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Star Trek: Enterprise
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Star Trek: Enterprise | |
---|---|
Intertitle |
|
Format | Science fiction |
Created by | Rick Berman Brannon Braga |
Starring | Scott
Bakula John Billingsley Jolene Blalock Dominic Keating Anthony Montgomery Linda Park Connor Trinneer |
Composer(s) | Dennis McCarthy Jay Chattaway |
Country of origin | United States |
Language(s) | English |
No. of seasons | 4 |
No. of episodes | 98 (List of episodes) |
Production | |
Executive producer(s) | Rick Berman Brannon Braga Manny Coto |
Running time | 44 minutes |
Production company(s) | Paramount Television Braga Productions Rick Berman Productions |
Distributor | CBS Television Distribution |
Broadcast | |
Original channel | UPN |
Picture format | 1080p (HDTV production) 720p (HDTV first run broadcast) |
Original run | September 26, 2001 | – May 13, 2005
Chronology | |
Followed by | Star Trek: The Original Series |
External links | |
Official website |
Enterprise (retitled Star Trek: Enterprise at the start of its third season) is a science fiction television program created by Brannon Braga and Rick Berman and set in the fictional Star Trek universe created by Gene Roddenberry in the 1960s. The series follows the adventures of humanity's first Warp 5 starship, the Enterprise, ten years before the United Federation of Planets shown in previous Star Trek series was formed.
Enterprise premiered on September 26, 2001. The pilot episode, "Broken Bow", takes place in the year 2151, halfway between the 21st-century events shown in the movie Star Trek: First Contact and the original Star Trek television series. Low ratings prompted UPN to cancel Star Trek: Enterprise on February 2, 2005, but the network allowed the series to complete its fourth season. The final episode aired on May 13, 2005. After a run of four seasons and 98 episodes, it was the first Star Trek series since the original Star Trek to have been cancelled by its network rather than finished by its producers. It is also the last series in an 18-year run of back-to-back new Star Trek shows beginning with Star Trek: The Next Generation in 1987.
Contents[hide] |
[edit] Production
In May 2000, Rick Berman, executive producer of Star Trek: Voyager, revealed that a new series would premiere following the final season of Voyager.[1] Little news was forthcoming for months as Berman and Brannon Braga developed the untitled series, known only as Series V, until February 2001, when Paramount signed Herman Zimmerman and John Eaves to production design Series V.[2] Within a month, scenic designer Michael Okuda, another long-time Trek veteran, was also signed.[3] Michael Westmore, make-up designer for Trek since Star Trek: The Next Generation (TNG), was announced as working on Series V by the end of April.[4] Returning as director of photography would be Marvin V. Rush,[5] who had been working on various Treks since the third season of TNG. For visual effects, Ronald B. Moore, who had previously worked on TNG and Voyager, was brought in.[5]
However, the biggest news would wait until May 11, 2001. The title of Series V was revealed to be Enterprise, with Scott Bakula, of Quantum Leap fame, playing Captain Jeffery Archer, a name that was quickly changed to Jonathan Archer due to fan feedback.[6] Four days later, the rest of the main cast was announced,[7] though the character names would not be announced until the next day.[8]
“ | Well, you know, if you think about it, since The Next Generation, we've had so many Star Trek entities that were called "Star Trek"-colon-something [...] Our feeling was, in trying to make this show dramatically different, which we are trying to do, that it might be fun not to have a divided main title like that. And I think that if there's any one word that says Star Trek without actually saying Star Trek, it's the word "Enterprise" | ” |
— Rick Berman[9]
“ | You all are witness to a show that guarantees instant attention, recognition, anticipation and most importantly, success [...] Star Trek is the most popular science fiction franchise in the world. | ” |
—Tom Nunan, [10] |
On May 14, 2001, shooting began for the pilot episode, Broken Bow, on stages 8, 9, and 18 at Paramount Studios. Three days later, Tom Nunan, entertainment producer at UPN, held a press conference formally announcing Enterprise to the world at large.[10] Featuring a video on the history of the Star Trek franchise, Nunan held up previous installments of the franchise as proof-of-concept that Enterprise would succeed.[citation needed]
On September 26, 2001, the premiere episode of Enterprise, "Broken Bow", aired on UPN with an estimated 12.54 million viewers.[citation needed]
Through the life of the series, Star Trek: Enterprise would mark several milestones for Star Trek television production. Enterprise was the first Star Trek to be produced in widescreen, the first Star Trek series to be broadcast in HDTV, beginning on October 15, 2003, midway into the third season,[11] the first Star Trek to be filmed on digital video (season 4),[12] and the first science fiction television or movie production in history to use video footage taken on another planet (the Sojourner rover approaching the Yogi Rock, taken by the Mars Pathfinder lander and used in the opening credits).[citation needed]
A number of episodes of Enterprise were directed by Star Trek alumni:[citation needed]
- Star Trek: The Next Generation star LeVar Burton directed nine episodes
- TNG and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine star Michael Dorn directed one episode
- Voyager star Roxann Dawson directed ten episodes
- Voyager star Robert Duncan McNeill directed four episodes
[edit] Cast
- Jonathan Archer (Scott Bakula), captain of Earth's first Warp 5 starship, Enterprise. His father designed its engine, giving Archer a very personal connection to his ship. Archer feels an immense amount of pressure concerning his mission, especially when hunting the Xindi to save Earth from destruction. Subsequently he is assigned Earth-local or diplomatic missions. Instrumental in founding the Federation.
