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Enterprise
"The Xindi" (3.1)

Review by Philip N. Zeman
9.11.2003

"Where's John?" you ask? Well, John is currently in the process of moving his entire life. And it might be a while before he gets Internet access again, so until he returns, someone will be taking his spot. It may not be me all the time; we might rotate this among other people. I'll do my best to deliver the same mixture of cynicism and hope that John did.

Synopsis:

The episode starts in some sort of council chamber. Apparently, a group of aliens -- some of whom aren't humanoid and don't "speak" English -- have been keeping track of the Enterprise while testing and preparing a weapon. Some of them are eager to bypass the final tests and use it on the humans. However, it is deemed better to learn more about Enterprise. I think we have just seen the Xindi.

(Cue new.. er old... er... new music old vocals theme song.)

It's been six weeks since Enterprise entered the Delphic Expanse, and while they've come across some interesting anomolies -- this week's is having one cargo bay's gravitational field change every minute or so -- they haven't been able to find the Xindi. The only lead they now have came from a freighter captain, who informed Archer about a mining colony where a Xindi might be. Reed (Dominic Keating) advises caution, but Captain Archer (Scott Bakula) will have none of that. The captain is in a "take no crap from anyone" mode, with a dash of "ready to do what it takes".

Dr. Phlox (John Billingsley) has been busy since the ship left Earth, doing research on the Xindi corpse they found (last episode) as well as trying to Trip (Connor Trinneer) deal with insomnia. It seems the engineer is having trouble sleeping, being plagued with nightmares about seeing his sister die. Phlox doesn't like Trip being on medication for so long, so he tries talking T'Pol (Jolene Blalock) into giving trip some neuro-pressure treatment. T'Pol objects, saying that the technique is rather... sensual.

After arriving at the mining colony, Archer and Reed meet the Mine Foreman (Stephen McHattie), who agrees to bring the Xindi to them for half a liter of liquid platinum. Archer wants to see the Xindi immediately for a biological scan, but the Foreman just gives them the finger. Or, rather, the cut-off finger of the Xindi who was involved in an "unfortunate accident". Uh-huh. Archer and Trip agree to bring the Foreman the platinum and return to Enterprise with the severed digit. Trip starts working on getting the platinum from the platinum-cobalt coating of the antimatter relays.

Phlox finishs examining the finger -- but it appears that while the miner is a Xindi, he's of a different Xindi type, analogous to the differences and similarities between humans and neanderthals. Armed with this knowledge as well as the platinum, Archer and Trip return to the colony, where the exchange is made. The miners leave the two crewmen and the Xindi -- a skin-covered humanoid Xindi - alone, where we find out that accident was no accident. Archer asks the Xindi where the coordinates for his home planet is, but the Xindi refuses unless they break him out of the mine... or rather, prison. Trip then tries to force the issue, but the Xindi doesn't budge.

T'Pol radios the captain, informing him that three warships are returning to the mine, and will arrive in two hours. However, when Archer and Trip try to leave, they find themselves locked in and suddenly unable to contact Enterprise. The Xindi then says he can get them to the surface. He leads them through the sewers (what is this, The Shawshank Redemption?) to an old, unused plasma duct. They start climbing up to the top. On the way up, the Xindi reveals that there are five distinct Xindi species, each one battling for control.

Oops! It appears the foreman has discovered the escape plan. When we next see Archer and crew, they are still climbing up the vent, when they notice that... hey, is that plasma gas coming up? Sure enough. They make it back down to the nearest maintenance hatch and barely get to safety. The problem is that "safety" is a relative term; a group of guards is waiting for them.

They are taken back to the foreman, when Major Hayes (Steven Culp) and the commandos suddenly attack, kick some major butt, and show their "take no prisoners" theory of fighting. It's a prison fight between Starfleet and the prison guards, and Starfleet seems to have won. Of course, that's when the entire room starts quaking. Since Archer still needs the coordinates, he takex the Xindi with them, but he's shot before he can make it to the shuttlecraft. They drag him aboard, get to Enterprise, and warp to safety.

Phlox regrets to inform Archer that he was unable to save the Xindi, but the alien did give out the coordinates to the his homeworld before passing on. Phlox also gives Trip a fake sedative and fools him into going to T'Pol's quarters. She gives Trip a story about needing neural points stimulated to restore her REM patterns, takes off her shirt, gets neuro-pressured, confesses that the whole thing was a setup, and then tricks him into doing the same.

Enterprise arrives at the coordinates, but finds nothing. Check that; they find a debris field that is much too big to be a ship. In fact, it appears to be the remains of the Xindi home planet. So, now Enterprise has to find the true location o fthe Xindi weapon, and head deeper into the expanse, which is filled with even more distortion fields.

At Xindi command headquarters, the council discusses Enterprise's latest actions, and the insectoid declares that if the new weapon isn't finished, he'll destroy the Earth ship himself.

Thoughts:

Pros:

• Archer's new attitude shows how he really feels the pressure
• Having aliens that don't speak English and aren't even humanoid

• The military commando team is really vanilla.
• Blatant sexuality.

Ugh. I knew that a "sexier" T'Pol was going to be on the show. Okay, her new uniform does have traces of the uniforms on Star Trek: The Original Series. But come on; the whole neuro-pressure scene was just so blatant.

You notice I didn't mention the military team much. That's because they're rather vanilla. In a bit of irony, Hoshi (Linda Park), one of the most vanilla characters on the show, is in the first scene with them. She introduces herself to them. Come on, it's been six weeks since they entered the expanse, and they had left Earth a while before. You mean to tell me, this is the first time she's seen them?

I was slightly amused to see Daniel Dae Kim as one of them. Star Trek: Voyager fans will recognize him as "Gotana-Retz" from the episode "Blink of an Eye" from the sixth season.

While not a plot point, I'd remiss if I didn't mention the new version of the theme song. It sounds like the exact same vocals put to a new version of the music that, while the same tempo, is a bit more driving. I'm torn as to which version is better. I, like many others, would prefer an instrumental, orchestral version. Actually, I'd like to hear "Faith of the Heart" rescored for orchestra. It'd be a nice compromise.

Overall:

Well, I'm torn. On one hand, I do like how they're breaking the mold by being very non-diplomatic. I think it's a very natural reaction for them. However, the blatant sexing up of the show leaves a bad taste in my mouth and a large pit of trepidation in my stomach.