Enterprise 3x24 "Zero Hour"

rating: ****

the story: The Xindi conflict's resolution.

what it's all about: Well, this is it!  And finally we see where Archer's bull-headed pursuit of victory has landed him, and that's almost more interesting to talk about than the episode itself.

But let's just acknowledge that seeing the crew defeat Dolim and the Sphere Builders is a terrific and thrilling reward, well worth investing in three episodes to see them beat the clock.  Archer first demonstrates his apparent lack of perspective by pushing Hoshi, who's just survived slightly worse pressuring by the Xindi-Reptilians in "Countdown," to help him destroy the weapon.  Then Daniels appears and at first it seems like a reversion to "Carpenter Street" making the Temporal Cold War arc look cheap, instead of "Azati Prime," which made it look strong.  Fans who think it's a little on the nose for Archer to be outright crucial for the birth of the Federation might gag at this material, and again, it makes the Temporal Cold War look weak if all it ultimately accomplishes is produce Daniels to say how important Archer is, in this instance putting truth to the old adage show rather than tell.  But by the end of the series Archer is once again being given credit for the Federation, and fans complain that we don't get to see his big speech in "These Are the Voyages..."  So I wouldn't worry too much about whether or not fans are happy about Archer's status so much as quibbling about how it's presented.

But the real treat of "Zero Hour" is its twist ending.  In a way, it redeems two other Temporal Cold War stories.  One is from near the start of the series, "Shockwave," which concluded the first season and began the second.  In hindsight "Zero Hour" links "Shockwave" with "Storm Front," the two-part story that opens the fourth season and concludes the Temporal Cold War arc.  Daniels showing up to warn Archer in "Zero Hour" in effect translates "Storm Front" into a rephrasing of "Shockwave."  "Shockwave" is about what happens if Archer is removed from history.  He and Daniels discover a future that has been devastated.  "Storm Front" suggests much the same, only instead of going with Archer and Daniels to the future, we go to the past, WWII.  Our last glimpse of Archer in "Zero Hour" is with Nazis staring down at him, and one of them is an alien.

Now, I began to view "Shockwave" as ultimately disappointing, and "Storm Front" has always frustrated me as a conclusion to the Temporal Cold War arc.  "Shockwave" shortchanges its story by making it too simple too early.  "Storm Front" shortchanges itself by providing no conclusive answers about "Future Guy," the leading antagonist of the bad guys in the conflict.  And yet, as Archer angrily states he's tired of being a pawn in someone else's conflict...he's also admitting what "Zero Hour" makes plain, that he has been a pawn.  The Temporal Cold War is a complex series of power plays.  "Storm Front" illustrates how a faction of antagonists becomes trapped in the past.  I always wanted to believe that alien Nazi was "Future Guy," but I guess that was never really necessary.  Archer's disgust is its own statement, and illustrative of his emerging need to take control of his own fate, and as such embrace his destiny.  But it's also a confirmation that Daniels wasn't kidding when he said Archer was crucial to the future.  Whether or not he ends up captive of the Nazis for a time, we see him isolated from his crew by the end of "Zero Hour," and so it's is Archer and not him and his crew that Daniels is worrying about.  It's his choice to destroy the weapon personally that Daniels worries about, the risk he's taking, and Archer is transported to the past, and the rest of the crew, separately, too. 

In a last desperate bid, Daniels is responsible for transporting Archer and the crew to the past.  Happily, he sets about the circumstances that stop the alien Nazi and also Archer's declaration.  So Daniels has actually helped push Archer out of the conflict.  You kind of need the whole context to appreciate this, and so I give "Zero Hour" most of the credit for this.  It's appropriate for Daniels' ultimate role to be obscure like this, as his first appearance, in "Cold Front," features his rival Silik trying to convince Archer it's not so clear cut about which of them to trust.  But both Silik and Daniels, or versions of them, die in "Storm Front," Silik more obviously as a hero.  So it really does even out.

criteria analysis:

• franchise - The big conclusion to one of Star Trek's biggest arcs.
• series - And the setup to the conclusion of another.
• character - Archer's determination motivates him to the last of his extreme actions.
• essential - Provides the key to unlock the Temporal Cold War.

notable guest-stars:
Matt Winston (Daniels)
Scott MacDonald (Dolim)
Tucker Smallwood
Rick Worthy
J. Paul Boehmer
Jeffrey Combs (Shran)

Enterprise 3x23 "Countdown"

rating: ****

the story: The Xindi-Reptilians become increasingly isolated, but it may already be too late to stop them.

what it's all about: It was always going to be inevitable to compare the heavily serialized Xindi arc with the most famous previous Star Trek serialized storytelling, the Dominion War in Deep Space Nine.  "Countdown" is where the comparisons really begin to find parallels.  The Sphere Builders are much like the Founders, the Xindi like the Dominion.  But where the Founders never quite pulled the trigger in active participation and the Dominion never quite splintered apart, the Xindi have and splinter still further during the course of the episode.

By the final episode of Deep Space Nine, "What You Leave Behind," the Cardassians have come to regret joining the Dominion.  Damar has led a full-scale revolt, which leads to the Dominion devastating the Cardassian homeworld in retaliation.  But the Jem'Hadar, the shock troops of the Dominion, never seriously consider leaving, or do the Vorta, the bureaucrats of the Dominion, or the Breen, like the Cardassians allies from the Alpha Quadrant.  But The Xindi have already splintered: the Primates (I have referred to them as Humanoids; Degra and the councilman played by Tucker Smallwood came from this species) and the Arboreals (the councilman played by Rick Worthy, for instance) were the first to believe Archer.  The Aquatics join the good guys in "Countdown."  The Insectoids (who like the Aquatics are fully CGI) rebel against the Reptilians (represented by Dolim) by the end of the episode.  There's a whole species who became extinct before we ever met the Xindi: the Avians. 

