Enterprise Season 2 : DVD Review

I am not a trekkie but I certainly did enjoy my share of Star Trek growing up. Probably my favorite would have to of been Deep Space Nine or Star Trek Generations; the movies, where they involved the Borg. The Borg were just more fun then a bucket full of like minded killer bolts. I recently got a copy of Enterprise Season 2 which is the newest creation of Star Trek and takes an interesting twist on an age old genre.

Set in the 22nd century, a hundred years before James T. Kirk helmed the famous starship of the same name, ENTERPRISE takes place in an era when interstellar travel is still in its infancy. Captain Jonathan Archer (Scott Bakula) has assembled a crew of brave explorers to chart the galaxy on a revolutionary spacecraft: Enterprise NX-01. As the first human beings to venture into deep space, these pioneers will experience the wonder and mystery of the final frontier as they seek out new life and new civilizations.

Before I go any further into my review  I just want to toss out here that if your not sure if this series is for you, you can watch episodes online and for free! Yes you heard it right FREE. Just read this to learn more : Free Star Trek

So Enterprise Season Two basically kicks off with the crew 100 million miles from home exploring and running into various species and having lots of fun in the process. For the most part I am enjoying the series and the stories from episode to episode are original. We have klingon marauders, shape shifting villains, and even cloaking technology to entertain. We even have pre-warp societies that look alot like earth and lots of fun interactions. Probably my favorite part is the fact that Captain Archer unlike Kirk or Captain Picard makes all kinds of mistakes. He pissess off species, causes turmoil and just plane acts like a new captain cast out into space to explore the universe. Its not like there is an instruction manual on alien customs and how to not piss off a klingon so I find this aspect of the initial interactions very well done and fun to watch.

The overall look of the series is very impressive as well. The toys look good, the cities and landscapes show the advantages of modern CGI technology making almost every episode believable.

My problem with this series is it doesnt feel like Star Trek. I am sure the intent is to do the "this is the first enterprise" and dumb things down a bit but it doesnt work. The problem is that this comes before the version that Kirk aka William Shatner led, and the technology is wrong. These guys have a better ship, better technology, ie, cloaking technology, and all kinds of cool displays and gizmos that Kirk never had. So for die hard trekkies I just dont see how they can accept this tv series.

Now with that said if you are not a die hard trekkie, but are just somebody who enjoys sci -fi, which is me, I think you could dig this series. It offers lots of social commentary and of course stars Scott Bakula which you really cant top. It has plenty of eye candy for the males, namely an excessively hot Vulcan Science Officer who refuses to wear anything but skin tight leotards, even though the rest of the crew dont. You just cant help but enjoy that part... sorry ladies.. hormones are on overdrive it seems.

Overall the series is good, and I would give it a 7 out of 10. It has some really cool special FX which the other series did not have, and it has some great acting and some fun stories. Although some of the episodes are weak, some of them are also a hell of alot of fun. If you can suspend your imagination and overlook some timeline issues then Star Trek Enterprise, Season 2 is fun for the whole trek family.