Product Description

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.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #7768 in DVD
• Brand: Paramount
• Released on: 2005-05-03
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
• Formats: Box set, Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English
• Number of discs: 7
• Running time: 1147 minutes

Amazon.com
Under intense scrutiny, the debut season of Enterprise earned a passing grade from critics and Star Trek fans alike. Voyager ended its seven-season run just four months earlier, and fans were skeptical when Enterprise premiered (on Sept. 26, 2001, on UPN) with a theme song ("Where My Heart Will Take Me," composed by Diane Warren and performed by Russell Watson) that defied Trek's revered theme-music tradition. This and other early reservations were dispelled when "Broken Bow" got the series off to a satisfying start, beginning in the year 2151 and establishing a pre-Federation focus on humanity's delicate relationship with the Vulcans, the controversial launch of the NX-01 Enterprise on an exploratory mission, and the potentially devastating consequences of the mysterious Temporal Cold War involving a time-traveling splinter group of the Suliban, a nomadic alien race. While establishing a testy relationship between Enterprise Capt. Jonathan Archer (Scott Bakula) and his smart-and-sexy Vulcan Sub-Commander, T'Pol (Jolene Blalock, in a short-banged wig and form-fitting "catsuit" that were later redesigned), the series introduced engineer "Trip" Tucker (Connor Trineer), whose surprise development in "Unexpected" made him a fan favorite; communications officer Hoshi Sato (Linda Park); helmsman Travis Mayweather (Anthony Montgomery); weapons expert Lt. Malcolm Reed (Dominic Keating), and chief surgeon Dr. Phlox (John Billingsley), a well-mannered Denobulan recruit from Earth's Interspecies Medical Exchange.

As a "prequel' series that predates the original Star Trek by 150 years, Enterprise built upon established Trek lore with episodes involving Vulcans ("Breaking the Ice"), Klingons ("Sleeping Dogs"), the blue-skinned Andorians ("The Andorian Incident," "Shadows of P'Jem"), and the Ferengi ("Acquisition") while offering stand-alone episodes (notably "Dear Doctor," "Fortunate Son," and "Shuttlepod One") that further acquainted fans with the Enterprise regulars. Early Trek technology is also introduced (including "phase pistols" and the rarely used, still-risky transporter), and the series drew strength from what many felt would be its primary weakness: unwritten history and the initial indecisiveness of Archer's bold foray into the unknown. Ending with a dazzling "Shock Wave" cliffhanger that leaves Archer stranded in a decimated Temporal Cold War future, Enterprise set a strong foundation for the events of season 2.

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

Customer Reviews

Fine start to a great show
Star Trek Enterprise known in the first season simply as "Enterprise" goes back to the roots of the Federation when mankind begins to explore deep space. The first season contains some fine episodes

Broken Bow
The crew of the Enterprise start their maiden voyage early to take a wounded Klingon back to his homeworld.

Fight or Flight
The crew encounter an alien ship with a bunch of dead bodies aboard. An alien ship later arrives and accuses the Enterprise crew of killing them.

Strange New World
Some of the crew land on an uninhabited planet. When they begin to see strange things, they feel that they are being watched.

Unexpected
When the crew visit an alien ship, Trip's encounter with a female on board results in him becoming pregnant.

Terra Nova
The Enterprise crew visit an outpost colonized by humans only to discover that they reverted to a primitive state.

The Andorian Incident
The crew visit a Vulcan monastery and the Andorians later enter and accuse the Vulcans of spying on them.

Breaking the Ice
The Enterprise encounters a comet and Archer sends a team down to explore, when they become trapped, a passing Vulcan ship offers to help.

Civilization
The Enterprise meets a primitive alien race that is suffering from a disease and the crew offer to help.

Fortunate Son
The crew of an Earth cargo ship are being mauraded by alien pirates and the Enterprise crew attempts to stop the people from starting a fight

Cold Front
When group of Suliban sneak on board, an Enterprise crewmember reveals that he was sent from 900 years in the future to stop them.

Silent Enemy
While an unknown alien ship is targeting the Enterprise and leaving, some crew struggle to find an appropriate item for Malcolm Reed's birthday.

Dear Doctor
When Doctor Phlox asked by a dying pre-industrial alien race to help them, he faces a dilemma about whether helping them would be playing God.

Sleeping Dogs
The crew encounter a gas giant planet with an abandoned Klingon ship in low orbit and a few become trapped on board when investigating

Shadows of P'Jem
T'Pol is recalled by her superiors but is abducted during her last mission with the Enterprise crew. When she is rescued, it is decided that she can stay with Enterprise a little longer

Shuttlepod One
When Tucker and Reed are on a shuttle mission and see pieces of the Enterprise hull, they are convinced their ship was destroyed.

Fusion
A renegade group of Vulcans visit the Enterprise and introduce T'Pol to mind melding

Rogue Planet
The crew visit a rogue planet and discover an alien ship on board with crew hunting an intelligent indigenous life form

Acquisition
A group of Ferengi pirates commandeer the Enterprise and start to plunder it.

Oasis
The crew are told about a nearby alien shipwreck with supplies they need but warned that it is haunted. (Rene Auberjonois who Odo on DS9 guest stars in this episode)

Detained
Mayweather and Archer are captured by a group of aliens and taken to an internment camp for the Suliban.

Vox Sola
A non-humanoid alien comes aboard the Enterprise and starts attacking crewmembers. Hoshi attempts to learn the alien's language so she can communicate with it.

Fallen Hero
The Enterprise crew are assigned to transport the Vulcan ambassador to be questioned about alleged misdeeds.

