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Broken Bow - See Synopsis Here
Episodes 1 & 2 - Debuted September 26, 2001
Enterprise’s premiere episode was the most promising first episodes I’ve seen from all the Trek spin-offs. Like all first episodes, it did have a few rough spots, but overall, I think it was far better than “Encounter at Farpoint,” TNG’s premiere, and Deep Space Nine’s or Voyager’s.
First things first though and first, of course, was the opening. The montage, which focuses on space exploration with shots of the Space Shuttle Enterprise included, is very good...wish I could say the same about the music. While I like the song, I feel it’s too slow and mellow for an action/adventure show. I understand they wanted to get away from the standard Trek theme songs, but a more upbeat choice would have been nice....like the song used in the promos or something similar.
The ship is beautiful and I do like the submarine-like feeling they have managed to give it...gives it a feel of being not too far in our future and definitely sets it apart from all the other Trek series. You also get the feeling of the crew getting used to all the new technology Starfleet has packed into the brand new Enterprise.
As to the crew...all are fairly interesting and I have only minor gripes that may be smoothed out over the coming episodes. Archer is fine, though he didn’t come off as too commanding in this first episode. It felt more of a fraternity going on a long car trip than a true ship/command atmosphere. Starfleet is military-based after all. I found Phlox to be rather annoying...nothing I can really pinpoint, but I was glad he wasn’t featured too much. Mayweather probably came off as the most interesting character in this first episode...mainly because they gave him cute little things to show off his upbringing on cargo ships...like the “sweet spot” that let him sit upside down. The other character I found annoying was Hoshi Sato...not the character herself so much as the seeming need to take extra care of her...such as Archer telling Tucker to “get her to the ship” at one point...like she can’t take care of herself? Don’t know if this was meant to show that women haven’t quite reached the same independence they have in TOS yet and are still considered “the weaker sex”, but it didn’t feel right to me.
Story wise, this one suffered from the usual problems of trying to explain everything and introduce everyone in the first episode that is common with premieres. Otherwise though, the story was fairly interesting. The Suliban seem like capable villians, though I’m not sure how their being controlled by someone from the future will work out. So far, this hasn’t come off very well or very interesting. All it does is throw the whole time paradox thing into the mix...if he’s from the future, he should be able to cause more havoc than just having the Suliban cause a war in the Klingon Empire. Unless there is a grand scheme of things that hasn’t been revealed yet, he seems to be more of an annoyance than a real villian.
All in all, a promising start and I look forward to upcoming episodes. I give it 4 out of 5 stars.
What others think: http://tv.zap2it.com/shows/features/features.html?20684
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