Star Trek: Enterprise Season One Blu-ray Review

Enterprise: Season 1 (2001-2002) 

Producer: CBS Home Video
Release Date: March 26, 2013
Staring: Scott Bakula, John Billingsley, Jolene Blalock
Executive Producers: Rick Berman and Brannon Braga

The first season of Star Trek: Enterprise, that bastard-child of the Trek franchise, is hitting Blu-ray, presented in a six-disc set consisting of all 25 episodes, including the 2-hour pilot "Broken Bow". Although the show divided the Trek-faithful like no other, its fans will be tempted to upgrade their 2005 Enterprise DVD set to get their hands on the substantial amount of new material included in the special features. Unfortunately, with the gold standard in Trek Blu-ray conversions already set by the ongoing deployment of Star Trek: The Next Generation, Enterprise doesn't measure up.

Enterprise never got much respect from the Trek-loving masses, and though there were  grassroots efforts to save it, it sputtered out after just four seasons, giving it the shortest run of any Star Trek TV show.

But love it or hate it, you have to give Enterprise producers Ricker Berman and Brannon Braga credit for trying something original. Maybe, as its critics lament, Enterprise was just an unoriginal retread to where every Trek show had gone before. Or perhaps in 2001, when the series premiered, Star Trek: Enterprise was just one too many Treks, even for fans of Roddenberry’s vision – in the previous decade we’d already seen Next Gen, DS9 and Voyager.

But there’s a lot to love about the show that took so many risks, even if not all of them paid off.

The most glaring risk that did not pan out for the series was the theme song. You have to give the show credit for selecting a vocal number, a departure from the usual symphonic Star Trek opening fare. The Enterprise theme song “Where My Heart Will Take Me”, was a rework of “Faith of the Heart”, originally sung by Rod Stewart for the Patch Adams soundtrack back in 1998. But the overly-sentimental tone of the song sandwiched between every episode’s opening scenes has an out of place feel that is sometimes downright goofy in a series about exploration and facing danger. Even Producer Brannon Braga calls the song “embarrassingly bad” in "Countdown", one of the set’s many special features.

But the selection of Scott Bakula as Captain Archer was a risk that paid off. In Quantum Leap, Bakula mastered the fish-out-of-water routine. As Earth’s first warp-5-ready interstellar spaceship Captain, he is again called upon to be a fish-out-of-water for the human race.

Long-time viewers of the various Treks will notice the lack of protocol aboard this early rendition of USS Enterprise. Compared to Picard, Archer behaves as more of a buddy-Captain, practically asking his crew if it’s okay to give an order. But in the first season, this tone could be part of the human race’s growing pains in space, the result of a TV series and a crew discovering its limits and finding its groove.

Clearly, there is no Prime Directive when Enterprise begins its maiden voyage. Within the first few episodes, the ship’s doctor and communications officer conspire to introduce an alien species of slug to a virgin planet full of indigenous life. On another newly discovered M-class planet, Archer brings his dog Porthos on an exploratory away mission, then quips that his dog promptly pissed on a tree upon landing the shuttle. We’re a long way from the military bearing and decorum of Capt. Jean Luc Picard.

But Enterprise gets a lot right. From the manual feel of the ship’s controls and systems to the cramped, almost claustrophobic feel of the ship’s interior, it really feels like a starship version 1.0. For the humans involved in early missions into space, living quarters as well as the bridge more closely resemble life aboard the German U-boat in Das Boot than the comparative luxury liner that is Picard’s Enterprise.

Personal View of Enterprise

I enjoyed most of the first couple of seasons of Enterprise when it aired on TV. Somewhere in those years I got my first HDTV and was thrilled to watch an HD broadcast of a science fiction show to test my early model rear projection micro-display. Against much of the standard-definition, 2-channel fare of the day, Enterprise looked and sounded incredible. But it didn’t take long for the show to wear on me. Although I never get tired of watching the crew explore new worlds or the distinctly Trek morality tales, such as Enterprise Season One episode “Dear Doctor”, I quickly grew tired of the series’ fixation on time travel and the 'Temporal Cold War' story arc.

