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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
Season Two
With Captain Jonathan Archer (Scott Bakula) trapped in the 31st century, season 2 of Enterprise opens with a rousing resolution to season 1's cliffhanger finale. The first four episodes instantly became fan favorites: "Shockwave, Part II" advances the Suliban's role in the Temporal Cold War; "Carbon Creek" reveals the real first contact (albeit a secret one) between humans and Vulcans in Pennsylvania in 1957, allowing Jolene Blalock to play T'Pol's "second foremother" in a Sputnik-era scenario; in "Minefield," Reed (Dominick Keating) is nearly killed by an explosive device attached to Enterprise's hull; the damage is repaired in "Dead Stop," featuring award-winning digital modeling effects as the disabled Enterprise encounters a mysterious automated space station. Season 2 also emphasizes Archer's ongoing friction with the Vulcan High Command, exacerbated when T'Pol's career is threatened (in "Stigma") by her involuntary involvement with ostracized mind-melders. Connections to the original Star Trek (series and films) continue with episodes involving Tellarites, Tholians, Klingons, Andorians, and even a brief appearance by a Tribble (one of many occasions for humor in Dr. Phlox's sickbay, the setting of many of the season's finest dialogue-driven scenes). Early warp-drive history is also explored in "First Flight," a Right Stuff-like episode guest-starring Keith Carradine as Archer's friend and rival in breaking the Warp 2 barrier.
Consisting primarily of stand-alone episodes that integrate ongoing story arcs, season 2 showcases the primary cast with generally good results: Mayweather (Anthony Montgomery) visits the "boomer" cargo ship he was raised on in "Horizon"; Hoshi (Linda Park) experiences unsettling transporter symptoms in "Vanishing Point"; and Tucker (Connor Trineer) plays a pivotal role in several episodes, notably "Dawn," "Precious Cargo" and "Cogenitor." And while "Regeneration" provoked controversy among fans for introducing the yet unnamed Borg in an early Starfleet context, it's a fine episode (with echoes of The Thing) that holds up to scrutiny, while others (including "The Crossing," "The Breach" and "Cogenitor") feel somewhat recycled, indicating the challenge of finding new ideas in the Star Trek canon. Overall, however, season 2 is consistently strong, with several episodes directed by cast alumni from previous Trek series, including NextGen's LeVar Burton, and Voyager's Roxanne Dawson and Robert Duncan McNeill. They all lead up to a devastating attack on Earth (with seven million casualties, including Trip's younger sister) in "The Expanse," ending the season with high-stakes mystery as Enterprise enters a treacherous region of space in search of the Xindi, an enemy race that factors heavily in season 3.
Abundant bonus features include a generous selection of deleted scenes (non-essential, but interesting to fans); audio commentary (on "Dead Stop" and "Regeneration") by writers Mike Sussman and Phyllis Strong, who explain the challenge of writing under constantly shifting production conditions; and text commentary (on "Stigma" and "First Flight"), in which Trek veterans Michael and Denise Okuda demonstrate their encyclopedic knowledge of Star Trek fact and fiction. Six Easter eggs, known as "NX-01 Files," are hidden on the Special Features menus; they offer brief glimpses into specific aspects of production, including set recycling and art direction. "Enterprise" secrets are revealed for those who pay meticulous attention to detail; "Inside 'A Night in Sickbay'" offers a behind-the-scenes assessment of that memorable episode; and "LeVar Burton: Star Trek Director" celebrates the actor's smooth transition to directing after his stint on Next Generation. "Enterprise Profile: Jolene Blalock" is a tribute to the sexy actress by her fellow cast members and executive producers Brannon Braga and Rick Berman, including Blalock's assessment of T'Pol's pivotal role as Enterprise's resident Vulcan. Best of all, however, are the hilarious outtakes: They show the cast as a family unit, combining hard work with humor as the second season progresses. --Jeff Shannon
Season Three
Described by series cocreator Brannon Braga as "a single episode that lasts 24 hours," the third season of Star Trek: Enterprise is arguably the best in the show's four-season run. With the epic "Xindi saga" as the season's primary story arc, the series found its tonal focus in the unpredictable space of the Delphic Expanse, where alien encounters and matter-warping spatial anomalies forced Capt. Archer (Scott Bakula) to make extreme decisions that tested his ethical boundaries. Realizing the need for a fresh viewpoint, Braga and cocreator Rick Berman hired Manny Coto, a TV veteran who conceived or wrote several of the season's finest episodes (not forgetting Mike Sussman and other members of the series' first-rate writing staff). Coto's involvement was instrumental in shaping the Xindi saga, which began (with season 2's cliffhanger) when Earth was attacked by a Xindi probe--a massive weapon which Archer must now destroy. This vital mission dominates season 3, deriving its potent drama from an impressive variety of characters and subplots focused on the five-species Xindi council, which finds its voice of reason in Primate member Degra (season regular Randy Oglesby) and rancor in the Reptilian Commander (Scott MacDonald), pivotal characters whose fates will be tragically intertwined.
