Rajiin

"Rajiin" is the 56th episode of the American science fiction television series Star Trek: Enterprise, the fourth episode of season three. It first aired on October 1, 2003, on the UPN network in the United States. The episode was written by Brent V. Friedman and Chris Black from a story idea from Friedman and Paul Brown, and was directed by Mike Vejar.

Set in the 22nd century, the series follows the adventures of the first Starfleet starship Enterprise, registration NX-01. Season three of Enterprise features an on-going story following an attack on Earth by previously unknown aliens called the Xindi. In this episode, Captain Jonathan Archer (Scott Bakula) and the crew visit an alien bazaar seeking a formula to help protect the ship against the anomalies in the Delphic Expanse. They bring back on board a former slave called Rajiin (Nikita Ager), whose motivations are not what the crew initially believe.

Several sets were built for the episode, including the alien bazaar. Filming took longer than the normal seven days, with secondary shoots taking an additional day and a half. It was the highest-rated episode of the season so far, with 4.52 million viewers watching the first broadcast. However, the critical reception was mixed with criticism levelled at the "gratitious" female sexuality seen but the reviewers were pleased that it showed a sense of continuity in the overall Xindi arc with it described as a "space opera".^[2][3]

Plot

The Xindi Council meet to discuss the progress of Enterprise in the Delphic Expanse. Although the Reptilians and Insectoids want to attack the humans, Degra (Randy Oglesby) advises them to continue with the plan to build the superweapon. On Enterprise, Sub-commander T'Pol (Jolene Blalock) continues to help Commander Charles "Trip" Tucker (Connor Trinneer) with Vulcan nerve therapy sessions. Tucker admits his reluctance due to mocking from other crew-members, but T'Pol convinces him otherwise. The ship, seeking the formula for a chemical compound to protect it from spatial anomalies within the expanse, approaches a planet with a vast alien bazaar. Captain Jonathan Archer (Scott Bakula) leads an away team to meet with B'Rat (Dell Yount), a chemist.

He sells them the formula and also informs them that the Xindi recently visited a merchant nearby. Archer meets with the merchant, Zjod (Steve Larson), who tries to sell him a slave called Rajiin (Nikita Ager). Archer refuses and leaves, but Rajiin chases after him. Following a fight between Archer and Zjod, the away team leave with Rajiin in tow. Once on the ship, Archer promises to return Rajiin to her home planet. Later she approaches Archer in his quarters and seduces him, putting him in a trance. As she touches him, his skin illuminates and when she leaves, he no longer remembers her visit. Meanwhile, T'Pol and Tucker attempt to replicate the trellium-D chemical from B'Rat's formula but the first attempt fails. Afterwards, T'Pol returns to her cabin and is surprised when Rajiin arrives.

T'Pol manages to resist Rajiin to a degree, but is still entranced by the alien until the trance is broken when Tucker arrives. Rajiin attempts to flee using the transporter, but is captured and placed in the brig. As Archer attempts to interrogate Rajiin, Lt Cmdr. Malcolm Reed (Dominic Keating) informs him that two Xindi-Reptilian ships are on an intercept course. Rajiin admits she was gathering information for the Xindi as Enterprise is boarded. The Xindi retrieve Rajiin and take her back to one of her ships. Enterprise attempts to pursue the ships but the Xindi ship enters a subspace vortex. Afterwards, the Xindi Council convenes again to discuss the data retrieved by Rajiin, with them aiming to construct a new bio-weapon.

Production

Filming on "Rajiin" began on July 30, 2003, and primary shooting concluded after seven days filming on August 7. The second unit continued on August 8, with a further half day of shooting taking place the following week during the filming of the following episode "Impulse". This was the first episode to be worked on by Brent V. Friedman, who had joined the staff as a Consulting Producer. He had previously been a producer on other similar genre television series such as Dark Skies and The Twilight Zone. "Rajiin" was directed by Mike Vejar, who had previously directed episodes of The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine and Voyager. This was his fifth episode of Enterprise, and his first of season three.^[4]

Several sets were built for this episode, including an alien bazaar and a chemical laboratory. As the Xindi council returned in Rajiin for the first time after the first episode of the season "The Xindi", the guest stars who had appeared as their members returned. These included Tucker Smallwood, Randy Oglesby, Rick Worthy and Scott MacDonald. The titular character, Rajiin, was played by Nikita Ager. She had recently appeared in the television film Mermaids which had also been co-written by Friedman. Main cast member Dominic Keating described Ager, saying "This girl is HOT! Oh my word. I forgot my lines a couple of times."^[4] Dell Yount appeared as B'Rat; he had previously appeared in the Deep Space Nine episode "Sons of Mogh".^[4]

Reception and home media release

"Rajiin" was first aired on October 1, 2003 on UPN. It received a 2.7/4% share, meaning that it was seen by 2.6 percent of all households, and 4 percent of all households watching television at the time of the broadcast. This translated to approximately 4.52 million viewers. It was the highest rated episode of season three at that point, despite it going up against Smallville on The WB for the first time this season.^[5]

In her review for TrekNation, Michelle Erica Green said that she was pleased with the continuity seen in "Rajiin" but felt that the female sexuality seen in this episode was the "most gratuitous... I can remember on Trek".^[2] She thought that the Rajiin character was a cliché, calling her a "trained slut who comes on to everyone around her".^[2] Green described the overall plot as "feeble",^[2] but praised the alien bazaar set.^[2] Jamahl Epsicokhan, on his website "Jammer's Reviews", said that "Rajiin" demonstrated that there was an intention for the Xindi story-arc to be a fully fledged space opera. He thought that the episode was average for the third season, and wasn't as good as "Anomaly". However, he felt that the scenes were reminiscent of comic books, saying that "There's nothing really wrong with that. Nothing great about it either."^[3] He gave it a score of 2.5/4.^[3]

The only home media release of "Rajiin" has been as part of the season three DVD box set, released in the United States on September 27, 2005.^[6] The Blu-ray release of Enterprise was announced in early 2013.^[7]

References

External links

• Rajiin at the Internet Movie Database
• "Rajiin" at TV.com
• Rajiin at Memory Alpha (a Star Trek wiki)
• Rajiin at StarTrek.com