Broken Bow

DVD, Enterprise S1 (Broken Bow)

'Begin at the beginning' is good advice, and you couldn't get much closer to the beginning and still be able to call it 'Star Trek' than the time period 'Enterprise' inhabits in 2151, over one hundred years prior to 'TOS,' two hundred prior to where the previous series, 'Voyager' left us, and a hundred years after the events of 'First Contact' in which the 'TNG' crew went back in time to make sure the first warp flight went ahead as planned and gave the Vulcans reason to notice us and come down out of the stars, marking the origins of Trek's trek beyond our world. But to still be able to call it 'Star Trek' was not on the agenda for this series, the first sign it was trying to set itself apart from what had gone before. It was a dangerous gamble with the possibility of alienating the dedicated right from the off, but 'Enterprise' did a lot of alienating, and many of the problems with Trek made in the 21st Century can be traced back to it. There's a good reason why it was the first Trek to fail, unable to survive beyond four seasons, and only then with much shaking up and soul-searching, and why it is (or was, until the misery of 'Discovery'), my least favourite in the canon: they dared to be different, but they went too far, setting precedents that the Kelvin Timeline films, 'DSC,' and probably any other Trek productions forthcoming, pounced on and bloomed into full fruition. The more simplistic nature of the storytelling, the lack of a direction, the attempt to focus down on two or three main characters more than an ensemble - in short, it went back to the roots of the original.

Trying to be 'TOS' in the modern age seems to be both a masterstroke and a complete failure to understand what appealed about Trek. It's true that Kirk, Spock and the starship Enterprise have remained in popular culture to a surprising extent, so tapping into these rich veins of money-making potential was a wise move. However, from 'TNG' onwards (and arguably in the film series, too), the emphasis was laid on creating new characters, expanding the scope of the world in both time and technology, and building a cohesive universe. But that's not the pop culture world we live in now, where branding is key, blandness is prevalent, and it's all about the lowest common denominator to get the masses hooked on a brand. So yes, it was a good business decision to try and get back to the nostalgic Sixties approach of fighting and taking on weird aliens, but it didn't in turn bring the intellectual side of 'TOS' up to date with along with that cowboy-esque style. That's where they failed - 'TOS' was a product of its time, completely episodic, but it stood out then and for years afterward as the gold standard for what sci-fi could be, featuring recurring aliens of various kind that became the staples of its world, ironing out the initial inconsistencies of terminology and protocol, and presenting us with a world that was ripe for further exploration because it was set up to be real. 'TNG' expanded that exponentially, 'DS9' built on all that came before, becoming a hub of all Trek, and 'Voyager' took off to explore part of the galaxy that had been spoken of, but not explored.

'Enterprise' came along as an antidote to the 24th Century Treks, but they were still popular at the time, and I can never escape the nagging thought that had the studio got its way, and another series set in that time period had been produced instead of a prequel, Trek might have endured well beyond a further four years, and perhaps there wouldn't have been a need for JJ Abrams to 'reignite' the brand (burning it, more like), by rehashing it in a 'Star Wars' mould, and so on and so forth. There are arguments against such thoughts, namely that 'Nemesis,' the final 'TNG' film, released during the run of 'Enterprise,' was the first complete box office failure (though that's mainly down to it not being a great film, let alone a great Trek film - lessons should have been learned there in putting someone in charge who didn't know the franchise), and then there was the coming division in the mid-2000s of the TV and film rights as Paramount broke apart. So disruption may have been inevitable, but on the other hand, if we'd had a 24th Century series to continue the story post-'Voyager' there would have been the instant hooks of bringing in favourite characters, perhaps even have one or two main cast members from previous series'. What 'Enterprise' did was to divorce itself from all previous Treks and so it had to stand alone. That makes sense from the perspective of getting new viewers interested, because, as with any large body of work, it could be daunting if you thought you had to catch up with everything to understand the new series, but also isolated it from the fullness of the vast Trek toy box.

