Xindi Arc

[zenophite]

rewatching the episodes on scifi has got me thinking again about the good and bad points regarding the Xindi arc of season 3.

On plus side:

• I think it was a good thing that they gave the crew a purpose that spanned the entire season.

• The addition of the MACOs.

Unfortunately I think there were more cons though:
Same old single function aliens. The reptilians and insectoids were "bad" and warlike whereas the primates were "good" and more into science and peaceful activities. There were no surprises here. One of the things that I entirely dislike about trek is the cardboard cutout aliens - most races seem to have one personality type.

I would have much preferred if they had led the audience to believe that the primates were the good guys and then reveal that it was actually the reptilians that were manipulated by the primates/humanoids. Also the fact that they all evolved on the same planet seemed a bit far fetched.

The "bermuda triangle" of space angle was never really expanded upon - it seems as if they didn't really know what to do with the idea.

crew character development was virtually nonexistent. The crew did not change at all in any meaningful way.
T'Pol got addicted but outside the episodes that focused on that story it was hardly an issue.
Archer started to go on a "do whatever it takes" Captain Matthew Gideon route but that was also downplayed as I think the production team that Bakula probably couldn't pull it off (my opinion)
Trip started off wanting revenge but that too did not take over his overall character in any meaningful longstanding way.
The MACOs were also a good idea but it became clear that they were just multi-episode versions of the typical redshirts.

I still enjoyed it i guess but it could have been a really good vehicle to turn everyone's expectations on their ear. Too bad they played it so safe.

 

[startrekwatcher]

I thought season three was a vast improvement over the first two seasons. It was not nearly as consistent as I would have liked mainly because there wasn't nearly enough material to sustain 24 episodes so the writers resorted to filler and mediocre filler at that.

But when the season focused on the Xindi or the spheres the episodes were good or even great especially in the last third of the season. I have said in a lot of ways the Xindi arc fashioned by Brannon Braga and Berman was in the style of Lost or Heroes--a show that starts out with several unanswered questions and mysteries that get sifted throughout the season to create a rather impressive Big Picture.

I thought the Xindi were an intriguing sci-fi idea and didn't mind that they were played along the stereotypes you would expect. I thought the writers did a good job developing the Xindi exploring the natural rifts that would develop among five species struggling for domination. They did a great job in developing a creative mythology for the Xindi and the Expanse.

And I must say B&B did a great job pulling everything together--the Xindi destroy their world and the Sphere Builders pop up to lead them to salvation and thereby insinnuate themselves into their culture making it plausible as to why the Xindi would be willing to destroy humanity. I liked the way the Xindi and sphere mysteries were tied. The Sphere Builder wanting Earth destroyed because it would go onto form the Federation which repelled their efforts to take over our galaxy.

The show also had an epic feel with the a reasonably large cast of recurring characters(Degra, Dolum, Daniels, Shran, Hayes); the various sets(the council chamber, the various Xindi sets, the weapon set); the various locales(the ENT-J in the 26th century to see the battle with the Sphere Builders, the visit to the Federation ceremony, an underwater world, transdimensional realm).

I thought the production this season was fantastic from the visual effects of the battles or the single image shots of either the Xindi weapon underwater to the shot of the Avian stronghold to the interior of the weapon.

I do agree the season was far more plot-driven than character-driven but the Big Three had strong arcs. And the writers even found roles for most of the minor characters including throwing Hoshi into the middle of things in a very critical role.

I enjoyed it quite a bit.

 

[MattJC]

If I had to improve one thing about season 3 it would have been to give Major Hayes and the MACOs more to do. Though who knows if Steven Culp would have been willing to do more episodes. He was pretty busy at the time, juggling recurring roles on 3 other shows as well.

 

[Timo]

Well, if the MACO had more to do, an intermediate MACO character could have been introduced to lead the great mass of enlisteds on the exciting action. As far as we can tell, there was no officer serving between Major Hayes and the troopers; logic would have demanded one, at any rate.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[pookha]

the bad is i wonder if they didnt have everything charted out before starting it/.
they could have had fun with coming up with a sci fi explanation how differerent species evolved to intelligence on one planet ect..

but while there were some good episodes scattered the thing really took off similitude with only a couple of so episodes after that.
and with some of the best trek from aziti prime on.

i also suspect the decision to make degra more into a complex oppenheimer style figure was done after they introduced the character.

 

[commodore64]

I thought Archer and T'Pol's arc were very compelling. It's too bad that didn't really follow up with either. Big mistake by Coto.

 

[gblews]

I thought the whole season was just terrific. My only complaint was that while I thought it was a good idea to tell "other" stories as the crew continued their mission (some might call this filler), I was disappointed in the quality of some of the episodes which did not deal directly with the Xindi quest.

But regardless, the Xindi mission, the main character's personal storylines and development, the guest cast especially Randy Ogelsby and Jeff Combs made the season great.

Now throw in the number of things we saw in season 3 that had never before been seen in Star Trek, and its easy to see what a great leap forward it was, not only for ENT following seasons 1 and 2, but for Star Trek in general.

 

[startrekwatcher]

the bad is i wonder if they didnt have everything charted out before starting it/.

I'd like to know about the evolution of the Xindi arc from behind the scenes and when ideas gelled or where they came from etc.

Didn't Mike Sussman and David Goodman used to post here maybe they would know.

 

[NiteTrek]

rewatching the episodes on scifi has got me thinking again about the good and bad points regarding the Xindi arc of season 3.

