Star Trek: Enterprise: The Complete Series

This review is not for those for whom Enterprise was your first Trek series. You love it, it's yours, and that's fine. My review is for those of us who watched Trek over decades and weigh this show's merits against the other incarnations.During the 4th season of Star Trek Enterprise, a call went out across the internet to save the series from cancellation. I happily responded "Let it die and good riddance".Pointless inclusion of Ferengi, holodecks, lame computer graphics (the Enterprise looked cheap even for 2001. Was that the Gorn? Say it ain't so!), and the tedium of directionless writing summed up this series. The early exploration of space by Starfleet (consisting solely of one vessel, a rather stupid decision) should have been depicted with a sense of wonder. Instead, it all felt routine. Meeting aliens from the original Star Trek series like the Vulcans, Tellarites, Klingons, or Andorians should have been an amazing event in human contact. What a sense of awe, meeting entire civilizations for the first time! Instead, they spent their time exploring every cave set left over from Voyager.So like many of the original Trek fans who stayed away from this series, I was not impressed. After the first few episodes, I would check in now and again and see how the series was doing. I was usually appalled and/or bored. So there are a lot of episodes I missed. For instance, I never saw "The Andorian Incident" from the first season, setting the stage for the revelation that the Vulcans of this time are not followers of Surak, and they need to be led back to the straight and narrow by Archer and crew. (Did they really need to trash the Vulcans to make Enterprise interesting? There are entire civilizations here that would have provided plenty of conflict without slapping graffiti all over Vulcan culture and turning them into Romulans).What is compelling to me now is that the cast and producers acknowledge the show's shortcomings in the extras. Go see the Special Features for Season One, they've got Brannon Braga talking about the ratings dropping. They've got Jolene Blalock expressing her considerable ire that T'Pol was just written (as introduced) to nag the humans. We've got some real honesty here, which I find refreshing. It goes a long way, to coin a phrase.What went wrong with Enterprise could fill entire internet servers. My first example is introducing holodeck technology in first season's "Unexpected". The writers were enamored with the idea of impressing Trip, the Klingons, and the audience with being able to use their newly-found computer background generating. Did they ever stop and think that exploring "strange new worlds" would be far more exciting than impressing us with whether you can generate holodeck settings for the fourth Trek series in a row? (Not to mention that they gave Klingons advanced technology with which to ravage the quadrant with.)In the first season extras, Brannon Braga cites an all-human cast as the reason for their ratings slide. But I think it was because we were yet again saddled with aliens of the week in rubber Halloween masks. In the aforementioned episode, "Unexpected", why put a beautiful woman in a gruesome glued-on mask as Trip's love interest? Why did that poor woman in "Unexpected" have to sit in makeup for 3 hours to look awful?Think of Kirk's "Wink of an Eye", where he battled a rival over the beautiful Deela played by Kathie Browne. Unrealistic? But rubber foreheads are no more realistic, real aliens might look like a praying mantis, a column of quartz crystal, or a sentient fog. All too expensive for Enterprise. So why not put these beautiful (and handsome) guest stars in some spare makeup and get on with the plot? Same for every episode of this series.Speaking of which, it would have been a nice conclusion to the "Broken Bow" pilot if the temporal cold war had resulted in the Klingons reverting to their Fu Manchu appearance from Kirk's time. This would have neatly explained the Classic Trek look, would have obviated the stupid story of genetically-modified Klingons (just so Brent Spiner could have a guest shot), and would have neatly introduced in stark terms the menace of the time-traveling aliens.Which brings me to the thing that I think collapsed the ratings for most, seeing the trailer for Ferengi on Enterprise was what ensured I would never be a forgiving viewer and fan. In the NextGen pilot "Encounter at Farpoint", it was established the Federation had never seen the Ferengi. For 70 years, Excelsior-class starships had been exploring deep space, and still had not reached Ferengi territory until the 1701-D Galaxy class was built. And yet we were expected to believe Ferengi just "show up" on Enterprise? Just because you had some of their rubber masks lying around? The producers never understood that the Ferengi were the reason DS9's ratings never improved, and thought we wanted to see them on Enterprise as well. Wrong. They were about as welcome as WWE wrestlers doing guest spots to help UPN (the failed Paramount television network).But those are the reasons the show failed. In rewatching the episodes as a complete set, I find there are highlights and highpoints in the series. It is worth watching again, even if the silly producers introduced a post-9/11 story to be topical. (Gee, there was a Vietnam war in full swing in the 60s, yet Gene Roddenberry didn't hammer us over the head with that, did he?)Bottom line is that you'll want to buy this DVD set because the actors give it their all, and the bonus features at the end of each season. If the cast was let down by writers and producers who were suffering Trek fatigue, then that's how history records the show's fateful demise. But we can support Scott Bakula's earnest captainship, and the rest of the cast's hard work. People worked hard to get this series off the ground, and to get it out each week. In the final analysis, that's all that matters today. And we celebrate them for it.(Oh, and if I still haven't sold skeptics on this boxed set. This is the only Trek series to include Outtakes!)

