3.24: Zero Hour

[Dave]

from TrekWeb.com

The latest issue of the STAR TREK Communicator has been delivered to subscribers, and according to one TrekWeb reader, producer Rick Bermam reveals all sorts of tidbits for the remaining episodes this season in his STAR TREK Update with Dan Madsen.

Foremost, the magazine reveals that the title of the third season finale, airing May 26th, is "Zero Hour." Berman hints that Vaughn Armstrong's 'Admiral Forrest' and Gary Graham's 'Soval' could possibly play a role in the season-ending episode.

Spoiler

Berman suggests we'll learn a reason for 'T'Pol's strange behavior this season: a future episode may reveal that she has become addicted to small doses of Trellium-D, the substance known to cause instanity in Vulcans from "Impulse."

Finally, Berman says the season finale this year will not be a cliffhanger per se, but that elements of the Xindi storyline may continue into season four. The exec also suggests that next season -- as yet not officially announced -- will continue to involve arc storytelling and not merely standalone episodes.

 

[Mariel]

I thought this was a great season finally...
Trip and T'Pol find a way to destroy one of the spheres but when they get to the sphere they find that it is covered in pizza cheese(ok so it's anomalies but it looks like pizza cheese to me). Phlox figures out a way to keep everyone awake and with it for 15 minutes so they can go in a destroy the sphere. The sphere builders try to stop Enterprise but they fail and several of the main spheres are destroyed.
Archer, with the help of Degra's ship, catch up with the weapon and destroy it. Shran shows up to help. Everyone but Archer get off the weapon before it blows up. Reed, Hoshi and some Macos meet up with Enterprise and tell everyone the bad news about Archer then an Aquatic ship takes them to earth.
When they get to Earth they find they can't contact Starfleet. When they go down in a shuttle they get attacked by WWII style airplanes. Then we find that Archer is also in that time period but very burned and in a Nazi camp. And there is some kind of blue skined red eyed creapy alien in the Nazi camp.
So is the Aquatic ship trapped in the past too?
Also T'Pol tells Trip her age.

 

[Dave]

Please stop it with the WWII Nazis!

You can always tell when a show has 'jumped the shark' when the Nazis appear. The Original Trek show was pretty good, but Voyager, Battlestar Galactica '80, Sliders.... its all so clichéd!

I also wonder how Archer remembers which year it is, it changes so frequently for him

 

[Maria8475]

yeah, and the really annoying thing is that up until that point it had been a really good episode. I can't quite understand how it happened though. I mean the guy from the future (sorry i've only watched a handful of eps) said that Archer was integral to the formation of the federation so i can understand why that would no longer be there (BTW: how very original, turns out just about everyone is integral to the formation of the federation ) but how did they end up in the past?

Might have been more interesting if they had just let Archer die!

 

[Dave]

Now I've seen it, I thought that it was a very confusing episode. Too many different unrelated things going on.

There was no twist in the plot (such as Hoshi having infected the weapon with a virus as Ray suggested last week) it simply followed Archer's more simple but effective plan to blow up the spheres, blow up the weapon and blow up the Reptiles.

But Maria is right, up until the last few minutes it was a pretty good episode.

Maybe it had too many other clichés:

The Reptiles eating live mice at the very start just like V
(BTW V is coming back to TV soon!)

The fighting over a large bottomless pit into which both villains and heros fall down.

But it was nice to see Shran again and his "Now he owes me!"

It's funny but I don't remember the UFO over San Francisco in the 1940's or the German Army Doctor ever being reported by anyone at the time!

 

[Nick 0208 Ldn]

I thought it was a very good ep even though the end was a moment to scratch your head to and just wonder why?

Daniels is the *Federation future guy* btw.

You could see that if Archer was to die then it might effect the timeline especially with all the temporal warfare goingon but i don't see where the Nazis and that Alien race on Earth in the 20th Century come into it. Why would it go back that far? Maybe i'm just being a bit ignorant of the facts and they are in fact clear to see but i'm just not getting that bit right now.

I'm sure all will become clear however at the beginning of season 4 after a proper reccie down to the planet.

