it.”

    • Re: Acher vs the Nazis!

      Also, if the Federation never gets formed, because the Nazis win with alien help, can Daniels still be coming back to help? I suppose future Starfleet always have people stationed in “protected from timeline shift” zones, ready to come back and fix stuff that other people break.

      Cue William Sadler’s return as a member of the now time-travelling Section 31…

      Anyway, I hope that it isn’t time travel, but is a history shift. Why think that the Romulans+Remans aren’t in the temporal cold war too? So they came back, slowed earth development down a bit, and WWII got started late or has run long (maybe a bit of both). Also it would be cool if the Remans told the Nazis not to waste time and resources killing various ethnic groups. That way, in order to set right what someone put wrong, Archer has to condemn a few million to death. Yeah, a twisted version of history would be sweet. The Nazis aren’t morally evil, but are just puppets of the Remans. The Allies won’t take any help from the NX-01 because the acting captian is a alien woman. This could be such great fun.

      I realize the postulations are fantastical, but given that war has been one of the great catalysts for human innovation, I’d be hesitant to accept WWII going on longer while using the same technology which existed in reality. However, I really like the concept of having to restore the timeline by forcing Archer into being responsible for those atrocities occurring.

      Also, if the sphere-builders came to Archer’s time to try what they failed at a few centuries in the future, wouldn’t they just move back a few more centuries when they fail in Archer’s time? Maybe the Remans are their new puppet species.

      That’s one of the big questions with any time travel storyline… why not go back again and again and again until everything goes the intended way? The only franchise which leaps to mind that (sort of) did that is the Terminator films. Of course, in the world of entertainment, who wants to see the same thing over and over (that one TNG episode with Kelsey Grammar aside)? The production logistics prevent that from happening, or at least it being seen.

      • Re: Acher vs the Nazis!

        That’s one of the big questions with any time travel storyline… why not go back again and again and again until everything goes the intended way? The only franchise which leaps to mind that (sort of) did that is the Terminator films. Of course, in the world of entertainment, who wants to see the same thing over and over (that one TNG episode with Kelsey Grammar aside)? The production logistics prevent that from happening, or at least it being seen.

        How about the Voyager two-parter “Year of Hell” where Annorax (Red from “70’s Show”) keeps changing time OVER AND OVER until he gets it right?

        I think people don’t keep going back in time to make it just right because they know they’ll get their ass kicked by self-righteous Alpha Quadrant pricks.

      • Re: Acher vs the Nazis!

        Cue William Sadler’s return as a member of the now time-travelling Section 31…

        Yeah, him or someone else. I’ve mentioned before that I would love for the whole point behind the grand sounding united nations charter to be something of a cover organization for diverting funds to Section 31, and for it all to be Archer’s idea.

        I realize the postulations are fantastical, but given that war has been one of the great catalysts for human innovation, I’d be hesitant to accept WWII going on longer while using the same technology which existed in reality. However, I really like the concept of having to restore the timeline by forcing Archer into being responsible for those atrocities occurring.

        Agreed on the problem with war spurring tech development.

        • Re: Acher vs the Nazis!

          ….behind the grand sounding united nations charter to be something of a cover organization for diverting funds to Section 31, and for it all to be Archer’s idea.

          Er, I mean the United Federation of Planets charter. :-)

  8. Zero Hour, Zero Time, Zero Enjoyment
    I’ve enjoyed each and every post with regards to this episode. Unfortunately, I was delayed in watching it this past Wednesday but they should be showing it again this Sunday. It looks like I did not miss anything I would find worthwhile.

    Others have been so elequent on expressing their critique on the episode. I just want to express my opinion on a plot device Enterprise, and to some degree, earlier series have used; time travel. Namely, it’s severe abuse.

    How is time travel used in this particular series? We’ve seen one nebulous being or beings from a far future attempting to affect their past, we’ve seen the “good guys” use it to shift events to their “orginal” course and to send Archer across the ages, we’ve seen a transdimentional race use it to generate their desired outcome and to send their henchmen to the past, and finally we see it just happens to accidentally occur and send the crew places during a series of easily found occurances.

    I enjoyed the orignial Trek and its few Time Travel episodes. TNG had their share of time travel with the Q. Even DS9 had one or two. This was spaced over time and not continuously as Enterprise has done. And what is the overall goal for all of this? To either alter or retain the core entity that is to be the Federation by direct intervention. In effect the time travelers are trying to change the past to affect their present, which is in the future.