Despite lower ratings and budgetary cutbacks (as evident in several ship-bound episodes with minimal casting), season 3 was equally strong as a showcase for the Enterprise regulars, with plenty of fan speculation rising from the sexy and soothing Vulcan "neuro-pressure" sessions between the insomniac Tucker (Connor Trinneer, better than ever) and T'Pol, whose hidden addiction to a toxic compound allows Jolene Blalock to mine the volatile depths of her character (who now sports a more appealing hairstyle and wardrobe). Meanwhile, security chief Reed (Dominick Keating) engages in heated competition with Major Hayes (reliable guest Steven Culp, from the first season of Desperate Housewives), the leader of NX-01's Military Assault Command Operation (or MACO), which Reed views with territorial suspicion. And while Enterprise still fumbled to develop the characters of Hoshi (Linda Park) and Travis (Anthony Montgomery), John Billingsley continued to bring clutch-player excellence to his role as Dr. Phlox in several highlight episodes including "Doctor's Orders" and "Similitude," the latter featuring equally strong work by Trinneer in an ethically complex (and fan-favorite) examination of the cloning--a typical example of Star Trek at its best.
The alternate timeline of "Twilight" also honors the classic Trek tradition, while "Harbinger" reveals the existence of the trans-dimensional Sphere Builders, whose moon-sized creations affect Enterprise throughout its season-long mission. Finally, the crucial appearances of blue-skinned Andorian Shran (Jeffrey Combs) bring both suspense and comic relief to the season's grim proceedings, adding depth and tentative alliance to Enterprise's pre-Federation politics--a crucial element that assumes greater importance with the jaw-dropping cliffhanger of "Zero Hour" and the surprises in store for season 4, which will bring Enterprise ever closer to the original Star Trek timeline.
DVD features
Gathered on disc 7, the season 3 bonus features for Enterprise are consistent with features on seasons 1 and 2: Identical in presentation but different in content. The "Xindi Saga" featurette summarizes the creative and practical decisions that resulted in the season-long story arc; "Enterprise Profile" acknowledges the popularity of "Trip" Tucker and Connor Trinneer's successful effort to transcend the character's "hayseed" image; and "A Day in the Life of a Director" finds Roxann Dawson (aka B'Elanna Torres from Voyager) well in control as she helms the episode "Exile." As with previous DVD sets, three more "NX-01" files are hidden as "Easter eggs" on the Special Features menus, and they include further appreciations of the Enterprise writers, the work of costume designer Robert Blackman, and John Billingsley's hilarious anecdote about Phlox's prodigious sexual endowment(s). The outtakes are amusing but all too brief, perhaps owing to the higher stakes (and lower ratings) of a dramatically serious season. --Jeff Shannon
Season Four
Despite the near-certainty of cancellation, ratings in the cellar and nothing left to lose, the fourth and final season of Star Trek: Enterprise was unanimously hailed as the best. After ending season 3 with a mind-boggling cliffhanger, series creators Rick Berman and Brannon Braga handed show-runner duties to executive producer Manny Coto, who rejuvenated the flagging franchise by bridging the gap between Enterprise and the future developments of Star Trek: The Original Series. By recruiting lifelong Trek experts Mike Sussman and the husband-and-wife team of Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens to his writing staff, Coto ensured that political events in the Enterprise timeline would lead to a "coalition of planets," thus forming the Federation cornerstone of Star Trek's future. But first, Coto had to find a way to extract Capt. Archer (Scott Bakula) and his battle-worn crew from an alternate timeline--the result of the continuing Temporal Cold War--in which the Nazis have invaded U.S. soil in 1944. In the normal Enterprise timeline, political upheavals have left relations between Vulcans, Andorians, Tellarites, and Humans in a state of near-disastrous chaos.
