Question about the ending of "Zero Hour"

[Anna Yolei]

Oh god I remember how completely lit this forum was after the finale! I'd never heard the acronym WTF used so many times in one 72 hour period.

Or, to put it another way, the mods didn't have to break up any shipper fight for a full five DAYS after this episode aired. I don't know how many of you here were around for those, but anyone who was an active poster between 2003 and 2006 can tell you that was akin to walking on water to make that happen.

 

[Anna Yolei]

Nostalgia aside, I dunno how or why someone decided to go with this crazy shit. There were rumors that Bermaga (the combo name given to the worst pairing in Star Trek histor, Berman and Braga) threw this in as a fuck you to Coto, who was being brought in as head writer in season four. Given the series finale and that bullshit Sorry-Not-Sorry interview about ANISB in the seadon two DVD set, I find this rumor isn't without merit.

 

[Willow]

I wasn't around myself for the live showing. It's probably a good thing! I was able to immediately jump into Season 4. I wish Coto was given more of a chance to turn things around though. However, I imagine that the "writing was on the wall" by that point.

 

[Menthar]

I have a question about this episode that made zero sense to me.
When the Zindi arrive at earth with the weapon they scan and there are no human vessels in range of their sensors??? Only one science station is detected? What about the orbital construction platforms? No Nx-02 in drydock? No cargo ships? No shuttle pods traveling between earth and the Luna colony?? 7 million killed you would think they would have the bulk of star fleet parked in earth orbit. At least enough ships to take on one reptilian cruiser.

 

[Yanks]

As an end to season 3 it was unsatisfying, but the two follow-up eps were good.

Our heroes not getting ho.e was a vexer to me. But the German EPs were as good as German EPs get in Trek.

 

[Timo]

I have a question about this episode that made zero sense to me.
When the Zindi arrive at earth with the weapon they scan and there are no human vessels in range of their sensors??? Only one science station is detected? What about the orbital construction platforms? No Nx-02 in drydock? No cargo ships? No shuttle pods traveling between earth and the Luna colony?? 7 million killed you would think they would have the bulk of star fleet parked in earth orbit. At least enough ships to take on one reptilian cruiser.

That's basically a question of relevant range. And with Earth hardware, that's shorter than in most cases. The Xindi don't have to mind Earth ships that are patrolling farther out than, say, Jupiter, because it will take them the better part of an hour to get to the Spot Where Everything Happens ("six minutes to Neptune and back" was an amazing improvement for the superfast NX-01, remember?). They don't have to mind orbiting stations that are outside the range of puny Earth weapons, regardless of whether they have those weapons or not.

Also, it's a matter of range visually. Even if Earth had ten thousand space stations of the sort the Xindi blew up, distributed evenly at that orbital height, we would be unable to see any of the others. Ditto for vessels, unless those had a very special reason to fly close to Yosemite 3.

That doesn't change the fact that yes, they should have parked Starfleet on Earth orbit, it being of no bloody use anywhere else. And even if it happened to be mostly on the wrong side of Earth, it should be able to get to the right side within the apparent couple of minutes the Preparation for Total Destruction was going to take.

Perhaps there was a feint of some sort, drawing Starfleet and the associated alien vessels we saw at the end of "Storm Front" to some other location and only allowing them to return after all the excitement was over?

Timo Saloniemi

 

[F. King Daniel]

Earth is never defended in Star Trek. It's dumb, but it's how it is.

Worst issue is at the end of "Storm Front" there's suddenly a whole fleet in Earl orbit!

 

[Gingerbread Demon]

Earth is never defended in Star Trek. It's dumb, but it's how it is.

Worst issue is at the end of "Storm Front" there's suddenly a whole fleet in Earl orbit!

Yeah like they pulled that fleet out of their butts. We never had a fleet like that close to Earth near the first attack so let's bring the fleet out when our heroes do the work for us, and there is no reason to fight..

 

[Tim Thomason]

It would have been interesting if the series had ended on Zero Hour. Would the novels have been allowed to "solve" the Space Nazi problem (and potentially the TCW) with their own resolution? Would the NX-01 even be allowed to return home or would fandom debate on whether it was a lost ship in the history of Starfleet, forever to perish in some alternate timeline?

I suppose Shockwave and perhaps Broken Bow implies that Archer and Enterprise live to see the Romulan War, which means they must've gotten out of their 1944 quagmire somehow.

