User Reviews

Captain Jonathan Archer, T'Pol and Trip meet Sarin and she explains that Klaang is a courier, bringing an important message from her to the leaders of the Klingons in Kronos about rebels Suliban that intend to promote the Temporal Cold War among the Klingons. Archer feels the need of rescuing Klaang and travels to the Suliban mother-ship with Trip to bring the Klingon back to Enterprise. T'Pol seems to understand that loyalty is an emotion that cannot be avoided by humans.

In spite of being a huge fan of Star Trek, I have not followed the episodes of "Enterprise" on cable television. I have decided to buy the DVD box of the First Season and this first episode surprised me. The adventure of the first Enterprise, Captain Jonathan Archer, the gorgeous T'Pol, Reed, Mayweather, Dr. Phlox, Hoshi and Trip is excellent, at least in this pilot. I have noted in IMDb that this episode is actually divides in two parts, but on DVD they are just one, therefore my review is valid for both. I did not like the music score theme, which I found very annoying, but this was an exception in this great show. My vote is nine.

Title (Brazil): "Broken Bow"

These first two episodes were necessary to gain inroads into the obstacles that needed to be overcome so that the exploration of the galaxy could commence. These were basically search and rescue missions which allowed us to see where we were at with the Klingons, the face of arrogance when it relates to the stonewalling, obstructionist Vulcans. And to see other species and to put together a crew that will be facing off with every type of problem as they go on their mission. This predates the original Star Trek series and gives us a more primitive, even more dangerous set of circumstances. This should be fun.

"Broken Bow" takes us back to where it all began. Set 150 years in our future and 100 years before Kirk, Spock and McCoy. This installment of the "Star Trek" franchise, is in my opinion the first series since "TOS" to recapture the feelings of wonder, danger and excitement of "Going Where No Man Has Gone Before". Scott Bakula is perfectly cast as Jonathan Archer, the first Captain of the first "Star Ship Enterprise". He and the entire cast truly show a true reverence for the Star Trek legacy. John Billingsley is Brilliant as the alien Dr. Phlox, and Jolene Blalock is totally luscious as the tempting but logical Vulcan science officer T'Pol. Broken Bow is in my opinion the best premier episode of any of the Treks, and I believe Gene Roddenberry would surely be proud.

I am an oddity. I liked "Star Trek: Enterprise" when it came out a decade and a half ago. Sure, it featured the crew a couple hundred years earlier and with less impressive hardware, but I liked the stories. I also didn't mind the pacing of this double-length episode. However, it's slow and deliberate pace isn't for everyone and my wife was yelling at the screen after a while because she wanted things to speed up a bit! However, I rather expect most premier episodes to be a bit slow, as they're trying to give a lot of back story and establish characters.

This show begins in the earliest days of the Federation. The Earth only recently came into contact with aliens through the work of Zefram Cochran and now, a generation later, the humans are planning on launching a new ship, Enterprise. However, it's obvious that their Vulcan allies are NOT thrilled about the illogical humans going into space and offer to let one of their officers (the humorless hottie with big lips) tag along to 'help'. The first mission is a much more perilous one than anticipated, as they plan on sending the ship to Kronos to return an injured Klingon to his home. Humans just don't get how humorless and warlike this injured guy is!! However, something really weird happens on the mission-- some time-shifting aliens, the Suliban, kidnap the Klingon! Why and how will they get him back to return him home?!

To me, the best thing about this show are the Vulcans. Unlike other Trek series, these aliens are MUCH more haughty and not especially nice. I like the tension between them and the humans. The show is worth seeing and it will take a bit for the show to slip into a higher gear!

Enterprise, the latest high budget spin-off to the most successful franchise in film and or television history opens to the tune of a 90-minute episode called 'Broken Bow'. First we are swept into a massive action sequence with a Klingon being chased by some Suliban (who are the main enemy in the first season of the show). From there the televised movie takes us on a journey that seldom gets as good as it is, with some of the best character development, story and action/visual effects ever seen in such a short amount of time.

The opening-credits is a debatable subject among the minority of Enterprise fans, whom some believe that the song is out of place. What they fail to realise is the lyrics themselves. If one listens to the actual song, instead of the theme, then they will begin to piece the parts of the puzzle together. And eventually as the series progresses further and further, and we learn more about our valiant captain and his crew, will the song actually become meaningful. Overall Diane Warren's theme is beautifully orchestrated and is sung just as well by opera singer Russell Watson.

