Star Trek: Enterprise: Season 4 [Blu-ray]

I was reluctant to watch this show but finally decided to give it a shot. At first, it felt a bit rough but as the show started to progress I started to understand it. This isn't Star Trek, it's the seed of Star Trek. This show was made by people who really understand Star Trek and they did the franchise justice. It's unfortunate that business got in the way of making it a full 6-7 season show....but the 4 seasons we got are an accurate glimpse of that period of time in the Trek universe.I would very much like to see them revisit this time period. Just a few years after where this series ends the Earth-Romulan war starts. A series that starts there would be great and could even include appearances from ENT cast members. A man can dream.

The 4th season used an interesting format this time around, with several miniature story arcs, and a couple of stand alone episodes. Picking up where the 3rd season left off, the Enterprise crew is trapped in a terrifying alternate timeline, where the Nazis have proven victrious in WWII, thanks to aid from aliens from the 31st century, or somewhen around then. Aiding Archer in reversing in the damage in his final appearance is Silik, whom I would've liked to see more of, as John Fleck made a great recurring villain. He can be seen in other Star Trek episodes in a variety of roles, usually as a bad guy.The season was also noted by an appearance by Brent Spiner (TNG's Data) as an ancestor of Data's creator, who believed that genetic engineering was the future of human evolution, and had unleashed a group of Augments on the galaxy, ie: The Wrath of Khan, bringing a nice bit of continuity in with the other series. Also seen in this season were more brushes with Andorian Shran (played by Jeffrey Combs, DS9's Weyoun), a complete transformation of Vulcan society when Surak's true teachings were finally uncovered by Archer, T'Pol, and T'Pau (previously seen much older on TOS's "Amok Time").Second contact with the Romulans, and yes, they held to the Original Series adage that Romulans and humans never saw each other until "Balance of Terror", as well as introduction of a rarely seen subspecies of Andorian, the Aenar.The difference between Original Series Klingons and the other series is finally explained when a Klingon Doctor kidnaps Dr. Phlox to find a cure for a disease that is disfiguring and eventually killing the Empire. The surprise is that the Klingons were attempting to make their own Augments, with enhanced human DNA, which backfired horribly.The inventor of the transporter is also introduced in a single episode, as are Orion slave girls, tee-hee!Things come to a head when an isolationist movement on Earth threatens the creation of an interplanetary alliance between several species, a precursor to the founding of the Federation. Of course, things work out, but at a high price.Then in the series (and hopefully not franchise) finale, aboard the U.S.S. Enterprise, NCC-1701-D, Commander Riker, troubled by the plans of Admiral Pressman (Riker's storyline in this episode is an outgrowth of the TNG 7th season episode "The Pegasus"), consults a holodeck program depicting the final mission of the Enterprise NX-01, in 2161 as it's on its way home to attend the founding of the United Federation of Planets. Sadly, one of the crew doesn't make it to the signing, but for anyone who hasn't seen it, I'm not saying who. Hopefully, none of the other reviewers here will divulge it. The closing montage literally brought tears to my eyes, but you can form your own opinions.Sadly, the fourth season was the final for "Enterprise", though in my opinion, they had a lot of good stories left to tell, except that everyone was nitpicking and throwing fits over the slightest changes to unofficial backstories that they've been told about but never seen before. Sadly, it seems that people have lost the ability to sit back, relax, and enjoy a story without becoming superhypercritical over every single detail.Reality shows were the final nail in the Star Trek coffin, as more and more people are falling into the trap of these cheezy setups that are in no way 'realistic'. They're GARBAGE, people! Boycott those awful things, buy DVD's, and STOP WASTING YOUR LIFE with REALITY SHOWS!!!!! Okay, I've said my piece.Star Trek may be gone for awhile, but Trekkers still have the fan-made series, "New Voyages", "Starship Exeter", "Star Trek; Hidden Frontier", and several more in production, to tide them over until a new series comes! Suffice to say, I will be spending many hours enjoying the Fourth Season of Enterprise, what will you be doing?

