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As the “Zero Hour” approaches, so does the season finale of Star Trek: Enterprise’s third season. Archer, Reed, and their Xindi allies have tracked the Reptilians to Earth. The Xindi superweapon is primed and ready to annihilate the cradle of the Federation! Meanwhile, T’Pol and the Enterprise move to destroy the spheres in the Expanse to prevent an invasion of the Sphere-Builders.
The Wikipedia plot summary for “Zero Hour”:
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. Archer kills him 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-51s. 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.
In this episode of the podcast, Wes and Clay finish the third season of Enterprise with a discussion about “Zero Hour”. Plus! The guys talk about the worst character in the entire Star Trek franchise, Jeffrey Combs auditioning for a captain role, and feeling like C.J. from Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.