- T'Pol (Jolene Blalock), originally attached to the Enterprise by the Vulcan High Command to keep the humans out of trouble. Becomes very loyal to Archer, leaving her position in the High Command to accompany him, find the Xindi, and later join Starfleet. A version of T'Pol who was flung into the past gives birth to the first human/Vulcan hybrid. In later seasons, forms a romantic relationship with Trip. DNA stolen, along with Charles Tucker's, in order to make the first Vulcan/Human hybrid in the "normal" timeline, who unfortunately died from complications.
- Charles "Trip" Tucker III (Connor Trinneer), chief engineer of the Enterprise, and long-time friend of Captain Archer. Started off conservatively modest, but becomes more seasoned as the series runs, losing a sister in the Xindi attack. In later seasons, forms a romantic relationship with T'Pol. DNA stolen, along with T'Pol's, in order to make the first Vulcan/Human hybrid in the "normal" timeline, who unfortunately died from complications. Trip was supposedly killed in the series finale based 10 years in the future saving the ship while it was under attack but the continuing novels revealed his death to be a fabrication.
- Malcolm Reed (Dominic Keating), armory officer of the Enterprise, also in charge of ship security. Reed comes from a long line of Royal Navy men, but joined Starfleet due to a fear of drowning. An extremely taciturn man, his own family did not know his favorite food when asked (it's pineapples).
- Hoshi Sato (Linda Park), communications officer and linguistic genius. Capable of learning alien languages extremely quickly, Hoshi serves as the translator between the Enterprise crew and new alien species, even after the Universal Translator is on-line. Suffered anxiety about her place on board originally, but exposure to frequent danger helped her realize her value to the ship.
- Travis Mayweather (Anthony Montgomery), helmsman. A "Space Boomer", Travis is unique on Enterprise being born in space. Son of a freighter captain, Travis knows many of the alien species as well as locations that Earth traders frequent. As Enterprise moves farther and farther from Earth, his value in this area lessens, but his skill at the helm is constantly appreciated, making him the pilot of choice for many missions.
- Dr. Phlox (John Billingsley), chief medical officer. A Denobulan member of the Inter-Species Medical Exchange, Phlox is brought aboard the Enterprise to care for their Klingon passenger. Afterward, he volunteers to stay on, delighting in the experience of humanity taking its first steps into the larger galactic stage. An exceedingly cheerful alien, Dr. Phlox uses many animals and various naturalistic cures to practice his trade, instead of the usual technological implements. Dr. Phlox also devised a method of eradicating Borg nanoprobes, but because the method is fatal to humans and nearly so to Denobulans, it has little use.
[edit] Plot
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[edit] Seasons 1 and 2
The first two seasons of Star Trek: Enterprise depict the exploration of interstellar space by the crew of an Earth ship able to go farther and faster than any humans had previously gone, due to the breaking of the Warp barrier, analogous to the Bell X-1 breaking the sound barrier. The crew faces situations that are familiar to Star Trek fans, but are unencumbered and unjaded by the experience and rules which have built up over hundreds of years of Trek history established in previous Star Trek series. Star Trek: Enterprise takes pains to show the origins of some concepts which have become taken for granted in Star Trek canon, such as Lt. Reed's development of force fields and Captain Archer's questions about cultural interference eventually being answered by later series' Prime Directive.
