Vulcans, and Cold Wars, and Shran...oh my!
Captain Archer and his crew certainly haven't taken it easy during their first 4+ months of their mission. They've already made a few friends, a few enemies, and a number of discoveries. There are a few things that stick out to me about these first dozen episodes:
1.) The enthusiasm the crew has for exploration. I wish we could see more of it, but when it's there, it's believable and fun! Exploration of this kind is lost on our generation. Our planet has been mapped, and there aren't likely to be new civilizations yet to be discovered on Earth. It makes sense that in the future, when humans once again are able to physically go out into the unknown, there would be a sense of excitement. This is conveyed well in episodes like "Strange New World" and "Civilization". This is a nice change of pace from the usual Trek fare from the other series. Although TOS and TNG also deal with exploring he unknown, there isn't the same "We're making history with every light year" mentality and excitement among those crews as there is on ENT.
2.) The Vulcans are turning out to be an interesting race: I plan to write more on this in a future "Alien Spotlight" entry, but early on, we get to see that their interest in humans (and specifically the Enterprise crew) is curious, and not all that "logical". It's almost as if they want humans to fail. They are in some ways both an ally and an obstacle to overcome. Humans' first "frienemie". T'Pol's decision to stay on board and not go through with her arranged marriage in "Breaking the Ice" was seemingly uncharacteristic, and shows some early growth in her character. I like that in many ways, these "early" Vulcans are very different from the Vulcans we've come to know from the other series. For one thing, in their own way, they can be quite emotional.
3.) Andorians!: Blue guys with antennae who don't trust anyone. I love these guys! The twist at the end of "The Andorian Incident" was great. In a few minutes at the end of one episode, we see Archer turn an adversary into an unlikely ally. I really enjoyed this episode, and look forward to seing more of the Andorians (and Shran in particular) in the coming seasons. One thing that ENT did really well, in my opinion was their treatment of the Andorians. they took one of TOS's odder aliens, and turned them into a very interesting "new" species.
4.) The Temporal Cold War heats up: It's really a shame they didn't follow through with this arc in a satisfying way. I know a lot of fans didn't like the TCW from the beginning, but I really think that early on it had a lot of promise. "Cold Front" is really a nice episode, and it gave ENT a through-thread in the first season. I remember watching this for the first time and always looking forward to he next TCW chapter. Even now, knowing that it's never fully resolved, I still can't help but anticipate episodes like"Shockwave".
There were a few less-than memorable episodes in this first batch, but overall it's nice to start to get to know the crew, and share in their early adventures exploring space, meeting new races, and getting more acquainted with each other and the ship. I'm looking forward to seeing where they go from here!
NEXT: "Exploring the Explorers: Meet The Enterprise Crew"