What makes any television show watchable and worth watching time and time again is its characters and the way they become structured and layered. Enterprise is (in my opinion) one of the most well cast shows since The Next Generation. Choosing Scott Bakula, as Captain Jonathan Archer was the best decision since Gene himself cast Patrick Stewart as Jean-Luc Picard. As the captain always leads the show, Bakula adds a subtlety to his role and brings a huge smile to the faces of anyone with blood pumping in their veins. He simply is (both actor wise and character wise) a superb human being and his charm, wit, and compassion are overwhelming to watch. As for the other cast members, a favourite of mine is John Billingsley who plays Dr. Phlox. It's also nice to see a non-human playing a role, and the decision to give the captain a dog, named 'Porthos' was a well-received idea. Throughout the show character development was brilliant, it was fast, well timed and almost perfect. I say almost because sadly Travis Mayweather's character played by the Briton Anthony Montgomery is a little weak at the end of the first season. He does have some things to say here and there, but remains in the hands of the producers to make him more important. Jolene Blalock is wonderful as the sometimes harsh but equally loveable Subcommander T'Pol. Dominic Keating as Lieutenant Malcolm Reed plays a strong role and is convincing as the armoury officer. Connor Trinneer plays Commander Charles "Trip" Tucker who always adds charm and comedic style to his character and finally Linda Park as Ensign Hoshi Sato, who often plays a weaker character but thankfully quickly becomes interesting. All of these characters make up Enterprise, and all bring a quality that Star Trek hasn't seen in a long time. Each person makes this show worth watching. Smiles and feel-good senses are guaranteed right from the first time we see them all together on the bridge of the starship Enterprise NX-01.

The ship itself, the NX-01 is somewhat questionable in design. The series is set 150 years from now and 100 years before Captain Kirk. So why then does the ship appear to be similar in design to mid 24th century ships, namely the Akira class starship? Continuity has been an issue in Enterprise, but thankfully Rick [Berman] and Brannon [Braga] offer suitable explanations for each and everyone of them. Continuity is only a problem if you are forever scrutinising shows and are obsessed with the tiniest of details. If you see the show with and open mind, then you'll have no problems, but there is an urge to know 'why' all the time. So what did Berman and Braga offer to the Star Trek fan-base with the issue of the deign of the ship itself? According to them the NX-01 is how it is because of the incident in First Contact. When Zefram Cochrane saw the Enterprise-E through his telescope and from speaking with the away team lead by Commander Riker, it changed the ideas in his head. That's a good enough explanation for me.lets move on. Of course its not as easy for some fans to accept that sort of answer, some go as far as to refuse to see the show until they get a reasonable answer. Come on guys grow up.When George Lucas destroyed the Star Wars saga with the launch of his profit making new trilogy, fans couldn't do anything, only watch and sap it all up anyway. And then they learned that, well maybe its not that bad after all. If you can't accept a quality show for what it is, not what it should be in your mind, then go elsewhere. Or try becoming a producer on the show and then see what you can do.

The sets on Enterprise remind me very much of the Defiant from Deep Space Nine. They often appear cold and have an eerie look of modern structure to them and they cry out that they belong to the military. Perhaps that why the crew of the USS Enterprise (aka flagship of the American fleet) like it so much. They are striking sets, and represent the show perfectly.

Rick Berman 'the overlord of the empire' as John Logan so accurately put it and his counterpart Brannon Braga has hit the nail on the head exactly where they should have, and in all the right places. Whether that be technicalities, visuals, sound, editing or score. Enterprise is a fine demonstration to just how good televised science fiction can ultimately be, when in the hands of geniuses. The late Gene Roddenberry would be proud of this series and as a Star Trek fan, so should you.