A recurring plot device is the Temporal Cold War, in which a mysterious entity from the 27th century uses the Cabal, a group of genetically upgraded Suliban, to manipulate the timeline and change past events. Sometimes sabotaging Enterprise's mission and sometimes saving the ship from destruction, the entity's motives are unknown. Agent Daniels, a temporal agent from the 31st century, visits Captain Archer occasionally to assist him in fighting the Suliban and undoing damage to the timeline.
In the past ninety years since Star Trek: First Contact, the Vulcans have been mentoring humanity to what they see as an appropriate level of civilization, routinely holding back scientific knowledge in an effort to keep humans stranded close to home, believing them to be too irrational and emotionally-dominated to function properly in an interstellar community. When Enterprise finally sets out, the Vulcans are often conspicuously close by. This generates some conflict as, in several early episodes, Archer and others complain bitterly of the Vulcans' unsubtle methods of checking up on them.
[edit] Season 3
Low ratings encouraged the series' producers to seek a new direction. In analyzing past Trek movie successes, a storyline where the Earth was put in jeopardy was devised, as such a story had proven popular before, as in Star Trek: First Contact and Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home. The third season also sees the change of the series' name to Star Trek: Enterprise as well as an updated main title theme. Season three introduces the Xindi, an enemy bent on annihilating humanity via a planet-destroying super weapon similar to Star Wars' Death Star.
The third season follows a single story arc, beginning in the second season finale "The Expanse", in which a mysterious probe cuts a wide, deep trench from central Florida to Venezuela, killing seven million people. Enterprise is recalled and retrofitted as a warship, with more powerful weapons and a group of elite Military Assault Command Operations (MACOs). Enterprise travels through an area known as the Delphic Expanse to find the Xindi homeworld and prevent another attack against Earth. The crew learns in "Azati Prime" that the Sphere-Builders, a transdimensional species, have technology that allows them to examine alternate timelines. The Sphere-Builders know that in the 26th century, the "Federation" fleet, led by Enterprise's distant cousin, the Enterprise-J, will lead an attack against them that will defeat them. They wanted the Xindi, who revered them as "the Guardians," to destroy Earth in the hope that this would deter the formation and existence of the Federation. However, in the season finale, "Zero Hour," they manage to defeat the Sphere-Builders and destroy the Xindi weapon. They also succeeded in returning the Expanse to normal space. The season ends with the Enterprise being mysteriously transported into the middle of World War II. This plot was resolved in Storm Front, Part I&II.
[edit] Season 4
The show was renewed for a fourth season on May 20, 2004. The renewal moved the show from Wednesday night to Friday night, a move that seemed to replicate the third season renewal of the original Star Trek, when it was moved from Thursday night to the Friday night "death slot." Many cast and crew members supported it, saying that The X-Files gained more viewership during its first three years on Friday nights. As a sequel to "Zero Hour," "Storm Front" and "Storm Front, Part II," opened up the fourth season on October 8 and 15, 2004. The episodes ended the ongoing Temporal Cold War arc, which proved very unpopular among the show's viewers during the first three seasons. The Xindi arc, started over a year ago in "The Expanse," ended with the third episode, "Home," which mostly dealt with Captain Archer's ethically and morally questionable actions during the yearlong mission in the Expanse. The general theme of the season was a refocus on the prequel concept of the series, with many episodes making reference to themes, concepts, and characters from past series. The fourth season saw Brent Spiner (Data from Star Trek: The Next Generation) as the imprisoned scientist Dr. Arik Soong, an ancestor of Data's creator, in a three-episode arc at the end of which Soong abandons the concept of improving mankind in favor of creating artificial intelligence: an allusion to what will eventually become Data.
The Soong episodes later gave rise to a story arc where the Klingons were attempting to improve their species through the continuation of Soong's work. This allowed for an explanation of why the Klingons on The Original Series lacked brow ridges and were much more human looking than any of the other series.
