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The Brave, New Direction of Season 3 (spoilers)...

Posted by Temis the Vorta:
By the time these species had progressed enough in seafaring that they discovered one another, they were all advanced enough to put up a fight and further survive. Okay, for them ALL to evolve at about the same time, to about the same extent, seems pretty implausible, but it isn't completely impossible, is it?
It's a good thing we have so many examples here where that scenario worked ;). Native Americans, Mayans, Aztecs ...

It's not a bad scenario, as long as all of the species evolved at such a rate that they all arrived at a sufficiently-enlightened point at the same time, so that when they encountered one another, they didn't have to dominate one another; it also presupposes that each environment is sufficiently unique that the 'invaders' don't want or need anything in the new land, in which case, why are they there? Scientific knowledge? Pure enlightenment? I'd even buy these, if the Xindi hadn't completed a preemptive strike on an alien species that they had been prophesied would wipe them out in 4 centuries; why would enlightened, cooperative peoples shoot first and only ask questions later, if ever?

However, rather than strain the bounds of plausible science, it would be better to come up with more likely scenarios. What if the Xindi System had five planets in the habitable band, close enough to the local star but not too close, and one sentient species arose on each planet independently. By the time the first one developed space travel, they might be enlightened enough not to kill their neighbors, but rather nurture them.
Better, but what about their unenlightened charges? Would the caretakers be loved, revered or feared? Would the 'children' ever rebel against even the most well-meaning of overseers? Let's ask humans about the Vulcans after a century of well-meaning oversight ... ;)

We don't know for sure the Xindi are vicious xenophobes; or maybe they are only xenophobic about species outside their system; or maybe the xenophobia is a relatively recent development? If you're thinking, hey wait, life evolving on five planets in ONE system, well we know that Mars and Earth have "traded rocks" in the form of asteroids - maybe life evolved on one planet and eventually made its way to all five?

Or here's a scenario with less plausibility problems: one Xindi species evolved sentience naturally and created the other four, in a Dr. Moreau type scenario. These species might have been engineered expressly to populate neighboring worlds, which had to be terraformed for the purpose.
Honestly, I'd be more inclined to accept the "Moreau Hyptothesis," of all of them (though if they were genetically engineering other races for these planets, I'd think they probably would do so to adapt them to the local conditions, rather than engineer them and 'xindiform' the planets as well).

We can only wait, and cross our fingers; at this point, though, given what we've been told, and who is responsible for this "kewl new idea," I'm less than positive about the outcome.
 
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Temis beat me to each and every one of the points I was going to make, which were, in turn, riffing on something Ptrope says about the "gun in the drawer": You need FTL travel, or you can't have a series about exploring the galaxy. You need (largely) humanoid aliens, because there really aren't that many non-humanoid actors working in Hollywood (and almost NONE of the ones that are speak English :D ). TOS needed the transporter, because it was too expensive/time-consuming to do a convincing shuttle landing every week. Will there be a reason for five seperate alien species, all coexisting and working together on one homeworld? I guess we'll find out Sep 10.
 
Posted by Temis the Vorta:
Okay, maybe this doesn't sound terribly plausible - considering that on our own planet, homo sapiens viciously wiped out all competing hominoid species

Ouch! Viciously? How do you know they didn't feel bad about it? :) Actually, while the 'extermination' scenario became popular in the political climate of the 90s (another sign of the decline of the left wing), there is just as much evidence to suggest that Neandertals were absorbed into early modern human populations. Were Neandertals the victims of human 'viciousness,' or is human 'viciousness' the result of interbreeding with a more primitive species? The answer depends on which party you belong to. ;) In any case, the most likely scenario is that, just as in all similar cases, they were the victims of natural evolutionary forces. Politics and science make dangerous bedfellows.

What about this scenario? The Xindi homeworld is large, with five separate continents that weren't joined together by continental drift, but rather became separate early on in its history, like Australia was here. Just as Australia developed weird mammals - marsupials - that couldn't have competed with placental mammals if they hadn't been isolated

That's a great idea; you'll note I posted it above. :cool: Also, marsupials did not evolve in Australia, they merely thrived there (earliest records are from North America, if memory serves). They also thrived for a time in South America, until a land bridge allowed placentals to migrate south-- I wonder if the placentals viciously wiped out the marsupials or if they just did better. ;)
 
During a slow time for the forum I thought it was interesting to read how people were reacting to news about season 3 and the Xindi before it was shown on TV. So much speculative criticism for a season that turned out great. :lol:
 
Me too...some posters I remember who aren't around anymore :(

We generally don't bump old threads, but this was a funny blast from the past!​
 
That was a fun blast from the past. I remember when alot of people had xindi sloth avatars around here.:)
 
If only I could really nip back to 2003 with spoilers...

Seriously did anyone spot me? I had a billboard with "the end is nigh" on it and everything.
 
Archer got captured plenty. I think having the desperation of saving the human race was a great idea. Where it failed is not everyone on board had that same urgency, even the guy who's sister bit the dust due to the attack. What would've made good television is if they *everyone* felt a sense of urgency and disagreed on what to do and how to do it. Some of the best episodes came when Archer, T'Pol and Trip disagreed and had to work through it. I think they carry it to the nth degree -- and unsuccessfully -- on BSG, but at least there's tension between the characters on a regular basis with everyone trying to do the right thing. Imagine the interesting character interactions if Trip secretly plotted against the Xindi, T'Pol thought negotiation was the only way and Archer was only interested in finding and destroying the weapon. That would be good television and drama.

I do like the idea of the Enterprise crew getting the coalition of planets/Federation from the Xindi and wish that the Sphere Builders had been someone else -- some alien race that tied to the rest of the Star Trek world and had some build up/significance even in ENT. For example, I wished the entire series that Future Guy was a Romulan (I was hoping Soval would be a Rommie) and that he was orchestrating a war where the Roms ended up on top, rather than having to negotiate a peace treaty and the Romulan Neutral Zone. After TOS, though, the Romulans really lost a lot of their bite. This would've been a good way to bring the sneaky back in the Romulans.
 
Whoooooooa.

Since I was reminded of Stewey I clicked on his profile and apparently he was last active on the board in 1970!

Could Enterprise's greatest detractor have been Future Guy all along??

Hurm, probably not, but it was worth a chuckle...
 
Wow...what a blast from the...five years ago.

People couldn't have been more wrong about ENT season three. Ah, this thread brings back some great memories. The ENT flamewars were so much more fun when the show was still airing.
 
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