I doubt that anyone shares this particular view, but I enjoyed the Enterprise franchise better than any of the Trek series since the Original. Yes, Next Generation was generally good after its initial growing pains, and DS9 and Voyager had some good moments, but overall, I enjoyed Enterprise more. The fourth season is the best of this shortened series, finally fulfilling the promise of filling in the back-stories we've heard so much about in the other series.In both the 3rd and 4th seasons, multi-part episodes were the order of the day. Watching these episodes on DVD is much less irritating than on network TV, since you don't have to wait an entire week between installments! There is also the advantage of being able to develop characters, increase the budget, etc. In the 4th season, there are a number of multi-parters of note:1. The resolution of the Temporal War, where Archer and crew must correct the timeline after Hitler successfully invades the United States, using technology supplied by Earth's enemies.2. The Augments arc. Guest-starring Brent Spiner as Data's (great?) grandfather, this is the best and most important of the story arcs of the season. Dr. Soong steals genetically-modified embryoes (think: Khan, from Space Seed and Wrath of Khan) and raises them as "his" children. They then wreak havoc on the galaxy as they steal ships and generally try to set themselves up as leaders. The arc continues later in the season when Klingons try to replicate the results for their own species, with disasterous results.3. The Forge: In probably the most important arc in terms of character development, Archer and T'Pol seek out a group of rebels in a desolate and dangerous area of Vulcan called the Forge. Here we learn more about Vulcans than at any time since McCoy inherited a katra in ST III.4. In a Mirror, Darkly: Set entirely in the "Mirror, mirror" universe, including a unique title sequence, we see the evil counterparts of our favourite characters. It also improbably serves as a big bridge with the Original series, pulling together elements from the classic Trek episodes "Arena", "Tholian Web", and "mirror, Mirror." Very enjoyable in an action-arcade kind of way, although one has to wonder how an empire could remain stable with this many assassinations: 4 flag-level officers are killed out-of-hand in these 2 episodes alone!5. In the weakest shows of the season, a separist group called Terra Prime tries to get all alien species off of Earth.The final show of the series links it to the Next Generation series by having it take place as a simulation on the Enterprise-D's holodeck (with Riker and Troi taking part as members of Archer's crew).For the most part, the shows are enjoyable, even when they fall into the standard Trek trap of having the 1st half of the 2-parters being much better than the second half's resolutions (but this has been happening since "The Best of Both Worlds", the first season-ending cliffhanger in Next Gen, so there's nothing particularly alarming about it). The best part about Enterprise in general, and this 4th season in particular, is that it uses the accumulated lore of Trek to find story ideas. Thus, we have Tellarites and Andorians at war, followers of Col. Green (who led the bad side in World War III), and even Klingons lacking their cranial ridges (for details, pick up this DVD!)Overall, a very enjoyable season and series, especially for those that have followed the Star Trek shows over the years. A detailed knowledge of the Trek universe is certainly not a requirement, but will add to the enjoyment in viewing these episodes. The extras on the DVD set are not that interesting - the audio and text commentaries are localised in the inferior final few episodes, for example. Nonetheless, the shows themselves are worth the cost of the DVD.

I am a researcher, and i was surprised as I found a more realistic view of our handling of a 'First Contact' scenario. The writers didn't shy away to look at our history and how we approached the First Contact with races we discovered shared planet Earth with us. It went bad in every single case and the nations who had the honor to find a European ship on their beach had never been able to return to normal life. I won't give too much away, but in the last 4 episodes these options are played out... and it includes racism against the Aliens - Vulcan's, terrorist attacks and even the loss of independence in our hands. Great stuff, and gives us pause to ponder, what if. Alexandra

When I first viewed Enterprise many years ago I formed the opinion that seasons 1 and 2 were pretty poor and seasons 3 and 4 were excellent. It surprised me that the series was cancelled after a good season when it was allowed to proceed after the first two, which seemed pretty poor.I have re-watched it all recently (well, not all of the first two seasons actually) and have been forced to modify my views slightly. Seasons 1 and 2 remain disappointing, season 3 is outstanding, great TV from any perspective, and season 4 is actually pretty disappointing. Not poor, but staggeringly unoriginal.Enterprise's very premise created certain problems for the writers. If you set a series before a whole bunch of other, earlier series (that were successful and have created a worldwide following), then you are limited by the constraints of the future created by those who have gone before you. Paradoxically, two of the best episodes of season 2 are probably also (from the point of continuity) two of the worst. The Romulans (whose ship looks far more advanced than the one Kirk jousted with) had a cloaking device - surely someone might have noted that for the future? It certainly didn't appear that Kirk et al had a clue that was out there. And surely Picard would have stumbled across the references to the Borg at some point?Anyway, the success and genius of season 3 was in making a story that was unique to Enterprise. And an inventive and creative story spread out over 24 weeks (25 really if you include the season 2 cliffhanger) too. I have realised, having watched it again recently, that the genius of season 3 (which I can't praise enough, fantastic immersive all-round entertainment, allowing Archer to really lose his moral compass) is in setting in a previous unexplored region of the galaxy. The enemy are a complex race (with 5 species), although they are also not the real enemy (these being transdimensional beings slowly transforming our galaxy to their requirements), but the inhabitants of future Star Trek series are few and far between. The Klingons figure briefly, and annoyingly, in episode 1 and are then gone. The Vulcans are there (a whole shipload of them), but are highly emotional zombies, an excellent idea! The only other race who we have encountered before are the Andorians, and they have hardly been headliners anywhere before. So, season 3 is special to Enterprise, allowing the show and the characters to expand into their own space (pardon the pun).And this is where season 4 is a failure. Yes, it's nicely made, well acted and with good stories. But, with the exception of Storm Front (which is really an addendum to season 3 and is equally enjoyable), almost every story owes it's existence to the Star Trek series that preceded it. We face Augments (with references to Khan and the Botany Bay), the ancestor of Data's creator Soong, Vulcans being manipulated by Romulans (think 'Unification'), Romulans causing mayhem (substitute the shapeshifting drones for cloaking), the Mirror Universe, Klingons and their diversity, etc. They are good stories, but they provided a disservice to Enterprise, and really makes it feel that all season 4 did was create the historical context for what followed. Too much reverence perhaps? Enterprise deserved better, especially after the overwhelming success of season 3.I'm sure the average Trekkie found this fun, but the average viewer (who the ratings depend on) was probably both confused and turned off by it. What Enterprise needed was another barnstormer like season 3. I'm certain it would have lasted longer had they continued to explore their own universe rather than provide the backstory for the series that preceded them.I would also like to protest against the clear starving of Jolene Blalock, who somehow managed to look even thinner than in previous seasons. She is not a good advert for Vulcan cuisine.It also occurs to me that Star Trek tends to stereotype other races. Whilst from the very outset (that is, The Original Series) humans adopted a range of differing hairstyles, the alien species in the various series (and this gets more apparent from the time of TNG) are stuck with one style (and for most of their history it seems). Is it feasible that at least one Vulcan (apart from Saavik) might have considered a slightly less severe 'helmet' cut? And even more so for the Romulans, who (apart from their female commander in TOS) seem to have limited dress sense as well as poor coiffure choice. Andorians, Klingons (apart from Chang, of course), etc. I wonder if anyone involved in any of the series actually picked up on this? I don't see that we need to see a fringe and a helmet cut to realise someone is a Vulcan. It makes you wonder what happened to Saavik to give her that ability to break out of centuries of tradition when no-one else even seems to have tried.On a more serious note though, season 4 was a missed opportunity. They had grabbed everyone's attention with season 3 and then dropped the ball. I'm sure they thought they were giving people exactly what they wanted, but what they were really doing was starving Enterprise of its own identity. Such a shame.

