Rajiin

Archer rescues Rajiin a slave girl who might have information about the Xindi.

This episode has some good moments as Archer obtains some badly needed information about the Xindi. I liked the Trellium-D scenes and the action sequence when the Enterprise is attacked.

I struggled with the main concept of the sexy alien girl. This again (from Enterprise) could have been a plot device for a porn film and feels like the show is try to be sexy for the sake of viewer gratification.

I was neither here nor there with the Xindi council scenes. I like how these characters are developing, but images of baddies sitting round a big table plotting just feels a bit naff in twenty-first century storytelling.

Scott Bakula is getting a lot more forceful and commanding in his portrayal of Archer in the Delphic Expanse and it works well in this one.

I lost interest in "Enterprise" not long after it first aired, but have lately been picking it up in reruns and find much of it quite good. But it steadily drifted into a dark and brutal cycle of endless war, and instead of occasional two-parters, we get a cliffhanger serial that goes on and on, under what seems to be the premise that war is exciting, so let's have lots of it. One can get tired of it all, especially of the darned Xindi.

This episode depends heavily on the presumed personal magnetism of Rajiin, who, while attractive, doesn't quite convey that haunting "you could fall into her eyes" quality. However, we can go along with the idea, and thus Rajiin is so appealing that she gets herself 'rescued' from sex slavery and sets about a very hands-on absorption of the info required by the Xindi for their nefarious purposes.

Once she reveals herself as an enemy and this agenda becomes known, she's thrown into the brig, where she represents an immense liability, since the Xindi want to retrieve her findings and will come for her. In the grim context of war, the only sensible course would be to eliminate her usefulness as a spy, the simplest way of accomplishing this being to execute her. That's war. But aw, gee, she's such a pretty girl and really just a victim of circumstance... and Archer is such a nice guy no matter what-- sheesh!

Like most of the Season 3 Xindi episodes, Rajin is fast-moving and interestingly plotted - successfully producing a sense of urgency. This is a well-directed and well-shot episode. The acting is mostly fairly good. Nikita Ager plays Rajiin and does a passable job.

The story picks up within the Xindi story arc. The crew continues to work on a way to adapt the ship to the anomalies of the expanse, and Archer's nerves are on the ragged edge. While away on a shopping trip, Archer encounters a female slave who seems hell-bent on accompanying him back to Enterprise. She escapes her bonds, runs to Archer for protection, and the away team defends her.

Once Rajin is on board, it seems as if the episode is going to be yet another Enterprise exploitation of an attractive female, but the plot eventually takes surprisingly interesting turn which I won't spoil here.

Recommended, but only if you've seen the earlier parts of Season 3.

This is the season that sealed Enterprise's fate. The franchise decided to begin a complex DS9-length story-arc at the end of Season 2, which would span most of season 3. While not unprecedented among ST shows, this was certainly unprecedented in Enterprise. Trekkies became disturbed by the distant departure from the canon which was required by the Delphic Expanse and the Xindi episodes, and the show's dwindling audience, many of whom began their ST interests with Enterprise, didn't know what to make of it. Despite the fact that the quality of drama on the show was steadily improving, it's ratings steadily declined.

While in a trading planet buying a formula for synthesizing the volatile Trellium-D to insulate the hull and protect the Enterprise against anomalies in the Delphic Expanse, Archer, Reed and Trip seek information about the Xindis with a trader of female slaves. The sexy humanoid Rajiin asks for help to Archer and he rescues her from the alien merchant and brings the woman to the Enterprise. Rajiin uses her mysterious power to seduce men and women in Enterprise with a secret objective.

In this new sequel of the saga of the Enterprise in the Delphic Expanse, the sex slave Rajiin has a great participation in the story and gives information about the objectives of the mysterious alien council. As most of the episodes of the Third Season, this episode is also full of action. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "Rajiin"

Had one high forehead!

What the frell!?!

What was that all about? It was probably just the Westmore family having fun with Trek-makeup again. But usually when they have a characteristic like that, it represents something like a huge brain, or telepathy, or some other genetic trait. The character Zjod here, didn't really have any traits where he would need a huge brain, a giant forehead, or telepathy.

Now this girl, Raijin, she was magnificent. They could have and should have developed that character much more.

She should have been the one with the high forehead, she had some interesting brain powers.

They did this "huge head" thing with some characters from season four that were relatives of the Andorians, the Aenir.

But in those episodes, the characters that were Aenir were actually telepathic, and blind.

It is interesting that they took one of those Aenir and made them a character in the new strange new worlds show, I thought that was interesting. It took me a few episodes to realize, "Hey! That guy is an Aenir!"

But Zjod ain't no Aenir...

This is merely a filler storyline that they ended in the episode "Carpenter Street".