A while ago I posted a blog about what I called the main run of Star Trek‘s TV revival of The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine and Voyager.
Following that came Star Trek: Enterprise (or simply Enterprise as it was originally known), a prequel to all the previous series set in the era post-Cochrane and pre-Federation and focussing on the first start ship to bear the famous name.
I’ll admit that when it debuted on TV back in the early 2000s I watched the premier episode and, not being overly struck for a few no doubt extremely nerdy reasons, didn’t watch any more. But I’d argue it was some of those things that made rediscovering it now all the more enjoyable.
But before I get too deep, the broad strokes… over four seasons we join Captain Jonathan Archer (Scott Bakula, doing a great job of transcending Quantum Leap) and his crew as they set off into the wider galaxy in Starfleet’s first warp five ship, more so than any other series of Trek seeming to be ‘boldly going where no man has gone before’.
After the first episode, which I’ll admit didn’t grab me even on this repeat viewing with some confusion over the look of the Klingons (later explained) and the new characters being almost too obviously stereotyped, the first series was a bit of a slow build, rather like the previous three versions of Star Trek, as we get to know both the characters and this particular era of the universe.
The characters really are Enterprise’s strong suit once things get rolling though. Certainly they play on well established tropes within the show’s history but each brings their own idiosyncrasies to this.
As with all the series the main focus is the trio at the top, Captain Archer, Vulcan science officer and second in command Sub-Commander T’Pol (very different from The Original Series‘ Mr Spock despite initial appearances, played by Jolene Blalock) and Chief Engineer Commander ‘Trip’ Tucker (Connor Trinneer, a kind of deep south version of Scotty mixed with the cynicism of Bones).
Compared to other series this trio reminds me most of the Kirk, Spock and Bones triumvirate and similarities to TOS is something that marks the entire run.
Along with them a host of secondary characters add extra depth with the usual crew complimented by regular appearances from Vulcan Ambassador Soval (Gary Graham), Admiral Forrest (Vaughn Armstrong) and, most notably for me, Andorian captain Shran (played by regular Jeffrey Coombs who was also a stand out in a similar role of Weyoun in Deep Space Nine) who acts as a great foil to Archer as the series goes on.
While both DS9 and Voyager had their more action packed moments everything in Enterprise feels far more loose and actually adventurous, nicely balancing the more throwaway nature of 60s series with the more thoughtful side of the later stories which, once I’d settled into the idea, was a refreshing new side of Star Trek hinting at some of the things that were to come with the cinematic (sort of) reboot.
What particularly sets Enterprise apart from the other Treks is the depth of its ongoing storylines.
The main one of these, that really lasts the duration of the whole show, deals with a Temporal Cold War and sees events of the future spiralling back in time with new characters and aliens races introduced as it goes on.
While both DS9 and Voyager made steps in the ongoing story direction Enterprise takes it to a new level.
This reaches something of a climax with season three that entirely follows the crew on a mission to find a mysterious race called the Xindi who are hellbent on destroying Earth and stopping the formation of the United Federation of Planets.
This is brilliantly handled with previously set up characters and relationships playing into the grander sci-fi story that plays on future events we know about from the other series, as well as past ones, very nicely.
After this the final season feels a bit rushed and it’s hard to escape the feeling that the show runners knew the end was coming so they just threw in all their best ideas.
While this means the hit rate on the individual stories is fairly high the ongoing continuity suffers somewhat.
Within this there are a few particular highlights. One comes with a plot from terrorist organisations Terra Prime that steers remarkably close to Star Trek dealing with real world events in a direct way (though one could argue the same of the Xindi story too) and the other is the two-part ‘mirror universe’ story that continues the ongoing alternate timeline motif first seen back in The Original Series and throws in some nice new details while clearly giving the cast a chance to do something a little different.
Unfortunately all this is somewhat undermined by the final episode that sees The Next Generation’s Commander Riker (Jonathan Frakes) suddenly appear on Enterprise and we are thrown into a strange story that is much more The Next Generation than Enterprise.
As we follow Riker exploring Enterprise’s final mission, ten years on from the previous episode, it feels forced and unnatural so, while it ties up a few loose ends (while also killing off one of our heroes somewhat unnecessarily), and it shows us the triumph in Archer and co’s mission, it does so in a way that simply falls flat and feels like it’s pandering to an audience there was, at that point, no point in pandering to.
While this may have spelled the end of Star Trek on TV for a long while (it’s only recently been revived via Netflix after the alternate timeline JJ Abrams’ movies) Enterprise has, to my mind, been somewhat unfairly maligned, not least by me, but when it got cancelled it really felt like it had just found its stride and had a lot more to give.
Tommy Girard 