“Countdown”
Written by André Bormanis & Chris Black
Directed by Robert Duncan McNeill
Season 3, Episode 23
Production episode 075
Original air date: May 19, 2004
Date: February 13, 2154
Captain’s star log. Dolim orders the kidnapped Sato to decode the Aquatic launch code for the super-weapon. Sato tries to protest that she’s not a cryptologist, but Dolim doesn’t care. She’s injected with neural parasites to make her more docile, which doesn’t work at first—Sato actually manages to deepen the encryption and attempt escape, before she’s caught and injected with more parasites that finally render her docile.
T’Pol’s shuttlepod returns to Enterprise. Reed glumly informs Hayes of Hawkins’ death. T’Pol and Tucker study the data they downloaded, and discover that there are four spheres that coordinate most of the spheres’ activity. They might be able to damage one of them enough to affect the whole network.
Jannar and the still-inexplicably-unnamed Primate Councilor inform Archer about the three codes needed to activate the weapon, and now Archer gets why Sato was kidnapped. He goes before the Aquatics to plead their case, telling them both about Sato’s being kidnapped and the sphere data they’ve acquired—including a method of wiping out the sphere network.
The latter is stretching the truth—Tucker and T’Pol’s hypothesis is not proven, and they’re not entirely sure how to damage the sphere—but it’s enough to convince the Aquatics to join them.
The Sphere-Builder emissary congratulates Dolim on doing what needs to be done. Dolim asks for some help from her—maybe looking back in time to get the Aquatics’ code? She says it doesn’t work like that—they can only see big-picture events, not details—but they do agree to help in other ways. A nearby sphere provides a super-duper anomaly that takes out several Aquatic and Arboreal ships.
Sato decrypts the Aquatics’ code.
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Hayes prepares a rescue mission to get Sato back. He and his team beam over while the fight in space continues. The MACOs beam in and pull off the rescue, but battle damage means Enterprise can only beam over two at a time. By the time everyone’s extracted, both Money and Hayes have been shot, the latter fatally.
The Insectoid Councilor angrily contacts Dolim. The anomaly that suddenly appeared seems to have completely benefitted them, and he’s wondering now if Archer’s accusation that the Guardians built the spheres is accurate. Dolim fires on the Insectoid ship and it’s destroyed.
Dolim and the weapon go through a subspace vortex. The only ships powerful enough to fight Dolim are the Aquatics, but their ships are slow. Degra’s ship is fast enough, but it doesn’t have the weaponry. Archer, along with the ailing Sato, Reed, and a team of MACOs, take Degra’s ship to try a smaller commando raid on Dolim, while T’Pol will take Enterprise to fulfill their end of the bargain with the Aquatics and wipe out the sphere network.
Can’t we just reverse the polarity? T’Pol and Tucker think that destroying one of four central spheres will damage the entire network, which is incredibly convenient (and incredibly bad design)…
The gazelle speech. Archer totally lies to the Aquatics’ faces, telling them they totally have a way of destroying the sphere network when, at best, they have a hypothesis.
He also says during a rare quiet moment of dinner with T’Pol and Tucker that he’s looking forward to Enterprise going back to being explorers.
I’ve been trained to tolerate offensive situations. T’Pol announces during dinner that she’s considering formally joining Starfleet after this mission is over.
Florida Man. Florida Man Fixes Transporter In The Nick Of Time!
Optimism, Captain! Phlox is not very happy with Archer taking Sato on a mission so soon after she’s been tortured, and insists on going with Archer on Degra’s ship. Archer refuses, as he’s needed on Enterprise.
Ambassador Pointy. Tucker’s first comment upon T’Pol saying she’s thinking about formally joining Starfleet is to want to see the look on Soval’s face when he finds out.
Better get MACO. For once, the MACOs comport themselves well, as this sort of rescue mission is exactly what you have Space Marines for. Though Hayes is killed, unfortunately. When Reed asks for volunteers for the team to go on Degra’s ship, every single MACO in the room steps forward.
I’ve got faith…
“Thank you—for bringing her home.”
“All in a day’s work.”
–Reed and Hayes’ last conversation before the latter dies.
