Enterprise

What kind of geek would I be if I never had an entry in my blog about Star Trek?

Lately, I've been watching Enterprise. The SciFi Channel has been airing the entire series on Monday nights with 4 back to back episodes. We've finally reached Season 2. At least, I assume it's Season 2 based on some observations I've made.

Let me back up for a moment and say that this is one series I never saw from the beginning. When it originally aired I saw perhaps 2 or 3 episodes, decided I didn't like Scott Bakula's character, and stopped watching. To be honest, I was a HUGE fan of Quantum Leap and I couldn't let go of "Dr. Sam Beckett". I also abhorred the theme song for Enterprise. It was so...un-Trek-like.

I'm glad I've given the series a second chance. Back to my observations:

1. Archer: In Season 1, Captain Archer was warm and fuzzy. The friendly, outgoing Captain who was friends with his crew (or he tried to be). He was optimistic, naive and eager to get "out there" and explore. In Season 2, he's jaded. He's become the angry, unapproachable captain...single minded, focused (perhaps on revenge), and has lost all semblance of understanding and patience. I hope this new trend doesn't last long.

2. T'Pol: I love this female Vulcan character. She is even more flawed than Spock was. I love seeing the crew getting under her skin and breaking through her seemingly thin veneer of Vulcan stoicism. Her sudden change of costume was my first big clue that the show had moved from Season 1 to Season 2. Suddenly she has a much more sexy and colorful wardrobe. I can only assume that her character was specifically designed as tasty eye-candy for all my male geek compadres out there. [insert wink]

3. Story Line: The plots seem to have taken a dark turn. So far I'm enjoying this new story thread much better than the old Star Trek formula used in Season 1 (stumble on a new race/discovery randomly and learn a lesson from the encounter).

4. Theme Song: A theme song on a Star Trek series??? This fact still weirds me out, but the song has undergone some tweaking in the new season. It's more...upbeat. I think I prefer the older version. It was thoughtful, mellow, and it put my baby right to sleep. Always a good thing.

So far, so good. I hope SciFi airs all 98 episodes. I've found that I enjoy watching a series this way...every episode, nearly back to back, for the entire run of the show. I plan to rent some other shows that got missed (like Firefly).

Correction: The things I've observed actually delineate changes from Season 2 to Season 3. Interesting. I've since read that the show had to make some changes to try and win back viewers after a fall in the ratings in Season 2.

Oh, and for all you geek fellas out there...don't give up hope. I've often seen it speculated that the ultimate geek fantasy girl (attractive, smart, into computers, loves SciFi, Star Trek fan, digs comic books and even collects them...etc) doesn't exist. She does. My geek man found ME, after all. Of course, now I'm married, over 40, over weight, and have 2 kids; so that fantasy ship has sailed...but you should have seen me in the 80s. ;-)