STAR TREK ENTERPRISE - THE COMPLETE THIRD SEASON (2003)

Star Trek Enterprise is of course (do I even need to tell you this?) set a hundred years before the events of the original Trek series with Kirk, Spock et al.

It features Scott Bakula of Quantum Leap fame as the captain of the very first Enterprise starship.

Considered by many fans to be the best season of the series, season three picks up where the cliff-hanging final episode of the previous season left off, namely the so-called Xindi story arch.

The Xindi story arch is an earnest attempt to expand the by now too familiar Star Trek universe by introducing a new set of villains in the guise of a multi-species race known as the Xindi which attacked the Earth without any provocation. Well, sort of. See the Xindi is convinced that the Earth will destroy their planet several centuries in the future and decided to take some pre-emptive action in the meantime. Whoever convinced the Xindi of this is a mystery, one which the Enterprise crew must unravel. However, as the first episode of the new season progresses the viewer realizes that this is going to be a loooong process since the Xindi story arch seems to be inspired by the alien conspiracy one of the X-Files.

Short-sighted and anal Trek fans may dislike Star Trek Enterprise, but the show was actually an improvement over previous incarnations of the franchise such as Voyager and Deep Space Nine. Sure, it has the most annoying theme song in the history of TV, but thanks to DVD chapter halts one can skip right over it. Also, with the Xindi storyline it tried to do something more interesting than the usual Romulan/Vulcan/Borg set of bad guys.

THE DISCS: With packaging virtually identical to the previous seasons you'd probably have a tough time pulling the right box set from the shelves! But it isn't only the packaging that remained consistent: menus structures are also the same, which is unfortunate since mistakes (or rather weaknesses) are thus repeated, the most notable being the absence of a plot summary with each episode. Framing is however decent and so is the sound and image quality.

WORTH IT? Like all TV shows Star Trek Enterprise had its ups and downs, but it remains a very watchable show.

RECOMMENDATION: If you're an anal Star Trek fan who disliked Enterprise out of principle, it is time to give the show another chance. Buy it.