Too expensive for the show's budget back then, that's what they were like.
I am only speaking in terms of in universe, not from a production standpoint.
My take: Xindi were in decline. They lost their home world and their cohesion around this central idea of destroying Earth was gone, they were kind of without a central purpose beyond pure survival.. Eventually they must have rebounded somewhat but I think by the TOS era we can imagine they are at a point the Klingons will be at by the time of SFA. They weren't not-around by TOS but they didn't matter.
they weren't filler episodes. a clip show is a filler episode, and even when forced to do them trek usually managed to do something interesting around it. an episodic show doing episodic things having some high stakes episodes and some low stakes ones isn't filler.
Well this is embarrassing, but I can't recall Trek doing a clip show. The nearest thing I've got is the prologue in Star Trek III. And that's different.
Edit: okay, you meant "The Menagerie." But that was different, too. They filmed a whole 51 minute episode (the framing story) to show another whole episode, the first pilot. Hardly a clip show. It was two full episode's worth of never-aired content, shown over two weeks.
Last edited:
i was thinking of Shades of grey
There's no episode where the crew sits around and laughs together around the photo album e.g. "Remember that time Worf delivered a baby?" "I'll bet you were scared." "A warrior is never scared....I was petrified." (laugh) "It seems like only yesterday..." (fade to flashback scene)
"Shades of Grey" invented a sci-fi reason for remembering.
"Shades of Grey" invented a sci-fi reason for remembering.
I liked ENT overall, but I thought the whole Xindi storyline was stupid.
which is my point. filler episodes are when you run out of budget and have to do a clip show, or are adapting something and catch up to it and have to vamp for a while (like a lot of anime, and game of thrones). episodic shows just don't work like that.
even when forced to do a filler episode they did an actual story with it.
The insectoid costumes would have either looked stupid or been a creepy uncanny valley type thing. For aquatics they'd just do a close up of a regular fish tank and that deep voiced VO guy (guardian of forever, exc) they'd use would talk. They could have handled arboreals and reptilians ok.
In all seriousness hasn't it been established a few times on the streaming shows that they joined the Federation eventually? So that means they did survive.
In all seriousness hasn't it been established a few times on the streaming shows that they joined the Federation eventually? So that means they did survive.
They were probably some of those background characters you saw in places like the lounge where Dr. McCoy was trying to charter a flight to Genesis in STIII, and so on. They were around, just not at the forefront of any TOS story. Let's think about 'BIG' universe syndrome, for a change! What you see is NOT all there is!
I like to think that they were either Federation members by the time of TOS, or they were conquered by one of the other superpowers. Maybe the Klingons—I mean why are they a feared “empire,” again?
Similarly, I like to think the Gorn were conquered (or otherwise incorporated) by the Romulans until the collapse of the Star Empire, at which point they reformed their Hegemony.
Similarly, I like to think the Gorn were conquered (or otherwise incorporated) by the Romulans until the collapse of the Star Empire, at which point they reformed their Hegemony.
I grew up with Star Fleet Battles. The Gorn and Tholians will always be independent minor powers to me.
Although I like your reasoning in that there needs to be some reason the Klingons and Romulans are considered empires.
I thought that they became isolationist to ‘get their house in order’ and reconcile their differences.
The whole problem with the whole Xindi Arc is that the attack on Earth was such a bit event, it’s retcon into Trek history. you’d think in light of the Xindi Attack Earth would be better defended. V’ger, the Cetacean Probe and the Borg (twice) just waltzed in (I know their superior forces). Maybe after such a long time, they became complacent.
The whole problem with the whole Xindi Arc is that the attack on Earth was such a bit event, it’s retcon into Trek history. you’d think in light of the Xindi Attack Earth would be better defended. V’ger, the Cetacean Probe and the Borg (twice) just waltzed in (I know their superior forces). Maybe after such a long time, they became complacent.
Agree.
Also, if you're developing a weapon to destroy your enemy's planet, you don't fire a test shot only doing some damage to the planet thereby warning them so that they can then come after you. You keep the whole thing secret until you're ready to fully destroy the planet, and THEN you take them out in one shot.
BAH! Ridiculous season.
Even without the Xindi attack though, you could just as easily say why after V'ger wasn't Earth better defended when the Cetacean Probe came visiting?
The Whale Probe was disabling all starships in its path. It encountered multiple starships on its way to Earth, disabled them all*, and it completely disabled the Spacedock and all craft in it. There were far more Starfleet contacts, engagements, or whatever you want to call them with the Whale Probe than there were with V'ger, at least in terms of what was shown on screen.
* - including at least the Saratoga, Yorktown, and the Shepard.
I got the sense that Saratoga was fairly far out, not assigned to Earth defense, and perhaps even made first contact with the probe. Harder to say what the situation was with Yorktown and I don't recall the Shepard, but even if you argue that Earth was better defended at that point than it had been during the V'ger crisis, I'd hardly say it was objectively well defended. It was nice that a presumably functional Excelsior was there, but why (in-universe) it was in Spacedock when the probe arrived rather than in a position to engage with the probe when they surely knew it was coming is bewildering.
Similar threads