I would've thought that Reed might've been a bit more forceful with the Captain before he left but then i guess that would've killed him along with Archer possibly and that wouldn't have helped the plot.

Good performance by Hoshi today IMO.

Oh and Shran risked a lot to come back and help Archer, there was a fair bit of damage to the ship by the looks of it. That'll be an on running thread throughout the series, i quite like it actually.

The Xinidi council is reunited bar the reptilians and i'm sure we haven't heard the last of them but what of the transdimensional beings, are they done now you reckon.

One final thing, we here the Tellorites are there at the beginning of the Federation, i'm sure we haven't heard that beore have we? Although no mention of the Xindi, i though they would be there or am i taking that too literally.

Anyway, i was happy enough with it Bring on season 4

Nick,

 

[Dave]

Originally posted by Nick 0208 Ldn
One final thing, we here the Tellorites are there at the beginning of the Federation, i'm sure we haven't heard that beore have we? Although no mention of the Xindi, i though they would be there or am i taking that too literally.

Trek Canon is very vague on the formation of the Federation. In TOS we hear that Earth was a founding nation, but the others are only assumed. We see that Vulcans, Andorians and Tellarites are members along with many colony worlds. We also know that Vulcans and Andorians don't get along, but that Tellarites are the ones not to be trusted. That all comes from the episode 'Journey to Babel'.

It was founded in 2161 according to Deanna Troi and by the time of Picard has 150 members and thousands of colonies.

There is a list here: United Federation of Planets

Apart from that B&B have a blank page to write upon.

Don't forget that the Tellarites have already been mentioned in 'Enterprise' and that Tellarite Bounty Hunters appeared in 'Bounty'.

In 'Azati Prime' Daniels said that the Federation was formed from 'an alliance of Humans, Vulcans, Andorians, Illyrians and others'. (The Illyrians are the ones Archer left stranded in the Expanse in 'Damage'.)

I think we can assume that the Xindii Council is a model for the Federation and therefore they must be included too.

It all begs the question of what happened to the Xindii and the Illyrians in the next few hundred years though, since they vanish without trace. I'm still waiting for the explanation, and I'll be writing to B&B if it doesn't come. I've written to Jeri Taylor before.

 

[ray gower]

I dislike stories that do not come to a conclusion, or at least end with a logical break. So I think I'll join the, 'It was good enough, right up to the last few minutes'. Funny how two minutes of afterthought can change things from good to okay.

Do you think it possible that they actually filmed two ends and waited to splice the relevant one on depending upon Paramount's go ahead?
One- Archer snuffs it, Earth very happy.
Two- This hurried and halfbaked attempt at producing yet another cliffhanger to keep the plebs hanging.

As for Daniels, his opinion on who starts the Federation changes each time he opens his orifice, so really not taking anything he says seriously. Still wondering why his branch of the temporal time cops don't take a proper hand in the proceedings.

It also seems that T'Pot has decided that Earth's abilities already exceed that of the Vulcans. Suggesting that if Enterprise cannot stop the expanse it would destroy Vulcan.
This strikes of creating something of an implied trianglular logic error: The Andorrans could defeat Earth, but not Vulcan, Earth could defeat Vulcan, but not the Andorrans?

And a final thought.
The Mustangs shown at the end of the episode have a service ceiling of 37,000 feet and a top speed of just over 400 knots.
Considering the damage to the ship and that the Enterprise is not designed for atmospheric flight plus the fact that they can normally read the newspapers that people are reading from thousands of miles up.
How and why did they get within cannon range of the fighters without burning up, let alone not see them coming?

 

[Nick 0208 Ldn]

Originally posted by Dave


Trek Canon is very vague on the formation of the Federation. In TOS we hear that Earth was a founding nation, but the others are only assumed. We see that Vulcans, Andorians and Tellarites are members along with many colony worlds. We also know that Vulcans and Andorians don't get along, but that Tellarites are the ones not to be trusted. That all comes from the episode 'Journey to Babel'.

ah ha, haven't seen that ep or that series for a few years, thanks for the reminder.

