Being that “Star Trek” started off with a relatively short three season run back in the 1960’s, it’s almost hard to fathom how it built such a strong following as to become the mega-franchise that it is today. Ahh…witness the power of fandom. Of course, the fact that this original series later launched an animated version, a popular motion picture series, and four additional spin-off series (the first three lasting 7 seasons, and the fourth only 4) cannot only be credited to the fans, but must also say something about the level of quality viewing that is being offered. When I first had the opportunity to review the 1st Season DVD release of “Star Trek: Enterprise”, I honestly didn’t know if I was the right guy to review it as I am not a Trekkie, or a Trekker, whichever might be the politically correct term du jour these days.

I had only watched a few of the episodes when they originally aired, but this was more a matter of being DVD spoiled and not having a problem waiting for the eventual release. However, being a casual fan of all the Trek series, I’m hoping my perspective might be somewhat unsullied by strong pre-conceived opinions.

“Broken Bow,” the first episode of the pre-Kirk series “Enterprise” promised to be bold and different from the series that have come before. For the most part, I found this to be true. To start, the usual Jerry Goldsmith themes that have become so ingrained in our memories are gone. In it’s a place was a rather ‘pop’ sounding song, “Faith of the Heart” (sung by the Rod Stewart-sounding Russell Watson) playing over images of early explorers, NASA heroes and the first warp core flight.

This difference was felt throughout the show. This was a new ‘old’ Star Trek and it fits perfectly. “Enterprise” broke new ground in what was becoming a sometimes-stale premise. This is not to say the earlier series were in any way bad. Most of the time the shows were very good, but often the plots were re-hashed and filled with too much techno-babble.

Everything from the look and the cast of “Enterprise” felt fresh. The ship’s exterior design was magnificent. The problem of turning the inside into something that looked retro Original Series with today’s SFX technology was handled well. The interior had the look and feel of a large submarine. From the drab gray walls to the large knobs and levers, everything worked great to give the impression of future past.

The cast all played their parts well and I think have become welcome additions to the Trek Universe. Headed by Scott Bakula (“Quantum Leap”) as Captain Jonathon Archer, the teamwork is already evident. Jolene Blalock as Sub Commander T’pol, was “Enterprise’s” answer to Spock. Her Vulcan demeanor can be a bit annoying, but showed signs of lightening up by the episode’s end. John Billingsley (Dr. Phlox), Linda Park (Ensign Hoshi Sato), Anthony Montgomery (Ensign Travis Mayweather), Dominic Keating (Lieutenant Malcom Reed) and Connor Trinneer (Commander Charles Tucker III) each brought a different outlook to the show. They were like a bunch of fresh-faced kids on their first outing. Their excitement was our excitement.

The most fun I had with the series were the crew’s experiences with equipment the other series took for granted. Phasers, transporters and space travel in general were all new to these characters. As one character asked as they went into warp drive, “Are they going to put seat belts in these things?” All in all, I enjoyed the series premiere of “Enterprise” and believed it showed a lot of promise in becoming the next great Trek show.

Unfortunately, this was not to be. The series struggled along for four seasons before being summarily cancelled. Though I can’t say first hand that this was unavoidable, or at all deserved as I have yet to see the final two seasons, I have heard that the show was making great improvements in Season 4 and should have been given another chance. Be that as it may, once I have the opportunity to review Season 4, I’ll throw in my two cents on that subject.

From what I saw of the first two seasons, I could see where the show started to lose ground. While the writers did a great job in creating some good stand-alone stories, for some reason they also decided to bring full season plot arcs that involved temporal wars brought on by mysterious time travelers. This tied the ‘new’ show to close to the previous shows as if the writers weren’t sure enough of themselves to completely cut the umbilical cord to what had come before (or in the case of the series chronology… after).

This carried through into both seasons, and though there were several fairly well-written episodes, few really stood out as anything special. What made things worse, was that the show had already began to slip in the ratings and instead of improving the storylines, the writers and producers opted to kick up the notch on the sexuality of the series. Relationships between the characters began to change, and they tried to turn T’Pol into the new ‘Seven of Nine’, dressing her in skimpier and skimpier outfits. I imagine that this might have helped the ratings a tiny bit, but overall it only brought the show and the cast’s credibility down.

Don’t get me wrong, I did enjoy what I’ve seen of the first two seasons, but found the show starting a downward spiral in quality that needed more than revealing clothes to save. I was really hoping that the rumors of improvement were true in the next two seasons. It will give me mixed feelings though, because while I might be more entertained by this improvement, I’ll feel worse for the cast knowing that it came too late.

Having had the opportunity to watch the 3rd Season, I could see that the rumors were, indeed… true. Many of the changes weren’t extremely overt, for example the temporal wars were still on, with the crew of the Enterprise off to find a collection of alien races known as the Xindi. But the scripts for the episodes were improving, by not narrowing their focus down to the matter of this war. There were many episodes that provided enough of a standalone plot to keep the overall arc from getting stale.