Nowadays that's less of a problem when many people have access to every iteration of a franchise, rather than having to be interested enough in the first place to purchase all the videos (yes, 'Enterprise' Season 1 was the last Trek series to be released on VHS tape, and 'Broken Bow' was probably the last new video I ever bought!), or DVDs. But even now there are people that won't watch Trek because they'd have to view a load of old episodes or films, that's the impression they have, anyway. If 'Enterprise' was trying to be pure Trek, separate from everything that went before, it was in a much different manner than 'TNG,' which also had the mandate to stay away from the original's familiarities as much as possible. It created new technologies (like the Holodeck and the Replicators), featured entirely new types of character (Data), and preferred not to use the existing races as much as possible - at first. Once it became comfortable in its own skin, it could delve more deeply into the old races than even 'TOS' had ever done, eventually bringing in characters played by the original actors to enhance that sense of history and depth to the continuity. Even in its pilot it had the good sense to bring in a familiar face to send them off on their mission (an ancient Dr. McCoy), setting a tradition that every Trek series followed, even the Kelvin films (Leonard Nimoy back as Mr. Spock), though sadly abandoned by 'DSC.'

'Enterprise,' not one to completely ignore all traditions and aware of the need to include some kind of Trek royalty, even if a minor prince, brought in an aged Zefram Cochrane via the device of a recording of an important speech he made thirty-two years before the episode. This was one of the highlights of this pilot, as James Cromwell returned to his 'roots' of appearing in a number of roles across Trek, to reprise his popular iteration of the famous 'TOS' character he'd played in 'First Contact.' He shot to fame with 'Babe,' around the same time as that film, but he had some loyalty to Trek for the roles they'd given him before he broke into films, and even more with this small appearance, he must have been doing them a good turn because he was still a well known film star at this time and for years afterward, so it brought a tear to my eye to see this happen, and it's a beautiful retcon of where the famous words came from at the start of 'TOS' and 'TNG,' rather than a 'Captain's Oath' that the Kelvin films retconned it into (more like Captain's Oaf!). That wasn't where 'Enterprise' ended its adherence to other Trek, because it begins with an exciting chase through a cornfield that combines new and old into an impressive opening: we get a Klingon warrior plunging through the corn, such a strong visual of this 'Smallville'-like field of green, bright blue sky, but also a deadly urgency. And you get a new race, the yellow and black mottled faces of the Suliban that were yet another triumph of Michael Westmore's invention after fourteen years going strong.

Importantly, though the scene is superbly directed with a free-flowing, fast moving camera, beautifully setting off the first Trek in widescreen, the Klingon looks right (even though he was bumpy-headed like the post-'TOS' variety, a wise decision, and one that would eventually be explained in Season 4, much to my satisfaction), and the aliens are truly alien (they can become malleable enough to squeeze under a door!), it's the fact that it all makes sense that underlines everything - the Klingon doesn't just turn and fight with his pursuers, he uses his brain, luring them into some kind of methane tower and then blasting it to smithereens! It's spectacular, but it's also thoughtful, and that used to be the hallmark of good Trek. It's not only the action side of things that is done well in this episode, you also have a feeling of nostalgia, and not what you'd expect, a skin-deep love of 'TOS,' but a reminder of the past, in particular Jonathan Archer's personal memories of his time with his now-deceased Father, a universal nostalgia anyone can understand, whether they know Trek or not. This is something the series failed to do for the most part, creating characters with a history, and who we can identify with, but at least in this episode they carried off that Trek ability to appeal to the thoughtful and emotional in humanity, something I've not seen in any Trek series or film since, preferring to portray emotional characters rather than evoke emotion in the audience.

A big problem with the ongoing series was its lack of direction. 'TNG' was made the same way, but then that had debuted fourteen years earlier, and in a different TV landscape. Things were beginning to be more commonly serialised, with ongoing arcs, yet 'Enterprise' chose to dumb it down, failing to act on its own arcs, which had such great potential. Potential is the key word about 'Broken Bow,' because I remember watching it for the first time, buying the video in the Summer of 2002, a couple of months before it was shown on terrestrial TV, (Channel 4, with adverts), and being very impressed with what I saw - I even felt that if this was how strong it started, loosening up the constraints of past series' in terms of a more dynamic presentation that made you feel you were there, maybe it could become my favourite series of all, that's how optimistic ("Optimism, Captain!"), I was for the series' future. I was a lot younger then, and still more easily impressed than I became in the following five or six years, but 'DS9' and 'Voyager' were my favourite things, so to even think that a new Trek had the capability of surpassing them shows how well put together this pilot was. The big deal that made me more excited than anything else was the concept of the Temporal Cold War, this conflict connected to the 'distant future,' one that we would learn more about over time, but crucially, was eventually dropped. Though it played something of a role in Season 3's Xindi saga, it was all very vague, and one thing I was always thinking early in the series was how one day I'd be re-watching it with the knowledge of who 'Future Guy' was (the shadowy operator who orders Silik around from his temporal chamber).