The Founders, meanwhile, as shapeshifters sowed distrust within the Federation and Klingon Empire, but they played no active part in the war aside from the Female Founder acting as a kind of general.  The Prophets, however, intervened on the behalf of the Federation.  That's what the Sphere Builders do in "Countdown," suddenly aware that their plans have reached a precarious state.

These are fascinating contrasts.  The momentum "Countdown" represents in the arc, meanwhile, is itself an interesting counterpoint.  Deep Space Nine limited even its serialized storytelling at the beginning of the sixth and end of seventh season to the conventional restraints of episodic and two-part installments.  Story elements keep the situation heightened to a crisis state, but each individual installment tends to stand for itself.  You have to go all the way back to the start of the second season, in an entirely unrelated story, to find material in this series comparable to the three-episode momentum that concludes the Xindi arc: "The Homecoming," "The Circle," and "The Siege," which encompass a Bajoran crisis that eventually sees a military seizure of the station.  Yet it's fair to say that Enterprise has more breathtaking momentum.

criteria analysis:

• franchise - High stakes keep the action going in unprecedented serialized storytelling.
• series - The Xindi have finally splintered completely apart.
• character - Dolim attempts to exploit Hoshi's linguistic skills.  Also, Hayes proves to be the ultimate red shirt.
• essential - This ends up as the template for Enterprise's fourth season storytelling.

notable guest-stars:
Steven Culp (Hayes)
Scott MacDonald (Dolim)
Tucker Smallwood
Rick Worthy

Enterprise 3x22 "The Council"

rating: ****

the story: Archer presents his case before the Xindi Council.

what it's all about: "The Council" is where the whole Xindi arc becomes operatic.  It's the end of a suite, in a way, the culmination of Degra's appearances and the conclusion of Dolim's transformation into the true face of villainy.  It also wraps up any lingering mysteries about the connection between the Xindi and the Sphere Builders.

Degra had emerged as one of the essential figures of the arc.  He became Archer's best shot at a diplomatic solution to the crisis through a series of events ("The Shipment," "Stratagem," "Azati Prime," and "The Forgotten") that saw him become go from enemy to ally.  In doing so he made an enemy of Dolim, the Xindi-Reptilian who rejects his logic, siding with the Sphere Builders and launching the attack without the full support of the council.

The council itself, as it represents the Xindi, is finally thrust fully into the spotlight, after having been featured throughout the season, with a full explanation at last.  We are given a history of the Xindi, and see the world they currently inhabit, the one ostensibly threatened by humanity.  Anyone still wondering what any of this was about will now have a definitive answer.

And Dolim murders Degra.  It's one of the great tragedies of the series, and one of its defining moments.  That's exactly the stature Degra had obtained during the course of the series.

criteria analysis:

• franchise - Casual viewers will have very little excuse not to understand the Xindi arc now.
• series - Another key moment of the arc.
• character - Degra's last stand.
• essential - Character deaths usually tend to mean something in Star Trek, and this episode nails another one.

notable guest-stars:
Randy Oglesby (Degra)
Scott MacDonald (Dolim)
Tucker Smallwood
Rick Worthy

Enterprise 3x21 "E2"

rating: ***

the story: The crew encounters its own descendants thanks to a time paradox.

what it's all about: Though "E2" closely mirrors Deep Space Nine's "Children of Time," there are plenty of other episodes throughout the franchise where time paradoxes or outright time travel present alternate outcomes and thus encounters that otherwise would not or could not have happened.  Actually, one of the more famous is Next Generation's "Yesterday's Enterprise," which features the Enterprise-C, from between the Star Trek Generations and Next Generation eras.  But the descendants bit definitely feels like a riff on "Children of Time."

The episode is mostly another attempt at something like "Twilight," where the urgency of the Xindi mission is emphasized via outlandish sci-fi storytelling, only this time it doesn't quite feel as justified.  Where "Twilight" ultimately focused on Archer and T'Pol, "E2" actually spends much of its time with a wholly original character, the offspring of Trip and T'Pol.  And an aged T'Pol exists in this scenario, where the crew had entered a region of space that spit them out more than a hundred years in the past.  The logic of why they didn't stop the original Xindi attack from happening isn't very sound, nor how exactly they managed to stick around for so long, nor why they didn't do anything or learn anything else...only to conveniently show up right when the crew is about to enter the region all over again...

But the interactions between the crews is good, and the aged T'Pol gives current T'Pol another chance to meditate on what's been happening with her, and even what may happen later, a real relationship with Trip, which the fourth season spends much of its time exploring.  I assume the only reason the episode wasn't focused solely on these elements is because "Children of Time" did that, too, with Odo and Kira.  So they had to find something fresh.  And pretty much...didn't.

criteria analysis:

• franchise - A familiar trope receives new life.
• series - Another rumination on the scope of the Xindi mission.
• character - A soft spotlight on T'Pol.
• essential - In hindsight, even if the episode hadn't completely paralleled "Children" by placing a hard focus on T'Pol and Trip, merely putting it on T'Pol herself would've been a nice complement for "Twilight."

notable guest-stars:
Randy Oglesby (Degra)
Tucker Smallwood
Rick Worthy

Enterprise 3x20 "The Forgotten"

rating: ***

the story: Archer and Degra solidify their new alliance.

what it's all about: "The Forgotten" is a chance to remember the victims of the Xindi crisis, not just the ones who died recently ("Azati Prime") but those lost at the very beginning ("The Expanse," the second season finale).  As such it features Trip fairly extensively, as he struggles not just over that but his hatred of the Xindi, which is problematic as Archer attempts to make one of them an ally.  We saw how he began those efforts in "Stratagem," and how subsequent experiences and revelations have persuaded Degra to consider the opportunity.  Like "Stratagem," "Forgotten" gives them time away from most of the other Xindi (Rick Worthy's fellow councilman is present this time), and as such is itself an assurance that Degra really is to be trusted, regardless of Trip's reservations.

