"Zero Hour"

Written by Rick Berman and Brannon Braga
Directed by Allan Kroeker


In which Archer puts everything on the line to destroy the Xindi super-weapon, while Enterprise battles the Sphere-Builders in order to disrupt their plans and eliminate the Expanse...

Captain's Log - Final Analysis







Captain's Log

Rick Berman and Brannon Braga have been the whipping boys of the Trek production staff since the decline and fall of “Voyager”. Berman in particular has been credited (if that’s the right word) with the inclusion of “ratings stunts” and other assorted sins; the infamous wrestling episode of “Voyager” is a perfect example. “Enterprise” has been saddled with all the hallmarks of the Berman/Braga era: poor excuses for unnecessary sexual content, terrible series and franchise continuity, and an entrenched episodic format that, for quite some time, crushed any attempts at layered long-term plot progression or character growth.

The third season has managed to crawl out of the ruins left by such narrow and demographically driven priorities. By establishing a season-long plot arc, the writers have managed to generate critical success by firmly establishing conflicts over time and allowing characters to grow and change. It’s not perfected, to be sure, but things are far better now than they were in the second season.

The third season finale is the first episode written by Berman and Braga since the disappointing “Carpenter Street”, and one of only three episodes written by the pair this season. This is a massive change of pace for the series, since the first two seasons were dominated by Berman and Braga. A few of the subplots still bear the mark of the duo’s writing proclivities, such as the T’Pol/Trip relationship, but for the most part, their influence has been less and less obvious.

Part of the turnaround must be attributed to the efforts of recently acquired writer/producer Manny Coto. Indeed, it has already been mentioned by Braga that the series’ fourth season could be overseen by Coto. This has everything to do with Coto’s obvious attempts to repair early arc mistakes under Berman and Braga while introducing strong characterization and multi-layered plot structures.

Given how strong the season has become under Coto’s watch, the prospects of a Berman/Braga season finale were not exactly comforting. The saving grace is that the plot threads have already been pointing towards a rather obvious conclusion for the past few episodes, so there’s not much for them to screw up. That’s not to say that they haven’t tried; the final act is either a continuance of recent strength or a terrible blunder, depending on one’s point of view.

As expected, the bulk of the episode is spent cutting between the two main plot threads: the attempt to shut down the Sphere network and the attempt to stop the Xindi super-weapon. Each has something to offer, especially in terms of what each character is given.

The super-weapon plot thread takes its time to develop, focusing early on Archer’s apparent willingness to sacrifice himself to destroy the Xindi Death Star. More than that, Archer has already made the command decision that the entire team is expendable, so long as the mission objective is attained. This is the culmination of his character growth this season; previously, this kind of decision wouldn’t have been in character at all. Now, it’s plausible.

Reed, however, is still working out the ramifications of such a mission. It’s one thing for him to place himself in harm’s way, but he’s not used to Archer taking on the same degree of risk. This is consistent with his earlier characterization, where protocol was often more important than personal command style. Reed doesn’t see that Hoshi might be a necessary casualty to save Earth; Archer can’t ignore the fact that she’s vital to the mission, regardless of her health.

This mission gives both Reed and Hoshi some good screen time, something that has been an obvious focus of the past few episodes. This makes a certain amount of sense. Once Coto came in, the immediate efforts were devoted to making the plot threads as strong as possible under the circumstances. Once that was done, the three main characters needed to be given priority, to emphasize their character arcs. With that more or less complete, the end of the season was all about giving as many characters worthwhile screen time as possible.

Still, this is about Archer, as the scene with Daniels demonstrates. And finally, what has been hinted and assumed for so long is verified: Archer’s mission on Enterprise will lead directly to Federation. As such, Archer needs to survive, because that key moment in history is still seven years in the future. For Archer’s part, he’s tired of being told that his actions are vital to the future, because that only serves to rob him of his own sense of free will. (Think John Crichton rejecting his place in galactic history in the fourth season of “Farscape”.)

