Star Trek: Enterprise: Season 2 [Blu-ray]

Star Trek Enterprise: The Complete Second Season(Released: 2005 by Paramount Home Entertainment)Another Looong DVD Review by Joe TorciviaStar Trek Enterprise: The Complete First Season was an unexpected pleasure. Please read that review elsewhere on Amazon. Let's move on to Season Two!In the beginning, Zefram Cochrine invented Warp Drive technology. The rest was (TV, movie, and merchandising) history!When something is great to begin with, and its follow-up is just as good, it's a wonderful thing! And so it is with Star Trek Enterprise: The Complete Second Season.As with all previous "Modern TREK Series", we resolve last season's cliffhanger, move though another solid season of surprises and delights - and, in this case, go somewhere completely unexpected in setting up the season to come.As is our custom in these reviews, we'll break it into CONS and PROS.The CONS:Packaging: The packaging remains unchanged from Season One - and is such for the duration of the series. If you like it, you like it. I do not. Nor do I truly dislike it, but more intelligence - and dare I say "LOGIC" - could have been applied to the design.Attached to the package with TWO DABS OF GLUE is a cardboard piece that wraps AROUND THE TOP FRONT, BACK, AND BOTTOM FRONT of the package! You cannot open the package without removing the cardboard. BUT, on this cardboard, is the ONLY PLACE that it is identified as being the SECOND SEASON! So, if you remove it, nothing else on the package can distinguish it from other seasons. WHY?No Skipping the End Credits: As with Season One, I found that the EPISODE END CREDITS - the SAME end credits that Paramount routinely shrunk, squashed, and did not allow to be read in its original UPN TV broadcasts - COULD NOT BE CHAPTER-SKIPPED on it's DVDs. Of course, I can choose to fast forward through them, if need be. BUT... Just thought I'd share the irony, folks!The PROS:Widescreen: STAR TREK ENTERPRISE is the first TREK series to be filmed in widescreen. When played on my HD TV and upconverted via Blu-ray player, it's a delight to behold!Content Booklet: Each season of Star Trek Enterprise comes with an enclosed BOOKLET of about 12 pages. Every episode of the set is described in sufficient detail to remind you of the particulars if you've seen it, or whet your appetite if you have not. But, where this item becomes especially valuable (...particularly for a season beyond Season One), is the recap of "The Story So Far". Very nice to have for a quick review, before beginning the new voyages.Also helpful are "Shaping the Future", emphasis on a key episode of Season Two, and "Long Range Scan", a preview of things to come in Season Three.The Episodes:"Shockwave Part II": Ever since STAR TREK THE NEXT GENERATION floored us with "The Best of Both Worlds Parts I and II", STAR TREK series have offered season-ending cliffhanger episodes! Last season's Part One revealed more tantalizing details about the "Temporal Cold War" and the dire consequences for the Earth when Archer is removed from the time stream.Part Two finds Archer marooned in the devastated 31st Century, with time-traveling "crewman" Daniels. Archer's removal, in some way, leads to the United Federation of Planets never forming and the destruction of Earth's civilization. Needless to say, the technology to return Archer to 2152 is also destroyed, leaving him and Daniels helpless and stranded. Meanwhile, an armada of Suliban (a conspirator race in the "Temporal Cold War") led by Archer's foe Silik, have captured the Enterprise, demanding that First Officer T'Pol and the crew produce Archer or face death.Other highlights include:"Carbon Creek": Vulcans crash-land in 1950s rural Pennsylvania! This may be one of the single greatest TREK stories ever! (...And THAT is no small claim!) A "break" story that features the regular crew only in framing sequences."Minefield": Introduces us to the Romulans - though they were mentioned in an historical context in "Shockwave Part II"."A Night in Sickbay": Great character story for Archer and Doctor Phlox - and Porthos the Beagle's illness makes us all sad."Marauders": Klingon raiders terrorize and plunder a small mining colony. Archer doesn't stand for this. Relive the days when Klingons were great villains! Ah, such memories!"The