Desert Crossing
Archer and Trip is invited to an alien world by a man who unbeknownst to them, is a terrorist.
(Guest stars crew from the real USS Enterprise which had just gotten back from Afghanistan prior to filming)

Two Days and Two Nights
The Enterprise crew take shore leave on Risa

Shockwave part I
The Enterprise is recalled after apparently causing the destruction of an alien colony, on their way back they are attacked by the Suliban and Crewman Daniels returns telling archer that the timeline was altered.

This overall is a great season and it is such a shame that ther series was cancelled so early.

RELEASE DATES FOR DVDS ??
I FOUND THIS ADDRESS ON THE INTERNET WITH THE RELEASE DATES;
http://www.geocities.com/scifi_411/DVDlistings05.html

SEASON 1 - MAY 3RD 2005
SEASON 2 - JULY 12 2005
SEASON 3 - SEPT. 6 2005
SEASON 4 - NOV.?

The "Star Trek" Prequel That Failed to Attract Enough Fans
Following the success of four live-action TV series and ten feature-length films, producers Rick Berman and Brannon Braga attempted to create a fifth live-action "Star Trek" series that would be set approximately 100 years prior to the time of Captain Kirk (during the original "Star Trek" series, which ran between 1966 and 1969) and 100 years after the fictional character Dr. Zefram Cochrane flew the first warp-capable spaceship, as depicted in the 1996 film "Star Trek VIII: First Contact".

The new series, entitled "Star Trek Enterprise" debuted in the fall of 2001, only months after the previous "Star Trek" series, "Star Trek Voyager" concluded its seven-year run. The show's series premiere, entitled "Broken Bow", began with the appearance of a Klingon on Earth following a mishap long before the formation of the United Federation of Planets. To return the Klingon back to his home world, Capt. Jonathan Archer (played by Scott Bakula, formerly the lead actor of the sci-fi TV show "Quantum Leap", that ran between 1989-1993), gets permission from Starfleet to take the experimental starship named Enterprise, with serial number NX-01, to Kronos, in spite of the misgivings from Vulcans, who don't believe that mankind is sufficiently prepared to begin exploring other worlds and encounter more alien species. The NX-01 is the first man-made starship capable of traveling at a speed of warp 5. Capt. Archer then assembles the rest of his crew for the new Enterprise, including the non-human Dr. Phlox (John Billingsley), the Vulcan Subcommander T'Pol (Jolene Blalok), Lieutenant Malcolm Reed (Dominic Keating), Ensign Travis Mayweather (Anthony Montgomery), Ensign Hoshi Sato (Linda Park) and Commander Charles 'Trip' Tucker III (Connor Trinneer). With over 12,000,000 viewers watching the premiere episode, it initially appeared that UPN, which broadcasted the show, would have another successful "Star Trek" series, just as it had with "Star Trek Voyager". Unfortunately, subsequently shows had much smaller audiences that only continued to shrink with each season. The average number of viewers per episode for the first season was about 6.7 million; for the second season, this number dropped to 4.4 million and for the third season, the number dropped further to 3.8 million. It was during the fourth season that UPN decided to cancel the series, even though there were still another three seasons to be produced because the fourth season ratings dropped even further to 3.1 million viewers per episode.

The question, then, is why did "Star Trek Enterprise" fail to capture the attention of the estimated 30,000,000 "Star Trek" fans living in the U.S.A.? Personally, I believe several factors are responsible. First, the only truly interesting characters were Dr. Phlox and T'Pol. The characters of Reed and Trip were often annoying. However, the most annoying character during the first season was Capt. Archer himself, who repeatedly acted like an arrogant uninvited guest towards every alien species and outpost encountered. Second, the inclusion of the previously unknown species called the Suliban and the notion of a "temporal cold war" from the far distant future ran tangent to the notion that "Enterprise" was supposed to be a prequel leading up to the time of Capt. Kirk. Third, the technology and overall look of the NX-01 often appeared more advanced than what was used in the original 1966-1969 "Star Trek" series, which is supposed to be 100 years more advanced than "Enterprise". Fourth, insufficient attention was given to portraying the various extraterrestrial races responsible for for forming the United Federation of Planets: the Vulcans, the Andorians, the Tellarites, and the Alpha Centauris; as well as to other races known during Capt. Kirk's time. Though the Vulcans were a frequent race depicted in the first season of "Enterprise", the only other future founding race of the United Federation of Planets were the Andorians, which appeared in only two first-season episodes: "The Andorian Incident" and "Shadows of P'Jem". The blame for these various factors that directly contributed to the premature cancellation of "Star Trek Enterprise" rests solely with producers Rick Berman and Brannon Braga. Unfortunately, the addition of producer Manny Coto who did an amazing job of reconnected the fourth season of "Star Trek Enterprise" to the rest of the "Star Trek" TV series came too late to save the show.

Of the 26 episodes the comprise the first season of "Star Trek Enterprise", the most memorable were "Broken Arrow", "Fight or Flight", "Strange New World", "Unexpected", "Terra Nova", "The Andorian Incident", "Breaking the Ice", "Civilization", "Fortunate Son", "Silent Enemy", "Dear Doctor" (one of the best first-season episodes), "Sleeping Dogs", "Shadows of P'Jem", "Oasis", "Two Days and Two Nights" and season finale "Shockwave, Part 1". One disappointing episode was "Fusion", which appeared to contradict descriptions from other "Star Trek" TV series that Vulcans had always practiced mind melds; as was the episode "Acquisition", which included the Ferengi: a species that had only been introduced in "Star Trek: The Next Generation", 200 years later.

Overall, I rate the first season of "Star Trek Enterprise" with 4 out of 5 stars. It was an interesting experiment that had it been given more time, probably would have blossomed into a far better series thanks to the efforts of Manny Coto.