To boldly go where man has gone a few times before...


image courtesy trekweb.com

I'm not a die-hard Star Trek fan, but I do consider myself a fan of the entire franchise. I starting watching the original Star Trek series in reruns in the early '70s with my father as a little girl. Of the subsequent series, "Star Trek: The Next Generation" was the only one I really got into. Don't ask me to name episode titles or secondary characters or to debate the merits of the various technologies; I did however love the stories and the characters, and I believe I have seen all ST:TNG episodes.

Now we have a new series, "Enterprise", which debuted 2 weeks ago and had its first new episode of the regular season last night. I have to say I quite like it. The show takes place 150 years from now with the first mission of a deep-space, warp-capable ship (the first Enterprise, NX-01). The cast is well-chosen, I think, and although it's less gritty and psychologically whacked as my favorite sci-fi show, "Farscape" (Sci-Fi Channel, Fridays, 9:00 PM EST), it is so far less antiseptic than the other Star Trek spin-offs. The ship is much less high-tech, its interior reminiscent of current-day naval vessels, all metal and hollow-sounding. The panels on the warp drive even have those funky swirling panel lights we used to see all the time in the original series. Maybe because the humans in "Enterprise" are supposed to be less evolved than in previous STs, they seem much more like us, much more fallible and accessible. The crew is centered around a triumvirate similar to that of the original series - the Captain (Archer), a Vulcan science officer (T'Pol) and a laid-back southern chief engineer (Tucker). The chemistry between these three is good, and I hope their weekly dinner scenes continue.

If you get a chance, check it out. "Enterprise" airs on UPN on Wendesdays at 8:00 PM EST.