• Twilight Part 2 February 27 - 5:07 am

Old man Archer seems to have scored himself a nice cosy hole in post-apocalyptic Hobbiton.

Oh. Man. Such an awesome ep. It's been far too long since an episode of this series left me thinking "wow." This definitely made me think "wow."

I don't have time to do a thorough write-up right at the moment, but trust me... there's one coming.

Sorry to say that this one didn't do it for me at all, and I came into this season willing to give the show a chance.

The Memento framework without its inherent irony just came across as a tedious device. And knowing that the reset button was on the iminent horizon sucked all of the drama out of the last act. I felt no sense of awe or danger throughout the whole ep, actually. Pity...I liked quite a bit of the look of it all, though.

In the beginning of the episode, we see Enterprise attacking the Xindi weapon before it destroyed the Earth. I thought that before that Enterprise's warp nacelle was fused, keeping it at Warp 1.7? How did they get to Earth in time to attack the weapon?

Yeah. The fact that we know that Earth is around in the 23rd and 24th century kind of killed the premise.

I was expecting it to be a Future Imperfect(TNG) type of thing, but it was actually closer to Yesterday's Enterprise(TNG).

It seemed to me more like 'All Good things'.
Visually it was great, Tpol looking gorgeous, nacelle destruction awesome. A nit, right after loosing the engine a shot in engineering shows the wall map of the ship but both nacelles are flashing normally. Should one light be out?

It seems the storey is one of those "Let's get the crew in a trap and create a make belief solution to their escape."

Still, great entertainment for free.

Guess I forgot to be entertained.

The destruction of the Earth seemed rushed. Shouldn't it, at least, take hours for an 8000 mile-wide planet to explode?

Rather than admit she loves Archer T'Pol explains her devotion to him because he saved her life? That just seems less logical to me than love.

The Yridian mentions Rigelian Flame Gems. Wasn't it Spican Flame Gems in The Trouble With Tribbles?

Why did the Xindi have the Yridian watch Phlox? Did they suspect he might find a cure for Archer and change time? If so, why not just kill Phlox???

Phlox zaps the parasites, then the parasites disappear from a scan made years earlier, so how was Phlox able to remember them? Shouldn't knowledge of them have disappeared from his memory as well?

I hate temporal mechanics!

It's not temporal mechanics that causes headaches, it's bad writing about temporal mechanics that causes headaches.

By Aaron Dotter on Wednesday, November 05, 2003 - 10:08 pm:


In the beginning of the episode, we see Enterprise attacking the Xindi weapon before it destroyed the Earth. I thought that before that Enterprise's warp nacelle was fused, keeping it at Warp 1.7? How did they get to Earth in time to attack the weapon?


Who ever said the weapon could move faster than Warp 1.7?
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By Bab on Wednesday, November 05, 2003 - 11:26 pm:


... A nit, right after loosing the engine a shot in engineering shows the wall map of the ship but both nacelles are flashing normally. Should one light be out?

Wasn't it the Intrepid that lost the nacelle, not Enterprise?

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By Keith Alan Morgan on Thursday, November 06, 2003 - 02:00 am:

Why did the Xindi have the Yridian watch Phlox? Did they suspect he might find a cure for Archer and change time? If so, why not just kill Phlox???

I could be wrong but I assumed because he might lead them to more human survivors? There is no reason to suspect the Xindi had any knowledge of Archer or the infection.

________________________________________________

My observations;

Hoshi doesnt look very much older. T'pal I understand, she is vulcan but Hoshi? All the other humans seemed to have gained a few years....Hoshi looks better!

Wild coincidence that they chose to settle on Ceti Alpha 5. This is where Khan and his men were left to settle in TOSs' "Space Seed" and later survived the explosion of Ceti Alpha 6 that predated 'The Wrath of Khan'

Aloha All

Rob

Ceti Alpha V is the planet where Kirk exiles Kahn and his followers.

Wasn't it the Intrepid that lost the nacelle, not Enterprise?Anonymous

They both lost nacells, in different ways. The Enterprise lost a nacelle when T'Pol rammed one of the Xindi ships into another. The Intrepid lost a nacelle when the Xindi sliced it off in the final battle.

Not sure how I felt about this episode. On the one hand, this plot (future bad timeline erased by someone at far end of timeline) has been used in some of the best Trek episodes (e.g., Yesterday's Enterprise, All Good Things, The Visitor, Children of Time, Timeless). On the other hand, this plot has been done to death.

If it's sweeps month, it must be a time-travel story...

The special effects of this episode were awesome! The demolition of Earth was disturbing, and the destruction of the bridge actually took my breath away. The "old" makeup was well-done, too. This did have me interested all the way through. Not in a "Will they get out of this one?" way, (we knew they would), but in how they would accomplish hitting The Big Reset Button without being too contrived.

Poor Travis, not only doesn't he have any lines, but I think he even gets killed in this episode and no one even mentions it!

I thoroughly enjoyed this episode. I mean, I REALLY enjoyed it. Probably the best of the season so far. I'm not going to say it was without flaws, though. It certainly had quite a few, but they did not detract from my enjoyment.

COULDA WOULDA SHOULDA OF THE WEEK:
I have no real problem with the reset button. It can sometimes be used to good effect. They tell "What if..." stories very well. However, I thought the creators missed an opportunity here. Archer only has knowledge of maybe 4 or 5 hours of time. I thought for sure they were going to let Archer remember what happened since he wouldn't be a big deal for him. (some sort of echo from the temporal parasites or something like that).

IMMINENT DANGER OF THE WEEK:
The one thing this episode did wonderfully is show what could happen with this Xindi arc. It's one thing to say the Earth could be destroyed. It's another thing to show that actually happening. The ONLY way to do this on this series is to use a reset button technique.

LACK OF ARBITRARY RESET OF THE WEEK:
I don't think the reset button was used arbitrarily this week. Sometimes its used to do really weird things (like the character kills someone, a main character dies, etc.) but all of the stuff that happens in this episode isn't all that far-fetched. If you remove all of the "Earth gets destroyed" stuff, it shows a pretty good view of what our heroes might be like 12 years down the road. This brings me to....

LOVE STORY OF THE WEEK:
This is the FIRST time I've been able to take Archer and T'Pol seriously. "A Night In Sickbay" was sorta entertaining in a "Har har har" sorta way, but this time it felt genuine. I felt some real chemistry between them. The connection felt emotional rather than sexual. I never really thought they could be a couple, but this episode is making me reconsider.

SHALLOW AESTHETIC COMMENT OF THE WEEK:
T'Pol looked terrible in the Starfleet uniform; however, she looked FANTASTIC in the civilian clothes with Archer. The hair was a huge improvement. I hope TPTB consider giving her that hair for the actual timeline.

CLASSIC TREK RECALL OF THE WEEK:
Ceti Alpha Five! ROFLOL!! That was cute.

MISSING HELMSMAN OF THE WEEK:
Usually I don't mind the absence of Travis (I find him boring as a character) but it was just BLATANTLY obvious this week. He was nowhere to be seen. If you show how every character has progressed over 12 years and then leave one out, it's noticeable.

