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A battered duplicate of the Enterprise, apparently crewed by the descendants of Archer’s crew (and led by Lorian, a descendant of T’Pol and Trip), emerges through a temporal rift. Lorian and his crew recount a grim history for the crew of Archer’s Enterprise: an anomaly sucked the ship into the past, and despite the best efforts of the crew’s descendants Earth lost the war with the Xindi, only T’Pol is still alive - and the crew of “tomorrow’s” Enterprise must return to their own future to restore the timelines. But first, Lorian wants something from Archer’s ship that could strand the Enterprise’s original crew - and stop them from preventing the events that led to Earth’s destruction in the first place.

written by Michael Sussman
directed by Roxann Dawson
music by Jay Chattaway

Guest Cast: David Andrews (Lorian), Randy Oglesby (Degra), Tucker Smallwood (Xindi-Humanoid), Rick Worthy (Xindi-Arboreal), Tess Lina (Karyn Archer), Tom Schanley (Greer), Steve Truitt (Crewman #1)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Captain Archer presents the Xindi Council with evidence that the Sphere Builders have been manipulating the Xindi into declaring war on Earth. But for many of the Xindi races, the Sphere Builders are revered as gods - and to regard them with suspicion is sacrelige. Archer’s evidence splinters the Council however, and the enraged Xindi-Insectoids strike a secret pact with the Sphere Builders to seize control of the Council for themselves. While Archer is presenting further evidence at a tense second meeting of the Council, a team led by T’Pol and Reed is infiltrating the sphere-weapon intended to eliminate Earth, but their mission comes at a high cost - and it could become even higher when the Xindi-Insectoid leader kills Degra for protecting Archer, and launches the weapon ahead of schedule. With some of the Xindi races now acting as his allies, Archer attempts to destroy the weapon - and fails as the weapon begins hurtling out of the Expanse and toward a fateful rendezvous with Earth.

written by Manny Coto
directed by David Livingston
music by Velton Ray Bunch

Guest Cast: Randy Oglesby (Degra), Tucker Smallwood (Xindi-Humanoid), Rick Worthy (Xindi-Arboreal), Scott MacDonald (Reptilian Commander), Josette DiCarlo (Sphere-Builder Woman), Sean McGowan (Hawkins), Bruce Thomas (Reptilian Soldier), Andrew Borba (Reptilian Lieutenant), Mary Mara (Sphere-Builder Presage), Ruth Williamson (Sphere-Builder Primary), Eric Lemler (Helm Crewman)

Note: This episode was nominated for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Special Visual Effects For A Series in 2004, but the award went to the next episode, Countdown.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

The Xindi-Reptilians and Xindi-Insectoids have commandeered the sphere-weapon and abducted Hoshi from the Enterprise by transporter. They can’t arm and launch the huge sphere until they’ve obtained a third launch code from another member of the Xindi Council, but none of the other races are willing to step forward in support of the frontal assault on Earth. In fact, Archer is negotiating with the Xindi-Aquatics, the most powerful of the Xindi species opposing the war, to help him launch an attack to destroy the weapon before it can be launched. Archer correctly assumes that during his meetings with the Council, Hoshi impressed the Reptilian commander with her linguistic abilities - and he hopes to harness her gifts to crack the remaining launch code for the weapon.

Major Hayes and his MACO commandos launch a desperate mission to recover Hoshi, with an all-out attack by the Enterprise and the other Xindi races as a cover. The Sphere Builders, furious that events are turning the timelines toward their own extinction at the hands of a combined human/Xindi force, intervene and give the Reptilians and Insectoids the means to launch the weapon. Hoshi is rescued and returned to the Enterprise, critically injured by repeated injections of neural parasites to wear down her resistance to the Xindi, but Major Hayes perishes in the rescue operation. The Weapon launches toward Earth at a speed greater than the damaged Enterprise can hope to reach. Archer enlists Reed and several of the remaining MACOs to take on a mission to intercept the sphere in Degra’s fast but vulnerable ship, hoping to stop the sphere by any means necessary, also bringing Hoshi with him over Dr. Phlox’s dire protests. Trip and T’Pol are left in command of the Enterprise, which will remain behind to destroy the network of other spheres that still controls the Expanse.

Time to the sphere’s arrival at Earth: 10 hours.

written by Andrè Bormanis & Chris Black
directed by Robert Duncan McNeill
music by Dennis McCarthy

Guest Cast: Steven Culp (Major Hayes), Scott MacDonald (Reptilian Commander), Rick Worthy (Xindi-Arboreal), Tucker Smallwood (Xindi-Humanoid), Randy Oglesby (Degra), Josette DiCarlo (Sphere-Builder Woman), Bruce Thomas (Reptilian Soldier), Andrew Borba (Reptilian Lieutenant), Mary Mara (Sphere-Builder Presage), Ruth Williamson (Sphere-Builder Primary), Paul Dean (Reptilian Technician)

Note: This episode won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Special Visual Effects For A Series in 2004.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Hoshi is barely able to summon up memories of the sphere-weapon’s design, let alone the strength to relay that information to Archer, but the captain presses her to recall the information as Degra’s ship speeds toward Earth and an attempt to intercept the Xindi weapon. In the meantime, the Enterprise’s mission proves to be more dangerous than expected: the Sphere Builders have erected dimensional distortion fields around their network of spheres controlling the Expanse, and if the Enterprise gets close enough to destroy even the weakest link in that chain, the instability could easily shred the ship and her crew. Hoshi is finally able to remember enough about the weapon to give Archer a way to disarm and destroy it, though Archer and his small force are unable to stop the Xindi-Reptilians from reaching Earth first and destroying an orbital station.

Archer alone takes responsibility for disarming the weapon, assigning Reed and the MACOs the task of fending off the small crew of Xindi-Reptilians aboard. The attempt to disable the Sphere Builders’ network in the Expanse is successful, though it almost succeeds in destroying the Enterprise and everyone aboard as well. The battered starship meets up with Degra’s vessel, where Reed and Hoshi report that the sphere-weapon was destroyed before getting a single shot off at Earth - but they also report that Archer went down with it, unable to beam off the sphere before it exploded.

What they don’t know is that prior to embarking on his fateful mission, Archer received a visit from time-hopping Crewman Daniels, giving him a glimpse seven years into the future at the founding of a united federation of planets - something Daniels says Archer is instrumental in creating.

And what they don’t know until they return to Earth is that, by being aboard the sphere when it was destroyed, Archer may have irrevocably changed the course of that future, and the Earth the Enterprise is returning to is not the Earth that her crew remembers.

written by Rick Berman & Brannon Braga
directed by Allan Kroeker
music by Jay Chattaway

Guest Cast: Scott MacDonald (Reptilian Commander), Rick Worthy (Xindi-Arboreal), Tucker Smallwood (Xindi-Humanoid), Josette DiCarlo (Sphere-Builder Woman), Bruce Thomas (Reptilian Soldier), Andrew Borba (Reptilian Lieutenant), Matt Winston (Daniels), Mary Mara (Sphere-Builder Presage), Ruth Williamson (Sphere-Builder Primary), Jeffrey Combs (Shran), Gunter Ziegler (Doctor), J. Paul Boehmer (Officer), Zachary Krebs (Andorian)

Notes: This episode was nominated for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Prosthetic Makeup For A Series, Miniseries or Special in 2004, but the award instead went to the pilot episode of the FX Network’s black comedy about plastic surgeons, Nip/Tuck. The writers of the episode have since admitted that they had no idea how to resolve the World War II cliffhanger, but apparently new executive producer Manny Coto did have an idea.

LogBook entry by Earl Green