Star Trek: Enterprise: Season One DVD Review:

In the mid 22nd Century the first warp five ship, Enterprise would finally see humans starting to explore the galaxy but it was not going to be the safest to visit…

Broken Bow
After decades of being held back from deep space exploration by the Vulcans, the human race makes its first venture into interstellar travel with Captain Jonathan Archer at the helm of the Enterprise NX-01. The Enterprise crew's mission is to return an injured Klingon — the first the human race has ever encountered — to his people. But when a villainous race of aliens called the Suliban kidnap the Klingon, Archer and his crew must make an unexpected detour into another world to retrieve their precious cargo — and stave off a dangerous diplomatic interstellar crisis.

Fight Or Flight
As they continue their deep space exploration, the Enterprise crew comes across an alien ship where they discover 15 humanoid corpses that seem to have been part of a scientific experiment. The horrific sight inspires Hoshi to panic and demand a return to Earth, but Archer insists on continuing the mission and finding out more about the abandoned dead.

Strange New World
When the Enterprise investigates an uninhabited planet that turns out to be far more dangerous than expected. The crewmembers that visit the planet are infected by alien pollen that induces hallucinations and paranoia.

Unexpected
When Trip is dispatched to assist an alien ship with its power source problems, he is delighted to have a friendly encounter with one of the ship's female engineers. But after discovering that their special moment has resulted in his becoming pregnant, he realizes he's had an unwitting experience with alien sex. Archer and his crew must then try and return the rapidly growing alien baby to its mother.

Terra Nova
The Enterprise crew alters course to investigate the mystery of Terra Nova, a legendary Earth colony whose inhabitants mysteriously disappeared decades ago. But when they arrive, they confront descendents of the colonists who have become more alien than Archer could ever have imagined.

The Andorian Incident
The Enterprise crew pays a friendly visit to an ancient Vulcan spiritual sanctuary, despite T'Pol's concerns that her human colleagues will be an awkward and disruptive presence there. Upon landing, they discover that the monastery has been forcibly taken over by the Andorians, a paranoid and highly excitable race of aliens with a long history of conflict with the Vulcans.

Breaking The Ice
Trip learns that T'Pol is transmitting secret messages to a Vulcan ship, which has been shadowing Enterprise for weeks. Meanwhile, Archer must attempt a dangerous rescue to recover two crewman stranded on a rapidly disintegrating comet.

Civilisation
Captain Archer and the crew discover a fully inhabited, civilized though less advanced Earth-like planet. Disguised to look like its inhabitants, they pay the planet an exploratory visit where they learn that a pernicious illness is afflicting the local population. As Archer seeks to help them find the malady's source, he finds himself in a close encounter with a comely female alien.

Fortunate Son
The Enterprise crew is dispatched by Starfleet Command to assist Fortunate, a human freight vessel that has been attacked by Nausicaan pirates. On arriving, they are surprised to find that Fortunate's crew is resistant to Archer's efforts to help them and determined to seek revenge against their attackers, no matter what the repercussions.

Cold Front
The Enterprise crew is dispatched by Starfleet Command to assist Fortunate, a human freight vessel that has been attacked by Nausicaan pirates. On arriving, they are surprised to find that Fortunate's crew is resistant to Archer's efforts to help them and determined to seek revenge against their attackers, no matter what the repercussions.

Silent Enemy
When an unidentified enemy ship attacks Enterprise, the crew must work frantically to get their new phase canons to operate. Meanwhile, Archer realizes that no one knows Reed well enough to give him a personalized birthday gift.

Dear Doctor
The crew discovers a new planet with two races, one in desperate need of medical and scientific assistance. In the course of trying to help, Dr. Phlox recalls his own Denobulan past to address the ethical dilemmas that arise in the present.

Sleeping Dogs
When Enterprise comes across a wounded Klingon vessel, T'Pol, Hoshi and Reed take a shuttlepod down to investigate. There they are ambushed by a hostile female Klingon who hijacks the shuttlepod, leaving the Enterprise crewmembers dangerously stranded aboard the Klingon vessel. Now it's up to Archer to take the Klingon under guard and enlist her help in rescuing his crew.

