Star Trek Primer Vol. 6

The Premise

Following the cancellation of Voyager and Deep Space Nine, as well as the failure of multiple TNG films, Paramount green-lighted one more Star Trek series in a desperate attempt to revitalize the franchise. Feeling that Star Trek was growing ever more out of touch with contemporary audiences, it was felt that rather than continue in the time of TNG/DS9/Voyager or even go to the generation after that, the series would take place at the beginning... before the beginning, really, to the years leading up to the founding of the United Federation of Planets.

I didn't watch this series when it first aired. I watched the pilot and about two other episodes, but after sitting through Voyager, I was done with Star Trek. I only watched it recently after the series was canceled; I was unemployed and bored as humanly possible.

Paramount's biggest problem was bringing back Rick Berman and Brannon Braga. If a franchise is failing, you shouldn't have it run by someone who thinks of change as a bad thing. They brought all of the same problems from Voyager including inadequate character development, uninspired plots, and a stubborn avoidance of long-term plot development.

My feeling was that the only reason to do a prequel is to show how things got to where they are in the original. This would naturally suggest the beginning of the United Federation of Planets and a focus on relations with pre-established alien races (mostly from the original series) especially the Vulcans, Klingons, and Romulans. While the show touches on these ideas in a few episodes, its mainly devoted to the same kind of space meandering and random weird happenings which fans were getting a little tired of. Random weirdness stories only work when they force you to question something about the character, their world, or the nature of reality.

To top it off, the show was burdened with the most unnecessarily complicated plot device I've ever heard: the temporal cold war. Don't ask me how a "temporal cold war" works. I'm certain that the writers didn't have a clue. I'm actually pretty sure that a cold war has to take place in one time period since the "cold" part refers to a mutual build up of military forces over time. Worst of all, this element is introduced in the very first episode and dominates the loose plotline that holds together the first three seasons.

By the third season, the series was facing cancellation, so the Berman and Braga introduced an unprovoked attack that destroyed most of Florida, killing millions of people. Meant to echo the World Trade Center attack, Enterprise entered unknown space to prevent a second attack which, they are assured, will completely destroy the Earth. Again, to echo modern politics, the Enterprise was loaded with an elite group of marines referred to as MACOs (Military Assault Command Operations).

While this story arc became a much needed guiding force in an unfocused series, the writers gave us something that no one was looking for. We didn't need Star Trek to tell us what it is like to be in a complex war with an undefined enemy. We didn't need an elite assault force to sell more video games and action figures. And no one asked for another poorly defined alien species with lots of CGI. To their credit, this storyline eventually represented their opponents as a complex mixture of good, frightened people and mustache-twirling insectoid villains, but by then, it was too little, too late.

In the fourth season, Berman and Braga were finally removed from the reigns of the franchise to the delight of... whoever was still watching... dozens, at least. They were replaced by Manny Coto whose very first order of business was to put to rest the temporal cold war plotline, which he accomplished in the two-part season premiere. Afterward, he organized a series of multi-part episodes mostly meant to establish Star Trek history and feature fan favorite races or ideas. In short order, he re-introduced the Romulans, showed a Vulcan coup d'etat, explained why TOS Klingons don't look like other Klingons, brought back genetically engineered humans (remember Khan?), and returned to the mirror universe of Mirror, Mirror and multiple DS9 episodes.

Although the show still had many of the flaws from the previous seasons, it was a huge improvement which indicated that the show (and maybe even the franchise) was finally headed in the right direction. Unfortunately, it was again too little, too late and the show was canceled after its fourth season.

Cast/Crew

Captain Jonathan Archer (Scott Bakula)

As much as I am a fan of Quantum Leap, I admit to being a bit disappointed when I found out that the latest incarnation of Star Trek was to feature another white American male in the captain's chair. Sure, it was a practical necessity in 1966, but in 1987, they had the ship commanded by a bald, old French guy with an English accent. I suppose they figured that once they had a black captain and a woman captain, it was time to repeal Affirmative Action.

