Star Trek Ent - Season 3 - Episode 24
Star Trek Ent - 3x24 - Zero Hour
Originally Aired: 2004-5-26
Synopsis:
Archer puts his life on the line in a risky gambit to intercept the Xindi superweapon and disarm it from within. [DVD]
Problems
- So did that aquatic ship get transported back in time too..?
Factoids
- This episode confirms that the Federation will be formed in 2161.
- This episode establishes that humans, Vulcans, Andorians, and Tellarites are the founding members of the Federation.
Remarkable Scenes
- The reptilians eating mice.
- Archer working with a confused Hoshi.
- Enterprise entering the anomaly field.
- The weapon reaching Earth.
- The reptilians destroying Yosemite 3.
- Shran showing up to help.
- Shran: "Go! And tell Archer, we're not even anymore! He owes me!"
- The battle aboard the weapon.
- The destruction of the sphere network.
- Archer battling Dolim.
- Archer blowing up Dolim.
- Trip: "You look nice like this. Kind of like an old oil painting." T'Pol: "I'm not old. I will only be 66 years old on my next birthday."
- The shuttlepod being shot at by ancient Earth aircraft.
My Review
Well, first the good things. This episode is marvelously successful as the ending to the Xindi arc (on most fronts). The space battle stuff was toned down a bit, but the overall level of action and conflict was even higher. Shran showing up to save Archer's ass was really cool, and Archer's fight with Dolim was even better; I'd say the greatest moment of the episode. I only wish I could have seen Sisko blow up Dukat into tiny little bits like that. ;) But that ending was just atrocious. Now, I'm not an oversensitive German citizen trying to forget 12 years of Nazi dictatorship or anything, but don't you think three stories about evil Nazis on Star Trek is just pushing it? TOS: Patterns of Force was already easily obnoxious. The use of Nazis in Voy: The Killing Game was better, but still unnecessary. (They could have used any number of conflicts in Earth's history for that episode. The battle of Wolf 359 would have been perfect!) Finally there's this. Not only are alien Nazis annoying and offensive, but it totally destroys the ending of a great episode at the same time. At the end of this episode, I was just waiting to get a hail from the Kumari with Archer standing next to Shran on his bridge; Shran yelling triumphantly to T'Pol, "we beamed him out just in time!" Then with the remaining time, victory celebration on Earth ensues. The season 4 premiere could then have Earth meeting with the Xindi, Enterprise being repaired, and Enterprise resuming its original mission; possibly then we could finally get on with the Earth-Romulan wars or getting some real Klingon conflicts started. But instead of properly wrapping up the Xindi arc, the writers confusedly and enigmatically throw us in the middle of yet more Temporal Cold War nonsense. So to recap, we've got more offensive alien nazis (-1), an anticlimactic ending to the Xindi arc (-1), and more Temporal Cold War nonsense (-1). An episode that would otherwise receive a 9 is reduced to a 6. Why has Star Trek been consistently delivering poor season finales for the last few years?
The following are comments submitted by my readers.
"Why has Star Trek been consistently delivering poor season finales for the last few years?"
Hmm, maybe because Rick Berman and/or Brannon Braga wrote them?
Yes, yes, and yes. Your review hit the nail on the head. Bermaga just cannot help themselves.
Because what would make a fitting endcap to the Xindi arc? Oh of course, silly me--World War II!
They have to remind you who the showrunners are every now and then.
I actually feel the same way!
I was really excited about the Xindi story arc and it got better and better! I even loved the final solution! But then, the last two minutes of the episode just suck so hard, that it kinda destroyed the whole feeling of season 3. If they only let out this stupid cliffhanger! I had to recover from the shock almost a week before watching the two-parter (!) with Alien Nazis.
Okay, this ending. It needs to be reckoned with.
I'm actually not too upset that they keep the Temporal Cold War alive a little longer, because, honestly, they still have a bunch of loose ends that haven't been tied up. A couple episodes back, when they pulled one of the Sphere-builders out of that anomoly, my first reaction was, "Oh yeah, the Suliban!" because hey, remember the Suliban? And their mysterious future shadow person, who could only communicate through time? I don't care if it's not tidy, just wrap that storyline up for us so we can move on.
So I can't fault them for keeping the Temporal Cold War going, at least for a couple more episodes. The problem, of course, is the fact that they decided to do it with some damn Nazis. I have thoughts on that, but I'll save them for my comments on the season 4 two-part opener, which I just finished watching. Seriously: Nazis. C'mon, Trek.
I agree with you about the ending, but not much else. I don't even know what led to the ending because I was so bored by the episode, I stopped giving it my full attention. As far as I'm concerned, this was 45 minutes of Archer running down a hallway while a fireball chased him interrupted on occasion by people having fistfights, grandstanding "we're not gonna let you do thing" one liners, and explosions.