Be sure to join me tomorrow, Friday, February 19th at 6PM Central / 7 PM Eastern for a LIVE Q&A & discussion about this video and anything else you all want to ask me about!
The problem with Xindi evolution, are the Insectoids. The others you can accept having a common ancestor. But the insectoids? Insects are just so fundamentally different from all the others.
But, it's important to understand that while they may be called insectoids, they don't have to have the same insect evolutionary features as we might find in an insect from earth. For example, they may have some mamalian traits and features despite having an exoskeleton. They also could have a remote mammal-like ancestor that needed to evolve insect features to survive in a harsher environment.
With my basic knowledge, can’t they still be separate? Like the Voth and Humans? They just evolved on the same planet, they’re family just not close cousins. So they split off millions or so years ago.
You presume that insect like spiece from another evolutionary factors on alien planet light years from our will have same breathing apparatus that limited our insects to their size. Maker of this video made same mistake (well he tried to look like he knows what his talking about). Beauty of making SF show is unlimited possibilities offered by universe. All that can happen will happen somewhere, some time in universe. Why not in 23th century on planet not far from ours a fluke of evolution happened? Pls don't be bound by earth centrist view to any fictional universe. It's just dumb talk.
@@thomasalvarez6456 As referenced in the video, Dr. Phlox states that the Xindi (I believe the Reptilians and Primates, specifically) share 99.5% of their genetic material. That's more than Humans share with chimpanzees! It's suggested that the six Xindi races are all closely related, and probably share a very large percentage of their DNA. The show's writers and producers also confirmed this to be the case, and that is what the common cranial ridges (and likely the structures high on the cheekbones) are supposed to indicate. The three (alpha canon confirmed) sapient races of Earth (Humans, Voth, and Belugas) all evolved on the same planet, but it is hard to call all three species "related," whereas the sapient races of Xindus are called such.
Couldn't the Xindi species have been the result of development guided by the Sphere Builders pushing them towards a form that was useful to the extradimensional race?
No because Daniels shows Archer a future where the sphere builders didn’t interfere with Xindi culture. In that future the Xindi as we know them are supposedly still around and the Federation joins them in defeating the sphere builders in the 26nd century.
I love this type of analysis! I personally would consider the xindi an allegory for the US and not Al Queda, but that's a different topic. Thank you!! 🖖🏻
My personal theory is that the died out species of Xindi were the ones to bring all the others together. They were the ones to get the others to share technology and cooperate. So the Sphere Builders had them wiped out because they would have been the ones to curb their cousins more violent tendencies. Unlike what happened with Earth, the Sphere builders were successful with the last Xindi species. But again, that is just my theory.
Here's an idea - since having 99.5% common DNA amongst the Xindi species (plural) seems like it ought to cause them all to be very similar, perhaps we should assume that each Xindi has all the DNA of every species, and their differences are due to which groups of genes are expressed.
Kudos for getting in the ‘Mycelial Network’ in there😊. I’m currently watching ST:Enterprise and I’ve been watching for any commonalities between the Xindi races. There is a structure common to all the races in addition to the forehead ridges. This is the line of bony projections on the upper cheek area of their skulls. I suppose that the writers and designers of the characters used this feature as a way of pointing to the various Xindi races having a common ancestor. Even the Avians had them, illustrated by the projections on the skull of the now extinct Xindi race.
Is it actually established lore that they're all from the same planet? As opposed to from the same system? Two or even three planets in the same solar system would make this parallel evolution much more plausible as different planets could have much more diverse environments that would be more suitable to this. I.e. the insectoids and repitlians could be from a planet with a much higher concentration of oxygen and higher temperatures. This would also help explain why they have all survived as they would have had to develop technology before they could interact.
Too bad the other shows were written before the Xindi were created. Because the Xindi were the most fascinating group of alien spieces in the Star Trek franchise. It's kinda of sad that none of the shows had a species as interesting as them. Then maybe they could've showed up in the other shows.
Evolutionary biology is also a hobby of mine (just casually of course). I would imagine that really rigid separation between land masses would be a key factor in the evolution of so many intelligent species. With our own planet, land masses were constantly reshuffling as a result of tectonic activity, etc...Easier to imagine the evolution of so many intelligent species on a planet without these mechanics. The idea of the planet being very geologically active (in reality) would probably _not_ give rise to this - it's more conducive to the blending of different homonid species as happened with all the various homonids on earth. Of course, this is scifi.
Thanks for the input Clay-- always welcome! You make a really good point and are probably right lol. it would be cool to find out more info about their original homeworld.
