Revisiting Star Trek [Part 5 of 7]: Enterprise
[NOTE: This is the fifth essay in Pete Tzinski's 7-part series leading up to the premiere of the new Star Trek film. See also: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, and Part 4.]
(It’s only a couple of days away, the opening of the new Star Trek film. In fact, if you’re a proper Trekkie, you’re probably not reading this article at all, you’re probably out and camped outside of the movie theater. And my friends, I would be out there with you, if I didn’t have a sane wife and child who would prefer me not to sit around looking homeless for two days. So failing that, let’s continue to rummage through Star Trek series and my own memories, shall we?)
By 2001, a lot had changed within the realm of Star Trek. Deep Space 9 ended with ratings that weren’t spectacular (although it was meeting with critical acclaim, at least), and Voyager’s ratings were even more abysmal. The movies could have been doing better. UPN, Paramount’s network, was hardly becoming the booming cash cow that they had probably envisioned, even with a Star Trek series anchoring it.
For the first time in a lot of years, one Star Trek series ended without another one overlapping it by some time. Voyager ended in May, 2001. Enterprise didn’t appear until the end of September. Not only was there a long absence – and for those of us loyal fans, it was a long absence indeed – but this was the first time that one series had not tied into the next, in some sort of homage, during the pilot episodes.
Enterprise had a lot of firsts. It was the first prequel Star Trek series (and I don’t recall that being a terribly popular idea from the get-go). It was the first series not to have the words “Star Trek” in the title (although they remedied that later. It had words in the theme song instead of a beautiful instrumental piece (and I’m afraid that “Strength of the Heart” never ever grew on me. Not even a little.)
In Enterprise, we discover that there was a starship named Enterprise even before Kirk’s vessel. The NX-01 prototype ship, the first Warp 5 starship. Under the command of Captain Jonathan Archer. It’s a galaxy in which we have only just discovered Klingons (in the first episode, in fact), in which Vulcans are not exactly our best friends, in which Zefram Cochrane is still alive. No shields. Dodgy transporters. And thus, in this primitive and bare-bones Star Trek universe, the starship and her crew set out to boldly go…get punched in the face, primarily.
To say that I was not enamored with Enterprise would be to understate the matter. I, and many of my friends, were in the very height of our Star Trek fervor…and if there is one thing that fervent Star Trek fans do, it is be dissatisfied and complain (Please don’t kill me, Trekkies, but…it is true a lot of the time). We disliked the opening, we were not keen on a prequel, the alien-of-the-week idea had worn thin on some of us throughout the course of Voyager.
I think I watched about half of the first season, and then I quit. I still adored Star Trek, but I was also beginning to expand my horizons. It was that age, for me. The world of literature was unfolding and I was reading wider and further and deeper than I had ever managed before. My writing was stretching itself far away from fanfiction and increasingly into my own stories (and I was starting to dismantle my own fiction and figure out what I could do, and why, and what I wanted to accomplish). And in many ways, it didn’t feel like Star Trek was growing with me at all, not with Enterprise. It felt like several steps back.
Eventually, it was canceled. It finished out four seasons, seventy-some episodes, and ended its run in 2005. I noted its disappearance, but didn’t bat an eye about it.
And that was the last Star Trek television series we got. Here we are, four or five years later, and there’s nothing but re-runs.
But more specific to this article, here I am, four or five years later…and I decided to give Enterprise another chance, considering that I had perhaps judged it unfairly. I had some friends who had persevered in watching it, and they told me that it got better as it went, actually. So I set up my DVR box to record Enterprise episodes whenever they occurred…and they flooded in. Two of them, every weekday. And since I stay at home with my son full time, writing my way through the afternoons, I started watching them regularly.
They were as iffy as I remembered. I sat there and was frustrated, watching the episodes. The writer voice in the back of my head was driven nuts. So many scenes that were cut short, or were just unnecessary. So many places when some time should have been handed to the dialogue, to let the characters just unfold. Places where stiff lines could have been replaced with chatter, and the sort of things human beings said. Plots that were boring alien-of-the-week stuff, as I mentioned before. Some clever bits, but fewer of those than the rubbish bits. I was unimpressed.