At the same time, Enterprise faces some intervention in the Expanse from the Sphere-Builders. Demonstrating the value of the kind of continuity they hate, Berman and Braga have the Sphere-Builders alter the space around the vital Sphere into the trans-dimensional molasses last seen in “Harbinger”. Thanks to that little trick, T’Pol, Trip, and Phlox have to figure out how to survive, since that previous episode established that the Enterprise crew can’t deal with trans-dimensional space.

In keeping with the idea of giving every character a place in the proceedings, Mayweather’s pilot abilities are at the center of the plan. Phlox gets to develop something to keep the crew alive, if painfully so in the interim, and he actually makes it onto the bridge to monitor how long the crew is exposed. Trip gets to do the usual Berman/Braga technobabble thing and mess with the deflector dish, one of the favorite plot devices of the writing duo.

Then comes the actual confrontation on each front. By far, Archer’s assault on the super-weapon is the better of the two plot threads. While it’s clever to have the Sphere-Builders physically attack the crew on Enterprise, thanks to the modified space around the Sphere, the action itself is only mildly interesting. The Sphere-Builders have too many abilities that are ill-defined, so the audience is unable to consider what tactics might be used. The result is relatively empty action, because the crew is just shooting some kind of beam at the Sphere and dealing with a countdown that everyone knows will be met.

Archer’s situation is far more critical. Outgunned, Archer has little chance of getting to the super-weapon, and he’s forced to watch as the Reptilians take out an orbital platform just for kicks. One wonders what happened to the drydock where the NX-02 was being built, but then again, there must have been some preparations for relocating human assets from Earth. That would go a long way towards explaining the complete absence of Human or Vulcan ships; they were apparently too busy evacuating to take part in the defense of the planet. (And yes, that was meant sarcastically!)

Whatever the case, it provides the perfect excuse for Shran to show up and kick some serious Reptilian ass. Either the Andorian government realized that it would be a damn good idea to place Earth in its debt, or Shran decided to make up for his actions in “Proving Ground” by helping Archer make his stand. Credit Berman and Braga this much: Shran’s presence works, adding another level of pure enjoyment to the situation.

The resulting assault in the super-weapon’s core is far from perfect, mostly due to the nature of the mission. As is typical for recent Trek efforts, the music is sometimes out of synch with the action, almost incidental to the point of irrelevancy. Think of the music played during the action scenes on “Babylon 5”, “Farscape”, or “Stargate SG-1”; in all cases, the music is tailored to increase tension, not just fill aural space.

That said, the fight scenes aren’t bad at all, even if it’s far too easy to physically force an overload in the super-weapon’s reactor core. Given a choice between having Archer and Hoshi both working on separate systems (say, Hoshi on computers and Archer re-routing wires), Berman and Braga prefer using neon tubes. Counter that with some nicely kinetic fight sequences, not the least of which is one hell of a melee between Archer and the Reptilian commander, and the third act works as a resolution to the arc.

By the beginning of the fourth act, Earth is saved and the Expanse is no more. As predicted as far back as the moment the Sphere network was revealed, the reason why the Expanse was never mentioned in previous series within the franchise is logically explained by the elimination of that network. The only thing surprising about this turn of events is the rapidity of the Expanse’s dispersion.

Far more interesting is the suggestion that Archer actually died when the Sphere was destroyed. It’s rather obvious that this didn’t happen, since that really would have a destructive effect on the timeline. Still, it’s good to see something of denouement taking place, even if it’s mostly dedicated to setting up the shock at the end of the episode. Characters are actually given the chance to react to what’s happened, something that comes as a novelty.

Now…as for the “shock twist”.

It would have made a lot more sense for the “shock twist” to be related in some way to the Xindi arc. One very simple and consistent idea would have been for Enterprise to return home just in time for several dozen nuclear missiles to rain on the planet, resulting in an even higher death toll than the Xindi weapon. This would of course be the beginning of the Romulan War, made possible by the mission into the Expanse and the subsequent lack of warning.

