Star Trek: Enterprise

Our Review

The prequel nobody wanted that quietly became a good show. A century before Kirk: the first Warp-5 starship — Archer (Scott Bakula), T’Pol, Trip, and a crew of space-rookie humanity — charts the galaxy before the Federation exists, when humans were the new kids the Vulcans kept on a leash. The first two seasons are the franchise’s most formulaic run, but season 3’s Xindi arc — a season-long revenge-and-redemption war after a probe kills seven million on Earth — was Trek’s first serialized season, and season 4 (under Manny Coto) is a love letter to the whole franchise: the augments, the Vulcan reformation, the mirror-universe two-parter, and the founding-of-the-Federation arc.

The finale (Terra Prime is the real ending; the Riker-holodeck epilogue fans have disowned for twenty years) cut the run short just as it peaked. The In a Mirror, Darkly episodes alone are worth the whole run. NX-01 deserved better.

Verdict: Watch it — start at season 3 if the early run loses you.