It's a continuation of the heavy serialization that had set in with "Azati Prime," and would only have one break from ("E2") as the season winds down.  The season had set up its plot elements like dominos, and now they're being knocked over, and it's some truly inspired storytelling that results.  T'Pol's predicament, the effects of her drug addiction, is also featured.  I think mostly this element is used as the clearest form of the emotional toll the mission has taken, just as Trip continues to embody the home element, having lost his sister in the initial attack. 

By the time we know unequivocally that Degra will be taking Archer up on his offer, he's been forced to repel attacks from other Xindi factions, which is proof enough of his sincerity...and also foreshadowing of things to come in his future...

criteria analysis:

• franchise - I don't mean to suggest casual fans won't be able to appreciate material like this, but their emotional involvement will always be smaller by definition.
• series - Whereas Enterprise fans will gobble this sort of thing up.
• character - The culmination of Degra's character arc as he at last joins the good guys.
• essential - It drives home that the arc considered all the angles, including mourning losses.

notable guest-stars:
Randy Oglesby (Degra)
Rick Worthy
Seth MacFarlane

Enterprise 3x19 "Damage"

rating: ***

the story: Archer must resort to desperate measures.

what it's all about: "Damage" continues the momentum from "Aazati Prime" in both obvious and subtle ways.  It directly follows the events of the previous episode in a serialized rather than two- or three-part episode fashion, something even Deep Space Nine shied away from during its heavily serialized six- and ten-episode arcs at the beginning of the sixth and end of seventh seasons.  Once again, only the later Discovery features storytelling like this.  But then it branches off into a more episodic development, even as it echoes material from the early-season "Anomaly" as Archer discovers he's going to have to make a tough choice about ethics if the crew will be able to continue its mission.

Specifically, he decides to raid another ship.  This is a bold moment, both for him and the series.  Repeatedly throughout the arc we've seen Archer pushed to his limits, but more often than not in metaphorical ways, such as when "Similitude" presents a Trip clone to demonstrate the importance of essential personnel to continue the mission.  This time there's no mitigating factor involved.  It is exactly what it is.

"Damage" also finally reveals a pair of secrets that've long been hinted: the Xindi Council is in contact with the Sphere Builders, and T'Pol has been compromised by a drug addiction.  The Sphere Builders link at last puts aside any doubt about all the time the season has spent exploring the mystery of the spheres almost at the expense of the Xindi.  T'Pol's addiction has been building since at least "Impulse," the "zombie Vulcan" episode where she first experiences the harmful effects of the Expanse on her people.  It's affected her relationship with Trip and now her ability to perform rationally, even though it gives her the perfect excuse to be Archer's loudest critic.  It's a perfect confluence of elements all the way around.

criteria analysis:

• franchise - As with a lot of serialized material I wonder how accessible it is to casual viewers.
• series - Although its significance is surely evident to committed viewers.
• character - From Archer to T'Pol, there's some heavy-hitting material here.
• essential - Just with Archer alone it's must-see.

notable guest-stars:
Casey Biggs
Randy Oglesby (Degra)
Scott MacDonald (Dolim)
Tucker Smallwood
Rick Worthy

Enterprise 3x18 "Azati Prime"

rating: ****

the story: The crew finally intercepts the Xindi weapon.

what it's all about: As proof that the whole season really is one big arc, the seeming climactic moment occurs now rather than at the end of the season...And then we discover that it won't be that easy. 

Daniels and the Temporal Cold War find a kind of redemption here, it must be stated.  In "Carpenter Street" a few episodes earlier, they'd been used as a kind of plot convenience.  Here they are used with pin-point accuracy.  For the first time ever, Daniels offers solid proof of a positive good in the future, an Enterprise-J that's involved in a battle with the Sphere Builders, the aliens manipulating the Xindi. He gives Archer proof that the Xindi in fact join the Federation in the future, and that will end up convincing Degra, the Xindi scientist who designed the weapon and whom Archer conned into giving them its location in "Stratagem," to abandon the cause and switch sides.  And then we discover that Dolim, the lead Xindi-Reptilian, will turn out to be the lead villainous Xindi...

All that accomplished in one episode, after building up material throughout the season.  It's remarkable, and probably unparalleled in Star Trek until Discovery, the first purely serialized series in the franchise.  It provides ample dramatic material for the rest of the season and makes the rest of it more desperate than the original mission itself, which was already desperate, but hadn't always felt like it was, until this moment, when all the stakes and players are finally revealed.  Kind of Shakespearean, really!

And it's probably the most thoroughly satisfying serialized material of the whole series.  Deep Space Nine wrung a lot of great material out of the Dominion War, but with only a single season to work with, Enterprise rises to the task and proves the worth of the whole experiment.

criteria analysis:

• franchise - Meets or exceeds the standard of serialized storytelling in Star Trek lore.
• series - The unquestioned great moment of the serialized aspects of the Xindi arc.
• character - Archer rises to the occasion as a bold leader.
• essential - You can't appreciate the arc or the series without savoring this moment.

notable guest-stars:
Matt Winston (Daniels)
Randy Oglesby (Degra)
Scott MacDonald (Dolim)
Tucker Smallwood
Rick Worthy

Enterprise 3x17 "Hatchery"

rating: **

the story: Archer becomes overly protective of Xindi-Insectoid eggs.

what it's all about: "Hatchery" is the same kind of episode as "Similitude" before it, but there's a big difference.  Where "Similitude" shown a bright light on characters and character dynamics, "Hatchery" loses itself in its episodic material.  But both are symbolic of the kind of frayed nerves the crew experience during the Xindi conflict.

