“Zero Hour”
Page 7 of 9the screen. T’Pol: “Open a channel to Starfleet headquarters.” Hoshi doesn’t get a response. Mayweather can’t pick up anything from the orbital platforms. There’s no response from the Luna One colony. T’Pol orders Trip and Mayweather to take a shuttlepod to San Francisco to see what is wrong. It is daytime there.
On their way, Mayweather notices that everything looks “normal.” Three vessels approach; there is gunfire. The vessels turn out to be World War II airplanes.
Elsewhere, it is nightime and raining. We see what looks like a field hospital with injured in beds and medical personnel tending to them. A man, who appears to be a doctor, is typing on an old-fashioned typewriter. A nurse comes to him and tells him something. He leaves and we see a flag with a Nazi swastika on it. Two male officers come in. Everyone is speaking German. They ask: “Where is he?” The doctor repllies: “Follow me. He was brought in yesterday. He’s been badly burned.” We see it is Archer. The doctor asks: “Do you recognize the uniform?” They look at Archer and another officer steps up from the shadows to look. He is an alien humanoid in a Nazi uniform. He has red eyes and blue-gray skin. (Valium) He looks at Archer but says nothing.
REVIEW:?
I have to say I wasn’t expecting to see Nazis or even an alien Nazi at that. Lord knows what that’s all about. Obviously, Archer is in Earth’s past or is it still the present, albeit an altered present? Enterprise still exists however so how can they be in the present since Earth is not developed enough to create a ship like Enterprise as we see in the WWII airplanes? So they must be in the past. Still, the Xindi ships were still there when they arrived at Earth so how can it be the past? You gotta love time travel episodes.
Another question is how did Archer survive the explosion of the weapon? My guess is that Daniels pulled him out of there in the nick of time but somehow this resulted in altering Earth’s timeline. What the Nazi alien is doing there is another thing that makes this whole storyline bizarre. Needless to say, I can’t wait to see how this unfolds.
One thing that impressed me much about this episode was Linda Park’s acting. Normally, I find her bland and expressionless but in this episode, she was able to impart much poignancy. You could see in her facial expressions and her demeanor how sick Hoshi was. She did a great job. Bakula too shines here. Archer is clearly pained to force Hoshi to continue deciphering the schematics but he has no choice. His determination to destroy the weapon borders on obsession but it is to be expected considering what the alternative is if the weapon doesn’t get destroyed.
One of the best scenes has to be when Archer is fighting with Dolim. When he stands there holding the keypad that sets off the charge he managed to place on Dolim’s back, I couldn’t help but smile. I loved Archer’s expression as he holds the keypad and when he turns away.
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