Star Trek: Enterprise
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Star Trek: Enterprise is a science fiction television series set in the Star Trek universe. (Until the third season its title was simply Enterprise, and it is often abbreviated as ST:ENT or ENT.) The series follows the adventures of the crew of the Enterprise (NX-01), the first human interstellar ship that can achieve Warp 5. Enterprise premiered in the USA on September 26, 2001, and is currently airing.
Enterprise is a prequel to the other Star Trek series. The pilot episode, "Broken Bow", takes place in 2151, ten years before the founding of the Federation, 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 take command of their USS Enterprise.
Enterprise marks several milestones in Star Trek production. It is the first Trek series to be produced in widescreen, the first to be broadcast in HDTV, the first to be produced exclusively on digital video, and it was the first Trek series since Star Trek: The Next Generation to debut at the start of a TV season rather than at mid-season.
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Plots
The first two seasons of Enterprise depict the exploration of space by a crew who are able to go (boldly) farther and faster than any humans had previously gone. It presents situations which are not entirely unfamiliar to Star Trek fans, but which allow its characters to face them unencumbered by the experience and rules which have built up over the following years of Trek history. Enterprise takes pains to show the origins of some concepts which have become taken for granted in Star Trek lore, such as Reed's development of force fields, and Archer's questions about cultural interference which would eventually be answered by the Prime Directive.
The Vulcans, meanwhile, are often close by to offer help when needed, but are just as ready to express their opinion that humans are not yet a mature enough species to be exploring the galaxy.
A recurring theme throughout the first three seasons is the "Temporal Cold War." A mysterious entity from the future used technology to advise a species known as the Suliban for the purpose of maniputating the timeline to his will. Sometimes providing bad information to the crew of Enterprise, sometimes saving the ship from destruction, the entity's true motives are unknown. A human from Earth's future visits Captain Archer occasionally to assist him in fighting the Suliban and claiming to prevent damage to the timeline.
Low ratings encouraged the series' producers to seek a new direction for it. The third season changes the series' name to Star Trek: Enterprise and introduces a new enemy, the Xindi, whose goal is the annihilation of the human race due to fears that someday humanity will wipe them out. The entire third season follows one long story arc, which begins in the second season finale "The Expanse" - in which the Xindi deploy a prototype weapon which cuts a wide, deep trench from Venezuela to central Florida, killing seven million people. The Enterprise is refitted as a warship and travels through the Delphic Expanse to find the Xindi homeworld and prevent another attack against Earth.
The third season, especially later episodes, has been received more favorably by fans and critics. The episodes "Twilight", "Proving Ground", were well-received by fans, and the arc formed by the last seven episodes of the third season--"Azati Prime", "Damage", "The Forgotten," "E2," "The Council", "Countdown" and "Zero Hour" in particular have received praise. Some of these were written or co-written by Manny Coto, a writer new to the series in season 3. His other scripts, such as "Similitude" are also widely considered to be of a higher caliber than earlier stories, which likely contributed to his being promoted to executive producer and showrunner for season 4.
Season 4 has produced, and is expected to continue with, a mixture of two- and three-episode arcs, along with a few standalone episodes. The general theme of the season appears to be a focus on the prequel concept of the series, with many episodes referencing themes, concepts and characters from past Trek series. Season 4 has also seen the finale of the "Temporal Cold War" from previous seasons. The fourth season also saw the much anticipated return of Brent Spiner (Data from Star Trek: The Next Generation) as the criminal mastermind Dr. Arik Soong in a three-episode arc involving genetically enhanced superhumans, the "Augments". Coto has stated that his intent is to push the series towards the eventual founding of the United Federation of Planets.
Themes
Enterprise has been seen as an attempt to move Star Trek away from the political correctness of recent series towards being a more traditional action adventure. The casting of a white male as captain, his preference for unilateral action, the introduction of the Suliban as the clearly-indicated and largely simplistic 'bad guys', and even the dropping of the name "Star Trek" from the title are seen as distancing the new series from those which came before.
One newspaper writer has compared Star Trek's hawkish shift with the advent of the War on Terrorism. The name "Suliban" was, in fact, based upon the name of the Taliban, though the production work for Enterprise occurred well before the September 11, 2001 attacks. [1] Some viewers claim that Trip Tucker and George W. Bush share a similar facial appearance.
Theme song
The series' theme song, a pop song written by Diane Warren and sung by Russell Watson, is a marked contrast to the sweeping instrumental themes used in all other Star Trek series. It is also the first such theme not to have been composed specially for Star Trek, having previously appeared (performed by Rod Stewart) in the film Patch Adams (1998). Like virtually every other aspect of the series, the theme song has polarized Trek fans, with many loving the song and many considering it inappropriate for a Star Trek series. A new, more upbeat arrangement of the theme song was introduced with the third season, but this had no impact on the controversy, except to elicit criticism from some who liked the original one.
The song is known by several titles, most commonly "Faith of the Heart" (the title from Patch Adams). However, the official soundtrack CD for Enterprise, as well as all releases of the song by Watson, give it the new title of "Where My Heart Will Take Me."
