THE CREW OF ENTERPRISE NX-01 IS NOT HAVING A good day on Stage 18 at Paramount Studios. Several of the characters are stranded on a storm-tossed alien planet where they have been infected with a toxic pollen. Some are almost comotose, while others- like chief engineer Commander Charles "Trip" Tucker III, who is holding a phase pistol on his superior, the Vulcan Sub Commander T'Pol, and threatening to kill her- have gone stark-raving mad. Back on the starship, their captain, Jonathan Archer, is desperately trying to save T'Pol's hide by having his communications officer, Hoshi Sato, radio advice in T'Pol's native tongue that Trip won't understand.
"Sahsuran ahot Iudah-sloya," actress Linda Park- who plays Hoshi- is supposed to say. But she stumbles on the line during rehearsal, and it comes out" Mahsuran sahmot Iudah-sloyah," she says, then winces upon realizing she has blown it yet again. Her scene mate Scott Bakula- who plays Archer- turns to the camera crew and says, "Does anybody here speak Vulcan?" The crew cracks up. So, after letting out a long sigh of frustration, does Park.
Welcome to UPN's Enterprise, a prequel to Gene Roddenberry's classic 1960's series Star Trek, where just about everything, on-screen and off-, is new and weird and wildly problematic. But that's the point. After three Trek spinoffs- the megahit Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987-94), the wonderfully edgy but less watched Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1993-99) and the safe, but ultimately buzz-free, Star Trek: Voyager (1995-2001)- fascination with the franchise, even among diehard Trekkers, was starting to wane, and what was once fantastical was now mundane. Thus Rick Berman, executive producer of the Trek spin-offs, wanted Enterprise "to go back to the core" of what Roddenberry intended Star Trek to be when he pitched the idea to NBC- a Wagon Train to the stars.
"We needed to bring back the wonder and the excitement and scariness of outer space," says Berman, who, in creating Enterprise with longtime Trek writer-producer Brannon Braga, has set the show only 150 years from today (that's a century before the time of William Shatner's Captain Kirk), when space exploration required nerves of steel and cojones to match. "In the last two spin-offs,our characterws were not where they wanted to be, and I think that lost us viewers," Berman notes. "[DS9's] Captain Sisko and his colleagues weren't crazy about life on their space station, and [Voyagers] Captain Janeway was heading a vessel pointed in the wrong direction. But Captain Archer is dying to get into space. I think viewers who stepped away when Next Generation went off the air will come back and want to go with him."
Says Bakula, during a break in shooting: "People are wondering if Berman and Paramount [which owns the Trek franchise] should have waited a while before doing another spin-off, but I'm sensing a groundswell of excitement. I think the fans are very ready to reenlist." One could also wonder if Enterprise- and the franchise itself- might not benefit from some new blood at the helm. (Berman has Trek-ked nonstop for 14 years, Braga for 11.) "That's a totally fair question, and there's part of me that thinks Paramount should fire and replace me," admits Braga. "But I think Rick and I are the perfect guys to deconstruct and reconceive Star Trek, because we know exactly what the problems and frustrations have been all these years."
Media analyst Steve Sternberg, of TN Media, agrees. "The Star Trek fans know their stuff, so it's better that Enterprise be done by people who really know Trek history," he says. "Besides, I think peole will look at it as a new sci-fi show rater than another Trek show."
To encourage that, Star Trek has been dropped from the title to create, says Braga, "a bit of postmodern vibe. Hopefully the people who've been putoff the enormity of the Trek back story will check us out, because you don't have to know anything about Trek to watch this one."
The two hour Enterprise premiere (set to air September 26, 8 P.M./ET) kicks-off with a farmer shooting a Kilingon - the first ever seen by humans- in an Oklahoma cornfield (the Klingon's craft crashed there while being chased by the Suliban, a never-before-seen villain race that figures prominently in the new series.) Near death, the Klingon must be returned to his home world, forcing the yet as untested Enterprise- Earth's first starship with warp 5 capabilities- to lauch several weeks ahead of schedule. The Vulcans, first encountered by earthlings in 2063 (according to the 1996 movie "Star Trek: First Contact"), strongly oppose the mission, believing that humans are not ready to venture into deep space. In fact, they've purposely hindered earthling progress in space travel, infuriating Archer, whose father helped develop teh warp 5 engine. The plot thickens, says Berman, "when it takes Archer very little time to lose the Klingon."
Heavy on shock and horror, Enterprise takes a you-are-there approach. "We want viewers to really feel what it's like to 'boldly' go," says Park during a lunch break. "Here we are having never flown at warp 5 speed. We don't know if we're going to implode, and there's a Suliban climbing backward up the ventilation shaft about to kill [us]. Unlike a lot of futuristic shows, we take nothing for granted. It's all new for us."