Welcome aboard. It’s recurring character theatre! Back from “Hatchery” is Steven Culp making his final appearance as Hayes. And back from “The Council” are Tucker Smallwood, Scott MacDonald, and Rick Worthy as the Primate, Reptilian, and Arboreal councilors, Josette di Carlo, Mary Mara, and Ruth Williamson as Sphere-Builders, and Bruce Thomas and Andrew Borba as Reptilian soldiers. All save Culp will be back next time in “Zero Hour.”
Trivial matters: This episode picks up directly from the events of “The Council,” which is when Hawkins was killed. It will continue directly into “Zero Hour.”
This is the last of eight Trek episodes directed by Robert Duncan McNeill. At least so far—the erstwhile Tom Paris is still a hard-working director (and some time producer; currently an executive producer on Resident Alien), and could theoretically direct one of the new shows…
This episode won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Visual Effects for a Series, beating out the previous episode, as well as episodes of Stargate SG-1, Dead Like Me, and Stephen King’s Kingdom Hospital.
Soval will indeed get to see T’Pol in a Starfleet uniform, as Tucker hopes in this episode, in the fourth-season episode “The Forge.”
It’s been a long road… “She’s surprisingly strong-willed for a Primate.” On the one hand, this is an exciting episode of Enterprise. On the other hand, it’s the same exciting episode of Enterprise we got last time.
No, seriously, it’s an episode where Archer pleads his case to the Xindi Council, the Sphere-Builders angst about how the timelines aren’t favoring them anymore, one of the Sphere-Builders visits a member of the council to try to remind them that the Guardians are their friends no really truly honest, a team from Enterprise goes off-ship for a dangerous mission from which one of the MACOs doesn’t make it back alive, Dolim kills a member of the council, and we end on a cliffhanger.
That paragraph describes both “The Council” and “Countdown.” The only difference is that the MACO who dies is a character we’re more invested in and the Xindi councilor who’s killed isn’t a character we’re particularly invested in.
Writers André Bormanis and Chris Black try to wring as much pathos as they can out of Hayes’ death, but it falls flat because the entire notion of MACOs on Enterprise has been botched from Day 1. Hayes says that they’re as much part of the crew as the Starfleet personnel now, and there has been absolutely nothing shown in the prior 22 episodes to support this. The MACOs have been a non-factor, with only half-hearted stabs at showing their integration into the ship’s culture done in “Harbinger” and “Hatchery” by manufacturing a cheap rivalry between Reed and Hayes (and also using one of the MACOs to further the Tucker-T’Pol relationship in the former episode). Oh, and sometimes giving us folks in fatigues instead of folks in red-trimmed Starfleet uniforms for the shoot-‘em-up scenes. Yawn.
We double down on Dolim’s being eeeeeeeeeeeeeeevil by having him (a) understand that the Guardians are actually the Sphere-Builders and (b) not really giving a damn, and also killing one of his allies and torturing Sato. The latter, at least, serves a plot function, as they need Sato’s linguistic mojo, but killing the Insectoid councilor is just a “look, he’s a bad guy!” moment that really isn’t needed at this point, and just adds to the carnage.
This episode feels for all the world like the producers realized they had too little plot for the number of episodes left, so they just did “The Council” all over again.
Warp factor rating: 4
Keith R.A. DeCandido is a contributor to The Good, the Bad, and the Uncanny: Tales of the Weird West, edited by Jonathan Maberry, and currently in its final days of crowdfunding on Kickstarter. Keith’s story is “The Legend of Long-Ears,” and it teams up two legends of the historical West, Bass Reeves and Calamity Jane. Please consider supporting the anthology!
I’m not sure I agree with your rating or review, @krad: for my money The General continues to be an excellent heavy (His execution of the Insectoids seems entirely consistent with a personality uncompromising enough to start a Civil War and utterly convinced that it’s do or die at this point … not to mention utterly capable of making sure it’s the opposition in the obituary column).
On the understanding that this character is being built up as a nigh-elemental force (who can make mistakes, who can be outmanoeuvred and who can be Seriously battered, but who just WILL NOT STOP, leaving the opposition bleeding out or scattered in his wake) I think this episode works as a sequel and escalation to the previous episode – going from clock and dagger to All Out War quite convincingly.