But I kept watching. Well, why not? I miss Star Trek, and I only infrequently get The Next Generation re-runs and cannot for the life of me find anyone re-running Deep Space 9. So I kept on with Enterprise.
At the very end of season 2…they sent an alien weapon to Earth and killed seven million people and started war. The Enterprise was refitted and sent out to find and stop an alien race named the Xindi. And suddenly, much to my surprise, I couldn’t help but sit up and pay attention.
Almost to the second the Xindi appeared on the screen…Enterprise caught fire.
It turned into a helluva show, and I began to genuinely regret that it had been canceled. The writing was strong, the plots were interesting, the characters began to come to life. Captain Archer, a previously boring captain, gained a rough, dark side that sharpened not only his character, but those around him. The episodes stood by themselves, but there were ongoing themes and missions throughout them. Each episode made me want to see the next one right away.
And the Xindi themselves are worth watching Enterprise for. The Xindi are actually comprised of five different species. There are five variations on the Xindi. The reptilians, a primate variation, insectoid, um, deep dish and Chicago style (I don’t think I’ve met the other two yet, honestly). Not all of these various sub-species are hostile, or are even particularly interested in Earth. Some are typical evil bad guys. Some are decent working people trying to get by and do the right thing. They do not all like each other. And in the Xindi, Star Trek actually had the single most varied and interesting alien race they had ever managed, and an amazingly interesting threat for the Enterprise to work against. They are completely comparable to the Dominion, from Deep Space 9, who were themselves varied and divided and uneven, comprised of the interesting species of Changelings, Vorta, Gem’Hadar, and Cardassians, among others.
As for how it all comes out, and what episodes to recommend to you…well, I’ve got nothing on either front, frankly, because I’m still watching. Two-by-two a day, I’m working my way through season 3 and enjoying every moment of it. I’m very much looking forward to season 4. And will be sad when it’s wrapped (although I have heard rumblings that the series finale will make me want to cause death and property damage).
So what I suggest is that you do what I did: give Enterprise a chance. Watch it diligently.Wince through the first two seasons. There are decent bits, and enjoy ‘em. Laugh at the bad bits. Don’t just skip ahead to the last episode of season 2, when things really gain momentum. Watch all the stuff before that. Even if it’s bad, it gives you context and history and background, and that lends some importance to the good stuff that comes later.
And then, watch as the Xindi appear and you suddenly find yourself watching a pretty terrific Star Trek series.
You might as well, since it was the last one we’ve gotten, thus far.
Related posts:
- Revisiting Star Trek [Part 1 of 7]: The Original Series
- Revisiting Star Trek [Part 2 of 7]: The Next Generation
- Revisiting Star Trek [Part 4 of 7]: Voyager
- Revisiting Star Trek [Part 3 of 7]: Deep Space Nine
- 9 Other Questions about the Star Trek Universe Popular Science Should Answer
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I stopped watching Enterprise after the Borg episode. I also came up with the “Kill Enterprise” website as a counterpart to the “Save Enterprise” campaign. So you could blame me for the cancelation.
Please forgive my brief quantum leap into adolescence (pun not intended) but Jolene Blalock kept distracting me from the plot. Damn you writers and your “decontamination gel”! Still she was what help my mind recover from sores brought upon by the opening theme.
I have got to get back to this series at some point and attune my attention in a more critical manner.
Thanks for the heads up regarding season 2 onwards.
As somebody in one of these blogs said once, the show lacked purpose. You could say that the temporal cold war was its main theme. A cool concept, but it was poorly developed and didn’t make much sense to me. Apparently the writers thought so too, because they were done with it by the beginning of the last season.
What I liked in “Enterprise” were the Vulcans and their relationship with the humans. Here, the Vulcans are by far not the noble beings that they are a hundred and two hundred years later. They can be deceitful and manipulative. And it becomes clear in “Enterprise” why the humans will be the leaders in the Federation. Even though the Vulcans are far more advanced than Cochrane’s humans, they are very careful and slow-moving and will eventually be overtaken by the hotheaded and much more daring humans. This, plus the Andorians, the mention of a need for some sort of prime directive, etc. could be the making of the Federation. So was this the theme in “Enterprise”? I don’t know, there wasn’t enough to say so.