Once more I must remind viewers that Star Trek for the bulk of its history was episodic rather than serialized in nature, in that episodes were conceived to be self-contained, often with metaphorical value that served the story rather than characters or the overall fictional landscape.  Where Next Generation introduced serialized storytelling, it still favored episodic storytelling even in its efforts to serialize, and even Deep Space Nine spent the bulk of its time in episodic storytelling.  Enterprise chose to do a completely serialized season, but still sought after episodic material for much of it; "Hatchery" is one of the more arc-flavored episodic stories, in that it features the Xindi, when much of the other such material didn't.  It even depicts the Insectoids as ultimately sympathetic, even though just a little later they will be depicted as one of the more aggressive Xindi species.

The bulk of the story rests on the crew mutinying against Archer, who has been chemically induced to obsess over the Insectoid eggs.  However, the character who benefits most from the experience is Hayes, the lead MACO whose primary motivation is following orders.  Despite "Harbinger" showing his progress in integrating with the regular crew, Hayes actually seems to revert here.  Still, it's interesting use of the character, about what you'd expect from a military guy, and it does emphasize the differences continue to exist.

criteria analysis:

• franchise - The increasingly impatient casual viewer ironically has no time for traditional Star Trek storytelling.
• series - The episode's usage of the Xindi-Insectoids is relatively inspired.
• character - Hayes, and the MACOs at large, receives a subtle nod.
• essential - Taking away the episodic gimmick would have improved the story in this instance.

notable guest-stars:
Steven Culp (Hayes)
Daniel Dae Kim

Enterprise 3x16 "Doctor's Orders"

rating: **

the story: Phlox is forced to sedate the rest of the crew and operate alone for four days.

what it's all about: From Next Generation's "Frame of Mind" and "Remember Me" to Deep Space Nine's "Distant Voices" to Voyager's "Projections," the franchise has a rich history of episodes where characters have a hard time telling what's real.  And "Doctor's Orders" is part of that tradition.  It also runs parallel to Voyager's "One;" like Seven, Phlox ends up alone and handles it poorly.  Seven's experience ultimately taught her that she did value the company of her crewmates despite her hard drone-honed exterior.  Phlox, meanwhile...Well, it's really just an excuse to hang out with him.  Is that really such a bad thing?

Phlox had been a standout of the series from his introduction, a typically cheerful individual who livened every scene he graced.  Beginning with "Dear Doctor" (like that one, he composes a letter to Dr. Lucas in "Orders"), however, Phlox took on a darker reputation, one "Similitude" would confirm earlier in the season. 

Yet Phlox was also good for unusual bits of comedy, such as in "Two Days and Two Nights" and "A Night in Sickbay," and "Orders" draws on that, too.  But mostly it's just an episode where the spotlight is fully on him, and it's a tall order for any character, but as with everything else thrown his way, Phlox is up to the challenge.  "Orders" may be lightweight and unrelated to the season arc, but it's also the last chance in the season for the crew to let loose a little, before it becomes darker, and that was exactly what it was set out to do.

criteria analysis:

• franchise - Shares storytelling DNA with episodes from every Next Generation era series.
• series - Not particularly relevant to the season arc.
• character - It's an excuse to spend some quality time with Phlox!
• essential - Too bad he's often used as an aside, when he isn't involved in heavy subject matter.

Enterprise 3x15 "Harbinger"

rating: ***

the story: Reed and Hayes butt heads, a mysterious alien appears.

what it's all about: "Harbinger" is very much an episode packed with subplots, connective tissue that moves the season arc along.  Its title implies that there is a major development, and indeed there is: the "mysterious alien" in my brief summary is the first time we see a Sphere-Builder, which means the arc has gotten that much closer to reconciling the spheres with the greater Xindi threat.

That's all well and good, but the more important developments in the short term are character-based.  T'Pol and Trip reach a hiccup in their relationship, as T'Pol realizes she's developing feelings for Trip.  The therapy sessions they've been sharing throughout the season have created a kind of intimacy, but T'Pol was never interested in anything more than that until the events of "Similitude," in which she learns from Trip's short-lived clone that he has feelings for her.  Unaware of this, in the meantime Trip has pursued a romantic relationship with a MACO, which...Okay, this sounds like soap opera material. 

And the Reed/Hayes material seems equally on the nose.  They essentially have developed a professional rivalry, neither quite knowing where their responsibilities end and the other's begins.  This actually leads to a fight!  But franchise fans won't find this quite so cartoonish when they remember Odo always held a grudge anytime Starfleet suggested one of its officers work alongside him to administer station security in Deep Space Nine.  Hayes may never have gotten a chance to expand beyond this moment or his role as a MACO, but this is his biggest spotlight.