ABSENT CAPTAIN OF THE WEEK:
Perhaps I missed something, but didn't Reed say he was given command of the Intrepid? If that's the case, why's he still on Enterprise during the Xindi attack? (I like Reed's beard too)

OVERALL OPINION OF THE WEEK:
If I were to judge this episode purely objectively, it would have quite a few problems; however, I enjoyed it immensely so it gets an A in my book.

Later

TUE

TUE: Usually I don't mind the absence of Travis (I find him boring as a character) but it was just BLATANTLY obvious this week. He was nowhere to be seen. If you show how every character has progressed over 12 years and then leave one out, it's noticeable.

Travis died in the attack that resulted in T'Pol taking the helm and using the docked Xindi ship to ram the other. Look closely and you see that Travis is down on the floor and bleeding from the head. Just before she takes the con T'Pol checks his pulse and sort of slumps a bit in sorrow. Well, as much sorrow as a Vulcan is capable of showing anyway. They just never mentioned him later in the episode. But then again, considering the character, why would they?

TUE: Perhaps I missed something, but didn't Reed say he was given command of the Intrepid? If that's the case, why's he still on Enterprise during the Xindi attack? (I like Reed's beard too)

Tucker says that Reed is going to take command of the Intrepid because Captain So-And-So is stepping down. Not has stepped down but going to step down. So from this I gathered that Reed would take the ship at some later time. But then the Xindi attacked within the next few hours, so that mucked those plans up.

All in all I thought it was a visually entertaining episode. Even if it did blatantly steal from the film Memento and had the same pace and resolution as the Voyager episode Timeless.

My biggest problem with it came in the beginning when they witness the destruction of Earth. I didn't believe for a second that anyone on the bridge was witnessing the destruction of their homeworld. True, there might be some level of shock induced silence among some. But not one person on the bridge cried out at the sight. Does that seem wrong to anyone else but me?

I thought this episode was one of the better ones of the season. Some of the others I haven't paid much attention to, but this one was pretty riveting.

I don't mind episodes with the reset button. I try to figure out how they're going to get to the point of being "reset".

I like T'Pol's long hair. Have we ever before seen a Vulcan with long hair? I didn't like Malcolm's beard.

I think nobody on the bridge cried out when Earth was destroyed because they've all known that it's been coming for a while. It's not a surprise to them. Some of them also probably feel guilty, because they survived and weren't able to stop the Xindi.

KAM asked: Wasn't it Spican Flame Gems in "The Trouble With Tribbles?"
Yes.

Wasn't that Jolene Blalock's real hair? I agree that she looked abysmal in the uniform.

If you thought you died and went to T & Aer Fanfic Heaven, gimme a hell yeah!

But the show missed an opportunity to erase not only the destruction of humanity, but the format of the entire show, a la the Giffen/Bierbaums Legion Of Super Heroes (RIP)#4.

Think of it - no more Temporal Cold War; no more ridgehead Klingons; no more snotty Vulcans keeping mankind down.

No more Commander Jack@$$ fondling Subcommander Kes-With-Hooters every other week.

And that's the bottom line...if you smell what I'm cooking.

T'Pol showed way too much pain when her leg was trapped. From what I understand, Vulcans accept pain as a necessary warning signal, but T'Pol's crying and momentary whimpering was un-Vulcan.

And for nearly having her leg crushed she was certainly walking well in the final scene. Oh, OK, Phlox fixed it.

Shouldn't there be an "artificial gravity cutoff switch" just for instances like this? It would probably be effective in the case of boarding parties also.

This was the one time I wasn't taping the episode at the same time it was on -- Now I'll have to catch it on the repeat just to check out those cool SFX shots again.

And our Tom Paris did a fine job of directing, as well.

They should have rigged delta radiation emitters in the docking ports, so as to disable Xindi weaponry.

Yeah, I know it's nasty on humans (see The Menagerie(TNG)), but the Xindi may be immune.

ScottN, did you mean (TOS)?

Meanwhile... the nits.

We see here pretty definitively that the Xindi are all about not only the destruction of Earth, but the extermination of Humanity as a race. So, with that in mind, why, after destroying Earth, did they not turn around and wipe out the rest of the human fleet? They clearly had the upper hand in that battle, but for some reason, they let the ship (and any other ships that may have been involved) go free.

The same problem asserts itself at the end of the episode. Instead of merely blowing the Enterprise to smithereens, the Xindi board the ship and use their soldiers to hunt the remaining humans. Why not just blow the ship up?

Memo to Reed: Never never never never ever never grow a goatee. That is all.

How 'bout them brilliant MACO strategists? The first time in the ep that we see the ship boarded by the Xindi, some MACOs engage in a firefight in a corridor. Eventually, a pair of Xindi come up an adjacent corridor to where the MACOs are camped out and blow them away. Obviously, it was poor strategy to just sit at that junction and not check your flank, but in the final battle, the exact same thing happens again? The MACOs are in a firefight with an open flank due to a corridor junction, and the Xindi go around to the corridor and take the MACOs out from the side. You think they would learn...

Apparently, T'Pol's illness isn't going to become significantly worse over the next twelve years.

It's too bad they didn't explore the Vulcans' role in the destruction of Earth. I mean, you would think that just maybe they would have sent some ships to help in the battle, but there didn't seem to be any around. Where were the Vulcans during all this? Are relations really this bad?

Ceti Alpha V... muah hahahahahahaha!

ScottN, did you mean (TOS)?

Yes, I did... darned fingers don't type what I tell them to.... rassum fassum mumble grumble...

Why did the Xindi have the Yridian watch Phlox? Did they suspect he might find a cure for Archer and change time? If so, why not just kill Phlox??? - KAM

The Xindi knew Phlox would lead them to the humans that were being protected by Enterprise.

I found it odd that T'Pol and Phlox would try to convince Captain Tucker that the salvation of humanity lies in Archer being cured and having command of the Enterprise 12 years earlier. As I recall, the Enterprise was attacked by 2 Xindi ships, disabled and boarded, and ultimately lost a warp nacelle. What would Archer do that would have changed the outcome of that engagement?

If there are only 6000 humans left alive, and the Xindi are actively hunting them, why group them all on 1 planet? I'd put a third on the planet to try to establish a new homeworld, and scatter the rest on Vulcan, Denobula, and any other world that would have them.

Once again I wonder about the command structure on Enterprise. Granted, T'Pol is a senior officer and a veteran space explorer, but why is she given command over Tucker?

If I was in command of a Starship and Earth was about to be destroyed by that Xindi sphere, I sure as Hell wouldn't have survived that fight. I'd have fired every weapon in the armory and then rammed that thing. It's ridiculous that there were Starships leading the human convoy to Ceti Alpha 5.

Would Tucker's hair really go grey in 12 years? It just seems like the easiest way to show a character's age is to turn their hair grey. I'd also think he could find a needle and some thread to fix the hole in the shoulder of his uniform.

Just to add to what has aleady been said, thumbs up for T'Pol's hair and attire in this ep. Nice look for her.

Margie, Vulcan women usually had normal 'Human' hairstyles in TOS. Witness T'Pring and Saavik in Wrath of Khan/ Search for Spock etc.
It seems in Enterprise the creators are giving her a traditional male Vulcan hairstyle, at least in seasons 1 & 2.

I thought T'Pol had said the warp engine was repaired from warp 1.7 at the station that made the probe??

Maybe the captain will not ram one Xindi ship into another in a future episode, and save the day?

