Archer travels through time to correct that which has gone wrong….through brain parasites. Originally broadcast on November 6, 2003 this is Twilight.
The Episode:
Captain’s Starlog Date: All over the place!
Archer witnesses the destruction of Earth via the Xindi weapon only to wake in the future where he is apparently married to T’Pol and Trip is in command of Enterprise. It seems that Archer ended up with some kind of interspatial brain parasite that prevented his command of Enterprise and in that time many of the crew had died in their attempt to save what was left of Humanity. After jumping through time again, Archer and Phlox discover that by destroying the Brain Parasites they also vanish in the past indicating that they can change the future if they can get rid of all of them. In the end, during a battle with the Xindi-Reptiles, Archer creates a subspace implosion destroying their ship but also killing off the parasites causing him to reawaken in the past with everything that had happened still in the unknown future. So, it was all a dream basically.
Is this a ‘Good’ Episode:
Again, I have said this before, I HATE ‘IT WAS ALL A DREAM’ storylines. HATE THEM. This is no exception. That being said, the execution of this particular episode is pretty damned impressive despite the fact that the entirety of the episode never happened. The idea that there are organisms living in the anomalies that cause problems in the expanse is pretty cool and that they can infect people causing their short term memories to vanish is pretty great. Not only that, with them being beings who live in a state of ‘interspatial flux’ and that if destroyed in the future they die in the past, well, that was just really cool.
One thing this episode does do it give us a serious glimpse of a future where the Xindi win and humanity is basically on the run. This turns Enterprise into a single episode of Battlestar Galactica with Humanity ultimately settling on Ceti Alpha V which, as any fan knowns, means that Humanities days are numbered for sure, I mean, we all know what happens in the Ceti Alpha system right?
Overall, this is certainly one of the better ‘it never happened/it was all a dream’ episodes but still, this episode literally serves no purpose story wise. Sure, it gives the characters of Archer and T’Pol a chance to finally ‘have a relationship’ even though I didn’t see that happening at this point anyhow. (hint, it’s not Archer that T’Pol finds romance with in the end). This is one that is fun and worth watching despite the fact it has zero baring on the season or the series in really any way.
Gleanings and Cool Bits:
- Archer kills a Reptilian Xindi with a statue of Zefram Cochrane.
- Seeing that Alternate Timelines exist in Star Trek, this means that this specific timeline was real until in collapsed due to Archer’s brain being repaired. So, in essence, Phlox and Archer killed everyone to save everyone. Makes you wonder where the Temporal Prime Directive folks are…or did Archer’s brain parasites eliminate them too?
Thanks for reading the Retro TV Review, I look forward to discussing the rest of the series with you, one episode at a time every Monday, Wednesday and Friday! Next Review: North Star
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Late To The Game 9/8/2021
Special Thanks to Memory Alpha as they are one of the best sources for details on Star Trek information available. Although I have a pretty deep knowledge on the subject, they have proven invaluable as a regular resource.
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