A Threat to ‘Enterprise’ Mission

By almost any standard, the first year of “Enterprise’s” mission to explore intergalactic cultures would have to be deemed a success. Well-written, boldly visualized and impeccably cast, it has become UPN’s second-most-watched program, attracting an average weekly audience of 5.9 million viewers.

Tonight’s season finale (8 p.m.), however, is predicated on a threat to that mission. Titled “Shockwave,” the episode examines what happens when the starship Enterprise’s exhaust appears to trigger a massive explosion while entering the atmosphere of a planet that contains a mining colony. All 3,600 colonists are killed, and Capt. Jonathan Archer (Scott Bakula) is overwhelmed with guilt. (Parallels to 9/11 are unmistakable.)

The Enterprise’s work is promptly canceled, and crew members begin to contemplate where they’ll end up next in the mid-22nd century’s job market.

“Enterprise” is a “Star Trek” prequel, and this episode--written by executive producers and creators Rick Berman and Brannon Braga, and directed by Allan Kroeker--repeats an awful lot of the original show’s formula. Even so, one can’t help but smile when the covergirl-beautiful Vulcan sub-commander T’Pol (Jolene Blalock) placidly utters the old Spock standby, “His responses have been illogical,” to describe Archer’s dejected behavior.

The season that gave us one of the cleverest episodes on any channel--when the gym-trim, ultra-masculine chief engineer “Tripp” Tucker (Connor Trinneer) found himself impregnated by a lovely alien--ends in a cliffhanger. But not to worry. The mission continues this fall.