Star Trek Enterprise Picspam
For the Fandom Manifesto challenge at fandomverse
There are infinite parallel universes in Trek canon, but one parallel universe is a little special. This is referred to as the Mirror Universe. The first episode in this universe was the Original Series episode Mirror, Mirror which you may know as "the episode with evil!Spock with a goatee." Enterprise didn't pass up the chance to do an epic two-parter episode in the Mirror Universe titled In a Mirror, Darkly, and it was AWESOME. All the same characters, but in different situations, with different personality traits and different drives. Hoshi Sato as a conniving, manipulative, power-mad megalomaniac? Such fun!
In the original series, Andorians were kinda silly. They never really appeared in any of the other Treks because generally nobody took them seriously. But Enterprise took this tiny little un-developed race of silly aliens with antennae and blue skin and fleshed them out. This was helped along quite a bit with the recurring character of Shran (played by the amazing Jeffrey Combs, who played Weyoun in Deep Space 9, if you have seen that show). Shran brings a real, relatable face to this race and it's through him we get to know the Andorian people. And it turns out, they're pretty awesome.
Enterprise featured some of my favorite tropes. What can I say, I love a little cliche in my stories sometimes. Clone of a main character (Similitude). Alternate timeline (Twilight). Child of two crew members who don't realize their ~love~ visits from the future (E²). Fanservice for all (um.. every other episode). Enterprise is basically half serious episodes and half fanfic on screen. So basically my perfect show.
The Vulcans are my favorite Star Trek race, hands down. In Enterprise, we get to see more of Vulcan, and a bit of its history is explored. They delve into the faction of Vulcans that embrace emotions (think Sybok from The Final Frontier). The history of the mind meld and the beginnings of its acceptance as common practice, as it was originally considered dangerous behavior - a canon fact established early in the Original Series that most people forget. There's also a lot of the developing relationship between Earth and Vulcan, since Enterprise takes place in the early days of Earth space travel (pre-Federation).
I'm not going to sit here and pretend every episode of Enterprise was gold. It wasn't. The show suffered from network meddling (T'Pol's whole Pa'nar Syndrome story arc that everyone hates? It's from the network forcing every show they had at the time to do an AIDS-related storyline, and since AIDS was cured in Star Trek times, they had to come up with something else). The show also suffered from incompetent showrunners (Bermaga, which, by the way, is a catch phrase now - to ruin a show is to Bermaga it) which was rectified for season 4, when the reins to the show were handed over to Manny Coto, who is actually good at making tv. You may know Manny Coto's name from Dexter or 24, two shows considered to be really effing good. Season 4 was incredibly good, and dove headlong into Trek lore. Lots of Vulcan stuff, an explanation for why the Klingons look so different in Original Series as compared to all the rest of Trek, the origins of the Augments (as seen in Space Seed and The Wrath of Khan), the Mirror Universe - it's all in season 4! It's a shame Enterprise was cancelled when it was, as I think it would have soared to new heights. So if nothing else, season 4 at least deserves a watch by every Star Trek fan, because it adds valuable content to the canon and just has some really well-done episodes.
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand, for an honorable mention...
Southern overly-friendly pie-loving gentleman meets green-blooded emotionally unavailable alien. HOW CAN THIS BE WRONG?! It can't. It just can't.
There are infinite parallel universes in Trek canon, but one parallel universe is a little special. This is referred to as the Mirror Universe. The first episode in this universe was the Original Series episode Mirror, Mirror which you may know as "the episode with evil!Spock with a goatee." Enterprise didn't pass up the chance to do an epic two-parter episode in the Mirror Universe titled In a Mirror, Darkly, and it was AWESOME. All the same characters, but in different situations, with different personality traits and different drives. Hoshi Sato as a conniving, manipulative, power-mad megalomaniac? Such fun!
In the original series, Andorians were kinda silly. They never really appeared in any of the other Treks because generally nobody took them seriously. But Enterprise took this tiny little un-developed race of silly aliens with antennae and blue skin and fleshed them out. This was helped along quite a bit with the recurring character of Shran (played by the amazing Jeffrey Combs, who played Weyoun in Deep Space 9, if you have seen that show). Shran brings a real, relatable face to this race and it's through him we get to know the Andorian people. And it turns out, they're pretty awesome.
Enterprise featured some of my favorite tropes. What can I say, I love a little cliche in my stories sometimes. Clone of a main character (Similitude). Alternate timeline (Twilight). Child of two crew members who don't realize their ~love~ visits from the future (E²). Fanservice for all (um.. every other episode). Enterprise is basically half serious episodes and half fanfic on screen. So basically my perfect show.
The Vulcans are my favorite Star Trek race, hands down. In Enterprise, we get to see more of Vulcan, and a bit of its history is explored. They delve into the faction of Vulcans that embrace emotions (think Sybok from The Final Frontier). The history of the mind meld and the beginnings of its acceptance as common practice, as it was originally considered dangerous behavior - a canon fact established early in the Original Series that most people forget. There's also a lot of the developing relationship between Earth and Vulcan, since Enterprise takes place in the early days of Earth space travel (pre-Federation).
I'm not going to sit here and pretend every episode of Enterprise was gold. It wasn't. The show suffered from network meddling (T'Pol's whole Pa'nar Syndrome story arc that everyone hates? It's from the network forcing every show they had at the time to do an AIDS-related storyline, and since AIDS was cured in Star Trek times, they had to come up with something else). The show also suffered from incompetent showrunners (Bermaga, which, by the way, is a catch phrase now - to ruin a show is to Bermaga it) which was rectified for season 4, when the reins to the show were handed over to Manny Coto, who is actually good at making tv. You may know Manny Coto's name from Dexter or 24, two shows considered to be really effing good. Season 4 was incredibly good, and dove headlong into Trek lore. Lots of Vulcan stuff, an explanation for why the Klingons look so different in Original Series as compared to all the rest of Trek, the origins of the Augments (as seen in Space Seed and The Wrath of Khan), the Mirror Universe - it's all in season 4! It's a shame Enterprise was cancelled when it was, as I think it would have soared to new heights. So if nothing else, season 4 at least deserves a watch by every Star Trek fan, because it adds valuable content to the canon and just has some really well-done episodes.
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand, for an honorable mention...
Southern overly-friendly pie-loving gentleman meets green-blooded emotionally unavailable alien. HOW CAN THIS BE WRONG?! It can't. It just can't.