Season 4 also addressed some discrepancies between the Vulcans of The Original Series and those depicted in Star Trek: Enterprise. In the Vulcan Civil War arc, Romulan subversion of the Vulcan High Command leads to a splinter group of Vulcans opposed to the High Command's actions, believing those actions to be against the teachings of Surak, the mythic leader who brought logic to Vulcan. After this storyline, Vulcans began a cultural transformation that was presumably a turn toward the more enlightened Vulcans of Trek series set further in the future. For example, mind-melding before the ancient teachings were recovered was considered immoral; after, it was embraced as the legacy of all Vulcans. A two-part return to the Mirror Universe, made popular by The Original Series and Deep Space Nine, titled "In a Mirror, Darkly," was made late in the fourth season, which take place in the parallel dimension. These episodes use the Enterprise crew as the most barbaric members of the Terran Empire. As a sequel to the original Star Trek's "The Tholian Web," "Part I," proved popular while "Part II" had an ending which was a cliffhanger. Had the series gone on for a fifth season, the story would have continued. The story was "continued" by means of the first "Mirror Universe" anthology published in 2007 by Pocket Books. The story, "Age of the Empress" was crafted by Mike Sussman, the writer of "In a Mirror, Darkly."
Romulans also stir up trouble midway through the season. While a diplomatic conference is hosted by Earth on the planet Babel, Romulans, using drone ships with holographic emitters (mimicking any ship) stir up trouble with the Andorians and Tellarites. This places the two races at each other's throats, and when they're revealed to be Romulan, Archer devises an alliance, similar to the Federation, with the Vulcans. This three-part arc, which presaged the inevitable Romulan-Earth War of 2156, received the lowest Nielsen ratings of the entire series, leading UPN to cancel it on February 2, 2005.
In the final story arc of the season a human terrorist group, called Terra Prime, are bent on removing all non-humans from human planets and genetically engineer a child from DNA samples of Commander Tucker and Commander T'Pol. They use the baby as a means to anger humans who have become afraid of aliens since the Xindi conflict and launch a campaign from Mars to drive the alien outsiders from human space. This storyline has been said by producers to represent how humanity must overcome its own bigotry and hatred in order to become the human race seen in later Treks.
The series cancellation was announced prior to the writing of the final episode of the fourth season allowing the writers to craft a series finale. This final episode, titled "These Are the Voyages...", aired May 13, 2005 in the United States and was one of the most heavily criticized episodes of the Star Trek franchise. Much of the criticism focused on the premise which essentially reduced the finale to a holodeck adventure from the Star Trek: The Next Generation series. The episode featured guest appearances by Jonathan Frakes and Marina Sirtis as their Star Trek: The Next Generation characters William Riker and Deanna Troi. The episode is based during the TNG episode "The Pegasus".[13] Brent Spiner lent his voice to the finale, and is briefly heard as Data.
[edit] Cancellation
- See List of Star Trek: Enterprise episodes for the Nielsen Ratings.
By the third season, ratings were continually declining, and the threat of cancellation loomed over Star Trek: Enterprise. This, along with the poor box office performance in 2002 of the film Star Trek Nemesis, cast an uncertain light upon the future of the Star Trek franchise in general.
[edit] 2004
Fans launched a letter writing campaign similar to the one that saved the third season of the Original Series.[14] On May 20, 2004, it was announced that Enterprise had been renewed for a fourth season, but that the show would move from Wednesday to Friday nights.[15] This move echoed the rescheduling of the original Star Trek to a Friday night time slot for its third season prior to its ultimate cancellation, as Friday nights have traditionally been considered "Death Row" for a major TV production.
Hired as a writer during the third season, Manny Coto was promoted to co-executive producer, becoming the series showrunner for the fourth season. Coto decided to retain the "arc" concept of season 3, but reduce it from one season-long arc to several "mini-arcs" of two or three episodes, with few standalones. The producers attempted to attract viewers by terminating a long-running story arc (the Temporal Cold War) and scheduling numerous episodes that served as prequels to storylines from TOS and TNG.
Beginning in the summer of 2004, and continuing throughout the fourth season, there were reports that William Shatner would reprise the role of James T. Kirk or perhaps an ancestor in the series,[16] however an agreement could not be reached.[17]
The fourth season got off to a slow start in the ratings on October 8, 2004, due to the Friday time-slot, preemptions by local sports in some markets, and by coverage of the second presidential debate between George W. Bush and John Kerry in others. As well, Enterprise fans continued to indicate they chose to watch the weekend showing rather than the Friday broadcast, or chose to "time-shift" the program using their VCR or DVR equipment. In October 2004, it was announced that Enterprise was the 25th most popular Season Pass on the TiVo television recording system in the United States.[18]
[edit] 2005
Speculation as to the future of the series came to an end on February 2, 2005, when UPN announced the series had been cancelled and its final episode would air on Friday, May 13, 2005.[19] Fan groups such as "Save Enterprise" joined forces[20] and announced a drive to raise money to finance a further season of Enterprise. Approximately $30 million was the goal of the campaign, based upon estimates of the cost for a full season cited by John Billingsley and others.[20] In addition, Washington, D.C. lobbyist Dan Jensen circulated a letter on Capitol Hill in an effort to appeal to the sentiments of legislators. As a result, then Florida Congressman Mark Foley (R) agreed to sign the letter. The Washington "lobbying" effort garnered considerable press, and had a feature article on the front page of Roll Call[21].
