Introduction

“Zero Hour” is the twenty-fourth and final episode of the third season of the American science fiction television series Star Trek: Enterprise; the seventy-seventh episode overall.

In this episode, Sub-Commander T’Pol leads the Enterprise on an attack on ‘Sphere 41’ in an attempt to destroy the sphere network within the Delphic Expanse. Meanwhile, a team led by Captain Jonathan Archer has infiltrated the Xindi weapon while it is en route to Earth. Both the spheres and the weapon are destroyed, but Archer is lost, presumed dead. Enterprise returns to Earth but the crew suddenly find that they have been sent back in time to a very different Second World War.

The episode was written by series co-creators Rick Berman and Brannon Braga and was directed by Allan Kroeker. The episode took eight days to film and included a larger guest cast than normal for episodes of Enterprise, as well as two competition winners. The twist at the end of “Zero Hour” was originally conceived by the writers as a joke, but was developed over the course of the third season to become the concept of “alien Nazis”. This twist was further explained and resolved in the season four two-part opener “Storm Front“. Roughly 3.91 million viewers watched “Zero Hour” on first broadcast.

Outline

Sub-Commander T’Pol orders Enterprise to ‘Sphere 41’, in an attempt to destroy the entire sphere network. They arrive to find that the Sphere Builders have created a distortion field around it. Doctor Phlox determines that 12-15 minutes exposure will kill the crew. Undeterred, T’Pol and Commander Tucker deduce a modification to the deflector dish that can be used to destroy the sphere. As they approach, two Guardians arrive and begin damaging the ship’s systems, but they cannot prevent the sphere’s destruction. It implodes, setting off a chain reaction that successfully destroys the rest of the spheres, ending all spatial anomalies in the Delphic Expanse.

Meanwhile, Captain Archer, accompanied by Lieutenant Reed, Ensign Sato, and a team of MACOs, enters the vortex created by the Xindi weapon. During the pursuit, a recovering Sato is pushed by Archer to decipher Degra’s schematics. Archer is suddenly pulled into the future by Temporal Agent Daniels, this time to the founding of the United Federation of Planets, but Archer is again uninterested. Arriving near Earth, Archer receives an unexpected transmission from Commander Shran, who engages and then destroys the Reptilian ship. In the chaos, Archer and his team are able to beam aboard the weapon. A fierce fire-fight ensues, and as Archer and Sato try to disable the weapon, Commander Dolim attempts to stop them. He fails and the weapon is destroyed.

Sato and Reed return to Enterprise with the sad news that Archer did not make it off the weapon. Ferried on an Aquatic ship, Enterprise arrives at Earth, but they are unable to contact Starfleet. Surprised, T’Pol orders Tucker and Ensign Mayweather to fly a shuttlepod down to San Francisco, where they are suddenly attacked by what seem to be P-51’s.

The final scene switches to a World War II German field-hospital. A doctor summons some SS officers to examine the unfamiliar uniform of a burn patient who was recently brought in. The patient is revealed as Archer. One of the SS personnel steps out of the shadows, revealing himself to be a gray-skinned alien.

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Production & Filming Details

• Director(s): Allan Kroeker.
• Writer(s): Rick Berman and Brannon Braga.
• Release Date: 26 May 2004.
• Running Time: 45 minutes.
• Country: US.
• Language: English.