[.ca] Star Trek Enterprise: Season 1

From Amazon.com:
Under intense scrutiny, the debut season of Enterprise earned a passing grade from critics and Star Trek fans alike. Voyager ended its seven-season run just four months earlier, and fans were skeptical when Enterprise premiered (on Sept. 26, 2001, on UPN) with a theme song ("Where My Heart Will Take Me," composed by Diane Warren and performed by Russell Watson) that defied Trek's revered theme-music tradition. This and other early reservations were dispelled when "Broken Bow" got the series off to a satisfying start, beginning in the year 2151 and establishing a pre-Federation focus on humanity's delicate relationship with the Vulcans, the controversial launch of the NX-01 Enterprise on an exploratory mission, and the potentially devastating consequences of the mysterious Temporal Cold War involving a time-traveling splinter group of the Suliban, a nomadic alien race. While establishing a testy relationship between Enterprise Capt. Jonathan Archer (Scott Bakula) and his smart-and-sexy Vulcan Sub-Commander, T'Pol (Jolene Blalock, in a short-banged wig and form-fitting "catsuit" that were later redesigned), the series introduced engineer "Trip" Tucker (Connor Trineer), whose surprise development in "Unexpected" made him a fan favorite; communications officer Hoshi Sato (Linda Park); helmsman Travis Mayweather (Anthony Montgomery); weapons expert Lt. Malcolm Reed (Dominic Keating), and chief surgeon Dr. Phlox (John Billingsley), a well-mannered Denobulan recruit from Earth's Interspecies Medical Exchange. As a "prequel' series that predates the original Star Trek by 150 years, Enterprise built upon established Trek lore with episodes involving Vulcans ("Breaking the Ice"), Klingons ("Sleeping Dogs"), the blue-skinned Andorians ("The Andorian Incident," "Shadows of P'Jem"), and the Ferengi ("Acquisition") while offering stand-alone episodes (notably "Dear Doctor," "Fortunate Son," and "Shuttlepod One") that further acquainted fans with the Enterprise regulars. Early Trek technology is also introduced (including "phase pistols" and the rarely used, still-risky transporter), and the series drew strength from what many felt would be its primary weakness: unwritten history and the initial indecisiveness of Archer's bold foray into the unknown. Ending with a dazzling "Shock Wave" cliffhanger that leaves Archer stranded in a decimated Temporal Cold War future, Enterprise set a strong foundation for the events of season 2. The bonus features included on the Enterprise: Season One DVDs are almost worth the price of the set, if only to see nearly nine minutes of hilarious outtakes, maintaining a beloved tradition of Star Trek bloopers. The sight (and sound) of Jolene Blalock laughing out of character is pure gold, and it shouldn't surprise anyone that Blalock is just as smart as she is sexy, as proven by her astute observations (along with the rest of the Enterprise cast) in the "Cast Impressions" featurette. It's the usual complimentary fluff included with all Trek sets, but it's obviously sincere, confirming fans' conviction that Enterprise should have lasted beyond four seasons with this close-knit ensemble. Series creators Brannon Braga and Rick Berman deliver a typically dry commentary on "Broken Bow," setting the record straight on debate over the show's "not retro enough" production design (as Braga notes, "you can never please everyone") while defining their concept of "The Right Stuff of Star Trek." As always, Mike Okuda's text commentaries offer a wealth of Trek trivia and detail from Trek's historical canon. Fans will love the "Enterprise Secrets" revealing low-tech solutions to lighting the warp core and dispensing "replicator" beverages, along with an entertaining profile of Vaughan "Admiral Forrest" Armstrong, who holds the record for Trek guest appearances. The other featurettes are perfunctory, but "Creating Enterprise" provides valuable first-season perspective, and the "Time Travel" feature offers a handy reference for the many time-travel episodes from every Trek series. As usual, Easter eggs (three of them, titled "NX-01 Files") are hidden on the special-features menu, offering short interview clips culled from the primary featurettes. The deleted scenes demonstrate how non-essential material can be sacrificed, and because they don't include post-production sound or visual effects, fans can see and hear the actual soundstage atmosphere of Enterprise's principal photography. --Jeff Shannon

