Day 321: Enterprise, The Xindi

Show: Star Trek; Enterprise

Episode Particulars: S3EP1, “The Xindi”

 Summary: It’s been two months since the Enterprise entered the Delphic Expanse to look for the Xindi and their weapon, but they haven’t had a lot of luck. Plus, they’ve got other things they have to get used to; the Expanse is full of anomalies that do weird things to the ship, they brought on a contingent of military known as MACOs (Military Assault Command Operations) to help with the fighting, and Tucker, who lost his sister during the attack on Earth, is having trouble sleeping. So when news comes from a mining colony that one of their workers may be a Xindi, Archer jumps at the chance to make some progress. The good news is, the worker is indeed a Xindi (Richard Linebeck). The bad news is, the foreman (Stephen McHattie) has no intention of letting Enterprise leave.

Standalone Thoughts: Much like “The Expanse”, this episode has a lot of setup. It is, however, generally better executed than the previous episode, mostly because the pace isn’t quite so breakneck. Instead of getting facts thrown at us before moving onto the next thing, we’re given the information and developments in bits and pieces that are spread out throughout the episode, so we have a little more time to process them in the back of our minds. Plus, the episode spends the first ten minutes or so giving us a sense of what’s changed on Enterprise since the last time we saw it, which just reaffirms that we’re in a new era of the show while also giving us a little time to get used to it. As exposition goes, that’s pretty good.

What’s less successful is the main conflict of the episode. It’s got good atmosphere and settings, but in the end, it falls flat for me. Unfortunately, I have to mark the rest of this paragraph as a SPOILER to explain it, so skip to the next paragraph if you’re reading this before watching. The reason the episode doesn’t work for me is because, after spending at least twenty minutes trying to accomplish something, Archer fails in pretty much every single way possible. He, Tucker, and the Xindi are recaptured after spending all their time trying to escape; the Xindi dies during the rescue attempt, and the coordinates he gives them turn out to be a bust. From a writer’s perspective, this makes sense, as it just emphasizes how frustrating and dangerous the situation is while also not making things too easy for the Enterprise (and therefore stretching out the show). However, this is immensely unsatisfying for the audience, because it kind of winds up feeling like a waste of time. Putting off the reveal that the coordinates were bad until the next episode probably would have helped us feel like things were moving forward, even if it was only temporary.

At any rate, this is a promising start for the season, though quality-wise I’d probably say it’s a little above what we got in Season One. Still, it’s early days yet, and now that most of the setup is done, we can get to the development phase, which is almost always more interesting. Let’s see how that goes over the next few days.

How it Relates to the Whole: If “The Expanse” was setting up the conflict and direction of this arc, this episode is used to establish a lot of the subplots that will come into play this season. We learn a little more about the Xindi, are introduced to the element trellium-D (which will be important in more ways than one), get our first interaction between Malcolm and MACO leader Hayes (Steven Culp), and watch the beginning of a new direction for Tucker and T’Pol. It seems like a lot, but it’s not an obvious infodump, which is all to the good. Besides, this seems like par for the course for a season opener, especially in this context.

Other: *I’d read elsewhere that the opening credits changed for Season Three and Four, so I braced myself and took a look. The visuals and (unfortunately) the song are basically the same, it’s just that the music has more of a rock sound than a romantic ballad sound. Needless to say, I’d still recommend skipping over them.

*While I can mostly accept the two month time skip (especially since it’s supposed to reflect the summer break), one of the things I can’t quite suspend my disbelief over is the interaction scene between Hoshi and the MACOs. It obviously exists to introduce the audience to the concept of a military group on Enterprise, but realistically, shouldn’t she have been having this conversation a week or so into the mission? Once again, one line of dialogue that suggests the MACOs have been keeping to themselves up till now would be all it took.

*One of the changes that took place over the break is that T’Pol is now wearing a variety of brightly colored outfits instead of the brown one she wore throughout the first two seasons. It’s clearly supposed to be a visual reminder that she resigned her commission from the Vulcans and has fully thrown her lot in with the Humans, but wouldn’t it make more sense for her to just get a jumpsuit like the rest of them? I’m guessing it had to do with sex appeal, like Seven of Nine’s outfits on Voyager, but that just means I have even more reason to question the in-universe rationality behind it.

*The commercial breaks seemed a lot more abrupt this time around, especially one that came right after Tucker woke up from a nightmare. I think it’s probably due to the lack of fade-outs and dramatic music. While this is a good way to try to distinguish it from the earlier seasons, I think they need to tone it down just a bit. We’ll see if things improve as the season goes on.

Badass Malcolm Moment: While Malcolm is involved in the action scene near the end of the episode, he doesn’t actually do all that much. Therefore, his best moment comes earlier, when T’Pol tells him he needs to come up with a rescue plan in one hour. It’s not so much that T’Pol tells him this (she’d probably have demanded it of him even if he hadn’t proved he was capable of doing so) as the fact that he immediately gets out of his chair to start working on it, with no hesitation and a speed and determination that suggests that he really is going to devote all his time to this. I hate to keep bringing this up, but I just can’t see Hoshi having the same attitude if she’d been called upon to do something in her area of expertise.