Essentially, "Harbinger" is serialized Star Trek in the manner serialized television would come to be known later, even in Discovery.  So it's a harbinger of that, too.

criteria analysis:

• franchise - The importance of events in this episode may elude casual viewers.
• series - But they're important for many elements of the season, and even series.
• character - Trip and T'Pol's evolving relationship breaches the top of romance for the first time.
• essential - The first look at a Sphere-Builder is crucial to the outcome of the whole season.

notable guest-stars:
Steven Culp (Hayes)
Thomas Kopache

Enterprise 3x14 "Stratagem"

rating: ****

the story: Archer uses deception to glean information from Degra.

what it's all about: "Stratagem" is one of the most fascinating episodes of the series.  Like "Twilight" and "Similitude" before it, "Stratagem" is a standalone episode with deep roots in the season-long Xindi arc, and the results show the producers at their most clever.  In all three episodes, they look at the arc from a unique vantage point, and each of them characters are pushed to their limits.  In "Stratagem" it's actually Xindi scientist Degra, a recurring character we've seen repeatedly throughout earlier episodes, but now revealed to be a crucial element of the season, not merely as the designer of the doomsday weapons his people are using against humanity, but as Archer's best hope to stop them.

And the episode doesn't just feature Degra heavily, it essentially is his episode.  For Archer it's a kind of "In the Pale Moonlight," the classic Deep Space Nine tale of Sisko using every means to draft the Romulans into the Dominion War.  Archer is merely trying to trick Degra into giving him information, but it's still fascinating, watching Archer do things he'd never really done before.  At various points in the season he seems almost totally out of control, and yet in "Stratagem," he's clearly completely in control, his best showing of the season and possibly the whole series. 

But we're still left sympathizing mostly with Degra, who has every reason to believe Archer isn't being merely clever but exerting a kind of psychological torture on him, presenting him with fictional scenarios Degra keeps seeing through.  And at the end of the episode?  He's set loose, not really comprehending what's happened to him.  In later episodes he does become Archer's best ally, fighting against the rest of the Xindi Council, risking everything. 

So why isn't "Stratagem" an episode about Archer merely convincing Degra of the morality of switching sides?  Well, for one, all Archer has at this point is humanity's perspective.  Later he'll have material for a better case.  Besides, the earlier episode "The Shipment" already had Archer reaching a kind of understanding with a Xindi, one who is far less invested in the conflict than Degra.  Degra is less Oppenheimer, horrified at the full destructive power of the atomic bomb, than he is Einstein, realizing that the German people have been betrayed by their own arrogance. 

Here is the start of the endgame of the season arc, the turning point, and at its center Degra, on his journey to horrible comprehension.  He learns it by being tricked.  When the full scope of the arc becomes apparent, "Stratagem" takes on a kind of perfect symmetry.

criteria analysis:

• franchise - A classic study of enemies confronting each other.
• series - The turning point of the season.
• character - Degra at last takes the stage, and Archer reaches arguably his most brilliant moment.
• essential - An episode that proves the cleverness of the whole arc.

notable guest-stars:
Randy Oglesby (Degra)

Enterprise 3x13 "Proving Ground"

rating: **

the story: Shran shows up, seemingly offering his assistance in the Xindi conflict.

what it's all about: One thing the third season didn't really do very well was integrate non-Xindi arcs.  The Temporal Cold War, for instance, proved an awkward fit in "Carpenter Street," and in "Proving Ground," Shran and the Andorians show up...Actually, that's about it.  They show up.

Okay, it's slightly more complicated than that.  The episode spends most of its time questioning whether or not Shran has an ulterior motive, and sure enough for most of it he does indeed seem to.  But then he doesn't.  The whole thing's a somewhat convoluted excuse to remind viewers that Shran still exists.  This would've been more relevant had he appeared earlier, or in more than just the season finale as a follow-up.  Instead he just feels tacked on.

I mean, it's not a bad thing.  It's just...awkward.  And it kind of contradicts the extreme dangers Archer and company have encountered along the way, most of them having little to do with dodging enemy Xindi.  That the Andorians can just stroll in at this point, it just feels forced.  Shran and Archer's relationship evolves more toward what it'll be in the fourth season, true, and so that's good.  But...

criteria analysis:

• franchise - Poor excuse to remind viewers that the Andorians are still around.
• series - Still, it's an arc-specific episode that will feel like something is being accomplished.
• character - It just has nothing to do with the Xindi arc, but rather Shran.
• essential - An episode that clearly should not have been developed in a vacuum.

notable guest-stars:
Jeffrey Combs (Shran)
Randy Oglesby (Degra)
Scott MacDonald (Dolim)
Tucker Smallwood
Rick Worthy

Enterprise 3x12 "Chosen Realm"

rating: ***

the story: Religious fanatics are angry about the crew's sacrilegious approach to the spheres.

what it's all about: Pretty much everyone seems to have fixated on the ending of "Chosen Realm," which echoes the conclusion to the original series episode "Let That Be Your Last Battlefield."  And while they are similar, there's also...plenty more that can be said about it.

For starters, it's the episode of the Xindi arc that most directly reflects its origins as a response to 9/11.  9/11 happened just as Enterprise was about to launch.  It took a few seasons, but the series eventually addressed its proximity to the terrorist attacks by way of metaphor: the Xindi attack Earth inexplicably, and Starfleet sends Archer and crew to try and stop further attacks.  Just as the Afghanistan and Iraq wars proved increasingly controversial, Archer faces his greatest moral struggles during the arc.  But "Chosen Realm" addresses the terrorists themselves.

Now, the terrorists had been acknowledged already, although the producers couldn't have known at the time that they were doing so.  At the start of the series a species called the Suliban was introduced as part of the Temporal Cold War.  The Suliban were named after the Taliban, who at the time were best known for smashing ancient Buddha statues.  No one knew they would suddenly become a lot more relevant for harboring the terrorists who caused 9/11.  So "Chosen Realm" features entirely unrelated aliens, who are caught up in an internal conflict, much as the Muslim world generally in the backdrop of the 9/11 terrorists disagrees about certain tenets of faith.  And of course these aliens are terrorists.