Into this blazing cauldron of action-adventure, Coto and staff introduced story arcs that connected to Star Trek's future, including a three-episode arc ("Borderland," "Cold Station 12," and "The Augments") in which Dr. Arik Soong (played by Next Generation alumnus Brent Spiner) and his superhuman "Augments" chart a tragic course that would lead, in future generations, to the creation of Spiner's cybernetic NextGen character, Data. "The Forge," "Awakening," and "Kir'Shara" returned T'Pol (Jolene Blalock) to her native Vulcan, where encounters with the legendary philosopher Surak, and zealous sect called the Syrannites, lead to pivotal history with the Vulcan High Command. In subsequent episodes, Phlox (John Billingsley) would discover the reason why some Klingons lack "cranial ridges" (thus solving a vexing Star Trek mystery), and "In a Mirror, Darkly" marked and eventful return to the "Mirror Universe" from the original series episode "Mirror, Mirror," for what Coto aptly describes (in the bonus featurette) as a two-part "romp," complete with a "Mirror Universe" title sequence, the reappearance of the U.S.S. Defiant from the original series episode "The Tholian Web," and a glorious recreation of a "Constitution Class" starship bridge that gave long-time Trekkies a breathtaking rush of nostalgia.
In the closing episodes, the formation of the Federation is threatened by a radical xenophobe (Peter Weller) whose isolationist tactics lead Trip (Connor Trinneer) and T'Pol to a future of interspecies parenthood, and while the series-ending "These Are The Voyages..." is considered a disappointment by some, it provided a suitable Next Generation tribute to Star Trek's past, present, and future. Considering the daunting challenge of tying up loose ends while looking forward in a way that demanding fans could appreciate, it's fair to say that Enterprise reached a satisfying conclusion that its cast and crew can be proud of.
DVD features
It's only fitting that Season 4's bonus features have a bittersweet quality, celebrating the Star Trek franchise while acknowledging its uncertain future. For the first time on any Star Trek series, closure was imposed prematurely, and "That's a Wrap" (a video from the Enterprise wrap party at the Roosevelt Hotel in Hollywood) has the privileged feel of an emotional family reunion. (Unfortunately, Jolene Blalock and Connor Trinneer were unable to attend.) "Inside the 'Mirror' Episodes" offers a closer look at those enjoyably nostalgic episodes ("we put the 'Ho' back in Hoshi" jokes Mike Sussman about Linda Park's "empress" persona), and in "Links to the Legacy," Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens explain how they brought Enterprise closer to its original Star Trek heritage. "Visual Effects Magic" charts the astonishing advancements in digital effects since the comparatively crude effects of Next Generation, and "Enterprise Secrets" reveals an affectionate assembly of behind-the-scenes personnel on the final day of shooting. There's one final Easter egg (NX-01 File #10) about the ultimately futile "Save Enterprise" fan protest against series cancellation (with appreciative comments by Scott Bakula and Connor Trinneer), and as always, the informative audio and text commentaries are fan-essential features loaded with detailed trivia and anecdotal history. --Jeff Shannon
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
208 of 224 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Is it an Asian import?,
By
This review is from: Star Trek: Enterprise: The Complete Series (DVD)
Caveat emptor / buyer beware!
This is just a note to people considering buying "Star Trek: Enterprise The Complete Seasons 1-4" on DVD from certain Amazon sellers. If you see the Star Trek: Enterprise DVD collection in a single box rather than in four separate boxes (one box per season), it's likely an Asian import edition rather than from the studio. Especially beware the appellation "the Chosen Collection" which was copied from the complete collector's edition of Joss Whedon's TV series Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The Buffy "Chosen Collection" is official while the Star Trek: Enterprise "Chosen Collection" is not. Furthermore, if the DVD set mentions it's region free, then it almost certainly is an Asian import, because the studio does not have a region free version of Star Trek: Enterprise on DVD (at the time of this review). It's true the Asian import edition will be considerably cheaper, and as I mentioned region free, but there are drawbacks as well. For example, the audio and video quality suffers relative to the regular edition. Also, if there's a scratch or other slight defect on one of the DVDs, most of the sellers won't refund the buyer's money or replace the DVD(s). Some might, but it could be tricky (and perhaps despite their claims to the contrary). Not to mention that purchasing an Asian import means the money goes to the Asian distributor and its affiliates rather than to, say, the cast or crew or anyone else on the actual production team -- which in turn could presumably be funneled into bringing back Star Trek (although it's debatable). And please make sure to read Oren D. Applequist's helpful comment below regarding World Express Mail Service (EMS). Anyway, obviously people are free to do what they like, but I'm mentioning all this so buyers can at least be aware of the risks.