This might depend on where they were in their evolution when the planet began becoming more active. It might be that's is what brought them together, a need to rely on each other's strengths. It is similar in theory, a consolidation of sorts, but as long as they all had tool building and trade (which implies culture) it might be when they learned cooperation was stronger than competition. Also, it is possible it happened between two or thee species at a time, in fits and starts in small areas and grew because it was a successful survival strategy for all, through stone age, bronze age and by iron age all species could know of each other and have social cohesion. Which is probably very complex. What created a single species from many compatible ones in our case could not happen in theirs but this could instead, which might be stronger from sheer natural diversity of species abilities. Though also weaker, as when the total loss of one of them leaves a gap as did happen.
I'm curious you didn't propose the theory that another species/outsiders help/tampering could have been responsible for the number of intelligent species evolving together
He mentioned it briefly but said he didn't think it was compelling. I think with 6 differen't species looking so different but having near identical DNA makes it the most likely origin, we share 90% of our DNA with monkeys and if you look at a monkey you can see alot of things that are the same but 6 different species that look like they could be from different planets but being closer in DNA then different primates on Earth just doesn't add up as natural to me.
Thinking the same thing myself, a larger planet could mean more space for the species to evolve without as much contact and possibly greater biodiversity
4:02 We tend to underestimate animals ability to pass information from parent to child, both through communication and through a genetic/epigenetic memory. Octopus and primates are both comparatively well studied examples.
Thanks, I was hoping you would have gone into the science 21st century of how 6 races could coexist, I.E.a mother race, or mother races, or off world help
Really enjoying your content.✌🏻 There's a nagging lil whisp of a memory in my brain. Did I not see another very similar multi intelligent species in a different universe? Seems the Avians were extinct in that one too.... 🖖🏼
They might be more mammalian than reptilian like some of our birds having partly descended from saurian periods and beyond ( limited knowledge of dinosaur evolution). Or maybe they are more related to the reptiles, in the same way arboreals and primates were likely more closely related.
Even accounting for insectoids only being called so for descriptive reasons and not literally being some invertebrate its a hell of a request from the show to expect us to believe all these creatures, with such drastic anatomical differences, are so closely related. That seams absurd aaalmost beyond reason. Unless it was genetic engineering. The base model would be too far manipulated thoroughly for natural selection to have resulted in so fundamentally drastically different species, However gene editing, which can be very "slap it together" without any of the intermediate processes of change involved, Has way more potential for them to have closely related dna. Just my take, but them being naturally 95% related is astronomically crazy.
I wonder if it's possible that the 6 races came about after a very bad mass extinction causing their common ancestor to radiate into many different biomes and changing drastically. The Primates and Ahboreals are clearly mammals; the Aquatics could be mammals as well only adapted to the oceans. What if the Reptilians are only called that because of outward appearance; some mammals can develop scale armor on skin. Avians are never confirmed to be birds or just flyers meaning they could have been mammals like bats. Last is the Insectoids which I'd still consider a separate species entirely but are considered Xindi out of common home and banding together to survive. All in all it's possible that most of the races had one common ancestor not long ago that radically diversified after an extinction like The Great Dying in Earth's past.
It could well be that their common ancestor is much older maybe far over 100 million or more years old and spread around the globe during that period. But due to the geological instability of the planet mybe the landmasses drifted away from one another and isolated them for millions of years. Maybe their technological advancement wasn't as fast as ours. Or was based more on ensuring survival rather then quality of life improvements and exploring like ours. Since the aquatics seem to be the most advanced I guess they started earlyer with that because they aren't as directly affected under water and they could be anphibious since they got hands and when life likely started in the oceans as well might be the oldest living ancestor maybe even split off the evelotionary tree right before the common ancestor conquered the land. It is definetely interesting and you could continue this theory further and further but in the end it is just an interesting species in a sci fy franshise:-).
Six intelligent species on one planet. They must have had a lot of conflict. The arboreals and apes were probably close with the humans probably being dominant when they allied, the reptiles are the aggressors for most conflicts and insects make hasty decisions so they sided with the reptiles a lot. Aquatics only join once they have enough time and info, the avians seems advanced and may have been somewhat neutral a lot like the aquatics. Both the insects and aquatics had a much harder time communicating so I imagine there was a lot of conflict before they could all reconcile. I’d like to see the avians one day, maybe they just got out away by the sphere builders, I find it hard to believe that none left Xindus. Given that all six have the holes in their heads, they must be fairly closely related. That means that they did likely have a common ancestor, all six sharing one trait? Unless it’s an environmental trait from living on Xindus. Like wasps and ants, humonids and great apes , it’s possible such divergences could take place.
