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MY RATING: 7.5

Star Trek: Enterprise (2001-2005)

CREATED BY:Rick Berman; Brannon Braga

STARRING: Scott Bakula; John Billingsley; Jolene Blalock; Dominic Keating; Anthony Montgomery; Linda Park; Connor Trinneer

BRIEF SYNOPSIS: Before Kirk ever took the command chair, Captain Archer and crew became the first deep space explorers.

PROS: Great concept; Fun to see occasional connections with modern day earth. Nice to see humans grow into their eventual role as the head of the Galactic Federation

CONS: Nothing really new; some characters don't come off as real; Some technologies too advanced for the time period.

BOTTOM LINE: Enterprise is not as bad as some people like to say it is. It is simply a rehash of similar episodes used hundreds of times before in previous Star Trek installments.

When I first began to watch episodes of Enterprise, I had low expectation because everything I had heard was not positive. I, however, did not find it as bad as some people seem to think. Sure it might have had a few problems. However, I believe its cancellation was more likely due to the fact that people were tired of Star Trek which, prior to Enterprise, had run 21 seasons over 14 years non-stop. After Enterprise audiences had had enough.

This, though, does not excuse Enterprise from a number of serious errors. Producers should have known that people were starting to get a little tired of Star Trek. A distinct change in style would have made the show go a lot farther. Personally I would have favored a darker grittier story-arch, similar to what is being released in Stargate Universe. Instead Enterprise became a show very similar if not the same as previous Star Trek series. The ship encounters some unknown race or entity and has to find a solution to their situation if they want to live (and death is almost always the scenario). Been there, done that, let's move on.

The characters often seem somewhat unrealistic and forced. The character of Captain Archer in particular needed more fleshing out. I'm a big fan of Scott Bakula, but I'm afraid some things didn't fit. It seemed that he was constantly unnerved and prone to angry outburst, to the point of being illogical. Also, he often has to make decisions that others don't agree with and very often they have no reason to trust him, yet they follow him anyway. This also happens in other installments of Star Trek, but Kirk and Picard had a command presence that Archer lacks.

This however doesn't take too much from a great show. If you like the standard Star Trek approach, you'll probably enjoy this show, but don't expect anything new. The concept is interesting as the show is a prequel to the other series and thus allows the writers to include links and connections with our own modern-day earth that would have been difficult to fit in The Next Generation for example on account of being too far in the future. An example would be the movie-nights hosted on board the Enterprise, or the fact that Captain Archer was an Eagle Scout. It is also nice to see humans as they are starting out in galactic history, to see them grow into what would eventually become the United Federation of Planets.

I could say more, like how the series finale was a complete failure, or how they had the nerve to name the lead ship the Enterprise when Kirk's ship was supposed to be the first, but I won't. Over all, Star Trek fans will enjoy this. It's not a show to be avoided, quite the opposite. However, it is not the Original Series, nor Next Generation.