By BWilliams / 15:07, 1 November 2005 / Reviews - Products

Star Trek: Enterprise - Season 4
DVD

Price: $99.99
Pub Date: November 2005

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Introduction:

And now we come to the final season of STAR TREK: ENTERPRISE. To borrow from the title song, it's definitely been a long road getting from there to here. And if the third season itself didn't have a cliffhanger of its own to resolve, the entire production ended on a huge cliffhanger of its own that had fans asking, 'Would ENTERPRISE be back for a fourth season?' It wasn't until a couple of days before the telecast of 'Zero Hour' that fans learned the news they had waited to hear: despite plummeting ratings, UPN would bring ENTERPRISE back for a fourth season. Unfortunately, fans did not take too kindly to the announcement that the series would move from its Wednesday night time slot to Friday nights, something that hadn't been seen since the days of the Original Series. And this time the writing was on the wall with a loud and clear message to creators and executive producers Rick Berman and Brannon Braga: boost up your ratings, or you're history.

To that end, Berman and Braga moved Manny Coto up to the position of co-executive producer, entrusting him with the day-to-day show-running responsibilities. Under Coto, the series began to be re-energized, with overall stronger scripts and a clear intention of tying ENTERPRISE in with elements of the Original Series, something that fans had longed to see occur since the series' very beginning in 2001. Season 4 was the also season of the mini story arcs. After the year-long Xindi arc in Season 3, the direction of the series changed with a number of segments told in arcs two or three episodes apiece, touching upon established elements of the STAR TREK universe and in some cases fleshing them out even further. For many fans, one long-standing question that existed in TREK canon would be answered during the course of this fourth and final season.

In addition, the series got a much-needed shot in the arm with the addition of novelists Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens as the series' story editors. The writers of the hugely successful TOS/TNG crossover novel FEDERATION, as well as THE MAKING OF STAR TREK: DEEP SPACE NINE and the TREK novels written with William Shatner, among others, the Reeves-Stevenses brought their literary expertise and their love of all things TREK to the series, giving it an added quality not seen since the days of the Original Series, when many prolific writers contributed to the series' growth. Had more skilled writers like the Reeves-Stevenses come aboard early on, it's possible we could have seen ENTERPRISE move into a fifth season and possibly more.

Of course, Coto and company had to pick up the pieces from the end of Season 3 in order to get things moving. At the end of 'Zero Hour', the Enterprise and Archer (Scott Bakula) found themselves trapped in an alternate past with no apparent way to get home. This is where the two-part 'Storm Front', written by Coto, begins, and this is quite a bizarre beast in and of itself. The notion of Nazi Germany conquering the United States during World War II is certainly interesting, but when you factor in a group of unusual aliens, with no explanation of their origins, with an agenda of creating a temporal vortex, and you have quite the confusing introduction. And as if that weren't enough, Archer and the Enterprise crew have to find a way home to their world as they know it. How do you connect all of these dots together to form a coherent story? Coto surely found a way, because by the end of the second episode, the Enterprise crew finally got back home.

After 'Storm Front' came the first stand-alone episode of the season, 'Home', written by Mike Sussman. This was a nice change-of-pace tale in the vein of the NEXT GENERATION Borg epilogue 'Family', which finds the crew of the Enterprise emotionally recharging their batteries after their experiences in the Expanse. For Archer it means submitting himself to a board of inquiry over his actions against the Xindi, as well as taking a needed mountain climbing trip with his friend Erika Hernandez, the captain of the starship Columbia NX-02. For T'Pol (Jolene Blalock), it means going home to Vulcan to go through with her marriage to Koss. And for Trip (Connor Trinneer) it means coming to terms with his feelings for T'Pol.

The first three-part arc came with the episodes 'Borderland', 'Cold Station 12', and 'The Augments' and marked the return of Brent Spiner to the TREK universe, this time as Dr. Arik Soong, a scientist responsible for stealing a number of genetically-enhanced embryos and raising them as his children. The only thing is, the children have grown up and are out to rescue the embryos of their brothers and sisters to usher in a new era for humanity, harkening back to Khan's attempts in TOS' 'Space Seed' and STAR TREK II. Alec Newman portrays Malik, the leader of the Augments, as a young Khan-like wannabe, attempting to conquer the galaxy and please Soong at the same time. (Newman is best known to viewers for his portrayal of Paul Atreides in the SciFi Channel's miniseries adaptations of DUNE and CHILDREN OF DUNE). Of course, with these young renegades on the loose, taking over a Klingon Bird of Prey and holding scientists hostage at a research lab, guess who gets called to bring them in? This leads to some wonderful showdown moments between Archer and Malik, with Spiner's Soong caught between his involvement in the mission and the loyalty to his children. 'Borderland' also marked the return of the Orions, whom we hadn't seen since TOS' 'Whom Gods Destroy', with long-time TREK fan and WWE wrestler Paul 'Big Show' Wight as one of the Orion slave traders.