Sadly, we never did learn what it was all about, and I now have no real hope that we'll one day see a Trek series that deals with it at all, or if we do, it will be ridiculously fantastical, just as 'DSC' is so much fantasy that it's hard to take as 'Star Trek.' But it was the potential, initially, that I was invested in. The TCW had been included as an order from on high, the studio wanting a connection to the 24th Century in case there were opportunities there, even if the series itself wasn't to be set there. For once, I'm totally onboard with the studio in this regard, I think it was a brilliant idea and one that should have been used regularly through the series, rather than an episode in the middle of a season, and one at the end. Every few episodes should have dealt with it in some way, but it was squandered, probably because the writers didn't really want it there. So they hurt their own series - there was talk early on of 'maybe we'll get Patrick Stewart to direct an episode in Season 2,' 'maybe we'll have Guinan guest star,' but in truth, connecting to other Trek wasn't one of the series' strong points and it is the most separate of the lot. Not in terms of the lore, because unlike 'TNG' it was happy to pick up the races and situations of established Trek, the Klingons, Vulcans, and soon to be seen Andorians - all had some kind of ongoing arc, but they were also generally a little underdone compared to the excellent cultural exploration of previous Trek.

In 'TNG' it had been stated first contact with the Klingons was disastrous, but here we see humans helping the warrior race and it's a little ambiguous as to how they reacted to this. Early episodes had the Klingons nosing around and being unfriendly, but it was never well adjusted to fit with what we thought we knew, and they were simplistic caricatures of the race, lacking the texture and depth of other Treks before it, no Gowrons or Martoks to be seen. If the Klingons were an uncertain component of 'Enterprise,' the Vulcans were the exact opposite, integral to the series with a clear role, just not the one we expected. The change in Vulcan temperament and position was the biggest controversy of the series, and my personal low point. I could buy they were devious and deceiving when it served their ends, justified by logic (after all, logic is only the beginning of wisdom…), and manipulative, but what I couldn't get onboard with was the sudden dramatic change in how Vulcans were portrayed. In all other Trek they were calm, dispassionate and betrayed no emotion on the surface. That's what made them such compelling aliens, because we know underneath there's violently raging emotion they keep in check their whole lives. To destroy this central dramatic and cultural aspect of the race is to lose most of their credibility and draw. Vulcans have (had, until 'Enterprise'), always been my favourite race - all Trek races are a facet of humanity, and they seemed to represent that struggle we all have in how much we show of our inner selves, whether that be in anger, sadness or joy, and so they were an attractive proposition for being so strong and in control. A number of things conspired to create the perceived need to change them, the main one being that they were too cool, too powerful, and this is a humanist franchise, written by humans, for humans. Vulcans were often 'shown up' as the killjoys or the social outcasts, but they didn't mind because they singularly followed logic.

Sure, sometimes Tuvok or someone would see the 'error of their ways,' to the extent that they came to understand that working within human guidelines meant they needed to adjust their behaviour, mainly because the truth is that Vulcans are largely superior to humans. Physically, mentally, but humans have to have an edge, and that's usually their 'gut feelings,' listening to intuition, not being rigid. The two species complimented each other, and though humans often gave Vulcans a hard time, the Vulcan way was often shown as being right - one good example in this episode is when T'Pol deals with bread sticks - rather than eat with her fingers as they prefer not to do, she patiently and carefully saws through it with her knife, proving that 'with proper discipline anything's possible.' Attitudes of patience, self control, self denial have become increasingly irrelevant to modern society, fewer people seem to think they have value, and so Vulcanness has itself been downgraded. And because we want humans to be the best that gave them another reason to make Vulcans in 'Enterprise' into the bad guys. Condescension, irritation, impatience, these are all displayed by Vulcans even in this first episode, and this idea of their emotions being barely contained has sadly stuck so that even in current Trek productions set practically at the time of 'TOS,' it's now standard to use this method of portrayal, the single biggest flaw 'Enterprise' gave to the world. I've even heard people claim Vulcans were always this way, we just saw ones that were with humans a lot, for example. But if you look at Spock and Tuvok, the two main Vulcans, they didn't behave emotionally except in extreme circumstances, something you could rely on.