Fast and lose with the rules or Darwinian selection??? Star Trek made two characters evolve into slug like creatures because they claimed that was the peak of human evolution even though slug like has nothing to do with the environment of where Tom Paris Was. Fast and lose is one way to put it lol
All aliens in star have forehead things(?). The trans spacial entities who started the xindi war, may have manipulated the xindi species evolution as part of a long game to destroy earth.
I can't remember if that's the case, though it might be. I know there's the Fek'Ihri from Klingon legend, which Star Trek Online establishes were ancient Klingons who were genetically engineered by the Dominion. I'm curious if the Remans were originally native to Romulus but were displaced when the Romulans arrived. I almost included that in the video but chose not to since the Romulans evolved on Vulcan.
@@OrangeRiver The Remans were just on Remus weren’t they? They lived largely on the dark side of Remus and then the Romulans came and enslaved them and made them a warrior caste.
@@thomasalvarez6456 I thought the remans were more slaves then warriors, some were used as warriors because they were seen as expendable if this is the case. The thing that gets me is Remans do seem to be related to Vulcans/Romulans, they have pointed ears and powerful mental abilities, so even if they were already there when the Romulans first arrived it's a safe bet that there was cross breeding.
The Xindi were ridiculous from the get go & the main detractor from the goodness of the Enterprise series. Like most of ST all sister species, with the exception of the Aquatics are humanoid regardless of type which is evolutionarily silly, even more so than the rest of the humanoidcentric ST universe. It also peeved me that the mammalian species were implied to be more inherently virtuous followed by the Aquatics (Because they were so dolphin like right? 🤦♂️) with the insectoid and reptilian species being inherently evil, because they are cold (or non) blooded I guess? 🤦♂️ talk about mammalian supremacy. The race, though conceptually interesting, was about the poorest played out ideas in the whole ST universe.
Are you kidding? Between Vulcans on the edge of tears, the captain's detrimental attemps at self sacrifice and time travel as "God in the machine", the Xindi were the best part of that series. We all know ST aliens more represent different parts of human culture more than a realistic guess as to what's out there, and Trekkies let them slide on that. It was good to see them put in the extra work and speculation with the Xindi.
@@clevelandsavage While 6 diverse species all evolving intelligence on the same planet might be a stretch, how do we know that it's not impossible? Although, I think the Xindi Alliance should have been an alliance of diverse species all working together, like the Axis of World War II, or an "evil analog" to Trek's Federation.
Fleshing out the andorians & a number of the stand alone EPs were the best of the series, the Xindi subplot that consumed the second season was garbage as stated & insured there wouldn't be a 3rd, the temporal cold war & suliban would have been ok with Xindi elements removed.
@@rickjohnston1767 If dolphins wound have evolved the same degree of intelligent as humans on earth would they be called human? No they would still be called dolphins (or whatever), lumping all the Xindi together as one is likewise stupid.
Be sure to join me tomorrow, Friday, February 19th at 6PM Central / 7 PM Eastern for a LIVE Q&A & discussion about this video and anything else you all want to ask me about!
2:30 Absolutely baffling yet fascinating.
That such so many different species are that closely related.
The spherebuilders could have hyperevolved the 6 species in the past
The problem with Xindi evolution, are the Insectoids. The others you can accept having a common ancestor. But the insectoids? Insects are just so fundamentally different from all the others.
Agreed!
But, it's important to understand that while they may be called insectoids, they don't have to have the same insect evolutionary features as we might find in an insect from earth. For example, they may have some mamalian traits and features despite having an exoskeleton. They also could have a remote mammal-like ancestor that needed to evolve insect features to survive in a harsher environment.
With my basic knowledge, can’t they still be separate? Like the Voth and Humans? They just evolved on the same planet, they’re family just not close cousins. So they split off millions or so years ago.
You presume that insect like spiece from another evolutionary factors on alien planet light years from our will have same breathing apparatus that limited our insects to their size. Maker of this video made same mistake (well he tried to look like he knows what his talking about). Beauty of making SF show is unlimited possibilities offered by universe. All that can happen will happen somewhere, some time in universe. Why not in 23th century on planet not far from ours a fluke of evolution happened? Pls don't be bound by earth centrist view to any fictional universe. It's just dumb talk.