I confess one left this episode genuinely sad we wouldn’t get a chance to find out if Major Hayes and Mr Reed would STILL loathe each other during the Rise of the Federation* – not to mention tempted as never before to watch next week’s episode right after this one.
“Different strokes for different folks” as they say (Oh, I almost forgot to mention my love of seeing Hoshi Sato crafty and full of tricks in extremis, Major Hayes operate as a consummate professional to his last breath and the much-maligned MACOs pull off a classic ‘Line in the Sand’ moment).
*My personal take is that they would probably not have hated each other quite so much, but would never, ever have learned to like each other.
Not all professional relationships have to be friendly relationships, after all.
Not quite the same, but I mostly agree with the rating … Dolim was so campy here. The first scene with Sato.
“I have confidence in your abilities.”
“If you refuse, we’ll have no further use for you.”
“Get her ready for the procedure.”
All in the first three minutes. Then they strap Ensign Sato into an interrogation chair while she struggles ineffectually. I wonder if the script was written that way on purpose. Hard to believe it was an accident. And it goes on from there.
Regarding the MACOs becoming part of the crew, or not, could it be that we’ve seen them mostly through Reed’s perspective? In E2, we learn that Mayweather had not talked much to McKenzie, but he did not reject the notion of a relationship with her.
The top picture makes Hoshi look almost like an Orion. I like it.
So one of the MACOs who was killed was named Money? I guess that’s how the Federation became Moneyless!
I really can’t think of anything worthwhile to say about this one…
Having misremembered that Hayes died last week, I was surprised that he died here. Anyways, RIP Major Whatever-his-first-name-was Hayes. Truly, he was a full member of the crew.
On the subject of this being the last episode directed by Robert Duncan MacNeil, I’m a bit surprised that Jonathan Frakes is still the only Star Trek actor-turned-director to work in the Secret Hideout era. Especially given that people like Macneill, Roxanne Dawson, and LeVar Burton are pretty strongly in demand.
It’s very much a transitional episode – going from point A to point B. Very similar to DS9’s “Favor the Bold” in that regard. I’m not so sure I agree it simply repeats the same beats from “The Council”. Convincing the Xindi that cooperation with Starfleet was in the best interests for all involved was never going to be convincing in just one episode. Stretching it out makes the whole process flow more naturally, and puts the Reptillian’s rebellion into sharper focus as the Sphere Builders lose their credibility each passing hour (though I am surprised the Sphere Builders didn’t try harder to protect their ambitions).
One thing that makes this particular episode stand out are these little character moments. I love it that the crew are already planning on life after this past year of hell. I adore T’Pol and Tucker discussing her decision to enlist and predicting Soval’s reaction (it’s too bad this was Chris Black’s final work on Trek – he had a good handle on these scenes). McNeill does justice to these scenes. I hope he directs Trek again at some point.
You could see Hayes death coming from afar obviously, but I felt it mostly worked. I liked Hayes as a character up to that point – a lot of that thanks to Steven Culp’s nuanced take on the character.
It deserved that Emmy win for sure. The action set piece where Xindi ships attempt to overrun the Xindi weapon is some of the best I’d seen on a Trek TV show up to that point. A visible improvement over VOY’s VFX and DS9’s Dominion War coreography (and way easier on the eye than the more recent Picard fleet offerings). For a show that was teetering on the brink of cancellation, that’s saying something. Ron B. Moore and Dan Curry giving Hutzel’s BSG team a run for their money.
And a deserved kudos to Dennis McCarthy. Almost 17 years involved with Trek at that point, and after over a decade having to tone down his music due to Rick Berman’s rules, he’s finally able cut loose and deliver the most bombastic and expressive music he’s done in ages. The whole sequence where they try to rescue Hoshi comes accompanied with the best score I’ve heard since “Yesterday’s Enterprise”. Easily some of McCarthy’s best.
@3. ChristopherLBennett: It’s nice to see a man who knows, accepts and embraces his own kinks. (-;
@@.-@. jaimebabb: It’s possible that their being in demand makes it harder to schedule a new STAR TREK; it’s also possible that they’ve had their fill of TREK for a while and are pursuing other portraits.
Or maybe they simply haven’t been made the right offer!
