Star Trek: Enterprise Box Set
Originally titled Enterprise, Star Trek: Enterprise is a science fiction television series that followed the adventures of humanity’s first Warp 5 starship. The ship that was known as Enterprise existed ten years before the United Federation of Planets that was shown in previous Star Trek series’.
The show premiered on September 26, 2001 and takes place in the year 2151. Coincidently, this is halfway between the 21st-century events that are shown in the movie Star Trek: First Contact and the original Star Trek television series.
The show never received significant ratings, which ultimately led to its cancelation on UPN on February 2, 2005. The network did, however, allow the series to complete the fourth season with the final episode airing on May 13, 2005. Considering the ratings received, it lasted for quite some time with 98 episodes being squeezed into the four seasons.
Star Trek: Enterprise was the first Star Trek series since the original to be cancelled by the network as oppose to being finished by the producers. On top of this, it was the last series in an 18-year run of back-to-back new Star Trek shows that began with Star Trek: The Next Generation in 1987.
There were glimpses of hope to come from the series beginning with the pilot episode, “Broken Bow,” that aired began shooting on May 14, 2001. The episode was filmed on stages 8, 9, and 18 at Paramount Studios that generated a tremendous amount of interest. As the episode premiered on September 26, 2001, an estimated 12.54 million viewers tuned in.
Several milestones were achieved for Star Trek television production. Star Trek: Enterprise became the first to be produced in widescreen, the first to be broadcast in HDTV, and would become the first to be filmed on digital video as it began doing this midway into the third season.
In addition, it was the first science fiction television or movie production to ever use video footage that was taken on another planet, as it used the Sojourner rover approaching the Yogi Rock. This was taken by the Mars Pathfinder lander and used in the opening credits.
Star Trek has long been a part of the American culture as countless movies and television series’ have come and gone. Sadly, Star Trek: Enterprise never fully lived up to its potential or the reputable image that previous series’ had attained. But despite this, several milestones were reached that will act as the layout for any possible shows to come in the future.
