The Xindi
After being tricked by the mining foreman, Captain Jonathan Archer (Scott Bakula) and Commander Charles "Trip" Tucker III (Connor Trinneer) escape with the Xindi, with assistance from Lieutenant Malcolm Reed (Dominic Keating) and the ship's new Military Assault Command Operations (MACO) team.
The episode saw a large number of guest stars, including several who would recur several more times during the third season such as Major Hayes played by Steven Culp, Tucker Smallwood as the Xindi-Primate Councilor and Randy Oglesby as Degra.
"The Xindi" received a mixed reception from critics, who praised the increase of action promised for the season by this episode but criticised elements such as the writing and the MACOs.
As Enterprise travels deeper into the Delphic Expanse, a secret council of aliens discuss what to do with the lone human spaceship.
Meanwhile, Captain Jonathan Archer (Scott Bakula) directs Enterprise to a mining penal colony within the Expanse.
He then strikes a deal with the mine's foreman (Stephen McHattie): in exchange for a half-liter of liquid platinum, Archer and Commander Charles "Trip" Tucker III (Connor Trinneer) will be allowed to meet a Primate worker named Kessick (Richard Lineback).
Archer declines, but he soon learns that the foreman had ulterior motives, since he has ordered three warships to overpower Enterprise and enslave his crew.
Meanwhile, Sub-Commander T'Pol (Jolene Blalock) persuades Lieutenant Malcolm Reed (Dominic Keating) to allow the newly assigned MACOs (Military Assault Command Operations) to attempt an extraction.
The episode followed up on the plot introduced in the final instalment of the second season[3] in which a probe from an unknown alien species attacks Earth.
Kate O'Hara of New York Magazine later chided in reference to the change, "Women of the future will certainly choose to wear tight, uncomfortable, skin-tight catsuits!
During the production of his second episode, "The Shipment", Culp read an article in the Los Angeles Times about a troubled youth who joined the military and in serving in the Iraq War had found himself.
As well as Kornan in the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode "Soldiers of the Empire", he too had appeared in Voyager, but in two roles; first as the androids 3947 and 122 in "Prototype" and then as Noah Lessing in "Equinox".
[15] In addition, making a return to the Star Trek franchise was Stephen McHattie, who had previously appeared as the Romulan senator Vreenak in the Deep Space Nine episode "In the Pale Moonlight".
[19] IGN gave it one out of five, and said it was "like watching a television episode made up of all the things from the 'Stuff We've Tried That Doesn't Work on Star Trek' list."
[20] Aint It Cool News gave it 2.5 out of five, and wrote: "This is easily the most mundane and haphazardly constructed of the Enterprise season openers.
She said the guest Xindi was given "more personality, wit and depth than any of these new semi-regulars" and feared the MACO's would not get the character development they would need, as it still had not happened for Mayweather after two seasons.