A strong pilot, this two-hour episode does an excellent job of setting up the characters and background for "Enterprise," the "prequel" to the original "Star Trek" series. It stumbles a few times into "Trek" convention and cliché--candy-colored space strippers never seem to go out of style, and I can already foresee snickering references to T'pol as "Seven of Vulcan"--but the ensemble looks strong, the characters are well-drawn, and one can already see hints that this particular crew will have to be more resourceful, in different ways, than those of earlier (later?) series. Scott Bakula hits the right note as a captain with Kirk's brashness and daring but without his smugness and swagger, and I look forward to the ways in which the series will feature the engineer, weapons master and communications officer (not just a glorified phone operator anymore!) as supporting players. The writers seem to have picked up on the one big mistake made in "Star Trek: The Next Generation," "Deep Space 9" and "Voyager": Instead of starting with a big ensemble cast and giving characters short shrift, it's starting with a smaller core of characters to which a little more variety can be added later--which I hope happens, because after about a half-dozen episodes, more variety will be needed.

After reviewing the entire first season here in 2002 following its original airing, I gave the season 7/10 and the opening pilot 7/10 with other episodes ranging from 9/10 to awful... I vowed to give second season a chance, but the reality is that I gave up as it aired and felt uninspired and moreover couple with the dismal tenth Trek movie : Nemesis (3/10) which to me was the nail in the coffin of a fine franchise. so it was R.I.P. in 2002.

However, ten years later, and on the eve of Star Trek Into Darkness, although I was not extremely pleased with Star Trek (2009) (6/10), I decided to buy the entire Enterprise series to finally see what Enterprise season 2,3 and 4 were about, perhaps (but probably not!) tired of watching even excellent DS9 episodes for the umpteenth time and some mix/match of vibrant Voyager and dated TNG which I actually never finished in its entirety either.

Low and behold, I was absolutely hooked seeing Broken Bow in one sitting! I loved the intrigue, the tension, the action, the dialogue and the characters. T'Pol is brilliant and beautiful. Travis and Hoshi have possibly their best episode here as I remember them being underutilized after this. Phlox is enigmatic and endearing. Trip and Archer are slightly typical bravado, but solid and softened by Archer's apt back story with his father. The both makes amends with patronizing T'Pol, Trip taking his shirt off in the decon and challenging her on the bridge. The supporting character from the Ambassadors, Admirals, Klingons, Suliban (including seductive and believable Sarin) all add to the rich tapestry.

Also, the idea of the show to be early explorers is omnipresent and we are as excited as the characters to discover new civilizations and learn their peculiarities, to try new technology, etc.

Add time travel and foreign worlds who give way to amazing audio and visual effects (including sci-fi elements and sexy elements) and you have a two-hour plus episode that looks like a theatrical release. It helps that it was filmed in 16:9 way before it's time. So revising this pilot I am pumped to see Enterprise again. If nothing else and the series still feel flats, at least I can now be assured that the premise and the production was promising.

Rating changed from 7 to 9/10!

End personal log.

Before I start, I would like to say to all those hard-core Star Trek fans out there that unlearn what you have learned. Okay, I got that from Yoda, but it still holds true here. When watching and critiquing (if you're a nit-picker), one must approach the new series with an open mind.

Expectations aside, I thoroughly enjoyed Enterprise. The fifth installment into the Star Trek series franchise peaked my interest months ago when I first heard about it. I was skeptical at first, I will admit to that. I just didn't want another Star Trek: Voyager, which I spent that last 7 years faithfully watching the show with little to no satisfaction when it came to an end. But when Scott Bakula signed on, Dr. Sam Beckett himself, I denounced all skepticism and it sparked my enthusiasm for the new series. Right off the bat, Enterprise threw us into the thick of things: the Klingon, Klaang, evading the Suliban, the Vulcan/Human conflict, the problematic temporal cold war, and the cameo by James Cromwell. Okay, those are more like intriguing features than throwing us into the thick of things. What can I say? I was impressed. The matter of the title song is quite a controversy among friends. Many thought it should go. I say, keep it. It's different and in a way sentimental, paying homage to exploration and discovery. I took me five viewings of the pilot to get used to it. Enterprise delivers in every way possible that a Star Trek series should: a bold captain, a diverse crew, technobabble, transporters, phasers, shuttlepods, warp drive, and humor. For all those who don't like Enterprise, I say this to you: give the show some time. It's still a newborn, finding its own way to be unique, exciting, and most of all appealing. Remember, many people didn't get into Deep Space Nine when it first came on. It grew to be a fantastic series. It might not have rated well with the hard-core fans, but there are more than plenty enough serious fans who think so. Enterprise may very well become the best Star Trek series since The Next Generation.