@@thomasalvarez6456 As referenced in the video, Dr. Phlox states that the Xindi (I believe the Reptilians and Primates, specifically) share 99.5% of their genetic material. That's more than Humans share with chimpanzees! It's suggested that the six Xindi races are all closely related, and probably share a very large percentage of their DNA. The show's writers and producers also confirmed this to be the case, and that is what the common cranial ridges (and likely the structures high on the cheekbones) are supposed to indicate.
The three (alpha canon confirmed) sapient races of Earth (Humans, Voth, and Belugas) all evolved on the same planet, but it is hard to call all three species "related," whereas the sapient races of Xindus are called such.
this makes me think of the Mon Cala and Quarren races in starwars, they shared a planet and both co-evolved into sentient species
Couldn't the Xindi species have been the result of development guided by the Sphere Builders pushing them towards a form that was useful to the extradimensional race?
Genetic engineering is highly possible. Could happen to humans in a few centuries.
No because Daniels shows Archer a future where the sphere builders didn’t interfere with Xindi culture. In that future the Xindi as we know them are supposedly still around and the Federation joins them in defeating the sphere builders in the 26nd century.
I love this type of analysis! I personally would consider the xindi an allegory for the US and not Al Queda, but that's a different topic. Thank you!! 🖖🏻
That's total nonsense! It's obvious that the Xindi attack on Earth was a parallel to 9/11.
My personal theory is that the died out species of Xindi were the ones to bring all the others together. They were the ones to get the others to share technology and cooperate. So the Sphere Builders had them wiped out because they would have been the ones to curb their cousins more violent tendencies. Unlike what happened with Earth, the Sphere builders were successful with the last Xindi species. But again, that is just my theory.
Here's an idea - since having 99.5% common DNA amongst the Xindi species (plural) seems like it ought to cause them all to be very similar, perhaps we should assume that each Xindi has all the DNA of every species, and their differences are due to which groups of genes are expressed.
That's basically why humans and bananas are different, so you're probably right about the Xindi.
Kudos for getting in the ‘Mycelial Network’ in there😊. I’m currently watching ST:Enterprise and I’ve been watching for any commonalities between the Xindi races. There is a structure common to all the races in addition to the forehead ridges. This is the line of bony projections on the upper cheek area of their skulls. I suppose that the writers and designers of the characters used this feature as a way of pointing to the various Xindi races having a common ancestor. Even the Avians had them, illustrated by the projections on the skull of the now extinct Xindi race.
I love clever Star Trek content like this.
Is it actually established lore that they're all from the same planet? As opposed to from the same system? Two or even three planets in the same solar system would make this parallel evolution much more plausible as different planets could have much more diverse environments that would be more suitable to this. I.e. the insectoids and repitlians could be from a planet with a much higher concentration of oxygen and higher temperatures. This would also help explain why they have all survived as they would have had to develop technology before they could interact.
Too bad the other shows were written before the Xindi were created. Because the Xindi were the most fascinating group of alien spieces in the Star Trek franchise. It's kinda of sad that none of the shows had a species as interesting as them. Then maybe they could've showed up in the other shows.
Evolutionary biology is also a hobby of mine (just casually of course). I would imagine that really rigid separation between land masses would be a key factor in the evolution of so many intelligent species. With our own planet, land masses were constantly reshuffling as a result of tectonic activity, etc...Easier to imagine the evolution of so many intelligent species on a planet without these mechanics. The idea of the planet being very geologically active (in reality) would probably _not_ give rise to this - it's more conducive to the blending of different homonid species as happened with all the various homonids on earth. Of course, this is scifi.
Thanks for the input Clay-- always welcome! You make a really good point and are probably right lol. it would be cool to find out more info about their original homeworld.
This might depend on where they were in their evolution when the planet began becoming more active. It might be that's is what brought them together, a need to rely on each other's strengths. It is similar in theory, a consolidation of sorts, but as long as they all had tool building and trade (which implies culture) it might be when they learned cooperation was stronger than competition. Also, it is possible it happened between two or thee species at a time, in fits and starts in small areas and grew because it was a successful survival strategy for all, through stone age, bronze age and by iron age all species could know of each other and have social cohesion. Which is probably very complex. What created a single species from many compatible ones in our case could not happen in theirs but this could instead, which might be stronger from sheer natural diversity of species abilities. Though also weaker, as when the total loss of one of them leaves a gap as did happen.
It could also be that their common ancestor was on its way to sentience just before the split.