I would have liked to see more of Hoshi and Mayweather and their unique abilities and a lot less of Trip and Reed. I did like the theme song once my wife started singing along and the visuals in the opener are great.
One of the most memorable episodes, among too many forgettable ones, is “Dear Doctor”, in which Phlox faces the dilemma of interfering with the evolutionary process of two intelligent species sharing one planet.
But honestly, I watched it only because it’s Star Trek, not for its own merit.
So what was “Enterprise” really about?
So I guess I really was the only person who enjoyed Enterprise from the get go. So I admit freely that I was skeptical of Scott Bakula at first, but in my opinion he played the Archer character quite consistently. Only rarely did I get the impression that the “uber-boy scout” role he played was not genuine.
I was also skeptical of the Trip/T’Pol relationship but it actually worked and they had pretty good on set chemistry. Flox was incredible throughout the whole thing. Hoshi was a good character too. The only ones I thought needed help were Malcom and Travis. I think they just suffered from not enough background for me to really care.
I don’t know why I liked it… I just did. I would have loved for it to have had a proper ending and not the rushed ending that we wound up with. I certainly enjoyed Star Trek: Enterprise a hell of a lot more than Voyager… thats for sure.
The only episodes from Enterprise I liked were the one that dealt with the Andorian/Vulcan conflict. The time war could and should have been great, but petered out and never amounted to much. The whole third season was awful, even worse than most episodes of the first two seasons. And don’t get me started on the episode “Dear Doctor”, which is probably the second worst episode of the whole series (worst was “Cogenitor”). Really, the plot device is an ethical dilemma born out of a complete misunderstanding of what evolution is. This doesn’t only make the whole ethical dilemma laughable, but the decision of the “good guys” at the end downright evil.
What an astonishing wasted opportunity this was. There is so much they could have done. And they did so little.
I never watched the finale because I heard what was in it. It made me want to throttle Rick Berman until his eyes popped out of his head.
Trek, R.I.P. Until J.J. came along, God bless him.
Direction, direction, direction.
Enterprise is essentially two different shows. The first two seasons were under the leadership of messrs Berman and Braga, who previously had perpetrated ST since Roddenberry’s demise.
Saying the show ‘lacked direction’ is an understatement. My own personal least favourite episode featured Enterprise being swallowed by a giant alien spaceship which then did…nothing…for thirty five long minutes until Reid blew it’s bow doors off. Enterprise escaped, the alien ship then exploded; the aliens never communicated, threatened, explained themselves or attacked; we never saw them, we never found out what any of it was supposed to be about…Bah. (Someone seems to have watched an old James Bond film – On Her Majesty’s Secret Service? – and stolen the spaceship-gobbling idea, then been unable to think of a story to go with it).
The show started with IIRC some thirteen million viewers in the US; by the end of season two, this was down to two million.
Even Rick Berman had to accept this was not a sustainable state of affairs, so they handed over directorial contol to Manny Coto. Enter the Xindi – and as you put it so well, at that point, the show caught fire.
Watch out for the Mirror universe episodes in season four. A season or two of that, and even a confirmed Babylonian such as myself would have been tempted.
It always suprises me how much everyone despises Enterprise, but likes Deep Space 9. It also surprises me that everyone thinks Enterprise was so so so much worse than the other Treks. Really? Has everyone actually watched the other Treks? None of them are spectacular the whole way through, and none of them are top 1% quality shows. Every single series has it’s bad actors and bad scripts. Next Generation would have crashed and burned if it wasn’t for Patrick Stewart playing Picard, and that’s probably the best series out of them all. You aren’t comparing a Capital Grill steak to an Applebee’s “steak” when you compare the different shows. You are comparing TGI Fridays to Chili’s (maybe a little more exotic since it’s SF, but you get the idea). They are both very close in quality and product, but the minor differences may sway you slightly.