"Our mission is to make contact with those who humans consider new life and civilizations." - Jolene Blalock as Subcommander T'Pol
Star Trek: Enterprise: Season One DVD Review
By A.J. Carson
When Star Trek: Voyager was cancelled in the spring of 2001 to make way for a new entry in the sci-fi series, Star Trek's creative team faced a daunting task: how to freshen up the franchise without alienating hardcore fans. After all, the various Star Trek series had run a total of twenty-four seasons collectively, leaving precious little ground in the Trek universe uncovered. Their solution? Star Trek: Enterprise, a prequel, which premiered September 26, 2001 on UPN.
Enterprise is set in 2151, a century before the time period covered in the original Star Trek, and one hundred years after humans first met Vulcans. Jonathan Archer (Quantum Leap's Scott Bakula) is captain of the soon-to-be-launched Enterprise, a ship whose engine is able to travel one hundred times faster than previous warp engines. Earth's Vulcan advisors do not believe that humans are ready for the deep space travel that Enterprise will afford them, but they agree to provide the crew Vulcan star charts if Captain Archer takes on Vulcan T'Pol (Jolene Blalock) as his science officer. Archer resents Vulcan interference - he feels that they have been holding humans back - but agrees to their demand. Rounding out Archer's crew are British-born security chief Malcolm Reed (Dominic Keating), former cargo ship boomer Travis Mayweather (Anthony Montgomery), communications expert Hoshi Sato (Linda Park), chief engineer Charles "Trip" Tucker (Connor Trinneer), and Denobulan physician Dr. Phlox (John Billingsley). Together, they set off to explore the vast reaches of space, visiting areas that human eyes have never seen.
Since the Enterprise is the first starship of its kind, the vessel is rather low tech. Transporter technology is new and somewhat unproven, making the crew reluctant to use it to transport humans. The ship's systems - including its weapons - are prone to failure, and no one knows what it is really capable of doing. Even the onboard medical techniques are primitive. Dr. Phlox is just as prone to using eels, leeches, and other creatures to help heal his patients as he is the ship's computers.
As in other Star Trek series, the crew of the Enterprise often embarks on stand-alone adventures. Two plot threads that weave in and out of the entire season lend the show a serialized feel. One involves the Vulcans, and whether or not they can be trusted. The Vulcans are not quite the emotionless proponents of logic epitomized by Spock in the original series. Instead, they are secretive and vaguely sinister. Archer spends much time in season one questioning their motives. Although he sometimes seems to be on the verge of discovering the reasons behind their surreptitiousness, the answer evades him.
The major recurring plot in the first season, however, is the Temporal Cold War. Far beyond Enterprise's time, when time travel was first invented, the Great Temporal Accord was signed. This treaty was meant to ensure that time travel would only be used for observation and research. Manipulating time was strictly prohibited. The treaty was broken, and the Cold War began. One faction is using genetically modified Suliban to "fight" the war in Archer's time by changing the course of history. This plotline leads to several of the season's best episodes, including the action-packed season-ending cliffhanger "Shockwave, Part I."
In previous Star Trek series, the characters were essentially noble and idealistic. Star Trek: The Next Generation's Captain Picard, for example, was stoic to the point of imperiousness. The personalities aboard Enterprise are not as evolved. Instead, the creators have gone out of their way to make the characters more human and fallible. Captain Archer can be a bit of a hothead. In the series pilot, when told by T'Pol that he needs to show restraint, the captain replies that he's restraining himself from knocking her on her ass. His dislike of Vulcans verges on xenophobia, a characteristic rarely seen in the world of Star Trek. Yet he's also softer than other captains we've seen. In "Fight or Flight," for example, he sprawls on the floor of his cabin listening for a squeak, and later slides down a stair railing like a giddy schoolboy.
In their commentary on "Broken Bow," co-creators/executive producers Brannon Braga and Rick Berman indicate that part of the reason for these personality changes is that they wanted Enterprise to focus more on character than previous Trek incarnations. This is a terrific idea - it makes the characters more relatable - but some episodes are better at achieving this than others. The secondary characters often come across as one dimensional, especially in early episodes. Hoshi is annoyingly prissy when her fears and neuroses bubble to the surface in "Fight or Flight." Indeed, for several episodes she is defined by her fears and lack of grace under pressure, rather than having them simply become a single facet of a complex character. The other characters face similar dilemmas, although most become more fully-rounded by the end of the season.
Another of Enterprise's unavoidable flaws is a nearly unsolvable aesthetic and psychological problem. As noted, Enterprise is set one hundred years before the events depicted in the original Star Trek. The technologies and equipment available to its crew would, logically, be more primitive than those available on Captain Kirk's ship. Filming techniques and special effects have improved greatly in the forty years since the first Star Trek was produced. Kirk's Enterprise appears to be made of cardboard, bubble gum, and tin foil. Christmas tree lights are often the most sophisticated part of its scenery. With Enterprise's computer generated imagery and lush production values, it is virtually impossible for the series to appear more low-tech than the original. In some ways, this is nitpicking - it's not like the new Enterprise should have been constructed out of papier-mache simply so that it looks rudimentary compared to the old - but it does present a hurdle that the producers are not quite able to overcome.
Speaking of hurdles, special mention must be made of the series' opening credits sequence. Visually, it's a stunner, presenting inspirational images of mankind's exploration of our world throughout the ages, from clipper ships through space travel. Unfortunately, it is marred by the worst-ever Star Trek theme song: a Diane Warren-penned power ballad called "Faith of the Heart," sung with groin-straining brio by Rod Stewart-esque Russell Watson. As far as bombastic power ballads go, the song isn't unbearable. If it had been released as a single in 1986, it surely would have hit the top forty. As the theme song of a twenty-first century sci-fi series, however, it's almost laughable.
But while it's easy to gripe about Enterprise's silly theme song and its other flaws, it is just as easy to recognize that this series and the others in the Star Trek canon are light years ahead of most other sci-fi shows in term of quality and entertainment value. The series looks terrific, its cast is immensely likeable, and its scripts are intelligent. Flawed? Yes. But with such a high standard of excellence, even flawed Star Trek is well worth watching.
The twenty-six episodes that make up the first season are arranged in airdate order on seven discs. The discs are housed in cobalt blue plastic holders that are "bound" book-style via a clear strip of tape along the left hand side. Listed on the disc faces are the episode titles, episode dates (the date the episode "took place" in the Star Trek universe), and original airdates. The case slides into a clear plastic sleeve imprinted with Enterprise's insignia. A brochure gives plot synopses, a brief written introduction to the series, and an intro to the Prime Directive. Also included is a coupon for the Borg Invasion 4-D attraction at the Las Vegas Hilton. The plastic DVD holder and the brochure fit into an outer plastic canister. This silver canister vaguely resembles a canteen. The canister stands upright on its own. As with the packaging for Star Trek: The Original Series, Enterprise's canister manages to maintain cachet as a conversation piece without becoming a bulky eyesore.
The DVD menus - featuring a computer animated Enterprise - are just as impressive as we've come to expect from Star Trek releases.