Originally posted by Dave


Apart from that B&B have a blank page to write upon.

Don't forget that the Tellarites have already been mentioned in 'Enterprise' and that Tellarite Bounty Hunters appeared in 'Bounty'.

In 'Azati Prime' Daniels said that the Federation was formed from 'an alliance of Humans, Vulcans, Andorians, Illyrians and others'. (The Illyrians are the ones Archer left stranded in the Expanse in 'Damage'.)

I think we can assume that the Xindii Council is a model for the Federation and therefore they must be included too.

It's all coming back to me..

I remember you saying last week or the week before that you felt the Federation Council used the Xindi Council as a model and if the Illyrians are going to be there at the beginning, Archer is going to have go back and patch things up in season surely.

Originally posted by Dave

It all begs the question of what happened to the Xindii and the Illyrians in the next few hundred years though, since they vanish without trace. I'm still waiting for the explanation, and I'll be writing to B&B if it doesn't come. I've written to Jeri Taylor before.

I agree but then i guess this kind of thing could always have been a problem with a prequel series like Enterprise. It's a shame really and in season 3 in particular, with the Xindi; they're built up as a very influential race of the time and future partner of Earth but as you said, where are they along with the Illyrians in the Federation's future?

No mention to my knowlege.

I suppose if we assume that the next Star Trek Series they do is post DS9 and Voyager [by how long we don't know] then they could reintorduce the Xindi/Illyrians into the Star Trek Universe; i was thinking that they explain the situation by that the Xindi and Illrians became entirely civilian [trading] or scientific [Rnd] based in their space efforts and it was frowned upon if they joined Starfleet [for some reason, maybe a breakdown in relations with some Federation member species or they became pacifist]...until now.

They could set a new series around the reintroduction of the Xindi or Illyrians into Starfleet, maybe with one of them being an XO or Captain [the first to do so in decades or hundreds of years].

What do you lot think??

Originally posted by ray gower
Do you think it possible that they actually filmed two ends and waited to splice the relevant one on depending upon Paramount's go ahead?
One- Archer snuffs it, Earth very happy.
Two- This hurried and halfbaked attempt at producing yet another cliffhanger to keep the plebs hanging.

Probably and i reckone there was a third, one where Archer makes it off of the weapon and makes it back to Enterprise just fine and even one with that plot but when he got back and the Sphere 41 mission didn't go entirely according to plan.

Originally posted by ray gower
Still wondering why his branch of the temporal time cops don't take a proper hand in the proceedings.

Do you mean like the Sphere Builders/Transdimenisonal beings where the directly alter or change events instead of what the Starfleet Temporal Police Branch appears to do, where they hire somone like Archer or Seven of Ninein Voyager to help them out?

Originally posted by ray gower
It also seems that T'Pot has decided that Earth's abilities already exceed that of the Vulcans. Suggesting that if Enterprise cannot stop the expanse it would destroy Vulcan.
This strikes of creating something of an implied trianglular logic error: The Andorrans could defeat Earth, but not Vulcan, Earth could defeat Vulcan, but not the Andorrans?

More that she feels the Vulcan sense of logic and the feeling that they would follow regs and limits more closely [to the letter more often than not] than Humans might impeede their chances of success in relation to the Spheres in this case; Vulcans wouldn't take the risks that Humans wouldmaybe. I suppose the emotions she now has might effect how she looks at it too.

Originally posted by ray gower
And a final thought.
The Mustangs shown at the end of the episode have a service ceiling of 37,000 feet and a top speed of just over 400 knots.
Considering the damage to the ship and that the Enterprise is not designed for atmospheric flight plus the fact that they can normally read the newspapers that people are reading from thousands of miles up.
How and why did they get within cannon range of the fighters without burning up, let alone not see them coming?

thanks,

Nick,

 

[Dave]

