Series: Enterprise
Season: 1
Episode: 1 and 2
Episode title: “Broken Bow”
Original transmission date: September 26 2001
Total seasons (to date if current): 4
Span: 2001 - 2005
Writer(s): Rick Berman, Brannon Braga
Director: James L. Conway
Basic premise:
Setting(s): Earth, Transfer Station, Helix, Qu'o'noS
Themes: Conflict, deception, liberation, independence, trust
Things I liked: Really, not much at all
Things I didn’t like: Too much old-tech and just really didn't strike a chord with me at all. A little too much copying from other series.
Timeline: 22nd century
Stardate: (
Enterprise doesn’t use stardates, as it predates the events in TOS when such a system was invented, so we’re left with good old Earth dates) April 16 2151
Vessel: USS
Enterprise
Class: Constitution
Registry: NX-01
Location: Alpha Quadrant
Mission(s): Return a Klingon to his homeworld with important information
Dramatis Personae:
Main:
Captain Jonathan Archer
T’Pol, a Vulcan Science Officer
Trip Tucker, Chief Engineer
Malcolm Reed, Tactical Officer
Hoshi Sato, Comms Officer
Travis Mayweather, Helmsman
Dr, Phlox, a Denobulan, CMO
Supporting:
Ancillary:
Starring: (Main Cast) Scott Bakula, John Billingsley, Jolene Blalock, Dominic Keating, Anthony Mongomery, Linda Park, Connor Trineer
Guest Star(s):
Introduction
While I myself never became a fan of the show, giving up after either season two or earlier, I do have to admire the courage displayed by the creators. Prior to this, various ideas had been floated as to how Star Trek could continue/come back, but most were concerned with, not surprisingly, the future as seen in the previous three series; one suggested a possible “Star Trek Academy” kind of deal, where we would meet a young Kirk, Scotty, McCoy etc as they studied to become Starfleet officers. This was later dropped, if it had ever been a real proposal. For
Enterprise, the producers bravely removed the Star Trek prefix (though on the basis of its success this would be re-attached, like the saucer section to the battle bridge, from season three onwards) and set the show only a century after our own time. This allowed them to explore the idea behind first contact with humanity, mostly via the Vulcans, as seen in the movie
Star Trek: First Contact, but also with Klingons and others.
It introduced us to the very first ever starship to carry the name
Enterprise, its registry denoting both its experimental status and its being the first of its kind - NX-01 - and the technology used much more basic. No phasers, no transporter, no replicators, and an engine only capable of a maximum speed of Warp 5. It also introduced a simmering resentment between humans and Vulcans, as the latter, believing - almost certainly rightly - that humans were not yet ready for space travel, held back important technical knowledge from us and so delayed our entry into the galaxy as a space-faring civilisation. The idea of much of the show taking place on or around Earth, the chance to see humanity take its first steps into a larger galaxy, the development of the technology that would eventually lead to ships such as that captained by Picard and Janeway, all should have been tantalising enough to make this series a shoo-in for me, but somehow it just never clicked.
Synopsis
A Klingon craft has crashlanded in Broken Bow, Oklahoma, and the pilot is being pursued by aliens who appear to have the ability to change their shape (not shapeshifters, I don’t think: just that they can flatten and elongate their bodies, a little maybe like Mr. Fantastic from the Fantastic Four). They chase him into a water tower but he jumps out, turns round and shoots it, blowing it and them up. As Captain Jonathan Archer tests the new spaceship he’s due to fly soon, a call comes in from Starfleet for him to attend a meeting. There he finds the Klingon, not dead but wounded, and Soval, the Vulcan ambassador and his staff, who have been advising Earth on all interstellar/galactic matters, having been the first alien race to make contact with us. Archer does not trust the Vulcans, who he thinks are constantly delaying the launch of Earth’s first space flight for reasons of their own.
The Vulcans want to pull the plug on the Klingon, citing the usual death-is-better-than-dishonour excuse, and return him home, as his people have demanded, but Archer convinces the admiral, against Soval’s wishes, to allow him to take Klaang back as the maiden flight of the new
Enterprise. On the way there though they are attacked and lose all power as aliens invade the ship. The object seems to have been to capture the Klingon, which they do. They capture one of the aliens, which the doctor tells them is a Suliban, but one that has been heavily genetically modified. Oh yeah: it’s dead. Cut to the Suliban interrogating Klaang who, under the influence of truth drugs, reveals that he went to Rigel X to meet a Suliban named Sarin, but either refuses to say what she gave him, or does not remember. As the
Enterprise arrives at Rigel X, they are attacked and taken prisoner by Suliban.
This does not turn out to be as simple as it sounds, as they have in fact been captured by what appears to be a rebel, who tells Archer that Klaang was carrying evidence that her people are staging attacks against Klingon worlds, in an attempt to make it look as if they are being carried out by other Klingon factions. She then mentions something called the temporal cold war, which of course means nothing to Archer, but before she can explain, they are attacked, this time by real Suliban. The rebel helps them get to their ship but in the process is shot and killed, her last words being that they must find the Klingon. In the battle to get to their shuttle and away Archer is shot and wounded; T’Pol assumes command of the
Enterprise. Trip is not happy, especially as the Vulcan has no official rank, being only an observer.
