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AUTHOR'S NOTE: Something else "zippy" said irked me: "If anything you SHOULD write about why the Xindhi are trusting the Sphere Builders to begin with, and what proof they've been given that the humans are going to attack them. That's [the] only thing that's really bothered me this season."
If that's all that bothered you, zippy, then you're hopeless. Star Trek's writers own you, lock, stock and barrel. Worrying about that meant you were thinking exactly the way the writers wanted you to think, so that you wouldn't find the end of the story arc disappointing. After all, given that line of thought, then all Archer had to do to stop the Xindhi was prove that humans are really harmless and the Sphere Builders were the bad guys so that some Xindhi would have doubts about killing humans and then would help the humans and defeat the Sphere Builders and any Xindhi too stupid to learn the lesson--which is pretty much exactly how the arc ended. The writers telegraphed this way the hell back in the first episode with the first Xindhi War Council/Free-For-All. I didn't mention it because this story is about idiocy specific to Star Trek and its writers. The "Make the bad guys realize we mean them no harm so they won't attack us and we can be friends" ploy has been done to death in so many different fiction genres - and, ironically, in Real Life - that mentioning it strictly in the context of "Enterprise" would be a waste of material. And the fact that the Xindhi's initial willingness to throw in with the Sphere Builders was the only thing that seemed odd to you speaks volumes about your Powers of Observation.
Because, you see, while you were busy wondering about - and telling me I should be wondering about - Misplaced Xindhi Loyalty YOU completely missed some more relevant questions, such as "Why does a race that can exist outside normal space-time and create giant spheres that can warp reality need the Xindhi AT ALL to destroy Earth" Why not just drop one of their spheres in Solar orbit and let IT do the job" They can't operate in our space" Then how did they build the other spheres here" They can build the spheres in their space and send them through" So you're saying they can't get one into our Solar System" Destroying Earth by sphere would take too long" The Federation won't even exist for another hundred years, and won't be in the Sphere Builders' way for CENTURIES after that! The one thing they have in abundance is Time! Park a sphere in the same orbit as Earth and there wouldn't be anything us dumb humans could do about it. The Andorians couldn't do anything, the Vulcans wouldn't come near the sucker, the Klingons and Romulans would just LTAO until the effects reached their stars and the Xindhi wouldn't even know about us. Game Over. Sphere Builders 1, Alpha Quadrant 0.
This is my point, zippy - and you read on, too, Helena, if you're still out there. This isn't just about a couple of mistakes of continuity, or science, or technology or action sequences. Star Trek's writers, either by accident or design, have practically abandoned logic and common sense in their efforts, and nowhere is this more evident than in "Enterprise: Season 3." Just to highlight my point a little more for you, let's turn my own little reality-warping sphere on one of the truly stupid episodes.
"REALITY CHECK", by DARRIN A. COLBOURNE
"Obstacles"
"The nebula is made up mostly of radiolitic particles." Commander T'Pol said.
"Deadly to Humans, and Vulcans I'm afraid." Phlox said as he examined the scanner data. The senior staff was gathered in the Briefing room off the Bridge. Pictured on the display table was a chart of the nebula currently in ENTERPRISE's path.
"It will take weeks to go around." Archer said, a heavy frown on his face. "Even at High Warp. We may not have that kind of time. Can we go through it?"
"I don't see how." Tucker said. "Even with extra shielding in vital areas a lot of that radiation will get through during the trip."
"Didn't I hear somewhere that you used the maintenance space in one of the nacelles to protect the crew from radiation once?" Hayes said.
"Wouldn't work this time." Tucker said. "The crew wouldn't survive with the warp engine on-line, and we'd need to stay at warp to get across this cloud in any decent amount of time."
"Besides," Reed added, "with the extra personnel aboard the entire crew wouldn't fit in one nacelle anyway." The Tactical Officer was secretly proud of himself. It hadn't sounded like a dig when he said it - not exactly, anyway.
"What if everyone were in radiation suits?" Sato asked.
"Unfortunately they wouldn't offer enough protection," Phlox said. "And even limited exposure to these levels of radiation might lead to debilitative symptoms..." His voice trailed off, then he looked as if he had an idea "...unless--"
"Why don't we just go over it?" Mayweather said.
His voice got everyone's attention, including Phlox, who didn't seem upset at being interrupted. He'd noticed before that Mayweather had been staring intently at the display table since they'd gathered.
"Over it?" Archer said.
"It's nowhere near as deep or high as it is wide." Mayweather said. He tapped some controls on the display, then everyone looked closely at the image he'd called up. "We pitch up about 20 degrees now and at Warp 4.5 we'll be a thousand kilometers above the nebula by the time we cross the leading edge. We hold that course until we're well clear of the outer layers of the nebula, say about two thousand kilometers up, then resume our base course. That way the detour only takes a few hours, not weeks, and we don't have to spend any significant time exposed to the radiation."
Everyone continued to look at the display, then one by one smiles crossed their faces - except, of course, for T'Pol, who merely raised an eyebrow.
"Okay," Archer said as he looked up at Mayweather. "Let's go over it. Dismissed." With that Archer left the Briefing Room, still smiling. Mayweather was right behind him. The others left in groups of three. Reed, Sato and T'Pol took their places on the bridge while Phlox, Tucker and Hayes made their way to the lift. The Bridge Crew could hear them chuckling all the way.
"'Just go over it.'" Tucker said under his breath between giggles.
"So between you and Archer and T'Pol there's like decades of Engineering and Navigation experience and you couldn't come up with 'Go over it'?" Hayes said.
"The mind is an uncertain tool when under stress, Major." Phlox said. "You wouldn't believe the idea I was going to present."
"C'mon, give!" Tucker said.
The lift doors closed on Phlox's response.
FINAL AUTHOR'S NOTE: The truly heinous thing about "Doctor's Orders" wasn't that it was a total rip-off of the "Voyager" episode "One". (aka "Jeri Ryan can act! Really she can! (PT. 2)" - PT. 1 was "Voices") It was that one of the things it ripped off was one of the stupidest situations I've ever seen in a sci-fi story. There was absolutely no need to put the entire crew to sleep just to fly the ship through a Radioactive Death Cloud in either case! It amazes me that people who are supposed to be centuries more advanced than us are willing to risk death by radiation poisoning because they can't manage a simple Algebra and Trigonometry problem. To wit: How fast and at what angle do I need to fly the ship so that the cloud misses me High or Low?"
It's a SPACECRAFT, not a CAR! Space is Three-Dimensional! GO OVER IT!