Sci-Fi Star Trek: Enterprise (2001-2005)

[Kevin]

Title: Star Trek: Enterprise

Genre: Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Action & Adventure, Drama

First aired: 2001-09-26

Creator: Brannon Braga, Rick Berman

Cast: Scott Bakula, Jolene Blalock, Connor Trinneer, John Billingsley, Dominic Keating, Linda Park, Anthony Montgomery

Overview: During the mid-22nd century, a century before Captain Kirk's five-year mission, Jonathan Archer captains the United Earth ship Enterprise during the early years of Starfleet, leading up to the Earth-Romulan War and the formation of the Federation.

 

[Kevin]

So I've recently started re-watching all of Star Trek: Enterprise on Netflix.

Star Trek: Enterprise (ENT) focuses on the 22nd century adventures of Captain Jonathan Archer aboard the Enterprise NX-01 during the early days of interstellar travel. The NX designation indicates that this Enterprise is an experimental prototype; Archer’s ship is Earth’s first vessel designed for long-range exploration of the galaxy. Prior to the development of warp engines that could reach a velocity of warp 5, missions of this nature were impossible. At warp 2, only a handful of inhabited planets were within a year’s travel from Earth. But at warp 5, that number increases to ten thousand planets! It is Archer’s job to visit as many of those worlds as he can. At 190 meters long, the NX-01 is a bit smaller than Kirk’s Enterprise, and carries a crew complement of just eighty-three men and women, all human, with the exception of the Vulcan science officer and the Denobulan doctor. Unlike the starships of the four other Star Trek series, this Enterprise doesn’t have deflector shields or phasers, but it does come equipped with a phase cannon and a rudimentary transporter that functions efficiently most of the time.​

Now some of you may be wondering... why? There are a few reasons.

When ST:ENT first aired it was way before I had a nice big, HD, flat-screen TV in the house with which to enjoy watching it. Back then I was still watching stuff on a 20-something-inch CRT TV that was fuzzy as heck. Another reason is that while I remember some of the main story arcs the details escape me. Unlike ST:TOS & ST:TNG it seems that ST:ENT, ST: DS9, & ST:VOY don't get any love when it comes to syndication. I also want to go back and re-watch it with a mostly fresh mind to see if the series deserves the reputation it has among some Trekkers I know. Finally.... it's Star Trek, I'm sci-fi geek, and I have the means to rewatch it at my convenience.

 

[Kevin]

I finished my binge watching of ST:ENT and, for the most part, I liked it. There were a few episodes that seemed to be leftover ST:TNG scripts but the whole of the series makes up for it. Watching all of the episodes in a marathon fashion it was also easy to see at what point exactly the producers decided to use T'Pol to bring in more male viewers. The last episode of the series was a bit surprising considering that major character changes like that usually happen mid-season to help bring in ratings, not the literally last episode of the show.

The 'mirror universe' episodes of In a Mirror, Darkly were handled quite well. Personally I think they wasted S3 on the Xindi story arc, which itself was wrapped up rather quickly & oddly at the end, and could have spent more time with the mirror universe.

I lost count of how many times intruders were quite easily able to make their way onboard the NX-01 Enterprise. After a while the sight of an intruder became expected rather than surprising. Oh, look, a ship is approaching the Enterprise.... and there's the intruder.

I'm glad I went back and rewatched the series with a fresh mind as there were a few really good episodes in there and I was able to take better notice of all the references, some minor & others blatant, to both ST:TOS & ST:TNG.

 

[astonwest]

I just wished they would have let it run long enough to see some more of the technology we all knew from the other shows end up developed...