The Xindi conflict is coming to a head according to Star Trek: Enterprise's Scott Bakula (Captain Jonathan Archer), and this season will likely see the conclusion of Enterprise's mission in the Expanse.

Speaking in a chat at StarTrek.com last night, Bakula revealed that the Xindi's motivations will be soon be clear. "I would say there's a very good chance that many of the questions we've all been having about the Xindi and their direction will be answered very soon," he said. Though the Xindi storyline itself might not be finished, Bakula noted, "it looks like our visit to the Expanse will wrap up" at the end of the season.

Though the conflict with the Xindi may be over in the immediate future, Bakula doesn't forsee the characters forgetting the experience with the species anytime soon. "I think this conflict with the Xindi will change all of us forever," he said. "So the return to normalcy is going to be difficult and I personally don't see us ever being the same as we were before. Which again, will set us into new places with different approaches from here on out."

The Federation is another hot topic, and Bakula suggested that it would be addressed sometime in the show's future. "The Federation does come up again. I guess most recently with Daniels, who mentions it again," he said. "I don't know if we'll get into it much this year, but it looks to be something that will be coming up in the future."

When a fan praised the acting of this season, Bakula thanked the fans for their support of the show. "Thank you all for supporting us this season," he said. "We all have to make a big push--we get five original episodes in a row, then a break in March, then we're back for original shows until the end of the seaon. Thanks for the support, keep bugging the network. We've been working really hard to give you a great product and something we're all proud of."

Bakula also went on to reveal some details about upcoming episodes. He mentioned the episode "E2" (also known as "E?" or "E-Squared"), which he noted was being shot now. He told fans that it was written by Mike Sussman and directed by Roxann Dawson. He didn't reveal any plot details, except to say that, "If you think about that title, it is actually giving a lot of the episode away. But it's a great episode along the lines of "Twlight" and Similitude". It's a classic sci-fi and Star Trek episode."

Bakula was a little more forthcoming about next week's new episode, "Harbinger". "[It] is an interesting episode. It's actually a three-pronged episode," he revealed. "We find a body floating in a pod in a nebula, and we try to figure out who he is. Meanwhile, Dominic [Keating] and the MACOs get into it. Big power struggle on board. And Trip and T'Pol get into another kind of struggle...of a physical kind. There's a lot going on."

He also noted that Porthos would be getting significant screentime in the episode following "Harbinger," entitled "Doctor's Orders". "Porthos has had more screen time than I have in some episodes!" he joked. "Certainly in "Doctor's Orders" he gets a lot of screen time." He also noted that John Billingsly (Dr. Phlox) and Jolene Blalock (T'Pol) would be featured heavily in the episode.

When a fan asked about Bakula's reaction to the Andorians' moving antennae, he said that they make him laugh, but can prove an irritant when it comes to filming. "The only time I'm feeling the urge to rip them off is when I'm looping," he revealed. "Because of the nature of the mechanics, they make noise when they move, so we always have to replace the dialog. I've about had it with their cuteness!"

But Bakula thinks the antennae were put to good use in the recent episode "Proving Ground", which heralded the return of Jeffrey Combs's General Shran. "I loved the opening shot that showed the antennae coming out of my head as I was blocking Jeffrey on screen," Bakula commented. "That was [director] David Livingston's idea. The puppeteers are quite wonderful. And definitely it's part of their characer and personality. And they react like an actor on screen, and they do some funny things."

Bakula's sense of humor shined through in the chat. When someone asked him who he most enjoyed having a scene in the decon chamber with, he answered, "Porthos. Phlox would be a close second." When a network glitched caused a temporary outtage, Bakula joked, "The Expanse is very very far away...sometimes communications go down. Obviously our subspace transceiver took a hit. And it wasn't the Suliban this time!"

For the complete chat transcript, in which Bakula also discusses Quantum Leap, his favorite television shows, and the Superbowl, visit the transcript here at StarTrek.com!

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