I'm curious you didn't propose the theory that another species/outsiders help/tampering could have been responsible for the number of intelligent species evolving together
He mentioned it briefly but said he didn't think it was compelling. I think with 6 differen't species looking so different but having near identical DNA makes it the most likely origin, we share 90% of our DNA with monkeys and if you look at a monkey you can see alot of things that are the same but 6 different species that look like they could be from different planets but being closer in DNA then different primates on Earth just doesn't add up as natural to me.
Does any of the script explicitly say it was natural evolution? Some of them could've been uplifted species.
1:37...the way he said it. 😂
Could planetary size have an effect on sapient species generation?
Thinking the same thing myself, a larger planet could mean more space for the species to evolve without as much contact and possibly greater biodiversity
Thanks for the update Mr. River
As a anthropologist I can say you got your homonid evolution very accurate for being under 130 pages!!!! :)
I have a great deal of admiration for very smart people. This was a fascinating little video, mostly because of that. Keep up the good work.
Nice overview before watching ST:Prodigy S01E14 - thanks!
4:02
We tend to underestimate animals ability to pass information from parent to child, both through communication and through a genetic/epigenetic memory. Octopus and primates are both comparatively well studied examples.
I learned something today, thanks.
Thanks, I was hoping you would have gone into the science 21st century of how 6 races could coexist, I.E.a mother race, or mother races, or off world help
the octopus guards its young until it dies so even with language that wouldnt help :-) also their life span is a bit short
Our evolutionary history is indeed fascinating
Hol' up
We are all apes!!! Long lived tge monkey kings!!!
Really enjoying your content.✌🏻
There's a nagging lil whisp of a memory in my brain. Did I not see another very similar multi intelligent species in a different universe? Seems the Avians were extinct in that one too....
🖖🏼
Good stuff.
great videos and presentation
Thank you Chris! I do my best.
I think they used a giraffe skull for the Xindi Avians, yes?
Yes, it is.
They might be more mammalian than reptilian like some of our birds having partly descended from saurian periods and beyond ( limited knowledge of dinosaur evolution). Or maybe they are more related to the reptiles, in the same way arboreals and primates were likely more closely related.
@@thomasalvarez6456 I think they did a good job picking the giraffe skull. It looks like it could possibly be some mythic animal.
There's artwork that show Xindi Avians as looking like pterosaurs.
Live long and prosper and gobless
Even accounting for insectoids only being called so for descriptive reasons and not literally being some invertebrate its a hell of a request from the show to expect us to believe all these creatures, with such drastic anatomical differences, are so closely related.
That seams absurd aaalmost beyond reason.
Unless it was genetic engineering. The base model would be too far manipulated thoroughly for natural selection to have resulted in so fundamentally drastically different species,
However gene editing, which can be very "slap it together" without any of the intermediate processes of change involved,
Has way more potential for them to have closely related dna.
Just my take, but them being naturally 95% related is astronomically crazy.
Remember, creation is not older than 6-12k years
I wonder if it's possible that the 6 races came about after a very bad mass extinction causing their common ancestor to radiate into many different biomes and changing drastically. The Primates and Ahboreals are clearly mammals; the Aquatics could be mammals as well only adapted to the oceans. What if the Reptilians are only called that because of outward appearance; some mammals can develop scale armor on skin. Avians are never confirmed to be birds or just flyers meaning they could have been mammals like bats. Last is the Insectoids which I'd still consider a separate species entirely but are considered Xindi out of common home and banding together to survive. All in all it's possible that most of the races had one common ancestor not long ago that radically diversified after an extinction like The Great Dying in Earth's past.
Felixsapians or cat people are my favorite
It could well be that their common ancestor is much older maybe far over 100 million or more years old and spread around the globe during that period. But due to the geological instability of the planet mybe the landmasses drifted away from one another and isolated them for millions of years. Maybe their technological advancement wasn't as fast as ours. Or was based more on ensuring survival rather then quality of life improvements and exploring like ours. Since the aquatics seem to be the most advanced I guess they started earlyer with that because they aren't as directly affected under water and they could be anphibious since they got hands and when life likely started in the oceans as well might be the oldest living ancestor maybe even split off the evelotionary tree right before the common ancestor conquered the land. It is definetely interesting and you could continue this theory further and further but in the end it is just an interesting species in a sci fy franshise:-).
Liked and comment! Live long and prosper!
Six intelligent species on one planet. They must have had a lot of conflict. The arboreals and apes were probably close with the humans probably being dominant when they allied, the reptiles are the aggressors for most conflicts and insects make hasty decisions so they sided with the reptiles a lot. Aquatics only join once they have enough time and info, the avians seems advanced and may have been somewhat neutral a lot like the aquatics.
