Star Trek: Enterprise (TV Series) The Xindi (2003) User Reviews

Archer Escapes Another Mining Camp

[Samuel-Shovel · 7/10 · 27 December 2017]

ST:E is back with a hip new version of the theme song and trendy new outfits and hairdos as it attempts to avoid cancellation with a season-long overarching plotline.

We jump back in 6 weeks after the Enterprise has entered the Expanse and not too much has changed. Besides altering the physics of a cargo hold, the Expanse hasn't been nearly as threatening as it was cracked up to be. Archer has gotten a trip from the foreman of a mining operation that one of his workers is Xindi. This shady foreman (who does fantastic in his role by the way) allows Archer to talk to this Xindi for a price. But all of this turns out to be a trap as Archer and Trip are kidnapped. Battleships are on the way, intent on making the entire crew of the Enterprise slave laborers. Can Archer get the Enterprise and this Xindi out of there in time?

It's nice to have a long-term plot for ST:E moving forward; this is a good start. The relationships between the Xindi-types have not been explained yet but I'm interested to see what exactly their entire race is about moving forward. The trope of Captain Archer getting kidnapped is old hat by this point but the inclusion of the military troops to the Enterprise makes their escape at least feasible.

The Xindi conveniently gets killed during the escape and only leaves some cryptic coordinates behind for Archer to piece together. The Xindi-insect seems to have the itchiest trigger finger, ready to prematurely attack the Enterprise at any time. As the crew delves deeper into the void, only time will tell what lays in store.

Sidenote: More pointlessly gratuitous skin shown on the part of T'Pol? Haven't we had enough of this already? She's a Vulcan Science Officer, not some pin-up model. Let's give her character a little respect huh? We don't do this with Hoshi or any of the male characters, so why with T'Pol?

Kidnapped Again

[claudio_carvalho · 8/10 · 29 January 2008]

After six weeks in the Delphic Expanse with minor anomalies in the laws of physics taking place in cargo hold no. 2, the Enterprise receives a hint of a captain of a freighter that they should find a Xindi working in the mines of a nearby planet. Captain Archer accepts the fees of half liter of liquid platinum charged by the foreman to interview the Xindi worker. However, Trip and he are betrayed by the alien foreman and abducted in the mines. Meanwhile, a council of aliens is discussing the destiny of the Enterprise.

In this full of action episode, Archer is kidnapped again with Trip, forcing the security team leaded by Reed and Major Hayes to rescue them. The Xindis remain as a mystery as well as the council of different species of aliens. T'Pol is wearing different costumes in this season and Jolene Blalock has another sexy scene with Trip. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "Os Xindis" ("The Xindis")

Finally ... initiates a story arc worthy of the series' potential, but.....

[mstomaso · 7/10 · 9 July 2007]

In terms of plot and acting, The Xindi is one of the best episodes of the Entire Enterprise series. It does not suffer very much from the series' chronic plot recycling tendencies and offers a few scenes with intense evocation by Bakula, Trinnear, and even the usually understated Keating. The use of marines for a rescue op is also nice innovation and is carried out very well. Though on a whole the episode is better than average, it is not without the usual Enterprise problems (see last paragraph)

A lot goes on in 'The Xindi' and several story arcs and subplots are set up for the third season of Enterprise. A mysterious council consisting of several different alien species - at least a few of which are Xindi - appear to be pulling the strings of the recent Xindi attack on earth, but the Enterprise's crew has learned next to nothing after 6 tense weeks in The Delphic Expanse. Finally, a Xindi slave-laborer is located on a mining planet and Archer offers him freedom for the coordinates of his home planet. Can't say much more without a spoiler, but I will say that the ending of The Xindi is, if nothing else, unconventional for the Star Trek franchise.

On the negative side:

* Enterprise's in-house writing team, and the director of this episode once again felt it necessary to ask Jolene Blalock to take her clothes off for another pointless, drama-less and gratuitous nude scene, and came up with an excuse worthy of a teenage boy under the influence of hormones as a plot device.

* There is one major plot element which viewers have seen almost as many times as they've turned on their sets - Captain Archer gets involuntarily detained (sorry - having reviewed a few episodes of Enterprise, I have run out of synonyms for 'kidnapped').

