Media Trip Report – STAR TREK: Enterprise (Season 1)

(Originally posted on Facebook, September 14, 2023)

Last week I decided to binge the 26 episodes of the first season to take my mind off some not-fun life issues. Crazily enough, this is only my second rewatch of the series, but my first in over a decade. With only 98 episodes, it barely meets the criteria for syndication, and as I didn’t have cable when it was on live, I missed parts of the first two seasons and all of the third and fourth.

So in many ways, this is my first viewing all over again, and I have to tell you it holds up. The pilot is a bit simplistic, but it still works. ENTERPRISE was a return to a more grounded Trek, a show about exploration and aspiration.

Humans, Vulcans, and Andorians are not so evolved, and are certainly not a galaxy-spanning Federation of Planets. Klingons aren’t exactly enemies (yet), and there’s enough new races in the mix to keep things fresh.

The transporter is brand new, and not to be trusted. The universal translator works, until it doesn’t, so there’s an ensign with a PhD manning communications, who is afraid of space travel and speaks over 40 languages. There’s a non-human doctor who prefers Holistic cures, but is not afraid of busting out a cure for cancer as the plot demands.

And then there’s T’Pol. I must admit that previous to this watch-through I didn’t much care for the cat-suited Vulcan who showed clear disdain for humans in her very first scene. Whom the main crew hated simply because she was Vulcan, even though time and again she proved to be not only a capable scientist, but also a loyal and honorable companion.

In short, she’s everything Star Trek should be, and also everything that’s wrong with the franchise. Vulcans >should< be in charge, because they’ve already made all the mistakes. But most of them are afraid to make more, and in ENTERPRISE that fear shifts quickly into repressed anger when they can’t stop humans from making all new ones.

Half the Vulcans we meet in season 1 are bitter, angry men (and the list is almost exclusively dudes, another GIANT problem with the series), and the other half are calm, cool, and capable, including the best character of the season, Ambassador V’lar (portrayed by veteran character actor Fionnula Flanagan).

V’Lar gives us hope that someday humans and Vulcans will be friends. Even though Vulcans abstain from unnecessary physical contact (they are canonically touch telepaths), the apparently disgraced ambassador greets Captain Archer with a smile and a hearty handshake. She is obviously the smartest person in any room, with hundreds of years of hard-won experience to back her up. But she is fascinated by the new, and selfless in her devotion to peace.

When the truth of her actions comes to light, there are no recriminations or haughty sneers like those of Ambassador Soval (also played with gusto by a scenery-chewing Gary Graham), whose character is just as old but has learned very different lessons after 80 years embedded on Earth.

And then there’s the Temporal Cold War (TCW), the central plot point of both the season, and the series. ENTERPRISE was billed as an examination of the foundation of the Federation; specifically what happens in a universe where said body’s formation is disrupted before it even begins.

Simply put, it’s a great premise executed badly, though the stories told around that core are really worth watching. Season 1 tap-dances around both the FoP and TCW admirably, and the 22 episodes that are left when you take out the timeline stuff have a lot more hits than misses.

My picks:

GREAT

The Andorian Incident – Starring Jeffrey Coombs! and some other people, I guess.

Fallen Hero – the V’lar episode mentioned above.

Dear Doctor – a Dr. Phlox-centric episode that explores his truly alien nature.

Desert Crossing – Prime Directive? What’s that? Also, CLANCY FUCKING BROWN.

Oasis – A “bottle” episode, guest-starring Rene Abergenios (DS9’s Odo) and the screen debut of Annie Wershing, who later became the Borg Quuen in ST: PICARD before sadly passing away earlier this year.

GOOD

Fusion – Rogue Vulcans who embrace emotions and mind-melds. It doesn’t make the GREAT list because one of them mind-rapes T’Pol, though the way Archer steps up in her defense is a turning point in their relationship. The after-effects of this encounter fundamentally change who T’Pol is and becomes, and this alone elevates it beyond its subject matter.

Shadows of P’Jem – The aftermath of “The Andorian Incident,” and the return of JEFFREY FUCKING COOMBS.

Broken Bow (pts 1 & 2) – The series opener comes so close to being incredible, but it relies too much on knowing nods and Trekker goodwill at the expense of good story. Captain Archer in particular is weak in part 1 this episode, which I suspect was a choice by main actor Scott Bakula to give the rest of the ensemble space to shine. But he’s all over part 2, and you leave the episode confident that those plucky humans might just make it after all.

Sleeping Dogs – A Klingon episode. Also, Vaughn Armstrong (already an ENTERPRISE regular in the role of Admiral Forrest) picks up his 10th (!) of 12 (!!) Star Trek roles as the Kilngon captain. The plot of this one is weak, and other episodes of Trek (some in this very season) do it better. But the acting is great, in particular from Jolene Blaylock (T’Pol) and Linda Park (Ensign Dr. Hoshi Sato).

Cold Front – in which the Temporal Cold War is specifically named. Director Robert Duncan McNeill (VOYAGER’s Tom Paris) does a great job with an average script, but there’s still a tad too much exposition for this to grab one of the top spots.

OKAY

Pretty much everything else, except for

MEH

Silent Enemy – A mysterious ship chases the Enterprise around for a while, forcing them to accelerate development of ship-mounted phasers which should have been installed int he first place. Also, it’s tactical officer Malcolm Reed’s birthday, so let’s spend HALF the episode talking to everybody in his life about what a secretive man he really is so we can make him a special meal.

This entire episode should have been an email.

Fortunate Son – Cargo haulers kidnap and torture a Naussican, then go vigilante on a Naussican settlement. There are no lasting consequences for their attempted genocide, and Archer and the Enterprise have no choice but to let them go sailing merrily on.

Terra Nova – Even Levar Burton’s considerable directorial skills can’t save this one. The first independent human colony has been “silent” for over seventy years, in a universe where the Vulcans could have helped them at any fucking time. 52 humans are all that’s left, surviving underground with various easily treatable maladies, including an original colonist who has had lung cancer forever and gets cured in an hour.

Series creator Brannon Braga ranks this one 98th out of 98, and it’s not hard to see why.

Shockwave (part 1) – I honestly thought this TCW episode was part of Season 2. And although it’s the payoff for the series’ premise of an aborted FoP, it just falls flat. There’s nothing new here that we haven’t already seen 25 times before and IIRC, the resolution to the cliffhanger is equally unsatisfying, but at least has more action than a bunch of people sitting around moping and staring at screens until a time traveler shows up and solves all their problems.

Meh, I say. MEH!

In closing, I thought ST:E S1 was a wonderful trip down memory lane, a reminder of the Trek I grew up on. I’ve been holding off on buying the complete series blu-ray compilation, but I expect I may cave this weekend after I start watching S2.