Again, though I like Scott Bakula a lot, Jonathan Archer was a hollow shell echoing the philosophies of captain's past. In keeping with the series premise, he has the air of an astronaut about him rather than the naval qualities that defined previous captains. Consequently, his interactions with Starfleet feel more like the bureaucracy of NASA than the utopian freedom of being a Federation captain.

Sub-Commander T'Pol (Jolene Blalock)

Replacing the gratuitous cheesecake that Jeri Ryan provided as Seven of Nine, Jolene Blalock similarly delivered a great performance despite the shameless and pathetic way that she was used to boost the show's ratings. T'Pol was originally supposed to be T'Pau, the revered Vulcan leader from the classic TOS episode Amok Time, but like Nick Locarno, the character was established by another writer so royalties would have to be paid. T'Pol is assigned to Enterprise by the overly protective Vulcan High Command to report back on their progress. At times, the other officers see her as a spy, but gradually she comes to resign her commission and join Starfleet. Like Seven, however, she never gets to wear a proper uniform. I was surprised to learn later that Jolene Blalock really enjoyed being on Star Trek, but she was frequently bothered by the poor quality of the scripts.

Cmd. Charles "Trip" Tucker III (Connor Trinneer)

Possibly my favorite character from the new cast, Trip is Archer's best friend and engineer who exhibits many of the same "astronaut" characteristics as the captain. This is further reinforced by his down home, country accent. I'm not sure if I can pinpoint what I like about this character. Most likely, it's a case where the actor is imparting his own character to the role, but if I had to guess, I would say that, like McCoy, Trip's folksy charm make him seem more contemporary and relateable. When writers realize it, they tend to put the character in more emotional situations so that the viewer is more likely to empathize.

Lt. Malcolm Reed (Dominic Keating)

The tactical officer of the ship, Reed comes from a long-line of British Naval officers and brings all of that uptightness on the ship. I don't know much more I can say about him. They did an entire episode about him being a private person, which is not a proper replacement for a personality. Originally, he was supposed to be the first openly gay character in a major Star Trek show, but this never developed. I admit, I saw a glimmer of Reed's potential within his British seriousness, but that's all that ever came of it.

Ensign Travis Mayweather (Anthony Montgomery)

Ensign Geordi Le Kim returns in the latest part of the franchise so that he can add absolutely nothing to it. To me, there are two types of offensive portrayals of minorities. The first is a magnification of perceived racial difference without understanding the culture that it comes from. A great example is blaxploitation. The second is a "white washed" character where all traits of racial or cultural individuality are removed thereby making them incredibly bland. The embarrassingly named "Travis Mayweather" is the latter.

Ensign Hoshi Sato (Linda Park)

Bringing back the TOS role of the Communications Officer, Ensign Sato is a savant with unnaturally developed linguistic skills. Since the universal translator is still being developed, she occassionally has to figure out the aliens are saying herself. If this sounds dull, it's because it is. For the most part, its hard to enjoy a show like Star Trek if you have to make sense of things like "universal translators," so Hoshi rarely had much to do on the starship Enterprise.

Dr. Phlox (John Billingsley)

When I saw Dr. Phlox I immediately thought, "Oh god, not another Neelix," but after a while, the character grew on me. Unlike most of the aliens in Star Trek, he often has a very different point of view, particularly regarding medical ethics. My favorite aspect of this character is that he comes from a polygamous society. He has three wives who also have three husbands. In one episodes, one of his wives visits the ship and flirts with Trip, who is incredibly uncomfortable by the whole situation. Phlox just laughs and tells him that he is missing out. It was nice to see Star Trek return to the simple ideas that made it work: using alien races to represent alien ideas so that we can address issues that are normally too taboo to discuss honestly.

The Others

Ambassador Soval (Gary Graham)

Representing the Vulcan High Command as its ambassador to Earth, Soval is often criticized for holding back humanity but he can sometimes be seen as Earth's strongest advocate. Gary Graham delivers a consistently strong performance which isn't always easy when playing a character without emotions.

