Star Trek: Enterprise: The Complete Series

For the record. I've watched every single Star Trek there has been. The Original Series (TOS), The Next Generation (TNG), Deep Space Nine (DS9), Voyager (VOY), and now, Enterprise (ENT). I've watched, and own, all of the various Star Trek movies that have been released to date. I like to consider myself a resident expert on all of the characters and the branching story behind the series thus far, with the exception of Enterprise. That's not for lack of trying - I did watch the episodes, many times. The problem is the show itself. Let me explain.I remember when Enterprise was first announced. It was shortly after Gene Roddenberry left us, at a time we still had shows such as Earth: Final Conflict, Babylon 5, Farscape, Stargate, even the absolutely horrific Cleopatra 2525. In those days sci-fi shows were a dime a dozen, and it seemed as though everyone was trying to copy everyone else. Enterprise was touted with a dramatic commercial that said, "Before Janeway...Before Picard...Before Kirk..." and showed snippets of the crew experiencing such things as Klingons for the first time. Archer, the captain of the Enterprise, had an edge to him as he was shown in verbal altercations with his Vulcan first officer. It seemed like they had some decent ideas. The problem was the presentation of the show; it was doomed from the start.First, and most notably, the Enterprise in ENT was noticeably more advanced than the one in TOS. A lot of people commented on this from the very start: If this was supposed to be one of the first warp-capable ships to go out beyond Earth, why was the ship so much cleaner and advanced than Kirk's ship? It was explained that going with older technology wouldn't have come across well on the screen, but I wholeheartedly disagree. The reason they did what they did was to bring in new viewers who'd never watched a Star Trek in their life. From the moment Roddenberry died, those who are in control of the franchise have done their worst to get new fans, instead of keeping what made the series popular in the first place. People were watching Kirk battling aliens as far back as the 60's yet stopped watching sometime after DS9 because of this dynamic.Secondly, Season 1. It was riddled with incidents that were absolutely unnecessary; times when the crew were experiencing things for the first time, i.e. Klingons, phasers, photon torpedoes, the transporter...it was like at first they tried their best to appeal to Star Trek fans, but it felt overdone and overemphasized. The attempt was novel, the approach was wrong.Third, and maybe this is just me, but Johnathan Archer got on my nerves. Scott Bakula is a good actor when he wants to be. The problem is that he was too good an actor in Quantum Leap: it was hard not to imagine the blue flashing light and him leaping out of there, into someone else's life. This feeling never once went away the entire time I watched, and usually that's an indicator that their acting in the present show is not nearly as good as their acting in the previous show. I don't blame Bakula. He did the best he could with what he was handed. However, I don't think using him for this show was a good idea at all. A distant descendant of Christopher Pike would have been better suited; someone serious and up to the task, because that's what all of the other captains essentially were. Bakula's notoriety from Quantum Leap hurt his credibility in ENT; even more so when they had Dean Stockwell (Al, from Quantum Leap) guest starred in an episode in Season 2. Archer's seriousness and fits of anger felt forced and contrived, rather than genuinely heartfelt. It was just all around bad, in my humble opinion. What's worse, the writers made him seem invincible. Numerous times he is either killed, nearly killed or should have been killed, yet manages to not only survive, but pull off impossible feats: pilot ships from foreign worlds without issue, survive many hours of torture and pain, go days without eating, even make a time travel device MacGuyver-style from a desolate wasteland. The show centers around him, and it hurt the show severely.Fourth, and I won't spoil it, but suffice to say that Johnathan Frakes and Marina Sirtis should be ashamed of themselves for what they did. I think they are now, but it's too little too late.I could go on and on, but those are the major ones. Now I'll give you a brief rundown of the various seasons.SEASON 1: The pilot. This is where most of the Human/Vulcan antagonism is felt, as well as the crew's curiosity and desire to visit new worlds and make first contact with other species. Some of these are from the Star Trek canon: Vulcans, Andorians, etc. All of the crew are briefly introduced, and some background is given about each, with the exception of two. Hoshi Sato is a language specialist that is teaching in Brazil. She is acquainted with Archer, and her presence is requested on the ship. T'Pol is assigned to Enterprise by the Vulcan High Command to evaluate the progress of their mission. Charles "Trip" Tucker is the chief engineer and a long time friend of Archer. Malcolm Reed is the tactical officer, but he's not introduced (there's a good reason for this though, revealed in Season 4. See more there), and nobody knows much about him, not even his parents. Travis Mayweather is the primary helmsman, and a former cargo runner from a family business. Phlox, one of only two aliens on Enterprise, is a noted Denobulan physician.The good thing about Season 1 is the drama. The exchanges between T'Pol and Archer were good, and it felt as though the two had a opposing magnetism that would prove to be entertaining. Sadly this antagonism would dwindle by Season 2, never to be seen again, and would prove detrimental to the overall story. Also, T'Pol never came across truly "Vulcan" in the vein of Spock (who ironically was half human unlike T'Pol). Every Vulcan had a presence about him, an air of superiority and leadership. T'Pol showed neither trait anytime during Season 1, which in my opinion hurt her character.SEASON 2: There was a much stronger focus