Shadows Of P'Jem
Archer and the crew are disappointed to discover that T'Pol has been ordered by the Vulcan High Command to leave Enterprise and equally frustrated at her seeming indifference to leaving their ranks. T'Pol's last mission as a Starfleet officer, however, proves eventful when she and Archer are kidnapped by a militant faction on an alien planet.

Shuttlepod One
Tucker and Reed set out on a mission in a shuttlepod, as Enterprise is busy investigating an asteroid field. Disaster strikes while the pair is away, leaving the shuttlepod damaged and the warp drive inoperable. They manage to make it back to the rendezvous coordinates only to discover Enterprise was apparently destroyed when it crashed into an asteroid. With the ship seemingly no more, the pair are left abandoned in the middle of nowhere with only a few days of air remaining.

Fusion
The enterprise encounters a group of Vulcan civilians who have split off from the normal way of Vulcan life in an effort to explore their emotions. T'Pol is disturbed by the new visitors and warns the Captain that all attempts in the past to integrate Vulcan emotions into their lives has proven disastrous.

Rogue Planet
While exploring an uncharted planet, Enterprise crewmembers encounter a group of aliens who are hunting down indigenous creatures for recreation. During their exploration, Archer is mesmerized by visions of a woman desperately attempting to communicate with him.

Acquisition
Enterprise encounters alien pirates who use a booby-trapped artefact to gas the crew into unconsciousness and then look for treasures. But they haven't counted on Tucker, who was in the decon chamber and avoids the gas.

Oasis
While exploring a crashed vessel on a desolate planet, the Enterprise crew encounter an alien crew that have survived despite insurmountable odds. Trip helps repair their derelict vessel and is befriended by Liana, an attractive alien who develops feelings for him and vice versa. However, Liana appears to be hiding something and the aliens' story doesn't hold up: they have nowhere enough food to have survived for the 22 years they claim.

Detained
While exploring a planet, Archer and Mayweather enter a "military zone" and are detained in an internment prison by an alien race called Tandarans, who are at war with the Suliban. While the Enterprise crew's previous encounters with the Suliban have been disastrous, Archer and Mayweather find themselves sharing a cell with some Suliban detainees who they believe may be wrongly imprisoned.

Vox Sola
A strange, symbiotic alien creature boards the Enterprise capturing a few of the crew members, including Archer and Trip, and cocoons them in its web feeding off their bodies to survive. With the captured crewmembers' lives in jeopardy, Hoshi, under T'Pol's command, faces her biggest challenge by trying to find a way to communicate with the life form in order to return it to its home planet.

Fallen Hero
The Enterprise is sent to the planet Mazar to pick up a Vulcan ambassador, V'Lar, expelled for misconduct. V'Lar is vague about exactly what crime she committed. The Mazar send a ship to bring her back, claiming that they need her for additional questioning. When Archer questions the situation they open fire.

Desert Crossing
A desert nomad, Zobral, invites Archer and Trip down to his camp in return for their fixing his spaceship. Things go okay at first until the local government contacts Enterprise and wants to know why they are meeting with terrorists. Zobral confesses the invitation was a ruse but that the government is a repressive one and he wants Archer's help.

Two Days And Two Nights
When the crew takes shore leave on the famous pleasure planet of Risa, Archer has a mysterious encounter with an alien woman; Hoshi has a surprising romantic rendezvous; Mayweather has a rock-climbing accident; and Trip and Reed go clubbing only to end the evening as unwitting victims of robbery.

Shockwave (Part 1)

Starfleet orders Enterprise to return home when the crew seemingly causes the destruction of an alien planet they were exploring. Archer is visited by former crewmember Daniels, who travelled through time to warn him that the Suliban are trying to sabotage Enterprise's mission, and the two travel through time to try to thwart the Suliban's plans.

After three extremely popular spin-off series the next incarnation of the Star Trek franchise goes boldly where no new Trek series has gone before, a different time zone.

Where ‘The Next Generation’, ‘Deep Space Nine’ and ‘Voyager’ where set in the 24th Century, ‘Enterprise’ takes us back to the 22nd Century and the dawn of mankind’s exploration of interstellar space. This is a time of true exploration, when ships could only travel at warp 5, transporters had only just been invented for moving cargo and not people, replicators could only create drinks and the galaxy was still very alien. This was man’s next giant leap and this show would show how the Star Trek Universe we all love came about, or so we hoped.