    Fine. But personally I would prefer to see the first Starfleet flagship deal with strange problems of other cultures, other races, other ethics, and celestial mysteries while the organization developes and not have some future guy continuously say “you are destined to do this”…

    Star Trek, not Time Trek.

    JM2C

    • Re: Zero Hour, Zero Time, Zero Enjoyment
      first off, they seem to have lifted the names of the episodes from DC comics, wonder if im the only one who sees the laswuit potential
      Theoretically all of the problems could be handled here. Sure Enterprise faces a lot of random time problems and definitely knows more then they should about the future. Archer cant even keep his freakin mouth shut about the Federation, for the love of god even TRIP was blabbing about it. On the other hand Archer basically tells Daniels to Fuck off every time he starts talking about Archer’s role. I kind of think taht is a new atitude tor star trek, i mean sure WE care about the future, what do we do without Troi? And Crusher? And Seven? and those other people on the show? Archer doesnt know them, he jsut knows hes got some good shit brewing with Hoshi and Trip just stole his pointy eared woman.
      The remans earth based ativities could lead to the Romulan war, that would be nice. I also think taht if the timeline gets messed with so taht it becoems different, it could correct all of the fook ups caused by voyager, the “inconcsistencies” of dates given etc. I wouldnt be surprised if the Delphic expanse existed somewhere else in time and detroying the spheres is how the enterprise got stranded. if they LEFT the expanse when it was synched up with earths apst taht could explain a lot, except the space station they destroyed. That was unbearably random. “Hmm we’re about toa ttack earth, starfleet as USUAL has no ships around WTF… even though last time archer went back home tehre were at lest three hovering around, whatever the xindi find earth unguarded, stop to sightsee, kill civillians then move on. If Enterprise is in the past, how the hell did Shran get there too? Was the entire planet earth switched? MEH?
      The series really isnt about enterprise anymore is it, its an ongoing drama to see how the writers will dig themselves out

  9. dumb…
    I hate the idea that they didn’t let us all think that Archer was dead… They’re treating their show like a sit-com where everything has to be fixed by the end of the show. They’re treating the viewers like dumb cattle who can’t understand a finale with a hanging ending.

    Alias pulled it off well at the end of season 2 and I waited impatiently to see how the story would continue… B&B should have let everyone think that Archer was dead.

  10. Come on…
    You people are seriously telling me that if Archer was presented as dead for the cliffhanger, ANYONE would believe for just one second that he would REALLY be dead? And not be revived, resurrected or hell, even reanimated right at the start of the fourth series?

    I think viewers have become far too savvy. TV and Hollywood’s formulaic plots mean today’s “entertainment” holds very few surprises – hell, I could watch a teaser and dictate the rest of the show/film. “She’ll get her tits out and then die, she’ll get attention from all the men but be a real bitch to them, all the men will be sex mad, the villain will be invincible” – or in the case of Trek, “T’Pol will experience major nipple pokies, Shran’s ship is faster than a Borg cube, Mayweather will get to speak one or two lines, Starfleet is out exploring the galaxy even though the Xindi Death Star is coming and Captain Archer will travel in time.”

    This thread contains some seriously good ideas to turn the stupidity of YET ANOTHER time travel plot into something approaching good drama. Unfortunately we all know our ideas are pointless; B&B the Disaster Duo will reduce any possible storyline to the lowest common denominator, i.e. lots of explosions with a guest appearance by T’Pol’s breasts. (I mean come on, has anyone ever actually considered pulling off to a Star Trek character? Have they bloody hell, there are some nerdy taboos no-one will cross, and masturbating over a Vulcan is foremost among them.)

    Why World War 2? WHY?! Captain Janeway had a seriously exciting battle against Hirogen Nazis (is it just me or did the Nazi officer who’d had it off with B’Elanna appear at the end of Enterprise? He was the Nazi standing on the right), but why retread the same old ground? What’s wrong with uncovering some of Trek’s ludicrously f****d-up history and setting the episode in the Eugenics Wars?

    And since when were Remans blue?

    Just one final point which I’d like to make to people whinge on about the Xindi conflict never being mentioned by characters living in 2370. Why the hell would anyone refer to a 220 year old war? “Hey, this skirmish against the Dominion reminds me of the Xindi Temporal War back in 2153.” “Join me for dinner, Kathryn? We can discuss the Xindi Temporal War that Tom’s been reminding me of.” They just wouldn’t!

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