on shock value. Here, there are more interactions with alien worlds, as well as the attack on Earth that led to the Delphic Expanse. Archer finds out that one of his crewmen is actually a time traveller, the battles with the Suliban begin to take shape, and it is here that Archer turns into Mr. Unstoppable. There is a little sexual tension between Archer and T'Pol, but nothing too compelling; the crew are adjusting to life on the ship. Tucker and Reed are improving the ship's systems. T'Pol is subjected to her first mind meld and contracts a disease that affects her ability to suppress emotions. Ferengi are introduced here.Season 2 was the slowest of the four; it didn't really do much to advance the story until the final episodes, when the Xindi storyline began, and another episode that dealt with the destruction of the colony and more time travel events.SEASON 3: Might as well refer to this as the "Xindi Season", since that's really all it dealt with. The Xindi launched an attack on Earth, killing over 7 million, including Trip's sister. Trip, in his grief, is having trouble sleeping. Meanwhile, there is friction between the Vulcan High Command and Archer over going after the Xindi, which leads to Archer going anyway, and T'Pol dropping her commission to join them. They encounter a Vulcan ship that was lost years prior, filled with Vulcans that had been subverted by an ore. T'Pol is affected during this, and later develops an addiction that, in conjunction with the mind meld disease, causes negative effects. She and Tucker undergo a relaxation massage ritual to help Tucker sleep which eventually leads into more intimacy between them. Enterprise encounters many different types of Xindi and other races in the Expanse, and with the aid of some of the Xindi, manages to stop the attack on Earth, but again, Mr. Unstoppable strikes again as he escapes certain death effortlessly.Season 3 felt like Star Trek: Nemesis in a way and that's not a compliment. The T'Pol/Tucker angle was well done, and the Xindi storyline added some much-needed beef to a show that had so far been underwhelming. If it weren't for the fact that Archer managed to yet again overcome impossible odds, and the fact that Enterprise, a ship based on technology that should have been light years behind the Xindi, managed to survive everything the Xindi and other races threw at it, it might have been a decent season, but there were too many things that just didn't make sense.SEASON 4: After the peace with the remaining Xindi, the Enterprise returns home, only to find that the humans are no longer comfortable with non-humans. This kicks off a rebel faction called Terra Prime that is out to cleanse Earth of non-humans. Phlox encounters racism, Vulcans are attacked and threatened, a Mars colony is taken over and used to threaten the planet, and other events that are reminiscent of Babylon 5's later events with Edgar Industries and their attempt to eradicate telepaths. Various TOS, TNG and DS9 references are explained here, such as the Gorn, Soong's androids (Data, Lore, B-4), Khan and the other superhumans, and the Tholian Web. This is also supposed to introduce the alternate universe, first seen in TOS and later in DS9. It ends with the signing of the Federation Charter by Archer, and the death of a central crew member. It also marked the apparent first introduction of Section 31, which Reed had been a member of (thus explaining why nobody knew anything about him when he came aboard. He was sent to be their eyes and ears, though there was no evidence of this in any of the seasons). We are introduced to T'Pau, the one who would go on to become a high ranking Vulcan official, overseeing the pon farr battle ritual between Spock and Kirk.You know, Season 4 had its moments. It quite possibly was the most exciting of all of the seasons in terms of its presentation, but the problem is that it did way too much, wrong. The way it handled the alternate universe was so haphazard that it negated any potential value of explaining it. The death of the crewmember was absolutely pointless and never would have happened otherwise; there was no logic to doing it, and said person was a lot more resourceful and collected than they portrayed them to be. The Terra Prime Incident had potential that was unrealized by the writers; instead of a rogue mining colony and spies all over the place (it was also a mistake to not have subtle activities by Reed to show that he was doing covert operations for Section 31, starting with Season 1 when he first came aboard. Show him saying vague statements on encrypted channels to someone, keep the watchers guessing as to what he's doing. This was a missed opportunity). The episode with the Orion slave girls made absolutely no sense; there was no evidence in any of the other Star Trek series that the slave girls had pheromone-based mind control powers over men. The Defiant destroying the Tholian Web also made no sense, as TOS made it quite clear that the web was incapacitating to a ship from that era, and it took essentially a subspace anomaly to get Enterprise free. The alternate universe episodes were the most entertaining of all of the episodes in the series, but they were harmed by one small factoid: They should have been an Enterprise movie. Period. Even the entrance theme had been changed to show the darkness of this new showing, and such a thing might have garnered interest. It wouldn't have hurt to add more to it as well...it ended abruptly with Empress Sato without explaining her significance to anything.The worst thing about Season 4 was the series finale, for sure. I won't spoil that, but again, Frakes and Sirtis should be ashamed of themselves. They basically gave a big middle finger to all of the actors in this series, especially with the way it ended.So...do I recommend buying this? Only if you just want to know all there is about Star Trek and want to add this to the collection. I agree the price is steep; don't buy it new. Look for Warehouse Deals, they usually have a good price on this set. As a Star Trek series, it's last in the bunch for sure.