P.S. I almost forgot to mention – @krad, it is rather vexing that the Arboreal Counsellor remains un-named. My personal fix for this little omission would probably be to suggest that Authority Figures of his culture renounce their personal name while incumbent in their office (As a symbolic way of setting aside their personal biases and personal loyalties).
ED: The Arboreal Councilor (played by Rick Worthy) is named Jannar. It’s the Primate Councilor (played by Tucker Smallwood) who remains unnamed. And your “personal fix” is giving way too much cover to a writing staff that has proven over three seasons to be totally unwilling to name anything unless they absolutely have to.
—Keith R.A. DeCandido
I always expected the extinct Avian Xindi would time travel (with Daniels & Archer’s help) to address the Council and make a case for peace with the humans.
One thing I forgot to mention. Not only this was one of McCarthy’s better Trek scores, this was also the period where he began collaborating with Kevin Kiner, who was new to Trek, but was already a seasoned veteran and would also break out to that other one space franchise in a big way by composing the entirety of The Clone Wars and most subsequent Star Wars animated fare.
@@@@@, ChristopherLBennett
“Moneyless”
That was a terrible pun and I commend you. I got a good laugh.
The thing I always remember about this episode is Sato screwing the X-Reptilians by adding another layer of encryption to buy time. I loved that. It was such a badass thing to do, and I love that for Hoshi. Even the Empress was proud of that one.
That picture up there. Sometimes I forget how intense the Reptilian’s makeup is, just looking at it.
I also remember and loved how the Xindi-Insectoid Councilor had a full blown, “Hold Up” moment. The bug actually smelling the BS and not approving.
Dolim is determined but I do wish they’d gone into why he was so trusting more. If they’re going to do time travel I’d like to see the moment where Dolim realizes he got played and has doomed his people to not just extinction, but obliteration.
One thing is I’m half annoyed and half happy that they reused the Quantum Slipstream visuals for the subspace tunnels. I always thought they should’ve used Underspace from Dragon’s Teeth, but whatever. Happy because they’re splendid visuals, annoyed because, Quantum Slipstream is one of my favorite technologies and seeing them reuse the visual for something not even related always bugged me. But hey budget must always win.
@9/Eduardo: I think that Kevin Kiner was brought in because he’d worked mostly with electronic scores up to then and they were dialing back on the orchestra budget. Although his work has gotten much more orchestral in his Star Wars days.
I believe McCarthy and Kiner had collaborated before on an early episode of Stargate SG-1.
As Eduardo said, this episode is and very much feels like a transitional episode before we get to the climax, and I did get the feeling that this is a bit of a rehash of “The Council.” Dolim being comically evil does make me wish that the Reptilians (and the Xindi in general) had been gone into more detail beyond being the most zealous faction, and the whole bit of Trip and T’Pol kind of working out a way to destroy the Xindi came along too quickly especially since Hoshi was kidnapped. All of that being said, I liked a few things about this episode; namely how the Aquatics took a bit more convincing to join the pro-Human Xindi, “OK, you’ve convinced us that the Guardians are the threat here, but if we help you over prioritizing the destruction of the spheres you’d better have a way of paying us back.” I also liked when the Insectoid Councilor felt that the anomalies ripping apart the winning pro-Human fleet was a red flag that the Guardians were the Sphere Builders. Not a stellar episode by any means, but I’d have personally given it a 6/10.
“Before your primate brain is too badly damaged to understand, I want to thank you for helping us destroy your world.”
It’s interesting to reflect on how what we’ve come to expect from television has changed in the last twenty years. This year, I found myself reading modern reviews of DS9, and it was interesting what the current generation has come to expect. Especially in the later seasons, episodes that didn’t have anything to do with the Dominion War were dismissed as “filler”. (Even ‘Treachery, Faith and the Great River’, which brought back Weyoun and Damar and introduced the Founder plague, got called that!) And during this rewatch, standalone episodes like ‘North Star’ and ‘Similitude’, and arc-based episodes that could be removed from the storyline without losing anything like ‘Hatchery’ and ‘E2’, have been called “filler”.