This was followed up with another solid three-part arc, this one featuring the Vulcans and the return of a couple of familiar faces to the TREK universe. 'The Forge', written by the Reeves-Stevenses, started off with a bang, literally, courtesy of the bombing of the Vulcan embassy on Earth. This leads Archer and crew to Vulcan to journey a treacherous region of desert known as the Forge (referenced in a number of STAR TREK novels) to search for those responsible for the bombing. 'Awakening', written by TREK science expert Andre Bormanis and directed by Roxann Dawson (VOYAGER's B'Elanna Torres), finds Archer and T'Pol held by a group of Vulcan dissidents known as Syrranites, who believe in the ancient disciplines of Surak, among them mind-melding. We learn that among the Syrranite followers is T'Pau, whom we remember from TOS' 'Amok Time' as a revered Vulcan dignitary but here is a young revolutionary. (Ironically, when ENTERPRISE was first conceived, T'Pau was slated to be scripted into the series as Archer's science officer.) The final segment of the arc, 'Kir'shara', written by Sussman and directed by TREK veteran David Livingston, finds Archer, T'Pol, and T'Pau playing Indiana Jones in retrieving a sacred Vulcan artifact believed to contain the writings of Surak, and racing to the Vulcan High Command to prevent an interstellar conflict from occurring.

We then had two stand-alone episodes, 'Daedalus' and 'Observer Effect'. In 'Daedalus' we get to meet the creator of the sub-quantum transporter, though his mission to perform transporter experiments is mired in controversy and lies, as he secretly uses the Enterprise to search for his missing son. This clunker was followed up with a very well-written bottle show, 'Observer Effect', written by the Reeves-Stevenses, which marked the return of the Organians, whom we haven't seen since the Original Series' classic 'Errand of Mercy'. When two non-corporeal Organians inhabit the bodies of Malcolm Reed (Dominic Keating) and Travis Mayweather (Anthony Montgomery), what starts out as a simple observation into human behavior turns into a life and death situation for Trip and Hoshi Sato (Linda Park), as the latter succumb to a life-threatening virus, and the aliens have the cure but are not willing to part with it.

This was followed up with another excellent three-part story arc focusing on Archer's attempts to unite the Andorians and Tellarites into negotiating a series of peace talks over trade disputes, which in turn begins to sow the seeds for what will one day become the Federation. In 'Babel One', written by Sussman and Bormanis, the peace talks begin, but someone is throwing a monkey wrench into the plans, with attacks on both the Andorian and Tellarite parties. Everyone's pointing the finger at one another, and this serves the Romulans only to kick things up a notch. 'United', written by the Reeves-Stevenses, finds Trip and Reed attempting to uncover who's behind the attacks on the Enterprise and the Andorian and Tellarite parties, leading all to put aside their differences and work together. 'The Aenar', written by Bormanis, takes viewers to Andor for the first time and introduces us to a sub-arctic group of Andorians known as the Aenar, who are blind but have extrasensory perception. It's soon learned that the Romulans had kidnapped an Aenar and used him as their unwilling subject to sabotage the peace talks, leading everyone to put a kink into the Romulans' plans.

Following on the heels of the Romulan arc came a two-part Klingon arc, 'Affliction' and 'Divergence', that finally puts to rest the answer to a nagging question in TREK continuity: how did the Klingons go from their bumpy-headed look to their smooth human look in the Original Series? As Worf said in DEEP SPACE NINE, it is a long story, but thanks to Sussman, Coto, and the Reeves-Stevenses, we now have an answer. In addition to solving the Klingon mystery, we also see a kink thrown into the Trip-T'Pol relationship, as Trip finds himself transferring to the Columbia to get away from dealing with his feelings for T'Pol, while we also see the first signs of what will become Section 31 in the 24th century and of Reed's shady connection to this secret outfit. Clearly, Coto has a deep love for all things TREK, and his attempts to bring ENTERPRISE into connection with the other series really shows.

Unfortunately, it came too late. In February 2005, word came from UPN of the inevitable: because of extremely low ratings and the declining viewer numbers, ENTERPRISE would indeed be cancelled at the end of the fourth season. Many fans wrote Paramount to protest this decision, and a group of dedicated fans from SaveEnterprise.com even picketed the Paramount studios to show their support for the troubled series, going so far as to raise money to attempt to have the series resurrected for a fifth season. But it was simply a case of too little, too late. ENTERPRISE was coming to an end, and this time there was nothing anyone could do about it.

