TV Show Review: Star Trek Enterprise - Season 4

Stars: 5 out of 5

Pros: Great story telling in the multi-episode arcs.

Cons: The few standalone episodes aren't as good. Price

The Bottom Line:

Show's strongest season

With interesting stories

Only one to watch

Ironically, the Best Season of the Failed Star Trek: Enterprise

After three seasons of continual ratings decline, UPN shocked many when it renewed Enterprise for a final season. The show moved to Fridays, a move that showed a lack of confidence in the show.

Behind the scenes, Manny Coto took over as executive producer and show runner during this time. His infusion of fresh ideas brought us an exciting, entertaining, and unpredictable season.

The only reason I was still watching it at this point was because I had friends who came over to watch it with me. If I could have talked them out of it, I would have missed this season. That would have been a real shame.

Season 4 starts with a two parter bringing a conclusion not only to last season's finale, which found Captain Archer (Scott Bakula) in a World War II where aliens were helping the Axis, but also ended the series long temporal cold war story arc. The ending felt a little rushed, like Mr. Coto wanted to be done with it and move on.

Once the season got going, however, we were treated to lots of two or three episode story arcs that were highly entertaining. The first such story involved tracking down so-called Augments, humans with altered genetic abilities and brought Brent Spiner as a guest star. These episodes built upon stories from the original series and one of the movies, neither of which I had seen. I enjoyed them, but not as much as I would have if I had seen the back-story.

Many of the stories worked to set up the future Treks. One arc was devoted to a civil war on the Vulcan home world. Through T'Pal (Jolene Blalock) we got a glimpse into the changes that would come to their culture before the Original Series started.

One inconsistency between the Original Series and every other Trek series has been the Klingon makeup. A two parter from this season explains why when Dr. Phlox (John Billingsley) is kidnapped and made to try to fix a genetic disease. I hadn't been looking for an explanation to this inconsistency, but I liked the one they gave us.

In another move to please fans, we get a two parter set in the Mirror Universe. This was my first exposure to the dark side, but I can see the appeal. It was quite fun.

In the third season, Chief Engineer "Trip" Tucker (Connor Trinneer) and T'Pol had begun to develop a reluctant attraction to each other. This is build upon during the final season. At times it takes on a soap opera feel, but ultimately it keeps the viewer hooked.

Of course, one thing everyone wanted to see from this series was the start of the Federation. While we only get a glimpse of it during the finale, the basis is laid in a three part story line in which Enterprise finds itself caught between the Andorians, Tellarites, and Vulcans when someone begins attacking all three of their ships.

The season finale was a bitter disappointment to long time Trekkies. Set several years ahead of the rest of season 4, it shows the founding of the Federation via the holodeck of the Next Generation's Enterprise as Commander Riker (guest star Jonathan Frakes) uses the events to help him make a decision. Designed to be a finale to the recent 20 year run of Star Trek on TV, it upset many fans with it's focus on Next Generation characters over Enterprise characters.

Naturally, every season has a few dud episodes, but this season's entertaining episodes far outweighed the mediocre ones. Enterprise Season 4 is the only season of this show worth getting.