"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 UPN in the United States. It was written by Brent V. Friedman and Chris Black from a story idea from Friedman and Paul Brown, and 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 ongoing 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. The critical reception was mixed with criticism levelled at its "gratuitous" female sexuality, but the reviewers were pleased that it showed a sense of continuity in the overall Xindi arc with it described as a "space opera".
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."
Dell Yount appeared as B'Rat; he had previously appeared in the Deep Space Nine episode "Sons of Mogh". 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.
Michelle Erica Green of TrekNation, 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". She thought that the Rajiin character was a cliché, calling her a "trained slut who comes on to everyone around her". Green described the overall plot as "feeble", but praised the alien bazaar set. 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". He felt that the scenes were reminiscent of comic books, saying that "There's nothing really wrong with that. Nothing great about it either." He gave it a score of 2.5 out of 4.
Home media release
The first home media release of "Rajiin" was as part of the season three DVD box set, released in the United States on September 27, 2005. The Blu-ray release of the third season of Enterprise took place on January 7, 2014.