From its inception ‘Star Trek: Enterprise’ had been met with reluctance from the fans. Worried that the series would meddle with the history of the show and counteract many of the facts already instilled in Star Trek doctrine, Trekkers approached the show with justified trepidation. For most parts, they were right. Captain Jonathan Archer and the crew of the first Enterprise, NX-01 had never been mentioned throughout Star Trek’s four TV series, the animated show, books or movies. For a Captain and crew that had pivotal roles in the history of Starfleet and United Federation of Planets, it was hard to believe that they had never been even spoke of at any time in Star Trek history. Fans know that this is a new show that was made to fill in the gaps in the chronology of the franchise but this is no ordinary TV series, it has developed into an entity of its own. Fans have never been able to get past this and this has affected the show’s popularity and ratings.

Trying to be different from the three 24th-century shows that had preceded it is all well and good but series creators Rick Berman and Brannon Braga had taken too many liberties. The first major annoyance was the theme tune. Instead of the usual inspiring instrumental track that played over the opening titles, ‘Enterprise’ has the song ‘Faith of the Heart’ sung by Russell Watson and it is just awful. It makes you want to record the show every week so you can fast forward past it. This is a real shame as the opening credits themselves, depicting humankind’s passion of exploration, are extremely good. Another annoyance is the lack of original shows. Instead of concentrating on who the United Federation of Planets came into been and human’s making the place in the galaxy, we have a time travel, temporal war scenario that ruins the flow of the series. The idea of Temporal Agents and time-travelling to change past events has been approached in previous Star Trek series but this was a show that really didn’t need it. While the storylines are quite entertaining in their own right, they are a distraction from the best part of the show, finding out about Star Trek history.

These annoyances aside, ‘Star Trek: Enterprise’ has one major thing going for it, its cast. Rick Berman and Brannon Braga have succeeded in recreating the dynamic that made the original series such a success, strong central characters. TOS had Kirk, Spock, Bones and Scotty while Enterprise has Jonathan Archer, T’Pol, Trip and Lt. Reed. While the Enterprise characters have a lot to do to catch up the dynamic created by these classic creations, these four are already making a name for themselves as strong Star Trek characterisations. Jonathan Archer is an excellent Star Trek captain. A strong leader and diplomat, he also has a hands-on approach and a slight gung-ho attitude that makes him someone anyone would follow. He is played superbly by the always-excellent Scott Bakula, already a Sci-Fi legend after starring in the cult classic ‘Quantum Leap’, who makes the role his own, bringing class and dignity to the character. T’Pol is everything you would expect of a Vulcan, with added sexiness. Jolene Blalock has two hard acts to follow (Leonard Nimoy as Spock and Tim Russ as Tuvok) but this is a show that needed a Vulcan presence and she provides this excellently. Commander Charles "Trip" Tucker III is an early version of Scotty, a chief engineer who can perform miracles in an engine room. Connor Trinneer’s take on the character is spot on and he creates a character that you cannot help but like. Lt. Malcolm Reed is a British Navy man who brings all the honour, bravery and banter you would expect from an English service man. Dominic Keating plays the character extremely well and brings that dignity and scene of respect for the chain of command that all British servicemen have.

Despite its faults, ‘Star Trek: Enterprise’ is still entertaining television. Its first season has many standout episodes such as ‘Broken Bow’, ‘The Andorian Incident’, ‘Shuttlepod One’, ‘Silent Enemy’ and ‘Sleeping Dogs’ to name but a few. While it may not capture the magic of the previous three spin off shows, this is still very polished science fiction television with a great cast and some interesting stories to tell. It is just a shame that the people behind didn’t think plan it as well as they could have so it could achieve its full potential.

Season Star Rating = * * *

PICTURE & SOUND

Presented in 16x9 Widescreen with a Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack, ‘Star Trek’ has never looked so good. The transfer is superb with the picture quality first rate throughout, really showcasing the exception special effects. The sound quality is also fantastic, especially during the fight sequences.