Production of the fourth season concluded on March 8, 2005, and by the end of the month, Startrek.com was reporting the Enterprise sets had been taken down, marking the first time that Stage 9 at Paramount Studios has been without Star Trek sets since the late 1970s. The website did not indicate whether the sets have been preserved in storage (the industry term being 'fold-and-hold') or if they have been destroyed.[22]
As of April 13, 2005, Paramount and UPN remained adamant that the cancellation of the series was final and that the studio was not interested in continuing the current incarnation of Star Trek.[23] TrekUnited officials, however, still claimed to be in talks with Paramount over the future of the series.[24]
The website IGN Filmforce, reporting on rumors Paramount had actually decided to cancel Enterprise after its fourth season as early as midway through the second year, quoted an unidentified "executive involved with Enterprise" as saying this scenario was "very likely".
Although widely reported as the death knell of the Star Trek franchise, the cancellation of Enterprise was followed within months by the announcement that Paramount was in pre-production on an 11th Star Trek feature film. After a false start involving Berman which would have set the film in a time period after the events of Enterprise but before TOS, Paramount recruited a new producing and writing team, which ultimately led to the release of a new Star Trek film in May 2009. Like Enterprise, the new film also adopted a prequel concept, with a different approach.
[edit] In other media
[edit] Soundtrack
[edit] Theme song
The series' theme song, written by Diane Warren and sung by Russell Watson, was a marked contrast to the sweeping instrumental themes used in all other Star Trek series. It was also the first such theme not to have been composed specially for Star Trek, having previously appeared (performed by Rod Stewart) in the film Patch Adams (1998).
Like other aspects of the series, the theme song polarized fans. Online petitions were signed demanding its removal from the titles.[25] A new, more upbeat arrangement of the theme song was introduced for the third season, but this did not assuage the song's critics, and elicited criticism from some who liked the original version.[26]
The theme song, as well as the opening credits, were altered for two back-to-back episodes in season 4 entitled "In a Mirror, Darkly", which take place in an alternate mirror universe.
Throughout the show's run, there was extensive Internet speculation as to whether the theme song and opening credits (which were questioned by some for depicting only American flight and spaceflight advances while omitting historically important incarnations, such as Soviet milestones Sputnik and Vostok 1[27]) would be changed.[28] This speculation was fueled in October 2004 when the official website startrek.com posted[29] an opening credits sequence in which Scott Bakula recites a modified version of the famous speech, ending instead of with the gender-specific 'man' or the gender- and species-neutral 'one' but rather the species-specific 'human', accompanied by "Archer's Theme", the instrumental used as the closing credits music for the series. The never-before-seen introduction was:
Space... the Final Frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise. Her continuing mission: to explore strange new worlds; to seek out new life and new civilizations; to boldly go where no human has gone before.
In 2001 UPN heavily promoted the premiere of Enterprise with a song by The Calling, "Wherever You Will Go."
[edit] Original novels and relaunch
Like the Trek series that preceded it, a series of original novels based on Enterprise was launched by Pocket Books soon after the program debuted. During the run of the series, however, only five books were published (not counting episode novelizations), a low number compared to the other series. No Enterprise-specific novels appeared at all in 2005 and the first post-cancellation novel, Rosetta by Dave Stern, did not appear until February 2006.
