New Trek Deemed a Worthwhile Trip

Vulcan Subcommander T’Pol (Jolene Blalock) — the most talked about character on Enterprise — is the main foil for Captain Jonathan Archer. View Slideshow Capt. Jonathan Archer and the new crew of the starship Enterprise are poised for a long journey through the Star Trek universe after a successful launch on Wednesday evening.Two years of […]

Vulcan Subcommander T’Pol (Jolene Blalock) -- the most talked about character on Enterprise -- is the main foil for Captain Jonathan Archer. View Slideshow View Slideshow Capt. Jonathan Archer and the new crew of the starship Enterprise are poised for a long journey through the Star Trek universe after a successful launch on Wednesday evening.

Two years of hyperbole preceding the show came to an end when UPN aired Enterprise, the fifth installment of the popular science-fiction series which first aired 35 years ago. Rabid Trek fans gathered around their television sets and computers to critique everything from Scott Bakula's portrayal of Capt. Archer to the plot for the pilot episode.

Early indications from diehard Trekkers and television critics were positive. The consensus from the eclectic group was that the new series has already outdone Deep Space Nine and Voyager, the third and fourth shows in the franchise.

The biggest draw for the new show was the setting, which takes place 100 years before William Shatner's James T. Kirk helmed the Enterprise. By making the series a prequel to the four previous series, viewers were able to shed the massive history that the franchise carries.

"I really couldn't see how they could keep the technology moving forward and keep the fans interested," wrote Donna Dickerson, a devoted Trekker and webmaster for ProjectQuantumLeap.com, a fan site devoted to Bakula's last television series. "It's a case of 'been there, done that.' How many different story ideas can continue to revolve around the holodeck?"

Of course, non-Trekkers constantly confused by talk of holodecks, phasers, warp cores, and multi-phasic shielding in previous series will benefit from the lack of Trek backstory as well.

The toned-down look of the show's sets has excited the cast as well. The new starship Enterprise is designed more like a submarine than a traveling city, said Bakula, who received rave reviews as the newly anointed captain.

"We're constantly banging our heads in the Ready Room," Bakula said. "For me, it adds a reality to the set that will play great for the show. When the lights are low and you cut through one set to another, it's easy to feel like this is real."

Another new wrinkle for the show is a series-long story arc involving unknown time travelers from the future who appear to have it out for the humans. Other Treks have had recurring characters -- mostly notably Q, the race that dogged Captain Jean-Luc Picard's Enterprise crew in The Next Generation -- but producers have hinted that the new series will have a continuous story line throughout its run.

While the two-hour pilot itself appears to have hit the mark, not all of the diehard fans are sold.

"Crap premise," She_canne_take_any_more posted on the TrekToday billboards. "At least Voyager had a decent (premise) to fall back on. We all know what will happen in the end. Meet Klingons, war with Klingons, etc. How would we ever take a story that threatens Earth/Starfleet seriously? We know they endure 200 years later."

Of course, it's that type of attention to detail and Trek-speak that have traditionally turned off mainstream television viewers.

Most of the disappointment with Enterprise was aimed at minor -- and correctable -- aspects of the show.

The show's introduction, long the hallmark of the series and movie franchise, was blasted by critics and fans alike.

Some of the overtly sexual overtones of the show turned off fans who felt that two scenes involving Jolene Blalock's character Vulcan Subcommander T'Pol were too far over the top.

"The decontamination scene was just bothersome," wrote IdiotBoy on the Star Trek BBS while watching the television show when it debuted in Canada on Tuesday. "It was only there for the sexual value, and it was done really overly sexually. Close-ups on T'Pol's various body parts as she slowly and seductively, and rather inefficiently, rubs (the gel) over her body."

Such misgivings haven't stopped fans from posting Blalock's Maxim photo spread on message boards scattered across the Internet.

Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry was careful to steer previous Trek series away from blatant sexual innuendos and outright conflicts; however, both appear to be an integral part of the new series as with Deep Space Nine.

"One of the major complaints about The Next Generation and the original series was that there wasn't enough conflict among the main characters," Trek fiction writer Dayton Ward wrote in an e-mail. "Great concept, but it can make for lousy drama.

"This new show takes place decades before the events of the original series and humans haven't evolved into the 'Roddenberry-esque' beings they will be in the 24th century."

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