 

[Menthar]

That's basically a question of relevant range. And with Earth hardware, that's shorter than in most cases. The Xindi don't have to mind Earth ships that are patrolling farther out than, say, Jupiter, because it will take them the better part of an hour to get to the Spot Where Everything Happens ("six minutes to Neptune and back" was an amazing improvement for the superfast NX-01, remember?). They don't have to mind orbiting stations that are outside the range of puny Earth weapons, regardless of whether they have those weapons or not.

Also, it's a matter of range visually. Even if Earth had ten thousand space stations of the sort the Xindi blew up, distributed evenly at that orbital height, we would be unable to see any of the others. Ditto for vessels, unless those had a very special reason to fly close to Yosemite 3.

That doesn't change the fact that yes, they should have parked Starfleet on Earth orbit, it being of no bloody use anywhere else. And even if it happened to be mostly on the wrong side of Earth, it should be able to get to the right side within the apparent couple of minutes the Preparation for Total Destruction was going to take.

Perhaps there was a feint of some sort, drawing Starfleet and the associated alien vessels we saw at the end of "Storm Front" to some other location and only allowing them to return after all the excitement was over?

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Menthar]

That makes sense except that in the ep expanse(?) The older slower star fleet ships had more powerful and updated weapons which kicked duras's bird of prey. Photon torps and updated phase cannons. Or did I interpret what I saw incorrectly?

 

[Nebusj]

I have a question about this episode that made zero sense to me.
When the Zindi arrive at earth with the weapon they scan and there are no human vessels in range of their sensors??? Only one science station is detected? What about the orbital construction platforms? No Nx-02 in drydock? No cargo ships? No shuttle pods traveling between earth and the Luna colony?? 7 million killed you would think they would have the bulk of star fleet parked in earth orbit. At least enough ships to take on one reptilian cruiser.

Dingbat Daniels sent the construction platforms back in time to deal with the Space Nazis in the US Civil War. NX-02 he sent back in time to deal with the Space Commies in the Taiping Rebellion. The cargo ships he sent back to deal with the Space Jacobins in the Second Peloponnesian War. The shuttle pods from the Moon he sent back to deal with the Space Janissaries in the War of Captain Jenkins' Ear. The rest of Star Fleet he sent back to deal with the Space Mongols in the Paraguayan War.

The fleet that appeared afterwards he sent back in time from 2283, since they seemed not to be doing anything but smuggling Romulan Ale across the Space Border.

 

[Jedman67]

I love the idea it was Rick and Brannon giving UPN the audience the middle-finger.

FTFY

 

[Anna Yolei]

It was the writers and producers going "we really don't give a shit whether this makes any kind of sense or not, we're going to do it anyway because we think that throwing in space Nazis right at the end of an episode that had nothing whatsoever to do with that is really kewl."

I distinctly remember that I'd never seen the acronym WTF online before that episode aired

And I missed a lot of the hubbub because I was going on a school trip the next day and was in Canada for five days, in the dark days before everyone had smartphones

 

[locutus101]

Episode should be "Zero Hour" I was typing too quickly and didn't notice my error.

Just finished the Xindi arc, well the majority part of it. They destroyed the Xindi murder ball of death.

OK my question is this knowing what comes next. The Enterprise was inside the Aquatic ship when they got close to earth, the aquatics open the hatch and she flies out.

But it's Earth of an alternate past. How did that happen?

It seems tnat Daniels waited for them to resolve the crisis and then sent them to Earth's past.

 

[F. King Daniel]

The fleet that appeared afterwards he sent back in time from 2283, since they seemed not to be doing anything but smuggling Romulan Ale across the Space Border.

Some of them were Steamrunner-class ships from the 24th century, after all!

 

[locutus101]

Some of them were Steamrunner-class ships from the 24th century, after all!

Why is that significant?

 

[F. King Daniel]

Just because it's kinda weird they used a 24th century ship in the 22nd?

 

[locutus101]

Just because it's kinda weird they used a 24th century ship in the 22nd?

Yes it is but on the other hand in the emptiness of space, shape is not all that important, which is why the borg don't bother and they make cubes and spheres or some other ships sometimes that look like giant suppositories. So it's more like some kind of fashion, and fashion as we all know is cyclic.

 

[Tenacity]

shape is not all that important, which is why the borg don't bother

Then why perfect cubes and spheres? Instead of a "glob?"