The last of the stand-alone episodes prior to the finale, 'Bound', written by Coto, brings back the Orions and explores their culture to a degree while putting the Enterprise crew in a precarious, if not humorous, predicament. When Archer mediates negotiations between Starfleet and the Orion Syndicate, he and the Enterprise crew are given a unique gift: three Orion slave girls. Pretty soon every member of the crew falls under the effects of the Orions, with the exception of Trip and T'Pol. I've got to admit here, this harkens back to memories of the Animated Series segment 'The Lorelei Signal'. But 'Bound' also further deepens the Trip-T'Pol relationship and gets things going on track once again in the race to the finish line.

The two-part tale 'In a Mirror, Darkly,' written by Sussman, is a TREK fan's dream come to life and puts quite an interesting spin on the ENTERPRISE saga as we know it. With this two-part tale we ask ourselves, 'What's going on in the Mirror Universe?' To that end, Sussman, Coto, and the entire crew treated both episodes as if they had aired on the United Terran Network, even going so far as to alter the main and end title credits for the episodes! And that's just for starters! Putting a spin on events in FIRST CONTACT, 'In a Mirror, Darkly' focuses on the tyranny on board the ISS Enterprise, as Commander Archer seeks to wrestle the command chair from Captain Maximilian Forest (a deliciously evil Vaughn Armstrong), while the crew as we know it plots and schemes all on their own to obtain their ambitious goals. Even Hoshi, quiet-natured in 'our' universe, prostitutes herself as the captain's woman to obtain her own goals. Linda Park's performance is just simply shocking! And Phlox (John Billingsley), warm and caring in 'our' universe, is devoid of any emotion here. Things only build from there with the discovery of the USS Defiant, trapped in the past (from TOS' 'The Tholian Web') and under Tholian control. The centerpiece of the second part is the beautiful recreation of the Enterprise/Defiant bridge and its decks, which energized and excited everyone who either worked on the episodes or viewed the final results.

The final story arc of the series, 'Demons', written by Coto, and 'Terra Prime', by the Reeves-Stevenses, returns things to normal and centers on the Enterprise crew's involvement in the biggest mission of their careers since the Xindi arc in Season 3. A number of alien governments have contacted Starfleet about possibly forming a peaceful governmental organization, which in TREK lore sows the seeds of the birth of the Federation. But a xenophobic agent named John Paxton (played by Peter Weller of ROBOCOP and BUCKAROO BANZAI fame) seeks to stir the waters of discord by viewing other alien worlds as the threat to Earth. Much in the same view as STAR TREK VI, Paxton is frightened of change because it must occur in order for all races and planets to move toward the future. Both 'Demons' and 'Terra Prime' gives each of the main cast members meaty character-driven moments on screen that suggest growth for everyone had a fifth season been in the works. Sadly, everyone knew that they had to go out at the top of their game. As Archer puts it at the end of 'Terra Prime', 'the final frontier begins here.' Without giving anything away further, these two episodes stand out in many fans' minds as the series' true love letter to the TREK community, and if the series had ended here, it would have been a wonderful and satisfying way to go out.

The series' final episode, however, outraged fans and viewers like never before. 'These Are the Voyages,' written by Berman and Braga at the end of Season 3 when it looked like there would be no Season 4, took the crew of the Enterprise several years forward in time to their retirement from Starfleet duty at the time of the Federation's formal organization in 2161. Granted, it's a look ahead into the future, except for one thing: the ENTERPRISE cast had less screen time than their guest stars, Jonathan Frakes (Will Riker) and Marina Sirtis (Deanna Troi), who reprised their TNG-series era roles for this final episode. Forcibly shoehorned in between moments of the seventh season episode 'The Pegasus', Riker and Troi search for inspiration into Riker's decision whether or not to follow his fomer commander by reviewing the logs of the Enterprise NX-01 and interacting with the crew via the holodeck. And cutting off Archer's crucial speech in mid-sentence? What were Berman and Braga thinking, and what were they smoking when they came up with this episode? Only the final shot of three different generations of Enterprises served up any inspiration whatsoever. After the beautiful conclusion in 'Terra Prime', what was deemed a final 'love letter' by Berman and Braga to the fans wound up nothing more than a big middle finger to everyone, quite possibly the most horrendous way to end any series, much less ENTERPRISE.

May 13, 2005 marked the end of the modern era of STAR TREK as we know it (and only a week later, the STAR WARS saga saw its end with the final installment in the film series, REVENGE OF THE SITH). With these 98 segments, another chapter in the TREK franchise had come to a close, and many still feel to this day (some vehemently) that Rick Berman needs to leave Paramount. I missed out on these final segments because of my family's move from Mississippi to Alabama, so I'm only now catching up on what I missed at the very end. With the fourth and final season of ENTERPRISE now on DVD (a quick six months after the series' end), many fans can relive those final moments, and I can look forward to (or cringe, in the case of 'These are the Voyages') what spelled the series' final death knolls.