I've seen episodes of all the Star Trek series here and there on TV throughout my life but never followed any of them devoutly. Recently, I thought it might be fun to go through them and see what the Star Trek universe has to offer me. Not really knowing where to start, I did some research and decided to take the road less traveled and watch the Star Trek series chronologically. So "Broken Bow" is where I have begun.

This double episode is a good start to the series. We got to know the main characters and it seems like the show has a nice ensemble cast with enough personality & diversity to keep it fresh for the audience. I appreciate that we're starting with a small cast of important characters and not overextending it and confusing the audience.

I liked that we're jumping straight into space exploration with Klingons and other less familiar races such as the Suliban. This new race's look and shape-shifting, wall-climbing abilities are intriguing. I hope to see more of them.

The episode didn't blow me away by any means but it's a good foundation. One possible thumbs down from me is that it seems that we're already starting up a love angle between T'Pol & Trip. Romance aboard the Enterprise is fine but let's get a few notches under our belt before we start getting into this stuff. Plus, the whole intolerant, judgmental character broadens his horizons and falls in love with someone you didn't expect is a bit played out. But we'll see... 7/10, average.

The basic premise of this story was exciting for fans of the Star Trek genre, the first tentative mission into intergalactic space by Star Fleet. Sadly, UPN chopped this up so badly with commercials it was difficult to follow the story line. In the last hour of this two-hour movie it seemed like I was watching a repeating pattern of 5 minutes programming followed by five minutes of commercials. I understand commercials pay the bills but this was just too much. If the weekly episode follow this pattern, I'll be tuning out.

Star Trek was exploration, new planets, cultures etc. All the ones that came after there was any "unknown" it was all politics and racism just the way we live now. Yes! And also, I loved Quantum Leap and Scott Bakula. He really makes "Enterprise" and I love the twist of being "before" the perfection of Star Trek, sometimes "beam me up", doesn't work! I always hate the way some people live to "bad mouth" anything and everyone. We see them for the small people they are.

I have been a Star Trek fan for as long as I can remember. When they announced the planning and premiere of the fifth series I was very excited.

The premiere of Enterprise was well worth the wait. It was well done with the perfect setting and a great acting job done by all the characters. The NX-01, Enterprise is the perfect vessel to show the beginnings of what many people have come to love.

Scott Bakula was just superior as Captain Jonathan Archer. Jolene Blalock gave a commanding performance as Subcommander T'Pol. That it just two people of this wonderful new crew that is boldly going to take us into the great history of Starfleet.

Enterprise looks like it's going to be a good series well worth watching, and I recommend that. Watch it.

Ok, so, this is coming a few weeks late, but it is here. Mostly, this is because of statements of various negative natures. Starting with the technology. When Star Trek: TOS ran, special effect technology was extreamely low tec, and more than that, the crew had little money to do any kind of proper mock ups. In the 35 years seince TOS premiered, the crew of Star Trek have become experts at economy.

Ultimately, they have decided, quite rightly in my mind, to abandon the look of TOS and reverse engineered TNG et all. So what if they decided not to make the transporter out of gold glitter or made the phase pistols look closer to the ones from Star Trek II? As for the nits being picked about first contact with the Klingon Empire, it was presumed based upon comments made by Kirk and Riker that Earth only met the Klingon's in 2200. Nothing was firmly established.

Enterprise gives us the most promising venue of exploration that we've seen in a while. This is what Voyager COULD have been. No series can evolve without a few inconsistancies, but be thankful that Star Trek has so few. So, quit gripping and enjoy.

There is STAR TREK canon -- lots of it. From canon we know the history of the future. Advances in technology, events, places, first contacts with new beings, names, dates, etc.

ENTERPRISE pretty much disregards much of ST canon. An unfortunate fact for long time serious fans. As one, I assumed that the producers would at least take a look at the first few episodes of TOS and retro back from there -- but no.

The phase pistols, like much of the technology, look much more modern than found in TOS. An old style Starfleet laser gun, a slow gold speckle transporter effect -- that's what I expected to see. Also, I did not expect to hear pure beep-based sound effects similar to TNG but far apart from TOS sound effects.