I found it odd that T'Pol and Phlox would try to convince Captain Tucker that the salvation of humanity lies in Archer being cured and having command of the Enterprise 12 years earlier. As I recall, the Enterprise was attacked by 2 Xindi ships, disabled and boarded, and ultimately lost a warp nacelle. What would Archer do that would have changed the outcome of that engagement?

Perhaps they never got into that fight or maybe there was some attack patter or evasive manover Archer tried that T'pol did not. There's no way to know for sure.

If I was in command of a Starship and Earth was about to be destroyed by that Xindi sphere, I sure as Hell wouldn't have survived that fight. I'd have fired every weapon in the armory and then rammed that thing.

I agree, I wondered why Enterprise didn't ram the thing. I mean, if they had rammed it at full speed right at the source of the beam, it should have been enough to at least disable the weapon.

And I'm also very distrubed by how they only care about the human lives that were lost. What about all of the other species?

As an example, Porthos could very well be one of the last surviving dogs after that attack.

Voyager gave us one "Year of Hell," so now Enterprise gave us 12. For a viewer, there were similarities between the two. Both "Year of Hell" and "Twilight" showed us what great dramatic potential their respective series represented, but meanwhile, we knew this was just a special-effects-filled look at what never will be and that we will have to be largely contented with such standard fare as "First Flight" and "Rajiin." In some ways, "Twilight" copied "Year of Hell" too closely: the obvious reset button and the (almost) obligatory destruction of the ship. But the episode was a visual treat. The aging makeup for Archer, Phlox, et al. was so wonderfully done. It's amazing how far makeup artists have come since "The Deadly Years" and "Unnatural Selection." The special effects were wonderful: the Xindi weapon, the destruction of Earth, the space fights. Even in the movies, never have the special effects been this superb. Even the acting had its moments. When T'Pol was in engineering at the end, I could actually sense the love and dedication -- borne of survivor's guilt -- that she felt for Archer. For the first time in more than two years of Enterprise, I was moved emotionally by the moment. How I wish we could have this more often. Though I don't think "Twilight" will stand out as my favorite episode this season, I think it will be the most memorable.

Nits and notes:

-- Trip said to T'Pol, "How can we keep going with one warp engine?" Enterprise has only one warp engine; Trip meant one nacelle.

-- Why did Starfleet promote T'Pol over Trip anyway? Strange decision, but Trip wound up as captain anyway.

-- T'Pol told Archer: "Mars. Alpha Centuari. Vega colony. All were destroyed." That was a nice touch of continuity. In the original series, it was established Zephram Cochrane moved to Alpha Centuari before he disappeared. Vega colony has been mentioned previously on Enterprise.

A question, though: Did T'Pol mean the Xindi weapon destroyed those worlds also? It seemed so by the context. But the Xindi weapon was designed especially for Earth, so would it even have the same effect on other worlds? I realize T'Pol might have meant the humans on those worlds were massacred through other means.

-- In the known Star Trek timeline, within 12 years both the Federation would have been founded and Earth would have fought the Romulan war, resulting in the Neutral Zone. Neither the Romulans nor the concept of a Federation got a passing mention in the story. Hmmm. Are the Xindi just another pawn in the Temporal Cold War?

-- Humans resettled on Ceti Alpha V. Yikes! Keep an eye on that sixth planet.

-- It was appropriate, perhaps poetic, for humans to settle on the same world where, in the regular timeline, Khan was deposited in the 23rd century. Considering humanity's plight and desperation, it was just the type of situation for a military/political leader such as Khan (just someone with a slightly smaller ego).

-- The pattern of destruction for Enterprise confused me. I thought it would have started closer to engineering (the back of the saucer), where Archer, T'Pol and Phlox were rigging stuff to blow up.

-- I was disappointed that the destruction of the bridge and Enterprise itself failed to move me. Like I said before, it almost has become standard for that to happen in these types of episodes.

-- Why did the Xindi want Phlox followed? To locate Archer, or to locate the human colony? If it were the latter, it makes no sense that the Xindi could not have tracked down the humans in 12 years' time. The humans' situation was too desperate to stay hidden for that long.

-- The ending was a too hammy for me. Ha ha. A nurse. Wink. Wink. We get it. Considering the heavy drama of the previous hour, it was not appropriate.

Rob - I could be wrong but I assumed because he might lead them to more human survivors? There is no reason to suspect the Xindi had any knowledge of Archer or the infection.
Obi-Juan - The Xindi knew Phlox would lead them to the humans that were being protected by Enterprise.
That does more likely, but how would they know Phlox would know where they are?
Also there was a reference to the Andorian Shran so they seem to have contact with other worlds. It just seems odd that the Xindi would apparently have so much trouble finding the humans.

TUE - This is the FIRST time I've been able to take Archer and T'Pol seriously.
I didn't buy it at all.

margie - Have we ever before seen a Vulcan with long hair?
Didn't Spock have long hair at the beginning of STTMP?

Thanks, Adam.

Stone Cold Steven of None, so you're the one person who liked the Giffbaum era of the Legion? ;-)
And if the reset button had been used so they could redo Enterprise without Berman & Braga I would have been so happy.

Obi-Juan - Would Tucker's hair really go grey in 12 years?
Different peoples' hair goes grey at different times. I discovered my first grey hair a week before my 16th birthday.

I sure had a flashback with the shot of the "rag-tag fugitive fleet". I half expected a Cylon ship to show up.

I liked this episode allot, and had many of the same observations already posted. (Ceti Alpha V? uh-oh...) (Why did Enterprise blow up saucer-first? Even my Dad noticed that one.)

The few things I noticed:

Scott Bakula (sp?) did a fairly good job of convincing me that the bulkhead piece that was trapping T'pol's leg was heavy. But the effect was kind of ruined with the way it wobbled during close-ups of her leg.

Two out of character moments: (to me) Trip's 'I'll think about it' response to Archer's treatment when it was possible for Earth to be saved. Given his attitude in the series thus far, you'd think he'd be the one jumping at the chance, no matter what the risk.

Also, Archer's 'nurse' moment at the end. Really, I don't think the captain would be so much of an obnoxious pain. It just seemed kind of silly.


Finally, I liked the ending solution, once the chamber was destroyed. Suddenly, Phlox's off-hand joke about a sub-space implosion was a real goal. (Though it looked allot more like a warp drive explosion, it would still probably do the job pretty well...)

Did old T'Pol believe that time-travel is possible?

The Vega colony was also mentioned in "The Cage," as the planet Pike intended to visit to take care of his injured crewmembers.

I liked T'Pol and Trip better in the alternate timeline. They both seemed more competent. I liked Travis better too. He seemed more dead.

Great episode!

I liked T'Pol's longer hair (and the newer look she started wearing this season, too). Jolene finally got a chance to wear her hair down instead of in a wig for a change. Finally, a time travel storyline that I liked (they get tiresome after awhile when Vermin and Co obviously run out of ideas otherwise). Well, kinda, sorta quasi-time travel but still. Loved the effect of the bridge being sheared off. Didn't see any bodies flying out into space, though. Also great ship explosion. Man, there's always gotta at least one ship named Enterprise that gets blowed up real good, doesn't there? I saw it coming (as no doubt y'all did as well) that Archer would die in an explosion that would destroy all of the parasites in him, and then going back to the original timeframe.

third-side
My biggest problem with it came in the beginning when they witness the destruction of Earth. I didn't believe for a second that anyone on the bridge was witnessing the destruction of their homeworld. True, there might be some level of shock induced silence among some. But not one person on the bridge cried out at the sight. Does that seem wrong to anyone else but me?

