Star Trek: Enterprise is the 5th TV show of the Star Trek if we do not count the animation series. The TV show was first introduced as Enterprise but the name changed into Star Trek: Enterprise after the 3rd season. The TV show is aired between 2001 and 2005 and the story is between 2121 and 2155 according to Star Trek mythology. It consists of 4 seasons and 97 episodes. The TV show was aired on 26 September 2001 with Broken Bow episode. This show did not follow the 7-season tradition and was terminated on 13 May 2005 with These Are the Voyages episode. The producers are Brannon Braga and Rick Berman whom we know from previous shows the planning of the show started in 2000. It was kept as a secret since 2001 and the name and the content were announced on May 2001.
The end of Star Trek: Voyager series in 2001 was sort of the beginning of a new series. When Voyager aired the final episode in 2001, Enterprise TV show that was kept as a secret was announced under the leadership of Rick Berman and Brannon Braga. On contrary to the previous series, the show was presented as Enterprise without Star Trek but Star Trek was added after the 3rd season. The TV show was aired with great expectations but it has a bad season until season 3 episode 5 and it faced cancellation. The show recovered after the changes by Rick Barman but this late move did not stop the end of the show.
Star Trek: Enterprise crew consists of 7 people. Jonathan Archer is the ship captain from Earth. He is pale beside other Star Trek captains. He is a kind captain. His leadership and diplomacy skills are at the medium level. The 2nd captain of the ship is a female called T’pol from Vulcan. As a classical Vulcan person, her logic is at the center of her life. She was cold to other people of the ship because she was placed as a spy. This changed over time and she became the right hand of Captain Archer. At the same time, she saw the weaknesses of Vulcan people. Phlox is the doctor of the ship and he is from Denobulan race. He doesn’t like touching. He only sleeps 6 days per year.
Malcolm Reed is the tactical officers of the ship. He is timid and introvert and he unwillingly speaks of much when he is under stress. He organized a red alarm system and improved power force technology. Travis Mayweather is the steersman of the ship. He was born on a cargo ship. Hoshi Sato is a communication engineer. He is a language expert. He can solve the language of a foreign race in 1 hour. 2-3 hours is enough for him to learn the language of a species. Charles Tucker is the chief engineer of the ship. His nickname is Trip. He is emotional and sincere. He got his nickname because he is the 3rd Charles Tucker in the family. He has a Texas accent. In the final episode, Hoshi Sato said, “he can’t even talk English”.
Star Trek: Enterprise is about the past, not the future, unlike other TV shows. This TV show takes us to the 22nd century. The Federation is not created in this period. Humans are in their own system under the United Earth flag and at the edge of the system. In 2151, the construction of the NX-Class Enterprise ship is completed and the ship is launched. The greatest property of this ship is that it is the first manmade vehicle that reaches Twist Factor 5. The underdeveloped human technology and inexperience of humans before the Federation have caused fear and terror among humans. But the ships in the other series would bravely be involved in the action as they know that Federation which is the largest powers of the galaxy are behind them.
Here, it has only been 90 years since humanity did the first twist speed flight. Since there is no First Order in this period, humans are checking under every stone. With this series, we get the chance to take a closer look to Federation founder races Tellarites and Andorians. Vulcans, Tellarites and Andorians do not like each other. With this series, we can see how they blend in and the first foundation of the Federation is laid.
The TV show becomes boring in 3 seasons because of an event called the Temporal Cold War. Later, the story was completed rapidly and this damaged the TV show and Star Trek universe. Not seeing familiar and loved races like Klingons and Romulans took this showdown. Fortunately, episodes with these races were included. But this did not prevent the rapidly approaching end. When a new race called Xindi was added to the series that made this mistake, things got out of control and the few fans are gone.
The show focused on short stories in the 4th season and started to what it was supposed to do in the first seasons. While the show gave the desired and seek Star Trek vibe in the 4th season, it wasn’t able to escape the prices it needs to pay because of the mistakes at the beginning. The fans even tried to raise money as the show faced cancellation. But these sacrifices did not prevent the ultimate end.
If we talk about the pros and cons, we end up with the following list: Temporal War is the biggest con of the show. Captain Archer’s dog humiliated the show. Some of the actors look like they do not want to be there. In the original series, Spock said that invisibility technology is only theoretically possible. But here, Enterprise encounters with a ship that can be invisible.
Again, Pon Farr Vulcan sex ritual which is not known by anyone including Dr. Mccoy in the original series is known by everyone here. Archer and his team encountered with Borg and discovered that Omicron particles damage Borg. But the first contact with Borg happened when Enterprise D under the command of Captain Picard went to the other side of the galaxy thanks to Q. In the original series, it was said that sub-space communication was not discovered until 2168. But it is used here frequently.
One of the most important cons is that NCC 1701 is the first Enterprise-named ship according to Star Trek universe. But we can see that the NX-01 is not called Enterprise. The producer says that NCC 1701 is the first Federation ship called Enterprise but NX-01 is the first Earth-made ship called Enterprise. Due to these confusing things, the season was ended in 4 seasons without following the 7-season tradition.
Star Trek that has no other TV show after Enterprise will be back on May 2017 with Discovery TV show according to CBS. As a result, we can see a TV show that has more bad sides than good sides, manages to putt off the best Star Trek fans, has absurd episodes and tries to correct itself by taking the steps at the end which it must have taken in the beginning and fails to do that.
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