In the earliest view of TOS (the original pilot: THE CAGE), we see a Starfleet with a more formal military aspect -- a bit of old earth Navy. With ENTERPRISE, we see a shocking disregard for rank. There is more military code in the cartoon STAR BLAZERS than in ENTERPRISE.

It is fine that Captain Archer is unsure about the needs of the Universe (quite unlike Kirk who never lacked confidence in his application of human justice), but inside ENTERPRISE everyone seems like an equal. Unprofessional, unsure, more distant from the feel of formal military service than found in any ST series -- and that says a lot!

The casual country music opening theme song heralds the journeys of a family rather than the adventures of an important large military vessel.

ENTERPRISE looks to show us a mostly fun, warm-fuzzy exploration of human relationships rather than take us on a historic, bold, gritty, high-rick exploration of space.

I would have selected Adrian Paul to play the Captain and an older human to be the doctor. Still, I liked the actors for the most part. Linda Park, an outstanding ballroom dancer from Boston College, is sure to develop nicely. The characters making up the crew seem to be thoughtfully created.

ENTERPRISE begins its run stronger than did the past three STAR TREK series. Let's hope for a good future!

This is the start of a new and interesting Star Trek series. It has a "down to earth"-kind of feel with darker and less "plaggy" scenography.

The characters need some more time to develop but they have potential. One thing that is fairly disappointing (with all Star Trek series really) is that they portray such a gloomy picture of the equality between men and women in the future when they paint a very positive picture about everything else. (Earth has stopped war, famine etc)

The female characters here are two, subcommander T'Pol who is vulcan and communications officer Hoshi who is human. Hoshi is quite wimpy and T'Pol is made to be a "vulcan babe".

Some of the crew attitudes feel a bit too American (as opposed to the more international feel of the TNG-crew) but creates interesting dynamics.

A very good pilot though for a very good series.

Let me first state that while I have viewed every episode of StarTrek at least twice, I do not consider myself a Trekker or Trekkie. Those are people who live in their parents basement and attend conventions wearing costumes with pointed rubber ears. I gave this movie a seven casting aside the fiction historical errors. The acting was better than average, but the plot held no surprises. They tried very hard to reverse engineer the technology but still the special effects were just to great a temptation. Now as to the historical errors, if you call them that, the first Capitan to pilot the Enterprise was Commander April, then Capt. Pike, Jim Kirk, etc.. According to a statement made by both Riker and Kirk we dicovered the Klingons and educated them and gave them the technology (that's the reason a prime directive was created) but like I said these are no reason to discredit this fine series. I hope the plots will get deeper, and then special effects can take a backseat.

A very good start. I was a bit surprised to find the machinery not quite so advanced: It should have been cruder, to match we saw in the original series. The cast is interesting, although the Vulkan lady comes across as a little too human. She needs to school on Spock who, after all, is the model for this race. Too bad they couldn't have picked Jeri Ryan. I like Ms. Park, the Korean(?)lady. The doctor has possibilities. Haven't sorted out the other males, except for the black guy. He's a really likeable. Bakula needs to find his niche--In QL his strong point was his sense of humor and his willingness to try anything. He is, of course, big and strong enough for the heroics. The heavies were OK, although I didn't like their make-up.

Having just rewatched the pilot episodes for all the series (Star Treks The Original Series, The Animated Series, The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager, and Enterprise) to date, as of the premiere of Star Trek Enterprise in 2001, this one is second only to the pilot for Star Trek: Voyager.

However, a 1 star deduction was made due to the explicit and unnecessary sexuality displayed in the episode, which I deemed cheap and unnecessary to any of the points that the writers were attempting to make in the plot. Also, the story was convoluted in spots, and it seemed unnecessary to visit a location halfway through the episode to have a gunfight when properly tracking the antagonists would have sufficed.

That said, it was a serviceable episode, it lacked the inherent casual racism or open sexual harassment that plagued the pilot and early episodes for many of the predecessor series' (notably The Original Series' The Cage, and Voyager's The Caretaker Part 2), and as such it's still a decent episode upon my viewing in 2022.

Oh, two more points. One, the incidental / action music is virtually IDENTICAL to that used on the last THREE Star Trek series, which was very distracting (and lazy). And, this airing later in the same month as the 9/11 Terrorist Attacks was a wonderful respite at the time, and I still hold fond memories of this episode (though I find the Suluban / Taliban connection very jarring, especially since that was 100% intentional when they were creating this series, with no fore-knowledge of the real-life attacks).