That Vulcans were reliable and reassuring was one of their greatest assets, but it seems that people felt they were boring and wooden. If Vulcans had never changed from other iterations then I wouldn't have been so put off by the ones in 'Enterprise'! T'Pol I can accept because she was shown to be a bit flaky over the course of the series, but every other Vulcan being hot-tempered or mean? Archer even calls attention to Ambassador Soval when he raises his voice in anger and though that was a pretty good scene for showing that Archer is this man of action and Captain material, it also draws attention to the illogical manners of the Vulcans of this version - Archer even says perhaps they've been living among humans too long, but T'Pol and the other Vulcans never left the Vulcan compound on Earth, and as I said before, we saw other examples of the race behaving far more dispassionately within Starfleet. So it's definitely society's attitudes that have changed and taken the Vulcans' uniqueness away, much to my dismay. It can't even be explained away as them being a hundred years prior to 'TOS' because (as is said in the episode), they have a lifespan of two hundred years which means that most of the Vulcans who are in 'Enterprise' would still be around by 'TOS,' and some might just still be alive in the 24th Century!

'Enterprise' ruined the Vulcans and went out of their way to show emotional ones at every opportunity, but our society (or those that make our entertainment), seems to think we want to see emotions, we don't want to bury any thought or feeling, and then they wonder why people are so mean and nasty in the anonymous world of the internet! 'Enterprise' also defanged the Klingons, as I noted before, but fortunately for canon, stayed away (largely), from the other major race, the Romulans. They could still come up with interesting new races, and the Suliban are the latest villain of the piece, augmented by future biological enhancements that enable them to camouflage against any surface, climb up walls and across ceilings, and manipulate themselves into almost any contortion, so they were a formidable threat right away. Again, over time they lost this threat as the TCW moved further into the background, but at least in their introduction I loved this idea of Archer and his Enterprise stumbling into something much greater than themselves that they don't really understand, but acting on their best impulses to try and do right. It's a bit tricky for them because it's as much about proving themselves to the Vulcans on their readiness to go out into space and take their place on the galactic stage, so theirs is a motivation of pride to some extent, but Archer genuinely wants to do the right thing, not backing down, and there were a number of things that made him seem a strong Captain, which is not how I've come to think of him.

In my mind he was a bit weak, although this could be as much about the ship and technology he had access to as it was about his character. One thing that made this era feel different to the 23rd or 24th Centuries presented before it was in how primitive things were in relation. So the NX-01 (NX being the usual prefix for an experimental vessel, long established in Trek), was often outgunned and overtaken in size and speed by the ships of other races. They were cramped conditions to travel in, and though it was all shiny and new, it was prone to the kind of problems new technology often has. 'DSC' and the Kelvin films completely went in the opposite direction with everything new being sparkly and huge beyond established aesthetic of good sense, continuity be stuffed. 'Enterprise' at least had an aesthetic in mind that fitted with established canon, inspired by submarines - so there are handles all over the place, tight corridors and poky rooms. And so many things that date this to pre-'TOS' in advancement: like 'TOS' they have wall-mounted Communicators rather than some invisible intercom system ('DSC'), or always using hand Communicators. They wear Landing Party jackets that look like more expensive versions of those seen in the very first episode of Trek ever made, 'The Cage,' which were beautiful and looked terrific. They can't just hop back onto the ship, they have to go through decontamination first, and no one wants to use the Transporter because it's new tech and hasn't been tried on a human! They even have grappling hooks rather than tractor energy beams and hand Phasers are new (Phase Pistols!).

