The fourth season is when Star Trek: Enterprise finally hit its stride and became something that fans couldn't wait to tune into every week. Too bad it was the show's last. Because this is the season when Enterprise was truly written for fans by fans — with executive producer Manny Coto taking over as showrunner, and the addition of Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens as writers (joining an already outstanding staff including Mike Sussman and Andre Bormanis). But despite the upsurge in quality, the proverbial writing was already on the wall, ratings-wise — UPN agreed to a fourth season only at a reduced license fee, meaning Paramount produced the show at a deficit just to ensure there would be enough episodes for syndication. And it's a good thing they did, because what resulted was some of the best Star Trek in years.

It was a season of experimentation, of big ideas, of social commentary, and of fleshing out the Star Trek canon to connect Captain Archer's era with Captain Kirk's — a feast for the Trekkie senses that makes you wonder what could have been if there were a fifth.

"Storm Front" (Parts I & II)

The previous season ended on a note of "Whaaaaaaa...???" It was left in Manny Coto's lap to pay off the bizarre ending of "Zero Hour," and he did an admirable job. He played with the idea of, what if Nazi Germany had gotten the upper hand in World War II? What if they got a little assist from like-minded aliens? Thus, we got to see Nazis in the White House, Hitler in Times Square, the NX-01 flying over New York City ... and Sopranos actors appearing in Star Trek. (There was also that little matter of "stunt casting" with Golden Brooks from UPN's Girlfriends, but it actually didn't turn out too badly.) It was a pretty cool way to put a cap on the Xindi arc and the Temporal Cold War at the same time. Of course, why Daniels picked this particular occasion to whisk Archer away into this situation is an open question ... but temporal operatives work in mysterious ways.

"Home"

The Next Generation broke new ground with the fourth-season "Family," which was the first time in Star Trek that we saw a starship crew going back to Earth and recuperating after a huge traumatic event. The tradition continued with "Home," when Archer and company took a well-deserved break from outer space adventures to deal with internal and personal conflicts. We got to meet Archer's old flame, Erika Hernandez, and see the completed Columbia NX-02. We got to meet T'Pol's mother T'Les, as well as her ex-fiancé Koss. And there was a Vulcan wedding, keeping true to the rituals established in "Amok Time" (though less lavishly). All those relationships become crucial later in the season, as does a display of xenophobia on Earth (showing that humans in the future are still complicated animals). This episode was fun in part because of all the "easter eggs" planted throughout: the three-sided monitor in the debriefing room reminiscent of the Original Series; a cool new Starfleet emblem seen in the background; the depiction of Vulcan's "Fire Plains"; and the guest appearance of Jack Donner as a Vulcan Priest, 36 years after playing a Romulan in "The Enterprise Incident."

"Borderland"

Kudos to Manny and the team for finding a way to get Brent Spiner onto Enterprise. And for tying him into a plot that recalls one of our favorite villains ever: Khan Noonien Singh. And they also deserve praise for not sidestepping around the timeline issue — it's clearly stated (by Phlox) that the Eugenics Wars took place in the 20th century, just as established in the Original Series. As fun as it was to see Brent playing the nefarious Dr. Arik Soong (his sly smile as he recognized Earth's most famous hero was priceless), this episode may be more famously remembered for re-introducing one of our favorite alien species: the Orion Slave Girl. Oh yeah, and there were the Orion males, the slave traders, seen for the very first time ... they were cool too ... but oh my, the Orion Slave Girl ...

"The Forge"

We hated to see Admiral Forrest die, but the stakes had to be high to get Archer involved in the investigation of the Earth embassy bombing on Vulcan. This premise set the stage for a three-part story that contained some startling social and political commentary. Speaking first on just a Trekkie level, this script by the Reeves-Stevenses very reverently tied together canonical material about Vulcan from not only previous shows and movies but from the Animated Series and certain books. But more significantly, the writing team (over the course of the trilogy) did not shy away from blatantly analogizing the Iraq War and the machinations behind it. And it went even deeper than that... "Over the centuries, his followers made copies of his teachings." "Let me guess — with the originals lost, whatever's left is open to interpretation." "You find that amusing?" "I find it familiar." Anyone care to speculate what they were trying to say? Honestly, whatever you think of Enterprise as a series, this was some of the bravest and most relevant writing ever in Star Trek.

