future will certainly choose to wear tight, uncomfortable, skin-tight catsuits!" "The Xindi" was seen as a new pilot by executive producers Brannon Braga and Rick Berman, who also wrote the episode. Braga said "We were re-establishing an Enterprise that was going to be a little bit different this year, so we had to think of it in those terms." They felt the best way to do this was to immediately reveal the Xindi to the audience, and to give the MACOs something to do in order to introduce them. He called it a "big episode" as they sought to set up the rest of season. The shoot began on June 26, 2003, taking nine days instead of the usual seven to complete. One of the special effects used ground Styrofoam, which had been dyed blue and processed through a wood chipper, to represent the mineral Trellium-D. The Styrofoam particles stuck to the actors' shoes and costumes and ended up being spread throughout the Paramount lot where the series was filmed. It would turn up in unexpected places on set for the rest of the series, and was found in among the sets as they were being dismantled after the end of season four. Guest cast "The Xindi" featured several actors who would reappear throughout the season. These included the MACO marines under the command of Major Hayes, played by Steven Culp, in his first of five episodes. At the time of his appearance in "The Xindi", he felt that he did not have any characterisation to work with. During the production of his second episode, "The Shipment", Culp read an article in the Los Angeles Times about a troubled youth who joined the military and in serving in the Iraq War had found himself. After discussing it with the director, this became the basis for the character. Daniel Dae Kim made his first of three appearances as Corporal Chang; he had previously appeared as Gotana-Retz in the Voyager episode "Blink of an Eye". Nathan Anderson had previously appeared as Namon in the Voyager episode "Nemesis"; he made one further appearance as Sergeant Kemper in the following episode, "Anomaly". Other actors included the members of the Xindi council. As with Kim and Anderson, Tucker Smallwood had already appeared on Voyager, as Admiral Bullock in the episode "In the Flesh". He appeared as his Xindi character nine times during the third season