Despite all this, as is the case with whatever the latest iteration of Trek is, I always find myself comparing it to what I'm watching, and was surprised by how many parallels I found with 'DSC' that I didn't like in that. A major example is when Reed and Mayweather watch the alien dancers on Rigel X, and Reed wonders if the butterflies their long tongues snatch out of the air are real or holographic. So they did have some kind of rudimentary form of holography even at this early stage (but it's far from shoving a Holodeck in our face when it had been previously established that 23rd Century ships didn't have them!). Also, the hand weapons they use before Reed brings out the Phase Pistols shoot bolts of energy (another precedent that has sorely damaged Trek's cool factor), rather than beams. The difference is that neither of these things ruin Trek's feel and are indeed minor parts of the episode, the 'norm' being shown as the fantastic Phaser battle on the snowy rooftop with beams ripping through the storm to great effect. I was surprised to see that Archer even uses two pre-Phaser weapons at one point in the same way I derided Burnham for doing in a Season 2 episode because it doesn't make sense, but we don't know what these bolt energy weapons actually are. I was surprised to see the first weapon fired on the series was an energy bolt rifle, in the scene in Sickbay when the Suliban Klingon-nap Klaang (how did the one Suliban lift that Klingon? They couldn't have beamed out as there was no sound effect or light).

Another issue for me has always been that Vulcans don't like to touch due to being touch telepaths and are extremely restrained in this area (witness Sarek and his wife merely touching fingers as a sign of affection), something about them that has been totally forgotten. Again, 'Enterprise' leads in that regard here as T'Pol has to rub decontamination gel on Trip's body in what was a rightly derided cynical attempt at a ratings grab by featuring a couple of character stripping down to their underwear. 'Enterprise' was trying to inject more of the innuendo back that had been in 'TOS,' so the Captain is kissed by an alien woman (albeit as a way to 'measure his trustworthiness' - yeah, sure!), we get the skintight alien dancers, and Trip and T'Pol in decon. It's also true that much of this first episode is about an action-packed adventure rather than exploring or philosophy, but that's often the case for a feature-length Trek pilot, the closest we got to Trek films other than Trek films themselves - it became an exciting thing to look forward to as you always knew a new Trek series would start with great scope and drama. But they did a good amount of characterisation, too, another important aspect of Trek that has lessened as time goes on. Sometimes I wanted more context, such as how Archer knew Hoshi or Trip, but as most of the characters were meeting for the first time it wasn't a huge problem.

Something the pilot got very right was in giving us things we'd never seen before. The sweet spot within the ship is a good example, as zero gravity had always been something to avoid on Trek for the cost and effort that had to go into it to make it work. It's only a little moment (and as far as I can remember was only used once more), but it was a terrific idea that excites you about what might be possible on the series. The fight in the temporal chamber between Archer and Silik was also very memorable and unique, their actions preceded by a future echo of what's about to happen. I have no idea to this day how they pulled it off, I only know it looked amazing. Sure, Archer kisses a woman and gets in a fight (these uniforms are much more utilitarian so they don't rip like Kirk's flimsy things!), but he also has a statue of Zefram Cochrane over his desk - it's not called out, you wouldn't get the reference if you didn't know it, but you can tell it's him from the way it's a recreation of the statue Geordi La Forge described in 'First Contact,' and is an example of the kind of beautiful touches which employing people who know Trek and its history gets you! The fact they have a horizontal warp core is another brilliant callback to how things used to be prior to 'The Motion Picture,' and the sets are generally great. I didn't even mention the doors that have to be opened by a button on a panel next to it, nor that a chef prepares the meals, and I loved the exoskeletal detail on Klaang.

The technobabble is all present and correct, but sometimes, as in Archer's first conversation with Dr. Phlox, he cuts through it to demand a simple answer. The important thing is that they don't talk down to the audience, while also making it understandable, rather than just throwing it in occasionally to remind you that people have to do complicated stuff ('DSC'). And the ship is a character - every new starship should get a scene where people have a flyby to examine it close up, but Trek's ability to move between action and excitement and building up its internal world has been lost of late (say, the last ten years or so!), so it's wonderful to see it still in evidence in this version. A starship is a lady, a being with personality, and Archer has a feeling for his ship: 'take her out straight and steady.' We're also given plenty of opportunity to see the ship in space, and it looks lovely. The effects are very good, even with some CGI being slightly shaky (the squished Suliban), there are still many scenes that stand out even now - witness the Suliban creeping across walls and ceilings, or the NX-01's encounter with the little cell ships in the gas giant. Drama is heavy in certain scenes such as Archer and Trip going off in a captured cell ship and T'Pol has to decide whether to remain in position so they can find their way back, or move out of the way of the 'depth charges' that could destroy them. The arc of the episode is that humans and Vulcans can work together, despite their differences and it is cheering to see T'Pol do what was in the Captain's wishes when she has command.

