|
|
 - Why Did It Have To End At This Point?Many many Star Trek fans such as myself,after seeing this will wonder why just when Enterprise was starting to hit it's stride that it's creators abandoned the field while it was ahead. That didn't stop the series from being triumphant for all concerned for the most part. After resolving the Xindi dileama in the beginning of the season Captain Archer and his crew find themselves on a newly xenophobic Earth (seeing Phlox's face puff out Raptor-style in a bar fight is a classic moment of this series) and the mission continues. But the writers have chosen to do something a little different this season.Rather then focus on a lot of individual episodes this season mainly focuses on four loose story arcs. The first revolves around the character of Arik Soong (Brent Spiner-obviously bought in to help bolster ratings) who is trying to reawaken a series of genetically enhanced embryos with surprizing results for him. The other involves a younger T'Pau (YES the same character as featured in Amok Time) involving herself with a group of renagade Vulcans who embrace the less repressed "true teachings of Surak" and mind melds;that arc is also marked by T'Pol marrying and finding her and Trip are mentally connected. There's also a mirror universe story arc,involing the resolution to two TOSS episodes including 'Mirror Mirror' and 'The Tholian Web'-we actually get to see a full bodies Tholian. That isn't the only TOS references here-in 'Affliction' and 'Divergence' we discover about how the Klingons of Kirk's era had no head ridges. There are some personal favorite episodes this season.Such as "Daedelus" where we meet the inventer of the transporter played by Bill Cobb and learn of his secrets. In "Observer Effect" the crew are inhabited by Organians (another TOS reference) with the exception of Phlox who has to foil their plot. Of course another TOS reference is the appearance of the manipulative green Orion slave girls in "Bound". My favorite story here is "Terra Prime",a politically based story of a sort Enterprise tended to have danced around-in this case revolving around a group of humans who no longer want aliens on Earth,as well as the first Vulcan/Human hybrid child who sadly dies. What bothers me as much as everyone else is the finale-it has many problems. For one thing,the choice to transform the story into one that takes place five years after "Terra Prime" BUT ALSO it takes place mostly in a holodeck fantasy on the Enterprise D during TNG's episode 'Pegesus' (with a very aged looking Frakes and Sirtis reprising their classic roles). But most insulting to Star Trek and Enterprise is that for the first time since TOS left the airwaves in 1969 this was the first Star Trek series finale to be a standard episode lengh show rather then a 90 minute episode as the finales of TNG,DS9 and Voyager had been.And for that and only that reason I deduct one star for this otherwise enjoyable season,one that will actually make you regret this series didn't last just a few years longer then it did. Rating:  - The series turned decent just before its end.When "Enterprise" (they left the words "Star Trek" out of the title when the series premiered) hit the airwaves, I wanted to like it. I really did. I had been a fan of "Star Trek" ever since the mid '70s when I was a kid and started watching the original series in syndication. "The Next Generation" (at least for the middle of its seven year run) was good, and "Deep Space 9" was good toward the end (even if it took ripping off an ongoing interstellar war concept from "Babylon 5" to get it there). But the franchise really started to go south with "Voyager", and there were two big reasons for this: Rick Berman and Brannon Braga. "Voyager" had real problems, and most of them could be traced back to Berman and Braga, who were who were finally responsible for the writing and the whole direction of the show. When I first heard they were going to helm a new series, and set it in the pre-Kirk era, I was worried. Those worries grew worse when I read that neither of them cared for the original series. Not only were they likely to make some of the same mistakes they made with "Voyager", but on top of that, they had no affection for the original show, and were likely to crap all over its continuity. Sure enough, they did exactly that. Consequently, it came as no surprise that the series' ratings sank lower and lower each season. Then, perhaps at the insistence of someone inside Paramount Studios, perhaps not, Berman and Braga stepped aside and turned creative control of the series over to Manny Coto, and what a world of difference it made. Not only was Coto a far better writer (as were the assistant writers he hired), but he _did_ like and respect the original series. Not only was the quality of the stories improved dramatically, effort was being made to link the show in with the original series' continuity, instead of disregarding it. The improvement in continuity made the show a lot more enjoyable to long-time "Star Trek" fans, and the improvement in the quality of the episodes made the show a lot more enjoyable all around. It really is a pity the show couldn't have begun with Coto in creative control from the outset. It might still be on the air. It would almost certainly have been able to run out seven seasons the way all the three other sequel series did. At the very least, we would have had more than one season of good episodes. Rating:  - Best of EnterpriseUndeniably the best season of Enterprise. While it answers most of the ongoing questions/storylines and introduces some disturbing views of humankind, it leaves you wanting more! Better yet, you can see it all without commercial interruption. Rating: - Excellent Ending Season to a spectacular show.I loved this entire show and was disapointed when it ended. Season 4 is hailed as the best season and it is indeed. All four are great but this one really takes the cake. I have read many reviews that have said season 4 is great with the exception of the finale. I have to disagree. I couldnt think of a better ending than the one we got. The entire series is a must have for Star Trek fans and the best Trek series ever IMO. Rating: - One Of The BestSeason Four Star Trek Enterprise was when the series finally came into it's own. Things were picking up with Season Three but, four is when they really hit their mark. This set is a welcome addition to any Star Trek fan.
|
