Star Trek: Enterprise and Its Impact on Sci-Fi
This is the fifth Star Trek series that aired from 2001 to 2004. It only had four seasons because it was not very successful. Initially, it was very popular, but it slowly lost audience and therefore it was decided to end it at the fourth season.
As a time period, this series is set in the 22nd century, thus before the birth of the United Federation of Planets, and is even earlier than the classic series with Captain Kirk. It is therefore the first true exploration of space and in this Earth is led by the Vulcan people who began space exploration long before we humans.
Captain Archer's crew consists of humans except for the science officer, a Vulcan named T'Pol, and a Denobulan named Phlox, who is the ship's doctor.
The ship is very spartan compared to what we were used to on Voyager or Captain Picard's ship and has practically no shields or very sophisticated war armaments, so it is difficult for them to find themselves in armed conflicts with different species, as indeed happens in the early years of exploration.
They also find themselves having to defeat a very powerful enemy that aims to destroy the earth and in an initial attack, claimed millions of lives. Teleportation exists on the ship, but it is not used much, as it is safer to travel by shuttle.
Captain Archer once said that he would not even let his dog in, although he and his crew members have had to use it a few times.
Captain Archer has to try to prove the maturity of humans, mainly to the Vulcans, who were the first alien people to make contact with Earth after the discovery of the warp engine and are extremely critical of the human race, as they describe it as too emotional and therefore unsuitable for dealing with other worlds and other races.
During its explorations, the Enterprise and its crew encounter many alien species, some friendly, others much less so. Curious but rather warlike are the Andorians with their blue skin and constantly moving sensory antennae.
Very dangerous are the Xindi who attempt the destruction of Earth, and the Sulibans who have curious mimetic abilities. But they also encounter Klingons. Romulans, Tellarites, and even the Borg.
They manage, however, to lay the foundations for a future birth of the United Federation of Planets that will be sanctioned in the very last season of the series. A typical curiosity of this series is the time war, which we find in all seasons, with Captain Archer even being dragged by a time agent into the 21st century and even in the last season the Enterprise returning to Earth finds itself in 1944 during World War II.
The fate of the war is different than in reality, Germany has invaded the United States. We also find again in this final season the actor who played Data in The Next Generation, Brent Spiner, who as Dr Song will cause several problems for the crew of the Enterprise.
This series was aired until 2005, we will have to wait until 2017 to see a new Star Trek series, called Discovery and still ongoing, and then the return of the beloved 80-year-old Captain Picard in a TV series that aired in 2020 and of which a second season is expected.
There have also been many films on the Star Trek saga with the various characters known in the various TV series, which have been very popular with science fiction-loving audiences.
