Review(s): DVD Star Trek Enterprise - The Complete Fourth Season
And So Enterprise Comes To A Close
Enterprise season four is the best out of the four seasons for sure. The entire season, you see the birth of the Federation slowly begin to grow until the last episode when it actually happens. This season was full of drama, action and suspense. I've never seen so many episodes in a season of Star Trek that has touched me emotionally as much as this season has done. From the sad story about Trip and T'Pol's daughter, the the tragic end of one of the characters in the last episode "These Are The Voyages..."
This season also showed the most Shran episodes out of all of them, which is always a plus since Shran has become the fan favorite character of the series.
At first Troi and Riker bothered me, but in the end, I didn't really have a problem with the final episode "These Are The Voyages...:". I do agree, however, that Terra Prime was the best episode to end the series with. Overall this is a sad season to watch because you know that after this season, Enterprise is over. I'm just happy that they went out with a bang and at their best. I hope that we see this crew again one day in the future.
Ironically, the Best Season
After three seasons of continual ratings decline, UPN shocked many when it renewed Enterprise for a final season. The show moved to Fridays, a move that showed a lack of confidence in the show.
Behind the scenes, Manny Coto took over as executive producer and show runner during this time. His infusion of fresh ideas brought us an exciting, entertaining, and unpredictable season.
The only reason I was still watching it at this point was because I had friends who came over to watch it with me. If I could have talked them out of it, I would have missed this season. That would have been a real shame.
Season 4 starts with a two parter bringing a conclusion not only to last season's finale, which found Captain Archer (Scott Bakula) in a World War II where aliens were helping the Axis, but also ended the series long temporal cold war story arc. The ending felt a little rushed, like Mr. Coto wanted to be done with it and move on.
Once the season got going, however, we were treated to lots of two or three episode story arcs that were highly entertaining. The first such story involved tracking down so-called Augments, humans with altered genetic abilities and brought Brent Spiner as a guest star. These episodes built upon stories from the original series and one of the movies, neither of which I had seen. I enjoyed them, but not as much as I would have if I had seen the back-story.
Many of the stories worked to set up the future Treks. One arc was devoted to a civil war on the Vulcan home world. Through T'Pal (Jolene Blalock) we got a glimpse into the changes that would come to their culture before the Original Series started.
One inconsistency between the Original Series and every other Trek series has been the Klingon makeup. A two parter from this season explains why when Dr. Phlox (John Billingsley) is kidnapped and made to try to fix a genetic disease. I hadn't been looking for an explanation to this inconsistency, but I liked the one they gave us.
In another move to please fans, we get a two parter set in the Mirror Universe. This was my first exposure to the dark side, but I can see the appeal. It was quite fun.
In the third season, Chief Engineer "Trip" Tucker (Connor Trinneer) and T'Pol had begun to develop a reluctant attraction to each other. This is build upon during the final season. At times it takes on a soap opera feel, but ultimately it keeps the viewer hooked.
Of course, one thing everyone wanted to see from this series was the start of the Federation. While we only get a glimpse of it during the finale, the basis is laid in a three part storyline in which Enterprise finds itself caught between the Andorians, Tellarites, and Vulcans when someone begins attacking all three of their ships.
The season finale was a bitter disappointment to long time Trekkies. Set several years ahead of the rest of season 4, it shows the founding of the Federation via the holodeck of the Next Generation's Enterprise as Commander Riker (guest star Jonathan Frakes) uses the events to help him make a decision. Designed to be a finale to the recent 20 year run of Star Trek on TV, it upset many fans with it's focus on Next Generation characters over Enterprise characters.
Naturally, every season has a few dud episodes, but this season's entertaining episodes far outweighed the mediocre ones. This is the only season of this show worth getting.
"Enterprise" soars during final season
"Enterprise" was the victim of "Star Trek" success; the new series constantly was compared to other shows in the "franchise". It took "Enterprise" a couple of seasons to find its footing. Luckily, by the third season the show took flight with the season long story arc based around the Xindi threat to Earth.
The fourth season is a gem. We see producer Manny Coto and his writers turn the season three cliffhanger into a memorable two part episode for season four with "Cold Front". Archer returns home a change man in "Home" and we meet another Dr. Soong--this one the "father" to survivors of the Eugenics war. The fourth season had fun connecting the dots between "Enterprise" and the original series. "In a Mirror Darkly" parts 1 & 2 both provided ample entertainment and showed us what really happened to the Defiant from The Original Series episode "The Tholian Web". A very good series continued to get better.
The DVD picture quality looks terrific overall. The extras are a bit lighter than what I would have expected here given that this was the last season of the series. I am disappointed that Paramount feels the need to charge the same amount for a set with less extras and episodes but the quality of the episodes makes up for part of that. We get featurettes on the visual effects, the wrap party, a behind-the-scenes glimpse of the filming of the last episode. Best Buy customers get two additional featurettes available only there and at Musicland (whereas everywhere in the world these two featurettes on Michael Westmore's make up and the canines that played Archer's pooch Porthos were included as part of the package). There are three commentary tracks (all of which are available as podcasts at the Star Trek website)for "In a Mirror Darkly" parts 1 & 2 and "Terra Firma". Michael and Denise Okuda provide more text commentary tracks and, while they are occasionally enjoyable, I wish they had more to do with the episodes being shown.
"Enterprise" wasn't cancelled because of ratings. Sure the ratings had fallen but the show was really cancelled because Paramount wanted to move the UPN network to a new demographic--shows designed to appeal only to women--in hopes of expanding their ratings on the network. "Enterprise" just didn't fit into their game plan. It's a pity because the last season showed tremendous promise and a fifth season would have just build on the success of the fourth season. Paramount kept "Enterprise" around to reach the magical 99 mark so that they could syndicate the show (which it met if you split the two hour premiere into two episodes). It's to the production crew and cast's credit that they elected to create something memorable during the last season of a show that was clearly headed for cancellation.
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