Communicator": A lesson in why you should never be careless with your equipment, when observing more primitive alien cultures."The Catwalk": An amazing story of the Enterprise crew "in-exile" aboard their own ship! While navigating a deadly region of radiation, the crew must take refuge in a shielded maintenance shaft - for eight days. During this period, a race immune to the danger takes control of Enterprise."Dawn": A superb "Trip and a Hostile Alien in Danger" story. Dawn, as in "sunrise", brings killer (literally) heat to the planet where the pair is stranded."Cease Fire": Expands on the bitter history of the Vulcans and the Andorians, originally explored in Season One's "The Andorian Incident". Both episodes are a great and unexpected spin on our impressions of the Vulcans."Canamar": Archer and Trip are arrested as smugglers, and sentenced to a planetary penal colony. I suppose every series, from LOST IN SPACE on, ends up doing one of these."Judgment": Archer's life is in the hands of a worn-out Klingon defense advocate."Cogenetor": Trip's interference with an alien culture has surprisingly bad consequences. The ending will kick you in the gut, like an episode of LOST or ALFRED HITCHCOCK PRESENTS!"Regeneration": No Spoilers, but I actually said "Oh, F***!" out loud, when I saw WHO was discovered in the Antarctic! (Yes, sometimes it's GREAT to approach a series completely "in the dark"! The surprises are all the more effective!) Hooks superbly into one of the TREK feature films. The episode commentary track reveals a great deal of TREK continuity-related controversy associated with this episode. Me? I had no problem, and really enjoyed it."First Flight": The "Right Stuff" story of Star Trek's Warp Program told in flashback. Jonathan Archer and his rival A.G. Robinson compete to be the first pilot to break the Warp 2 barrier!"Bounty": A Tellarite Bounty Hunter captures Archer, who is regarded as a fugitive - per the events of "Judgment", for the Klingon Empire."The Expanse":BIG SPOILER ALERT! BIG SPOILER ALERT! BIG SPOILER ALERT!(Okay, I warned you!) In its final episode of the season, ENTERPRISE takes a decidedly unexpected turn. An orbiting weapon appears from nowhere, and fires a destructive beam at Earth! The beam cuts a devastating swath of annihilation from Florida to Venezuela.Enterprise is recalled from its mission, and is to return to Earth immediately. Along the way, it is encountered by the Suliban. Silik reveals his connection with the "Man From The Future", who has been behind many of the machinations of the "Temporal Cold War"."Future Guy" (as he is called in commentary tracks) reveals that the attack came from 400 years in the future - by an as of yet unknown race called "The Xindi". The Xindi have preemptively unleashed their attack because Earth will destroy THEIR planet in the future. (...Got that, so far?)The Xindi home world exists in a "Bermuda Triangle-like" area of space called "The Delphic Expanse" where, according to our Vulcan "friends", strange phenomena occur and ships never return.Enterprise is fitted with a new command center and upgraded weaponry. It also takes on military personnel, to operate alongside its normal complement of Starfleet crewmembers. Its new mission is to locate and contact the Xindi in the PRESENT DAY, before the attack takes place. Recall that, in the context of this series, Enterprise is the only Earth ship in existence capable of reaching the Expanse.Archer and company head toward the Delphic Expanse... with a number of Klingon warships in pursuit, as Archer is still wanted by the Klingon Empire. And so, we move into Season Three, and what seems to be an unprecedented season-long arc of adventure vs. the Xindi!END OF SEASON FINALE SPOILERS!Extra Features:Numerous features on the genesis and background of the series are included. "Enterprise Moments: Season Two" focuses on season highlights. Jolene Blalock (T'Pol) is profiled. There is a featurette on the episode "A Night in Sickbay". Also included are outtakes, stills, audio and text commentaries.Overall:In its Second Season, STAR TREK ENTERPRISE is a great show - that is getting greater still as it progresses into Season Three. In a way, I'm glad I missed the original run; in order to enjoy the great experiences I'm having now!Give it a look. You won't be sorry!

