It was always going to be a tough assignment for somebody to come up with a new ‘Star Trek’ premise and to make things more difficult, they decided to set it years before Kirk and Co. went boldly. 'Enterprise' was born, and with her a new crew to go where no Trekker had gone before, or rather to where they had but making it as if everything was a first contact.
Like the more recent ‘Star Wars’ trilogy, setting a movie or a TV series before what is well established you need to try and be honest and truthful to the already established vision. Rules have already been set for you. One of the small grumbles with 'Star Trek Enterprise' is that despite its efforts of trying to make things less technical than the Original series or the 'Motion Picture', due to the effects and the gizmos we don’t feel we are really there. Yes they introduce a phase pistol, the grandfather of the phasers. Yes they do mention that someone should set up directives for meeting new species, which is a direct nod to the Prime Directive. Transporters are not widely used and there are still feelings of apprehension about scrambling your atoms over space. Protein resequencers are the name given to the archaic version of the replicators. All of the controls are push buttons and levers instead of the touch screens that we are more familiar with. In short, it was a brave decision to set this before something filmed in the 60’s and ask the audience to accept it and they nearly get away with it.
The show blasts off with a movie length pilot, and blast off it does. No sooner have you the action opener that your skin begins to crawl, your toes curl, your brows frown. What on earth, or in space is this warbling of a pre-pubescent sounding Rod Stewart wannabee ? Welcome to one of the best opening credits sequence that a 'Star Trek' series has had to offer with the most ill fitting song and music imaginable. Whoever Diane Warren and Russell Watson are, they should be jettisoned into space without a return ticket. Vogon poetry from the ‘Hitchhiker’s Guide’ seems a far better and less painful alternative. Let us thank modern technology though; one hit of the button and the chapter search takes you right by it without having to endure any more of that audible ear bashing.
With every new series, it takes time to get to establish the characters and the situation they are in.
Captain Jonathan Archer (Scott Bakula) is perhaps too hands on here, even if a spot of welding is needed he's there getting dirty. On the plus side he is an emotional Captain and a nice touch too is letting him have his dog Porthos on board. Which happens to be at the discomfort of the hightened smelling Vulcan and Sub-Commander T'Pol (Jolene Blalock). She shows more emotion than your average Vulcan but is the best set of lips that Enterprise has ever seen. One, if cynical, could possibly say that this character is Enterprise's own version of Seven-of-Nine.
The Vulcans it seems are keeping a contant eye on the proceedings of Enterprises exploring, and wish for an unsuccessful time.
We have the usual mix of episodes, only this time it's the Vulcan ones, the Klingon ones, the Andorian ones, the Suliban ones, and the guest stars from the other series ones; with Rene Auberjonois (Constable Odo from 'Deep Space Nine') Ethan Phillips (Neelix from 'Voyager') doing the cameos. Like always, we are left on a cliff hanger by the time we get to the season end.
There are episodes designed to focus on particular members of Enterprise. One of these, ‘Shuttlepod One’, is a twist on the old lifeboat story with both the Chief Engineer, Charles ‘Trip’ Tucker (Connor Trinneer), and Lt. Malcolm Reed (Dominic Keating) doing a grand job, isolated in the shuttle and thinking that they have no ship to return to. There is a great little extra on disc 7 on the making of this, ‘Inside Shuttlepod One’. This episode is a pleasant diversion from the space battles and exploring new planets, this is a character study for these two diverse characters that by the end share more than they would have thought previously.
Great support come in the shape of Ensign Hoshi Sato (Linda Park), the predecessor to Lt. Uhura, with her hi-tech earpiece and her adapt knowledge of languages she is important as any member for going out and meeting new species. And Doctor Phlox (John Billingsley) is a pure joy, this is the best new character we have here in season 1, a Denobulan, a congenial and happy fellow with a quirky sense of humour and constantly curious of his fellow humans on board.
The only major casting flaw is, wait, that's maybe unfair. The only major character flaw is Ensign Travis Mayweather (Anthony Montgomery). He seems to be there for the ‘D’oh !’ factor. Constantly stating the obvious as if the audience has fallen asleep every two minutes this makes the like of Borg children and Naomi Wildman a blessing in disguise.
