Character Insight No. 351: The Xindi (Did You Know)

Welcome back to Character Insight! I apologize for my absence the past couple months but pandemic life demanded a refresher period, and I'm developing some new segment ideas and concepts for the rest of 2020 and beyond.  If you have any concepts you'd like to see, let us know!

Turning to today's segment, we cover The Xindi with a "Did You Know" feature, checking in on five interesting facts that you may or may not have picked up on as you traversed the latter seasons of Enterprise.

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1. The Xindi as a villain in Enterprise were originally to be one particular species much like prior villains the Klingons and Romulans. But the show producers wanted to investigate what it may be like if humans had not been the only species on Earth to develop high levels of intelligence. Hence, we end up with the 5 distinctive species making up this tenuous alliance in the show, and something new and unique in Star Trek lore to that time.

2. This background of the Xindi was written to remain relatable to Earth history in that the different species came into conflict and civil war, but it went so much farther with the destruction of their original home planet and the extinction of a sixth species, the Avians. The Xindi background serves as another cautionary tale on the track that humanity has previously been on with wars and conflicts.

3. The Xindi speak the Insectoid and Aquatic languages with each other because those two species are incapable of speaking the common language of the Primates, Arboreals and Repitlians. Despite these overlaps to work with one another, we see different styles of written language rendered for all 5 of the species, reflecting their significant differences. 

4. The Delphic Expanse, the region where the Xindi reside in the time of Enterprise, is an artificial zone of spatial anomalies generated by waves of gravimetric energy emitted by a series of massive spheres built by, you guessed it, the Sphere Builders. The Delphic Expanse was designed as a space version of the Bermuda Triangle, where predictable laws of physics and nature go out the window, adding more danger and unpredictability to the long mission Enterprise takes to find the Xindi in this region.

5. The Xindi were intentionally left out of episodes following their major arc in season 3 of Enterprise because while they proved to be popular with show fans, the show writers wanted to make a clear break from that story arc that defined the core of the Enterprise story. We are left to wonder if they do eventually join the Federation as is posited from another timeline by Daniels during the show and also in the game Star Trek Online.

In summary, the Xindi defined a new type of villain with a complicated past that fit well with the evolving and more complex storytelling TV shows were doing in the decade Enterprise was produced. It also provided a chance for the makeup artists and CGI crews to really stretch their legs and show off the best work they could produce at the time, and it all came together to make a great success on par with the Dominion War arc of DS9. 

Keep the dialogue going on Twitter. What other Xindi facts should we know? Until next time, all hail the Guardians who may be shifty-eyed Sphere Builders. 

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Character Insight No. 350: B-4

Welcome back to Character Insight! This week, we profile B-4, a Soong android who starred in TNG's Star Trek Nemesis and then reappears in the plot of Star Trek Picard.  Note that like we have with other recent segments touching on elements of Picard, major spoilers are avoided here for now.

https://archive.org/details/characterinsightep350 

B-4 was a prototype of the android that would eventually become Data, who was constructed well before other androids we see in the course of TNG like Lore.  B-4 did not have a sophisticated positronic brain on the same level of capability as these later "brothers," and as such, he is far more limited than Data and Lore.  

Our introduction to the existence of B-4 comes at the beginning of Star Trek Nemesis, when Captain Picard goes on a dune buggy joy ride and hunt through the deserts of Kolarus III.  The pieces of B-4 were planted there by Shinzon in a plot to lure Captain Picard towards Romulan space to capture him.  Before that plot comes fully into motion, the crew of the Enterprise reassemble B-4, and Data copies all of his memories into B-4 in an attempt to allow him to expand his own capabilities in a similar manner as Data did over the years.  This was a big red flag for the fate of Commander Data later in the movie, but I digress.

B-4 was also programmed by Shinzon to download position and communications information on all Federation starships, but this latter part of Shinzon's plot was foiled immediately by Geordi La Forge and Data.  Data then poses as B-4 and provides a bunch of inaccurate information to Shinzon while also helping Captain Picard escape Shinzon.  Shinzon should've known better than to rely on a beta version of hardware when the other side has the upgraded version.

B-4's story is left open-ended after Data then sacrifices himself to destroy Shinzon's ship and save Captain Picard.  Some of Data's downloaded memories were beginning to surface at the end of the movie, but he still could not understand much when Picard tried to explain the significance of Data's sacrifice and his long friendship with the crew.