In late October 2004, the official website startrek.com posted a preview of what appears to be a possible new opening credits sequence, in which Scott Bakula recites a modified version of the famous "Space, the final frontier ..." speech (with the phrase "where no human has gone before" in place of "where no man" or "where no one"). Although no credit text is shown over the footage of Enterprise flying through space, it is about the same length as the current opening credits. The music used for this piece of footage (which startrek.com currently calls a promo, not a new opening credits sequence) is "Archer's Theme" which is a more traditional orchestral instrumental heard over the closing credits. Speculation is rife among fans that the credits may be changed, perhaps in an effort by the producers to win back those viewers who were turned off the series by its unconventional theme song, or as an indication of the fourth season's "back to the basics" approach.
Another iron in this fire is the existence on various file sharing networks of a 14+MB MPG file containing the current opening credit sequence with the music replaced by the orchestral closing title theme from Star Trek: Generations. The file contains a fairly official looking slate from "Paramount Television Operations", and has likewise generated both approval and annoyance from fans ("They've got that; why don't they use it?")
As of Oct. 28, 2004, no announcement had been made as to whether the credits will actually be changed. It was rumored that the episode "Borderland", scheduled to air in the United States on Oct. 29, would feature the new credits, but this turned out not to be the case. It has since been stated that the "new" credit sequence was simply something created as a special "added attraction" for the startrek.com website and there are no plans, at present, to change the televised credits.
Ironically, after three seasons of complaints from some fans about the "Where My Heart Will Take Me" theme song, there are indications that protests may greet any new credit sequence from those who liked the original tune and associated credit sequence.
Due to the emphasis given to the character of T'Pol and the frequent, failed attempts by her Vulcan superiors to take her away from Capt. Archer and Enterprise, there are some fans who feel that the lyrics of the theme song actually refer to T'Pol. (They're not going to hold me down...they're not going to change my mind...)
Controversy
Many Trekkies have been upset by Enterprise, claiming that it violates the canon which has been established in previous series and movies. Brannon Braga, executive producer of the series, has gone on record as challenging the fans who make such claims to prove it:
- What have we done? Give me one good example. There are some picayune things that we have chosen to do. We have not broken the rules, but we have bent rules. But there's nothing that important. It's not like we've stated that Kirk never existed. What have we done? [2]
The series has polarised some areas of the Trek fan community, to the point where two "factions" have been identified: initially the term "Gushers" was used to describe fans who enjoy the series, while "Bashers" was applied to Trekkers who did not like the show. Each group tends to object to these titles, however, and more recently the terms have been modified to usually refer to only the extreme fans on both sides (i.e. those who reject any criticism of Enterprise are called gushers, while those who hate the show and refuse to be swayed are called bashers). The negative extreme is illustrated by the existence of the "Kill Enterprise" movement that was created by Polish Star Trek fans in response to fan-based efforts to save the show. An ongoing debate among Trekkers is whether or not the cancellation of this series will mark the end of televised Star Trek. In an ironic twist to the years-long fight to bring Star Trek back to television in the 1970s and 1980s, there are a growing number of Trekkers who feel that the concept has worn itself out and should either be retired, or laid to rest for a number of years. Enterprise's producers have stated on a few occasions that, no matter how long the current series runs, when it ends it will probably be the last Star Trek television series for some time to come.
The producers of Enterprise were faced with a controversy of another kind with the 2004 episode "Harbinger" which included a love scene in which T'Pol's buttocks were briefly shown. Aside from complaints from some fans that such nudity was inappropriate for Star Trek, the episode was also scheduled to air not long after the Super Bowl XXXVIII controversy in which Janet Jackson "accidentally" exposed a breast on live TV, leading to an upswing in censorship in America. As a result, when the episode was finally aired on UPN, the scene was censored. Viewers in Canada, however, saw the uncensored version and it is assumed that the uncensored version will appear on the upcoming DVD release.
Alleged continuity problems
- Main article: Star Trek: Enterprise alleged continuity problems.
Future
Despite most critics agreeing that Enterprise's third season was its strongest yet, and most episodes of the fourth season receiving near-unanimous praise, the series continues to suffer in the ratings. This, along with the poor box office performance of Star Trek: Nemesis, has given the Star Trek franchise an uncertain future. While some have placed blame on the current production staff or on the concept of the series, others blame its parent network UPN for not promoting the series and allowing major affiliates to preempt it on many occasions for local sports coverage, a fact they say is ignored by critics. Many fans also reported that they chose to watch UPN's weekend rebroadcasts of the series, which were not counted in the ratings.
There was speculation that the series would be cancelled if ratings did not improve before the third season ended in May 2004. In response, several fan campaigns to save the show were launched; most notably those of "The Enterprise Project" and "Save Enterprise" -- the former has bought several full page advertisements in the Hollywood Reporter to encourage the network to renew the show, and to congratulate the cast and crew when that occurred. The ads were funded by donations from fans; excess funds were donated to charity in the names of several cast members.
