In a lot of ways, it’s been a pretty good time to be a Star Trek fan.
During the last 20 years or so, there has been a consistent wave of new material in the Star Trek universe. First, the early films like “Wrath of Khan” that re-invested fandom, then the coming of “The Next Generation” in 1987, followed by “Deep Space Nine” in 1993 and “Voyager” in 1995. And now, we have the beginning of the latest permutation of the Star Trek universe, “Enterprise”.
I’ll be honest, though. Ever since “Deep Space Nine” left the air in 1999, I have been less than impressed with the state of the Star Trek franchise. “Voyager” was a series with problems from the very beginning, both in terms of premise and execution, and I think it’s safe to say that the last movie, “Insurrection”, was less than inspiring. Before the debut of “Enterprise”, the last Star Trek material we were offered came in the form of the “Voyager” finale, which I felt was a failure. It was a by-the-numbers, “one last hurrah” mess that once again muddled continuity and ultimately dropped the ball by not giving the audience a satisfying look at the emotional impact on the crew following their return to the Alpha Quadrant.
That, and the dubious idea of setting a series before the Kirk Era, made me less than comfortable about “Enterprise”.
However, I will admit to being largely impressed by what I saw. Sure, there were the inevitable problems with the plot that come with any Star Trek episode, and there were once again the odd and completely unnecessary continuity mistakes, but the writing convinced me that leaving the 24th century was the best thing the franchise could do.
The premise and plot is actually a lot less complicated than it might seem, once one breaks it down. It’s the dawn of the Federation, as humanity finally begins to explore the galaxy. It has been 100 years since First Contact, and it seems that the Vulcans have been a bit uncomfortable with the idea of humans running out into the universe and making trouble. And they should be…after all, we already know that in the future, humans get themselves in the middle of just about everyone’s business (especially when not invited)!
A Klingon just happens to crash on Earth, and suddenly we know about someone other than the Vulcans. Rather than listen to the relatively more informed Vulcans, Earth decides to take the Klingon back to his homeworld, which is conveniently close to Earth.
Only there is another race trying to stop the Klingon (whose name is Klaang, if you can believe it) from getting home. They are called the Suliban, and they use genetic engineering to give themselves all kinds of neat abilities. This, of course, runs against the human morality in the post-Eugenics Wars Earth, and the fact that they invade the first human explorer ship, the titular “Enterprise”, and steal Klaang does not exactly endear them to humanity.
Thus begins a long mission to find Klaang, which results in finding out a lot about the Suliban…like the fact that they are part of a “temporal cold war” and some of the Suliban are working against some of the others. Yes, it is about as muddy and confusing as it sounds.
Whatever reservations I have about the plot, I have to say that the characters are the strongest since “Deep Space Nine”. Scott Bakula’s Captain Jon Archer is far more believable a commander in two hours than Captain Janeway of “Voyager” was for seven years. The difference is the writing and the premise. Archer’s time requires him to be a bit reckless and daring, while Janeway’s time and culture was much more reserved.
The rest of the characters are largely cyphers at this point in the series, with the exception of the Vulcan, T-Pol. Obviously intended to remind us of Spock, she does…in ways that I doubt the producers were hoping for. There is none of the subtly of Spock, Sarek, or even Tuvok in this character. Her expressions give away far too much of her design, and that runs contrary to the idea of what the Vulcans are supposed to be. I suppose that at some point they are going to write this off as being an effect of her long-term exposure to human society and emotion, and in a sense, that explains a lot. Spock’s character was intentionally more stiff and controlled because of his unique circumstances. But that’s the problem…Vulcans have been defined in the Star Trek mythos by Spock and the way he was written. Therefore, even the most logical depiction of a Vulcan in “Enterprise” is going to seem wrong in comparison. (Forgive the pun!)
Going back to the plot, I would point out that this series seems to have been crafted with a long-term plan in mind. Unlike the pilot for “Voyager”, which tossed out a pilot that set up conflict and never gave any direction in where it would lead, “Enterprise” begins by introducing a huge whopper of a subplot in this “temporal cold war”. I, for one, hope that they follow through on the promise of a more focused series. If there was ever a Star Trek series that needed to eliminate the “reset button” mentality, this is it.
Some other thoughts:
- Let’s begin with Scott Bakula. I love this guy. Just the fact that he is the captain makes this worthwhile!
