Star Trek: Enterprise
Category:Star Trek series
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
pilot episode, "
Broken Bow", takes place 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
\nThe 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 Trekkerss 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. Interestingly, the fans who make these claims ignore the much more numerous inconsistencies of the Original Series.
(The fact is that the ship being named Enterprise does not necessarily violate canon, as the Enterprise NX-01 is an Earth ship and not a Federation ship, and so therefore the Enterprise NCC-1701 is still the first Federation starship of that name. However, this means that the Enterprise will have to be either destroyed or decommissioned at some point before the founding of the Federation.)
Production
Enterprise premiered in the USA on September 26, 2001, and is currently airing.
Enterprise is notorious among hardcore Star Trek fans as being full of minor inconsistencies, and the Enterprise NX-01 is thought by many to have too close a resemblance to the Akira-class ships of the 24th Century. Additionally, the show doesn'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 that were set farther into the future. Two notable examples are Reed's invention of force fields, and an episode in which 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. (A note: in actual fact, the dropping of "Star Trek" was because the producers believed it to be superfluous, as "Enterprise" was just as recognised as a Star Trek name.)
One newspaper writer compared Star Trek's hawkish shift with the advent of the 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]
Star Trek: Enterprise is commonly abbreviated by fans as "ENT", or "ST:ENT".
The series' theme tune, a quasi-patriotic pop song written by Diane Warren and sung by Russell Watson, has been a drastic change from other series: all previous Star Trek series' theme music have been strictly instrumental.
Changes in the Third and Fourth Seasons
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. The entire third season follows one long story arc, which begins in the second season finale "The Expanse" and ends in the third season finale "Zero Hour".
Despite a slow start, the third season (2003-2004), which includes a season-long story arc about the Xindi, was greeted favorably by fans and critics, particularly towards the end of the season where the choice of new writers, directors and even musicians began to pay off. The episodes "Twilight", "Similitude", "Proving Ground", "Azati Prime", and "Damage" in particular have received praise from many fans, and every aspect of the 22nd episode of the season, "The Council", received huge praise from critics. The final episode of the third season, "Zero Hour", aired on May 26, 2004.
Despite most critics agreeing that Enterprise's third season is its strongest yet, the series has suffered in the ratings compared to earlier series and there was much speculation that the series would be cancelled after season three if ratings did not improve before the season end in May. In response, some fans launched an effort to Save Enterprise and convince CBS president Les Moonves not to cut the series. The fans believed that cutting the number of episodes per season from 26 to 24, the series will end after the fourth season 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 Star Trek: Nemesis has given the franchise an uncertain future.
On May 20, 2004 it was announced that Enterprise had been renewed for a fourth season, but that the show would move from Wednesday to Friday. The show may have been up for cancellation after the third season, but its producers cut its per episode price so that the show will have a fourth season and thereby be able to be syndicated, if the ratings remain low.
A new executive producer, Manny Coto, has been brought in for the fourth season. Coto has decided to retain the "arc" concept, but reduce it from one arc for the entire season to six "mini-arcs", each over three episodes. One of these arcs will resolve the "Temporal Cold War" storyline set up in the pilot episode.
Cast
\nMain characters
\n*Captain Jonathan Archer, played by Scott Bakula\n*Dr. Phlox, played by John Billingsley\n*Subcommander T'Pol, played by Jolene Blalock\n*Commander Charles "Trip" Tucker III, played by Connor Trinneer\n*Lieutenant Malcolm Reed, played by Dominic Keating\n*Ensign Hoshi Sato, played by Linda Park\n*Ensign Travis Mayweather, played by Anthony Montgomery
Recurring characters
\n*Admiral Maxwell Forrest, played by Vaughn Armstrong\n*Ambassador Soval, played by Gary Graham\n*Silik, played by John Fleck\n*Crewman Elizabeth Cutler, played by Kellie Waymire\n*Degra, played by Randy Oglesby\n*Major Hayes, played by Steven Culp\n*Shran, member of the Andorian Imperial Guard, played by Jeffrey Combs\n*Crewman Daniels, played by Matt Winston.
See also
\n*List of Star Trek: Enterprise episodes\n*List of Star Trek: Enterprise introduction images
External links
\n*Star Trek official site\n*Star Trek episode reviews by Jamahl "Jammer" Epsicokhan\n*IMDb: Enterprise\n*Save Enterprise\n*Kill Enterprise
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