Brannon Braga on the development of the Alien Nazis plot device:

from Star Trek Magazine
When we were first developing the Xindi arc a year ago, over a year ago, we knew that they’d save Earth, and we used to joke around that they’d save Earth and we’d want to get back to Earth and have some twist where the crew gets home and giant cockroaches are ruling the Earth. It started as a joke, having some bizarre twist. Then, as we got closer to the end of Season 3, we realised, ‘You know, we could do something.’ We knew we had to wrap it up, but we didn’t want to end with a Xindi cliffhanger. We knew that wouldn’t be satisfying. But then we thought, ‘well, what if we throw a left turn in there? And what would it be?’ We went through a lot of different scenarios about what they would find when they got home. I can’t remember who said ‘Nazis,’ but we just somehow ended up with Nazis. Then that didn’t even feel like enough, so we made it alien Nazis. We decided to do something that would just be completely unexpected, yet give us something fun for next year, to kick off the season with something really interesting. So we took a stab at it.

The thing is that I took it for granted after a while because I got so used to the idea. I never thought it was all that surprising, but people were really shocked by it. I liked it. I know it had been done on the original series and I know we had Nazis on Voyager, but you know what? We had just done 24 dead serious, intense episodes of Enterprise. And I think that one of the things that threw people for a loop, for better or worse, was that it was a radical shift in tone to something that was wacky.

I disagree. I didn’t like it because it is just a very poor idea. If you examine other shows where Nazis are introduced it is generally at a ‘Jump the Shark’ point in the series. It's a cliché and it's lazy writing. I don’t want Enterprise to end yet; I think it still has great potential. I think the next season is shaping up well. Nazis are a poor plot device. Giant cockroaches! Now that would have been wacky and radical!

 

[ray gower]

Originally posted by Dave
I disagree. I didn’t like it because it is just a very poor idea. If you examine other shows where Nazis are introduced it is generally at a ‘Jump the Shark’ point in the series. It's a cliché and it's lazy writing. I don’t want Enterprise to end yet; I think it still has great potential. I think the next season is shaping up well. Nazis are a poor plot device. Giant cockroaches! Now that would have been wacky and radical!

Have you seen the trailers for SkyCaptain?

The earth overrun by Nazi bugs in the 30's?

 

[Dave]

Originally posted by ray gower
Have you seen the trailers for SkyCaptain?

The earth overrun by Nazi bugs in the 30's?

I haven't seen them, but obviously Brannon Braga did!

Seems like he has even less creativity than I had him marked down for.

I do like his concept of throwing a 'wacky', 'radical' 'loop' at the end of 24 'serious' episodes though, it is just the 'loop' I didn't think much of.

 

[Dave]

I just watched this again with my son and I have nothing to add, except that even he thought that it was unoriginal -- "this is just like Star Wars [Empire Strikes Back] with the big hole, and you know that the baddie is going to fall down it."

Also, he asked "Why can they walk through walls?" -- this was a good episode in terms of action, but there was too much happening in it that a casual viewer would not understand. That is why 'Enterprise' has lost viewers, and consequently why it is in the position that it is.

A pity, because I personally like the long story arcs, but any future series is going to need to bring in viewers other than long-time trek fans.

 

[ray gower]

I do have a thought about this!

Who has actually fallen through time?
And are the Andorran's going to be annoyed about it?

All relevant parties were well apart when things went bang, yet Enterprise, Earth and Archer are both enjoying 1943.

By implication this means the Andorrans who must have been somewhere between the two at the climax, must also have scooted back x-hundred years, so they are not going to be able to go home for tea either!

 

[Dave]

I know you really meant Andorians, but the people who live in the mountains between France and Spain have not even got an astronaunt on the shuttle yet.

I was rather expecting the next episode to reveal the answer to this, but I did also wonder how both Archer and the Enterprise had arrived in 1944... (or 1942 or 1943, whatever it is supposed to be.) You are correct in that a temporal anomaly covering that wide a spatial area should have dragged along quite a large part of the quadrant.

Actually, I'm sure the next episode will not reveal the answer, which is why my expectations of Enterprise went way down when I first watched the last five minutes of this episode.

 

[ray gower]

Originally posted by Dave
I know you really meant Andorians, but the people who live in the mountains between France and Spain have not even got an astronaunt on the shuttle yet.

Perhaps they don't need to, because they have their own system powered by goat droppings?