I thought the whole Xindi arc sucked. It made no sense for them to send a "teaser" probe to Earth to do a little destruction and tip their hand. Stupid, stupid, stupid.

The only part I liked was T'Pol's boob shot (that was season 3, wasn't it?)

 

[Anthony Sabre]

I guess I'm one of the few that really disliked ENT's 3rd season. It was extremely difficult for me to watch. Didn't like the concept or the execution. I always wished that season 4 was season 3.

 

[NiteTrek]

I I always wished that season 4 was season 3.

I wish season 4 was season 1. We might have gotten a full 7 seasons then.

 

[RAMA]

rewatching the episodes on scifi has got me thinking again about the good and bad points regarding the Xindi arc of season 3.

I thought the whole Xindi arc sucked. It made no sense for them to send a "teaser" probe to Earth to do a little destruction and tip their hand. Stupid, stupid, stupid.

The only part I liked was T'Pol's boob shot (that was season 3, wasn't it?)

The first a-bomb in Hiroshima was an active test in itself. Yeah we really tipped our hand on that one. There really wasn't much Japan could do to defense it. Similarly with Enterprise, there wasn't a realistic expectation that Earth could do anything about it, it was a long shot mission. But I think Enterprise was trying to use Sept 11th or Pearl Harbor as an analogy. A first strike that led to a war.

RAMA

 

[pookha]

rewatching the episodes on scifi has got me thinking again about the good and bad points regarding the Xindi arc of season 3.

I thought the whole Xindi arc sucked. It made no sense for them to send a "teaser" probe to Earth to do a little destruction and tip their hand. Stupid, stupid, stupid.

The only part I liked was T'Pol's boob shot (that was season 3, wasn't it?)

if it were not for future guy archer wouldnt have know who attacked earth.
no ship had ever gotten far into the expanse and come back so the xindi didnt have a reason to fear being detected.

in stratagem it is mentioned they sent the probe to see how effective the weapon would be on that type of planet.

and though i dont think it was the writers intent at the time considering how degra's character evolved one wonders if on a subconscious level he was hoping it would act as a warning to the earth.

 

[RandyS]

I thought the whole Xindi arc sucked. It made no sense for them to send a "teaser" probe to Earth to do a little destruction and tip their hand. Stupid, stupid, stupid.

Not to mention pissing away an entire season on making the stakes the destruction of Earth, a place we know from the four previous series, all of which take place CENTURIES later, is not destroyed. Right there, they killed the suspense factor of the whole season, and lost more viewers.

The entire Xindi thing was a huge waste of time.

 

[RandyS]

[I wish season 4 was season 1. We might have gotten a full 7 seasons then.

Hmm. Maybe so. Can't say for sure, but you might be right.

 

[pookha]

I thought the whole Xindi arc sucked. It made no sense for them to send a "teaser" probe to Earth to do a little destruction and tip their hand. Stupid, stupid, stupid.

Not to mention pissing away an entire season on making the stakes the destruction of Earth, a place we know from the four previous series, all of which take place CENTURIES later, is not destroyed. Right there, they killed the suspense factor of the whole season, and lost more viewers.

The entire Xindi thing was a huge waste of time.

shrug i see this a lot but as someone who likes to watch films based on historical events watching how things came about can also be interesting.

does this mean you wont watch a movie based within a previous war since you know how the war turned out?

 

[Triskelion]

I I always wished that season 4 was season 3.

I wish season 4 was season 1. We might have gotten a full 7 seasons then.

^ What he said.


The cinematography was getting sweet.

 

[balls]

I felt that I had a similar feeling that I had during the last 2 years of DS9...that I couldn't wait for the next episode of the arc. It's nice to see a bunch of eps in a row on Sci Fi to see the story flow. I think it's safe to say that TNG, DS9 and VOY all had a slightly bumpy road in the first few seasons. I think a lot had to do with fleshing out the characters. I think that ENT's characters were pretty well fleshed out during seasons 3 and 4. Unfortunately, people just weren't tuning in for it. It saddens me that it didn't get the 7 year treatment like the other Treks. I think they were heading in the right direction.

 

[Saxman1]

I thought the Xindi arc was great, a huge improvement over the snorefest of Season Two. However, the season-ending cliffhanger with the space Nazis made me want to put my foot through the TV. We waited a season for space Nazis?

I was so disgusted I didn't watch Season 4 until syndication. The Nazi wrap-up copped a few bits from City On The Edge Of Forever. Once that mess was out of the way, I enjoyed most of the fan-wanky Season 4 except for TATV.

 

[miriel68]

Year 3 is my favourite season of Enterprise. I loved having a story going through the whole year and the last third of the season, starting with Azati prime or may be even Stratagem, was just terrific. There were some things I didn't like very much, for example same aspects of T'Pols development (I felt they put TOO much troubles on the poor girl, she was already coping with seroius health problems in 2 season!), but on the other hand, we got some superb characters. Degra was outstanding, IMO. I liked Archer's transformation as well, or rather I didn't like it, which is why I appreciate it so much. He is no more the nice guy he used to be in the first two seasons. I think it was rather courageous, if logical decision (I could not imagine Kirk o Picard going through such transformation, really) and interpretation of Scott Bakula was flawless. Nor have I big problems about logic holes of the story: most s-f plots, if analysed closely, would come out completely illogical and on the whole, Xindi arc is far more acceptable then some of other ST stories (I watched recently TOS "the City on the Edge of Forever", considered one of the series finest and while I liked the moral dilemma, I found the whole story so full of illogical points, I didn't manage to enjoy it fully)