“Zero Hour”
Page 8 of 9Dolim’s look of surprise and shock is also noteworthy. Scott MacDonald has done a superb job with Dolim. I liked this whole scene and thought it was an original way to kill off the main villain.
The destruction of the Spheres was also well done CGI-wise. In fact, again, the special f/x which have been superb throughout the series are excellent here. The makeup was great too. I liked how the skin of the crew, as they were trying to destroy Sphere 41, decayed as time went by. The set and lighting also added much to the atmosphere inside the disturbance. The music also enhanced the proceedings.
Kroeker’s direction is top-notch. The pace is almost rhythmical as the scenes shift quickly from the weapon, Degra’s and Dolim’s ships to the Enterprise and Sphere 41. The tension and suspense are well-maintained throughout. Kroeker brought out the best of the actors who all did well, most notably Linda Park as mentioned above and Scott Bakula.
There were also some nice moments as when we see Phlox dictating his will and T’Pol telling him: “We’re not dead yet.” Another scene with Phlox and T’Pol towards the end is touching as when T’Pol asks about Porthos and pets the dog. The scene with T’Pol and Trip is also sweet. She assumes he thinks she is old and tells him her age. He’s surprised at that but seems pleased when she tells him that tellling him her age is an intimate thing. It’s nice to see that although this was a heavily action-oriented episode, there still managed to be some character interaction.
I loved the scenes with Shran (Jeffrey Combs). I adore this actor and seeing him again was a treat. His scenes were short and that’s a shame but I suspect we will be seeing him again in season four.
We also saw Daniels (Matt Winston) and a glimpse of the signing of the charter that would create the United Federation of Planets. Again, Daniels emphasizes the importance of Archer to its formation. Still, it seemed more like filler for him to be there but it does sort of explain I suppose how Archer manages to survive the explosion of the weapon. I don’t see how else he would have survived unless Daniels got him out just in time before it exploded. Still, to this day, we don’t really know what the Temporal Cold War is all about and what the Xindi et al had to do with it, so Daniels’ appearance here is outside of that storyline it seems.
Continuity within the series was well-maintained throughout the arc right through to this final episode which I think has added much to the series’ overall storyline. Here we get the mention of the transdimensional alien in “Harbinger”. We also see that Enterprise’s hull is still damaged.
The scene at the beginning of the episode with Dolim and his men eating the live mice was a neat nod to the 1983 television mini-series “V” where the aliens in that story are also reptilian
