Episode 70: Azati Prime

It is episodes like "Azati Prime" that show why I am not a fan of plots that rely on time travel.


I watched the episode and, after Archer was whisked ahead in time by our old friend Daniels then put back into the shuttle bay, I gave up caring what happened. After all, no matter what the Xindi Reptilians did to Archer in their torture chamber, no matter what the six Xindi warships did to Enterprise, Daniels could just sweep in and make it all alright.


The fact that he doesn't makes the story line even sillier.


In this much anticipated episode written by Rick Berman, Brannon Braga and Manny Coto , Enterprise arrives, at long last, at Azati Prime, the location of the Xindi weapons facility. After determining the location of the facility underwater on the main planet, Archer takes it upon himself to conduct the suicide mission of flying the salvaged Xindi battle shuttle through all the defenses and blowing up the weapon and, with it, the facility.


An emotionally wrought T'Pol tries both anger and tears to convince Archer not to go ("I don't want you to die!" she cries at last) but the Captain is adamant that he will order the deaths of no one else. As Archer steps aboard the pod, he is transported forward to Enterprise J (about 400 years in the future) where Daniels shows him a pivotal battle in a war between the Federation (which includes the Xindi) and the alien race from "Harbinger". This race, Daniels explains, designed the spheres to transform sections of normal space to meet their needs as a prelude to invasion. The Sphere People wants the Xindi to destroy Earth so that humans do not play the pivotal role in the creation of the Federation so that there is no alliance of races to repel the invasion 400 years later.


Got that?


Daniels explains that Archer should talk to the Xindi and negotiate a peace with them since both humans and the Xindi are being used as pawns by the Sphere People. Daniels gives him a Xindi medallion from the future to use as proof of what he is saying.


Daniels further tells Archer that Archer, and Archer alone, MUST survive because the entire history of the future depends on him being alive to help germinate the Federation. ("I don't want you to die!" Daniels might as well have cried at last). Archer, Daniel says, must give up the attack mission and try to negotiate a resolution instead.


Archer refuses and demands to be sent back to his mission. When he arrives at the weapons facility, he finds that the weapon is gone. His pod is captured and he is tortured by the Xindi Reptilians. Meanwhile, the Reptilians, in direct rejection of directions from the Xindi Council, order a task force of ships (six) to destroy Enterprise, which they have spotted hiding behind a planet near the facility.


Archer endures the torture and manages to convince the Reptilians to let him speak to Degra, the weapon designer whom we met in earlier episodes. Then begins the slow process of trying to convince the Xindi Council that they are being used by the Sphere People.


Enterprise, meanwhile, is torn to pieces by the six Xindi ships as the show comes to a close.


A dramatic episode with good pace and some decent acting. It even has some humour that works, woven into the tension, which is the hallmark of the best of Trek.


I have to say, however, I found it a bit hard to take Archer's brooding and moralizing over the requirement that he kill Xindi, considering his willingness to torture and kill with little convincing in earlier episodes and the fact that he is the Captain of the ship that carries Earth's only hope of survival in war with a race that is bent on annihilating the human race and has already murdered 7-million humans in an unprovoked attack.


I also found T'Pol's complete un-Vulcan and unprofessional behavior to be offensive. Not only have the show runners reduced the number of significant female roles in the show to ONE (even all the Xindi appear to be male) but they have now reduced that one female (despite the fact that she represents a historically dignified, stoic, rational and logical race) into the worst stereotype of the weak, emotional, irrational human female. More on this in the next entry.


