Episode 56: Rajiin

Let's see: lots of Vulcan neuro-pressure with a certain female science officer in her tiniest pajamas, a host of scantily clad slave women, a sexy seductress named Rajiin and even the hint of lesbian sexual relations between the seductress and both Sato and T'Pol.

Oh, and a sexual assault.

This must have been B&B's dream episode. Only they didn't write it. Paul Brown, Brent V. Friedman and Chris Black get the credit for that. Oh joy.

It's even better that Archer permits an unknown woman of unknown origins with unknown powers or intentions roam free on Enterprise without escort or supervision. Then, when his ship is under attack by two Xindi warships with apparently overpowering weaponry, Archer hangs out chatting with (oh, sorry, interrogating) the seductress (who, of course, has a heart of gold).

Once Enterprise is disabled, apparently without much of a fight, Xindi reptilians and insectizoids prove to be invulnerable to Star Fleet hand weapons (well, unless it's Archer's hand phaser -- it disables Xindi soldiers with a single shot) and to be equipped with weapons to which Star Fleet has no answer. If two Xindi ships can overpower Star Fleet's best vessel with such ease, and Xindi soldiers are so remarkably better trained and equipped than their Star Fleet (and army) counterparts, why are the Xindi bothering with developing a bigger weapon?

Why don't they just use their space tunnel travelling tech to deliver an armada of star ships to earth and blow Star Fleet to bits and the planet with it?

Do you get what I'm saying? THIS MAKES NO SENSE WHATSOEVER.

Sorry, I'll start again. Enterprise and her crew go to a market planet to find a chemist who can sell them the formula for the magical stuff that will protect the ship from the anomalies (Trellium D) and, while there, Archer and Reid encounter a vendor of enslaved women who just happens to have dealt with a couple of Xindi recently.

No one bothers to object to the fact that people should not be owned or bought and sold, well, not until the blonde, white slave woman who looks an awful lot like the mysterious dream woman who appeared to Archer in a season two episode breaks free of her chains and throws herself upon our good captain to demand protection.

Ever the hero, Archer beats up the merchant and brings the blonde, white slave woman (Rajiin) onto Enterprise where he then, without making much an effort to determine whether or not she is a threat, permits her the free run of the ship.

What he doesn't know (and, you know, since he's in an unknown region of the galaxy where his mortal enemy has more influence, why should he even suspect such a thing), Rajiin is working for the Xindi and has a bunch of special powers, including the ability to seduce just about anyone she comes across and the ability to scan and record a detailed inventory of their physiology.

Oh yeah, did I mention that the Xindi had a bit of an accident at the research facility where their best scientists are developing the weapon that will wipe out the human race? That their plans to destroy earth have been set back as much as six months by the accident (which is an awful lot of time to lose when you only have 400 years before humans are destined to destroy you).

And that, as a result, the reptilian and insectizoid Xindi want the team to focus instead on developing a biological weapon to destroy the human race? And that the other three forms of Xindi object to this proposed path as too dangerous, protesting, anyway, that they don't know enough about humans to develop such a weapon?

Hey, wait a minute, didn't Enterprise just visit a planet that offered up a ready-made contagion that would very nicely destroy the human race? Couldn't the Xindi just go back to the planet from "Extinction" and help themselves to the local virus, then deliver it to Earth and watch the humans morph into weird muppet-like entities with an overpowering homing instinct?

No, apparently not. Instead, the Xindi reptilians and insectizoids come up with a complicated plan to lure Archer and his mates to the slave trader's stall on this other market planet and to plant the lovely Rajiin onboard Enterprise so that she can collect the data they need on the humans.

Isn't it strange that the Xindi know enough about humans to know that Archer and his crew will be drawn to the slave women, will fight to free the blonde one and then will permit her free access to their ship and personnel? and yet don't know enough to build a biological weapon?

When all seems lost and Rajiin has been caught, two Xindi ships show up out of nowhere to disable Enterprise (effortlessly, I might add), permitting their soldiers to board the Star Fleet vessel, prove almost completely invulnerable to the humans' weapons, defeat the combined forces of the Enterprise crew and their special army pals, and rescue Rajiin and her invaluable information on the humans for the purposes of their biological weapon.

Now, let's think about this. The Xindi clearly have technological and military superiority over Enterprise. They can sneak up on her, attack almost without notice, effortlessly disable the Enterprise, then board and take the ship with little trouble and few casualties.

Why don't they just take human prisoners as guinea pigs for their experiments? Why go through the highly improbable plan involving Rajiin? Why permit the Enterprise to continue its journey after they have disabled it, rescued Rajiin and fled back to their own superior vessels?

WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY?

Well, we know why. Because certain members of the Enterprise production team have no respect for their viewers and figure a bit of sex, a splash of male machismo, a gun fight or two, a bunch of explosions, and a plot so full of holes it can't possibly hold together is enough to attract and keep an audience of science fiction lovers.

Before B&B, Star Trek sought (for the most part) to create intelligent, thoughtful, challenging science fiction, science fiction that used the guise of its futuristic setting to permit it to discuss difficult 20th century topics in an intelligent and forward-thinking way.

As episodes like "Rajiin" demonstrate, Enterprise has turned its back on the higher aspirations of earlier iterations of Star Trek. And Star Trek fans turned their backs, as a result, on Enterprise.