So with more references to sex than ever before, more getting the space kit off, oiled up decontamination showers, could this be the end to family viewing Trek ? Perhaps not, but it does almost seem like a 'Star Trek' series that is designed for a non-'Star Trek' audience. <!--page-->
The Extras-
Most of the extras can be found on disc 7, but throughout the series there are lots of deleted scenes. These are a really nice accompaniment as the show things before the music, clicks, beeps, and swishes are added in. There are also a few commentaries, on
‘Broken Bow’ the season opener, there is an audio commentary from creator Brannon Braga and a text commentary from Michael and Denise Okuda. The later seems to be like a pop up fact file, although filled with interesting snippets, it gets annoying for any lengthy period of time. Michael and Denise pop up again with another text commentary on
‘The Andorian Incident’, a nice nod here with an alien species, blue with white hair and complete with antennae, that Kirk and Co. had fun with all those years ago, and the ever reliable Jeffrey Combs gets another
'Star Trek' character to play with. On
‘Vox Sola’, an episode directed by Roxann Dawson, better known as Lt. B'Elanna Torres from
‘Star Trek Voyager’, we get another text commentary from Michael and Denise.
‘Creating Enterprise’ starts off well enough with a pleasant introduction to the new cast members and their respective characters and proceeds into nothing more than an extended season trailer. It is fun but at only 10 minutes it seems there should be more meat on those Trek bones.
‘O Captain ! My Captain ! A profile of Scott Bakula’, all the cast and crew just gush about their co-star and Captain and it almost gets to that uncomfortable stage. No offence meant to Mr. Bakula, but unless you are an ardent fan, then I would suggest a 'Quantum Leap' past this one.
‘Cast Impressions: Season One’, the cast reflects on the first season.
‘Star Trek Time Travel: Temporal Cold Wars and Beyond’, this looks at the shows get out of jail card. When all the other Trek series had a shortage of a storyline, the deep space anomaly got an airing. With Enterprise it seems that Time Travel is its excuse to do what they want and a little too close to Scott Bakula’s previous occupation. OK, each of the previous series do touch on time travel and even have fun at its expense (‘Trials and Tribalations’ for example), and it is an important factor in several of the movies, of which the show is pitched 100 years or so after the events of ‘Star Trek: First Contact’, but here this is used too frequently to be almost as bad as the ‘oh no it’s a dream’ type of thing. In this extra the Production team try to spout their reasons for doing so and pitch all the previous time travelling Trek stories to give it justice.
‘Enterprise Secrets’ promises to be the best of the extras on offer, showing behind-the-scenes stuff that may make many a Trekkie howl that things are not real, but at only 90 odd seconds, this is just a tease. Shame on you !
‘Admiral Forrest takes Center Stage’ shows Vaughn Armstrong in yet another 'Star Trek' guise. He has played countless support characters (including the Klingon Captain in the episode ‘Sleeping Dogs’) in practically all of the Trek series but this is his first main reoccurring character. This starts off rehashing an extra on ‘Star Trek Voyager Season 6’, then, goes into to this series in a little more depth.
‘Enterprise Outtakes’ are lots of fun and frolics with the cast getting things wrong and is a pleasant deviation from all the tech and behind the scenes stuff filling most of the other extras.
‘Celebrating Star Trek’ is a mini documentary playing like a trailer for ‘Trekkies’ or its sequel, showing the fans and convention footage. The only thing of note here is a small interview segment with Make-Up and effects man Michael Westmore.
A promotional trailer for the new experience ‘Borg Invasion’ and a funky ‘Star Trek Original Series’ trailer complete the heavy extra quotient.
With every 'Star Trek' release Paramount has pulled out the stops on the transfers and the packaging and this is no exception. A handsome 7 disc set, plenty of extras, great animated menus and the excellent Dobly Digital 5.1 sound booming away every swish, zap and boom of thundering engines. I also think this is the first time they have used the word ‘bum’ on 'Star Trek'.
For those wanting to know what and where the Easter eggs are, please go to page 3 of this review, for those wishing to explore on their own, thanks for reading.
'Star Trek: Enterprise Season 1' is available in the UK via
Amazon UK and in the US via
Amazon.
You can read more about the DVD in our
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The Easter Eggs-
To get to Easter egg number 1,
‘NX-01 File 01’, go to the
‘Creating Enterprise’ option, hit left and this will highlight the plan of the Enterprise. This is a short and sweet look at an episode
‘Shadows of P’Jem’, with Jolene Blalock (Sub-Commander T’Pol) chatting briefly about her take on the storyline.
To get to Easter egg number 2, ‘NX-01 File 02’, go to the ‘Cast Impressions: Season One’ option hit left, and this will highlight the front and back of the Enterprise. This is short and simple behind-the-scenes look at the production design and their inspirations.
To get to Easter egg number 3, ‘NX-01 File 03’, go to the ‘Admiral Forest Takes Center Stage’ option hit left, and this will highlight the front and back of the Enterprise. Again this is another behind-the-scenes, this time with the graphic artists and their take on how they would create the earlier look at this sci-fi series.
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