Trek Trek: Essential Enterprises

I know I said I was done talking about Star Trek: Enterprise, but just one last post, OK? After my write-up of season four, I saw a bunch of people declare their intent to check out the third and fourth seasons. That’s great! But I would encourage everyone not to begin cold at the start of season three. For one thing, its beginning doesn’t make a lot of sense without the last few season two episodes — you know, cliffhangers and all that.

But more than that, the first two seasons aren’t some desperate void of hollow garbage. On the contrary, there are quite a few good episodes in those first two years. On top of that, several of them lay essential groundwork for the later seasons (especially the fourth) and you’d be remiss to skip over them. Anything involving Earth’s relationship with the Klingons, Vulcans, or Andorians is essential viewing — especially shows featuring Commander Shran and Amabassador Soval.

You can safely skip anything involving the Temporal Cold War, since it only has ties to the slightly superfluous season four opener and you can get the essentials — namely, who are Daniels and the Suliban? — by reading a summary. So, if you’re sincerely interested in seeing the best of Enterprise, give these episodes a viewing:

Season One

  • Broken Bow
  • Terra Nova
  • The Andorian Incident
  • Breaking the Ice
  • Sleeping Dogs
  • Shadows of P’Jem
  • Fusion

Season Two

  • Minefield
  • Marauders
  • Stigma
  • Cease Fire
  • Judgment
  • Regeneration
  • First Flight
  • Bounty
  • The Expanse

Fans: Did I miss any? (Besides “A Night in Sickbay,” I mean.)

6 thoughts on “Trek Trek: Essential Enterprises”

  1. Cogenitor, in S2, was, I think, the first moment I finished an Enterprise episode and sat back and thought “man, that was a good Star Trek episode”. You seemed to have a powerful reaction to it too, and I think it definitely belongs on the list.

    • Fair enough! I skipped it because the story wasn’t essential to any arcs, but it definitely marked a turning point for the series.

  2. Hey, this just came to mind. . .I distinctly remember shortly after Undiscovered Country there was talk of a mini-series staring George Takei as captain of the Excelsior that never materialized because of the focus on the Next Gen timeline but that some of those storylines morphed into elements of Enterprise. Anybody know anything about that?

    • Dunno, but Takei is one of those Trek dudes like Dorn who likes to make noise about launching a franchise around his character, so it could be half fact, half wishful thinking.

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