Which is a roundabout way of me getting to the point that twenty years ago, episodes that told a complete story were considered more the norm, and an episode like this one, an arc-heavy episode that moves pieces around without really resolving anything, would be considered “filler”. And sometimes still are, as krad’s review indicates. But I think watching it in 2023, when all shows are like this, we’re more inclined to go “Well, of course, the penultimate episode involves the heroes coming up with a big plan to stop the bad guys that doesn’t work so they have to try again next week. That’s what penultimate episodes do!”
And that’s a roundabout way of saying I thought this was fantastic, fell of memorable moments, both dramatic and character-based. And yes, the heroes manage a 1-1 draw at best. The Aquatics, having absteined last episode, come fully over to Archer’s side here. (It’s a slight cheat to have them suddenly speaking English, but it makes for some good scenes so I’ll let it pass.) The Insectoids realise they’ve chosen the wrong side but it’s too late to do them or anyone else any good. There’s a big space battle, with a huge pulse-racing moment where we realise Enterprise is hiding in the Aquatic ship, but the casualties are about even and the Reptillians get away with what they want. Hoshi is rescued, but at the cost of Major Hayes.
I think the Reed/Hayes arc could have used a bit more work here. There’s a very good scene early on with them both clearly affected by Hawkins’ death but trying to stay stiff-upper-lipped and professional, but it takes too long for them to follow up on it. The subsequent chat about Starfleet and the MACOs being one big happy family now feels like it’s come out of nowhere: That definitely wasn’t the case during Hayes’ last appearance in ‘Hatchery’, but to be fair, we’ve had the Xindi attack, eighteen dead and the survivors left struggling to stay alive on a ship that’s falling apart since then. There’s nothing like shared suffering to bond people.
There’s other good moments. Hoshi doing her best to be brave when stuck alone with Dolim and his men and trying to sacrifice herself via another of those enemy installations with no health and safety requirements and a big shaft in the middle, complete with a walkaway with no railings. Archer, T’Pol and Tucker trying and mostly succeeding to get back in the swing of things with the captain’s mess meal. (Unfortunately, one of the best parts, Tucker imagining Soval’s reaction to seeing T’Pol in a Starfleet uniform, won’t be followed through in Season 4, where she joins Starfleet but doesn’t wear a uniform. I’ve checked the screencaps of ‘The Forge’ and nope, she’s still wearing a purple catsuit and rather generic desert gear.) “Depac”, previously a bit of a sceptic, stepping up and vowing to fulfill Degra’s dream of human and Xindi working together.
And…yeah, Dolim. I can’t quite decide whether he’s a three-dimensional villain or a victim of inconsistent writing, but I’m going to give the show credit and go for the former. Because what we see here is definitely not blind devotion to the Sphere Builders/Guardians. He is downright insolent towards their representative, making it clear that fighting other Xindi is not what he signed up for. And as we go on, there seems to be a clear subtext here: Deep down, he knows Archer is telling the truth. He knows that it’s the Sphere Builders who create the anomalies to help him out. But while this realisation causes the Insectoids to try and back out, Dolim doesn’t care. He’s thrown in his lot with the Sphere Builders. He’ll destroy Earth for them, even if it’s not for the reason he was originally told it was, because humans make a convenient bogeyman for him to rally his people against. Maybe he’ll even let them wipe out the whole Expanse. Just as long as he gets to be top dog of the Xindi at the end of this, having been the one on the winning side.
Phlox does seem to give up on resuscitating Hayes pretty quickly. There seems to be huge confusion over the MACOs in general here. Reed says Sergeant Kemper is recovering in a way that implies that’s the MACO injured in the rescue attempt, but Kemper was the character played by Nathan Anderson in ‘The Xindi’ and ‘Anomaly’, and the MACO seen injured here is a female. (Possibly the one Archer identified as Parsons in ‘Damage’? I seem to recall Memory Alpha insists that extra plays two different characters, which may be where “Money” comes from.) Hayes tells him to use McKenzie (also from ‘Anomaly’) but she doesn’t seem to be among the MACOs Reed then meets with (unless the woman standing behind him out of focus is meant to be her). Reed then appears to identify a member of his party as “Romero”, which was the character played by Marco Sanchez in ‘The Xindi’ and again no-one’s rehired him and just had one of the extras standing there.