What follows is a rather unnecessary, I would have thought, and clearly intended to titillate scene, where T’Pol and Trip, going through decontamination, rub a sort of oil onto each other’s almost-naked bodies. It’s, well, it’s a bit disturbing, and I’m not so sure why it has to be there, unless it really was just to draw in the t&a brigade of both sexes. Weird. Anyway, Archer soon recovers and takes back command, but he does find that T’Pol has managed to track the Suliban vessel and they are now in orbit over what appears to be their base. Of course, on entering the atmosphere they’re attacked, and the good old NX-01 has just baby teeth compared to these well-armed ships, so they manage to snag one of the attacking ships with, um, a grappling hook (?) and the pilot either ejects or gets thrown out. They take the Suliban ship onboard and work out how to fly it, and then Trip and Archer launch in it.
Their destination is a thing called the Helix, basically a structure to which hundreds of Suliban ships cling, kind of like barnacles on a ship’s hull, or a really easy game of Tetris. All right, let’s be honest here: it’s Space Station Regula One, isn’t it? How many more times are they going to use that model? Anyway, onto the thing they go, and into it, while the
Enterprise hangs, Mutara Nebula-like, up in the atmosphere and tries to resist the attacks against it. Archer and Trip rescue Klaang but now Vulcan emotionless logic comes into play, and T’Pol, believing the captain may already be dead and that a rescue attempt would be foolish and would jeopardise the mission, is ready to return Klaang to Qu’o’noS and will not authorise going back to the Helix.
Meanwhile, Archer finds himself in a strange room where he appears to be out of phase, and a voice calls to him by name but its owner appears to be invisible, or hidden. He fights the Suliban - because of course it’s one of them - and at the last moment Trip uses the - till then quite experimental and not really used before - transporter to beam him out of there, making this, historically I guess, the first transport on
Star Trek. They deliver Klaang home with his evidence of interference in Klingon affairs, get the usual Klingon thanks, i.e., up wherever your species traditionally crams things, human - and head off on their mission.
Comments: Overall the feel is decent but I remember getting very bored quickly with this series. The idea of going back to scratch, where such things as phasers and photon torpedoes, holodecks and even transporters are all new inventions, just left me with a sense of impatience. I’ve never been a fan of Bakula either, and the casting of a Vulcan as science officer seems to me to be a lazy decision, basically copying the original. The Doctor could be an interesting character, and it’s the first Trek series to have an Englishman on board, but I found it hard to empathise with any of the others. And as for the puppy? Well are they not just copying Data’s cat here, as well as back-referencing Janeway’s dogs?
Overall I remember thinking pretty negatively about this (though I see it won awards and the series went on to four seasons, so I guess it couldn’t have been all bad) and just losing interest in it around the second season, which I’m not sure if I finished. I recall that for me it started badly with the first - and so far only - vocal theme, which I did not like. That was, for me, a step too far away from established
Trek music. It’s a good song and it fits in well, but I just couldn’t get my head around it. I also feel it leaps too fast: one minute we’re being told humans have to stay at home and the next they’re out in space taking on the bad guys. In a single bound etc. It’s also very dark, not only in tone but in lighting and colour; very dour and, well, dark. As for the name used for the aliens? Could they be more on the nose? I mean come on: Suli-ban? Really?
I know it ended up with legions of fans, and anyone reading here may be one, and so I’m not going to say it was terrible. I remember I watched it, but really only because it was on the telly and, well, it was
Star Trek. But I quickly became disillusioned with it, and it just was not for me. Maybe at some point I may revisit it, but I don’t feel any pressing need to. Certainly, in my opinion, if there’s a runt in the
Star Trek litter,
Enterprise is it.
Ten things I hate about you
With the tension between the, let’s be honest, smug and superior Vulcans and the humans, there are going to be a lot of rivalries in this series it would seem. Things are not helped when a Vulcan is assigned to the
Enterprise, one in fact whom only days before Archer has informed he is doing his best to restrain himself from “knocking on her ass”.
T’Pol and Archer
Archer of course believes T’Pol has been installed on the ship as a Vulcan spy, and he no doubt wishes she was not there, but as they’re heading to Qu’o’nOs, the Klingon homeworld, and she is the only one among them who has dealt with them, there’s nothing for it. There’s little real chance initially of them getting on; T’Pol is dismissive of humans, acting as an adult among children, totally sarcastic and condescending, while the crew fume at the fact that they have no choice but to trust to her, since these are their first steps into the greater galaxy. Her borderline contempt for humans is shown when Trip attempts to intervene in what he sees as a mother abusing her child, only to be told by the Vulcan that there is a racial reason for what he sees, and that the mother is doing what any mother would, helping her child. No doubt this shows him how little he actually knows, and it’s a sobering lesson.
Archer makes no secret of his suspicions about T’Pol, who blandly denies them, but doesn’t seem ruffled. In some ways, she probably expected such a reaction. To her, humans are savage and uncivilised and untried, and while they can’t quite be compared to stone age man facing his gods (like maybe the sun or a bear or something) she kind of acts like that’s the way she sees the relationship. Not that she considers herself a god (not sure Vulcans worship gods, and being totally logical you would imagine not) but she definitely sees herself on a much higher level than them. In time I imagine they’ll become the best of friends. Possibly.