Paramount originally decided to cancel Enterprise at the end of series 3, but allowed the fourth to be made. As a result, the writers really went to town to try to cram in as much as they could.Once again, the quality of writing, direction and acting make this programme one of the very best pieces of television available. There are several multi part stories within this season, but even so the episodes stand out on their own very well. The end result was a series of episodes that addressed a lot of the back story for the "later" incarnations; and we see how the Klingons lost their forehead ridges, the beginnings of section 31, genetic manipulation and several other key items that would play a major part in the various series set further in the "future".A particular favourite of mine were the two "Mirror" universe storylines; they even went to the trouble of re-creatinging the opening and closing sequence so that the stories were viewed as if from that mirror universe. It's clear that the actors found this a really intersting twist and in particular, Scott Bakula's impassioned speech to the crew about the preservation of the empire (part of which was cut from the programme, but shown in the extras) is a masterclass in acting.The only epsiode in this set that was a disappointment was the final one; I'm not sure why they decided to bring in Jonathon Frakes, Marina Sirtis (both of whom I really like) and set the storyline as if it were on the holodeck of the Enterprise-D. But at the end of the programme, there is a piece showing the 3 main incarnations of the Enterprise with the relevant captains and the famous "split infinitive" speech; it still makes the hair stand up.We need programmes like this to inspire us and the next generation; perhaps one day, Paramount will realise their mistake and introduce a new incarnation of this landmark concept and allow a new ship with a new captain and crew to explore strange new worlds, seek out new lifeforms and new civisations; and once again, go boldly where no-one has gone before.

I was expecting great things and I was duly rewarded. This is hands down the best Enterprise season and one of the greatest ever Star Trek seasons period. It plays like a labour of love as if created by a true fan of the show with a whole lot of nods to elements of the original series and picking up on Trek-lore that had never been explored before. Vulcan mini-arc including exploration of Vulcan, it's landscapes and cities? Check. Genetically engineered humans arc with nine other than Brent Spiner as Dr Arik Soong? Check. Amazing mirror universe episode that blows the mind replete with while different opening and theme tune? Check! The while season is filled with cool stuff and stands apart from the other seasons. More people should see this, especially if a TNG fan who hasn't approached this yet. I'd even say just watch this season before the other 3 and you'll appreciate the others even more. Really pleased with this and only let down by a compromised finale episode that feels like an afterthought seeing as we never got a season 5, which would have frankly been *amazing*. The blu ray set goes into some of that in the extras. 5 star release.

I bought this in 2015 (so well out of guarantee though this should be covered) and packed it to watch this Xmas. Unfortunately season 2, discs 3,4 and 5 are corrupted by fingerprints (not mine) on the discs (I’ve checked all of them) so the episodes freeze after a few minutes grggghhhhhh. I’ve checked and seasons 3 and 4 are pristine, as they should be, but this is wrecking my Xmas and I want season 2 replaced !