Tucker storming out when T’Pol snarks back at him feels a bit “can dish it out but can’t take it”, and it’s a shame T’Pol has to humiliate herself in order to get him to stay, but he does at least show his softer side afterwards, and I had to smile at her “Did you really say that?” expression when he says he’s all ears. It’s a bit odd that people keep referring to “Degra’s ship” when Degra’s dead! So, no dice this week, but they’ve got a plan to deal with both Dolim and the Sphere-Builders next time round. Stay tuned!
Incidentally, this isn’t showing up on the rewatch index.
The fact that the Xindi are not a species, but a coalition, was clever, as it gave a lot of energy to the climax of this arc, and forced the Enterprise crew to negotiate rather than just go in with guns blazing.
You’d think any kind of space-faring civilization would have some kind of redundancy built into their technology that can alter space and cause massive destruction. Knocking out 1 of 4 pillars to disable an entire system is just lazy writing or demanded by budget. If this was translated into a novel or comic, it’d be at least 2 if not 3.
@14 – Fixed, thanks.
@16/Aaron Henley: DS9 used the same cheat during the Dominion War, when a whole grid of planetary defense stations could be taken out by destroying one control station. See also the battle droids in The Phantom Menace and the Chitauri in The Avengers. It’s an all-too-common cheat, unfortunately.
It’s narratively convenient to have the battle end with a big explosion and not a protracted sequence where isolated pockets have to be cleaned up one at a time. Though I think it’s more defensible when you need to give the heroes an achievable goal versus just needing a big bang and quick end to the fight.
16. Aaron Henley: I suppose that depends on how well understood the technology is – bleeding edge technology can be immensely powerful, but still prey to bugs that haven’t been worked out of the system, because the systems are unique and almost incomparable.
It might also be worth considering how well the Sphere Builders have been able to maintain their equipment: given that they can’t really exist in the same space for very long, that the spheres appear to be unmanned and that their local proxies the Xindi seem to be kept in the dark about how the spheres actually work, it wouldn’t be surprising if vulnerabilities have begun to accumulate in the hardware and software.
Think about how much could go wrong if humankind were to try building a mostly-robotic system intended to terraform Venus, then tried to run it from Earth or from orbit, for example.
@13. cap-mjb: My compliments on having stated the virtues of this episode rather more convincingly than I (Also, while we can only regret she did not do so more often, at least we can comfort ourselves with memories of T’Pol appearing in Starfleet uniform in … I think it was ‘Hatchery’ and ‘Twilight’ … earlier this season).
@7. krad: I’m an easy audience and a forgiving reader (Mostly because I try to write myself, sometimes, and find it rather difficult).
I do hate making mistakes though, especially when it’s a failure of memory and/or fact-checking, so one can only apologise for that particular gaffe.
Hopefully Xindi aren’t as starchy about protocol as our favourite tree-loving, braid-weaving, purple-faced …
Wait a minute, is the element of purple in the Kreetassan makeup design meant to be a stealth pun based on a face being said to “grow purple with rage”?
If it isn’t, it probably should be! (-:
@18. ChristopherLBennett: On the one hand it IS a cheat – on the other hand mentioning (But not showing) other forces dealing with wIsley-separated parts of the network would also be a cheat, but would be equally necessary for reasons both narrative and budgetary.
After all, most feature films (and to a lesser degree most TV serials) can only afford ONE dramatic climax at a time.
@21/ED: Sure, you need a single big climax, but there are better and worse ways to set that up. The bad way is to have the bad guys’ system be conveniently so badly designed that it’s easy to take out. The better way is to have the heroes come up with a smart way to neutralize the whole system at once, or convince the leader of the enemy army to order them to stand down, or the like. Victory should be gained through the heroes’ determination and ingenuity, not the villains’ unforced errors.
@22. ChristopherLBennett: Very True, though even having the villains botch together a very badly-designed system is a cliche (or if you prefer a trope) that can serve a useful purpose, when we’ll-used (For example by deconstructing the “Well at least they made the trains run on time” myth that so often attaches to fictional governments based on the Fascist Regimes of the 20th Century).
@22 – 23 – A related trope is making your characters look good by making their colleagues and co-workers look like idiots.