"Observer Effect"

At least a couple of times a year, the production team does a "bottle show" to help bring the whole season in on budget — which is an episode that takes place strictly on standing ship sets and makes minimal use of guest stars or visual effects. The interesting thing about a bottle show is that it challenges the writers to think with simplicity, and it has resulted in some of the best character-based stories in Star Trek — such as Voyager's "Someone to Watch Over Me." In "Observer Effect," there were no guest stars, no elaborate locales — just the actors and some meaningful ideas. Thus, we had a compelling "Andromeda Strain"-like scenario that tested the mettle of our characters and utilized the talents of each principal cast member. In other words, good old-fashioned storytelling. And the revelation that the aliens were the Organians — to be encountered again in 100 years by Captain Kirk — was icing on the cake.

"Babel One"

In Star Trek canon, there is a bloody conflict between Earth and Romulus that starts somewhere around 2156. The Romulan Wars were one major reason for the formation of the United Federation of Planets. In 2154, the groundwork was laid for these wars when a remote-controlled Romulan vessel invaded the region of space occupied by Vulcan, Tellar and Andoria, disguising itself and attacking ships, trying to upset the formation of alliances amongst the species. Apparently the Romulans were hoping to reunite with their Vulcan cousins and form a powerful galactic empire. But the human ship Enterprise got in the way and foiled their plans. Thus, the Romulans had it out for Jonathan Archer and his kind. Coto has stated that if the show had gone into a fifth and sixth season, they would have dealt with the Romulan Wars themselves. Sigh...

"Affliction" / "Divergence"

In July of 2003, this site published an essay called "Klingon Discrepancy Theories: Where Did the Ridges Go?" — because there was probably no more favorite a topic of conjecture among Trek fans (other than who would win in a fight, Kirk or Picard) than why Klingons looked different in Captain Kirk's day than any time after or before. Well, fortunately, before this era of Star Trek came to a close, our clever Enterprise writing team came up with an "official" answer. And it was pretty cool, too, because it logically tied into the "Augments" arc earlier in the season, thus tying the human-looking Klingons of the 23rd century with the Eugenics Wars and Khan. And something that's weird to think about as you re-watch the Original Series, is that John Colicos and all those swarthy smooth-headed Klingons actually have some Jonathan Archer DNA in them. Maybe that's one reason why, according to Worf, Klingons don't like to discuss this matter with outsiders.

"Bound"

You're already aware of this writer's geekish captivation with Orion Slave Girls, so this episode was, like, da bomb. It's the one we've been waiting for since we first saw "Vina" do her green-skinned dance in "The Menagerie." Cyia Batten and the other girls were awesome and luscious ... the dance choreographed by Travis Payne was intriguing and erotic ... and there was just a lot of old-fashioned flavor to this episode inspired by Gene Roddenberry's original sensibilities. (Credit, again, goes to Manny Coto.) Yes, you could argue that the residual chauvinism of the Sixties is not something that ought to be revived, but there was an interesting twist in this script: It turns out that in Orion society, it's the women who are "really" in charge.

"In a Mirror, Darkly" (Parts I & II)

Loved it. Just loved it. Loved the revisionist "First Contact" opening ... loved the militaristic title sequence ... loved the Terran Empire trappings ... loved seeing a full-bodied Tholian (wasn't crazy about the Gorn, though — way too agile) ... and absolutely loved seeing the Original Series bridge re-created in exacting detail. Talk about a feast. The concept by Mike Sussman was to do a sequel to "The Tholian Web" and a prequel to "Mirror, Mirror," and he executed it with great care and affection — as did the entire production team. An entire book could be written about all the thought that went into this epic two-parter. (They should quote Vaughn Armstrong's comment that Star Trek couldn't take him out in just one blaze of glory — it took two.) But all you need to do is pop in the DVD and watch ... and find yourself saying, "Oh, I get that! ... I know where that's from! ... Soval with a goatee? Ha!"

"Demons" / "Terra Prime"

In a two-part episode that some cast members have publicly said was their true final hurrah, it turns out that humanity's greatest enemy is the one within. Just as Earth is getting ready to establish itself in the galactic community, the old ways of bigotry, belligerence and jingoism rear their ugly, ugly head. Once again, the script was extremely thoughtful and relevant, with plenty of action and effects to excite the senses. And boy, Peter Weller sure brought a lot of class to the proceedings. Any way you slice it, a great work of science fiction.

In retrospect, it is entirely possible that knowing this would probably be their final season led the Enterprise writers and production team to pull out all the stops. There was no playing it safe. There was no time for timidity. If we're going out, we're gonna go kicking and screaming.

It may have been, from a business view, a case of too little too late. But at least this great final season of a noble show will live forever on DVD, or video downloads, or whatever media may exist as we step further into the future. Those who missed it, we hope, will still discover it, and be reminded that Star Trek in all its forms still has a lot to offer.