A Klingon warrior crashes on Earth, and after healing his injuries, the Vulcans warn their human allies against returning him home, explaining that a Klingon would rather die a warrior's death. With Captain Jonathan Archer raring to take the first starship, Enterprise, out on its maiden voyage, he disagrees. But his decision throws him into a fight he knows nothing about and may be unable to win.
The opening episode of Enterprise was always going to be tricky. For once the show is not going to compare well with its recent stablemates; instead it's how it relates to the original series that is of (pardon the pun) paramount concern. While yes, the effects are everything we've come to expect from Trek, there's a danger that they could seem out of place amongst the technology from Kirk's time. You have to admit that the garish look of Kirk's crew's outfits is hardly a likely follow-on from what we see here, but when it comes down to it, Enterprise looks like the original series would if it had had a budget and some CGI.
The sets, the uniforms, the look of the show is wonderful. The technology is primitive and clunky-looking, like computers of the past appear to us using PCs today, and not everything is tried, tested or works. After years of infallible computers (bar the occasional transporter mishap), it's good to see a ship where nothing is a given and even the crew aren't quite sure what they're doing. Communications fail, no one wants to use the transporter, piloting an alien craft is an immensely risky business. But these humans do it because they're explorers, seeking out the new life and new civilizations that Zephram Cochrane (in a rather enjoyable cameo; after all, someone had to say it) was looking ahead to.
What's been missing from recent Trek shows, particularly ironic considering Voyager was lost in the middle of nowhere in uncharted space, is a sense of wonder about it all: meeting and seeing new species, races, different concepts. Watching Enterprise really gives that feeling well, as you sit back and explore with our descendants. The fact that they're written in an 'earthier' way helps too, making them seem closer linked to us than their ever-polite untroubled descendants. There's also a fair stab at some humour, something that's been missed for a while now, and the plot, while a little confusing towards the end when Brannon Braga decides to use the word 'temporal' again, is a suitable introduction to the premise of the series and the recurring new villains, the Suliban.
The cast are excellent, each one getting a little time and making good use of it, although Reed and Mayweather are a little short-changed. The characterization will come in time, of course, but Scott Bakula gives a strong commanding presence, and Jolene Blalock stands out as a far more interesting Vulcan even now than Tuvok ever was. Dr Phlox isn't as annoying as he could have been, John Billingsley producing an ebullience that stops short of manic laughing. It's a fine start, and I was grinning like a madman most of the way through. Everything old is new again, and it's probably fair to say that this is the best Trek pilot produced so far. Hell, I even quite liked the theme tune, and the opening credits made it stand out as something that bit different than what had gone before. My faith in Star Trek, lost by the end of Voyager, has been restored.
****
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