Weekend Trek “Azati Prime”

Alright, an action-packed first parter to head into the endgame for whole Xindi arc.  Now…can they find a real name for “the weapon”?  Everyone calls it “the weapon.”  The Xindi should at least have a name for it.

Anyway, things go bad.  Hence the whole “this is the first part” thing.

After 17 episodes, the ship has finally found the planet where the Xindi are building the weapon.  There’s a defensive grid around the place, but they do have some captured Insectoid shuttles, so Malcolm and Trip can fly in, dive under the water, and see a giant sphere being built.  It’s almost ready.  This could be the end of the human race, especially since the Reptilians won’t be content to just destroy the Earth.

Degra, the head primate scientist, he’s having doubts about the whole “genocide” thing as he debates things over with the Sloth Xindi rep.  Apparently, these guys are used to the Reptilians being, you know, cold-blooded and violent and the like.

I feel like they are stereotyping the Reptilians here.

Anyway, there’s one way to take out the weapon: someone has to fly the Insectoid shuttle into the weapon and collide with the core with a couple torpedoes on-board.  Basically, it’s a suicide mission, and Archer won’t let anyone else take that risk, not after he has ordered the deaths of others, including a trio of Xindi on a surveillance station that would have given the Enterprise‘s position away.

Now, no one wants Archer to go, particularly a briefly emotional T’Pol.  But no, Archer won’t let anyone else do this mission.  He even leaves Porthos with Phlox, under the condition that Phlox never harvested Porthos for medical treatments (Phlox agrees readily enough).  Phlox is an interesting choice.  He’s good with animals.  He also is a bad choice.  He doesn’t quite understand the human affection for pets.

Now, I do know there’s another season to go, so I doubt Archer is going to die here.  Indeed, Daniels intervenes, bringing Archer 400 years into the future to show him a battle the Federation (expanded to include the Klingons) wins against the Sphere-Builders, the race that manipulated the Xindi into wiping out humanity.  These jerks wants to expand their territory, and that means making more of “the expanse,” and the Federation will stop them.  No humans means no Federation means yes expansion.  Oh, and the Xindi are helping the Federation too!  Why, can Archer try diplomacy?  That might work!

Oh, he won’t?  Even when Daniels points out that the Xindi will just build a new weapon if Archer takes this one out?

Wow, this plan looks worse all the time.

C’mon, Archer.  Diplomacy is and has always been Star Trek‘s thing.  Yes, there are wars and action-packed episodes, but the whole point is usually people should work together to find solutions through reasoning.  Not…whatever this mess is.  Daniels gives Archer a Xindi token from the future and sends him back, hoping he’ll change his mind.

He doesn’t.

Instead, the Xindi capture him.  The Reptilians in particular, and while Archer holds up under torture, when the Reptilians leave to attack the Enterprise, Archer then decides to use that old diplomacy by asking for Degra, complete with knowledge of Degra that he shouldn’t know, the token, and some recounts of what the Reptilians did in humanity’s past.  The Primates don’t believe Archer, but they don’t leave either.  That’s good.

Then the Reptilians attack Enterprise, blowing up large chunks of it, and leaving it adrift with T’Pol in the captain’s chair.  That sounds less good.

So, the good news is Archer did try diplomacy.  He also didn’t die.  Everyone else might have, but he’s not dead yet.  And he only tried diplomacy after he’d been captured.

Hold on, that’s not good at all!