While various comic books and novels had continued on with potential further developments of the B-4 character, the official canon did not pick up on this character until the beginning of Star Trek Picard.  We see that B-4 remains disassembled at the Daystrom Institute when Picard goes to visit 20 years after the events of Nemesis.  Dr. Anges Jurati observes that most of Data's positronic network was lost after the transfer to B-4, meaning the hope to keep another version of Data alive in a different body was unfortunately unsuccessful.

While this is a sad end for the character of B-4, it does introduce and lead into a couple plot lines of significant importance for the first season of Star Trek Picard.  His character is one of many loose ends that come together for wrapping up as Picard effectively writes the epilogue to TNG.  Thus, while I previously summarized B-4's role as fairly unimportant, he does provide more depth of background on Dr. Soong's work and does help advance the story of synthetic life, in the end.

B-4 was played by Brent Spiner, like most other Soong androids.  Although Spiner has not acted as much in recent years, beyond Picard he can also been seen in previous years in episodes of The Big Bang Theory, episodes of Ray Donovan, and in the Independence Day sequel.  As his singing of Blue Skies plays a central role with the character of B-4, I recommend checking out Spiner's 1991 crooning album Ol' Yellow Eyes is Back, which includes some backup vocals from some other TNG memorables on one song. Enjoy!

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Character Insight No. 349: Dr. Bruce Maddox

Welcome back to Character Insight! This week, we profile Dr. Bruce Maddox, who starred in one of the most memorable episodes of TNG and reappears in the plot of Star Trek Picard.  Note that like we have with other recent segments touching on elements of Picard, we will avoid major spoilers for those who haven't yet watched.

https://archive.org/details/characterinsightep349 

Dr. Maddox was born in San Francisco on Earth, so it should come as no surprise that he eventually becomes involved in Starfleet.  To this end, he is a cyberneticist that works his way up the ranks of the Daystrom Institute.  He eventually becomes the Chair of Robotics at Daystrom.

Once Maddox learns of Dr. Nooian Soong and his androids like Commander Data, he becomes inspired to make it his life's work to continue improving the field of androids to help humans and other races when in dangerous situations.  His goals sounded good on first blush, but as Captain Picard would contest in the trial in the episode The Measure of a Man, his vision of duplicating androids as forced labor could also be argued to be nothing more than slavery of a sentient android race.

In that aforementioned episode of TNG, Dr. Maddox is a young Commander in Starfleet and has earned Admiral Nakamura's blessing on a plan to disassemble and reverse-engineer Commander Data.  Data objects to the plan because he believes Maddox will not be able to preserve the important nuances of his positronic brain that defines who he is.  Maddox orders Data to be transferred to his command, leading to Data's resignation from Starfleet and an eventual trial to determine if Data is a sentient lifeform allowed to make such a decision.

QUOTE - "You are imparting Human qualities to it because it looks Human – but I assure you: it is not. If it were a box on wheels I would not be facing this opposition."

Of course, Captain Picard is successful in a trial against the arguments of Maddox in front of one of the Captains serving in the Judge Advocate General's office.  So Data is deemed to be a sentient being, a critical moment that really begins his character development arc for the remainder of TNG.  Despite the loss, Maddox remains dedicated to his goals of continuing Dr. Soong's research, including by learning more about Data through correspondence with him, as we also see in the episode Data's Day which the main show covered a couple weeks ago.

The story of Maddox and his research is then left as one of many open ends in TNG, and it's one that fits neatly into the Star Trek Picard story, which centers around synthetic life forms.  Thus, it should be no surprise that Dr. Maddox re-appears in the new show, but you'll have to watch for yourself to see where Dr. Maddox's story goes from there.

Bruce Maddox was played by Brian Brophy in his TNG appearance, and although we don't cover details of the new Picard stuff yet here, John Ales is the actor who picked up the role this year.  Brophy has been largely retired from acting since the early 2000's, but you can spot him in small roles in great films including The Shawshank Redemption and Armageddon.  He is currently the director of theater at the California Institute of Technology.

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Character Insight No. 348: Tal Shiar

Welcome back to Character Insight! This week, we profile the Romulan group Tal Shiar.

https://archive.org/details/characterinsightep348

The Tal Shiar is a Romulan intelligence agency, a sort of secret police force as understood by the Federation.  Like the Federation's Section 31 or the Cardassian Obsidian Order, this largely covert group works to ensure loyalty to the Romulan Star Empire while also pushing agendas in foreign lands as opportunities arise.  It has been posited in Star Trek Picard that this organization is a front for a much older Romulan cabal, but as that is still speculative and in spoiler territory, we'll leave that to our imagination for now.

