To answer Sam McEvoy's question: Yes, it would have made better TV. Look at Stargate SG-1's seventh season ender for a prime example. That was good TV. The dogfight over Antarctica alone was worth the price of admission, so to speak. I just find it ironic that the early twenty-first-century humans in Stargate SG-1 put up more of a fight to defend their planet (granted, with technology "borrowed" from aliens, but the point is they made the effort) than did the mid-twenty-second-century humans of Star Trek: Enterprise.

But to tell you the God's honest truth, Sam, the episode as it aired was a huge letdown for me. When you have a season-long story arc revolving around protecting your planet from destruction and your race from genocide, I expect a little more firepower to be waiting for the enemy when they make their attack. Again, look at Stargate SG-1's episode "The Lost City" for a well done and exciting battle for Earth.

Sam's and Zippy's defense of the boarding action brings up another contention I have with the starship battles as written by the Star Trek writers. They rely too heavily on boarding actions, even when boarding actions are entirely unnecessary. And you can write an exciting battle scene without a boarding action. Luke Skywalker and Lando Calrissian each destroyed a Death Star in Star Wars and Return of the Jedi, respectively. And get this--they did it without leaving the cockpits of their ships. Yet, those were still exciting combat sequences.

The overuse of the boarding action became blatantly obvious in the episode "Twilight." That was one of those alternate timeline episodes (yet another overused device in Star Trek) where Archer loses his short term memory each day due to some weird out-of-the-spacetime-continuum microbes. In that alternate timeline, years after the Xindi succeed in destroying Earth and most human colonies, the remnants of humanity are taking refuge on Ceti Alfa V (yes, that Ceti Alfa V). The Xindi track these refugees down and attack. By the end of this alternate timeline scene the Enterprise is reduced to a wreck with no weapons and her bridge blasted to dust. So what do the Xindi do to complete the genocide of those humans still alive aboard Enterprise? Do they fire off a few more rounds to blow her and all aboard her to smithereens? No, they board her to kill the survivors face to face, thus risking their boarders to unnecessary harm by the Enterprise's defenders. Remember, the Xindi were out to eliminate humanity. What possible, logical reason would they have to board a dying ship that was a few gunfire blasts away from being space dust? The only plausible answer is so that the writers would have an excuse for a deck to deck phaser battle to kill off the alternate timeline main characters. And then we could get back to the real timeline where everyone is back to normal.

Who gives a damn about General Hammond, Katie? I do. He's one of my favorite Stargate SG-1 characters, second perhaps only to that ol' wise-ass Jack O'Neill, and I hate to see him go.

In regards to the Columbia popping up a lot in my works, it's pure happenstance. I named one of the ships in my original fic in honor of the lost space shuttle and her brave crew. In the ST:E episode when the Enterprise crew meets their descendants, I noted Hoshi's remark upon first seeing the second Enterprise that it was not the Columbia (i.e., NX-02). The end of season two showed the construction progress of NX-02, and it looked like she could be completed in a year. Especially if the shipyard crews were busting ass to complete her before the impending Xindi attack. That's how I ended up choosing Columbia for the main ship in this story.

Now on to the fic:

ALTERNATE SCENE FOR "TWILIGHT"

The Reptilian captain peered at the view screen, which showed the image of the battered Earth ship adrift without weapons, drives, or even a bridge. The Enterprise had been reduced to a hulk by the combined onslaught of the Xindi ships, and it was the last thing that stood between the Xindi and total annihilation of the humans living on the colony.

"Every human aboard that ship must die," the captain said. "Prepare a boarding party."

"Captain," the first officer said. "I have a better idea to eliminate the humans on that ship without risking our soldiers."

"What is it?"

The first officer gestured to a console. "With your permission?"

The captain nodded. The first officer moved to the console and shouldered aside the crewman who manned the station. He worked the controls, and a white hot flash of energy streaked between the Reptilian ship and the Earth ship. The beam drilled through the Enterprise's hull into the warp core. The Earth ship vanished in a white fireball.

The first officer looked to his captain in satisfaction.

"Set course for the colony," the captain said, feeling a little foolish for even thinking of an unnecessary boarding action.

Note: yes, probably not as exciting as showing the Xindi stalking the last of the humans phase pistol to phase pistol, but if you're out to kill an entire race wouldn't you do it the easiest possible way with the least risk to those of your own race?