"Enterprise" (2001) TV series 2001-2005

Creators:

Rick Berman
Brannon Braga

Seasons:

1 | 2 | 3 | 4

Release Date:

26 September 2001 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Adventure | Sci-Fi

Tagline:

Before Janeway...and Picard...before Spock...and Kirk...the Star Trek saga began.

Plot:

A prequel series, set 100 years before the original Star Trek series, which focuses on the early years of Starfleet, leading up to the formation of the Federation and the Earth-Romulan Wars. The series is set aboard the Earth ship Enterprise NX-01, captained by Jonathan Archer.

Plot Keywords:

Captain | Space | Prequel | Planet | Exploration

Awards:

Won 4 Primetime Emmys. Another 7 wins & 29 nominations

US TV Schedule:

Thur. Nov. 12	8:00 AM	SYFY	Exile	#3.6
Thur. Nov. 12	9:00 AM	SYFY	The Shipment	#3.7

Cast

Scott Bakula	...	Captain Jonathan Archer / ... (98 episodes, 2001-2005)
Jolene Blalock	...	Sub-Commander T'Pol / ... (98 episodes, 2001-2005)
Dominic Keating	...	Lieutenant Malcolm Reed / ... (98 episodes, 2001-2005)
John Billingsley	...	Dr. Phlox (98 episodes, 2001-2005)
Anthony Montgomery	...	Ensign Travis Mayweather / ... (98 episodes, 2001-2005)
Linda Park	...	Ensign Hoshi Sato / ... (98 episodes, 2001-2005)
Connor Trinneer	...	Commander Charles 'Trip' Tucker III (98 episodes, 2001-2005)
Mark Correy	...	Engineer Alex (43 episodes, 2001-2005)

Also Known As:

Star Trek: Enterprise (USA) (new title)
Star Trek: Series V (USA) (working title)
Star Trek: Untitled Fifth Series (USA) (working title)

Runtime:

USA:60 min (including commercials) | 42 min (98 episodes)

Country:

USA

Language:

English | Klingon

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.78 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Canada:G (Quebec) (video rating) | Canada:PG (Manitoba/Nova Scotia) (video rating) | Australia:M | Brazil:12 | Australia:PG (some episodes) | New Zealand:M (season 1) | USA:TV-PG | UK:PG | Singapore:PG

Filming Locations:

Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

Braga Productions

Trivia:

T'Pol's age became a matter of some debate among fans (and a minor running joke on the series itself) during the show's first 3 seasons. According to the original writers' "bible" for the series, she is 67 years old at the time of "Broken Bow", a fact confirmed by Jolene Blalock in interviews. In the season three finale, "Zero Hour", however, T'Pol revealed that she is actually 65 years old (and will turn 66 on her next birthday). It has been speculated that either the writers shaved a few years off her age (since bibles are only guidelines), make a mistake, or T'Pol is lying about her age and is really 70.

Quotes:

Commander Tucker: I don't like pushing the engines at 110%
Subcommander T'Pol: They are rated for 120
Commander Tucker: My underwear's flame-retardant, but it doesn't mean I want to set fire to myself to prove it.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Tripping the Rift: Cool Whip (#2.1)" (2004)

Soundtrack:

Where My Heart Will Take Me

The franchise in context

Unlike TOS-DS9, Voyager and Enterprise suffered, with some consistency, from franchise writing which, though occasionally brilliant, was more often than not formulaic and unimaginative. No longer was the franchise's goal to take viewers where nobody had gone before. With Enterprise, the goals seemed to become more obviously "milk this thing for all its worth" more than ever before. Enterprise's writing team had their work cut out for them. They had to satisfy people who loved the original vision of TOS - high quality story-driven sci fi with consistent and engaging characters; people who loved the extension and expansion of the ST universe in TNG; fans who enjoyed the intense characterization and serialized drama of DS9; and people who enjoyed the somewhat less intense but still interesting ship-based adventures of Voyager.

The second problem is the concept itself. Star Trek made its fan base by bucking trends, not buying into them. And yet, the franchise decided to jump on the prequel bandwagon by developing a whole series that looked back before TOS to the first human involvement in intergalactic travel. When I first heard of this, I didn't know whether to applaud the bravery of the franchise team, or to wonder (as I often did while Voyager wandered through its last three season) what the heck they were thinking (if anything). My main concerns - and it seems that the series did indeed have problems dealing with these - were: how are they going to make this as radically innovative as the later series without creating major continuity problems for those series? and given Voyager's formulaic approach to story-lines, how will the writing team make yet another ship-based adventure as innovative and imaginative as TNG and TOS? Impossible? No. Impossible for a centrally-controlled franchise writing team operating within a corporate studio framework? Yes, probably... unless you have writers who are passionately dedicated to pushing boundaries and political and philosophical buttons (i.e. Ron Moore, etc) or go back to the model used by TOS and (to a lesser extent) TNG - bring in outside writers with pre-established Sci fi credentials.

As much as I enjoyed many episodes of Enterprise, and felt that the characters were as likable, well-developed and interesting as most of the franchise's efforts, and as much as I consider Enterprise to have been a generally successful series, I wish the franchise had continued to push the boundaries of sci fi and imaginative fiction, rather than cannibalizing itself and sticking with the formula. Again, a prequel was a great idea - for a mini-series or a limited, carefully story-arced 2-3 season series.

As has been said, hindsight is 20/20. However, I honestly remember thinking, when I first heard about the concept of Enterprise, that it would be best approached as a mini-series, or planned for a very limited number of seasons. From a business perspective, I think this would have made Enterprise a much more successful enterprise, and not the threat to the integrity of the franchise that it proved to be. I have many more opinions about the operation of the franchise which I will withhold here - after all - as an outsider (like many of the people who wrote TOS and TNG's best episodes) - What do I know?