ANALYSIS:

STAR TREK: ENTERPRISE had a grand idea behind of doing a prequel show showing the first days leading to the formation of the Federation (starting in 2151 AD), but it's execution sometimes left much to be desired.  The first season had some great episodes (THE ANDORIAN INCIDENT, FUSION, FALLEN HERO, DESERT CROSSING, TWO DAYS AND TWO NIGHTS, SHOCKWAVE Part One), but also some moments (and episodes) weren't that good (like T'Pol saying the Captain needs to have sex soon in FALLEN HERO). The second season is an improvement over season one, but the third and fourth seasons are even better (with the fourth season being the best of the series).  Scott Bakula leads the way as Captain Archer of the first starship called Enterprise.  His second in command is Vulcan Officer T'Pol (Jolene Blalock).  Her interactions with Trip (aka Commander Tucker) are more interesting now since I now where it will all lead in later seasons.  The prequel series did have interesting spins on the logical Vulcans while breathing life into the Andorians.   Still the Ferengi episode (ACQUISTION) proves only STAR TREK: DEEP SPACE NINE can do the Ferengi justice (with well written stories about them).  It is interesting to see how the first season of STAR TREK: ENTERPRISE came as a result of compromises as the production team fought to get the show the way they wanted even if it wasn’t the version they originally planned.

SPECIAL FEATURES:

The Blu-ray set has all of the deleted scenes form the DVD set in addition to the old extras with some new extras.  Many of the deleted scenes aren't that thrilling, but I do love the deleted scenes from SHUTTLEPOD ONE and FALLEN HERO.

DISC 1 has a mix of new and old extras:

IN CONVERSATION: RICK BERMAN AND BRANNON BRAGA (HD)- this new one hour conversation with the creators of ENTERPRISE covers the origins of the show, the ups and downs of making it when the heads of the network weren’t quite getting it, Manny Coto, the death of Captain Kirk in STAR TREK: GENERATIONS and the death of Data in STAR TREK: NEMESIS (it was in Bent Spiner’s contract), the two parter episode William Shatner wanted to write involving Captain Kirk which didn’t happen (Shatner wanted too much money), and how they felt the show should have been on longer than four seasons.

The Network and Syndication Presentations are included on the set including a Cast Introduction

New Audio Commentary for BROKEN BOW with Brannon Braga, James L. Conway, Connor Trinneer, Dominic Keating, and Dan Curry

Material imported from the DVD set includes

An audio commentary for BROKEN BOW by Brannon Braga and Rick berman

Text Commentary for BROKEN BOW by Mike and Denise Okuda

Deleted scenes for BROKEN BOW and FIGHT OR FLIGHT

CREATING ENTERPRISE goes into the origins of why a prequel series was made and how they approached various aspects of the show. 

O CAPTAIN! MY CAPTAIN: A PROFILE OF SCOTT BAKULA has his fellow actors (and the crew) giving praise for Scott and how easy he is to get along with.

NX-01 FILE 02

DISC 2 has old extras from the DVD set:

Text commentary for THE ANDORIAN INCIDENT by Mike and Denise Okuda

CAST IMPRESSIONS: SEASON ONE has the cast of the show talking about their characters and how they were cast.  

ENTERPRISE SECRETS shows how lighting effects on the warp core are created (and the magic behind the replicators).

Deleted Scene from UNEXPECTED

DISC 3-

Audio commentary for SILENT ENEMY by Andre Bormanis and Dan Curry

Deleted Scene from SLEEPING DOGS

Old featurettes from the DVD set-

STAR TREK TIME TRAVEL: TEMPORAL COLD WARS AND BEYOND has Berman and Braga blaming UPN/Paramount for insisting on the temporal cold war storyline (which they felt would have been better as its own series).

Actor Vaughn Armstrong sings again before he talks about playing Admiral Forrest and a Klingon in ADMIRAL FORREST TAKES CENTER STAGE

DISC 4-

Two new audio commentaries:

SHADOWS OF P’JEM by Mike Sussman and Phyllis Strong

SHUTTLEPOD ONE by Brannon Braga, David Livingston, Connor Trinnear, and Dominic Keating

Old DVD extras-

INSIDE SHUTTLEPOD ONE is a look at the character driven episode, SHUTTLEPOD ONE

NX-01 FILE 01

NX-01 FILE 03

Deleted Scene from SHUTTLEPOD ONE

DISC 5-

ON THE SET- an unaired episode from the ON THE SET TV series which takes viewers behind-the-scenes of VOX SOLA.

Old DVD Extras-

ENTERPRISE OUTTAKES is one of the best extras form the original DVD set

Text Commentary for VOX SOLA by Mike and Denise Okuda

Deleted Scenes from OASIS and FALLEN HERO

DISC 6-

TO BOLDY GO: LAUNCHING ENTERPRISE-

PART 1: COUNTDOWN- Berman and Braga reveal some of the challenges they had in making the new series as they discuss why they had to add the Temporal Cold War and how they originally wanted to set half of season one on Earth

PART 2: BOARDING THE NX-01- casting and production design with some great stories from the cast on how they were cast

PART 3: FIRST FLIGHT- Berman and Braga talk about how some episodes were great and some episodes were terrible plus Braga lays the blame on himself that he didn’t try hard enough to get writers for the show

Deleted Scenes from TWO DAYS AND TWO NIGHTS and SHOCKWAVE Part 1

Old DVD featurette:

CLEBRATING STAR TREK- a visit to a Star Trek convention in Las Vegas.

FINAL ANALYSIS:  STAR TREK: ENTERPRISE is an underrated Star Trek prequel series which had some bumps in the first season, but it had the best first season out of any the Star Trek series produced during the 1987 to 2004 period when Star Trek was in continuous production for TV whether it was one series or another.  The video presentation for Blu-ray is a little better than the DVD presentation, but it doesn’t give that telltale difference you see between DVD and Blu-ray for newer shows filmed in HD that were shot in the years since ENTERPRISE went off the air in 2005.  The new extras give a great look back at the series.

This Blu-ray review is (c)3-28-2013 David Blackwell and cannot be reprinted without permission.  Send all comments to feedback@enterline-media.com