And then there are all the little flaws that just make you wonder:


1. Enterprise arrives in the Azati system and chooses to hide behind an apparently barren planet for safety purposes, yet fails entirely to scan the entire planet for signs of a Xindi presence. Several hours later, in a pivotal plot point, the rotation of the planet brings the ship into the range of the sensors of a fairly predictably placed Xindi scanning station, leading Archer to have to order the destruction of the station and the death of the three Xindi in it and also leading to the discovery of Enterprise a short time later which, of course, ruins their entire plan;
2. In earlier episodes, we have seen Enterprise easily destroy two Xindi warships in fairly short order so, while it is believable that she might be eventually overwhelmed when faced with six Xindi warships, it's hard to accept that she is so completely overwhelmed so quickly;
3. On a similar subject, how is that, in every other Star Trek space battle, the losing ship blows up after say four or five hits but, in this episode, Enterprise gets hit and hit and hit and hit by enemy fire yet still floats and still operates?
4. Is T'Pol in love with Tucker? In love with Archer? both? Neither? Huh?
5. How is that Mayweather, a seasoned pilot with time to learn the controls of the Xindi battle shuttle (and with Tucker on board to help), slips and slides all over space yet Archer, with an hour to train, flies so smoothly?
6. Why would the Xindi, having challenged Mayweather and Tucker when their battle shuttle first entered the defense perimeter, not continue to track their movements until they left the defense perimeter instead of just letting them ENTER THE WEAPON???
7. How is it that the Reptilian task force, ordered to attack Enterprise before Archer leaves in his battle shuttle, make the trip and begin their attack after Archer makes the same trip (but in the other direction) in what I would guess is a smaller and slower vehicle) and gets captured?
8. And why, oh why, is Daniels the first person to suggest that Archer and his crew reach out to the Xindi to try to negotiate a peaceful resolution? The Xindi apparently have incredible technology compared to Star Fleet, a wide variety and large number of ships that rival Earth's lone Warp 5 vessel and are developing a massive, planet killing weapon that Star Fleet appears incapable of stopping once launched. Why wasn't the first option explored a diplomatic one???


Oh, so many questions.


A NOTE ON TIME TRAVEL
Enterprise involves the outbreak of what is called a Temporal Cold War, with at least three different factions attempting to manipulate events in the 22nd century to accomplish certain goals up to 400 years later.


Daniels represents the Federation faction (Faction One) which purports to be focused on maintaining the right timeline, which involves the Federation lasting forever. Daniels is able to travel though time himself and is able to bring people from one time to another, backwards and forwards.


A mysterious human-esque dude represents Faction Two, which is attempting to use the Suliban to stop both human exploration of space and the development of the Federation, for purposes about which I am not entirely clear. Faction Two does not appear to have the ability to travel through time but can communicate through time. Further, Faction Two's technology has proven useful to the Federation faction to transport people through time.


The Sphere People (Faction Three) are a trans-dimensional race from an unknown time that is attempting to manipulate the Xindi to get them to destroy the human race so that the Federation is not formed and is not in a position in the 26th century to repel the invasion of normal space by the Sphere People. Faction Three can transport people through time as well though it is unclear whether or not members of the Sphere People can, themselves, travel through time.


All three Factions are attempting to use people from the 22nd Century for their own long-term ends yet two out of three Factions can transport people and equipment back and forward through time. Further, it is clear that weapons exist that are capable of destroying entire planets -- we've seen them through Star Trek lore, from the Xindi weapon to the Doomsday Machine of TOS to the red matter drill thing of the Star Trek reboot.


Why wouldn't Daniels just go far enough back in time to destroy the Suliban, the Xindi, the Sphere People before they have developed far enough to pose a threat?


Why wouldn't the Sphere People send a Xindi task force back to Earth of the 19th, 18th, 17th, 16th etc., Century to destroy Earth before it could even resist them?


Why wouldn't the Borg do this?


If Daniels can move Archer anywhere in time, why would he put him back on Enterprise just before the Azati Prime assault? Why not put him back far enough in time that Earth can destroy the Xindi test weapon before it arrives at Earth and kills 7-million people? Why not send Enterprise back to 1922 so that it can attack and destroy the Xindi before any threat is posed?


Time travel sucks the life out of drama and, unless very careful rules are put in place and enforced throughout the narrative, it makes any plot ridiculous.