That includes the show's 22nd-century technology, which is endearingly quaint and highly troublesome compared with the gizmos and gadgetry in the 24th century spin-offs. "Our transporters can be used to send a box of bolts, a suitcase or a ham snadwich," says Berman, "but humans are damned if they're going to get on the thing and let their molecules be decompiled." The submarinelike starship has an armored hull plating instead of a shield, grapplers instead of tractor beams and old-fashioned torpedoes instead of photon torpedoes. Phase pistols have been introduced and phasers are in their infancy. The universal translators are lousy at interpreting nuance.
Unlike the sleek uniforms worn by future Starfleeters, the Enterprise crew wears baseball-style caps and loose-fitting jumpsuits similar to those worn by garage mechanics. Except, that is, for T'Pol- played by Jolene Blalock- who, despite an earlier denial in TV GUIDE from Berman, will wear a seemingly sprayed-on catsuit rather like the one worn by Voyager dish Jeri Ryan.
And that's just the tip of the sexual iceberg. Though Enterprise will, according to Braga, keep the franchise "family-friendly," the show is bawdier than its predecessors. The premiere features a sensuous near-nude decontamination scene in which T'Pol and Trip (Connor Trinneer) rub phosphorescent gel on each other's hand-to-reach spots. In addition, Ensign Travis Mayweather (Anthony Montgomery) titillates Trip with tales of his sexual encounter with the three-breasted women of the planet Draylax, and the crew visits an intergalactic red-light district, complete with alien hookers who lap butterflies with their 8-inch tongues.
And what about those rumours that Lieutenant Malcolm Reed- the girl-shy torpedo-obsessed Brit played by Dominic Keating- will eventually be outed and become the first gay regular in Trek history?" That's totally untrue," says Berman. "Well, I shouldn't say totally. We've just decided not to make an issue of it for the time being."
Like James T. Kirk, Bakula's character will also be a red-blooded skirt chaser. In fact, homages to the classic series are everywhere, from the props (look for a replica of Spock's desktop viewer) to the return of popular alien species (among them, the Andorians). The Enterprise triumvirate of Archer (the all-American space cowboy), T'Pol (the stoic, emotionless, pointy-eared Vulcan) and Trip (the twangy good old boy) is practically a carbon copy of Kirk, Spock and "Bones."
"To have a Kirk-like captain who is more imperious than austere is a great way to go," says John Billingsley, who plays Enterprise's alien anthropologist Dr. Phlox. "The prequel is about people who are giddy and sometimes reckless, not seasoned pros there to uphold and obey the Prime Directive."
Now, if only the Trek execs would do something about the leaden space suits the Enterprise characters sometimes wear when visiting other planets. "We wore ours for half a day at a time," says Billingsley, "but Scott wore his every hour for three straight days, and at the end of the last scene on the third day- when the rest of us are going "Please, God, let this be over with!"- Scott says, 'Let me have another take.'" Continues Billingsley: "Part of me is thinking, 'I'm gonna kill him!' But the bigger part is thinking, 'Wow, Scott, you are such a horse!" And that's what this show needs to succeed- a guy willing to carry the big load, a guy who'll go to the distance, a guy you will follow anywhere."
THE CREW
JOLENE BLALOCK
AS VULCAN SUB COMMANDER T'POL
Bet against Jolene Blalock in a game of Vulcan trivia and you will lose. Yes, she's that much a Trek geek. "I grew up watching the original series with my father and brothers," says the 26-year-old Blalock. "Dad, look at me now!" Blalock, who hails from San Diego, stars as Sub Commander T'Pol, an austere, Vulcan science officer who is assigned to monitor the maiden voyage of the Enterprise: "The crew sees me as the voice of reason, and that's the last voice you want to hear when you have a thirst for adventure." In other words, T'Pol is really unpopular. That's not likely to be the case with Blalock herself. Paramount is so certain she will be the breakout star of Enterpirse that the studio- not wild about the Vulcan wig she wore when shooting started- had her first three days of scenes redone. Blalock was all for the switch. "It wasn't that the wig was bad," she says. "It just wasn't perfect."

The article is accompanied by a full page color photo of Jolene in her skin tight Vulcan suit standing back to back with Scott Bakula as Capt. Jonathan Archer; page and a quarter color photo of the crew of the Enterprise, including Jolene- Starship Trooper's (From Left): Billingsley, Park, Bakula, Trinneer, Keating, Blalock and Montgomery; small color photos of each of the crew, accompanied by brief writeup about their character and actor; two-thirds page color photo of the interior of the starship Enterprise; small color photos of the passageway and Ensign Sato (Park); half page color photo of Blalock in the Sick Bay as Sub Commander T'Pol; small color photos of the catwalk in the engine room, and T'Pol navigating with spare parts; the console with recycled knobs;