However, there is the possibility that the ending as written still leads into the Romulan War, just in a way that isn’t quite so obvious as one might expect. “Star Trek: Nemesis” established that there are both Romulans and Remans, and that Remans have been the cannon fodder of the Romulan Empire for quite some time. If that’s the case, what’s to stop the Romulans from sending Remans to manipulate Earth?

First, how would this fit with what has been depicted? The answer lies within the Temporal Cold War. Various factions have introduced genetic and technological advancements out of other time periods to the 22nd century in earlier seasons, and it has already been theorized that the Suliban’s benefactor wanted Archer and Enterprise to deal with the Expanse and the Sphere-Builders so that he could initiate his own plans to stop Federation.

There are some clues as to the state of play on Earth in the final scenes. Trip notes that San Francisco looks the way it should, down to how the buildings are arranged. This would suggest that something incurred into the normal timeline in the recent past, not the other way around. So Enterprise is likely still in its own time period; it’s Earth itself that has been altered.

It’s not at all clear where or when Archer shows up, and that could be a part of it. Archer could have been sent into the past at the last moment, intentionally sent into the Nazi era so that he can find out about the Reman involvement in changing the timeline. It appears as though World War II has somehow spilled over into the recent past of the 22nd century, and that it happened only after Archer’s apparent death.

So, everything seems to hinge on what happened when Archer’s life was saved when the super-weapon exploded. Either he’s in the past or he’s in an altered 22nd century. Either Trip was completely wrong about the time period in San Francisco, or World War II has continued or spilled over into the 22nd century.

Time travel is at the heart of all scenarios. If the Romulans were contacted by the Future Man behind the Suliban TCW faction, they could have sent the Remans to make the necessary arrangements. Regardless of when it took place, the spread of World War II into the wrong time period has obviously kept human technological advancement from taking place. Enterprise is once again alone, this time facing a world where the most potent technology is probably the atomic bomb.

Why could this be significant? For one thing, during the Romulan War, Earth was the planet attacked. Furthermore, the Romulans used non-warp vessels armed with nuclear devices in the war. If the world is now back to the technology of World War II, and the Remans are working with the Nazis, then the outcome of the current crisis could be determined by a race between Allied and Axis forces seeking a way to gain air and space superiority in a nuclear age.

Imagine, then, Archer and Enterprise helping out the Allied forces and discovering, in short order, that the aliens behind the Nazis are related to the Romulans. Earth manages to correct the problem, but not before the Remans can build non-warp vessels with nuclear missiles. Enterprise chases them away from Earth, with the final battle taking place at the Battle of Charon near Pluto.

With next season consisting of shorter arcs, this could all happen very quickly. Or, perhaps in a more logical sense, the Romulan War could spread out over time, with the time distortion being solved quickly but the resulting warfare becoming extended. No matter how it falls out, this is probably not the direction the series should have taken. If Manny Coto does take over next season, in what is now a 22 episode fourth season run, the best solution could depend on whether or not that alien in the Nazi uniform actually turns out to be a Reman.

If so, Coto should find a way to work out this annoying Nazi plot twist and turn the series towards the Romulan War as soon as possible. If not, then Coto should write the series out of this mess in the very first episode of the fourth season, hopefully in a way that will take the series back on course or pretend this never happened.

Regardless, this is exactly what one might have expected from Berman and Braga. Having resolved plot threads that were repaired in the most logical way possible, they went right back to their endlessly repetitive time travel motif and tossed in Nazis in the process. It’s as if they never learned a thing from the lessons of the third season. Tell a compelling story with some measure of originality, and praise will come on its own. Rehashing Nazis yet again is not compelling, and it’s not original.


Final Analysis

Overall, this episode had its moments, but the momentum carried by the recent string of strong episodes hit a speed bump with a “shock twist” that came out of nowhere and doesn’t seem to make much sense. (Berman and Braga can’t seem to stay out of the time travel well for very long, can they?) The resolution to the Xindi arc was rather predictable as well, though there were some strong moments.

Writing: 1/2
Acting: 2/2
Direction: 2/2
Style: 2/4

Final Rating: 7/10




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