The characters work well together, there's nothing to take you out of it, and whether it's the creepiness of aliens boarding Enterprise and the power going out, or Archer leading a team to get Klaang back, it's full of old-fashioned thrills. It even has subtitled Klingon spoken, just like 'DSC,' another connection between the two. It's funny that this became the least loved series and yet, because everything since (until 'Picard'), has been prequels, it's the most referenced in modern productions. Some say it was in a different timeline to all the previous Treks because of the Borg's time travel in 'First Contact,' but you have to go with the intent of the writers that this was in the same universe as what went before, and because it's so removed from the others in years I always bought that. Even though their Tricorders are small and the Communicators diddy, I just put it down to them being less advanced in what they could do than in 'TOS,' and I absolutely loved the uniforms that pay tribute to both future Trek and real space exploration of our day. It's funny to think that the model hover drone ship young Archer and his Dad play with was sci-fi then, but a reality now! Even with the inconsistency of the Vulcans I loved this episode and it does an excellent job in creating the parameters for a new era, while also being firmly created in the tail end of the Golden Age of Trek. Part of that is how they use the races and tech at their disposal, but it also goes down to the beautiful montage of the opening credits, combining historical footage with that of Trek's own future history, which was a bold move away from the traditional space shots of all other Trek.

It showed once again what was possible within this world without breaking it, and although the theme music took some time to get used to (and it probably would have been better if they'd used the orchestral arrangement that was Archer or the Enterprise's theme), it does stand out as embodying the message of the series and the Roddenberry vision. There are also a number of familiar faces that further help to position the series as part of the greater Trek universe. Aside from James Cromwell we have Vaughn Armstrong, the man of the most different faces in Trek, as Admiral Forrest (named for Deforest Kelley), John Fleck, another regular face in 'TNG,' 'DS9' and 'Voyager,' Gary Graham's Soval (he'd been an Ocampa in 'Voyager'), James Horan of many other roles, and Thomas Kopache (best known as Kira's Dad on 'DS9,' among many others). Even Henry Archer (Mark Moses), had played a character in 'Voyager,' and Joseph Ruskin's credits stretched back to 'TOS,' though you wouldn't recognise his face here as a Suliban doctor, so it really was a collection of the old with the new! That should have been the ability of 'Enterprise,' combining new with old, but they sadly were riding the very end of the wind that had blown Trek across the entertainment oceans of success, and though some cast members were careful, saying they'd take one season at a time, others were caught up in the hype and talking of it being the closest thing to a seven year gig in the business.

It was not to be, but not from any failure with this pilot which did a very creditable job of presenting a previously unseen era, continuing to shoot higher with its scientific jargon and concepts so the audience had to keep up, and not straying into fantasy. In a way I am glad we got to see this pre-Federation Starfleet, even if it didn't give us what we hoped for, namely the Romulan War which would have been coming in the Sixth Season, and the founding of the Federation beyond that. It began optimistically and gave a new sense of danger and menace to space travel where even the shakes of the deck plates worry some - Hoshi is actually less timid than in my memory and has a nice moment when she gains T'Pol's respect, and I'd say again that the potential was all there with these characters, their ship, and a galaxy of new political situations and hierarchies into which humans were trying to carve out a niche. Politics and culture were some of the things that often got lost and marked this variation of Trek out as a simpler, less ambitious one, but again, I can't fault the pilot for that. For me it ranks just below 'Caretaker' that began 'Voyager' and 'Emissary' that kickstarted 'DS9,' but it's better than all the other pilots and most likely will be the last great pilot of Trek, because even though we're getting more series' these days, they're not made by a majority of people at the top who understand what Trek is. 'Enterprise' may not have always got it right, but it succeeded enough that it's a series I like to watch again, and is an intriguing vision of a future before the future we know so well.

*****