EDIT JUNE 1, 2016: I am watching Season One for the first time & found it grainy--especially the first Disc of Season One. It gets better soon after & better yet in the following Seasons, but I have to demote my 5 stars to 4 stars. I cannot understand why this is so. My brand new TV is superbly 1080 on NBC especially--with only an antenna & no cable connection--details are amazing, but 1080 blu ray so grainy in the beginning? amazingly disappointed. This is not an import either--amazon purchased & in separate boxes. The grainy gets much better but with all this technology, why is this happening? I have no complaints on the Series content at all. A+ on the series! I was skeptical at first, but it gets one big "wahoo" from me! Pay no attention to complainers on the series itself.EDIT APRIL 16, 2016 Important update: (I had to re-watch season one since I saw it on regular dvds from the library on my old TV & I put in the blu ray disc--first one--Disc one season one is extremely grainy, but the sharpness gets much better in disc two. I was surprised to see the difference from the other seasons & discs. It seems to be only Disc One, Season One--especially first episode--Horrible.) I just watched the final episode & it was sad & disappointing--however in spite of the twists, it does have some logic to it, except for the death of Tucker. You can read about it on These Are the Voyages...on Wikipedia. Apart from the final episode, the entire series is awesome & I am glad I got it in blu ray. Acting is superb & Trinneer is a damn good actor & you forget he's acting. Bakula is indeed perfect for the job, Combs, Keating, Blalock, even if she was a novice did an awesome job & many more awesome actors & acting. Budget is always a concern, but this series is no disappointment & a great series. My only complaint is that Star Trek ending. I would have loved more Star Trek series with generous budgets so the imagination & writing would not be hindered by money concerns.EDIT NOV. 24, 2015 OMG! the price today is $149.99! That is OUTRAGEOUSLY LOW!!! Black Friday deal! Grab it!EDIT SEP 28, 2015. I had an interruption, therefore I am going slowly, but I need to mention this: IF we never have a Star Trek series again, you can probably blame it on the negativity of "fans." There is good acting, sometimes brilliant, good themes & writing & excellent special effects & yes, I would think that the lack of another series after Voyager (& frankly Star Trek should have become a never-ending story-adventure) could possibly be blamed on negative fans. I can only dream of what another Star Trek could have been with TODAY'S technology on special effects. The sound is awesome! I find myself lowering the volume all the time. Great sound!EDIT SEP 8, 2015 Season 3 Enterprise continues with some terrific sci fi, some monumental themes & some truly eye popping special effects (how did they do that?!) Don't pay attention to disparaging reviews! & blu ray is a must get. (Actors & acting is actually good I think. Scott Bakula is indeed a professional actor & does a good job with his character & Keating, Trinneer, Billingsley, & even Blalock, a novice in the acting arena, all do well. Really, who is complaining?) PLUS brilliant Jeffrey Combs returns to Star Trek as Thy'lek Shran. The awesome continues with really good material & special effects. Don't miss out purchasing this in blu ray (plus awesome sound & full screen!)EDIT AUG 29. 2015"Cogenitor" Season Two episode was a bomb topic because there was a third sex in an alien culture & they were using this sex as a resource. Surely I need to add my perspective as an animal rights advocate. Only sentience is needed to gain inclusion into the moral community because if you are sentient, you have interests that need protection. All sentient beings share the same basic interests. The third sex was viewed as a resource & as a communal property item. "It" had the same intelligence as the other two main sexes, but intelligence is not a criterion for moral inclusion. We include human babies, people who are mentally handicapped & these people are not regarded as human resources. Intelligence is of value only when needed (as in an operation--you would want your doctor to be capable). "We proclaim human intelligence to be morally valuable per se because we are human. If we were birds, we would proclaim the ability to fly as morally valuable per se. If we were fish, we would proclaim the ability to live underwater as morally valuable per se." GLF If you are sentient, you have the fundamental interest & RIGHT not to be used exclusively as a resource & not to be property. All sentient beings value their lives & want to live free. Now that is cleared up, I wanted to add that the special effects continue to be outstanding. You should indeed get blu ray & I am getting to like Enterprise much more. I still protest the use of sentient beings as resources (eating/experimentation)--a stark departure from the initial Star Treks. Season 3 opens with lots of really terrific sci fi & themes. Quality of sci fi & themes