After
force feeding the fans of Star Trek Enterprise
a single story for an entire season, the Xindi terrorism
plot is starting to taste good. That’s either because
things finally started making sense last week, or we know
we only have a few more bites left before we’ve cleaned
our plate. Or maybe "Countdown" really is a good
episode. Whatever the reason, it’s nice to feel like
we’re watching Star Trek again, instead of some 8
bit mini-series.
"Countdown"
continues the three part story started by last week’s
"The Council."
In fact, the “last time on Enterprise” contained
segments exclusively from last week’s show (unlike
some weeks when the “last time” was a gumbo
of plots spanning as far back as last season). The Reptilian
and Insectiod Xindi have commandeered the weapon, transport-napped
Hoshi and locked their sights on Earth.
Things look grim!
So Archer
fights with the leaders of the Sloth and Humanoid Xindi
to meet with the Aquatics council members. Their heavy ships
could be the only thing capable of stopping the super weapon
before it reaches Earth. But as Archer learns, they may
be called Aquatics but their actions are more like Sloths
(further explaining why Sloths are now referred to as Arboreal).
Meanwhile
Hoshi learns she’s been kidnapped to aid the Reptilian
Xindi in cracking the Aquatics command codes so they can
launch the death star thingie. Hoshi has proven herself
to have superhuman powers when it comes to languages, and
yet she seems to get less and less stage time. It’s
nice to see her in a subplot. Sure it’s a hostage
sub plot, but we’ll take it!
She’s
exposed to some crazy mindbending worms. They don’t
prove to be as effective as the ones Khan used because Hoshi
is able to resist them and earn herself a second batch.
The frequency of barbaric medicinal practices used in the
22nd century seems odd. Phlox’s menagerie of alien
beast remedies was a novel idea in the pilot. But now it
turns out most of the galaxy is using some sort of space
leech or another.
T’Pol’s
still suffering from her alien drug usage. Not blood worms,
but Trillium D. However, this week, they don’t mention
that she’s a recovering user. Instead they chalk her
emotional behavior up to stress and leave it up to the audience’s
memory to fill in the blank. That’s good storytelling!
We don’t need the continuity banged over our heads
every week. We’ll remember. And if we missed an episode
then reruns will fill us in later.
Continuing
with his continuity, Archer is able to convince the Aquatics
to join their cause by promising to destroy the Spheres
that plague the Xindi. Enterprise is then loaded into the
belly of their gigantic water ship. We don’t know
that Enterprise is carry-on baggage until later. But the
Captain’s window is filled with water and machines
instead of stars.
The
mystery of the window gives way to new questions as T’Pol
talks about joining Star Fleet. There’s probably a
movement to see T’Pol in a uniform. These are the
same bozos who wanted her to start crying and lashing out.
But wasn’t Spock the first Vulcan in Star Fleet? Sure,
Enterprise is damaging the time line, but just
how much can they rewrite before we’re in a parallel
universe and not the past? That answer will come when there
is a Tribble Captain.
Meanwhile
in the future, sort of, the Sphere-building Valkyries decide
to take action against Enterprise. A neighboring Sphere,
cleverly named Sphere 41, forms a spatial barrier between
the Xindi good guys and the Xindi bad guys. Just in the
nick of time the M.A.C.O’s are able to save Hoshi,
but at the expense of Major Hayes. Poor guy got shot while
trying to beam away. Guess in the past, the old “beamed
them out at the last second” trick doesn’t work.
The
convenient spatial distortion tips the CG Insectoids off
that their Angels just might be Devils after all. So the
Reptilians blow the Insectoids ship to pieces and roll over
the remains with their giant spinning ball of doom. Now
it’s just the Reptilians against all the Xindi and
the humans.
Next
week in the season finale, we’ll see which probable
time line will prevail. And we’ll hopefully set the
Xindi aside and let some other Star Trek villains
share the spot light.
Before
we find out the fate of all Star Fleet’s history let’s
put "Countdown" up against the Star Trek Alien
rating scale…
Wormhole
Aliens Deep Space Nine opened with the Bajorans' Prophets.
It was a subplot that was sure to be doomed. But the producers
stuck with it, and though DS9 went through season
after season of changes, they kept the Wormhole Aliens (Prophets)
till the very last episode. The Xindi are a very similar
endurance test.