The Tal Shiar was introduced as a concept in TNG, most notably when an underground movement has Deanna Troi go in Romulan disguise and pose as a well-known Tal Shiar leader to help some Romulan defectors escape to the Federation.  We also learn that the Romulan military and the Tal Shiar distrusted each other, leading to competition and deception even between their respective fleets of warbirds.

The Tal Shiar take a much more important central role in the Dominion War storyline on Deep Space 9.  The Tal Shiar worked with the Obsidian Order to try and carry out a preemptive strike on the Founders homeworld before the war began in earnest, but the Founders had infiltrated the Tal Shiar already and that led to the ambush and massacre of their combined forces in the Battle of the Omarion Nebula.  This ended the Obsidian Order, but the Tal Shiar rose from the ashes and rebuilt itself.

We then see the new leader of the Tal Shiar Koval as he works with the Romulan Continuing Committee as well as with Section 31 as a Federation collaborator.  You can truly never trust the Tal Shiar, as evidenced by how much they secretly collaborate with other covert operatives and organizations.  But they are always there in the background, ready to be an integral part of any story involving high level issues with Romulans and their Star Empire.

As mentioned previously, we will see how the Tal Shiar plays into Star Trek Picard.  This organization provides a nice foil to others in the Star Trek universe and for those who love spy stories and plot twists, the Tal Shiar never fails to provide.

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Character Insight No. 347: Sarina Douglas

Welcome back to Character Insight! This week, we profile Sarina Douglas, a recurring character from a couple episodes of Deep Space 9.

https://archive.org/details/characterinsightep347

Sarina Douglas was a human augment thanks to her parents putting her through an illegal genetic manipulation procedure called accelerated critical neural pathway formation when she was a child.  This advanced her intelligence level to beyond genius, but her visual and auditory systems could not keep up with her enhanced cerebral cortex in her brain.  As a result, she couldn't focus on the outside world and this made her appear to be a non-responsive mute.

Eventually Sarina ends up at a Federation special needs institute where her and several other augments receive treatment.  She was primarily supervised and treated by Dr. Karen Loews over 15-plus years, and Loews eventually becomes Sarina's legal guardian as well.

We first meet Sarina when Dr. Loews brings her and the small group of augments the doctor manages to Deep Space 9 to be studied and perhaps helped by Dr. Bashir, a fellow genetically-enhanced augment.  During this three weeks on board the station, Sarina helps the Federation efforts in the Dominion War by figuring out a way to negotiate with Weyoun to get the Dominion to cede more territory back to the Federation.  However, this turns south when the augments calculate that the Federation will lose the war and lots of lives will be sacrificed in the losing effort.

The augments put a plan into motion to contact the Dominion and provide them with critical information on how to win the Alpha Quadrant with minimal loss of life.  However, Bashir gets through to Sarina before the plan is implemented and the augments leave the station without further interference in the war.

A year later, Sarina is brought back to Deep Space 9 to undergo a new treatment he had developed to try and allow her brain to properly handle information from her senses.  This treatment is successful and we get to watch Sarina re-learn how to speak and interact with her surroundings.  Sarina also falls in love temporarily with Bashir, but as Bashir's romances often end up, it goes too quickly and she leaves, heading to an internship at a research center.

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Sarina serves as another of many examples where genetic engineering goes wrong in the Trek universe, but her story has a happy ending while allowing Dr. Bashir to have some further important character development, including some further insight into his own augment history.  Her return in the episode Chrysalis is one of the more positive one-off episodes in the middle of the mostly-dark Dominion War story arc.

Sarina was played by Faith Salie in both appearances, although after not having any dialogue in her first appearance, the show producers auditioned her before the second episode to make sure she would shine in a dialogue-heavy episode.  Salie has not acted in about 15 years, but she has gone on to better fame in radio as a host and producer of the NPR show Fair Game from PRI with Faith Salie.

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Character Insight No. 346: Remembering Rene Auberjonois and His Roles

Welcome back to Character Insight! This week, we catch up on the sad news during my recent break and do a memorial segment honoring the life and career of Rene Auberjonois, who passed away in December.

https://archive.org/details/characterinsightep346


Auberjonois became the first regular cast member of any Trek spinoff show to pass away at the end of last year, and his contributions in acting will stand the test of time well beyond our realm of Star Trek. His family background is very interesting as his mother was a princess descended from the family of Napoleon Bonaparte. He grew up in New York City as the son of a journalist and the grandson of a painter, so his passion and connection to the arts began early in life.

