Unnamed Alpha and Beta Quadrant planets

Unnamed Alpha and Beta Quadrant planets

The Xindi Council planet was the home to the Xindi Council. Its location was top-secret, and the planet was located inside a security zone. The planet was located approximately fifty light years from the Sol system.

The Council chambers were located in a fortress built into a mountainside by the Xindi-Avians sometime in the 2nd millennium BC. The fortress was two kilometers above ground level and was perfectly concealed by the cloud layer that surrounded it. The only way in was through the air.

After the Xindi weapon's location on Azati Prime was discovered by the Humans, it was moved to the Council planet. It was located in a large underground facility in a rocky portion of the planet. (ENT: "The Xindi", "The Council")

The surface of the planet in detail

Appearances

• ENT:
  • "The Xindi" (Council chamber only)
  • "Rajiin" (Council chamber only)
  • "Exile" (Council chamber in telepathic vision only)
  • "The Shipment" (Council chamber only)
  • "Proving Ground" (Council chamber only)
  • "Damage" (Council chamber only)
  • "The Council"

The Xindi Council planet is also referenced in "The Forgotten", though does not appear in that installment.

Background information

In the scripts for "The Xindi" and "Rajiin", the Council chamber was commonly referred to as "Xindi secret chamber". In both scripts, it was described as "a large, dark chamber". However, the script of "The Xindi" referred to the room having "a donut-shaped table in the center," whereas the "Rajiin" script described the table at the center of the room as "triangular". Both scripts made reference to "graphics on the table-top" which dimly illuminated the Xindi sitting there. However, no such graphics actually appear in the final version of the room as depicted in those scenes.

The set for the Council chamber was built especially for ENT Season 3 premiere "The Xindi" and remained standing throughout the entirety of that season. ("The Xindi" text commentary, ENT Season 3 DVD) Production Designer Herman Zimmerman noted, "[It] wasn't taken down until just before the last show." (Star Trek: Communicator issue 151, p. 55) The set was situated on Paramount Stage 8. ("Impulse" text commentary, ENT Season 3 DVD)

Since the production staffers were at first unsure how the Council chamber would work, it was decided only retroactively that the room's designers had been the now-extinct Xindi-Avians. "At the time we knew that there were Insectoids and Reptilians," remembered Herman Zimmerman, "so there's a certain look of spurs in the columns, for instance; later on, that didn't work at all as Insectoid or Reptilian, but it worked fine for Avians because talons are like spurs – so we feel we kinda lucked out in choosing that as a leit motif." (Star Trek: Communicator issue 151, p. 55)

Herman Zimmerman was additionally instrumental in designing the Council chamber's other features, including its access points. "We had a discussion about Forbidden Planet," he recollected, "because I've always admired the triangular doorways there, and we emulated a variation [....] On the columns [that made up the doorways], there's a little spot where it juts out, and then juts out again; [and] the spaces between them get wider as you go from the ceiling to the floor. It's a minor thing – as most environmental things are in design, you don't notice it unless it's wrong! So if you accepted it, then we did our job. We designed the table after some kind of organic fluid look, as much as we could do with ordinary carpentry. The whole room was designed so there were no parallel walls, for instance; it was a kind of a dead room, soundwise; it was an interesting way to make a council chamber seem a little more eerie, because people walked down the halls or across the room and there's no footfalls, there's no sound." (Star Trek: Communicator issue 151, p. 55)

For "The Council", a concept sketch of a mountainous Xindi-Avian fortress was drawn by illustrator John Eaves. The image can be seen here.