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. Paramount cut its per-episode price and reduced the number of season 4 episodes from 26 to 24 so that the series would be more financially attractive to the struggling UPN, and it is assumed that one reason why the show was renewed was so that Paramount would have enough episodes for proper syndication should it be cancelled in 2005 (100 episodes are generally deemed necessary for this).
The new timeslot, it is hoped, will reduce the number of network affiliate preemptions of the show and allow a more accurate account of its viewership. Unfortunately, this now appears unlikely, as viewers reported that UPN's affiliate in New York City aired a baseball playoff game rather than the fourth season premiere on Oct. 8, 2004. This, combined with other UPN affiliates airing coverage of the second debate between George W. Bush and John Kerry that night in lieu of network programming, resulted in very low ratings numbers for the fourth season premiere. The next episode, aired on Oct. 15, scored even lower ratings, though it was reported that the actual number of viewers of the episode went up from the previous week, and although the ratings aren't as high as they were on Wednesday nights, the series has so far scored higher ratings than competing programs on The WB, or the Friday night movie UPN used to air in the timeslot. Additionally, it is unclear why the network reruns each first-run episode in a weekend timeslot the same week it is released -- effectively making its ratings appear worse than they are, since Nielsen does not rate the rerun.
In October 2004, it was announced that Enterprise was the 25th most popular show on the TiVo television recording system in the United States. Although TiVo has yet to achieve the same level of popularity as home video recording, this is an indication of the show's popularity among those who choose to tape the program on Friday and watch it later (i.e. "time-shifting").
There were reports during the summer of 2004 that UPN had only agreed to a half-season committment for Enterprise, allowing them to cancel the series if ratings do not improve quickly, though this has yet to be confirmed by the network. In early November 2004, production began on season 4's 13th episode, "United". Since the season is only scheduled to run 24 episodes, it would appear that the half-season purchase rumor is untrue.
Despite an apparent uncertain future for both Enterprise and televised Star Trek in general, Paramount Network Television president Garry Hart was quoted in an August 2004 New York Times article that Paramount and UPN stand by the series and hope to see it continue for several more seasons. However, Hart's subsequent departure from his position a week later has placed this outcome in doubt.
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 several "mini-arcs", each over three episodes. The first of these arcs somewhat resolved the "Temporal Cold War" storyline set up in the pilot episode. Coto was, as noted, a fairly well-received writer for the show in season 3, and has stated that he intends to cater somewhat more to fans of the older incarnations of the franchise -- hints of this have been visible in the fourth through sixth episodes of season 4. Ironically, this new direction has generated criticism from those who don't want Enterprise to be a rehash of previous series.
Over the summer of 2004, it was reported that a special appearance by original Trek star William Shatner was being planned, reprising his character James T. Kirk, though as of September 2004, an announcement had yet to be made. New reports in early October indicated that negotiations between Shatner and Paramount were "warming up" however. A major stumbling block is said to be Shatner's asking price, coupled with his commitments to the TV series Boston Legal. Brent Spiner of Star Trek: The Next Generation made an appearance in episodes 4 through 6 of the fourth season as Arik Soong, an ancestor of Noonien Soong who created the android Data.
DVD release
In October 2004, Paramount announced that it will release the first four seasons of Enterprise on DVD in North America during 2005, with the current season arriving in the fall of 2005. If the series is renewed for a fifth year, this will be the first time a Star Trek series will enjoy a contemporary release of recent episodes on DVD.
Cast
Main characters
- Captain Jonathan Archer (Scott Bakula)
- Subcommander (later Commander) T'Pol, a Vulcan, second in command (Jolene Blalock)
- Commander Charles "Trip" Tucker III, chief engineer (Connor Trinneer)
- Lieutenant Malcolm Reed, tactical officer (Dominic Keating)
- Ensign Hoshi Sato, communication officer (Linda Park)
- Ensign Travis Mayweather, helm officer (Anthony Montgomery)
- Doctor Phlox, the ship's Denobulan physician (John Billingsley)
Recurring characters
- Admiral Maxwell Forrest, Archer's superior officer (Vaughn Armstrong), killed in "The Forge"
- Soval, a Vulcan ambassador (Gary Graham)
- Silik, a Suliban (John Fleck), killed in "Storm Front (Part II)".
- Crewman Elizabeth Cutler, a young, inexperienced crewmember (Kellie Waymire). (Cutler's status is not known as of the start of season 4; Waymire died in 2003; however the character has been mentioned as being a crewmember since the actress' death).
- Degra, a Xindi-Primate (Randy Oglesby), murdered in "The Council".
- Major Hayes, leader of the MACO team, killed in "Countdown" (Steven Culp)
- Shran, member of the Andorian Imperial Guard (Jeffrey Combs)
- Crewman Daniels, a temporal agent from the 30th Century (Matt Winston)
- Michael Rostov, a member of Tucker's Engineering team (Joseph Will)
See also
External links
- Star Trek official site
- Enterprise at the Internet Movie Database
- Star Trek: Enterprise article at Memory Alpha, a Star Trek wiki
- Star Trek episode reviews by Jamahl "Jammer" Epsicokhan
- Save Enterprise
- Kill Enterprise
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