Video

• Codec: MPEG-4 AVC
• Resolution: 1080p
• Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
• Original aspect ratio: 1.78:1

Subtitles
English SDH, French, Spanish, Japanese, German, Italian, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Norwegian, Swedish 

Every TV show’s transfer to Blu-ray can’t start (as did Star Trek: The Next Generation) with a digital restoration of each frame from the original camera negatives. Enterprise was originally shot in HD, so its transfer was relatively easy for CBS. The Blu-ray disc set is a significant step up visually from the DVD, as it should be, the HD rendition is clear, and colors are vibrant while black levels look deep and hold together nicely. The non-CGI scenes also look great in motion, with almost no aliasing or compression visible. But there are a few annoyances.

The first thing you’ll notice is an overall softness blanketing every scene. Sometimes the show looks like it was shot through a filter. The presence of some video noise in the background stands out against high-contrast visuals.

The CGI scenes are always a treat for the eyes, but it turns out the CGI (unlike the live-action scenes) were all shot at 480P, and as each episode aired it was rendered at 720p/1080p only if the visual effects team thought aliasing was a problem. For the Blu-ray release, CBS decided to only algorithmically up-scale the CGI scenes to 1080p. The results are varied but consistently mediocre through the entire series. Space scenes, where the Enterprise is seen moving, look on-par with a modern video game. While the ship and planets move smoothly with no judder, aliasing is a significant problem, especially when the details of the ship are expanded onto a larger screen. Overall. it simply reminds you that this is a network television series from the early 2000s, before the era of big-budget HBO-style TV.

Audio

• English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
• Spanish: Dolby Digital 2.0
• French: Dolby Digital 2.0
• Japanese: Dolby Digital 2.0
• German: Dolby Digital 5.1
• Italian: Dolby Digital 5.1

The original broadcast was presented in Dolby Digital 5.1 and the DTS HD Master Audio is also only 5.1. It’s not a ground-up remastering of the audio, but the acoustic effects are clean, fluid and dynamic enough to fit the source material.

Enterprise’s DTS-HD master Audio 5.1 audio can be summed up as basic but effective. Environmental effects, such as the echo of voices in a terrestrial cave as the crew eerily descends into hallucinogenic paranoia, contrast nicely with the focused dialogue of the crew back on Enterprise. Sound effects like rain, wind and the odd phaser-fire will occasionally occupy your rear channels, and your sub will only infrequently be massaged by an on-screen explosive sound.

If you’re a fan of the theme song, you’ll be happy to know the score has a very musical tonal quality during the opening credits. “Where My Heart Will Take Me” never sounded so dramatically heartfelt and emotional—take it or leave it.

Despite the science fiction backdrop, Enterprise is a space opera at heart. So chest-rumbling bass and mind altering front / rear separation isn’t exactly called for. The audio’s strength is its strong and articulate dialogue in the center channel. It’s never drowned out by a crescendo in the musical score. The audio delivers subtly on environmental effects and for bass junkies you may catch just a hint of rumble emanating from engineering’s warp core.

What the audio lacks in studio remastering, it makes up for in new brand new commentaries for die-hard fans. New never-before-heard commentaries accompany your viewing of these key episodes: "Broken Bow" (the 2-hour pilot), "Silent Enemy", "Shadows of P'Jem" and "Shuttlepod One".