41 of 45 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A great meal with a distasteful dessert,
By Kenneth Wayne Stallings "Ken Stallings" (Portales, New Mexico, United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)
This review is from: Star Trek: Enterprise: The Complete Series (DVD)
The previous reviews of the Enterprise series are accurate and fair. The writing was at times weak, but the show's concepts were so brilliant and the acting so well done that it overcame the weak scripts and turned the strong scripts into some of the best Star Trek television episodes in history.
The two episodes focusing on the Vulcan civil war rank as among the strongest in the series, not only telling an important part of the Star Trek canon, but doing so with especially good acting. It explained well the variance of the Vulcan characters' duplicity with the straight honesty of the Vulcans of Spocks' era. Indeed, Spock represented the Vulcans who ultimately won the civil war and abolished the corrupt Vulcan High Command. Not often mentioned directly, but poignant for me, were the two episodes focusing on the Terra Prime terror group. For me, the interaction of the clone infant and the T'Pol character was some of the most well acted portions of the series. It wasn't the typical mother/infant interaction, but it bridged a gap between the cultural differences of Vulcans while also providing a glimpse of the underlying similarities of the human and Vulcan races. The final scene of Trip and T'Pol standing by their dying daughter was a particularly poignant moment that needed a strong expansion in the series finale. Speaking of the finale, the dessert was particularly unappealing. The series finale was so horrible and mangled that it will endure as a low point in the entire history of the Star Trek industry. The Enterprise ensemble cast did their best to polish a shoddy script, but could only do so much. The series deserved to end with a series entirely devoted to the cast. A story set at the time of the Enterprise NX-01 decommissioning was perfect. It should have been a series of ensemble cast memories played out in a script of the sadness of seeing "the old girl" put out to pasture. The Archer speech at the founding of the Federation of Planets should have been given a full weight of the speech laid before us. T'Pol and Trip should have had a bittersweet ending of their crew association, with a final answer on whether or not they were going to endure as a Vulcan/Human couple. Trip's death was a distraction, not central to the theme, and horrible disjointed. It is a bitter fruit for all Star Trek fans who liked this series -- and there were many who did. The series finale almost seemed to be the two original producers getting together and serving up a poison pill for Paramount to consume. It was anything but a valentine. It's true indication of bitterness is the fact that not a single primary actor in the series has supported the script, and all who have commented have provided bitter recriminations. Blaylock, Bacula, and Trinneer have all offered blunt honest negative assessments. These views are accurate. People who will likely purchase this DVD collection are fans of the series, and don't need a review to make a purchasing decision. However for those few who did not see the series I highly encourage you to purchase the collection. All four seasons contain nuggets of beautiful scripts and excellent acting. It should be enjoyed in sum as a series that boldly went in a direction where many mistakes were made by the characters in trying to form the rules for future crews.
110 of 132 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
ST-Enterprise It's Four Year Mission.....,
By
This review is from: Star Trek: Enterprise: The Complete Series (DVD)
On September of 2001,the UPN network and Star Trek producer Rick Berman with writer/producer Brannon Braga introduced viewers to Enterprise (later renamed Star Trek Enterprise in season three).
