"It takes us months before we're able to crawl. Almost a full year before we can walk. Our deep space mission isn't much different. We're going to stumble, make mistakes - I'm sure more than a few - before we find our footing. But we're going to learn from those mistakes. That's what being human is all about." - Scott Bakula as Captain Jonathan Archer
Star Trek: Enterprise: Season 2 DVD Review
By A.J. Carson
The crew of the star ship Enterprise - captain Jonathan Archer (Quantum Leap's Scott Bakula), Vulcan science officer T'Pol (Jolene Blalock), British-born security chief Malcolm Reed (Dominic Keating), former cargo ship boomer Travis Mayweather (Anthony Montgomery), communications expert Hoshi Sato (Linda Park), chief engineer Charles "Trip" Tucker (Connor Trinneer), and Denobulan physician Dr. Phlox (John Billingsley) - have had a rough year. Thanks to a new warp drive engine, they were able to set off to explore the vast reaches of space, visiting areas that human eyes had never seen. Things didn't quite go as planned. They became pawns in a Temporal Cold War, alienated numerous cultures, and proved to be a thorn in the side of their Vulcan advisors. Oh, and they may have accidentally wiped out an entire planet and caused a premature end to civilization. Things can only go up from here!
Season two finds the crew banding together to defend the legitimacy of their mission. Several of the crew members exhibit notable character growth. T'Pol, for example, continues her evolution from standoffish skeptic to full fledged supporter of her human crewmates. She bravely argues to her Vulcan superiors that the mission should continue despite its failures ("Shockwave, Part II"). She even begins to question long-held Vulcan beliefs ("The Seventh," "Stigma").
Hoshi was one of the more problematic characters in season one. Prissy and high strung, it seemed unlikely that a captain would allow her to have a position of importance on his ship, much less seek her out as Archer did. In season two, the character grows stronger. She's even the center of one of the season's best episodes, "Vanishing Point." Transporters are still an unproven technology rarely used on humans. When a freak storm threatens the safety of Trip and Hoshi as they explore the ancient ruins on an uninhabited planet, they are left with no choice but to be transported back to Enterprise. Afterwards, Hoshi begins to feel like she was somehow changed by the transporter. Dr. Phlox tries to allay her fears, but soon water droplets are passing through her in the shower, fellow crew members fail to see or hear her, and she cannot even open the ship's doors. This episode is a canny look at alienation and isolation.
One character that doesn't change all that much in season two is Captain Archer. The captain is complex in his one dimensionality. It's as if he is capable of displaying only one character trait at a time. In "Dead Stop," he is smarter and more intuitive than everyone else, sensing danger where others see only gain. In "A Night in Sickbay," he's a hot-headed blunderer. The character is saved, however, by Scott Bakula's affable charm.
The series' most interesting character continues to be Dr. Phlox. Small details make him believable and even lovable, from his method for cleaning his foot-long tongue to his once a week toenail trimming. We even get to meet one of his three wives in "Stigma." John Billingsley is warm and funny, stealing nearly every scene he's in.
Many of the episodes in season one dealt with the Temporal Cold War. This plotline is carried over into season two, but greater emphasis is placed on the combative relationship between humans and Klingons. Archer even becomes a fugitive from the Klingons when he is convicted of crimes against the empire, sentenced to hard labor on Rura Penthe, and is rescued by the Enterprise crew. This storyline begins in "Judgment" and is revisited several times. It isn't very compelling, though, feeling more like filler than a well-thought plot development.
The best episodes have nothing to do with either of those recurring storylines. As mentioned previously, "Vanishing Point" is particularly strong. In "The Catwalk," the entire Enterprise crew is forced to take shelter from a radioactive storm by barricading themselves in a small maintenance shaft. Although imperfect, this episode makes interesting use of its unusual situation as the crew struggles to get along in such close quarters. In "Carbon Creek," T'Pol relates the story of how her great-grandmother participated in the real first contact between Vulcans and humans in a small Pennsylvania mining town in the 1950s. This is an excellent change-of-pace episode. (Of course, since it is the second episode of the season, one could argue that the pace hasn't been set yet. Thanks to the magic of DVD, viewers can play network programmer, scheduling this stand out episode for later in the season.)
Ratings for Enterprise were greatly disappointing, especially when compared with other series in the Star Trek franchise. In keeping with the cliché "sex sells," Enterprise's creators attempt to attract a larger audience in season two by clumsily raising its sex appeal. This season's endless shots of the crew members slathering goo on each other in the ship's decon chamber are laughable rather than sexy. It is bad enough that T'Pol's vacuum sealed uniform seems out of character. Having her go into heat in "Bounty" is downright demeaning. The obsession with Archer's lack of a sex life (and his incessant fantasies about T'Pol) in "A Night in Sickbay" is juvenile rather than daring. In a page right out of the original series, Trip even gets to bed an icy princess ("Precious Cargo").
The series' creators didn't need to ape William Shatner's leering sexuality to goose Enterprise's ratings. They could have just come up with more innovative plotlines instead. Many of the second season's episodes just feel too familiar. In "Singularity," radiation poisoning causes the crew to become obsessed with simple tasks. Temporary chef Hoshi tries to perfect her family's soup recipe even if the crew has to starve in the meantime. Trip focuses on creating the perfect captain's chair for Archer. Phlox decides to find the root cause of Travis' headache by sawing through his skull for a closer look at his brain. All of this too closely echos "The Naked Time" from the original series. Other sources are scavenged for ideas, too. In "Dawn," Trip becomes trapped on an inhospitable planet with a hostile foe, and the two must learn to work together in order to survive. This plot is reminiscent of Enemy Mine. The Thing is aped in "Regeneration" when a research team finds a Borg frozen in a glacier.
The series also attempts classic Star Trek-style social commentary in "Stigma." In season one, T'Pol became an unwilling participant in an illicit Vulcan mind meld which, as we learn in "Stigma," has left her with a social disease. She faces scorn from Vulcan doctors who consider those who practice mind melding to be deviants. This AIDS allegory seems terribly dated. It may have been relevant as a plotline in The Next Generation, but here it feels old-fashioned and out of touch.
The season ends with the intriguing, yet flawed, episode "The Expanse." Enterprise is recalled to Earth when a mysterious space probe burns a trench from Florida to Venezuela, killing seven million people. Archer receives information from the shadowy figure at the heart of the Temporal Cold War that the attack was planned by a race of aliens bent on destroying humans. In order to fight them, Archer and his crew will have to venture into "The Expanse," an outer space Bermuda Triangle from which few ships come back. The 9/11 parallels are unmistakable, and the idea of giving the show a through line to play out over the course of season three is an ingenious one. The only problem is that the episode lacks a strong cliffhanger ending that we've come to expect from Star Trek series. It offers the promise that season three will have a focus that seasons one and two lack, but it fails to provide a big event that would keep viewers on the edge of their seat until its resolution in the first episode of the new season.
The twenty-six episodes that make up the second season are arranged in airdate order on seven discs. As with season one, the discs are housed in cobalt blue plastic holders that are "bound" book-style via a clear strip of tape along the left hand side. Listed on the disc faces are the episode titles, episode dates (i.e. the date the episode "took place" in the Star Trek universe), and original airdates. The case slides into a clear plastic sleeve imprinted with Enterprise's insignia. A brochure gives plot synopses, a brief recap of the first season, and an intro to the Borg. Also included is a coupon for Star Trek: The Experience at the Las Vegas Hilton. The plastic DVD holder fits into a silver plastic canister which vaguely resembles a canteen.
The DVD menus are just as impressive as we've come to expect from Star Trek releases.