"Star Trek: Enterprise" never really caught on with the public at large.Too bad, because it was innovative, featured a very good ensemble cast, was well written, and - most importantly - tackled huge social issues, many of which are still relevant today.That willingness to explore social issues in depth was a hallmark of the very first Star Trek series and it continues to be one of the most important features of all the movies and spin-offs that followed the original. It is, for many of us who have followed the franchise for half a century, what sets Star Trek apart from run-of-the-mill science fiction."Enterprise" explored those issues in meaningful ways: T'Pol's drug addiction; xenophobia, religious fanaticism, as well as a host of moral and ethical dilemmas were explored in detail throughout the four seasons of this series. Doing so gave viewers a chance to ask themselves just what they would do in those situations.(Upon reflection, that might be why the series never really caught on in the increasingly polarized, post-9/11 America we now live in. It's very possible - perhaps even probable - that Americans just weren't then and are not now really very comfortable watching programs that ask them to think about the consequences of their actions.)"Enterprise" started slowly and there have been critics who disapprove of that. I, however, am not among them. This first voyage to deep space by humans had to be tentative, marked by uncertainty, and I would argue that to be true to the premise upon which the series is based it had to start at a walk, not a run.That does not mean, however, that any of the first season's episodes lacked adventure. The crew of Enterprise is tested quickly enough and, as a result, we are witness to the evolution of the command structure and the growing cohesion of the men and women aboard the ship as they come face-to-face with situations that they were not trained for and could not anticipate when they set out to explore the galaxy for the first time.Among its many good points, I especially liked the fact that "Enterprise" gave its viewers a chance to learn more about the Star Trek universe: The first contacts with the Klingons and Ferengi, for example, were well done. It also gave viewers a glimpse at future storylines - the introduction of The Borg Collective is one example but there are many others. In short, "Enterprise" answered many questions that longtime fans had about different species and storylines.(For example, whatever did happen to the Defiant when Kirk and his crew first encountered the Tholians?)Before I close I want to add a few words about the under-appreciated Jolene Blalock.When "Enterprise" first aired most of the commentary about the new show focused on her looks. It's true that she is a beautiful, curvy woman and it's also true that the producers and directors of the show spent a lot of time showcasing her looks and figure.That's unfortunate for many reasons not the least of which is the fact that in so doing they lessened the impact of a very talented actress. In the beginning of the show she is very Spock-like; that is to say, coldly logical. However, even though she is required to deliver many of her lines in an unemotional, almost robotic fashion the writers (who were apparently a little more self-aware than some of the directors and producers) allowed her to show a streak of rebellion. As the show progressed they allowed the T'Pol character more freedom and Blalock had an opportunity to show off her considerable acting chops. That's especially true in episodes such as "Impulse" and those in the final season when she is allowed to grieve for a lost child and a lost relationship.In short, this was an excellent series when it first aired and it is just as good now. It's a series with heart; an intelligently written program that allows viewers to enjoy some ripping good adventures while also challenging them to think about social issues.In my book, you can't ask for more than that.