This fifth live action series from the franchise took place a century before James T. Kirk's five year voyage of the original series.This series follows the pioneering voyage of the first warp five ship in the early days of Starfleet, before the formation of the United Federation of Planets. The crew of the NX-01 led by Captain Jonathan Archer (Scott Bakula), consisted of the Vulcan liason/first officer T'Pol (Jolene Blalock), Chief Engineer Charles "Trip" Tucker III (The great Connor Trennier), British armory officer Malcolm Reed (Dominic Keating),Communication Officer/ linguist Hoshi Sato (Linda Park), Helmsman Travis Mayweather (Anthony Montgomery), and Denoblian Chief Medical Officer Phlox (John Billingsly). The show had the distinction of being the series that ruined an almost forty year old franchise.But in the end it's only crime was bad timing, the creators total disregard to continuity,as well as wasting time putting around the galaxy, and focusing on the confusing Temporal Cold War while fans wanted to see the early days of Starfleet leading up to the founding of the United Federation of Planets.At first the series was sampled by Trekkers curious about the beginnings of the Federation,which wasn't adressed until the fourth and final season.Viewership dwindled by it's racy tone, disregard of continuity, the fact that NX-01 looked technologically advanced to Kirk's NCC-1701,the unnessesary "Temporal Cold War" and it's theme song which was a AOR pop song(!!!!).The stories felt prefunctuary as to appeal to a larger audience, which was the previous Star Trek Voyager's biggest flaw. Aside from the shows fallabilities, the first season boasted great episodes in Broken Bow (the series pilot), The Andorian Incident, Breaking the Ice, Cold Front, Dear Doctor, Shuttlepod One, and Shockwave (the season finale cliffhanger). By the time of the second season, it was pretty obvious that Enterprise was a disappointment to viewers who felt the show direction was weak as well as "Franchise Trek" becoming stale (indicated by 2002's Star Trek Nemesis's poor box office performance). After the follow-up to the excellent first season finale (Shockwave pt II),the season consisted of weak episodes(Precious Cargo, Canamar,The Crossing,Horizon, and the terrible A Night in Sickbay),among some of it's finest(Carbon Creek, Minefield, Stigma, Future Tense,Judgment,Cogenitor, Regeneration, and the best Enterprise episodes ever,Dead Stop ).Fans who first tuned in to see how the steps were taken for the UFP to be formed(which would be touched upon during the last episodes of the fourth and final season) had to contend with two seasons worth of "Boldly Going Nowhere. Sensing a change in direction was needed, the show took on a different course as Enterprise respond to an attack on earth ("The Expanse", an allusions to 9-11), and try to stop the Xindi race from developing a weapon of mass destruction.This story arc continued into the third season,as Archer's new mission of stopping the Xindi from destroying Earth with a superweapon.Albiet,there were some weak semi stand alone episodes (Extinction,North Star,Carpenter St.,and E2),among classic episodes which ranks with some of the franchises best(Impulse,Twilight,Azati Prime/Damage,The Counsel/Countdown/Zero Time).Staff member Manny Coto was responsible for new direction which made for the most exciting season of the entire four year run. Unfortunatly the exciting new direction couldn't produce ratings and was barely renewed after a fan based letter writing campaign,echoing the classic series fan fueled renewal. The fourth season of Star Trek Enterprise was the season that most Trekkers have been waiting for, with homages to the original series(Mirror Universe,The Eugenics Wars,Orion slave women,T'Pau), as well as rectifying continuety errors(The Vulcans,The Klingon "forehead" issue).Unfortunately,the show was cancelled prematurely as the show was becoming what Trekkers been waiting for since "Broken Bow". Sensing that the show wasn't going to see a fifth season,Executive producer Berman handed the reins to Coto, who set about in correcting the many elements in Trek history that have been disregarded,which driven away even the most dedicated fan. The season's format was tweaked to make room for multi episode arcs which dealt separately with The Eugenics Wars(The Augment trilogy featuring Brent Spiner as Arik Soong),A Vulcan Civil War(featuring Surak, and T'Pau),A Klingon Virus (resulting in the humanoid Klingon foreheads from the original series), and the mirror universe featuring the USS Defiant from The Tholian Web. One of the biggest disappointments of the season itself was the final episode "..These Are The Voyages" which takes place on the Enterprise-D, featuring Riker and Troi reviewing the NX-01's final mission before the charter signing of the UFP.Instead of giving the NX-01 crew a dignified send off,they were used as supporting characters in a glorified "Next Generation" episode. Unfortunately,Enterprise would be a troubled production whereas the declining interest of Trek, flawed stories of the earlier seasons, and bad ratings would lead to it's cancellation.The finale (written by Rick Berman and Brannon Braga) was called a "Valentine to the fans".But the real valentine was the entire fourth season which finally gave the fans what they wanted,and the most problematic Star Trek series a dignified ending, dispite it's weak finale. Top five episodes 1.Dead Stop (season two) 2.Impulse (Season Three) 3.Dear Doctor (Season one) 4.Cogenetor (Season Two) 5.Damage(Season Three)
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