- Since when did the Vulcans go through an “anorexic, breast implant” phase among their women? T’Pol looks like a crack addict. Did anyone else notice how thin her arms were? Never mind the “hard as a rock” look to her chest during the infamous “decontamination” scene, or her need to pout when she was trying to look like she was in deep thought.
- Speaking of that scene, was that supposed to be sexy? I suppose there were some nice shots of T-Pol’s abs and shoulders, but every shot of her chest left me cold. Tucker was more arousing, I should think!
- And did they make this Dr. Phlox dude an alien with “alternative medicine” trappings, just so they could write a scene where they used K-Y for decontamination?
- What idiot named the Klingon “Klaang”, anyway? Someone smack their head into something during the brainstorming process?
- Some people might object to that “dancing girl” scene, but let’s not forget that this is set before the Kirk Era, and who can forget the dancing, green Orion slave girl from that series?
- OK…so there is some mysterious figure from the far future who is interfering with the history of the galaxy, using a faction of the Suliban to do its dirty work. That might seem wrong, but this might be the only way to allow this series to pave new territory without screwing up continuity. And it might be a convenient way to write off all the mistakes they made during the “Voyager” run!
- I’m sure Captain Archer was just pleased-as-punch to be the first human to go through a transporter!
- As an engineer, I really loved the way that the engine required hands-on maintenance. It made no sense for Scotty and his guys to be so far removed from the actual machines in the original series!
- Was it completely necessary to make the Asian character the one to be afraid of everything? It runs a little too close to stereotyping.
- I would speculate that the Suliban faction that gave Klaang the message to give to his people were working with the other side of the “temporal cold war” as the Suliban trying to stop him from getting home alive. After all, encoding information within Klingon DNA struck me as extremely advanced, as was their ability to read the information.
- This leads to speculation: what if the appearance of the Klingons in the original series is due to the machinations of the Suliban and the genetic engineering tech from the future? After all, the Klingons are relatively weak during the original series, as compared to the Klingons here.
- Also, the look of this “Enterprise” is a bit more advanced than the design of the OS “Enterprise”. Yes, I know it’s an effects issue, in terms of advancement of the craft since then, but a very interesting explanation could be the effects of this “temporal cold war”.
- So the Klingon homeworld is only 80 LY from Earth? Since when? Isn’t that just a little closer than one would expect, given the clues over the years? That would place the Klingons right in the middle of the freakin’ Federation! Not too mention that now they know about a largely non-defended planet close to their territory…
- Ok, so you’re the first human starship, out on your own for the very first time, having only seen Vulcans, who get annoyed at the need to have sex and emotional outbursts every seven years. I think that the crew would have been a hell of a lot more overwhelmed by their first exposure to non-Vulcans on Rigel 10, and just the concept of flying their untested ship into the atmosphere of a gas giant.
- In the same fashion, they were able to fly those Suliban ships far too easily. Tucker couldn’t even steer the human-designed shuttle well in the first few scenes.
- Who pissed in the coffee at the Vulcan embassy? Man, did they sound petulant during this entire episode! Maybe it was the idea of a species that can create “Love Cruise” running around telling people how to run their empires…
- Then again, they tell us about this extremely hostile warrior race and warn us not to mess with them, and what do we do? We take our untested, experimental ship and shove ourselves right down the Klingons’ throats just to show that we can!
- Amazing how the new bridge design, which is supposed to look like a submarine C&C, looks like the bridge from every other Star Trek ship. Maybe the set designers should check out “B5: Crusade” for a better take on a sub-based bridge.
- I’m just waiting for the first comment from one of the humans about how many aliens look like humans with funny foreheads.
- If they just developed “phase pistols”, then what the heck were they using during the gunfight on Rigel 10?
- Does every Starfleet vessel have to skip the shakedown cruise and jump right into a hostile situation with little or no advance information? At least they covered the “we’re the only Starfleet ship in the area” problem by making this the only ship in Starfleet!
- And why is it called “Starfleet”, anyway?
- OK, the idea of grapples rather than tractor beams makes total sense. Score one for the writers there.
- So the scuttlebutt is that the British officer is the first openly gay character on Star Trek. I’d love for him to be the first human on the ship to have sex with an alien!
- Love the opening credit montage, but that theme song has to go. It’s more dated than the effects from the original series.
- Did anyone else think “Galaxy Quest” more than once?
Overall, it was a solid beginning for a Star Trek series, with a lot of potential. Potential to be excellent or terrible remains to be seen.