Well, I thought the same, not enough reaction from most of the crew. They just sat there and stared. THough, I did notice a no-name extra, the one of the two holding Archer at the beginning of the scene, who I thought did react. I saw him, after letting go of Archer, and then seeing the distruction of Earth, react with a jerk down of his head, and then a pained look on his face. I thought this was well done, by someone who was an extra, and they usually do half the movements, that the stars do. Kinda like the lady who sat at T'Pol's station and just stared.

Christopher Q
Did old T'Pol believe that time-travel is possible?

She seemed to have believed in it to me. She even suggested to Trip that helping Archer would cause events in the past to change. It was Trip this time who was doubtful.

Hooo Boy...

I guess it was ok episode. There was no way it could've happened, but at least acting was mostly good

No, seriously, suddenly we find out that those anomalies can infect victims with some kind of temporal parasites? Does it mean that Cutler is affected too?

But on the bright side, at least T'Pol was wearing something sensible in this episode.

Speaking of outfits, how is this possible that she was chosen by Starfleet Command to be new captain of Enterprise?

(and suddenly we learn that Enterprise is still in contact with SFC... weird.)

Next is the mentioned miracleous voyage from the Expanse to the Earth just in time to witness Earth destruction. (And yes, they looked almost bored watching it.)

Alas, poor Travis... he barely said two lines and then he died.

So, they mentioned Alpha Centauri... Good for continuity, but bad for "Terra Nova". So, again, Terra Nova was the first human colony because what? Alpha Centauri wasn't available?

Old Tucker looked kinda like Jack O'Neill from SG1

Moving on to the Xindi assault... what was that Xindi looking for in the Archer quarters? "Oh, look, captains quarters. I better step in and pillage his stuff while he's on the bridge."

And of course, all he has to do is to blast comm switch to open door. I guess Enterprise bridge also had that kind of switch installed :rolleyes:

Boy, security forces on board the Enterprise aren't very bright. Especially MACOs. And their field of vision must be terrible, too...

---Critique:
---A nice addition by the series to NextGen’s All Good Things…(TNG) and Voyager’s Year of Hell(VOY).
---Although the idea of a character waking up in the future and having to be told what has happened is not new, it worked here because the ongoing Xindi arc was used as the launching point, allowing us to see the worst case scenario of the conclusion to that storyline as a beginning rather than an ending, leaving the viewer to want to find out what had happened after that as much as Archer did. This produced some nice tension, and the episode proceeded at a nice pace as we were given a 12-year history lesson peppered with some nice character work as Archer and his crew deal with the loss of both Earth, and their captain.
---The episode did stumble a bit by the time Phlox came up with the idea of change the past, in that the timeline manipulation involving the parasites and eradicating them to change the past was kinda hokey, reminiscent of some of Trek’s more dubious premises involving timeline manipulation from episodes like All Good Things…(TNG), Year of Hell(VOY) and Before and After(VOY). It’s not that I necessarily disliked those episodes (In fact, the first two are among my favorites), but it’s the kind of thing that’s been done to death, and by the time Phlox explained the plan to Trip in the closing scene of Act 3, the ending was pretty much telegraphed, though I admit that I did like the action and suspense as Archer, Phlox and T’Pol try to create the subspace implosion in Act 4 as the Enterprise is boarded by Xindi Reptilians.
---Other Miscellaneous Thoughts:
---T’Pol’s ramming the docked Xindi ship against the was really nice, and the fact that the doing so caused significant damage to the Enterprise herself was welcome.
---T’Pol looked much prettier in this episode, both in the future scenes with that pony tail, and in the timeline wherein she was captain of the Enterprise.

---Notes:
---Humans are explicitly revealed here to have colonies in the Alpha Centauri system, in addition to Mars and the Vega system, which have been previously established, as T’Pol mentions to Archer in the closing scene of Act 1.
---The presence of shields on the Enterprise, and Trip’s comment that he should thank “General Shran” for them may suggest that humans obtained shield technology from the Andorians, though it’s possible this only occurred in this episode’s timeline.
---We see Xindi Insectoid ships for the first time in Act 4.

---Continuity Nods:
---T’Pol tells the aged Archer in the opening shot of Act 2 that the refugee colony they’re on is on fifth planet in the Ceti Alpha System, which was first mentioned in Space Seed(TOS) and then seen in ST II as the planet on which Kirk chose to banish Khan.
---Soval tells Captain T’Pol in the next scene that they received a distress call from the Earth convoy in the Mutara System, which was also first established in ST II.
---We see a Yridian, a race that first appeared in Birthright part I(TNG), for the first time on the series.
---The Yridian claims to be a dealer of Rigellian flame gems. Spican flame gems were what Cyrano Jones sold in The Trouble With Tribbles(TOS).

---Terms:
“Rosemary’s Baby” 1968 thriller starring Mia Farrow and directed by Roman Polanski that Archer mentions to T’Pol in the beginning of Act 1 as the scheduled movie for Movie Night.
Margaret Mullin Woman that Archer met when he was 24 years old during flight school in San Francisco, as T’Pol relates to Archer near the end of Act 2. Archer proposed to Mullin outside her apartment on Westgate Avenue, but she turned him down because she didn’t want to become a Starfleet widow.
Yedrin Koss Yridian captured by the Enterprise in Act 3, who initially claims to see Rigellian flame gems, but then confesses to have been hired by the Xindi to spy on Phlox. (Name from startrek.com only.)
Rigellian flame gems Commodity that Yedrin Koss claims to sell when Trip interrogates him in Act 3, which are illegal in the Ceti Alpha region.

Now we know how Dick Cheney feels around George W. Bush
One thing I kept wondering during T’Pol’s explanations to Archer of what happened in the intervening twelve years was how many times she has had to repeat these things to him over the past twelve years. I suppose a Vulcan might be less likely to feel irritated at the repetition, but if Archer’s new memories only last a few hours, as Phlox tells Archer during the 2153 scenes of Act 1, then T’Pol has had to repeat these explanations at least several times a day, every day, for the past twelve years. Sheesh! Couldn’t she have just set up a computer monitor to repeat them for him every time she has to start over with him? When Archer himself brings up this point in his quarters in Act 3, she tells him that she doesn’t always tell it in detail. Meaning what, that sometimes when he suddenly freaks out at his twelve-years-out-of-date surroundings, he is more easily pacified by an abbreviated explanation than others?
---And speaking of which, just how many times does T’Pol bring him up to speed in this episode? If his new memories only last a few hours, then she’s had to do this several times between his waking up in the opening shot of Act 1 and the completion of the procedure in Act 4, yet nothing seems to indicate that she has. Instead, it seems as if Archer has no problem remembering everything that T’Pol has told him throughout the episode.
T’Pol brings up the subject of one of Archer’s previous relationships for no reason? Wow, so Vulcan women are just like human ones!
Why does T’Pol bring up Margaret Mullin near the end of Act 2? It seemed to be an extraneous comment that was not precipitated by anything either of them mentioned prior.
But how do you measure units of bullsh*t?
Preparing for the procedure on Archer in Act 3, Phlox says that he’ll be using a highly focused anti-proton beam to eradicate the parasites. But during the procedure a couple of scenes later, he refers to the units in “millicochranes.” But millicochranes were established as units of subspace distortion in Remember Me(TNG) and The Outcast(TNG), not anti-protons.
Of course, given how hospital food is, you can’t really blame him
T’Pol was irresponsible for letting Archer, in his condition, run off from sickbay in Act 4 during a battle.