As explained by Pocket Books editor Margaret Clark, it was decided to scale back the number of books published not due to low sales or lack of interest in the prequel series, but due to the fact that the televised series often conflicted with planned literary plotlines, or beat the book series to the punch entirely. The novel Surak's Soul by J.M. Dillard, includes as a major plot point the aftermath of T'Pol killing a person during a mission. Before it was published, however, the TV series aired "The Seventh", an episode with a similar core plot point, which forced last-minute revisions to Dillard's book. Later, the novel Daedalus, by Dave Stern, included flashbacks to the early days of the NX Program which needed to be revised to avoid conflicting with the already-broadcast episode "First Flight", which also featured a look at the early days of the NX Program. Apparently, things weren't expected to change during the fourth season; in a May 2005 posting at the TrekBBS, Clark explained that the lack of Enterprise novels was intended to avoid any further potential storytelling "land mines" since "Season Four kept doing stuff we wanted/planned to do".[30]
With the series concluded, novelists are free to compose continuation novels without fear of being preempted or contradicted by the show, save for any restrictions put in place by the finale episode. In May 2005, Clark announced plans for a new series of Enterprise novels that will constitute a "relaunch" similar to that of the literary continuation of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. Clark indicated that the books will cover events in the six years between "Terra Prime" and "These Are the Voyages...".[30]
An original novel, Last Full Measure, was released in April 2006. It takes place during the third season Xindi Arc and therefore isn't considered part of the relaunch (Rosetta takes place during the fourth season and likewise is not considered a relaunch volume, either). However, Last Full Measure does contain a "framing sequence" that serves as a preview for the Relaunch. This framing sequence, which has proven controversial, suggests Trip Tucker did not die in the events of "These Are the Voyages..." and is alive in the early 23rd century, though the reason for this is not explained. According to Clark, again posting on the TrekBBS, dissatisfaction over the finale episode is the driving factor behind the continuation novels/relaunch including a story arc that suggests that Trip's death in the finale was not as it seemed.
The first official relaunch novel, The Good That Men Do by Andy Mangels and Michael A. Martin was published by Pocket Books on February 28, 2007, and gives a different perspective on the events shown in the final episode. This book also provides a lead-in to a series of books that will document the Earth-Romulan War that has been referenced in the other Star Trek materials, but was never developed during the television production of Enterprise.
The relaunch novels' concept, of Trip not actually dying in the final episode, is based on an enigmatic moment in which Trip is supposedly near death and is being loaded into a medical chamber. He looks up at Archer, smiles and winks; Archer smiles back and also winks. The novels take this to mean the death of Trip was actually an elaborate ruse and not his actual death. The book reveals that the events of the holo-program from "These Are the Voyages" are a deliberate lie. Noting the inconsistencies in the episode as proof that it is a fabrication, an aged Jake Sisko and Nog discuss the lack of promotions among the crew, the pirates' warp 2 ship that is some how able catch up with Enterprise, and the complete lack of MACOs and security teams when the pirates stalk the ship. It should be noted that the established criteria of Star Trek canon disqualifies novels as being official continuity; the decision to undo Trip's death in "These Are the Voyages" in the novels marks one of the only occasions in which a licensed, expanded universe spin-off has openly contradicted a major part of Trek continuity – an earlier example involved the launch of a series of novels featuring Kirk that suggested the character did not die at the end of the film, Star Trek Generations.
Kobayashi Maru continues the story, with the Romulans continuing their attacks against the newly formed Coalition of Planets. Archer and crew appear to be the only ones who believe the Romulans are truly behind the attacks. The book culminates in Archer facing the infamous Kobayashi Maru no-win scenario, and the beginning of the Earth-Romulan War.
The third installment of this series, The Romulan War: Beneath the Raptor's Wing, was released in October 2009. The novel explains the beginning of the Earth-Romulan war and the desperation of the Coalition of Planets.
[edit] DVD releases
In October 2004, coinciding with the start of the show's fourth season and months before the cancellation announcement, Paramount revealed plans to release the four seasons of Enterprise to DVD in North America during 2005. It has yet to be revealed whether this had any bearing on the decision to cancel the program since Voyager was offered to syndication midway through its run with no impact on its network status, and TNG, DS9, and Voyager all saw episodes released to home video during their runs, long before those series ended. It had also become commonplace for current series to have past seasons released to DVD.
The first season DVD was released on May 3, 2005, ten days prior to the broadcast of the final episode. This release marked a couple of firsts for Star Trek TV series DVD releases. It was the first to include extensive deleted scenes (although footage cut from the premiere of Voyager had been included in a featurette previously), and it was the first to include an outtakes or blooper reel. The remaining seasons were released on July 26, September 27, and November 1. All the remaining sets also included deleted scenes and outtakes of varying length.
All four seasons are now available on the US Itunes store priced at $12.99 standard definition and $24.99 for the HD version.
