Degra Degra was a prominent Xindi - Primate scientist who represented his people on the Xindi Council . He was the primary designer of the Xindi weapon . Early life . Degra was a family man ; he was very attached to his wife , Naara , and his two children named Piral and Jaina . At one point , his wife was pregnant with a third child they were going to name Trenia , but three months into the pregnancy , his wife contracted Anaprolean Fever and the child died . ( ) The Human threat . After entered the Delphic Expanse , members of the Xindi Council wanted to attack the ship because they believed that it was the first ship of an invasion force . Degra was against attacking the vessel , feeling that such an action could reveal the Xindi and their presence . Degra believed that it was best to keep hidden until the new weapon was complete . He was able to persuade the council to follow this course of action . ( ) Degra ' s work on the Xindi weapon took years . It was too slow to progress for the Council at times ; after an accident in his laboratory , the Council went so far as to consider dropping his project in favor of a bio - weapon . Degra insisted that they did not have enough information about Human anatomy to make a bio - weapon . The Reptilians brought in Rajiin , who was able to provide the Council with biometric scan s she took on " Enterprise " . With this new information , the Xindi had the information needed for a bio - weapon . In October of 2153 , Degra visited a Xindi - Arboreal colony to acquire some kemocite for his weapon . Jonathan Archer had convinced Gralik , the Xindi in charge of the processing center , to sabotage the kemocite , which caused further delays in completing the weapon . ( ) Later , Degra conducted a test that not only ended up being below expectations , but also lost the prototype weapon . He tested the prototype in the Calindra system . When the weapon was launched , its power was immense , but the power was unstable and it did not completely destroy the planet . When " Enterprise " attempted to capture the weapon , Degra ordered all the defending ships to attack , not realizing that the Andorian s , who ultimately managed to capture the prototype weapon , were assisting the Humans . ( ) Degra was captured by " Enterprise " after the failed test , and Archer was able to trick him into revealing the location of the weapon . He led Degra to believe that they were three years in the future . Degra also believed that the Xindi had destroyed Earth , but that the victory had led to a civil war among the various Xindi species . He was furthermore fooled into believing he had been imprisoned with Archer in an Insectoid prison . Degra then revealed that the weapon was at Azati Prime . However , he caught on to Archer ' s ruse and tried to attack him . Degra later inadvertently confirmed that Azati Prime was the weapon site , shouting at Archer , " " You ' ll never get close to the weapon ! Our defense perimeter will destroy you ! " " Afterwards , his and his colleagues ' memories were then wiped clean and Degra was returned to his own ship along with his assistants . ( ) Degra felt immensely guilty that he had caused the attack on Earth that killed over seven million people , most of whom had been innocents and children . As he worked on the final weapon , he kept on reassuring himself that destroying Earth would save his own people . After Archer was captured by the Reptilians , he demanded to talk to Degra . Degra arrived and listened to Archer , who told him that deploying the Xindi weapon would lead to the extinction of both their species , and that the Sphere - Builder s were manipulating the Xindi . Degra began to believe Archer and insisted that the Reptilians call off the attack on " Enterprise " . When they refused , Degra persuaded the Council to order a halt to the attack . ( ) Degra was the first Xindi Council member to trust Archer ; he was swayed by evidence Archer presented showing that the Guardians were lying to the Xindi . Degra met with Archer aboard " Enterprise " , and was shown the corpses of the Reptilians who Archer had followed into the past and prevented building a bio - weapon . He also showed Degra the body of one of the Sphere - Builder species who served as a test subject . Degra was shown data that proved that the spheres were changing space so that the Sphere - Builders could inhabit the region . When a Reptilian ship approached " Enterprise " and Degra ' s ship , Degra helped destroy the Reptilian ship . He arranged for Archer to present his case to the Xindi Council in February of 2154 . ( ) After Archer spoke to the Council with Degra ' s support , the Xindi reconsidered their attack on Earth . Dolim pretended to be swayed to Degra ' s side , but turned out to be deceiving him ; Dolim murdered Degra in retribution for Degra ' s destruction of the Reptilian ship . As Degra was dying , Dolim promised to find and kill Degra ' s wife and children as well . Dolim , however , was unable to carry out his threat , as he was killed by Archer , who was attempting to stop Dolim from destroying Earth . ( ) Appendices . Background information . Degra was played by Randy Oglesby . Conceptually , the initial inspiration for the character of Degra was . Executive Producer Brannon Braga explained , " " We knew we wanted to create an Oppenheimer - like character who was the mastermind behind building the bomb , who was very committed to his species but wracked with guilt , just like Oppenheimer . We always knew we wanted to do it . " " ( ; Observing another facet that Degra shared with Oppenheimer , Braga noted , " " He killed millions of people . " " ( ) When Degra was introduced in the script of , he was referred to as " a severe - looking male in his 50 ' s . " Randy Oglesby took some clues about Degra from a scene he was asked to read upon auditioning for the role . " " The material I auditioned with , I never actually performed on the show , " " the actor related . " " Evidently it was just something that was created for the sake of the audition . In terms of the character , it was almost the essence of his story . I always imagined the audition scene took place in a laboratory . Somebody comes in and asks me something about building this weapon . I say , ' All right . We are building a weapon , but do you realize what we are going to be doing with this weapon ? ' I confront this other character with the moral dilemma that was the meat and potatoes of my character . " " ( ) Indeed , although Randy Oglesby was initially told – shortly after landing the role – that the character merely " might " be recurring , the dilemma central to Degra ' s persona was expanded on by the writers as ENT Season 3 progressed , forcing him to contemplate his place in the conflict between the Humans and the Xindi . ( ) This was spurred on by Oglesby ' s performances in the part . Brannon Braga remarked , " " We found a great actor [ . . . ] Randy gave us more than we ever expected , so we used the character more than we thought we would . Hopefully the audience got interested in him . " " Braga himself believed the character , as a whole , " worked . " ( ) Oglesby had similar feelings and , shortly after playing the role , he commented , " " The way they have written the character has been very true to their conception , to the writers ' credit [ . . . ] There are just so many nice little personal touches that went along with the character [ . . . ] It was one of the high points of my work , getting to do this big part in such an interesting story . That ' s the bottom line for me . " " ( ) In the final draft script of , Degra was at first described thus ; " " His appearance is very different from when we saw him in the previous episode , . Degra looks haggard . . . his hair has grayed slightly . " " In the same scripted scene , Degra was said to have " a few days ' beard growth , " though this doesn ' t match Degra ' s appearance in the final version of that installment . At which point the concept of Degra ' s murder was thought up is debatable . In one interview , Brannon Braga claimed , " " We didn ' t necessarily know we were going to kill Degra ; that came as the season went on . " " ( ) In a separate interview , Braga stated , " " You ' ve got to take Degra away [ via murder ] . We always knew we would do it . " " ( ) Randy Oglesby had long - held suspicions that Degra would be killed . " " There was kind of an inevitability to it that I love , " " he observed . " " My character is making these choices . I had a feeling he was going to have to die ; I had a feeling he was going to be the sacrificial lamb . " " ( ) Alternatively , Braga – who ultimately liked the death of Degra – considered , " " I think they [ the audience ] were kind of surprised that he got murdered before the season ended . " " ( )