"Azati Prime"

Written by Manny Coto, Rick Berman, and Brannon Braga
Directed by Allan Kroeker


In which Enterprise reaches the location of the Xindi weapon, only to learn that the plans to destroy the weapon may have much more damaging effects than Archer could have expected...

Captain's Log - Final Analysis







Captain's Log

After a somewhat disappointing “sweeps” period for the series, “Enterprise” hits the final hiatus before the last stretch with an episode that starts on a high note and never falters. Not only did “Azati Prime” provide the series with a much needed Big Moment, but it also began providing tantalizing answers to certain ongoing questions.

Additionally, several of the subplots that began percolating around the same time that Manny Coto joined the series as an executive producer and writer come to a head, revealing some character arcs that were completely unexpected. Considering that character growth has been a major shortcoming of the Trek franchise over the years (DS9 the notable exception), this was an unanticipated and welcome development.

It’s been hinted in earlier episodes that the Temporal Cold War and the Xindi arc are related in some way, and the easy speculation has been that a faction distinct from the apparent post-Federation Daniels or the benefactor of the Suliban set the Xindi on their current path of destruction. This episode confirms that suspicion, while also cementing the root cause within the previously established Expanse mythos.

The Sphere-Builders are trans-dimensional beings, like the alien from “Harbinger”, attempting to use the spheres and their spatial effects to create an environment compatible for themselves. This effectively wipes out those living in the Alpha Quadrant if it happens. Knowing that the Federation is going to prevent the invasion, the Sphere Builders determine that the key factor in all of the various timelines that lead to their destruction is the combination of humans and Xindi.

Ultimately, the Sphere-Builders look at two key moments as vital to that eventual alliance: the birth of the Federation and the first meeting between humans and Xindi. There’s no reason to think that in all timelines, humans and Xindi encounter each other prior to the formation of Federation. In fact, it would seem more likely that the Federation was the vehicle to increased human exploration, which would have led to encounters with the Xindi species (and perhaps even human aid in finding peaceful solutions to the internecine Xindi conflicts).

Hence the Sphere -Builder plan to plant the spheres in the region of space where the Xindi are located, to isolate them from the various species that will form the Federation. The Sphere-Builders then send an emissary to the Xindi, before the key alliances towards Federation can be forged, to prompt the attack on Earth. Thus setting humans and Xindi against each other, ending in complete attrition of both sides at worst and genocide at best.

Which leads to the connections between the Temporal Cold War and the Sphere-Builder plans. The first season TCW activities seemed to be interference in how the internal politics of the Alpha Quadrant evolved, so that certain forces ended up on top. It certainly seems as though Daniels’ faction benefits from the evolution of the Federation. At the end of the first season, in “Shockwave”, the removal of Archer from the timeline resulted in the apparent destruction of the human future, as well as the elimination of the Suliban benefactor from the timeline.

One can now speculate that this was the result of the incursion by the Sphere-Builders into the timeline, something that neither faction of the TCW anticipated. Removing Archer from the timeline prevented him from both creating the Federation and forging the alliance with the Xindi. Hence, the eventual destruction of the human future by the Xindi and/or the invading Sphere-Builders.

Once Archer was returned to his proper place in the timeline, interaction with the TCW factions seemed to drop off. Now, of course, it makes a certain degree of sense. Both sides had to investigate the effects of Archer’s removal from the timeline, and that meant moving throughout various alternate timelines to understand the full implications. The fact that the Suliban benefactor provided Archer with information first suggests that there was something to be gained by that faction by waiting until the last possible moment to involve Archer and Enterprise.

If one believes Daniels and his apparent lack of knowledge in “Carpender Street” (and there’s not much reason to), then pinning down the critical moments that make or break the supposedly “correct” future timeline couldn’t have been easy. The fact that Daniels brought Archer into the time of Enterprise-J doesn’t mean that every timeline results in the showdown around 2550. It only means that the critical battle took place at that juncture in the alternate timeline that Daniels chose to use as an example.

After all, if the Sphere-Builders began opening a trans-dimensional rift in spacetime within spitting distance of Earth in 2150, then it certainly should have been mentioned at some point in the previous installments of the franchise! The solution, of course, was easily theorized shortly after the revelation about the spheres: eliminating them must necessarily result in the end of the Expanse, making any mention of it moot.

