The Shipment

The Enterprise follows the lead of the telepathic Tarquin and finds a Xindi compound of Kemocite where the most important component for the Xindi ultimate weapon is being refined. Archer, Reed and Major Hayes travel to the colony in the planet to investigate and plant bombs to destroy the facility, but they kidnap the technical director of the plant, Gralik Durr. When Archer tells Gralik the objective of the Kemocite, the alien decides to help him.

"The Shipment" is a reasonable episode where another species of the Xindis are disclosed. I did not find anything special in this episode. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "O Carregamento" ("The Shipment")

The team arrives on a planet supposedly harboring a Xindi weapons facility. Archer and Reed interrogate the head of a kemocite refinement facility, who is paid an early visit by shady clients. The dialogue between the facility's head scientist and the crew members is heart warming even if a bit abrupt. It's a strength of Enterprise that there are some sympathetic or respectable individuals among enemy species (previously the Suliban, now the Xindi.) In contrast, Voyager never did that with the Kazon.

The side plot about Tucker, Phlox, and T'pol disassembling a Reptilian rifle makes a slight net gain for the crew, one which is reasonable and important. The caterpillars in the rifle are pretty darn awesome.

Although I like the idea of the Delphic Expanse, I wasn't too happy with this season being so serialized. Still, I thoroughly enjoyed this episode and it's made me more interested in the serialized story. Definitely the best episode of Season 3 so far.

This episode will make little sense to anybody not already up to speed on the 3rd season's Xindi story arc. If you've seen 3/4ths or more of the Xindi stories, you should be prepared for this.

The Enterprise approaches the planet where a telepathic exile claimed that a component of the Xindi's doomsday device was being produced. Archer and a small away team contact the leader of a mining colony on the planet, who turns out to be one of the hairy varieties of Xindi. Some tense moments ensue as the Xindi miner attempts to convince Archer that he had no idea what Degra and his Xindi military customers intended for the material he was shipping out.

The acting in this episode was sub-par, and greatly hindered by the ridiculous hairiness and make-up used for this species of Xindi. Why any creature endowed with so much hair would choose to stuff all of it into tight fitting clothing obviously designed for more or less hairless apes is very difficult to fathom. Althoug the episode does not establish any major plot points in the Xindi arc, it does provide some needed characterization of the diversity of Xindi species.

Not recommended as an introduction to the series, but necessary for making sense of the 3rd and 4th seasons.

Enterprise is looking for the dreaded Xindi. After all, this group of aliens just destroyed part of the Earth--killing 7,000,000 people!! SO it's not surprising that the Captain is mad as a hornet and looking to punish those responsible. With very few clues, they go looking for the people responsible for making the probe that killed all these humans---and their clues lead them to a planet which manufactures the Kemocite in the weapon. There is no doubt that it originated here and Archer is more than ready to kick some butt and destroy the facility. But then something odd happens....the guy in charge, who Archer is set to kill, seems very surprised when he learns about the dead humans...and genuinely sorry!! How can Archer kill the guy when he probably didn't realize that the Kemocite would be used in this manner? What's next? See the show yourself.

This is a nice episode because it's thought-provoking. You understand BOTH the Captain and the alien. You also appreciate the working relationship they forge. Well worth seeing.

Archer finds out that there is a planet where Kemocite is being produced. It is a substance that was found on the probe that killed 7,000,000 people on earth and is obviously being stockpiled for the return trip to Earth. Archer meets Gralek, who is the head engineer at the facility. While he produces the stuff, he tells Archer that it is used for many purposes. When he realizes its deadly capabilities, he allies with the Captain to sabotage the shipment. There is a trust issue that is played on here. Archer must make a true leap of faith to move forward. On the other front, Trip is unable to figure out the weapon left behind by the Xindi they killed. Things are getting more and more tense. This is a necessary episode to get us to the final confrontation.