3x18 Azati Prime

[6.0/10] A confession: nineteen episodes in, and I still just don’t like the Xindi arc. It’s a commendable idea to try to mirror the mood of the United States at the time and tell a continuing story. But in practice, the efforts to be darker and edgier end up campy as hell, and it requires a level of gravitas and high drama that Enterprise is seemingly incapable of. “Azati Prime” is, if not the finale of that arc, then definitely an episode that wants to evoke a finale-like feeling.

That means we’re basically getting MovieTrek, the bigger, louder version of the franchise that devolves into blockbuster plots and ample action and grandiose speeches about this and that. I don’t have anything against the Star Trek movies; some of them I quite like. But even at their best, they feel a little apart from what the nuts and bolts of the series(es) have always been. Enterprise in particular doesn't have the players (or at least doesn't use them) to pull something so big and bombastic off without it coming off like a hokey hodgepodge.

The best you can say for “Azati Prime” then is that it’s generally nice to look at. The episode sees the Enterprise finally making it to the site where the Xindi are building their weapon. An exploratory sweep with the Insectoid pod the crew recovered in the last episode confirms that the quasi-Death Star is having the finishing touches added underwater in a nearby planet to the titular system. That leads to a would-be suicide mission from Archer to go blow it up, but before he can complete it, Daniels jumps in for a pep talk, and he gets captured by the Xindi and there’s lots of overwrought pleas and threats being tossed around like tribbles in a bulkhead compartment.

That ends up being too much, or at least too dull, even for a two-part (I presume) episode. Still, you can see where Enterprise is spending its budget. There’s a lot of neat detail when Trip and Mayweather use the Insectoid pod to poke around the Xindi’s underwater base, from free-floating aquatic Xindi to the intricate designs of the weapon itself. At the same time, the episode does a nice job at showing the Enterprise getting roughed up in the closing Xindi assault. And even the brief tour of the Enterprise-J has some unique design and production work.

But otherwise “Azati Prime” just bites off more than it can chew. The episode spends a lot of time and energy in the prelude to Archer’s supposed kamikaze mission. He says goodbye to his crew. He turns Porthos over to Dr. Phlox. He tells Mayweather and a distraught T’Pol that after the events of “Similitude” and the unprovoked killing of three Xindi in this episode, he doesn't want to order anyone else to die. This is all done with an air of noble sacrifice and lugubrious tones for all involved.

The only catch is, you’d have to be pretty naive to think that Archer isn’t coming back from this mission some way somehow, so the whole thing just rings false. The show wants to wring some kind of pathos from Archer leaving for this one way mission, but it’s not the sort of series with the chutzpah to kill off its main character, so the whole exercise feels like a “who are you kidding?”-style waste.

Granted, faux deaths or would-be deadly situations can be meaningful even in situations where the audience knows they’re destined to be undone if you can show the emotional effect on those around the not-quite-dying individual. But Enterprise, once again, tries to do that through an emotional connection between T’Pol and Archer that the show has just never been able to work. It’s reasonably plausible that after 2 1/2 years of working together, Archer and T’Pol would come to care about one another, but this series just hasn’t ever dramatized that connection well enough for it to be emotionally earned when T’Pol is basically frazzled and out of sorts knowing that Archer is at risk and “unlikely” to ever return from it.

Nevermind the fact that this is an Archer-heavy episode to begin with, so when we’re not dealing with T’Pol’s unearned distress, we’re stuck watching him brandish schoolyard taunts at a Reptilian torturer, or offer an unconvincing plea to Degra, or give yet more speeches to his crew about the importance of what they’re doing and how proud he is and blah blah blah. Scott Bakula’s range is pretty limited to begin with, but having him try to come off as noble but troubled, desperate but resolute, and taunting but pained is just beyond his capabilities, which hobbles this one out of the gate regardless of the false jeopardy it’s founded on.

Beyond that unconvincing danger, the episode is also based on the notion that Archer has to turn away from violence and instead use diplomacy to connect with the Xindi, which is at least a very Star Trek idea, even if it’s yet another instance of “Archer’s the most important person in the galaxy” which continues to chap my hide. The result is that after being captured, Archer has to try to convince the Xindi that the Sphere-Builders used them to take out Earth because they knew that otherwise, the humans would take out the Sphere Builders 400 years in the future, oh and by the way, the Reptilians are also testing a bioweapon on humans 150 years in the past. But it’s OK! We can prove it! We have a little medal from the future!

That is utterly implausible as proof. Credit where it’s due, “Azati Prime” has the good guy (or better guy) Xindi question Archer’s account for a while. And maybe you can chalk up some resistance or reluctance to the usual tensions and disagreements among the different Xindi sects. But there’s still a lot of Archer playing the “Won’t somebody please think of the children?” card with Degra. That, combined with his time travel story, is inexplicably effective and offers more convoluted nonsense along the way.

So when we leave things, Archer has convinced some of the Xindi that he’s credible enough to put things on pause for now, but oh no! The Reptilian Xindi won’t listen to the Humanoid Xindi, and are wrecking the Enterprise! There’s a lot of semi-corny stunts, with sparks flying everywhere and crewmen catching on fire, and the bridge itself falling apart externally at the same time T’Pol is falling apart inside.

Enterprise wants to play this for high drama, the sort of major momentous stuff that its cinematic brethren are famous for. But it’s not good enough at playing those big emotions, or setting those dramatic scenes to pull it off. Instead, the show devolves into a third grade action movie, where the plot is rushed, the emotional responses are unbelievable, and the entire hour is far less compelling than the culmination of a season-length arc should be.

The whole Xindi kerfuffle was an opportunity for Enterprise to course correct and do something bold. Instead, it gives us an offer stuffed dollop of sci-fi mashed potatoesa, lacking in the thoughtfulness or execution that color the franchise’s better, high-volume outings.