The Xindi weapon did not look like the planet killer in the original series episode "The Doomsday Machine."

Luigi said: "Why does T’Pol bring up Margaret Mullin near the end of Act 2?"

T'Pol was anticipating what Archer would say next, as she had gone through this process with him repeatedly. She told him something that she did not know about Archer at the time he was infected by the parasites as proof that there wasn't a ruse going on.

Both the Enterprise crew and the Xindi have no way to know this, but we know that humans would not technically be extinct after the Xindi finished all the ones the could find off, as there is (or will be) the human colony in the Delta Quadrant(The 37's) and next week we find that there are apparently humans already in the Expanse(though the Xindi could probably find them)

I was puzzled by who was doing the promoting in the alternate future(promoting Reed to captain of the Intrepid) If Earth was wiped out, so was all of Starfleet's adminstration and most senior officials. I suppose Trip could have done it,(though he didn't seem to act like he did) since apparently he would be the most senior Starfleet person, or perhaps the 'civilian leaders' they spoke about?

Uh, maybe I missed something, Hans Theilman, but why SHOULD it look like the doomsday machine? There was never any indication it was built by the Xindi. In fact, there was never any indication of who built it. (except in every thrid Star Trek novel out there.)

P.S. I know a lot of people dislike Bush's policies, Luigi Novi, but was that comment really necessary?

I thought of a possible nit, but it is easily explained away. In the Voyager episode, "Equinox," Janeway credits Captain Ransom with making first contact with the Y'Ridians. Seven of Nine comments that the Borg believed the Y'Ridians to be extinct. "So did the Federation," replies Janeway. Now, it's possible that the Y'Ridians were believed to have gone extinct between the current era (in which the Y'Ridians have an entry in the Vulcan database) and when we first start seeing them quite a bit, starting with the episode "Birthright Part I" (TNG). The only problem is with the words "first contact." It's possible that in the regular timeline, the Federation never contacted the Y'Ridians, but the Vulcans did (prior to the founding of the Federation, in 2161). Now, the Y'Ridians are believed to gone extinct (possibly owing to the discovery of artifacts, or an abandoned homeworld) by the Federation, sometime in the future after "Twilight." Ransom, on behalf of the Federation, discovers another Y'Ridian world or colony, and is credited with the Federation's "first" contact, even though the Vulcans had met the Y'Ridians centuries before. So, anyway, I deflated my own possible nit.

Zarm Rkeeg: P.S. I know a lot of people dislike Bush's policies, Luigi Novi, but was that comment really necessary?
Luigi Novi: Of course it wasn't necessary. It was a joke. Hence, it was voluntary. What does necessity have to do with it? If a mild joke at Bill Clinton or George W. Bush's expense is too troubling to you, don't read my posts.

Posting some jokes on the MiSTing board & I found myself wondering what would happen if the reset button hadn't of been hit.

If V'Ger discovered that the creator's homeworld had been destroyed, would he have searched for those who had destroyed it?

What would Nomad have done?

Or the whale probe from STIV?

The Xindi might still have ended up being destroyed in the future just not by Humans.

Then there's the giant space amoeba that won't be destroyed before it multiplies. Hmmm...

I'm almost surprised that they didn't use Travis' "death" as an element for the previews (that always lie).

"Next week, on Enterprise -- the crew loses one of their own!" Well, even if they'd named him, most people would have said "Travis who?".

My bet is that for the next sweeps period in May, they really will kill him off, and have no qualms about pushing it in the previews.

Dang, I hate double-posting, but there's no "edit" feature.

Zarm Rkeeg -- Uh, maybe I missed something, Hans Theilman, but why SHOULD it look like the doomsday machine? There was never any indication it was built by the Xindi. In fact, there was never any indication of who built it. (except in every thrid Star Trek novel out there.)

P.S. I know a lot of people dislike Bush's policies, Luigi Novi, but was that comment really necessary?

(I thought it was kind of funny...)

Without rereading all the above posts, I think someone wondered if the Xindi weapon could be related to the Doomsday device.

Actually, you're right, Influx, which brings up an interesting point- they had various death and destruction scenes, and they asked "Who will pay the ultimate price?" while showing Phlox getting knocked over the railing. So they did show someone dying, as they are wont to do, it just wasn't Travis.

Luigi- Good point. I'd just come off of a heated school debate about politics. Sorry.

Influx- yeah, I figured that too, but I couldn't find one and it sounded like he was responding to someone. (of course, if the post is there, I now look like an idiot)

KAM- Now THAT is a cool theory. Probably make a great story. You a writer, by any chance? :-)

Jolene finally got a chance to wear her hair down instead of in a wig for a change. - MarkN

Isn't she blonde? While they could dye her hair, I'd imagine they still used a wig.


Next is the mentioned miracleous voyage from the Expanse to the Earth just in time to witness Earth destruction. - Kazeite

I just assumed they used one of those handy Xindi vortices we saw the probe use in The Expanse.

Without rereading all the above posts, I think someone wondered if the Xindi weapon could be related to the Doomsday device. - Influx

Gelzyme brought up the possibility of the Xindi origin of the Doomsday Machine on the board for "The Xindi." While it obviously didn't look the same, Phlox's anti-proton beam (which he was going to use on the parasites) IS the same thing that the Doomsday Machine used to slice up planets. Hmmmmm...

While Archer and T'Pol are attempting to create the sub-space implosion, Phlox indicates that he's going to stay on the Enterprise by simply looking at Archer and refusing to budge. He looked a bit evil in that shot. Kind of odd. Plus, it was a little misleading in the preview. I thought there was an evil twin plot.

My bet is that for the next sweeps period in May, they really will kill him off, and have no qualms about pushing it in the previews. - Influx, referring to Travis

Maybe Travis will have a really good death scene and become popular only after his death (like Tasha Yar). Yeah, that's the ticket...

Zarm - Now THAT is a cool theory.

Thanks. :-)

You a writer, by any chance?

By choice, actually. ;-)

Unfortunately only one professional sale.

Turn your theory into a novel, maybe you could have two! :-)

Do the Star Trek Books have a "What If?" or "Elseworlds" line?

I don't think the editors would be impressed with a proposal for a Star Trek novel that starts out, "The Xindi have destroyed Earth and this is what happens next...".

Removing the Star Trek elements and trying to write it as non-Star Trek book would also have problems because I couldn't use V'Ger, or Nomad, or the whale probe, or the giant space amoeba and any substitutions wouldn't have the same resonance with the readers.

Darth: Isn't [Jolene] blonde? While they could dye her hair, I'd imagine they still used a wig.

:: Maybe, like Alyssa Milano, she came to her senses. (Collectively, the two godawfulest blonde jobs I've ever seen.)

True, but I think the next "Star Trek: Strange New Worlds" collection will be including a "What If" section like the last one did.