Commander Shran (Jeffrey Combs)

Returning to the world of Star Trek is one of my favorite actors to grace the franchise, Jeffrey Combs. As Shran, he also represents one of the classic races from the original series: the Andorians. Established in the TOS episode Journey to Babel, the Andorians were most notable for their antennae which were incredibly stiff and fake looking, so they were rarely seen until Enterprise when micro-technology enabled them to create antennae which could move. Shran is a great character who is highly honorable, despite his paranoia and obedience to a sometimes less than honorable government.

The Episodes

Like Voyager, there is a lot of bad Enterprise so if you don't want to watch an entire series, you can easily pick out a few, and like the original series, there aren't many seasons to go through.

Broken Bow

The pilot episode of Enterprise had a lot going for it. Despite the temporal cold war plot, the episode breaks from standard Star Trek direction and music. There is even a shootout, which is fairly uncommon in Star Trek. I got really excited when this episode first aired. Despite my misgivings, the fact that they were changing the now tired style of Star Trek music and direction really gave me hope for the series as a whole. You can imagine my disappointment when I watched the next episode and found out that it was a complete return to business as usual.

The Andorian Incident

Perhaps the one early episode that had long-term implications, this episode features T'Pol inviting Archer and Trip to the sacred Vulcan monestary of P'Gem, but when they get there, they discover the monks have been taken hostage by Andorians who believe that the monestary is hiding long-range surveillance equipment used to spy on Andorian space. This is the episode that introduces Commander Shran. I won't spoil the ending, but it is surprising, logical, and has long reaching effects across the series.

Dear Doctor

One thing that Enterprise occassionally did really well was demonstrate the importance of the Prime Directive by showing us the difficult moral decisions faced by Captain Archer when interacting with other races. As of this point in the Star Trek timeline, the Prime Directive does not exist, but references are often made regarding the need for such a moral guideline. In this episode, Enterprise encounters a race facing extinction due to a brutal outbreak. The Enterprise goes to investigate and Dr. Phlox is put on the case. While there they discover two native races, one dominant and infected, the other subservient and immune. Much of the crew is bothered by the inequality, but Phlox maintains that you can not judge a culture you just met based on your own value system. When Phlox discovers the cure for the disease, the question is raised whether it is ethical to interfere in the development of another world when saving the dominant race may condemn the others to a future of subservience.

Cease Fire

Receiving a message from Commander Shran, the Enterprise is called to help resolve a dispute on planet currently being fought over by Vulcan and Andorian forces. Archer convinces Shran to talk with Ambassador Soval, but their shuttle gets shot down during the cease fire by an Andorian acting against Shran's orders. Surviving the crash, Archer, Soval, and T'Pol must make their way across the now active warzone to Shran and convince him that his first officer has been conspiring to stop the peace talks.

Judgment

After defending refugees from a hostile Klingon ship, Archer is captured by the Klingons and held on trial for crimes against the empire. J.G. Hertzler (General Martok from DS9) plays the role of Archer's lawyer who laments that their people have lost their way by becoming thugs with no sense of honor. Archer encourages him to fight for what he believes in. Despite how much it rips off Star Trek VI and has a ridiculously simple solution in the end, it is unique in its look at a Klingon society before they became entirely militaristic.

Co-Genitor

This is another episode that demonstrates the importance of the Prime Directive and (more importantly) the danger of placing your cultural values on someone else... even to treat a serious injustice. The plot centers around Enterprise meeting a similarly peaceful race of explorers eager to exchange their cultures, but when Trip discovers they have a third gender which is considered inferior to the other two, he tries to teach it the value of sufferage.

Regeneration

A sequel of sorts to Star Trek: First Contact, this episode features the return of the Borg. Apparently, part of the Borg ship that exploded over the Earth in the early 21st century landed in the Arctic, leaving the few surviving Borg in suspended animation. When they are uncovered by an excavation team, they quickly regenerate and assimilate the excavation crew. After assimilating a small research vessel, they head toward the Delta quadrant to make contact with the rest of the Collective and naturally the pride of Starfleet is sent to intercept them. It's a fairly good action episode that works if you ignore all of the continuity issues it brings up.