Okay, the recent history of Star Trek has not been good. The Next Generation faded in its last few seasons, DS9 boldly stayed where no one had stayed before, and Voyager started very bad and never really lived up to its promise. So, when they announced a new Star Trek series, I did not have high expectations. And, the first episode, Broken Bow, did have some problems. But, overall it was solid Trek material and a good romp.

I'll get the nits out of the way first. The opening theme is dull and I don't look forward to sitting through it regularly, but that's what remotes are for. What was really bad was the completely gratuitous lotion rubbing scene that just about drove my wife out of the room. They need to cut that nonsense out.

But, the plot was strong and moved along well. The characters, though still new, seem to be well rounded and not always what you would expect. The Vulcans are clearly being presented very differently than before, with a slightly ominous theme. I particularly liked the linguist, who is the first Star Trek character to not be able to stand proud in the face of death, but rather has to deal with her phobias and fears. They seemed to stay true to Trek lore, something that has been a significant problem in past series, though they have plenty of time to bring us things like shooting through shields, the instant invention of technology that can fix anything, and the inevitable plethora of time-travel stories. Anyone want to start a pool on how long before the Borg show up?

All in all, the series has enormous potential. They are seeing the universe with fresh eyes. We have the chance to learn how things got the way they were in the later series. How did the Klingons go from just insulting to war? How did we meet the Romulans? How did the Federation form and just who put Earth in charge. Why is the prime directive so important? If they address these things rather than spitting out time travel episodes, this will be an interesting series.

My favorite line: Zephram Cochran saying "where no man has gone before" (not "no one")

While it's early to say how the series will evolve, I can say that the pilot was less than I thought it would be. There is still potential for the series, however. Of course when I first saw Voyager I thought it had potential, too - but was sorely disappointed. My gut tells me Enterprise won't be as bad as Voyager, however.

As for the impressions of the pilot...

The pilot had some good ideas and good themes. I liked the introduction. The show's opening credits were interesting, with the progress of exploration and a fitting theme song. Scott Bakula is excellent in the role of captain.

Where it fell short for me was largely that the story lacked the "feel" of setting out on a grand adventure. The plot of the episode itself was more a "generic" Trek story with the themes of "exploration" and "first step towards space" merely subplot and subtext. Were you to edit out the references to this being the first deep space mission, the plot would be hard to differentiate between the eras of Enterprise, TOS or TNG. The central plot didn't reflect or do justice to the grand theme of the series.

The plot of launching the first mission would have been grand enough without the "action". Instead of isolated references to the newness of exploration, they could have been the story. Get a little more nostalgic and philosophical about it (oh, for a TV show that once again would make us THINK). Make us feel the excitement of "the wind" and being on "the sea" instead of distracting us with a rescue and a plethora of gunplay. There was WAY too much gunplay.

We had the feeling more that humans were the "freshmen" in an established school. New kids on the block, as opposed to venturing into a largely unknown universe. Sadly, the Klingons landed on our doorstep instead of us finding them. That meeting could have been far more historic and far more sociological. Just how DO two such different societies interact? Don't just hint about it, SHOW it!

I had to think of it more as `Trek with an akward crew and limited technology' as opposed to `the first brave steps into the unknown'. I wanted to see something newer and fresher. The series promises to have a new concept but so far I haven't seen this new, great concept.

I will conclude with reiterating the sentiment that the series has potential. There are some interesting characters. Bakula is wonderful. Blalock has potential. The overall theme is the most interesting since we first saw Kirk in a world before Apollo 11. If only future episodes can do justice to this grand and wonderful theme, we will have a show which will create new legends.

You shoot an arrow into the air... Good luck Capt. Archer.

To the producers: TAKE MORE RISKS AND MAKE US *THINK*! :-)

Just saw Enterprise: Broken Bow, and I would have to say that it is different. It's like one hundred years before Kirk and it's interesting to see how Starfleet gets to where we know it. The uniforms are different than the standard color coordination that Star Trek has used before. It's more of a more military look. The starship shots are all computer generated, on The Next Generation they used models, boy I miss that. Great way to start off a new show, especially when they used the transporter on a human for the first time. The show looks to be promising from this pilot.