Star Trek: Enterprise

Star Trek: Enterprise, known until the third season simply as Enterprise, is the fifth incarnation of Star Trek on television (excluding The Animated Series). It is a prequel to the other Star Trek series. The show begins with its pilot Broken Bow in 2151, about halfway between the events shown in the movie Star Trek: First Contact and the original Star Trek series; and roughly 100 years before Kirk and Spock took command of their Enterprise.

Story

The show chronicles the adventures and exploration of the first human interstellar ship which can achieve Warp 5. It is aptly named "Enterprise" (NX-01). Many Trekkers were upset by this name and other elements of the show at the beginning, claiming that they violated canon. Brannon Braga has gone on record as challenging the fans who make such claims to prove it, except for some "picayune" things, such as using "phase pistols" when phasers should not yet exist, or having Romulan ships with cloaking devices when in "Balance of Terror" (an episode of the original series) cloaking technology was supposed to be a new invention. More recently an episode included an encounter with the Borg.

Production

From the start, the producers of Enterprise made it clear they didn't feel strictly bound to preserve continuity from previous series. However, they also don't preserve continuity within this series--for example, an episode from the first season makes a big deal about Vulcans not eating food with their hands, as T'Pol eats a breadstick with knife and fork. However, an episode in a later season shows her eating popcorn in the traditional method, by hand, without explanation.

On the other hand, Enterprise has taken pains to depict the genesis of some things taken for granted in previous series, set farther into the future. Two notable examples are Reed's invention of force fields, and an episode where Archer's musings set the questions that would eventually be answered by the Prime Directive.

Some see Enterprise as an attempt to move Star Trek away from the political correctness of recent series towards a more traditional action adventure. The casting of a white male as captain, the captain's preference for unilateral action, the introduction of the Suliban as the clearly indicated and largely simplistic 'bad guys', and even the dropping of the words 'Star Trek' are seen as distancing the new series from the series that came before.

Less than desired ratings seem to have made the producers re-think the strategy, as the third season saw the restoration of the words "Star Trek" in the title, and the introduction of a more complex enemy, the Xindi (although some wonder if they are too complex; namely, how can an insectoid, a reptilian, an "arboreal" [sloth], an aquatic, an avian, and a simian species all be considered the same race). (Ostensibly, according to Dr. Phlox a simian and a reptilian are more related to each other than a human is to a chimp.)

One newspaper writer compared Star Trek's shift to the right with the right-wing administration of George W. Bush and his War on Terrorism. For example, some claim that Captain Archer and George W. Bush share a similar appearance, and the names of their respective enemies, the Suliban and the Taliban, are similar. Although the production work for Enterprise occurred well before the September 11 attacks, the name "Suliban" was, in fact, based upon the name of the Taliban.[1]

Despite a slow start, Enterprise's third season (2003-2004), which includes a season-long story arc about the species Xindi, was greeted favorably by fans. The episodes Twilight and Similitude in particular have received praise from many fans. Both episodes also drew over four million viewers.

Star Trek: Enterprise is commonly abbreviated by fans as "ENT", or "ST:ENT".

Enterprise premiered in the USA on September 26, 2001, and is currently airing.

The split infinitive "To boldly go..." was "corrected" to "To go boldly..." by Zefram Cochrane, the inventor of warp drive, in the first episode.

The series' theme tune, a quasi-patriotic pop song written by Diane Warren and sung by Russell Watson, has been widely commented upon unfavourably by long-time Star Trek fans. Previous series' theme songs had been strictly instrumental.

The series has suffered in the ratings compared to earlier series and at this point (4/1/2004) there is a strong possiblity that the series will be axed after S3 if ratings do not improve before the season end in May. Many fans have also come to believe that with the cutting of the number of episodes a season from 26-24 the series will end after S4 once 100 episodes have aired. This would mean that the series would not have a seven season run as has become traditional in Trek series. The low ratings of this series, along with the poor performance of Nemesis has given the franchise an uncertain future.

Cast

Main characters

• Jonathan Archer, played by Scott Bakula
• Phlox, played by John Billingsley
• T'Pol, played by Jolene Blalock
• Malcolm Reed, played by Dominic Keating
• Travis Mayweather, played by Anthony Montgomery
• Hoshi Sato, played by Linda Park
• Charles "Trip" Tucker III (chief engineer), played by Connor Trinneer

Recurring characters

• Admiral Forrest, played by Vaughn Armstrong
• Soval, played by Gary Graham
• Silik, played by John Fleck
• Crewman Elizabeth Cutler, played by Kellie Waymire

See also

• Episode List
• List of Star Trek: Enterprise introduction images

External links

• Star Trek official site
• Star Trek episode reviews