What's actually the most interesting aspect of the episode is that not only does it continue the seemingly inexplicable fascination with spheres that had no obvious connection to the Xindi threat itself, at the time, but even gives us the first real hint of what they actually are, and what they were designed to accomplish.  In hindsight, that makes "Chosen Realm" more important than it initially seems.

criteria analysis:

• franchise - Echoes of "Let That Be Your Last Battlefield" are surely noteworthy...
• series - But this episode is ultimately more significant in explaining the purpose of the spheres.
• character - It seems like a lost opportunity not to have included one of the aliens here in the season's host of recurring characters.
• essential - A direct look at 9/11 and its psychological impact.

notable guest-stars:
Taylor Sheridan

Enterprise 3x11 "Carpenter Street"

rating: ***

the story: Xindi-Reptilians attempt to engineer a bio-weapon in Earth's past.

what it's all about: Episodes set in the current day tend to feel like money-savers.  The original series did it first, naturally, only to do it again in the movies with Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, and eventually Voyager did it, too, the Bill Gates-evoking "Future's End" two-parter.  "Carpenter Street" at first glance looks like a waste of such an opportunity, but it really isn't.

It's actually got a lot going on.  The most convenient angle, and probably what ultimately made the Temporal Cold War look most like a cheap gimmick, was using Daniels mostly as a kind of time-traveling cab driver (although that would be a fantastic gimmick!), bringing Archer and T'Pol to the exact moment they need to thwart the latest Xindi plan.  "Thwart the latest Xindi plan" sounds as bad as trivializing Daniels, but it's actually the second best thing about the episode.  Or best, depending how much you like the next thing I'm going to talk about.

The present day (2004) is represented mostly at night, and by a scuzzball whose major contribution to showing Archer and T'Pol what 2004 looks like is having them bring him to the drive-thru of a fast food restaurant.  We'd already seen this guy scarfing down delivery pizza.  The drive-thru scene is classic, especially as T'Pol clearly wants no part of it, right around the time when our real world culture was transitioning away from taking fast food burgers for granted and seeking healthier alternatives.  Yet this guy lives on the stuff!  Take everything else out of the story, and having our future characters experience the present this way...absolutely perfect.

But the scuzzball is also unwittingly a pawn of a Xindi faction.  Up till now, the various Xindi species hadn't really distinguished themselves.  "The Shipment" had focused on a Xindi-Sloth, and we'd begun to suspect that Xindi-Humanoid Degra was probably going to be more important than he seemed.  What about the others?  Were any of them truly nasty?  "Carpenter Street" answers that in a big way, and also foreshadows the later truly nasty turn the Xindi-Reptilians take.  The Walking Dead's infamous bat-swinging Negan, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, plays one of them, and apparently seriously contemplated quitting acting because he hated the prosthetics process.  I know some characters who would've been happy if he had...!  But it also sucks that Star Trek actually had Morgan in an episode, and we didn't even get to see his face.  In the words of McCoy (circa Star Trek Beyond), "Typical."

criteria analysis:

• franchise - The tradition of visiting the present day maintained.
• series - Yet it actually proves incredibly relevant in hindsight.
• character - Daniels, and the whole Temporal Cold War, kind of feels sabotaged.
• essential - The drive-thru scene is a classic.  And prescient!

notable guest-stars:
Jeffrey Dean Morgan
Leland Orser
Matt Winston (Daniels)

Enterprise 3x10 "Similitude"

rating: ****

the story: Phlox raises a clone of Trip with the intention of harvesting his body parts.

what it's all about: If you've never seen "Similitude," that summary sounds pretty grim, so let me just get this straight.  This is an episode built around the ethical dilemma of the situation.  The clone leads an accelerated life, so his whole life is two weeks long.  The episode absolutely knows that the situation is screwed up, and the clone even finds out there's a chance he could have his lifespan slowed down to normal, and that becomes part of the story, too...

It's an absolutely gut-wrenching experience, for the clone, and for Archer and Phlox, who agonize and argue over the situation.  And the funny thing?  It's the ultimate Trip episode, regardless of whether or not it's technically him featured in the story.  Trip had developed over the course of the preceding two seasons into the heart of the series, and his personal stakes in the Xindi conflict only helped solidify that status.  His relationship with T'Pol reaches its most satisfying point in "Similitude," besides; by the end of the series they had drifted apart, but at least for one episode and its peculiar circumstances, they were able to find peace together.

Beyond "Twilight," "Similitude" is also the ultimate creative statement of the Xindi arc.  Archer finds himself pushed to his limits trying to find his way in a truly "screwed up situation."  The biggest problem he faces with the clone is that he knows he needs Trip, and the clone won't live long enough to truly replace him, and even the risky lifespan-extending procedure isn't guaranteed to succeed, so he doesn't find it worth the gamble...even if it means the clone must die.  The ending of the episode, in which Archer and the clone attempt to make sense of the experience, is one of the true classic scenes of the whole franchise.

criteria analysis:

• franchise - A classic character moment in all of Star Trek.
• series - A perfect use of the Xindi arc.
• character - The best Trip episode.
• essential - In a lot of ways, this may be Enterprise's best episode.

