Other reviews claimed this was one of the greatest episodes in the show so I was excited to watch it. Unfortunately I was not too impressed. The story takes place twelve years after an anomaly devastates Enterprise and leaves Captain Archer with short term memory loss, caused by a parasitic infection. Archer wakes up in what appears to be someone's living quarters and T'pol is in the kitchen, with a completely different appearance and holding a plate of oranges. This looks interesting. She then explains that the mission in the Delphic Expanse has failed, and all but 9000 or so humans were killed. Here is where the story unfortunately gets uninteresting. T'pol's explanation raises more plot questions than it raises the probably-intended emotions of tragedy and desperation. How could the other crew members fail their mission THIS badly? Why are humans still fighting the Xindi? Oh hey, humans now live on Ceti Alpha V, look at that Easter egg. After that we see Ambassador Soval scoff at T'pol wearing a Starfleet uniform and dissing humans - more correctly than ever. T'pol makes some comments about how Vulcans could have helped humans by giving them weapons - disturbing comments especially coming from her of all people. Soval and Phlox, along with the readers, are now fully aware that T'pol is in love with her former captain, Archer. Sadly this all comes off as part of this season's rewiring of her character as needy and overemotional.
It's taken Doctor Phlox over a decade, but he's finally figured out how to remove the parasites from Archer's brain. The parasites live in non linear time and the only way of removing them, short of killing them (and Archer) in a subspace implosion, requires a machine which emits series of antiproton bursts. (Oh god, isn't this the same treatment used in Voyager's infamous 'Threshold' episode?!) Upon destroying some of the parasites, Phlox goes back to his old scans and finds that they've been altered, as if the parasites had never existed. He hypothesizes that destroying all the parasites will cause time to revert to the moment before Archer was infected, curing him and rewriting time.
Finally, a Xindi vessel appears in pursuit of Dr Phlox. The humans think they are only here to finish their genocide of humans, a subplot which is mentioned multiple times but then dropped. The Xindi offense destroys Phlox's machine and kills T'pol. Archer then overloads the plasma manifolds to kill himself, which erases every last trace that the parasites ever existed. We're back to the beginning of the episode, but this time, there are thankfully no parasites.
I'm tempted to compare this episode to TNG's "Yesterday's Enterprise" due to the alternate timeline nature. "Twilight" had none of the emotion of "Yesterday's Enterprise." The desperate situation in "Yesterday's Enterprise" is revealed slowly, and heavily. There is a continuous, constant sinking feeling that culminates in a meaningful sacrifice. In "Twilight" the situation is directly described by T'pol, and although it is dire, it fails to engender any emotions or ideas on how to get out of the situation.
'Yesterday's Enterprise' had heavy undertones of reviewing your own history and acknowledging sacrifices. The fact that the story took place in an alternate past, not an alternate future, was indispensable. 'Twilight' gives little meaning to its story. Tasha Yar sacrificed herself to save the Enterprise-D in another timeline. Yar gave up a relatively comfortable life to give Enterprise-C a slightly better chance in what she knew was a suicide mission. In 'Twilight', Archer kills himself in a plasma overload, seting time back twelve years and give humanity another chance, but this seems like the better option rather than a sacrifice. In Archer's case, the Xindi were already going to kill him so his sacrifice wasn't written as emotionally. In the words of more than one English teacher I've had - so what? Why is this episode important? What's the message it sends? Is it only supposed to entertain? Because it didn't really do that either, sorry.
I think some people like this kind of episode, but I sadly didn't find it entertaining or meaningful. I do like the concept of nonlinear parasitic infection and the opening scene, but the plot could have been much better.
It's taken Doctor Phlox over a decade, but he's finally figured out how to remove the parasites from Archer's brain. The parasites live in non linear time and the only way of removing them, short of killing them (and Archer) in a subspace implosion, requires a machine which emits series of antiproton bursts. (Oh god, isn't this the same treatment used in Voyager's infamous 'Threshold' episode?!) Upon destroying some of the parasites, Phlox goes back to his old scans and finds that they've been altered, as if the parasites had never existed. He hypothesizes that destroying all the parasites will cause time to revert to the moment before Archer was infected, curing him and rewriting time.
Finally, a Xindi vessel appears in pursuit of Dr Phlox. The humans think they are only here to finish their genocide of humans, a subplot which is mentioned multiple times but then dropped. The Xindi offense destroys Phlox's machine and kills T'pol. Archer then overloads the plasma manifolds to kill himself, which erases every last trace that the parasites ever existed. We're back to the beginning of the episode, but this time, there are thankfully no parasites.
I'm tempted to compare this episode to TNG's "Yesterday's Enterprise" due to the alternate timeline nature. "Twilight" had none of the emotion of "Yesterday's Enterprise." The desperate situation in "Yesterday's Enterprise" is revealed slowly, and heavily. There is a continuous, constant sinking feeling that culminates in a meaningful sacrifice. In "Twilight" the situation is directly described by T'pol, and although it is dire, it fails to engender any emotions or ideas on how to get out of the situation.
'Yesterday's Enterprise' had heavy undertones of reviewing your own history and acknowledging sacrifices. The fact that the story took place in an alternate past, not an alternate future, was indispensable. 'Twilight' gives little meaning to its story. Tasha Yar sacrificed herself to save the Enterprise-D in another timeline. Yar gave up a relatively comfortable life to give Enterprise-C a slightly better chance in what she knew was a suicide mission. In 'Twilight', Archer kills himself in a plasma overload, seting time back twelve years and give humanity another chance, but this seems like the better option rather than a sacrifice. In Archer's case, the Xindi were already going to kill him so his sacrifice wasn't written as emotionally. In the words of more than one English teacher I've had - so what? Why is this episode important? What's the message it sends? Is it only supposed to entertain? Because it didn't really do that either, sorry.
I think some people like this kind of episode, but I sadly didn't find it entertaining or meaningful. I do like the concept of nonlinear parasitic infection and the opening scene, but the plot could have been much better.