Enterprise is proving to be a "space ace in the hole" for UPN, according to the new issue of Entertainment Weekly that hits newsstands today (Friday) with the seniors officers of the NX-01 featured on the cover.

Entertainment Weekly reporter Dan Snierson, in his article "2001: A New Space Odyssey," points out that the fifth Star Trek incarnation is currently the season's top-rated freshman drama among 18- to 49-year-olds, showing that "Enterprise could actually shape-shift the aging Trek franchise into a more mainstream success ... pulling in the kind of folks who don't own Federation-issue bedsheets."

Snierson looks at all the ways that this Star Trek is different from its predecessors, the most obvious being the exclusion of "two of the most hallowed words in sci-fi from the show's title." Co-creator Rick Berman is quoted as saying, "I didn't want this to be Star Trek: The Next Thing."

Another difference of note in the article: "It takes a quantum leap away from Trek geek-ology." Besides the obvious reference to star Scott Bakula ("You'd be hard-pressed to find a woman who didn't find him attractive," Berman says), the reporter points out that the producers are striving to keep the new show from being overly steeped in complex Star Trek mythology. "We're starting from scratch," Bakula says. "You don't need to have this big dictionary to back up everything happening on the screen." Adds co-creator Brannon Braga, "What I don't want to do is rely on technobabble to solve a problem ... Hopefully, people will be talking more normally."

Snierson also observes that the new show is distinctly sexier than previous Star Trek incarnations, as evidenced by scenes in the series pilot "Broken Bow" involving "butterfly-eating identical-twin alien babes," "a skin-heavy decontamination chamber liaison between Trip and T'Pol," and "the captain unwinding in his quarters ... in his underpants?" Braga is quoted, "We learned from Seven of Nine that Star Trek could use a little sensuality ... I wouldn't say sex per se ... But sensuality? You'd better believe it."

Also, the show is "not alien to human nature," which means that the people of the 22nd century are more fallible and less enlightened than those of subsequent centuries, allowing for closer identification with the audience and more opportunity for dramatic storytelling. "We have no space etiquette," says Dominic Keating (weapons officer "Malcolm Reed"). "We're not going into outer space with a complete Gandhi-loincloth approach. We'll fire first ... We don't wait to be hit upon."

Last and probably not least, "It's actually funny ... on purpose," the article states. "We're trying to make the show funnier out of the gate," says Braga, commenting that Star Trek previously was "very serious, a somewhat brooding kind of thing" and now they're looking to create "organic humor every single week." Chuckles Berman: "My favorite line — the shuttle craft lands, and as the dog runs out of the craft into the woods, Trip looks up and goes, 'Where no dog has gone before.' And the dog is running right for a tree."