Star Trek: Enterprise — 3x22 — The Council
Synopsis
Archer and Hoshi stand before the Xindi Council as T'Pol and Reed lead a team into the heart of a Sphere.
Remarkable scenes
- Degra profiling the members of the Xindi council.
- Archer, Degra, and Hoshi appearing at the Xindi council.
- The Xindi insectoid throwing Archer on the table.
- Degra making an appeal to Trip, trying to get him to lose his grudge.
- Archer presenting a holographic representation of a sphere builder.
- Trip and Degra finally making up.
- Dolim murdering Degra.
- Trip talking to Phlox about his weight loss.
- T'Pol: "The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few."
- The battle at the end.
- Hoshi being abducted.
Review
This episode was extraordinarily exciting. I complained a number of times about the Xindi arc not advancing sufficiently... well here it gets a kick in the pants! I was sorry to see Degra go, as he was a character I was really beginning to enjoy. The killing of the MACO redshirt was a bit obvious from the beginning as well. Reminds me of the old Family Guy episode when they reenacted Star Trek. Kirk: "The landing party will consist of myself, Mr. Spock, Dr. McCoy, and Ensign Ricky." Ricky then says, "aw crap" foreseeing his fate. In this episode, the landing party on the sphere consisted of T'Pol, Reed, Travis, and minor character Corporal Hawkins. How stereotypical! The reptilians and insectoids betraying the council didn't surprise me in the least; it even kind of annoys me. I would have rather have seen the insectoids as and reptilians as the good guys and the arboreals and primates as the bad guys, but the arc is as I've said stereotypical, portraying the reptilians and insectoids as less intelligent, emotional, and confrontational to an extreme which is obviously supposed to be the norm for their species. I think it's racist and unnecessary. Both entire species were totally two dimensional. Only the single reptilian lieutenant even questioned the motives of the sphere builders. One wonders how the reptilians and insectoids didn't end up like the aviens with such arrogance, bigotry, and zealotry in their ranks. It certainly explains the war and why they destroyed their own homeworld.