Instead of touring space like a buncha intergalactic lookieloos, the crew gets a new mission: Save the world!
"Of the Star Trek movies," Berman said, "two of the most successful and popular, amongst both the general box office and the fans, were Star Trek IV — the one about the whales — and Star Trek: First Contact. They were both movies that dealt with impending destruction of the Earth, huge stakes that Enterprise and its crew had to go out and undo. So our thought was that, rather than just have a general mission of exploring space peacefully, [we'd] do a portion or maybe even an entire season where we had a very specific and a very immediate and a very dangerous situation."

Bye bye, Borg!
Braga said Earth's Xindi invaders "are comprised of five different, distinct species, two of which are CGI computer-generated creatures. We're not really planning to bring Klingons and Borg and those kind of things into the third season."

But wait, we need the Xindi nitty gritty.
The five Xindi species, according to Braga, look like this: There's humanoids, who are "very close to human beings in appearance and culture." Then, there's reptilians, insectoids and aquatics, which are "presumably evolved from some sort of dolphin or whale." There's also giant sloth-like guys, which are "evolved from arboreal primates." Translation: They'll be ugly and scary!

Vulcan vixen T'Pol and Capt. Archer are unlikely to hook up — dang it! But will she take a Trip?
At the TCA session, Berman teased: "If we see any romantic interaction between Ms. [Jolene] Blalock and anybody on this panel, it's probably the man sitting to her left." He meant Connor Trinneer, who plays Trip. Look for the duo to "form a connection" as the Vulcan's emotional journey coincides with Trip's anger management problems, which result from his sister's death.

Finally! Archer gets a backbone.
Fans have long complained that Archer's too peacenik for a Trek captain. "That peaceful, 'We come in friendship from Earth' guy is gone," Bakula enthused. "And it's not that a warrior has replaced him, but there's so much at stake. I think it's kind of a shock for everybody. Some of the things I've done in the first three episodes [of Season Three] have shocked the other crew members on the ship — and I think that's all good."