Both the insects and aquatics had a much harder time communicating so I imagine there was a lot of conflict before they could all reconcile.
I’d like to see the avians one day, maybe they just got out away by the sphere builders, I find it hard to believe that none left Xindus.
Given that all six have the holes in their heads, they must be fairly closely related. That means that they did likely have a common ancestor, all six sharing one trait? Unless it’s an environmental trait from living on Xindus.
Like wasps and ants, humonids and great apes , it’s possible such divergences could take place.
Brilliant you are, science's loss is sci fi's gain.
I actually know a guy who really looks very much like this!!
When you say "safari" do you mean "savannah"?
Live long and prosper 🖖
Yuri Bezmenov gave a great explaination on how to overcome climate change.
Those dislikes are all from paleontologists
They need more none humanoid species on star trek
including dinos? O2 levels where about the same as they are now. the insecta got big during the carboniferous. dinos are just chungus
Didn't dogs evolve from 2 different species. The wolf and the fox.
the Aquatics appear to be very ethical writers
Fast and lose with the rules or Darwinian selection??? Star Trek made two characters evolve into slug like creatures because they claimed that was the peak of human evolution even though slug like has nothing to do with the environment of where Tom Paris Was. Fast and lose is one way to put it lol
Progenitor Sandbox.
FIRST! :)
😂
All aliens in star have forehead things(?). The trans spacial entities who started the xindi war, may have manipulated the xindi species evolution as part of a long game to destroy earth.
Dude, look up how to pronounce "genus." It's the same vowel as in "gene."
I could be mistaken but I thought Kronos had 3 sentient species and the Klingons enslaved the other two.
I can't remember if that's the case, though it might be. I know there's the Fek'Ihri from Klingon legend, which Star Trek Online establishes were ancient Klingons who were genetically engineered by the Dominion.
I'm curious if the Remans were originally native to Romulus but were displaced when the Romulans arrived. I almost included that in the video but chose not to since the Romulans evolved on Vulcan.
@@OrangeRiver The Remans were just on Remus weren’t they? They lived largely on the dark side of Remus and then the Romulans came and enslaved them and made them a warrior caste.
@@thomasalvarez6456 I thought the remans were more slaves then warriors, some were used as warriors because they were seen as expendable if this is the case. The thing that gets me is Remans do seem to be related to Vulcans/Romulans, they have pointed ears and powerful mental abilities, so even if they were already there when the Romulans first arrived it's a safe bet that there was cross breeding.
subspace fungus isnt cannon
It is, and it's not really up to you or me to decide
The Xindi were ridiculous from the get go & the main detractor from the goodness of the Enterprise series. Like most of ST all sister species, with the exception of the Aquatics are humanoid regardless of type which is evolutionarily silly, even more so than the rest of the humanoidcentric ST universe. It also peeved me that the mammalian species were implied to be more inherently virtuous followed by the Aquatics (Because they were so dolphin like right? 🤦♂️) with the insectoid and reptilian species being inherently evil, because they are cold (or non) blooded I guess? 🤦♂️ talk about mammalian supremacy. The race, though conceptually interesting, was about the poorest played out ideas in the whole ST universe.
Are you kidding? Between Vulcans on the edge of tears, the captain's detrimental attemps at self sacrifice and time travel as "God in the machine", the Xindi were the best part of that series.
We all know ST aliens more represent different parts of human culture more than a realistic guess as to what's out there, and Trekkies let them slide on that. It was good to see them put in the extra work and speculation with the Xindi.
@@clevelandsavage While 6 diverse species all evolving intelligence on the same planet might be a stretch, how do we know that it's not impossible? Although, I think the Xindi Alliance should have been an alliance of diverse species all working together, like the Axis of World War II, or an "evil analog" to Trek's Federation.
If each species had been from different planets, I think the Xindi would have been a bit more credible.
Fleshing out the andorians & a number of the stand alone EPs were the best of the series, the Xindi subplot that consumed the second season was garbage as stated & insured there wouldn't be a 3rd, the temporal cold war & suliban would have been ok with Xindi elements removed.
@@rickjohnston1767
If dolphins wound have evolved the same degree of intelligent as humans on earth would they be called human? No they would still be called dolphins (or whatever), lumping all the Xindi together as one is likewise stupid.
What a waste of time the whole Xindi story line was. Should have done the Romulan war. .
Crap!