Only because I can't give this show zero stars.:
The latest incarnation of Star Trek devised by producers/writers Rick Berman and Brannon Braga, this show promises a lot, as did Voyager, but never delivers. These writers are so dedicated to a cynical view of what the audience wants and are so formulaic and uninventive in their approaches that this show is just as dumbed-down as Voyager, always heading toward unsuccessful action-oriented and suspenseful scenes to avoid significant character development; and when character exploration is done, it's so awfully clichéd that it stinks of superficiality and remains unmoving. Back in 1997, Berman was quoted in TV Guide as admiring the awful "Hercules" series, which essentially took the "Baywatch" premise and added bad action sequences and worse drama. He said he wanted Star Trek to attract that audience. So, in that year, Voyager brought in the curvacious Jeri Ryan (who's actually a good actor) in tight-fitting clothing -- so tight she fainted at times. This became Star Trek's new mission: appealing to people's pornographic desires in the guise of bad stories set in space. Even some of the actors and writers started to speak out about how uninspiring it was to work on Star Trek Voyager. This same writing/producing duo went on to create "Enterprise", along with a cheesy, soft-pop intro to win over the stereotypically unintelligent WB-type youth demographic. The first episode saw them apply a disinfectant ointment on Jolene Blalock's slinky bikini-and-panty-clad body; over the years there were so many instances of using Blalock's body, I couldn't tell you about them -- mostly because I couldn't continue watching this awful show; the latest incarnation of which I know (since, like a hopeful fool, I gave the show another chance in season 3, when most shows get a lot better) was Blalock naked and topless holding her (...)in hand asking another officer to massage her, while she moaned orgasmically. This all is decent soft porn, but not what the audience should expect from "Star Trek". Now, to the actor's credit, she very much resented being used like this and protested the writers' intentions. Even TNG saw a significant dumbing down in its later years, as Berman took over. Any Star Trek story in which these two were significantly involved was always bound to stem from cynical calculations rather than the potential to write as good a story as was possible. See, for example, all the Next Generation movies; now, compare those to Star Trek 1 through 4, and you''ll see what I mean. Now, there is a happy ending to this depressing tale of Star Trek's decline, and that is "Deep Space Nine" (1993-1999), which remained largely out of these writers' grasp. During its run, the show was mostly guided by Michael Pillar and the ingenius Ira Steven Behr, who -- along with some great writers -- always tried to make the show the best they could, and succeeded in creating something amazing by Season 4. When action was done, it was always exciting, too, propped up by great drama and fantastic secondary and primary characters. (...)

A Must Buy For Star Trek Fans!!!:
If you Love All things Star Trek , then you will love this.Absoulutly amazing, But I'm angry because they Cancelled the Show But, to Preserve Enterprise, Buy them and Never forget.!!!. Live long And Prosper!!

The Best Start Trek in my opinion:
If you liked Captain Picard, you will love Scott Bakula (Captain Archer). He is not afraid of taking the tuff decisions. Can't wait to buy Seasson 3 (when aliens tried to destroy the Earth and Captain Archer goes through the entire season trying to stop them). If you haven't watch Enterprise at all, believe me... the stories are much compelling than previous Star Trek and you won't be able to stop watching episode after episode.

Better than average sci-fi, but very bad Star Trek:
I am always careful when I see 5 stars or 1... This show was certainly better than Andromeda or Firefly, but it was no Babylon 5 or Farscape... Of all Trek series, it was the worst... In a way, it's very similar to Voyager, what's the difference between being stranded far from home (Voyager) and being the only Warp 5 ship being sent on an exploration mission (and thus being alone, again?)... Was it good sci-fi? Sure. Star Trek has never looked better. But "Star Trek", this series isn't. Roddenberry would certainly hate that series... The characters are badly developed and rather dull... They are overgrown teenagers in the way they behave... Most don't even look intelligent while we know StarFleet personnel are often PH.D. in series that take place in the future... They are never truly amazed or in awe when they are seeing things no Human ever saw before... Spock was fascinated, Picard was still curious, and so was Sisko, but Archer and his crew don't seem to be excited by what they do... No passion... The Vulcans do not behave as they should... In previous Trek series we learn that Vulcans are pacifistic and embraced logic thousands of years ago, while in Enterprise, Vulcan is a military power controlled by often emotional and paranoid people... Why this blatant transgression? The dialogues are badly written and the storylines lack imagination. Can that be blamed on the fact that Star Trek has been on TV for 20 years without a break? Perhaps, but perhaps not... Star Trek became an industry that wanted to play it safe and adapt to the viewers' expectations... And the viewers, young males mostly, wanted fist fights, space combat and sexy curves... That's what they got... But that's not what Star Trek is about... Even before the series first aired, I did not expect it would last very long or be very good. It was a mistake to create a prequel to Star Trek. I feared the creators would paint themselves into a corner, and they did... Spock was supposed to be the first Vulcan in StarFleet, but T'Pol will be... The first ship called Enterprise in StarFleet was to be NCC-1701, Kirk's ship, but now it's Archer's NX-01... The Ferengui will have their first look at Humans when facing Picard in TNG, but NX-01 will be boarded by Ferenguis... The temporal Cold War will introduce species we'll never see again, like the Suliban, and later on the Xindi... This Trek series is at odds will previous series... Some will say, "hey, that's just TV, relax, it's a show"... Bottom line: you want good sci-fi, visually impressive, this is for you, but if you feel the best Star Trek series were TNG or DS9, then know that Enterprise is even less Trek than Voyager was... No wonder the series got cancelled...

It's great! However...:
I havne't actually purchases any Star Trek DVD sets. I saw this one at a friend of mine who is stupid enough to help line Paramounts pockets some more by purchasinf thier overpriced products. I would love to buy all the Star Trek the exists on DVD. I love them all, but hmmm... do I buy 3 other tv series for the same price as one Star Trek or X-Files? I dunno. 3 times the entertainment for the same price? Gee that's a tough one.