Star Trek: Enterprise — 3x24 — Zero Hour
Synopsis
Archer puts his life on the line in a risky gambit to intercept the Xindi superweapon and disarm it from within.
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.
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?