However, that solution now provides the perfect explanation for why the Xindi attacks on Earth have never been mentioned before. The only way for the current arc to resolve would be some kind of alliance with the Xindi against the Sphere-Builders. That would put an end to the eventual invasion, which would in turn eliminate the plan that led to the creation of the spheres and the subsequent Xindi attacks. The whole thing becomes a self-contained temporal loop that essentially would have never happened.

There are several possible results of that scenario. Certainly this would explain why the TCW factions were unaware of the temporal incursions of the Sphere-Builders, since those future timelines could only exist if the Sphere-Builders’ plan were foiled and the time loop closed. In some way, however, it would make sense for the events in the Expanse to remain part of the “Enterprise” timeline, if only to bring that Xindi-human alliance forward.

After all, it would be a huge boost for Archer’s credentials to pull off that kind of major victory, considering that only Earth was willing to make the effort to solve the issue of the Expanse. Since the Vulcans and Andorians would likely be involved in the negotiations with the Xindi, the road to Federation would be well established.

This scenario also has further implications, because the Suliban benefactor could have wanted to wait until after the attack on Earth to inform Archer so that Earth would be distracted. During the year that Enterprise has been in the Expanse, there’s been little word of what might be happening elsewhere in the Alpha Quadrant. Given that Enterprise was the only Starfleet vessel conducting “deep” exploration, the Suliban could have been dispatched to other activities…like setting the Romulans on Earth.

The episode doesn’t just work from the perspective of the series mythology as a whole, but it also provides some much needed depth to the Xindi. Degra continues to be a conflicted individual, and while he seems to give Archer too much credit under the circumstances, it nicely balances the bloodthirsty attitudes of the Xindi Reptilians. The Xindi Council was headed for division from the very beginning, and seeing that pan out is a nice touch.

Archer and T’Pol both take some big steps in terms of their own arcs in this episode. Archer’s mental stability has been questioned recently, and not always because of a Xindi hatchery. Archer has been more and more reckless, and insisting on making the suicide run himself doesn’t immediately make sense. But if one considers that Archer has been on a single-minded path, he could have fallen into the self-sacrificing mindset that leading a presumably doomed mission can create.

More surprising is the evolution of T’Pol’s apparent bad characterization into something far more troubling. Perhaps it would have been easier to recognize that something was wrong with T’Pol had her portrayal been more consistent in the first two seasons. Now, however, her emotions are clearly out of control, overwhelming her reason. This is a surprising and welcome plot twist, because the very nature of the Expanse (as well as the established reaction of Vulcans to Trellium-D, which is pervasive in the Expanse) provides a logical and consistent cause.

All of these elements still wouldn’t necessarily result in a compelling episode if it wasn’t for the small details that raise an episode to the highest level. Usually the score is forgettable, but in this episode, the music is perfect for nearly every situation. Archer’s interrogation scene reveals a strength to the character that has only come out in small doses. The idea of placing the Xindi weapon under an ocean gives the situation a scope of vision that hasn’t been seen on Trek in years. There are dozens of minor character moments that succeed merely on the strength of Coto’s ear for dialogue.

But for all that, perhaps the most important element is the application of consequences. Archer doesn’t simply talk his way out of the problem; instead, he still faces death at the hands of the Xindi Reptilians. The Xindi weapon is still in play, having been moved to an unknown location. And most of all, Enterprise experiences a level of battle damage that is simply astonishing. Watching crew members sucked into vacuum as massive holes are rent into the Enterprise hull…it’s a kind of dramatic realism that hasn’t been seen on Trek in many a year.

Perhaps the most fitting compliment for this episode is how it compares to the Big Moments of its contemporaries. An episode like this easily compares to the strongest episodes of “Babylon 5” or “Farscape”. Considering that comparisons between those series and “Enterprise” are normally far from favorable, there really can be no better compliment.


Final Analysis

Overall, this was possibly the best episode of the season. Even Berman and Braga couldn’t take away from the strength of the concept, and Coto gave the smaller moments the ring of truth. There was an energy to the entire production, from acting to directing to scoring. This is going to be a hard episode to beat!

Writing: 2/2
Acting: 2/2
Direction: 2/2
Style: 4/4

Final Rating: 10/10




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