seem to intensity by now. I am happy I got this series in blu ray & I will be disappointed to see it end.EDIT DATED AUG 24, 2015I am IMPRESSED WITH SEASON 2 DISC 4!Example: Future Tense--These episodes are first class sci fi topics, writing, first class themes & mind blowing crystal clear effects from "outer space." You certainly get Next Generation special effects because real time progresses. The special effects are SPECTACULAR! I have to give my standing ovation for Enterprise at this point in time. I will have to modify & edit this review as I go along. Candy for the eyes, candy for the sci fi mind & enjoy! (p.s. to fully enjoy the 1080 blu ray, a 1080 TV is best, otherwise you are missing out on effects perfection.)I was super resistant to watching Enterprise when it was showing on TV—in fact so resistant I never watched it. I became really “desperate” for another Star Trek even if this started from the beginning rather than after Voyager. I am only on Season Two, but I am pleased with the stories thus far & of course, the technology for special effects only gets better as our real time progresses! That is certainly a PLUS! It gains momentum in the quality of themes & more toward the end of Season One into Season 2 & beyond. I had to inquire if real beagles were harmed in the making of A Night in Sickbay & on Wikipedia my fears were removed. (In the making Patton many horses were brutally murdered). Now for the quality of the Blu Ray: you get a full screen view! I would slightly suggest that these blu ray do not compare to the clarity perfection of blu ray Cleopatra with Elizabeth Taylor & Richard Burton & The Ten Commandments which were originally on film, but they are indeed 1080 quality & the special effects from outer space & the space ship are outstandingly clear. You don’t get a full screen with blu ray Star Trek NG! That is because they had to get the proportions right & the regular DVDs had everyone much heavier than true life. The SOUND IS AWESOME! I was disappointed in the No 1 Star Trek original series blu ray sound. This time it is absolute perfection. Guaranteed. Plus the special effects of the space ship & outer space are spectacular. You will be blown away from the sights of outer space & spacecraft. Truly NG effects. EnjoyI am only disappointed in the fact that this series has not been faithful to the original Star Trek’s “We no longer enslave animals for food purposes.” I will edit this review as I view this series for the first time further scrutinizing themes & sci fi. I don't expect this series to equal or outshine NG or Voyager, but hopefully my $150 (Brand New & one week on sale & sold by Amazon) were well spent & I got another Star Trek to watch! Scott Bakula brings in his particular style as Captain which a few have criticized, but I don’t have any problems with his particular style of Captain. As Malcom Reed stated: "If I may say so, sir, your style of command does have its advantages.” So fear not purists & purchase worry free: go where purist Star Trek fans have never gone before!NOTE ADDED AUGUST 13, 2015There is a website called “Why Star Trek: Enterprise Failed And How It Nearly Worked/Giant Freakin Robot” that you might want to view for further opinions. It has PERHAPS some good points, but I don’t entirely agree with Josh Tyler. Enterprise may appear to be a bit lukewarm in episodes & themes, but again upon closer examination, really!?? This is the very beginning & of course budget always plays its hand in decision making. I would wish it had more sci fi, AND Voyager DID, by my opinion, contain very exciting sci fi, & yes, technobabble does fit with good sci fi—Voyager happens to be my favorite of the series in spite of some mistakes—like putting a hell of a brilliant actress, Jen Lien, in the perfectly wrong role (pathetically demure role) AND just a bit too much Borg.

La serie es excelente, pero esperaba mas de la presentación del paquete de Bluray debido a que esta muy simplona, demasiado básica la caja y algo frágil, el rack que sostiene los 24 discos de la colección, viene separado de la caja para mayor comodidad en su manipulación pero es frágil en la parte del lomo. La presentación de los discos en cuanto a caratula es muy simple, todos discos vienen decorados en un color azul cielo con leyendas que indican el numero de disco y temporada al que pertenece para diferenciarlos entre si. Tampoco tiene libro o booklet como se le conoce, como lo dije, es una presentación demasiado básica, por eso le daría 4.5 estrellas pero como no hay medios puntos, la dejo en 5 estrellas de todos modos.

Enjoyed the series Star Trek Enterprise, I didn`t have the chance to see the whole series when it was on TV due to Work and Shift arrangements, when I saw the Box Set I purchased it, the quality is very good along with the sound and the vision, would recommend it to any one interested the the Star Trek Series

Lo único que no me gustó es que no viene con subtítulos en español, en alguna de las reseñas decía que sí venían.

gives a insight to the origins of star trek

Buen producto