As with many actors, he began his career on Broadway in many plays of the 1960's and 70's. His first breakthrough television role was as the memorable Clayton Endicott III on the comedy series Benson in the 1980's. During this time and the following years, Auberjonois became a regular face in many films and television shows, though mostly in smaller roles. One such small role was as Starfleet Colonel West in Star Trek VI, but his scenes were cut from the theatrical release of this film.

That opened the door of Trek to him, and he quickly earned the role of Odo, the chief of security aboard Deep Space 9. As the changeling Founders became a core nemesis in the DS9 story arc, it allowed Auberjonois to really stretch his legs in character development as we learned more about the other side of the conflict through Odo's own discovery of his kind. Although he had to endure long days in the makeup chair, usually alongside close friend Armin Schimmerman, he added a lot of gravity and acting chops to the show that raised the game of everyone else in the cast.

Auberjonois was considered strongly for the EMH role in Voyager, but his only other Trek role came in a guest appearance as a character named Ezral in Enterprise. Around this same time, he got to co-star with William Shatner in Boston Legal, which was a legal comedy spun off from another show he appeared in called The Practice. If you want to enjoy more of Auberjonois's work, I recommend this show highly, even as an attorney who generally dislikes legal shows.

Auberjonois was married for the final 56 years of his life and leaves behind two children, Tessa and Remy, who have also dabbled in their father's acting craft. As someone who was very quotable, we'll leave you with two of his quotes about life and acting:

- "If you do your job properly you usually learn a lot about yourself from any role you play."
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- "The best part is the part I'm working at the moment."

Rest in peace, Rene, and thank you for your great contributions to the growing tapestry of Star Trek.

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Character Insight No. 345: Prepping for Star Trek Picard

Welcome back to Character Insight! I apologize for my absence over the holidays and past few weeks as I dealt with a bug that took my voice away with coughing fits most days, but I'm back for the new year just in time for new Trek.  To that end, This week, we provide some guidance on what to re-watch in preparation for Star Trek Picard, which launches later this week.

https://archive.org/details/characterinsightep345 

Whether you are binging some content before Picard begins or you are seeking some filler to spend the long hours between each week's episode release, a good way to spend this time is watching the best Picard content previously released.  So with that in mind, and looking at some of the characters and themes that appeared in the trailers for the new show, here are some suggestions for episodes and movies to catch up on.  I've split these by some themes rather than by chronological order, as you may want to focus on particular themes especially after they come up in the new show.

Picard

Family, TNG S4

Tapestry, TNG S6

Starship Mine, TNG S6

All Good Things, TNG S7

These Picard-centric episodes provide some of the best glimpses we have into the multi-faceted Captain.  Family is probably the must-watch here for the new series, but the TNG finale also provides a similar future vision to what it appears we will end up with in the new series.  

Borg

Q Who, TNG S2

Best of Both Worlds, TNG S3/4

I, Borg, TNG S5

First Contact (movie)

For the Borg, these selections hit the beginning and the high points of Picard's interaction with them.  As it is confirmed that the former Borg drone Hugh will be in the series, the one episode you should definitely refresh is I, Borg.

Data

The Measure of a Man, TNG S2

Data's Day, S4

Descent, TNG S6/7

Nemesis (movie)

Turning to Data, I've selected a sampling showing the many investigations we have into Data's journey and desire to become more human.  The new series will certainly pick up on the threads left by Data's demise in Nemesis, but even the other movies Generations and First Contact are helpful in refreshing yourself on Data's storyline.

Romulans

The Defector, TNG S3

Unification, TNG S5

Face of the Enemy, TNG S6

Inter Arma Eni Silent Leges, DS9 S7

Star Trek (2009 movie)

Reading the earl grey tea leaves, it seems the Romulans will play a central role in the new series following the events of the Abrams 2009 movie, so that's required viewing.  Just like Klingons in Discovery, it may be helpful to have some background on what we know about how Romulans work, and that's why these episodes have been identified.  Of course, I would also expect the new series to provide its own background on Romulans if relevant.

Seven of Nine

Scorpion, VOY S3/4

The Gift, VOY S4

One, VOY S4

Infinite Regress, VOY S5

Finally, we also know Seven is coming back, and much like the Borg episodes, this selection both shows the high points of her character development and more background on the all-important Borg.  

Even if some of this material is not that relevant to the new series, it will be enjoyable to visit these high points in the series coming back together in the new show.  For those of us who grew up on TNG and the like, this is what we've been dreaming of, so let's get excited and enjoy the next chapter for our Captain and the rest.

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