Mark Watches ‘Enterprise’: S03E24 – Zero Hour

In the twenty-fourth and final episode of the third season of Enterprise, no. Just… no. DON’T DO THIS TO ME. Intrigued? Then it’s time for Mark to watch Star Trek. 

What do I even say about the Thing?

Trigger Warning: For brief mention of Nazis/nazism.

“Zero Hour” is certainly one of the more expertly plotted episodes of this show, and it was here, at the end of season three, that it felt abundantly clear that Enterprise had found its own footing. It hasn’t been a clear path to this point, of course, and I’ve struggled with some of this show feeling like it was a tad repetitive. This Xindi plot, though, was the most unique thing we’d seen out of Enterprise, and it has led to… well, a Thing.

I’ll get there. Prior to that final sequence, this was a tense and emotional journey, though it’s a journey that centers Archer first, then Tucker and T’Pol. Which isn’t necessarily a bad thing! The further development of T’Pol’s relationship with Tucker and her emotional growth is an important part of the fabric of Enterprise. I wouldn’t want to take it out at all. Yet this episode is very much about these three character, especially Archer. If we look at this role with “Zero Hour” he matters more to the story than anyone else. He’s the one who offers himself up as the one to stay behind and plant the charges on the reactor of the Xindi weapon, risking his own life in the process. That’s very much in-character for him, but the re-appearance of Daniels challenges this notion.

So what does the “hero” of the narrative do when told that their heroic act will actually ruin history? Well, if you’re Archer, you dismiss all warnings and do what you want. (He’s such a Gryffindor, oh my god. Well, he’s got a lot of Slytherin in him, too, but that’s to be expected, since those two houses are so complimentary to one another.) It’s through this that Enterprise posits that the most important character within this universe is Archer, which leads to one of the most awkward lines in the whole show: Daniels saying that Reed and Hoshi don’t matter to the future of the Federation. LIKE… YIKES, THAT WAS AWFUL. And kind of unforgivable! I get what the show was trying to convey, but the problem is that if you step back and look at Enterprise as a whole, Archer is definitely the kind of character to fit the Chosen One arc. Aside from T’Pol and Tucker, who are certainly the next most important characters, everyone else sort of lives in the background, so a statement like that doesn’t elevate Archer. It felt dismissive of Reed and Hoshi, which means that Phlox and Mayweather exist on the same level. (Well, Phlox has had a decent number of episodes about him, though.)

It’s uncomfortable in general, but it came off as more glaring because I finished both Deep Space Nine and Voyager this year. To go back to a Trek show where a straight white dude is the critical character to the whole story feels… really unfortunate?

It’s why I wish the connection between Hoshi and Archer would have been built up. It’s a solid element in “Zero Hour” because of how the two of them met and how far they’d come in the last three years or so. We get a couple sequences that remind us of their history, but it didn’t feel like enough. (Especially when Archer was so dismissive of Phlox earlier in the episode when it came to Hoshi’s health. I get that this was a desperate situation, but you could still be nice???)

I’m hoping that the hints we got of T’Pol’s growth continue throughout season four, though I’m not sure which direction the writers might go. I love the idea of her letting her guard down more and more with Tucker, so her revealing her actual age to him was one of the sweetest moments in the whole season. I’m guessing that she’ll experience more and more emotions in the future, but how will they manifest? Will Tucker have the patience to deal with T’Pol as she experiments with them? WILL THEY CONTINUE TO BE ADORABLE???

Anyway, before I get to the Thing, let’s just acknowledge as a whole that the action sequences in “Zero Hour” were quite well done. This is a tense episode with dual nightmares unfolding simultaneously, and I never felt like either story was rushed. It’s a brilliant balance, honestly, and it helps that this finale tied up all the loose ends from season three’s arc. The Enterprise destroyed the spheres and banished the builders to their dimension; Archer blew up the weapon before it could be used on Earth; neither of the resolutions for these plots felt cheap or silly. This was tense.

And yet, nothing was quite as tense as that moment when Enterprise was dropped off by the aquatics ship near Earth and couldn’t reach anyone on their home planet. I’m still reeling from this ending because EVEN THOUGH I WAS WARNED THAT ARCHER’S DEATH WOULD DISRUPT TIME, I NEVER REALLY BELIEVED IT. Look, this show wasn’t going to kill him off, so even when they said that he hadn’t made it off the Xindi weapon, I figured that maybe the Andorians got him. (Well, I didn’t believe it until the scene with Porthos, and then I nearly lost it. Don’t do this to me, DON’T.)

Somehow, Archer’s death on that weapon triggered an unraveling of time, and Enterprise was thrown back to… what? The 1940s? The late 1930s? Or is that the modern day, and Earth society never developed space flight? We still have no idea what this is, except that World War II appears to be a conflict between the Allies and the Nazis and THE NAZIS ARE ALIENS???? HOW ARE THERE ALIENS OPENLY WALKING ABOUT EARTH? HOW DID ARCHER GET THROWN BACK IN TIME? IS THIS TIME TRAVEL OR JUST A MESSED UP TIMELINE?????

What a fucking cliffhanger. My predictions for the last season are going to be a mess.

The video for “Zero Hour” can be downloaded here for $0.99.

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