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3-07 The Shipment
Reviewed by Kevin Thomas Riley
The arc kicks into a higher gear with The Shipment, when the Enterprise goes to find the Xindi colony, whose location Tarquin was kind enough to provide them with in the episode before. It's a place where a substance called kemocite is refined and then used as a key component in the Xindi weapon, presumably as an explosive.
Captain Archer is thus faced with a dilemma. He could destroy the facility and thereby reduce the immediate threat to Earth. But if he does that he realizes that he will only help fuel how the Xindi view humans as a ruthless and dangerous species. So he decides against it. One can see this as the "Trekkian" (i.e. moral) way to do, but it is also strategically sound. Up until now Archer - and the rest of his crew - has been rather single-minded in their desire to meet and defeat the Xindi. It is nice to see that they have been thinking about the bigger picture.
Already in the episode The Expanse Archer learned from Future Guy that someone from the future had told the Xindi about the threat Earth posed for them in 400 years. With this knowledge, the prudent thing to do would be to find out why the Xindi believe Earth is a threat to them, and who these future informants are, not to destroy the Xindi. Of course one would think that Future Guy could've filled in Archer on that little detail, but then again, he has never been much of a fountain of information.
Going down to the planet Archer meets Gralik Durr, who runs the refining complex. He's a Xindi Arboreal (or Sloth as they have also been dubbed) and knows nothing about Earth or what his kemocite has been used for, and will be used for. In fact, a final shipment is being prepared so that the weapon can be tested, and Degra (who now gets a name) and a Reptilian arrive to acquire it.
Archer has some nice scenes with Gralik as the get to know each other and their respective species. Gralik is abhorred to learn what his kemocite is responsible for, although one has to wonder how he came to trust Archer so quick. Even at the end of the episode, after Degra tells him about the threat they perceive from Earth, he doesn't tell. The reverse is also true. Why did Archer put so much trust in Gralik? He couldn't know that Gralik actually would contaminate the shipment. I suppose the episode to some degrees is about trust, but it did seem that it came a bit too easy, especially since they didn't spend a very long time with each other. Nevertheless, I think I can buy it. But it is too bad that we didn't get to meet Gralik later on in the season.
At any rate, Gralik gave Archer some fascinating insights to Xindi history. I always like it when an enemy is complex and shows depth. So much in fact that one begins to question whether the Xindi really are the enemy. At least certain parts of them aren't and most of the Xindi "civilians" probably haven't even heard of Earth. That the Xindi had been at a disastrous civil war comes as no surprise (we saw the remains of their homeworld in the first episode of the season). A real poignant revelation was about the now extinct sixth Xindi species, the Avians, who once filled the skies. All this knowledge about the fractures within Xindi society will serve Archer well in future episodes.
The story does however have some plot holes that are hard to overlook. The most glaring one is the chase through the forest with the Xindi Seekers. Given the technology level of the Xindi, it stands to reason that those probes would indeed have been able to transmit their coordinates, and even images. And Gralik's explanation for why one was shot down doesn't hold water, and the other Xindi should've been much more suspicious. I suppose it's there because the writers wanted to have an action sequence, since the episode is rather slow-paced, but it felt tacked on, something to up the tension after all the previous talking. And then the scenes with them hiding out dragged a bit.
This touches on one of my gripes with Archer and Enterprise in general. Why is it that a pilot and a starship captain can hit a target better than his tactical officer, who should be a marksman? Yeah, the captain is the "hero" but this only makes Reed look incompetent. This is also why I had problems with Archer sneaking onto Degra's shuttle to plant the tracking device. Wouldn't that be a job better suited for Reed or Major Hayes? For that matter, it was a rather pointless undertaking since they could more easily have had Gralik put the tracking device there when he prepared the shipment in the first place. I guess they forgot in all the excitement.
Hayes was rather wasted on this mission anyway. Any MACO would've sufficed, so why bring their commander? And since this was a reconnaissance mission, why not send down an entire squad? But this is Star Trek, and for dramatical purposes they always have to send some of the main characters.
Meanwhile, onboard the Enterprise, Trip, T'Pol and Phlox are analysing the Reptilian rifle they got a hold of in Rajiin. I suppose I can let it slide that it would've been more logical for them to wait for the armoury officer to try it out, since Reed was busy (well, sort of anyway) down on the planet. It turns out that there are biological components in the rifle, some bio-engineered worms. This is interesting since it implies that the Xindi to some extent uses bio-technology. Unfortunately this wasn't delved further upon in the series, but it does say something about their species. If they can master some kind of bio-engineering, this could explain why there are five (originally six) Xindi species that nevertheless shares a lot of DNA (and facial features) even though they ought to be fundamentally different. It's not like we humans share much with bugs or lizards.
Another thing that isn't really used later on either is the knowledge that these bio-engineered guns are sensitive to "delta" radiation, whatever that is (not to mention the also mentioned "omicron" radiation). At least it was a type of radiation that didn't come out of the blue, since a little research revealed that it was what caused Captain Christopher Pike's injuries in the original series The Menagerie, and of course the scarred face of Mirror Tucker in In a Mirror, Darkly. In real science though, delta radiation is something else.
The experiment goes awry when a fail-safe device makes it self-destruct, nearly taking Enterprise along if Trip hadn't had such quick feet, and a possible erroneous location of the transporter chamber. T'Pol had been right in advising caution and it was nice to see Trip acknowledge that afterwards. No overt 'shipper moments in this episode though, but Trip and T'Pol did work well together, and with Phlox. They didn't get to test Malcolm's force field emitters, which they did remember from Vox Sola.
Overall, I liked The Shipment, especially for the insights to Xindi culture and that Archer has begun to reflect on how to proceed with the mission. But the "captain hero" stuff was annoying, as they usually are. I give it a 7 on my 10-graded scale.
People knew that Picard was captain and that he was very good at his job, without minimizing the other characters. A great leader would surround himself with the best people and then, with his supervision, let them do their thing. Kirk was great, but Spock and McCoy were also allowed to be great, too, in their own ways. 
I still think of Archer as B&B's Gary Stu.