Countdown (Star Trek: Enterprise)

Needing a third species' codes to arm the weapon, Ensign Hoshi Sato is injected with neural-parasites while she is a prisoner of the Xindi-Reptilians. With the Xindi superweapon about to be armed and time running out, Captain Jonathan Archer tries to persuade the Xindi-Aquatics to help him and his Xindi allies destroy it. Sato's kidnapping, and Archer's promises to shut down the 70-plus known spheres (initially a partial, desperate bluff), finally convinces the Aquatics into believing that the Sphere Builders, and not the humans, may indeed represent their true enemy.

A battle between Archer's Xindi fleet and the Reptilian-Insectoid fleet soon breaks out around the superweapon. Locating Sato on board a Reptilian ship, a small squad of MACOs, led by Major Hayes and with the support of Lieutenant Malcolm Reed, transports on board the ship to extract her. With the space battle ongoing, the transporter system is damaged so that no more than two personnel can beam out at a time. Holding off the Reptilians on the ship, Hayes sends one of his men and Sato out first, and then the rest of the team, but just as Hayes, now alone, is beaming out, a Reptilian soldier fires through his chest. Back on board Enterprise, he collapses on the transporter platform, and tells Reed who his MACO successor should be, moments before he dies of heart-failure in Sickbay.

With the "threads of time" turning against them, the Sphere Builders decide to intervene by creating spatial distortions around the weapon. The distortions hinder Enterprise and the rest of Archer's Xindi fleet, and destroy a number of Aquatic ships, which buys the Reptilians enough time to finally activate the codes. Dolim (Scott MacDonald) has the superweapon enter a vortex and head for Earth, escorted by two allied ships. Inside one of the vessels, having witnessed the interference of the Guardians, the Insectoid leader begins to doubt the motives of the Reptilians. Since the Reptilians already have the Insectoids' launch code, Dolim ends the subsequent arguing and destroys the Insectoid's ship. Far behind via the vortex, and needing to close the distance with speed, Archer takes a Xindi recommendation to pursue Dolim using Degra's faster spaceship, taking a sickened Sato with his team to guide them through the superweapon.

"Countdown" was the second episode of the season to be directed by former Star Trek: Voyager actor Robert Duncan McNeill.

This was the first episode written as a combined effort by André Bormanis and Chris Black, although they had both written earlier episodes of the series with Bormanis writing episodes such as "Hatchery" and "Extinction", while Black wrote "Doctor's Orders" among others. "Countdown" also saw the return of Star Trek: Voyager actor Robert Duncan McNeill as director. The episode was his second during season three after previously working on "Twilight". "Countdown" took longer to film than most episodes of Enterprise, having an eight-day shooting timetable versus the normal seven.[1]

Additional sets were constructed to present the interior of the Xindi-Reptilian ship, and the inside of the superweapon. Two full days of the shoot took place on the Reptilian sets, while a day was spent filming on the superweapon set. The scenes set inside the ships of the Xindi-Aquatics and the Xindi-Insectoids were created in post-production rather than using physical sets. This was in addition to the standing sets, and the Xindi specific sets built initially for previous episodes, such as the interior of Degra's ship, and the "Avian Residence" which had both been built for use on-screen in "The Council". Scenes involving the Sphere Builders; played by Josette DiCarlo, Mary Mara and Ruth Williamson; were filmed in a combined shoot featuring the scenes from both "Countdown" and "The Council". Filming concluded on March 4, although B-unit shoots continued on March 8, with McNeil directing once more. This was in addition to further B-unit filming under the direction of Dan Curry for the episode "E²" and the start of the work on the season finale, "Zero Hour" under Allan Kroeker.[1]

Several elements of the props and effects were re-used from previous episodes. The reactor core on the superweapon was a combination of the props previously used as a Romulan mine in "Minefield" and rings from the Enterprise gymnasium which had appeared in the episode "Vanishing Point". The special effect used for the subspace vortexes created by the Sphere Builders had originally been created for the transwarp effect in the Voyager episode "Hope and Fear".[2] The guest stars in "Countdown" were recurring from previous episodes,[1] although it would be the final appearance for Steven Culp as Major Hayes. Culp had appeared in the series throughout the third season since "The Xindi". During the development of "The Shipment", Culp proposed the backstory for Hayes, which was accepted by the production team. The role was not his first in the Star Trek franchise however, as he had been cast and filmed for an appearance as Commander Martin Madden for the film Star Trek: Nemesis. It would have seen him as the replacement for Commander William Riker at the end of the film, but it was cut from the final version.[3]

"Countdown" was first aired in the United States on UPN on May 19, 2004. According to Nielsen Media Research, it received a 2.3/4 percent share among adults. This means that it was seen by 2.3 percent of all households, and 4 percent of all of those watching television at the time of the broadcast. It was estimated that "Countdown" was watched by 3.5 million viewers. The following episode, "Zero Hour", received a 2.7/4 percent rating with the viewer number increased by 400,000.[4] "Countdown" won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Special Visual Effects, after being nominated alongside the previous episode, "The Council".[5]

Michelle Erica Green, in her review for TrekNation, said that she saw the Hayes/Reed arc come full circle with the death of Hayes and the return of Reed to the position he had previously held prior to the MACO's arrival. She felt that otherwise, the episode consisted of action to the exclusion of character development but Green criticised the ease at which some of the Xindi side with Archer. She called it a "strong arc episode" and set-up the finale, but was concerned that the strong build-up could lead to it being an anticlimax.[6] Jamahl Epsicokhan, on his website "Jammer's Reviews", gave the episode a rating of three out of four. He felt that the structure of the plot was the same as the previous episode, but that it had no story and was "simply plot and action skillfully assembled — a series of events framed as goal-oriented nonstop momentum." He was pleased to see an improvement in the writing of the Reed/Hayes relationship and the MACOs, although he felt the collaborative working between the two parties should have occurred earlier in the season.[7]

The only home media release of "Countdown" has been as part of the season three DVD box set which was released in the United States on September 27, 2005.[8] The Blu-ray release of Enterprise was announced in early 2013,[9] and released on January 7, 2014.[10]

• "Countdown" at IMDb

• "Countdown" at StarTrek.com

• "Countdown" at Memory Alpha (a Star Trek wiki)