Here we have the preculmination to the season three Xindi arc that leads us on a wild ride and leaves us with a crazy wild conclusion. This episode takes all the information that we have been accumulating for the last ten episodes and gives us an action packed thrill ride that would have been a satisfying season finale. "Azati Prime" runs the gambit giving us further developments on several main and secondary characters, time travel, torture, comedy, and a lot of action.
The episode begins slowly, but once it kicks in it goes full steam ahead. Early on we are treated to splendid character development of our main characters Archer and T'Pol along with my second favorite Enterprise secondary character, Degra. We get to see what this mission to save humanity has done to Archer as we see him killing three Xindi without provocation and later the emotional toll that his decisions previously in the season have made him willing to stop the killing by sacrificing himself. We get to see the emotional problems T'Pol is facing after her Trellium-D exposure and losing her Captain and friend. Although we are treated to some of Degra's misgivings about this mission in the previous episode "Strategem", it comes back full circle and explains his decision to finally help Archer. Degra's emotional state is reminiscent of atomic scientists after their construction of the atom bomb. After this great character development we are given some great action only compared to by a few movies and DS9 that ends this episode on a high note and sets up the remainder of the Xindi arc. This one is a wonderful episode that relies on many different story telling elements to give us a fun and dramatic ride.
The episode begins slowly, but once it kicks in it goes full steam ahead. Early on we are treated to splendid character development of our main characters Archer and T'Pol along with my second favorite Enterprise secondary character, Degra. We get to see what this mission to save humanity has done to Archer as we see him killing three Xindi without provocation and later the emotional toll that his decisions previously in the season have made him willing to stop the killing by sacrificing himself. We get to see the emotional problems T'Pol is facing after her Trellium-D exposure and losing her Captain and friend. Although we are treated to some of Degra's misgivings about this mission in the previous episode "Strategem", it comes back full circle and explains his decision to finally help Archer. Degra's emotional state is reminiscent of atomic scientists after their construction of the atom bomb. After this great character development we are given some great action only compared to by a few movies and DS9 that ends this episode on a high note and sets up the remainder of the Xindi arc. This one is a wonderful episode that relies on many different story telling elements to give us a fun and dramatic ride.