First Flight

After receiving news of the death of a close friend, Archer flashes back to the days he and Trip spent working on the Warp 5 engine which would be used on Enterprise. Again, the episode evokes more of a contemporary view of space travel with much of the story taking place in the command center as Archer competes with his now dead friend for the position as captain of the Enterprise.

Similitude

When Trip is seriously injured, Dr. Phlox uses a rare substance to create a perfect clone of Trip that will mature and die in fifteen-days, by which point Phlox would extract the organs necessary to save the life of his counterpart. The new Trip is soon born and becomes something of a child to the crew before growing into an exact copy of his counterpart. When he learns that there may be an experimental method to prolong his life, Phlox, Archer, and the clone must all make a very difficult decision regarding who has the most right to live.

Proving Ground

After being alone in a hostile region of space for half a year hunting down the Xindi for attacking Earth, Archer is surprised to be joined by his sometimes ally, Commander Shran, as the two work together to steal the prototype Xindi weapon, but their mission may fail if the two can't learn to work together. This episode is a favorite of mine for showing an Andorian ship and crew. Is it just me or are Andorian women pretty hot?

Stratagem

After capturing a high ranking Xindi official, Archer sets up an elaborate deception to convince him that three years have passed, Earth is destroyed, and the Xindi are in a period of civil war. It's a clever deception that focuses on ingenuity rather than technology. The strength of this episode is that normally your sympathies would be for the captive, but the deception is so paper thin that you are anxious to see if they can pull it off.

Borderland/Cold Station 12/The Augments

Featuring a guest appearance by Brent Spiner (TNG's Data) playing Data's creator's ancestor, Dr. Arik Soong. Soong is an infamous biologist who stole nineteen genetically augmented embryos to recreate the experiments which created men like Khan. After raising the augments on an alien world, Soong was arrested during a trip off planet and sent to prison on Earth, never telling anyone where he left the children. Ten years later, the children, now full grown adults, take over a Klingon battleship and set course for Cold Station 12 where the rest of the augments are still stored in their embryonic state. The Enterprise, of course, is assigned to stop them and to do so, Archer enlists the help of Dr. Soong.

The Forge/Awakening/Kir'Shara

When the Earth embassy on Vulcan is bombed, Enterprise is called to investigate. The investigation leads them to a radical sect of Vulcan spiritualists called the Syrranites, but the Syrranites deny responsibility. When their Syrran guide dies, he passes on the katra (or soul) of their ancient spiritual leader, Surak, to Archer. With the help of the Syrran leader T'Pau, Archer and T'Pol must find the real culprits and save the Syrranites from being wiped out by the High Command.

Despite being an integral part of the world of Star Trek since the beginning, this is the first real look we get at the planet Vulcan and it's culture.

Babel One/United/The Aenar

Enterprise is again called by Shran to help resolve a dispute between the Andorians and the Tellarites. A rogue ship operating on the Andorian/Tellarite border destroying military targets and both armies are accusing the other. Archer must work with the rudely blunt Tellarites and the paranoid Andorians to find the ship if the peace is to be maintained.

Affliction/Divergence

Dr. Phlox is kidnapped by Klingons desperate to stop a virulent virus from destroying the empire. They believe the key to eliminating it lies in Phlox's study of the augments, but his cure might just be a humiliation worse than death. It's the episode that explains why TOS Klingons don't look like other Klingons.

In A Mirror, Darkly

Aside from DS9, Enterprise features the only other appearance of the "mirror universe" that first appeared in the original series. It's a fun outing for all involved, with Archer as the most incompetent captain since Janeway mercilessly ruling the warship Enterprise. It's heavy handed cheese at it's best, but my personal favorite: a reappearance of the Gorn, last seen in the TOS episode Arena.

Conclusion

And that was Star Trek. I'll probably write a review for the new movie soon, but since it takes place in another universe, you may want to think of this "brief" review as the old Star Trek universe.