Enterprise 3x9 "North Star"

rating: *

the story: The crew finds a colony of humans...living like they were in the Old West.

what it's all about: It should always be noted that my rating system is as much a reflection of an episode's overall worth as it is a judgment of its entertainment value, although I tend to give precedence to worth over value, knowing impatient fans need to know the former more than the latter.  The particular episodic nature of the franchise for most of its run has a natural conflict with an era that values serialization above everything else.  If I give an episode any stars at all (I've really omitted them for only about a dozen entries), it means it has some viewing worth, and anything beyond that is really a judgment call on my part.  It's sad that an episode can't just be enjoyed for its entertainment value, but I've come across episodes that have long been my favorites that I've been shocked to give one or two stars to, based on my criteria. 

"North Star" is a huge reflection on franchise lore.  As such I'd like to say it's essential viewing on some score or another.  Gene Roddenberry originally envisioned Star Trek as "Wagon Train to the stars."  Wagon Train was one of many popular TV Westerns.  When the original series did a Western episode ("Specter of the Gun"), it was almost entirely befitting, even if it had also done Roman Empire episodes ("Bread and Circuses"), Nazi episodes ("Patterns of Force"), gangster episodes ("A Piece of the Action"), and even several hippy episodes!  And later series would do Westerns, too (Next Generation's "A Fistful of Datas"), as well as Cold War spy episodes (Deep Space Nine's "Our Man Bashir") and even old-time sci-fi serials episodes (Voyager's "Bride of Chaotica!").  "North Star" grounds its events into the same kind of thought as the original series, while holodecks invariably produced the results otherwise.

It even has something to say about the season, on a metaphorical level, another reminder, before things got really hairy, of the crew's intrinsic humanity (with apologies to T'Pol, Phlox), and how to keep it despite circumstances.  But I'll keep that as an implied value.  Really, it's just fun viewing at a basic Star Trek level, one of those episodes that ought to remind fans what the franchise is all about, and not just leaving them begging "for something more relevant."

criteria analysis:

• franchise - A good example of what Star Trek started out as.
• series - A latent commentary on the Xindi arc.
• character - Maybe one of those episodes that would've been improved with just one creative alteration: focusing on, say, Phlox and Archer.  Phlox makes everything better!
• essential - A nice throwback, but your level of enthusiasm is your own call.

notable guest-stars:
James Parks

Enterprise 3x8 "Twilight"

rating: ****

the story: Archer's long-term memory is compromised.

what it's all about: There's only one, flimsy, reason not to love "Twilight," and that's if you're a grump.  Being a grump in this instance means either that you hate "reset button" episodes, or you hate subsequent series chasing after Next Generation's "The Inner Light."  Which itself was chasing after the classic "City on the Edge of Forever."  Basically an episode that sort of exists out of continuity, its events technically never having happened.

So let's get that out of the way, because they're both the same issue.  A "reset button" episode is one where the ending means the characters somehow manage to erase the events of the story from ever happening.  One of the more obvious ones would be Voyager's "Year of Hell," where for two episodes the crew literally spends a whole year with everything going wrong, but by the end of it a solution is found (destroying the time ship that helped make it possible) that means they can relive that same period with a completely different experience.  "City on the Edge of Forever" is the classic episode where McCoy jumps through a time portal and does something that erases reality as he and his colleagues (and viewers) knew it.  Kirk eventually figures out that McCoy saves someone who was supposed to die, and the heartbreaking final moments of the episode see him prevent that from happening, even though Kirk has fallen in love with the woman he has to restrain McCoy from stopping getting run over in the street.

Next Generation's "Inner Light," meanwhile, is a more exotic story.  An alien probe gives Picard the experiences of someone else's lifetime.  The more he settles into it, the sadder it becomes to know that at the end of the episode, walking away from this means that man's life is essentially a tragedy.  Picard gets to resume his life, but he retains all the bittersweet memories he shared and even participated in.  Deep Space Nine's "Inner Light" episode was a deeply personal, poignant experience between Sisko and his son, "The Visitor," in which Jake becomes separated from his father because of an anomaly, and lives the rest of his life trying desperately to reunite with him.  It's routinely listed as one of the best episodes of the franchise.  Voyager's was "Timeless," in which a guilt-ridden Harry Kim, years into the future, tries to rewriter history so that he and Chakotay can get everyone else home, and not crashed on a desolate ice planet a long ways from home. 

So if you have no idea what "Twilight" is, that's its tradition.  But like the episodes from the other series, it's an experience that's deeply intrinsic to Enterprise.  "Visitor" was all about a bond unique to Deep Space Nine, "Timeless" is tied up in Voyager's premise, Picard's particular cerebral nature made "Inner Light" typical of him, and no character no matter how often they followed his tendencies could've sold the impact of "City on the Edge of Forever" quite like Kirk.

"Twilight" is in a lot of ways the Xindi arc in a nutshell.  If you were to skip the rest of the season, this one experience would explain the whole story perfectly.  In a larger sense, it also explains T'Pol's bond not just with Archer but the crew around her, an association that made no logical sense to her at the start of the series, but something she found increasingly hard to walk away from later, despite a number of clear opportunities.  In a sense, it is a "shipper" experience.  If Voyager never came closer than "Resolutions" in exploring the potential of a Janeway/Chakotay relationship, "Twilight" is the ultimate "might have been" between Archer and T'Pol, who otherwise pursued a real, and very complicated, relationship with Trip, notably throughout the Xindi arc.  A lot of fans saw equal potential with an Archer romance, which aside from "Twilight" never materialized.