DVD Name | Ep # | Release Date[31] |
---|---|---|
Season 1 | 26 | May 3, 2005 |
Season 2 | 26 | July 26, 2005 |
Season 3 | 24 | September 27, 2005 |
Season 4 | 22 | November 1, 2005 |
[edit] Reception
Seasonal rankings (based on average total viewers per episode) of Star Trek: Enterprise on UPN:
Season | Timeslot | Season Premiere | Season Finale | TV Season | Rank | Viewers (in millions) |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1st | Wednesday 8:00PM | September 26, 2001 | May 22, 2002 | 2001–2002 | #115[32] | 5.9[32] |
2nd | Wednesday 8:00PM | September 18, 2002 | May 21, 2003 | 2002–2003 | #132 | 3.94 |
3rd | Wednesday 8:00PM | September 10, 2003 | May 26, 2004 | 2003–2004 | #178[33] | 3.3[33] |
4th | Friday 9:00PM | October 8, 2004 | May 13, 2005 | 2004–2005 | #146[34] | 2.81[34] |
[edit] Rebroadcasts
UPN continued to air reruns of Enterprise for only a month after the series finale, with the last network-broadcast episode, "In a Mirror, Darkly" (Part II), airing on June 11, 2005 – this despite initial announcements that reruns would continue throughout the summer. With disruptions from local sports programming, many areas never had the opportunity to see all the episodes, which had been aired elsewhere.
Syndicated rebroadcasts of the series began in North American markets on September 17, 2005.[35] Broadcasts in high definition began on HDNet in late 2006 and continue into 2010. Three episodes are broadcast daily.
NBC Universal's Syfy ran the series from January 8, 2007,[36] until July, 2008 in four-episode blocks every Monday night. Since Sci Fi does not own HD airing rights to the series, it was shown in a 4:3 letterbox 16:9 format on both the SD & HD feeds. Syfy played reruns on weekdays at 5pm, though not in their original broadcast order. Enterprise was replaced by Stargate Atlantis in June 2009. However, Enterprise is sometimes shown on the 8 am to 4 pm weekday marathon on Syfy.
In Canada it is aired on Space.
It is aired on Star World on weekdays at 4:30 p.m. in India.
It is aired on MTV3 Scifi on weekdays starting from April 1, 2009 at 7:00 p.m. in Finland and repeats on Saturdays.
In October 2007, Virgin 1 in the UK announced it is "The new home of Star Trek"[37] and aired Seasons 1 through 3. Season 4 will be broadcast beginning April 30, 2010 at 9 pm BST.[citation needed]
In Belgium and the Netherlands it is aired on the SciFi Channel (Benelux).
In Australia it is aired on the local SciFi Channel in 16:9 on weekends.
In Croatia it is aired on HRT2 every day at 4:20 pm.
[edit] References
- ^ "Berman Confirms New Series". Startrek.com. 2000-05-04. http://www.startrek.com/startrek/view/series/ENT/news/article/378.html. Retrieved 2007-12-20.
- ^ "Designers Start Work on New Series". Startrek.com. 2001-02-23. http://www.startrek.com/startrek/view/series/ENT/news/article/376.html. Retrieved 2007-12-20.
- ^ "Okuda to Make His Mark on New Series". Startrek.com. 2001-03-12. http://www.startrek.com/startrek/view/series/ENT/news/article/374.html. Retrieved 2007-12-20.
- ^ "Westmore to Continue Making Aliens". Startrek.com. 2001-04-26. http://www.startrek.com/startrek/view/series/ENT/news/article/371.html. Retrieved 2007-12-20.
- ^ a b "Star Trek Veterans Back on the Job". Startrek.com. 2001-05-15. http://www.startrek.com/startrek/view/series/ENT/news/article/367.html. Retrieved 2007-12-20.
- ^ "New Series Enterprise & New Captain – Bakula". Startrek.com. 2001-05-11. http://www.startrek.com/startrek/view/series/ENT/news/article/369.html. Retrieved 2007-12-20.
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[edit] External links
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- Star Trek: Enterprise at StarTrek.com
- Star Trek: Enterprise at SCIFI.com
- Star Trek: Enterprise at Memory Alpha (a Star Trek wiki)
- Identification of images in opening credits
- Star Trek: Enterprise at the Internet Movie Database
- Star Trek: Enterprise at TV.com