Here's the summarized irony: I like science-fiction, to a point, but I'd much prefer science-fiction that is far more attuned to science-fact than fantasy. But these shows are so far-fetched, and so out-of-touch with the reality of physics and space in general that most if not all of the episodes are just, well, let me put it this way: you never never want your audience to say, "but I would never do that!"Of course, if you are trying to project a future where advances in technology make it possible to go beyond the solar system, and you want to get there and back without everyone you ever knew having been dead for centuries, well, you just have to allow for certain capabilities that simply do not, and cannot exist. Granted. I like Sci-Fi, so I will concede the technological know-how and not fuss over Einstein's - or NASA's - findings being jettisoned out into space.But there are strange and persistent ideas in the world of Star Trek that inevitably get in the way of making what could otherwise be a very interesting show. Some examples:It seems every Star Trek incarnation always has one female character that does not conform to the standard dress code. It is, as Spock might say, "Curious." There appears to be this weird notion that if you don't artificially build-in sexual suggestions into the show, or make at least one character dress in skin-tight clothing, that no one is going to watch the show. I would say: If your show is that bad that you need sex to sell it, I could think of a million better ways to spend the money. Granted I have not watched every single episode, but of those I did watch, the one episode that showed other Vulcans (when Trip visited Vulcan) never showed any of the other Vulcans wearing anything remotely like T'Pol's skin-tight body-suit. So you have a conflict in dress. You've established what the Vulcan's wear on Vulcan, but then for some inexplicable reason, they make T'Pol wear something that is out of context both in relation to Vulcan and in relation to Starfleet. It is, as Spock might say, illogical.But I do like the Starfleet uniforms on this show better than any other, except for Voyager. These uniforms are a reasonable development from what current NASA astronauts might wear today. I just don't like that they don't make T'Pol conform and wear the same loose-fitting uniform. They could have singled her out by adding a "Vulcan Mission Patch" on her sleeve, and they would have done well to keep her uniform zipped up to her neck, just like everyone else.Moving along.I like this show's Enterprise because its set design, at least in terms of the visuals, seem closer to today's instrumentation than any other incarnation of Star Trek. That allows me to identify more with this ship than Picard's Enterprise or Janeway's Voyager.I DO NOT like the shuttles. I've never seen an in-episode explanation that keeps them airborne within an atmosphere. Whatever technology is used to fly within the vacuum of space, such as warp or impulse engines, I find it amazingly difficult to swallow that it will also allow them to fly within an atmosphere, let alone land. Who in their right mind would land on their engines? It seems in Star Trek they haven't thought of retractable landing gear, but decided to use the nacelle or impulse engines much like helicopter skids. That's just so incredible as to be stupid. I can grant the technology for space, but if you're going to land on a planet, you cannot escape certain realities. On some episodes they speak of turbulence on re-entry. I watched a NASA documentary and heard a former astronaut speak about how you don't want turbulence upon re-entry. That's not a good thing. Rocketing up into space is one thing; re-entry employs an altogether different set of rules, and none of them are forgiving of carelessness. That won't change in fifty years or 450.If you're on Archer's Enterprise, and you don't beam down, you need a specially designed shuttle that is not only aerodynamic and flight capable within an atmosphere (that means you need wings) but can also fly in space. You can't land in a shuttle designed only for space-flight. Maybe someone coughed up a book attempting to explain how the shuttles can manipulate both "space" and an "atmosphere" using the same engine. To me that's incredulous. You need a shuttle with two different engine types: an engine for atmospheric flight, and a sealed secondary engine capable of space-flight. And you'd better put landing gear on it. If you don't, you will need to add a third propulsion system to your landing shuttle to enable it to convert from forward flight (horizontal thrust) to hover-mode (vertical thrust), thereby enabling it to land like a helicopter. And this time please spend the money to add retractable (and believable) landing gear. At the very least, add skids to the under-side of the engine nacelles. But maybe they're designed for that purpose.Another gripe: There are WAY TOO MANY panel ID labels in this show. Some are necessary, such as warning labels around pressurized airlocks or engine-room spaces or other critical and hazardous areas. But you don't need them on every single panel. Even if NASA shuttles had labels on every single thing you could think of, you have to mute certain things in a movie so it doesn't become a distraction to the story.Lastly (though I could think of many other gripes), there is little to no professionalism among the crew, and I fault the Captain and engineer to be the worse offenders. In the early days of NASA, the presidents decided the agency should choose its candidates from among the military. That makes them highly trained and professional. Sure they have their emotions, and sometimes things go south from the way they are expected. But if you send up a loose cannon on a ship in space, you are far more likely to lose that ship in the event of a problem than you would if you send up professionals trained to keep their cool. You can't train on simulators for every conceivable problem; but this particular show is a lot closer to our time than Picard's Enterprise. People are still wearing shirts and ties and traditional coats alongside the Vulcans. Except for a reference to NASA on a Voyager show, this show makes no reference to the transition from NASA to Starfleet, or the loss of the United States sovereignty. Regardless, NASA started out with the military and grew to include civilians. Even so, there is a tremendous amount of training and a high degree of professional decorum, and I can't believe it's just for the camera and press releases. If the crew of Apollo 13 didn't keep their cool under severe pressure, they would not have come home. After the movie of that mission came out, I'd read an article where one of those astronauts had commented that the outbursts shown on the movie was strictly Hollywood, and I believe it. You can't let go of your emotions up there; you can't be distracted by what if scenarios or fault-finding. You work the problem or you don't come home.There's plenty of terrifying Man-vs-Nature elements behind space travel that you don't need to fabricate weird blue-faced aliens. If this show and others like it were meant to inspire space exploration, then I think it has failed horribly. I don't think I've ever watched a show entirely dedicated to science - without any weird aliens, no immodesty, no sexually suggestive comments among the crew, no foul language -- just some exciting and dangerous missions that, imagine, reveal worlds you cannot breathe on, live on, or survive on, have no monsters or weird aliens or talking rocks; just a naturally hostile environment that just happens to contain the little rocks they need to power their ship. And the only path to success is a dangerous EVA.There's nothing routine about working in space. The Star Trek shows seem to have ignored this dangerous reality.