"Twilight" makes it very clear why their relationship happens, and is a quiet tragedy for T'Pol.  While viewers only experience her explaining events to Archer once, this is something she must do on a routine basis, every time Archer's short memory needs reminding of an increasingly elaborate sequence of events, growing longer with every passing year.  Thanks to the reset button, events do play out differently, and much more happily, as far as the Xindi arc goes, but it's hard not thinking of the experience as being as much about T'Pol's endurance as the outcome of their mission.

criteria analysis:

• franchise - Part of a long and prestigious tradition in Star Trek lore.
• series - Yet intrinsically a part of the season narrative.
• character - A bold exploration of both Archer and T'Pol.
• essential - One of those episodes you can very easily recommend as exemplifying the whole series.

notable guest-stars:
Gary Graham (Soval)

Enterprise 3x7 "The Shipment"

rating: ***

the story: Archer finally talks with a Xindi involved in the construction of their doomsday weapon.

what it's all about: "The Shipment" marks a definite shift in the season, between episodes where the crew probed the Expanse looking for answers and finally where they chased after the Xindi themselves.  As such, it's always been a favorite of mine, especially in how it features Archer in the unlikely predicament of having friendly relations with the first significant Xindi he meets. 

But it's actually more significant, in hindsight, as the first real spotlight for Degra, the Xindi scientist tasked with designing the weapon that will obliterate Earth, the follow-up to the attack that set off the arc at the end of the second season ("The Expanse").  Degra would become crucial to the arc; although he made his debut in the season premiere ("The Xindi"), he remained a fairly anonymous figure along with the rest of the Xindi Council in their few appearances before "Shipment."  He would eventually become Archer's most important ally.  As such, "Shipment" amounts to a dry run of his whole arc.

Archer definitely took an emotional rollercoaster ride throughout the season, and sometimes he appeared to go off the rails.  So this is an important moment for him, too, where he passes the Starfleet ideal with flying colors, which given everything else is an important moment to commemorate, to have at all, especially as it is the first time he's confronted with concrete experience with the Xindi.

criteria analysis:

• franchise - Even in Deep Space Nine I always wonder if arc-specific moments translate well with casual viewers, regardless of how well they're executed.
• series - No such compunctions for Enterprise fans.
• character - Our first real look at Degra, who becomes crucial to the whole arc.
• essential - If you ever wanted a single moment in the arc where the good guys looked unabashedly like good guys, here's your chance.

notable guest-stars:
Randy Oglesby (Degra)
Steven Culp (Hayes)

Enterprise 3x6 "Exile"

rating: **

the story: An alien with information about the Xindi attempts to use Hoshi as a bargaining chip.

what it's all about: "Exile" is the first Hoshi spotlight that doesn't cast her in a vulnerable position because of neuroses but rather because of the situation itself.  In a way, its most significant aspect is foreshadowing later in the season when she's once again become a hostage, this time to the Xindi themselves.  Otherwise it's most useful as connecting tissue for the spheres mystery and getting closer to the Xindi.

A lot of observers seem to have fixated, upon original broadcast, the Beauty and the Beast nature of the plot, which is a fairly superficial understanding of the plot, insofar as the alien who tries to trick Hoshi into becoming his companion (an old Star Trek trope) turns out to be ugly, or maybe because of the arrangement he proposes.  Either way, Hoshi is never coerced; it's always her decision, even when he's trying to manipulate her.  She shows great strength of character throughout the episode.  It's really a remarkable turnaround for the character, a sign of the added experience she and the rest of the crew has at this point. 

It was probably bewildering, in these early episodes, all the emphasis on the spheres, not having any idea how they connected to the Xindi or the arc itself.  In hindsight they're a hugely significant element, and therefore any and all material concerning them, especially in these episodes, must be considered accordingly, especially the clever way in which the producers plotted this particular course.  If the crew was slow to come across the Xindi themselves, it was intriguing, learning about the spheres.  After all, they were directly responsible for the Expanse itself.  And, ah...never mind.  If you don't know yet, I won't spoil it for you.  In this review, anyway...

criteria analysis:

• franchise - A familiar story trope that again might seem mystifying to casual viewers trying to understand the relevance to the season arc.
• series - But to dedicated fans, it makes a ton of sense, especially the spheres material.
• character - This is the most assured Hoshi we've seen to date.
• essential - It foreshadows later Hoshi material, but in hindsight maybe if the alien had been an agent of the Xindi the relevance would've been more obvious.

Enterprise 3x5 "Impulse"

rating: ***

the story: The crew encounters a Vulcan ship whose inhabitants have been adversely affected by the Expanse.

what it's all about: "Impulse" was one of those Enterprise episodes jaded fans actually enjoyed, for much the same reason as the second season's "Dead Stop."  It was a complete tonal break, not only within the series itself but from throughout the franchise.  It's a horror story.  Or, as fans dubbed it, "zombie Vulcans!!!"  Clearly, with the massive success of The Walking Dead just a handful of years later, horror was becoming the next big thing in the genre market, beginning with the Dawn of the Dead remake.  Little surprise, considering many fans were first lured away from Star Trek by The X-Files, which itself was more horror than sci-fi.

"Zombie Vulcans!!!" is the thrust of the episode, but there's plenty of justification for it.  The second season finale, "The Expanse," that set up the Xindi arc, had referenced such things.  Now, five episodes into the arc, viewers finally get the visceral experience they were promised.  "Impulse" can easily be seen as the most thrilling episode of the season.

But it's not just cheap thrills, either.  There're lingering consequences.  T'Pol's infection leads to a drug addiction that plays out in the season.  Like the best of the preceding episodes in the arc, significant elements are featured without barreling ahead of the story.  Conversely, the whole experience can also be described as an example of what primitive Vulcans were like, before Surak's logic saved them.

criteria analysis:

• franchise - The events might seem inexplicable to casual viewers.
• series - But they're thoroughly justified in their connections to the Xindi arc.
• character - T'Pol's experiences here lead to a secret drug addiction.
• essential - The most vivid experience of the Xindi arc so far.