There was also a noticeable change in some of the behaviors of the crew members, most notably in Bakula’s handling of Captain Archer. Up until this season, he was a bit of a milquetoast, but the effects of his experiences were definitely beginning to show. This season’s Archer was a tougher, more decisive Captain. He and the crew began to feel the pressures of the constant danger, but instead of backpedaling, they grew from it.

But as I feared, as much as I began to enjoy the series during the 3rd Season, I was very disappointed in the knowledge that these improvements were way too late. The show was still destined to be cancelled, no matter how much better it got. The knowledge made watching the 4th (and Final) Season, which was just released this week, even harder.

The 4th season took the crew of the original Starship Enterprise into an area of truly defined direction. The episodes were some of the best of the series so far, and the creators were able to marry the past and future Treks (ok… they’re all future…) into a solid storyline. We start seeing some of the familiar concepts that worked so well in previous series’. We even visited the mirror universe to great effect. There are also several multi-part episodes throughout the season, each of which offering some powerful storylines. The only thing that almost ruined the 4th season was the knowledge that it would be the last, and the Series Finale, which relied on the popularity of “Star Trek: The Next Generations” to pull what had been a rocky project out oif the woods. It was a cheap idea that really stomped on the work that had been done by “Enterprise’s” cast.

As for the DVD releases for “Star Trek: Enterprise”, Paramount has once again outdone itself. Each of the previous versions of Trek were released in interestingly designed packages, but this is the best one yet. The outer container is a hard gray plastic shell emblazoned with the “Enterprise” logo. It has a very ‘retro’ look as if it was a piece of equipment off of the ship. When you open it, you’ll find a booklet with a synopsis of the series and a list of episodes and all the features. The discs (all 6 of them) are housed in a little plastic case that opens like a book. You can fan through them to pick out the one you want.

Now as cool as the packaging can be, it is the area of special features where Paramount really takes the cake, at least with the various Trek series. While most of the TV series that they release have no special features whatsoever, Trek always gets hours… and hours… of them. The 4th season set of “Enterprise” follows in this tradition starting off with two commentaries. The first is on the 2-part episode “Mirror Darkly” and features writer Mike Sussman and the editorial director for startrek.com, Tim Gaskill. The second is on “Terra Pirime” and features Gaskill again, this time joined by writers Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens. Even more welcome is the text commentary by Michael & Denise Okuda on three of the episodes including “These Are The Voyages.” The Okuda’s (sounds like the name of an alien race doesn’t it…?) are a veritable treasure trove of Trek lore and the bits of trivia they have popup on the screen is always fascinating. You’ll also find several deleted scenes scattered throughout the discs for some of the episodes.

As far as featurettes go, in “Enterprise moments: Season 4” we are offered a bit of a retrospective of the season. This is followed by “Inside the Mirror Episodes”, which focuses on that alternate universe and posits why it was a good idea to visit it in this series. There is a look behind the scenes, including some from the series finale in “Enterprise Secrets” as well as a look at the creation of the 19040’s New York sky battle. You’ll also find some footage from the wrap party, where you can really see emotions running high in spite of everyone’s ‘efforts’ to remain composed. There is also a nice little featurette that focuses on the links between this series and the rest of the Star Trek lore. Rounding all this out are some outtakes and a photo gallery.

The 3rd season of “Enterprise” showed me the series was far from dead in the water, and proved that improvement was possible. The 4th season finally started showing the potential for greatness the series might have eventually had if it had been allowed to continue.

Episodes:
The Storm Front, Part 1
The Storm Front, Part 2
Home
Borderland, Part 1
Cold Station 12, Part 2
The Augments, Part 3
The Forge, Part 1
Awakening, Part 2
Kir’Shara, Part 3
Daedalus
Observer Effect
Babel One, Part 1
United, Part 2
The Aenar, Part 3
Affliction, Part 1
Divergence, Part 2
Bound
In A Mirror Darkly, Part 1
In a Mirror Darkly, Part 2
Demons, Part 1
Terra Prime, Part 2
These Are the Voyages

Starring: Scott Bakula, John Billingsley, Jolene Blalock, Dominic Keating, Anthony Montgomery, Linda Park, Connor Trinneer
Extras: Enterprise moments, Season 4, Inside the "Mirror" episodes, Enterprise secrets, Visual effects magic, That's a wrap, Links to the legacy, Deleted scenes and outtakes, Photo gallery
Specifications: Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound, Dolby Digital 2.0
Studio: Paramount
Release Date: 11/1/2005
Region 1
MPAA Rating: NR
Website

We'll give Star Trek Enterprise: Season 4 a B.