Your favorite Xindi race?

Discussion in 'Star Trek: Enterprise' started by kythe, Sep 8, 2012.

  1. Deimos Anomaly

    Deimos Anomaly Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

    Joined:
    May 3, 2003
    Location:
    Hiberniae Septentrionalis
    The insectoids. They're so... different from anything that you usually see in ST.

    They also break the typecasting of insectoid aliens in sci-fi by being actual normal individual sentients. About 90% of the time when insectoid aliens turn up in sci-fi, they are depicted as a hive society, with big dumb drones by the bajillion, with a central controlling overmind / queen type thing that has more intelligence to it. It gets tired after a while.
     
  2. Mr_Homn

    Mr_Homn Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

    Joined:
    Jan 30, 2010

    The whole xindi thing totally reminded me way too much of AOTC, in a bad way. The room even had a very similar set design and color scheme. It was what, 1 or 2 years later? It made me get a very lame vibe from all of season 3. If you're going to rip off star wars, why choose the worst one?

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]
     
    Last edited: Sep 9, 2012
  3. teacake

    teacake Fleet Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Jan 20, 2007
    Location:
    inside teacake
    Yeah the first thing I said was "geonosis" when I saw that council room. But I got over it.
     
  4. NrobbieC

    NrobbieC Commander Red Shirt

    Joined:
    Aug 30, 2012
    Location:
    Burton, UK
    Oh lord I hadn't thought of that. I'd blotted Star Wars (especially AotC) from memory.
     
  5. teacake

    teacake Fleet Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Jan 20, 2007
    Location:
    inside teacake
    I adore AOTC :adore:

    Wait.. is Gaith in this thread?

    :: ducks ::
     
  6. Mr_Homn

    Mr_Homn Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

    Joined:
    Jan 30, 2010
    I might have gotten over it if the rest of the season wasn't so mediocre. :shrug:
     
    Last edited: Sep 10, 2012
  7. Gaith

    Gaith Vice Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    May 11, 2008
    Location:
    Oregon
    It's certainly the least obnoxious of the PT, in that it at least tries to be fun. Oh, and this. :p
     
  8. Skywalker

    Skywalker Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Feb 24, 2005
    AOTC is far and away the worst of the PT, but that's a subject for a different thread. :p

    I agree that the Council chamber was kind of reminiscent of Geonosis. I actually think it was a mistake to show the Council so early in the season, to be honest.
     
  9. Mr_Homn

    Mr_Homn Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

    Joined:
    Jan 30, 2010
    I agree, but it's kind of like deciding which is the nicest smelling piece of dogshit.
     
  10. Gaith

    Gaith Vice Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    May 11, 2008
    Location:
    Oregon
    Richard Whettestone covered that:
    No, no. Build Up the Suspense!

    Now usually I would say here that showing all five or so Xindi species in the first five seconds of the show would be kinda stupid, as it doesn't exactly build up the suspense. But the fact is that B&B are so desperate to attract viewers' attention and that they have to SHOW to viewers that they are punching up the show, that I didn't have a problem showing all of them so soon.
     
  11. teacake

    teacake Fleet Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Jan 20, 2007
    Location:
    inside teacake
    I liked seeing them all at once. It was BAM this is what we've been up against.. they are each intimidating in their own way and yet their shared agenda is being threatened by factional fighting. They explored the different Xindi species as the story moved on at a cracking pace rather than having interlude stories all about Reptilians at home with their eggs or whatever.
     
  12. F. King Daniel

    F. King Daniel Fleet Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Nov 5, 2008
    Location:
    A type 13 planet in it's final stage
    Exactly! I called them the Evil Alliance of Anti-Enterprise Aliens. A Leigon of Doom in space, so to speak.

    Then they got a LOT more complex and I liked them more and more.
     
  13. lurok

    lurok Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

    Joined:
    Mar 15, 2011
    Location:
    Lost in the EU expanse with a nice cup of tea
    I also liked the fact they got it over with and showed them upfront rather than stupidly tease the suspense. As others have said, what made it then work was seeing the different facets of these characters develop, perhaps in ways we hadn't expected.
     
  14. jespah

    jespah Taller than a Hobbit Moderator

    Joined:
    Jun 21, 2011
    Location:
    Boston, the Gateway to the Galaxy
    Also, the personalities were built up. When you first see the Insectoids, they are so alien, and all our guys are doing is shooting. It's really easy to just shoot first, and really never ask questions later. Then you meet Degra, and start to see the council deliberating, etc., and they turn into individuals. It stops being such a jingoistic story line.
     
  15. Gaith

    Gaith Vice Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    May 11, 2008
    Location:
    Oregon
    ^ Really?

    Xindi species, from most to least human-like: humanoids, arboreals, aquatics, reptilians, insectoids
    Xindi species, from most to least sympathetic: humanoids, arboreals, aquatics, reptilians, insectoids

    Sure, there were good dramatic and budgetary reasons for these two lists' matching. But I disagree that the overall portrayal of the Xindi was either challenging or enlightened. ;)
     
  16. teacake

    teacake Fleet Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Jan 20, 2007
    Location:
    inside teacake
    Hey I sympathized with them all equally except the insectoids! I'll admit they were yucky.
     
  17. bluedana

    bluedana Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

    Joined:
    May 1, 2006
    Location:
    bluedana
    But didn't you warm up to their cute and cuddly little kids in Hatchery? Awwww. Actually, I liked the idea that the crew diverted all their life support to the hatchery when the ship crashed, and perished.
     
  18. kythe

    kythe Commander Red Shirt

    Joined:
    Mar 17, 2009
    Location:
    US
    I think Hatchery was a missed opportunity. Archer was portrayed as being too protective of the eggs because of the substance they injected him with, but I think Archer was on the right track with that one. Taking care of the insectoid offspring could have been an opportunity to show the Xindi that humans weren't the enemy, but instead Reed blew up an incoming insectoid ship. That's not the direction that episode should have taken.

    And I did think the babies were cute. ;)
     
  19. teacake

    teacake Fleet Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Jan 20, 2007
    Location:
    inside teacake
    There was goo.
     
  20. Sindatur

    Sindatur The Gray Owl Wizard Admiral

    Joined:
    Jan 2, 2011
    Location:
    Sacramento, CA
    What's wrong with goo, the best Chocolate Chip Cookies are Gooey ;)