BONUS FEATURES

Audio Commentary on ‘Broken Bow’ with executive producers Brannon Braga and Rick Berman
The co-creators of ‘Star Trek: Enterprise’ come together to talk about the pilot episode of the prequel series. The pair discusses the concept behind the show, revealing that they wanted to show how the technology and events we had only read or heard about came to be within the Star Trek Universe. They talk about casting the show and what each actor brings to the characters. They also reveal the truth behind the ‘Future Guy’ story arc and how they actually like the opening title music!

Text Commentary by Michael and Denise Okuda

While watching the episodes ‘Broken Bow’, ‘The Andorian Incident’ and ‘Vox Sola’ you can switch on the text commentary feature which flashes up interesting facts and trivia about the episode and the series.

Deleted scenes
Watch deleted scenes from the episodes ‘Broken Bow’, ‘Fight or Flight’, ‘Unexpected’, ‘Sleeping Dogs’, ‘Shuttlepod One’, ‘Oasis’, ‘Fallen Hero’, ‘Two Days and Two Nights’ and ‘Shockwave Part 1’

Creating Enterprise (11.26 mins)

Co-creators and executive producers Rick Berman and Brannon Braga, production designer Herman Zimmerman, director of photography Marvin Rush and star Scott Bakula introduce you to ‘Star Trek: Enterprise’. The group talk about the concept behind the show and how they wanted to return to the original ideal that make Star Trek so great in the first place.

O Captain, my Captain: A profile of Scott Bakula (9.30 mins)

Executive story editor/writer Andre Bormanis, director LeVar Burton and stars Jolene Blalock, Conner Trinneer, Dominic Keating, Anthony Montgomery, Linda Park and John Billingsley talk about what it is like working with Scott Bakula. The actor himself discusses the character and the cast and crew reflect talk about what he brings to the production.

Cast Impressions: Season One (12.24 mins)

Scott Bakula, Jolene Blalock, Conner Trinneer, Dominic Keating, Anthony Montgomery, Linda Park and John Billingsley reveal how they got involved in the series. Each of them talks about their characters and what it means to them been involved in televisual history.

Inside Shuttlepod One (7.56 mins)

Co-creators and executive producers Rick Berman and Brannon Braga and stars Conner Trinneer and Dominic Keating talk about one of the standout episodes of season one. They talk about turning a ‘bottle show’ into a really successful character driven episode that pushed story and the development of the two characters.

Star Trek Time Travel: Temporal War and Beyond (8.10 mins)

Co-creators and executive producers Rick Berman and Brannon Braga and art supervisor Mike Okuda talk about time travel within the Star Trek Universe. The featurette shows you when time travel has occurred in the Original Series, The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager, The Movies and Enterprise.

Enterprise Secrets (1.59 mins)

2nd Assistant director David G. Trotti takes you behind the scenes to show you how the warp core and replicators work.

Admiral Forest takes centre stage (5.13 mins)

Vaughn Armstrong sings about the women of Star Trek and talks about playing the most characters of any actor on any of the series.

Enterprise Outtakes (9.02 mins)

See Scott Bakula, Jolene Blalock, Linda Park, Conner Trinneer and John Billingsley make a hash of their lines in these very funny outtakes.

Celebrating Star Trek (15.17 mins)

Star Trek fans come to the annual Las Vegas convention and talk about what the show means to them and the stories that make the show so special.

Star Trek: The Original Series DVD Trailer (1.43 mins)

A preview of the DVD release of the classic series with Kirk, Spock, Bones and the rest of the Enterprise crew

Borg Invasion Trailer (0.31 mins)

A preview of the new Star Trek attraction in Las Vegas

Easter Eggs: NX-01 Files (10.00 mins)

Hidden mini-featurettes that include interviews with Jolene Blalock, special effects supervisor Dan Curry and graphic artist Geoffrey Mandel

OVERALL

Paramount continues to do an exceptional job with their Star Trek DVD releases. The presentation of the episodes is first rate and the bonus material is fun and informative. While a few more commentary tracks on episodes wouldn’t have gone a miss and the sets are a little expensive (Shop around), this is still an excellent package for Enterprise fans to revel in.



Jamie Kelwick