* The Expanse, which has driven an entire crew of Vulcans to insanity and murder, and is built up as a cross between the place that the original crew of The Event Horizon went and Room 1408 at the Dolphin Hotel in New York, after six weeks with the crew of the Enterprise, has only managed to throw some storage containers around in a cargo bay and put Archer in a bad mood?

* Porthos does not appear.

All considered - these minor quibbles should not prevent you from watching one of the series' better key episodes.

It's Not Real; It's Entertainment

[Hitchcoc · 10/10 · 22 March 2017]

This episode carries on from the last episode in Season 2. We are now looking toward an encounter with the Xindi, who are the new bad guys. They are a planet with five distinct species. On board the Enterprise we have a group of skilled marine type figures, sort of like special forces. They may present a problem at times because they are really arrogant but can back up their claims of superiority. As Trip and the Captain try to get information on the Xindi, they are taken captive (anything familiar) on another penal colony. They have a narrow escape, trusting someone who is a deceiver. Also, Trip gets some therapy. I have to say again, that if one is so cynical about a really positive episode because of some super knowledge of all the other fictional accounts in the canon, he should just stop watching it because there is no enjoying anything. I have seen every Star Trek episode and every movie prior to this and find this a good deal of fun.

The Xindi, a race even more hot-headed and impetuous than humans.

[wwcanoer-tech · 8/10 · 27 November 2021]

Yet again, we see Archer throwing caution to the wind and diving into a situation that he is not prepared for.

Same with the Xindi. In the last episode, we learned that they've been told that humans from Earth will destroy them in 400 years, so they pre-emptively test a weapon against Earth. Why? If you had the element of surprise to annihilate an enemy, why would you attack them with a small prototype?!

In this episode, the Xindi are repeatedly concerned that Enterprise could be the first of a wave of ships. Why? Because the Xindi didn't send any teams to covertly watch Earth and learn what their current defenses are. No, they just sent a prototype weapon as a test. It initially appears successful but then fails and crashes. (Although the intro in the last episode didn't make the failure very clear. Looked purposeful.) No mention of how the weapon travelled all the way to Earth without detection or why Earth wasn't trying to shoot it out of the sky.

This Xindi test sends the humans running headlong into an expanse that they don't understand, in order to confront people that they have never met.

Unseen is Archer meeting a freighter captain who tells them where a Xindi is "working" at a mine. Apparently, Archer didn't learn anything else from that captain about the expanse because they don't even know what the mine is mining! (Let's ignore why that captain would know any of the mine's workers.)

We viewers accept a lot of unrealistic things because it's SciFi, but the basic plot should make sense. Why do they need to find a Xindi to tell them where his home world is? Wouldn't most warp-capable people in the expanse know who lives there? They're meeting the head of a mining operation who sells to many worlds and has "workers" from 31 species. Ask him about the expanse and the Xindi! They just need a map.

I assume that the writers don't want Enterprise to be shielded against the effects of the expanse because that would ruin later plots. But it would make more sense if Archer negotiated a deal to protect at least some the ship (the bridge, warp reactor, or a shuttle) but can't complete the job because during the retrofit of Enterprise, the miners start taking prisoners (because they never planned to complete the job), leading to a rescue, firefight and escape.

The very idea that Archer would need to pay a significant amount to just talk to a Xindi worker, and had to go down into the mine to level 22 to meet that worker is very strange, as is the miner's proof that a Xindi is there. Archer is impetuous but the risk he takes is unreasonable. (As well as cannibalizing the platinum from many components. Surely this would render them non-functional.)

There could have been a more reasonable, more natural, way for Archer to discover that a Xindi works at the mine, discovers that he's captive and negotiates an escape in exchange for information.

The direction is good but the path that they take could be more logical.

Even the Klingons in the last episode. They enter our solar system, attack our flagship, and then we ignore them? Earth is attacked and the Vulcans don't even join us to the edge of the expanse? (And Enterprise would deviate from a direct route just to drop off T'Pol? She would wait for the next Vulcan ship.)

