The series Enterprise, launched in 2001, was the only Star Trek television vehicle since the original series that didn't survive to the end of its planned seven-year run.
As you will recall, Enterprise was set about 70 years before the Kirk/Spock era and was intended to tell the pre-story of Star Fleet and Earth's first ventures into interstellar space. In effect, it was meant to serve as a bridge between the NextGen story told in the film First Contact and the original five-year voyage of the starship Enterprise (NCC-1701).
I remember greeting the news of this proposed new series with great enthusiasm, even though it was to be helmed by Rick Berman and Brannon Braga, two men who, in my humble opinion, were the worst thing to happen to Gene Roddenberry's creation since conservative 1960s NBC executives.
What I didn't remember was why I so quickly lost interest in the series once it was launched. The first several episodes were events for me, sure, but soon I resorted to recording episodes (on my VCR) to watch when I had the chance, and then to skipping them altogether. The third and fourth seasons passed almost unnoticed in our household.
I guess I wasn't the only one who tuned out. Star Trek fans around the world had made TNG a hit, had carried DS9 and Voyager through to the end but, with Enterprise, the interest waned. Critics suggested we were all just Star-Trekked out. Four series, numerous NextGen movies. Too much even for hard core Trekkers, they said.
I never believed that, to be honest. I was ready to watch more Star Trek. I think we all were. Just not Enterprise.
What I have lost over the next ten years, however, is the why. Why had I tuned out of this new show with such an interesting premise?
So, this Christmas, the only thing on my wish list was the complete series of Enterprise on DVD. All four seasons. And I received them, all nicely packaged in their grey plastic cases, their internal sleeves and their blue disc box.
I started watching them.
And I soon remembered why I had tuned out.
I plan to use this space, as I watch one episode after another of Enterprise, to discuss why. To explore the strengths and weaknesses (as, of course, I perceive them) of this fateful (and fatal) television series and of each episode. Join me on this voyage.
