WARNING: This review contains spoilers for both part 1 and part 2 of "Broken Bow". Do not read if you haven't seen both episodes of the two-parter.
[7.1/10] I like the idea of Star Trek: Enterprise. I like the notion of seeing how Starfleet became Starfleet, when humans were taking their first steps into the final frontier rather than blazing through it. I like the theme of humans and Vulcans not trusting one another, the former feeling limited by their overprotective guides and the latter feeling tested by their impulsive allies. I like the idea of a temporal cold war, and a species trying to speed up evolution, and a period setting when the familiar was still foreign.
But boy, the execution leaves a hell of a lot to be desired. The bones of a good Star Trek series are here (no pun intended), but the details, the texture, the characters that are meant to bring it all to life and make you invested in those space-bound adventures just don’t. Unconvincing dialogue, hammy acting, gratuitous attempts at sex appeal, and character dynamics that feel retrograde rather than like homage absolutely hobble Enterprise right out of the space dock.
It’s the latter point that really concerns me. It takes both writers and actors time to figure out a show, and pilots are always due some leeway. But it seems clear that Archer, T’Pol, and Trip are meant to carry the same dynamic and focus of the Kirk/Spock/McCoy triumvirate. That push and pull is all well and good, but there were parts of their interactions that come off tonally awkward today, and yet are forgivable for a show that started airing in 1966. The same can’t be said for one debuting in 2001 (an appropriate year for a space odyssey), with optics issues that are harder to resolve if the show means to stick with this setting throughout its run.
At least the show is sound enough to connect that tug-of-war with the larger theme of the episode, and some preliminary character arcs, however ham-handed it may be in the early going. If the overall theme set up here is tension between humans and Vulcans, than it’s represented by the tension between Archer and T’Pol (and to a lesser extent, Trip). Archer holds a grudge against the Vulcans for what he views as preventing his dad from using his warp engine to take to the skies. And T’Pol sees humans as arrogant and reckless, with some gestured-to connection to Archer’s father’s past to boot.
But what do you know, Archer proves the worthiness of his way of doing things by risking his life to save T’Pol’s, and T’Pol proves her trustworthiness by following Archer’s plan when he’s incapacitated when she has the authority to play it safe. By the end of the episode, there’s still friction between them, but they see one another’s value and are letting their preconceived notions melt away a little. The dialogue underline that idea a little too strongly, and those dramatized obstacles make the point a little too neatly, but it’s a solid enough basis to build on.
The same goes for the specific plot of the episode. The crew of the Enterprise NX-01 is in search of a Klingon who was blasted in a midwestern cornfield on Earth. The Klingon is being chased by a some a small group of Suliban, a previously unknown race, who have augmented themselves to be able to camouflage and twist limbs and do all other sorts of things to advance their development. Both our heroes and the Suliban Cabal want the Klingon, leading to a race and a fight through different locals as both sides play capture the flag with him.
It’s not much in and of itself, but it provides an excuse for the titular Enterprise to go on its first mission early, heightening tensions between the terrans and the Vulcans. Along the way, there’s some interesting reveals and teases. An unnecessarily seductive informant tells Archer that the Suliban are trying to incite civil war among the Klingons by staging attacks to look like internecine skirmishes. There’s talk of the Suliban getting help from some shadowy figure from the distant future. And there’s even some hand-to-blurry-hand combat between Archer and one of the Suliban fighters in some weird time-dilated chamber.
The graphics and effects used to make all this happen are nothing to write home about. Even for 2001 on television, the CGI looks obvious and unconvincing, most everything looks obviously like a soundstage, and the quality is just close enough to the present to look a little rudimentary without the charm of seeming retro. That’s all easy enough to forgive rationally, but dampens the show’s ability to be exciting or visceral when it’s trying to ramp up the thrills and chills.
Worse yet are the painfully transparent attempts at sex appeal. Lord knows that the 1960s show had its fair share of cheesecake, due in no small part to William Theiss’s barely-there costumes. But decades later, that same tack is just embarrassing. Whether it’s a shot of a couple of alien erotic dancers, a thinly-justified seduction routine from a shape-shifted Suliban, or a mutual scrubbing between T’Pol and Trip with camera pans that make Game of Thrones seem reserved, UPN clearly wants to be HBO and it’s utterly cringeworthy.
