Your favorite Xindi race?

[Deimos Anomaly]

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.

 

[Mr_Homn]

I had AOTC flashbacks with those.

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?

 

[TEACAKE'S PLEATHER DOME]

Yeah the first thing I said was "geonosis" when I saw that council room. But I got over it.

 

[NrobbieC]

Oh lord I hadn't thought of that. I'd blotted Star Wars (especially AotC) from memory.

 

[TEACAKE'S PLEATHER DOME]

I adore AOTC

Wait.. is Gaith in this thread?

:: ducks ::

 

[Mr_Homn]

Yeah the first thing I said was "geonosis" when I saw that council room. But I got over it.

I might have gotten over it if the rest of the season wasn't so mediocre.

 

[Gaith]

I adore AOTC

Wait.. is Gaith in this thread?

:: ducks ::

It's certainly the least obnoxious of the PT, in that it at least tries to be fun. Oh, and this.

 

[Skywalker]

AOTC is far and away the worst of the PT, but that's a subject for a different thread.

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.

 

[Mr_Homn]

AOTC is far and away the worst of the PT, but that's a subject for a different thread.

I agree, but it's kind of like deciding which is the nicest smelling piece of dogshit.

 

[Gaith]

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.

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.
​

 

[TEACAKE'S PLEATHER DOME]

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.

 

[F. King Daniel]

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.

 

[lurok]

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.

 

[jespah]

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.

 

[Gaith]

^ 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.

 

[TEACAKE'S PLEATHER DOME]

Hey I sympathized with them all equally except the insectoids! I'll admit they were yucky.

 

[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.

 

[kythe]

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.

 

[TEACAKE'S PLEATHER DOME]

But didn't you warm up to their cute and cuddly little kids in Hatchery? Awwww.

There was goo.

 

[Sindatur]

But didn't you warm up to their cute and cuddly little kids in Hatchery? Awwww.

There was goo.

What's wrong with goo, the best Chocolate Chip Cookies are Gooey