Crusher showing up on Titan, for example, and totally taking over sickbay when the CMO cannot diagnose internal bleeding in Shaw. Or Commodore Stocker taking the Enterprise into the neutral zone in The Deadly years because he wanted a shortcut.
@24/kkozoriz – I call that the “Watson effect” because of how many Sherlock Holmes adaptations do it.
@25/jaimebabb: Whereas in the canon, you could call it the Lestrade effect.
The MACO personnel could have been integrated a lot more especially if Hayes eventual death was the idea from the beginning (not sure it was).
Honestly, I never really understood writers introducing characters and just do not bother to give them names at all. Yes, naming CAN be difficult, I always struggle with them for dungeon and dragons games, both pc’s and npcs. But I would think that you name at least the characters who are are supposed to be important in the plot. at least have them named in the big show bible.
@28/Steven Hedge: “at least have them named in the big show bible.”
A series bible generally just covers the regular characters and the broad-strokes stuff, not guest characters. It’s not an exhaustive index of everything in the show, and it’s generally not that big. It’s more of a primer for new writers, to help them learn enough of the basics to write a premise or a first-draft script, which will then be revised as needed under the staff’s guidance.
And to some extent, I can see how it would be preferable for a TV crew to refer to supporting characters by descriptive names like “Primate Councillor” or “Female Shapeshifter” or “Romulan Commander.” It makes it easier for the crew to remember who a supporting character is and what role they play, without the need to memorize a bunch of character names. A script, after all, is an instruction guide for the numerous people involved in the creation of an episode, telling them what they need to know about who and what will be in it.
@29 Fair enough. It’s just frustrating from a lore making perspective, that these characters that are supposed to be important are just not named when first conceived. Yes it makes sense in a production way, and if need be, expanded universe authors can give them names later, or , in the case of Star Wars, get names from the toys and merchandise with..well most of the characters.
Programing note: the Enterprise Rewatch will be taking Monday 3 July off for Independence Day. We’ll be back on the 10th with “Zero Hour.”
—Keith R.A. DeCandido
Hi, Keith! Just wanted to say that I’ve been very much enjoying your vast archive of “Rewatches” as I undertake my own comprehensive rewatch of the franchise with my S.O., who is experiencing Star Trek for the first time. When we finally caught up and then outpaced you with ENTERPRISE a few months ago, I got out of the habit of checking for new articles. Now I’m swinging back to catch up with the ones I missed. (In a few weeks, we’ll finally be watching new episodes as they air, so I’ll be able to read your reviews on release day!)
I remember thinking this episode was a bit more of the same, but I did appreciate that the Xindi Insectoids got at least a smidge more nuance in this one. There was a lot of potential left by the wayside in episodes like “Hatchery.”
Also, is this the earliest “in universe” example of “Hey, we can modify the navigational deflector to channel that energy!” in the franchise to date?
I hated how the Insectoids were just discarded by the plot when they outlived their usefulness. They were pretty much reduced to the butt end of a joke imo. “Har har har, look, the Insectoids got squashed because they’re bugs!” That’s how it felt to me, anyway.
Is it just me, or is Dolim’s plan just truly, monumentally stupid? He steals the ship that houses the weapon, but his plan to get through the encryption that prevents him firing it is
a) Kidnap Hoshi for her linguistic / decryption skills, something he only just found out about in the Council session
b) Tell her that’s the data she’s working on, ensuring she’ll put up maximum resistance to actually doing it
c) Give her brain damage with some parasites to make her more compliant. Because nothing makes someone better at problem solving than some brain damage, right?
It’s almost as stupid as the weapon construction taking tips from Star Wars’ Empire, and having catwalks over chasms without any safety rails.
I was pleased we are back to Xindi ‘primates’ this episode. It was ‘humanoids’ last episode for some reason. Having said that, Hoshi is referred to this episode as a primate not a human! The 30s villain vibe continued with Dolim’s performance, menacing ‘the female’ He actually says ‘Excellent’ at one point making me think of Mr Burns. But stops short of twirling an imaginary moustache or going ‘bwa ha ha’.
It’s true what you say about the story not really moving on but this episode was still very entertaining and the small stuff was v good. I liked it a lot. Enjoyed seeing the aquatics actually swim off then return and the insectoid scene.