"Take her out ... straight and steady."

Thus begins the fifth series, Star Trek: Enterprise (originally titled simply Enterprise — the first to drop the Star Trek moniker from its title). Like Star Trek: Voyager, Enterprise debuted on UPN. This time, however, it was as the network's lead fall show of 2001. This new, landmark show, a prequel to the Original Series, focuses on the first long-term manned Starfleet expedition, only 88 years following Zefram Cochrane's Phoenix flight and first contact with the Vulcans.

The new vessel, the prototype Warp 5 starship dubbed Enterprise NX-01, was a few weeks away from its scheduled first launch when something unusual happened: a spacefaring courier from a species called "Klingon" crash-landed in Broken Bow, Oklahoma. Starfleet's Vulcan advisors tried to take charge and handle this interstellar incident themselves, but the captain assigned to command the NX-01, Jonathan Archer (Scott Bakula), insisted that it was the humans' responsibility to return this alien to his homeworld alive. Over the Vulcans' objections, Starfleet granted Captain Archer permission to launch early, his first mission being to take the Klingon, named Klaang, back to his homeworld of Kronos.

Set in 2151, the newly commissioned Enterprise NX-01 gets off to a rocky, if not premature, start. Following the Broken Bow-incident, Archer and his crew get their assignment, which is basically to seek out new life and new civilizations and, in the words of Cochrane, to "go boldly" into the depths of space.

With this being the first major starship mission for Starfleet, Archer and his trusted crew face all kinds of new challenges. "New" in the sense that humanity has not faced these challenges ... yet. (At least not in Star Trek terms.)

Assisting Archer is his second-in-command, Sub-Commander T'Pol (Jolene Blalock) As a Vulcan observer and science officer, T'Pol renders a different perspective to the neophyte captain when, and if, necessary. Sometimes she can be overly cautious, but having a Vulcan on board provides a unique perspective for the crew. Heading up the Engineering department is Commander Charles "Trip" Tucker (Connor Trinneer) a perfect foil for the Vulcan's logic with his bold, curious and emotional persona.

Lieutenant Malcolm Reed (Dominic Keating) is strictly "by the book" in his demeanor. Although he's the finest armory officer Starfleet has, his reticence to step outside the bounds of his job is reinforced by his strict military background. Ensign Hoshi Sato (Linda Park) provides one of the most important non-technical jobs on the ship — she's the translator who can help decipher or find the right linguistic patterns to be able to interpret almost any language they encounter. She's not as powerful as the ship's computer, but almost. Ensign Travis Mayweather (Anthony Montgomery) is the "space boomer" of the bunch. Not only is he the pilot of the ship, but as the crewmember who has spent perhaps the longest time in space (of the humans, that is) he's able to offer some key insights into the rigors of space flight; his enthusiasm for his role in this mission is boundless. Dr. Phlox (John Billingsley), the Denobulan physician, is another unique character. With a Sickbay full of an assortment of treatments, drugs, instruments and creatures, his view of medicine is holistic and often highly unconventional.

Enterprise offers all kinds of potential "firsts" for the Trek mythology. How Archer and his crew deal with their challenges present yet another new take on the ever evolving world of Star Trek.

The series completed 98 episodes over four seasons when it ended in May 2005, and is now in syndication.

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