"I don't think the editors would be impressed with a proposal for a Star Trek novel that starts out, "The Xindi have destroyed Earth and this is what happens next...". "- KAM

LOL!


BTW, what IS your professional sale?


Back on the topic of the episode, was the anomaly really small enough that shoving T'pol 3 feet to the left or so put her out of it's path? Are the anomolies chaneled by the shape of the corridor?
When one enters the ship, shouldn't there be a hull breach (at least for some of them, the ones that warp and twist) kind of like TNG's "In Theory?"

Then there's the giant space amoeba that won't be destroyed before it multiplies. Hmmm... - KAMoeba

And...what of Lazarus?...

I thought of Lazarus, but didn't he say his homeworld was... Earth?

Zarm, I didn't see the last Strange New Worlds, so I didn't know that.

I sold a short story to the October 1995 issue of Short Stuff For Grown-ups.

No, Lazarus' homeworld was that empty planet that the timeship(s?) was (were?) on.

Kazeite: No, seriously, suddenly we find out that those anomalies can infect victims with some kind of temporal parasites? Does it mean that Cutler is affected too?

Dan Gunther: I just had a funny thought. What if they did affect Cutler, and Phlox went through the same thing with her as he did with Archer? We just never saw it!

Did I miss something? What does Cutler have to do with anything?

TUE

Yeah TUE i dont understand it either

In one episode, they say that Cutler broke her arm when an anomoly slammed her into a bulkhead.

Yeah, but I think that each anomoly is different. Only this one infected Archer. But then again, we can never be sure now... :-)

The planets of Rigel and Spica can both have flame gems. Similar mineralogical processes. But, probably, the writer didn't bother using the Trek Encyclopedia. But at least this one isn't too bad.
There were probably some non-humans visiting the planets where the humans were; and humans probably were visiting the homeworlds of the Vulcans, Alpha Centurians, etc. So the Xindi would have destroyed those planets, antagonizing all the non-humans. This episode doesn't deal with that.

Unless the Xindi somehow selectively killed only the humans. But the Vulcans, etc. probably would have seen the Xindi as a threat anyway and fought back.

Judging by his episodes and interviews, Mike Sussman seems to be on top of things with regards to Trek trivia. So I doubt he didn't look in the Trek Encyclopedia.

Alternatively, the other races, seeing the threat that the Xindi and their Weapon O' Doom posed, could've expelled all humans from their territory in an effort not to attract Xindi attention.

Reed is acting triggerhappy? I’m shocked!
When Koss’ ship begins to flee in Act 3, Trip orders Reed to target one of his nacelles. Instead, the Enterprise fires on both of them.

Suffice to say, regarding future actions of the crews of various Starfleet ships... the Xindi have damned the Universe. We all know that starfleet captains regularly save the universe before breakfast. And let us not forget the borg. They are coming. They won't find any humans if this story plays out but should find plenty of Xindi and no Federation to offer resistance.

Maybe I just missed this...

How does Archer withstand multiple Xindi weapon shots while it kills every: MACO, Starfleet, and Vulcan crew person in one shot?

...these aren't like bullet wounds where the bullet might not hit a vital organ...

I enjoyed this episode very much. I also thought it was funny that Archer killed the Xindi with a statue of Zephram Cochran.

I saw this one for the first time last night and actually liked it. Granted, the Big Rewind Button has been done before, but some of the best ST episodes have used the premise well. I especially liked the continuity nods with Ceti Alpha 5 and the Vega Colony.

All I ask for is a little continuity....

Of course, we know that if this timeline stays, Khan will never be on Ceti Alpha 5. Temporal mechanics does give me a headache....

I agree with others who have said this - T'Pol does show too much pain when her leg is trapped.

One more thing. Please refresh my memory. What does MACO stand for again? I have seen it in several postings. Thanks.

Military Assault Command

Military Assault Command Operatives.

Made-up Acronym, Catchy but Obfuscating.

Darn! I thought they were the guys who would repaint the exterior of Enterprise, inexpensively and cheaply!

Archer's been captured? Uh oh! Better get MACO!

Been there, done, that. See the MiSTing board for Enterprise!

Thanks for the help everyone!

The Enterprise is using the “Fat Old Nightwatchman” procedure of policing a large area
In the opening shot of Act 2, T’Pol tells Archer that the Enterprise is “in orbit, partrolling this system.” Well, it can’t exactly patrol the entire system if it stays in orbit around one planet, can it?

Keith Alan Morgan: Rather than admit she loves Archer T’Pol explains her devotion to him because he saved her life? That just seems less logical to me than love.
Luigi Novi: I see a certain amount of sense in it. She owes him her life, so she decided to devote hers to making his life more comfortable.

At Nitcentral, ScottN: They should have rigged delta radiation emitters in the docking ports, so as to disable Xindi weaponry.
Luigi Novi: Why delta radiation?

Luigi, because Phlox determined that delta radiation disabled/killed the organic power sources to the Xindi weaponry.

Trike: The pattern of destruction for Enterprise confused me. I thought it would have started closer to engineering (the back of the saucer), where Archer, T'Pol and Phlox were rigging stuff to blow up.
Luigi Novi: In addition, it looked like a conventional chemical explosion, and not a subspace implosion. The creators did a much better job at the end of Year of Hell part II(VOY), when the temporal explosion created by Janeway ramming the Krenim weapon ship looked far more exotic than a simple fire-type explosion.

Oh yeah. As revealed in The Shipment. Thanks, Scott.

Excellent episode. The only major nits I noticed were a couple of model reuses: one of the "Earth" ships in the convoy is a Hazari ship, while the Yridian's ship is Qatai's ship (both from VGR).

They got the age makeup a lot more realistic here than they did in "Timeless"

One wonders if this scene happened:

Trip (nudges Reed): Hey Malcolm, this is a what-if future episode, not a mirror universe episode.
Reed: Oh, sorry. (pulls off goatee beard and sprinkles talcum powder on hair)

Aaron Dotter: In the beginning of the episode, we see Enterprise attacking the Xindi weapon before it destroyed the Earth. I thought that before that Enterprise's warp nacelle was fused, keeping it at Warp 1.7? How did they get to Earth in time to attack the weapon?

Bab: I thought T'Pol had said the warp engine was repaired from warp 1.7 at the station that made the probe??
Luigi Novi: She said no such thing. She said they found the facility where the probe was constructed, but that it had already been deployed. She didn’t say anything about repairing the nacelle there. It’s possible they found one of the Xindi’s subspace corridors, and learned how to open it, but that would still require the Weapon to travel slower than Warp 1.7, since the Enterprise is there at Earth before the Weapon appears, and Countdown later seems to make clear that the Weapon is obviously much faster than that.

Anonymous: Who ever said the weapon could move faster than Warp 1.7?
Luigi Novi: It’s a logical presumption. Why would the Xindi build it to move so slowly?

Bab: A nit, right after losing the engine a shot in engineering shows the wall map of the ship but both nacelles are flashing normally. Should one light be out?
Luigi Novi: There is no shot in Engineering after that. The next scene is in the Situation Room, and I didn’t see any wall map showing the nacelles flashing. The only graphic of the ship I could see was one of the Enterprise on the back wall, and I saw no flashing on it at all. Even if you did, who says such flashing would be meant to indicate “normal”? For all we know, such a graphic could be currently displaying atmospheric pressure, and not power or operations.

