Star Trek: Enterprise
Star Trek: Enterprise (until the third season, the show was only known as Enterprise) is the 5th incarnation of Star Trek on television (excluding The Animated Series). It is a prequel to the other Star Trek series. The show begins with its pilot Broken Bow in 2151, about halfway between the events shown in the movie Star Trek: First Contact and the original Star Trek series; and roughly 100 years before Kirk and Spock took command of their Enterprise.The show chronicles the adventures and exploration of the first human interstellar ship which can achieve Warp 5. It is aptly named "Enterprise" (NX-01). Many Trekkers were upset by this name and other elements of the show at the beginning, claiming that they violated canon. Brannon Braga has gone on record as challenging the fans who make such claims to prove it, except for some "picayune" things, such as using "phase pistols" when phasers should not yet exist, or having Romulan ships with cloaking devices when in "Balance of Terror" cloaking technology was supposed to be a new invention. More recently an episode included an enounter with the Borg.
Some see Enterprise as an attempt to move Star Trek away from the political correctness of recent series towards a more traditional action adventure. The casting of a white male as captain, the captain's preference for unilateral action, the introduction of the Suliban as the clearly indicated and largely simplistic 'bad guys', and even the dropping of the words 'Star Trek' are seen as distancing the new series from the series that came before.
One newspaper writer compared Star Trek's shift to the right with the right-wing administration of George W. Bush and his War on Terrorism. For example, some claim that Captain Archer and George W. Bush share a similar appearance, and the names of their respective enemies, the Suliban and the Taliban, are similar. Although the production work for Enterprise occurred well before the September 11 attacks, the name "Suliban" was, in fact, based upon the name of the Taliban.[1]
Despite a slow start, Enterprise's third season (2003-2004), which includes a season-long story arc about the species Xindi, was greeted favorably by fans. The episodes Twilight and Similitude in particular have received praise from many fans. Both episodes also drew over four million viewers.
Star Trek: Enterprise is commonly abbreviated by fans as "ENT."
Enterprise premiered in the USA on September 26, 2001, and is currently airing.
The split infinitive "To boldly go..." was "corrected" to "To go boldly..." by Zefram Cochrane, the inventor of warp drive, in the first episode.
The series' theme tune, a quasi-patriotic pop song written by Diane Warren and sung by Russell Watson, has been widely commented upon unfavourably by long-time Star Trek fans.
Characters:
Regular:
- Jonathan Archer, played by Scott Bakula
- Phlox, played by John Billingsley
- T'Pol, played by Jolene Blalock
- Malcolm Reed, played by Dominic Keating
- Travis Mayweather, played by Anthony Montgomery
- Hoshi Sato, played by Linda Park
- Charles "Trip" Tucker III (chief engineer), played by Connor Trinneer
- Admiral Forrest, played by Vaughn Armstrong
- Soval, played by Gary Graham
- Silik, played by John Fleck
