Star Trek: Enterprise (TV Series) Countdown (2004) User Reviews

The Battle Begins

[claudio_carvalho · 8/10 · 4 March 2008]

The Reptilian forces Hoshi through brainwash to decipher the code of the Aquatics and activate the weapon with the Insectoids and their own codes. Archer manages to convince the Aquatics to help them against the Reptilian, promising to help them to destroy the sphere system in the Expanse. The Humanoids, the Arboreals and the Aquatics join the Enterprise and they battle against the Reptilian and Insectoids. Meanwhile Major Hayes and his team are beamed to the Reptilian vessel where Hoshi is imprisoned. When the enemy is near to be defeated, the Sphere-Builders cause a strong anomaly destroying many ships and allowing the Reptilian to escape through a vortex.

"Countdown" is another engaging episode, with a great star battle and dramatic fate of important characters. The saga of the Enterprise in the expanse seems to be near to the end with many casualties. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "Contagem Regressiva" ("Countdown")

All hell breaks loose...

[planktonrules · 9/10 · 10 April 2015]

This episode begins with the Reptilian and Insectoid Xindi having stolen the super-weapon. While they need a third code to launch the weapon, the Aquatics are neutral and the Arboreal and Primate Xindi are against it. So how will they get this third code? They have kidnapped Hoshi and have used brain medicine on her to make her help them decrypt the Aquatics' code!

In the meantime, Archer learns that the combined Arboreal and Primate fleets cannot defeat the Reptilians/Insectoids so he must appeal to the Aquatics to try to get them to intervene and throw the balance towards the good guys. But, even if they do, the temporal jerks may try something to prevent a good guy victory.

This show is the most action-packed in the long multi-part show about the Xindi/Human war. Lots of explosions, betrayals and nastiness make it very exciting and well worth seeing.

This Is It!

[Hitchcoc · 9/10 · 27 March 2017]

Hoshi is brought on board the Reptilian ship in order to provide the Aquatic launch code which will put the earth-destroying weapon in motion. The Guardians (sphere makers) have some reason to mess up space and allow the Earth and the Xindi to be destroyed. The Reptilians stupidly think these strange creatures are their friends. All the allied forces go into play with huge casualties. The weapon is launched. It is now up to the Enterprise to figure out a way to mess things up. The weapon is speeding toward Earth when it is discovered that the spheres are part of a delicate network. A very exciting episode with huge implications for everyone. Good action. Good acting. And nice editing and direction.

Weak direction by Robert Duncan McNeill, but the writing largely saves it

[sogoodlooking · 9/10 · 23 September 2020]

McNeill doesn't make anything of the gun battle aboard the weapon, a sure sign of a weak director (was there really NOTHING interesting to be done with a multi-minute scene), and do the Marines really only possess one stun grenade between them? Still, McNeill does much better with the scenes of the running space battle trying to take out the Xindi weapon, though it's likely the animators had substantive input.

Btw, until this episode, in the last half of season 3 it feels as if Linda Park, Anthony Montgomery, and the Space Marines had been all but written out of the series. In Park's case, that's a real shame. She's terrific as Hoshi, while Montgomery simply doesn't register most of the time, even when he's front and center, and the Marines are largely an anonymous bunch of shooters except for Trip's brief squeeze and for the Marine Major, who didn't make much of an impression despite being featured in several episodes.

To anyone who can tell us why the death of Degra, the peacemaker, does not cross anyone's mind after they've finished Season 3, you will have solved the mystery of why Enterprise isn't more well-liked than it is. --Although, it's only fair to point out that some of that is due to the lines with which he is dispatched, and the overlong cadence of them spoken by his Reptillian assassin that dissipated their meaning and the force of the action. Still, Degra appears far more often in Season 3 than Shran, but is only one-tenth as memorable. It was worth getting a stronger actor, something we should put at the door of casting. That's Junie Lowry-Johnson's firm, I believe, with Ron Surma as acting liason to the show.

Btw, around 6 minutes, T'Pol starts whining at Trip for expressing concern wrt Hoshi. It's singularly grating, and she should know far better than to try to whip a human over a single sentence of regret. Their conflict is often grating without accomplishing anything, as far as I can tell.

Fwiw, this is the last and only season of Enterprise where Blalock's attractiveness is featured without self-consciousness (surely not any more than Connor Trinneer, who takes off his shirt in a half-dozen episodes) and without exploitation, and where she isn't afflicted with one of the world's most abysmal haircuts. Enjoy while you can.

Solid set up for the series conclusion

[snoozejonc · 7/10 · 20 November 2020]

Enterprise launches a rescue mission for Hoshi whilst attempting to stop the Xindi weapon.

I enjoyed this episode, particularly towards the end as things got more exciting. Although the events and spectacle in my opinion are better than the character moments.

The Xindi politics scenes in the build up to the weapon deploying are all pretty strong, with some intrigue surrounding the involvement of the aquatics and the Sphere-Builders. The only thing missing for me is the presence of Randy Oglesby but Degra's absence came from a key scene in the plot so I won't lament over that too much.

The scenes regarding the rescue mission for Hoshi are also pretty exciting and suspenseful. The same can be said for the space battles.

What brought it down slightly for me were the scenes involving T'Pol and Trip. They are given a meaningful task to do which is a good idea, but for me there is nothing interesting about watching T'Pol standing over a terminal continuously brooding and looking like she's about to burst into tears ever time Trip says something. I personally found the "will they won't they" arc between these two characters tedious.

There are also some cheesy, speechy moments that for me didn't work. I don't think the dialogue is particularly strong so there is only so much an actor can do.

It all ends in a very intriguing set up for the series conclusion.

The Enterprise Tries to Destroy the Death Star

[Samuel-Shovel · 7/10 · 15 February 2018]

With Hoshi now a captive of the Reptilian Xindi, the Enterprise must find a way to get her back and stop the weapon from being deployed. The Reptilians perform some kind of surgery on Hoshi, forcing her to decipher the Aquatics' launch codes. Meanwhile, Archer tries to convince the Aquatics to help the humans, Arboreals, & Humanoids destroy the weapon. He is eventually successful and the battle is on! Sensing a fluctuation in the timeline, the Sphere Builders use their power to create anomalies that benefit the Insectoids and Reptilians. The bad guys eventually escape with the help of the Sphere Builders but the Insectoids begin to have their doubts. The Reptilians assuage them by destroying their ships and heading to Earth alone through the subspace vortex. The Enterprise gets Hoshi back but loses Major Hayes in the process.

This episode was a mixture of battle scenes and Archer attempting diplomacy with the Aquatics. It reminded me very much of a Star Wars movie (hence my title) but it had enough Star Trek-esqueness to it to keep it feeling organic and exciting. This is the second straight episode that we've seen the passing of a tertiary character from the show. Major Hayes never felt like a fully fleshed out three dimensional character. I felt like I knew Degra far better than Hayes so his death really didn't have a huge emotional effect on me, especially since there are such higher stakes at hands regarding the future of the human race. One episode remains; a showdown is imminent.