Third-Side: All in all I thought it was a visually entertaining episode. Even if it did blatantly steal from the film Memento...
Luigi Novi: How do you figure this? In the first place, Trek has done time manipulation stories like this YEARS before Memento, and in the second, Memento’s gimmick was that its story was told in reverse. Nothing in this story bears any similarity at all to that. This episode involves characters from the future trying to manipulate the timeline by changing the past, which makes it far more similar to Yesterday’s Enterprise(TNG), All Good Things…(TNG), The Visitor(DS9), Before and After(VOY), Year of Hell(VOY), Timeless and Endgame(VOY). Of those episodes, only one, Before and After, was told backwards like Memento, and that episode predated Memento by three years.

Third-Side: My biggest problem with it came in the beginning when they witness the destruction of Earth. I didn't believe for a second that anyone on the bridge was witnessing the destruction of their homeworld. True, there might be some level of shock induced silence among some. But not one person on the bridge cried out at the sight. Does that seem wrong to anyone else but me?

SlinkyJ: Well, I thought the same, not enough reaction from most of the crew. They just sat there and stared. THough, I did notice a no-name extra, the one of the two holding Archer at the beginning of the scene, who I thought did react. I saw him, after letting go of Archer, and then seeing the distruction of Earth, react with a jerk down of his head, and then a pained look on his face. I thought this was well done, by someone who was an extra, and they usually do half the movements, that the stars do. Kinda like the lady who sat at T'Pol's station and just stared.

Kazeite And yes, they looked almost bored watching it.
Luigi Novi: SlinkyJ is right. The crewman on Archer’s left, one of the two ordered by T’Pol to take him back to his quarters, appeared to have a shocked facial expression and posture, as if he was frozen by what he saw, and after the planet blew up, his posture collapsed further. Archer is as shocked as he should be. T’Pol is a Vulcan. Reed looked deeply troubled, and remember that aside from T’Pol, he is the most stoic and reserved of the bridge crew. The only other person seen during this sequence is the female crewman at Hoshi’s station, seen as Archer approaches the main viewer in the closing shot of the teaser. She is the only one who displays an utterly inappropriate facial expression. (Man, who’d have thought that when it comes to seeing one’s home planet destroyed, Carrie Fisher would actually turn out to be a better actress?)

Margie: I think nobody on the bridge cried out when Earth was destroyed because they've all known that it's been coming for a while. It's not a surprise to them.
Luigi Novi: Margie, I’m sorry, but that is not a believable human reaction. Regardless of the threat, they did not know that they would fail in preventing it, and regardless, the shock reaction in actually seeing it would be expected. Even one person being stoic about it would incredible as it is, but many of them? No way.

Margie: Some of them also probably feel guilty, because they survived and weren't able to stop the Xindi.
Luigi Novi: That would be a reaction after the event, not the reaction upon seeing it.

Stone Cold Steven Of None: No more Commander Jack@$$ fondling Subcommander Kes-With-Hooters every other week.
Luigi Novi: How is T’Pol like Kes?

ScottN: T'Pol showed way too much pain when her leg was trapped. From what I understand, Vulcans accept pain as a necessary warning signal, but T'Pol's crying and momentary whimpering was un-Vulcan.
Luigi Novi: Where has this been established?

ScottN: They should have rigged delta radiation emitters in the docking ports, so as to disable Xindi weaponry. Yeah, I know it's nasty on humans (see The Menagerie(TNG)), but the Xindi may be immune.
Luigi Novi: What difference does it make if it’s nasty on humans? If the security teams hold back, they won’t be there when they’re used, so your plan would work.

Sparrow47: Why, after destroying Earth, did they not turn around and wipe out the rest of the human fleet? They clearly had the upper hand in that battle, but for some reason, they let the ship (and any other ships that may have been involved) go free.
Luigi Novi: Perhaps the weapon is so huge, and so powerful, that the Xindi didn’t want to waste its firepower on ships (kinda like using a bazooka to kill a mosquito), and that while it can fire on planets, perhaps it cannot easily maneuver itself into position quickly enough to target ships, which could easily evade its beam, and so after destroying Earth, it went directly to Mars, Vega, and the other Earth colonies.

Obi-Juan: If there are only 6000 humans left alive, and the Xindi are actively hunting them, why group them all on 1 planet? I'd put a third on the planet to try to establish a new homeworld, and scatter the rest on Vulcan, Denobula, and any other world that would have them.
Luigi Novi: I don’t recall any mention that there were all grouped on Ceti Alpha V.

Obi-Juan: Once again I wonder about the command structure on Enterprise. Granted, T'Pol is a senior officer and a veteran space explorer, but why is she given command over Tucker?
Luigi Novi: Her experience at command. The need to have the best engineer in Engineering. To all practical intents and purposes, she already had a field commission as First Officer, so it only made sense for her to succeed Archer. Moreover, Trip proved largely flustered at command in The Seventh.

Chris Booton: And I'm also very distrubed by how they only care about the human lives that were lost. What about all of the other species?
Luigi Novi: Where did they act as if they didn’t care about them?

Trike: Trip said to T'Pol, "How can we keep going with one warp engine?" Enterprise has only one warp engine; Trip meant one nacelle.
Luigi Novi: The nacelles are considered engines. They generate the plasma that creates the warp field. It may be powered by the reactor, but so too is a car powered by a battery, which is separate from the engine.

Trike: A question, though: Did T'Pol mean the Xindi weapon destroyed those worlds also? It seemed so by the context. But the Xindi weapon was designed especially for Earth, so would it even have the same effect on other worlds?
Luigi Novi: I don’t recall any mention that the weapon’s specifications would not allow it work on other planets. Why wouldn’t it? Essentially it just blows stuff up. Why is that specific to Earth? It was designed “especially” for Earth in the sense that Earth was their target, but not in the sense that its ammunition wouldn’t work on Andor or Vulcan.

Trike: I was disappointed that the destruction of the bridge and Enterprise itself failed to move me. Like I said before, it almost has become standard for that to happen in these types of episodes.
Luigi Novi: To my knowledge, this is the first time we’ve seen the bridge entirely separated from the saucer during a battle.

KAM: That does more likely, but how would they know Phlox would know where they are? Also there was a reference to the Andorian Shran so they seem to have contact with other worlds. It just seems odd that the Xindi would apparently have so much trouble finding the humans.
Luigi Novi: I agree with the second point, but regarding the first, why wouldn’t Phlox know where they are?

Zarm Rkeeg: Scott Bakula (sp?) did a fairly good job of convincing me that the bulkhead piece that was trapping T'pol's leg was heavy. But the effect was kind of ruined with the way it wobbled during close-ups of her leg.
Luigi Novi: It didn’t wobble. Archer was trying to lift it, and managed to do so slightly, allowing T’Pol to pull her leg out slightly. He then did so again, and she was able to pull it out entirely.

Zarm Rkeeg: Trip's 'I'll think about it' response to Archer's treatment when it was possible for Earth to be saved. Given his attitude in the series thus far, you'd think he'd be the one jumping at the chance, no matter what the risk.
Luigi Novi: Perhaps Trip was as skeptical as Obi-Juan was, for the same reasons Obi-Juan had, and that because the Xindi were approaching, he hoped they could attempt this longshot experiment after evading the Xindi.