Special Features and Disc Contents

Disc One:

Episodes

1. Broken Bow
2. Fight or Flight
3. Strange New World

Special Features

• Audio Commentary with co-creator/executive producer Brannon Braga, director James L. Conway, visual effects producer Dan Curry and cast members Connor Trinneer (Trip Tucker) and Dominic Keating (Malcolm Reed) on “Broken Bow”—NEW!
• Audio Commentary with Brannon Braga and Rick Berman on “Broken Bow”
• Text Commentary by Michael and Denise Okuda on “Broken Bow”
• Deleted Scenes from “Broken Bow” (SD)
• Deleted Scenes from “Fight or Flight” (SD)
• In Conversation: Rick Berman and Brannon Braga—NEW! (HD)
• Archival Mission Log: Creating Enterprise (SD)
• Archival Mission Log: O Captain! My Captain! A Profile of Scott Bakula (SD)
• Archival Mission Log: NX-01 File 02 (SD)
• Cast Introduction—NEW (SD)
• Network Presentation—NEW (SD)
• Syndication Presentation—NEW (SD)

Disc Two:

Episodes

1. Unexpected
2. Terra Nova
3. The Andorian Incident
4. Breaking the Ice
5. Civilization

Special Features

• Deleted Scene from “Unexpected” (SD)
• Text Commentary by Michael and Denise Okuda on “The Andorian Incident”
• Archival Mission Log: Cast Impressions: Season 1 (SD)
• Archival Mission Log: Enterprise Secrets (SD)

Disc Three:

Episodes

1. Fortunate Son
2. Cold Front
3. Silent Enemy
4. Dear Doctor
5. Sleeping Dogs

Special Features

• Audio commentary with writer/story editor André Bormanis and visual effects producer
• Dan Curry on “Silent Enemy”—NEW!
• Deleted Scene from “Sleeping Dogs” (SD)
• Archival Mission Log: Star Trek Time Travel: Temporal Cold Wars and Beyond (SD)
• Archival Mission Log: Admiral Forrest Takes Center Stage (SD)

Disc Four:

Episodes

1. Shadows of P’Jem
2. Shuttlepod One
3. Fusion
4. Rogue Planet
5. Acquisition

Special Features

• Audio Commentary with writers/executive story editors Mike Sussman and Phyllis Strong on “Shadows of P’Jem”—NEW!
• Audio Commentary with co-creator/executive producer Brannon Braga, director David Livingston and cast members Connor Trinneer (Trip Tucker) and Dominic Keating
• (Malcolm Reed) on “Shuttlepod One”—NEW!
• Deleted Scene from “Shuttlepod One” (SD)
• Archival Mission Log: Inside Shuttlepod One (SD)
• Archival Mission Log: NX-01 File 01 (SD)
• Archival Mission Log: NX-01 File 03 (SD)

Disc Five:

Episodes

1. Oasis
2. Detained
3. Vox Sola
4. Fallen Hero
5. Desert Crossing

Special Features

• Deleted Scenes from “Oasis” (SD)
• Deleted Scenes from “Fallen Hero” (SD)
• Text Commentary by Michael and Denise Okuda on “Vox Sola”
• Archival Mission Log: Enterprise Outtakes (SD)
• On The Set —NEW (SD)

Disc Six:

Episodes

1. Two Days and Two Nights
2. Shockwave, Part 1

Special Features

• Deleted Scene from “Two Days and Two Nights” (SD)
• Deleted Scenes from “Shockwave, Part 1” (SD)
• Documentary: “To Boldly Go: Launching Enterprise”—NEW! (HD)

- Part 1: Countdown

- Part 2: Boarding the NX-01

- Part 3: First Flight

• Archival Mission Log: Celebrating Star Trek (SD)
  

Overall

The retail price for Star Trek: Enterprise Season One on Blu-ray is a little high at the moment. CBS is listing MSRP at $130 US, but the disc set can already be found online for as low as $65.

The set has plenty of new material and is just enough of an improvement over DVD to be a must-have for fans of the series. For Trek fans thinking of watching the series for the first time, Blu-ray will offer the best possible audio / video performance.

But it’s difficult to recommend the disc set to casual fans. The video transfer to HD is underwhelming, with occasional video noise and persistent softness that only adds to the datedness of the CGI used sporadically throughout each episode.

The casual fan’s intro to Trek on Blu-ray should be Star Trek Next Generation, which is getting the studio polish the series deserves. Whether Enterprise deserves that much care is up for debate.

Ensign Robson, USS Audioholics, out.