Fans
of Enterprise can stop holding their breath for
a couple of reasons. First, if you haven’t been keeping
up, or didn’t check out our forums; Star Trek:
Enterprise has indeed been renewed for a fourth season.
Secondly, the Xindi season long storyline has finally come
to a close…Or as closed as anything can be on the
continuity crazy Enterprise.
RED
ALERT: Spoilers ahead.
Hard
to believe, really, but the Xindi were first introduced
one year ago in the second season finale. The entire episode
featured Enterprise just getting to the Delphic expanse.
This should have been a sign that it would take an entire
season to finally BEAT the Xindi. But who would’ve
dreamed that up? Star Treks have been using season
finale cliffhangers for years. The safe bet was that the
Xindi would be defeated in the third season PREMIERE –
not finale.
Sadly,
a story that took 26 episodes to be told could’ve
been completed in less then 6. The Xindi Saga wasn’t
so much an epic tale that needed an entire year to be explained
properly. But instead it was a shorter story stretched out
to an uncomfortable length.
But
the season is in the past and we’ll focus on the well
earned finale, appropriately titled: "Zero Hour."
It may
have taken a full year to get to it, but the final Xindi
battle is full of action. Lots of space dog fights. Plenty
of alien on human fisticuffs. And a fair share of phaser
showdowns. Not to mention all sorts of cool explosions and
galactic disasters. It’s what a finale should have.
The
Andorians, and Commander Shran, make a cameo helping Captain
Archer beam onto the Xindi super weapon. Shran is one of
the most interesting characters on Enterprise.
The Andorians haven’t gotten much attention in the
past Star Treks. So while the Vulcans, Romulans
and Klingons have all gotten a “modern” revamp,
the Andorians have been hiding in the shadows with their
little blue antenna balls. Shran is borderline obsessed
with keeping score with Archer. It’s a very clever
character trait, and a well deserved insight into the Andorian
psyche.
Once
on the Xindi super weapon, the M.A.C.O. handle a bulk of
the alien boxing matches. As Enterprise’s
version of the “red shirts,” M.A.C.O.’s
have been on the show this season as the expendable crew
members who can die and no one cares, like on old school
Trek when Kirk, Spock, Bones and Mr. Smith would
beam down to a planet. Only Mr. Smith would end up being
killed.
But
instead of on some studio planet, the M.A.C.O.s fight the
Xindi inside the super weapon, which, since last week, has
received a major upgrade. There is still a giant spinning
command center inside the core of the sphere weapon. But
the lighting inside (and on the Reptilian ship) has become
dramatically more theatrical. Both sets look and feel like
a cinema set, instead of a TV set. Great work for the season
finale, but it creates some weird continuity questions.
Why wasn’t their ship that cool last week?
Meanwhile,
back on the Enterprise, Trip and crew try to take out the
Guardian’s Spheres and engage the transdimensional
aliens in some phaser fights. But Fanboys are suddenly reminded
of the Borg, when the crew’s phasers have no affect
on the alien terrorists. They walk through the ship, blowing
up systems, and the phaser shots go right through them.
That is until the ingenious Dr. Phlox has them rotate phaser
frequency.
The
Guardians, like the Andorians, highlight some of the clever
writing on Enterprise. All of the Guardian leaders
are women. The only male Guardian was the test tube parakeet
in "Harbinger."
But their ruling sex class is never mentioned. Unlike the
Xindi, who constantly remind us that there are five distinct
races, and at one time six. Any instance when two or more
Xindi races appeared throughout the season, someone reminded
the audience that there is a Reptilian, Humanoid, Arboreal,
Insectiod, Aquatics and the extinct Aerials (interestingly
enough, the only flying people in all of Star Trek
alien history).
The
season finale featured a subplot, which has not been banged
over our heads for a season. Captain Archer forces Hoshi
to recover from her mind warping experience in last week’s
Count Down. Hoshi,
like Mayweather, has been cast aside in the past months.
The last two episodes have helped grow her relationship
with the Captain. In the first season there were a few episodes
dealing with Hoshi’s fear of space travel and her
superhuman ability to decipher alien languages. The Xindi
have overshadowed her character’s growth, and it’s
only fitting that they’d give her a heap of lines
in the season finale.
To answer the year old question, Archer
DOES destroy the Xindi weapon. Also, Trip and T’Pol
take out the network of Guardian Spheres which created the
Delphic expanse and killed off the She-people. They had
to use Enterprise but Archer takes out the weapon by hand,
no less. From inside the spinning sphere of doom he sets
charges that make the sucker blow up just like a death star.
Which it is, really.
But he doesn’t beam out in time. And
now the four minute trick ending that will have Fanboys
holding their breath, again, for the rest of summer.
Time
traveling Lieutenant Daniels shows up midway through the
episode to warn Archer that if he dies the Federation may
never be founded. Archer blows him off, claiming that his
mission will succeed, even if it means he needs to die…
VERY OMINOUS.
After
the Xindi Death Star explodes T’Pol and the others
carry on like Archer won’t be back for another season.
After Enterprise is dumped out in the Sol systems back yard
by a Xindi Aquatic’s super ship, they zoom into Earth
but can’t make contact with Star Fleet command. The
Xindi took out a communications array during their attack,
so T’Pol orders a shuttle pod to land and figure out
what’s wrong with Star Fleet.
And instead of finding the space age San
Francisco they’re attacked by 20th century American
fighter planes. And, presumably, not in San Francisco, Archer’s
body shows up in and a Nazi war camp. All around stand mean
looking Germans and some unnamed bluish purple looking alien.
Who the hell is that!??
So Daniels
was right. Somebody must’ve fired a temporal weapon
and prolonged World War II for two hundred years. Interestingly
in all that time no one bothered to build a computer because
the Nazi’s are picking away at an old typewriter and
using oil lanterns for sight.
It’s going to be another interesting
season.
But
before we speculate anymore on season four let’s put
the season finale up against the final Star Trek
alien rating scale…
Hour Zero scores a…
Xindi
It’s kinda against the rule to use the aliens in the
episode as the score in the alien rating scale. Like using
a word to define itself. But with the Xindi beginning and
ending 27 solid episodes, it’s only fitting that the
finale would actually remind us of the very first time we
ever heard their names. And may it be at least two or three
episodes before we hear them again…
