Star Trek Enterprise – The Complete Third Season
Picture: C+
Sound: B- Extras: C+ Episodes: B-
By 1993, the writing had to be on the wall. Despite the ever-loyal fans, the entire Star
Trek franchise was running out of steam.
It was out of ideas and especially out of heart, with the reference, to
the reference, to the reference, to the reference, to the reference, to the
reference, to the reference, to the reference, to the reference, to the
reference, to the reference, to the reference, to the reference or that episode
from thirty years ago had played out beyond belief. Outside of those who bailed out, save those who got migraine
headaches and brain hemorrhages, even the egghead high standards of what made
the franchise appealing were gone. Star
Trek Enterprise – The Complete Third Season is a very weird experience as a
result.
At this point, watching the show is like watching sequels
to the 1968 Planet Of the Apes, where the make-up seems substandard,
production design mixed and (as with the final Apes installment) tired,
bored acting with bored actors. At this
point, the rest of the cast had caught up to (or slowed down to) Scott Bakula
as Jonathan Archer. Big mistake. To repeat, I wondered if a different actor
could have done better and even if one could have, it ultimately would not have
made any difference to the fate of the franchise. Now with the rest of the cast slacking and/or being given bad
teleplays, it was either replace the whole cast, start a new show, or cancel
this one and fold the franchise. The
latter happened.
The episodes over the seven DVDs are as follows, with
shows offering deleted scenes marked by an *, deleted scenes with an @ and text
commentary by Michael & Denise Okuda marked with an #:
1) The
Xindt #
2) Anomaly
3) Extinction
4) Rajiin
5) Impulse
#
6) Exile
7) The
Shipment
8) Twilight
9) North
Star *
10) Similitude *#
11) Harbinger
12) Doctor’s Orders
13) Hatchery
14) Azati Prime
15) Damage
16) The Forgotten
17) E2 [squared] @
18) The Council
19) Countdown #
20) Zero Hour
As for the performance of the shows on disc, the
anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1/16 X 9 image on all the shows are again
consistent, but are not the best transfers we have seen from any of the series
boxes this time. Not only is the color
no match for the better episodes of the original 1960s series, reviewed
elsewhere on this site, but the strangest new development this time is that the
digital effects are clearer than the footage shot with the actors, which is
very annoying and was not a problem with the last two sets. The digital visual effects are still also
better than the usually bad and sloppy work we are seeing all over the
place. The Dolby Digital sound is
available in 2.0 Stereo with Pro Logic surround and a somewhat better 5.1 mix,
which may not be the epitome of 5.1 mixes, but is not bad and the preferred
track choice here.
Extras this time include the deleted scenes, text
commentary and audio commentary as noted.
DVD 7 also offers The Xindt Saga Begins featurette, Secrets and Moments
for this season, a Connor Trinneer profile, Roxann Dawson director profile,
photo gallery and outtakes. That is
fewer extras than the last two sets, falling short for this set at these high
prices, so fans should brace themselves for that. The packaging is still top-rate, helping to justify that price tag
outside of the content limits.
Otherwise, The Complete Third Season is for diehard fans only.
- Nicholas Sheffo