La questione Star Trek Enterprise è molto spinosa. È cronologicamente l'ultima realizzata ma temporalmente si pone un paio di secoli prima della missione quinquennale di Kirk e compagni. La produzione è stata audace ma non sempre all'altezza delle aspettative, così come questa trasposizione in alta definizione. A conti fatti, nonostante sia la serie che a livello tecnico più si presta all'alta definizione, la conversione non è all'altezza di quella fatta per TNG, serie uscita quasi venti anni prima. A parte l'aumento della risoluzione a 1080p, non vi sono miglioramenti rispetto alla versione dvd anzi, sembra effettivamente la stessa. Ancor più rispetto alla prima stagione, questa presenta tutti i limiti di una conversione HD non curata, sopratutto nelle scene buie o con poca illuminazione. L'edizione si presenta con un amaray, che racchiude la seconda stagione, inserito in uno slip case in cartoncino. Soddisfacente la quantità dei contenuti speciali.

Edición en HD de la segunda temporada de Enterprise: una serie infravalorada que empieza a alcanzar altas cotas de calidad en los últimos episodios de esta temporada. Visualmente el Bluray está algo por encima de la primera temporada, y resulta un avance respecto a los DVDs que se editaron hace casi 10 años. Sin embargo no hay que olvidar que el material no ha sido remasterizado, y visualmente se queda por debajo de la espectacular remasterización en Blu Ray de The Next Generation. La edición italiana, además de considerablemente más barata, es exactamente la misma que la española, es decir: subtítulos y doblaje en castellano.

In Season 1 ST Enterprise introduces the characters, the beginnings of Enterprise and its mandate. It was the beginning.Season 2 is a bridge to the seasons to follow: The natural evolution for a series is met in ST Enterprise Season 2, which is character driven: It fully develops the characters and the relationships between them, their hopes, dreams. Their banter, friendly disagreements, their playful sides, their common goals make this an interesting character-driven season, allowing the audience to easily relate to all of the characters by the end of Season 2.Without having the maverick, yet steady as he goes captain who puts his crew first; the interfering, condescending Vulcans who really do know best for having walked that road; the break-the-mold loyal Vulcan second in command who is for humans/against humans, according to the situation; the easy-going, down-homsey engineer who jumps in without thinking, yet who can use his superior intellect to build anything and solve problems; the skittish, yet one who can be brave communications engineer; the loner arms officer, who begins to feel like he has a family in the crew of Enterprise; the confident highly knowledgeable doctor whose insatiable curiosity is constantly being assuaged and surprised by humans - without all of these conflicted characters there could not have been the Season 3 to follow.Season 2 - The Bridge - successfully did the job it needed to do! It had good plotting, but not the great plotting to follow in Season 3. Season 2 had brief plots which disclosed how characters would act under various circumstances. Laying the groundwork of fully-developed characters and how they react under given circumstances in Season 2, allowed the writers both freedom and preparedness to develop a fully plot-driven Season 3.Season 2 works.

mit der Staffel zwei auf Blu-ray. Als Fan der Serie ein absolutes Muss. Auch hier liegen der Collector's Edition neben dem Sammelcode wieder Postkarten bei(wurde in der Beschreibung leider nicht aufgeführt) was mich natürlich erfreute. Wie in der anderen Rezension schon erwähnt wurde ist leider auch hier wieder das Ende der jeweiligen Episoden zu sehr abgehackt ich kann nur hoffen das dies in den nächsten Veröffentlichungen besser gemacht wird. Deshalb und da der Preis mal wieder sehr hoch ist nur 4Sterne von mir. Trotz allem aber eine klare Kaufempfehlung meinerseits.

Gli appassionati di Star Trek non potranno non apprezzare la qualità di questi dischi. Evidenziata dal fatto che questa serie è già stata girata nativamente con tecnologie digitali che aumentano la qualità stessa del DVD. Purtroppo vi sono fondate voci che non si produrranno le stagioni 3 e 4 di "Enterprise"...speriamo che le voci non si tramutino in realtà, altrimenti la serie rimarrà "zoppa".