Thoughts on Season Three.

Season Three is a huge improvement over Enterprise's second season in almost every way imaginable. Not everything works, but enough does to provide not only the best season of Enterprise, but one of the very best Trek seasons I've reviewed to date.


CHARACTERS

Most of the episodes still center on Archer, Trip, and T'Pol - which is fair enough, since they are the leads. But the supporting cast are no longer "characters in boxes," used for a single episode here or there and otherwise ignored. We get good scenes sprinkled throughout the season between Reed and Hoshi, Reed and Archer, Hoshi and Mayweather, Hoshi and Archer, Phlox and anyone he's on-screen with... in short, they are once again interacting as a crew. The actors' performances improve accordingly.

Season Three takes a darker direction than earlier seasons, which particularly benefits Scott Bakula's performance. He's always been at his best when playing Archer's anger. This season starts with Archer responding to that anger and to the responsibility thrust upon him. As Archer makes multiple hard and ruthless decisions for the sake of the mission, a sort of grim determination settles over him. He's not necessarily angry anymore. But he's not the same man he was. This is a good, and interesting, thing, and Bakula is terrific in almost every episode.

In my Season Three wishlist, I expressed hope that we would get some strong recurring characters this season. In Degra, the season delivers one of the best non-regular characters since the glory days of DS9. Degra is a complex character, who is taken on a very believable journey over the course of the season. His evolving friendship with Archer is well-scripted and well-played by both actors, and both actor Randy Oglesby and the writers deserve praise for how well this character works.

The MACO's, however, represent possibly the season's biggest missed opportunity. We are given a group of soldiers, used to a tightly disciplined command structure, now thrust into an unfamiliar environment among a close-knit crew. They're outsiders. It would have been interesting to have seen some episodes devoted to them finding their place within this structure.  Instead, they are mostly relegated to the status of cannon fodder. The only one the writers even attempt to characterize is Major Hayes. But Hayes is only in a handful of episodes, so he never feels like a part of the crew. He's characterized in broad cliches, and dies a broadly cliched death, right down to heroic words on his deathbed. This has all the impact of the burning of a wooden mannequin.


SEASON STRUCTURE

The season-long arc is well-structured. The first third of the season sets the stage, introducing the major concepts: The Xindi Council, the Anomalies, the Spheres, the Weapon, and the potential for Archer to make alliances. We end that movement with Twilight, which hammers home what is at stake by showing us a future in which the mission fails. Then, realizing that a full season of nothing but arc stories will exhaust viewers, the writers give us some standalone episodes. North Star and Carpenter Street are far from great, but they are enjoyable as a change of pace. Meanwhile, Similitude and Chosen Realm are genuinely good episodes that show that independent Trek stories can work in this new setting.

The last act of the show begins with the arrival at Azati Prime, and from that moment on the momentum builds to a very high pitch. The two linked 3-parters - Azati Prime/Damage/The Forgotten and The Council/Countdown/Zero Hour - are well executed, edge-of-your-seat stuff. These episodes showcase the advantages of a building arc. Because of the 17 episodes that went before, these episodes get to simply pull triggers. The results are explosive, with some of the best action and special effects set pieces I have seen on television.  Best still, the action comes without losing sight of the regulars' characterization.


SEASON FOUR WISH LIST

So... Season Four. Enterprise's final season, and the final season of televised Trek to date. What would I like to see from it? Well, first off, I hope that the characters are not reset to their Season 1 & 2 selves. They've been through a lot, and done a lot that should have permanently changed them. Archer, in particular, should not be able to fully come back from the hard pragmatism he's been forced to exercise. If Archer's back to whimpering about his dog while threatening to pee on annoying aliens' sacred trees, I'm going to be very irritated with the writers.

I also hope the storytelling doesn't fully return to standalone episodes. I don't want another season-long arc; that would be exhausting. But I do hope the stories feed on each other a bit more than was the case in Seasons One and Two, with individual stories building into something more. I also hope we return to some of the more interesting arcs of the first two seasons. Many hints were dropped about the Vulcans having their own agenda early in the series. The Vulcan/Andorian relations were  one of the more interesting facets of hte first two seasons. Then there's the matter of the Suliban, who were all but forgotten after Shockwave. The setting of Season Three necessitated dropping these elements. But now I'd like to see them returned, and hopefully even resolved.

Mostly I'd just like some good, solid storytelling, with a crew that works together and interacts. Season Three has shown that Trek can work as a "modern" science fiction series. Let Season Four show it continue to do so, in a different way.

I'm also looking forward to seeing the much-hated finale, if only to see if it's half as bad as its reputation suggests.

 

 

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