Christopher Q: Did old T'Pol believe that time-travel is possible?
Luigi Novi: Since what happened in the episode wasn’t time travel, it was never mentioned.

SlinkyJ: She seemed to have believed in it to me. She even suggested to Trip that helping Archer would cause events in the past to change.
Luigi Novi: She never indicated she believed in time travel, because no one mentioned time travel in the episode. What Phlox’s procedure did was manipulation of the timeline, but no one actually traveled through time in the episode. A person traveling bodily through time requires violating Einsteinian relativity, which may be why the Vulcans do not believe possible, but what happened in this episode did not involve a solid object doing this. It involved affecting lifeforms that existed outside our of spacetime continuum.

KAM: That does more likely, but how would they know Phlox would know where they are? Also there was a reference to the Andorian Shran so they
seem to have contact with other worlds. It just seems odd that the Xindi would apparently have so much trouble finding the humans.
Luigi Novi: I agree with the second point, but regarding the first, why wouldn’t Phlox know where they are?

I didn't say Phlox wouldn't know. I said "how would they know Phlox would know where they are?" They being the Xindi.

If the Xindi suspected that Phlox knew (assuming they even knew who Phlox was) why not just kidnap him and torture him to find out the whereabouts of any human survivors?

Also Phlox might not know the whereabouts of the Humans if he was dropped off on Denobula before they decided to go to Ceti Alpha.

I thought this one was pretty good. Very cool to see Earth blow up. And see everyone on the Enterprise die. I did wonder how the reset button would be pushed this time. Interesting way to do that.

If anything, this episode reminded me of Timeless (VOY). Older version of our crew must use time to prevent this horrible universe where everything is bad for our crew/they're dead from ever existing. And the Enteprise like the Delta Flyer gets blown up as they succeed. But it was still a good story.

I see they used the Dead Stop technique to keep Travis out of the show. Kill him off. No tears from Hoshi this time though. No tears from anyone really. I would imagine this would be similar to the fans' reactions if Travis really was killed off. Then again, maybe the makeup department just didn't have the heart to age Anthony Montgomery's youthful good looks?

I liked Archer's comments to T'Pol at the end of the episode. For a second, I thought that he might remember the alternate future. But no. I don't think so.

I definitely thought of Star Trek: Memento while watching it. Though it was less like Future Imperfect than I thought it would be.

I think this episode continues to confirm that ships can change course at warp, as the Enterprise does when fighting the Xindi ships.

I liked that the replacement helm was at the Situation Room meeting. Even if he gets to talk less than Travis ever did.

Ooh, Ceti Alpha V. And General Shran. Continuity rules.

Why did the Vulcans not offer protection to this final human settlement? Aren't humans their allies? Are the Vulcans afraid of the Xindi striking them if they help humanity?

ScottN: T'Pol showed way too much pain when her leg was trapped. From what I understand, Vulcans accept pain as a necessary warning signal, but T'Pol's crying and momentary whimpering was un-Vulcan.
I would imagine that whether they accept pain or not, if it hurts an F-ing lot, they're gonna cry out a little.

Sparrow47: The same problem asserts itself at the end of the episode. Instead of merely blowing the Enterprise to smithereens, the Xindi board the ship and use their soldiers to hunt the remaining humans. Why not just blow the ship up?
I guess they wanted the ship.

Trike: A question, though: Did T'Pol mean the Xindi weapon destroyed those worlds also? It seemed so by the context. But the Xindi weapon was designed especially for Earth, so would it even have the same effect on other worlds? I realize T'Pol might have meant the humans on those worlds were massacred through other means.
I would imagine the the effects are similar on other rocky worlds.

In the known Star Trek timeline, within 12 years both the Federation would have been founded and Earth would have fought the Romulan war, resulting in the Neutral Zone. Neither the Romulans nor the concept of a Federation got a passing mention in the story. Hmmm. Are the Xindi just another pawn in the Temporal Cold War?
I would imagine Earth was a huge part in starting the Federation, esp. considering the Andorians and Vulcans, two species that despise each other, are both founding members. And the Romulans encountered an Earth fleet that was gaining power and influence in space. I'd say the destruction of their home planet put an end to that.

Trike: Why did the Xindi want Phlox followed? To locate Archer, or to locate the human colony? If it were the latter, it makes no sense that the Xindi could not have tracked down the humans in 12 years' time. The humans' situation was too desperate to stay hidden for that long.
Space is really really big. Why couldn't they stay hidden for 12 years?

Kazeite: So, they mentioned Alpha Centauri... Good for continuity, but bad for "Terra Nova". So, again, Terra Nova was the first human colony because what? Alpha Centauri wasn't available?
It's possible that the Alpha Centauri colony had to be terraformed or domed and that the technology to do it wasn't available or perfected when the Terra Nova colony was created.

Stone Cold Steven Of None: No more Commander Jack@$$ fondling Subcommander Kes-With-Hooters every other week.
Luigi Novi: How is T’Pol like Kes?
I think it's the hair. And crazy ears.

KAM: I didn't say Phlox wouldn't know. I said "how would they know Phlox would know where they are?" They being the Xindi.
Maybe they were just hoping. They're trying to exterminate the human race. They'll probably follow every possible lead to do that.

KAM: If the Xindi suspected that Phlox knew (assuming they even knew who Phlox was) why not just kidnap him and torture him to find out the whereabouts of any human survivors?
What if torture doesn't work? What then?

Only just having seen this episode in the UK I thought it was excellent. We knew that it was going to come out alright in the end.

However, one tiny phrase at the end that Phlox utters can do away with all the nits. Archer is on the recovery couch and Phlox says to him that he seems to be recovering nicely from his concussion. Now, you can either assume that the parasite things were real and the episode happened or it was just a dream. Take your pick. Personally I prefer the idea that it was just a concussion-induced dream/nightmare.

Saw it again tonight. While I don't usually like Big Rewind Button episodes, this one was very well done. One of their best.

Great reference to Ceti Alpha 5.

This episode really excentuates how strange Soval's turnaround in season four was, given his utterly calous attitude pertaining to the last of the humans.

Was this one the episode picked by the fans as the favorite?

One.

If Earth's survivors settled on Ceti Alpha V, where's the slug-creatures? They're supposed to be there.

It's a good thing Archer's future was changed. Otherwise, his discendents would have to fight Khan and his followers on Ceti Alpha V after "Space Seed" happened

Planets tend to be big, John, and if Ceti Alpha V is the same size as Earth (or at least the same mass, which is it is, given the Earth-like gravity), then who says the colony is in the same area where the slugs live? Or maybe they slugs are there, but the colonists are aware of them and know how to protect themselves again them. There are people who live in or near the woods or the mountains, but it isn't necessary to ask "Where are the bears? They're supposed to be there."

I see your point. But it still would have been a nice "nod" to the continuity to have Archer (or somebody) vaporize one of those ear-slugs seen in STII.

NANJAO: Archer & T'Pol are living together.

All I can say is: Godspeed, Archer!

It's a good thing Archer's future was changed. Otherwise, his discendents would have to fight Khan and his followers on Ceti Alpha V after "Space Seed" happened

Except "Space Seed" wouldn't have happened because the events leading up to the founding of the Federation wouldn't have occurred.

(*Slapping self on forehead*) Right!