Beginnings

February 18, 2015 by kmabarrett

Over the last few weeks I’ve been “binge-ing” on the TV series: “Star Trek: Enterprise“. There are ninety-eight episodes representing over seventy hours of viewing so it was quite an investment of time!! The series originally ran from 2001 through 2005 and I saw about twenty-five of the episodes when they originally aired. I’m not sure why I never watched them all, but I’m nearly positive I didn’t as I remembered so few. The series is about the first Starship Enterprise and humanity’s first attempts to explore “deep space” with the development of a Warp-5 capable spaceship.

Now, with full disclosure, I am a “Trekkie” and saw all of the original series (Star Trek: TOS) in their initial broadcasts and have subsequently viewed them all at least three times and most of them far, far more than that as I used to watch them back in the ’70’s and ’80’s when they were in syndication. Back then, you could watch them day after day and so see most of the 79 episodes four times in a single year. In fact, you could see them more than that as the series ran on a couple of different channels a various times of day. Yeah, I know, a bit OCD!!

Anyway, as SciFi goes, like most of the other Star Trek franchises, this is not very good. In terms of special effects, it is pretty good to outstanding – particularly for TV. In terms of acting, the series starts out MUCH better than TOS (The Original Series) or TNG (The Next Generation). TOS never had a chance to explain much of its back history and TNG was incredibly stiff in its first season. Picard (played by Patrick Steward) was particularly wooden. In terms of “realism”, this series is pretty much the same as all the others – little or none.

Does any of that (bad science, poor realism) matter? Not one iota!! The show is about humanity and our efforts to deal with “ultimate” issues: war, racism, sexism, slavery, social justice, etc. All the things which have always made all of / each of the Star Trek franchise TV series great viewing.

This is a VERY good TV series which I thoroughly enjoyed watching! I hate to say it, but it is every bit as good as the best episodes of TOS and TNG.

(I was never a big fan of DS9 (Star Trek: Deep Space 9) or Star Trek: Voyager and barely watched any of either. Just a couple of seasons of each and then the odd episode. I recognize that both of those series have their fans, but as neither of those series have had a sniff of interest in getting turned into a movie franchise, I think my opinion is justified. I will admit, though, that now they are available (more or less free) on Netflix, I will be watching them both as and when I have time. I doubt I’ll be binge-ing on them, though.)

As with both TOS and TNG, the stories all center around the senior staff and the most interesting characters are the Captain (Jonathan Archer played by Scott Bakula) and the main alien – as in TOS – the Vulcan First Officer (T’Pol played by Jolene Blalock). Over the course of the series, the former goes from being an idealistic explorer to a military commander and diplomat while the latter goes from being an emotionally suppressed Vulcan to an openly emotional “almost human” female. As such, the stories are mostly self-contained episodes with sub-story arcs which span a couple of episodes to the entire series. Watching the whole series in compressed mode, therefore, made it seem much more understandable to me as I was easily able to remember nuances which I almost certainly would have missed (or forgotten) if I had viewed the series over a four year time span.

If you consider yourself a “Trekkie”, you must watch this series. If you just want enjoyable SciFi about space exploration and humans meeting alien species, this is a great series. As I said, it’s well written and character driven and I thoroughly enjoyed watching it and highly recommend it.

.
On This Day In:
2022	First, To Understand
2021	So How Should We Persuade The Dangerous?
	Can A Loser Ever Win?
2020	Maybe More Than A Very Few
2019	Missing Failure
2018	Praise God
2017	Necessary Gaps
2016	Nor My Dogs
2015	Say What?
	I’m A Dog, Too!
	Beginnings
2014	Astonishing Choices
2013	Three Hard Tasks
2012	The Only Remains
2011	Personal Capability
	What Price Failure?
	Both Of W’s Elections
	Tea (Baggers) Anyone?

Posted in Series (TV or Streaming) Review, TV Series, Videos | Tagged Captain Jonathan Archer, Jean Luc Picard, Jolene Blalock, Netflix, Patrick Steward, Scott Bakula, Star Trek: Deep Space 9, Star Trek: Enterprise - TV series review, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: The Original Series, Star Trek: TNG, Star Trek: TOS, Star Trek: Voyager, T'Pol, Trekkie, Videos, Vulcan | 2 Comments

2 Responses

on February 19, 2015 at 4:56 pm | Reply sheryldedee

I quite agree with you. I never saw TOS, (about to, hiring discs through Quickflix), but I did fall in love with the franchise through TNG. I loved DS9 for the first year or two, but then got bored with it. My interest was reignited by Voyager, and then when Enterprise finally aired here in Australia (starting from the second season, I believe) I again had my imagination captured. It wasn’t easy to keep track of, though, because the station kept putting it on late at night after a live broadcast sports show that often ran way over time, meaning that I had to set my VCR to record 2.5 hours to be sure that I caught the whole episode. That is of course, if they didn’t cancel that week’s ep all together.
So many years later I was able to get the entire series on DVD, and found that it was the best of the franchise; more mature, realistic, and challenging. The main characters were better written and with more depth, and not perfect in every way like Picard, Riker and Troi. TNG had a “plastic fantastic” feel which was very much of the time (80s) and DS9 just followed in the same vein. Voyager, while still looking far too slick and cliched, was better, but Enterprise gave us an insight into how the ST universe evolved from the world we know today, to 2250s and then on to Kirk’s and Picard’s era. The integrity of this show was perfect, and vastly different to the shakey sets of TOS, and the vinyl and velour upholstery of TNG, DS9 and Voyager.
- on February 19, 2015 at 9:28 pm | Reply kmabarrett
  
  Hi Sheryl,
  First, thanks for coming by and leaving a comment.
  
  Let me know how you like ST:TOS. I loved (and still love) it. I recently watched a couple of episodes with my daughter and was surprised to find how dated it is now. We had just finished seeing the latest movie – about Khan – and she was shocked at how sexist the “Botany Bay” episode was compared to the movie version. Unfortunately, I couldn’t say much to deny it. Sometimes the truth hurts. My kids grew up with ST:TNG and don’t really care for TOS as they feel it’s too crude and “hokie”. The best I can say is that it lets them see how far special effects have come since the late sixties.
  
  We had a similar problem with watching the series (Enterprise) here in the states, which I believe is what contributed the most to the falling ratings. For whatever reason, the show never caught on the way I hoped it might.
  
  I agree with all of your comments about the “plastic”, “too slick” and “clichéd” feel of the later series. I liked it in ST:TNG, but less in DS9 and Voyager. I guess my tastes were changing.
  
  Well, as I stated in the review, I’m going to give both DS9 and Voyager a second chance, so keep following and we’ll see how they stack up. Just a word – I don’t plan on “binge-ing” either series as either would be over 100 hrs of viewing.
  
  Take care “down-under” and thanks again for taking the time to compose a lengthy comment!