Vibram soled boots

[dougpointoh · 8/10 · 28 April 2021]

Those who have worn them will recognize the yellow logo on the bottom of Xindi boots as he climbs the ladder out of the sewage tunnel. 😂

The series gets a makeover.

[planktonrules · 7/10 · 29 March 2015]

Season three saw some MAJOR changes to try to reinvigorate the series--and it's all very obvious. The new baddies, the Xindi, are a huge departure in style to anything previously seen in any of the Trek shows. But more obvious are changes in the cast. T'Pol sports a hairdo that does NOT make her look like Moe Howard or Pete Rose and her makeup is more Vulcan AND more sexy. There are also space marines aboard the ship. But the biggest difference is that they've now sexed-up the series---with obvious and very gratuitous scenes where T'Pol is doing 'therapy' with Trip (i.e., they get very nekkid!). In general all these changes are for the good but the sexy naked scenes are a laughable attempt to garner viewers!

This episode finds Archer and Reed in a very, very, VERY familiar situation--they've been kidnapped--though they don't realize it for a while. The pair have entered a mining colony to negotiate access to one of their Xindi workers--and then find out too late that it's a slave planet and the pair are new additions to the work force!

This episode is a bit weak. The previous episode was super-exciting but this one featured a story idea which the show has done to death already (the whole kidnapping angle is overdone to death). However, on the positive side, the new alien enemy is revealed--and they are WONDERFUL. The Xindi are not one distinct race but six--and several of them are super creative (such as the aquatic and the insectoid Xindi). All in all a very mixed bag but very watchable.

T'Pol is now subcommander vamp in red and there are also boobs

[tomsly-40015 · 7/10 · 24 March 2024]

With the third season, ENT was given an upgrade to improve the poor viewer numbers. Still, it didn't help. After four seasons it was still over.

The worst opening theme in the history of Star Trek now rocks with a beat - unfortunately that doesn't make the song any better. If the showrunners had had the courage to admit that this song doesn't fit Star Trek and replaced it, that would have been at least a sign of courage.

T'Pol not only got a new hairstyle that makes her look more feminine, but also new outfits. Gone are the days when she wore dark jump suits. Now she wears red and light blue jump suits - with a neckline that shows more of her skin. Speaking of skin: T'Pol is once again used as a cheap vehicle to attract teenagers (like Seven of Nine). This time there are even boobs, albeit covered by her hands. Why the hell couldn't the showrunners think of a better way for Jolene Blalock than to constantly reduce her to her appearance? Seven of Nine at least had an interesting storyline of her own and was absolutely essential to most of VOY episode's plots.

The Enterprise finally has photon torpedoes and the crew must now deal with a threat never heard of in other Star Trek series. The Xindi want to destroy Earth because their world will be destroyed by humans in the future. But why they first test a weapon on Earth before delivering the ultimate blow and thus giving the humans time to counterattack remains their secret. Just like how five completely different intelligent and sentient species managed to evolve and coexist on just one planet.

I also wonder how the Enterprise manages to fly through the expanse when both Vulcans and Klingons have encountered sheer horror there and lost ships. Ships that were more technologically advanced than what humans are now sending in. And by the way: According to ENT tradition, Archer is kidnapped again and finds himself a second time in a mining facility as an involuntary forced laborer. It's getting boring.

And here it all went bad

[patrick-dewijs · 2/10 · 6 June 2008]

In a desperate attempt to raise the ratings the added a continuing storyline. They should never have done this.

They meet a race called the Xindi who are a species that has 5 'sub-races'. Someone from the future told them that in 400 year their home world will be destroyed by humans. They decide to do what every civilized species would do.... NOT. They build a weapon for testing killing 7 million humans!! Then they continue to work on a weapon that will destroy earth completely.

Why was there never a record in any of the series that earth was almost annihilated??? and this is only the beginning of errors. Stupid story lines are created to reveal Blaloks body in an attempt to raise ratings. It's a miracle that there was a 4th season.

This episodes introduces the Xindi and sends them to the expanse where the most sophisticated spaceships are destroyed and bodies mutilated etc. However enterprise who is no where near as sophisticated as most manages to do OK in the expanse. Sure the get some minor problems but still. Very bad episode starting a very bad season. If it wasn't tied to Star Trek it might have been a good SF season.