Still, all of this is tolerable, particularly with the richness of the premise, if only the nuts and bolts of the show were better. Archer seems like a generic, self-righteous douche. T’Pol is meant to be the Spock analogue but can’t find either the stoicism or subtle snark that the inimitable Leonard Nimoy brought to the role. Trip is a standard space cowboy. And the other characters have gimmicks more than they do personalities at this point, which there’s time to fix. On top of that, the dialogue is pretty rough here, with tense moments that lack any real punch, emotional exposition that is overly blunt, and tin-eared exchanges that are bereft of either fun or gravitas.
In short, the opening salvo of Enterprise is, like many first outings for Star Trek series, one with more potential than proof. It’s the black sheep of the Star Trek flock, and while I want to give the show a fair shake, it’s hard not to see why fans had their doubts based on this first outing. There’s plenty of promise here -- in the theme of human/Vulcan friction, in the temporal cold war arc that’s kicked off, and in the beginning of Starfleet exploring in the galaxy -- but there’s also plenty of basic T.V. thing the show does weakly that might rightly make you wary of venturing deeper into the galaxy with this crew. Let’s hope Archer and company manage to right the ship.
So, I'm giving Enterprise another go! Does it deserve the bad reputation its seemed to gotten over the years? I tuned in for the initial broadcast of this pilot episode and had more or less checked out by the time the appalling theme song began, figuring that maybe I was done with Star Trek. It was several years after the show had finished that I decided to give it a proper chance and watched the whole thing through. That was quite a long while ago now and my memories of it are that I slogged through the first two seasons before finding a lot to enjoy with the final two.
The show starts out just okay. Enterprise retains a lot of the '90s sensibilities that its predecessors had and fits very much in the same style. The exception to this is that the producers finally moved into the 21st century and shot it in HD widescreen. Much appreciated. Other than that it looks like '90s Trek, sounds like '90s Trek and is performed just like '90s Trek. It's not surprising that a sense of fatigue kicked in amongst fans.
Scott Bakula is rather welcome though, even though Captain Archer comes across fairly one-note. He's easily annoyed and quite aggressive in how he gets things done. He unfortunately leans more towards arrogant than confident and shouts a lot of his lines. Voyager had a huge problem (for me) with one-note characters, and I'm not sure that Enterprise ever makes this work either. But it helps that we have some fun actors in the main roles. Trip is sarcastic and fun, similarly quick to anger, while T'Pol shows signs of being a far more adaptable Vulcan that some others. This seems to be an attempt to recreate the original series trifecta of Kirk/Spock/McCoy. But the rest of the crew have very little to distinguish them at this point, and as I recall at least one of them will have virtually nothing to do for the entire show's run.
In fact, the Vulcan aspect of this show is the most interesting thing at this point. Humanity seems to have a difficult relationship with them, making their severe disapproval of Earth's actions quite entertaining and rich.
The episode itself isn't very memorable, but does its job. There's the introduction of Klingons and Suliban (the Suliban suck), some hints about a temporal cold war, a ridiculous "decontamination" scene and lots of shooting/punching in between. It feels safe even with the more rough-&-ready explorers approach. At this point its honestly hard to care about anyone, but let's let things grow.
This is a review of both parts of "Broken Bow".
I was very late to the party with Star Trek; I hadn't even watched one of the films in its entirety until I borrowed Nemesis from the library, which was like starting a TV show by watching the series finale. It took me a while, but, I eventually got into the franchise, in both The Original Series and Next Generation form, not to mention the J. J. Abrams films. Still, like usual for me, I liked the television episodes better than the flicks. Since I'm already well into the second season of two other Star Trek series, I thought: Why not give another one a try? After all, my local library has the entire series of Enterprise on DVD.
So...what did I think? I would say that, just like TNG, this series started off a bit roughly. While I liked the plot and the action, the episode ran a bit too long, the theme music was terrible, and some of the computer animation was cheesy, especially for something made in the 2000s. There were some content concerns as well: While I expected occasional profanity, the language quotient was higher than I would have liked, and I definitely could have done without seeing T'Pol in a tight, midriff-baring outfit alongside a shirtless guy.
Still, a premiere episode doesn't define a series; if I'd stopped watching The Next Generation after the mess that was "Encounter at Farpoint," I'd be missing out on a lot! So, I'll keep watching; I won't say the only way to go from here is up, because it isn't...but, there's still plenty of room for improvement.
Shout by D.seLBlockedParent2021-08-09T23:31:11Z
Good pilot episode. I've already seen the series I am just re-watching, so not gonna spoil it for ya!