My last blog about Star-Trek is only a few weeks old, due to the 55th anniversary of the original-series.
But my last big anniversary-tribute was a few years ago.
And for the 4th Star-Trek real-series, Enterprise (ENT), I have never written anything before.
But now the time has come.

Key-Points

Enterprise is the successor-series of Voyager and was made from 2001 to 2005.
It is the last of the 4 Star-Trek-series from 1987-2005.
Unlike its 3 direct predecessors "The next Generation" (TNG), "Deep Space Nine" (DS9) and Voyager (VOY), it is not set in the 24th century, but in the 22nd century, so even about 100 years before the original-series, which is set in the 23rd century.

At its core Enterprise revolves around the departure of mankind into space and, as a consequence, it’s finding it’s position in the universe, which ultimately leads to the foundation of the "United Federation of Planets" (UFP).

ENT is thus a prequel within the Star Trek universe. The background is that after 3 series each comprising over 170 episodes in the 24th century, the series makers saw the narrative possibilities for exciting stories so exhausted that they wanted to make a leap in time, of which they promised more new narrative-strands.

    
What to me the series constitutes

I find the departure of mankind into space exciting. And this is the heart of Season-1.
This reveals great parallels to Voyager, which is also traveling in completely unknown areas of space in season 1 and ship and crew have to assert themselves there and find their position.

In general, I see some concrete elements and processes similar specifically between Voyager and Enterprise:

• The mentioned departure into the unknown and the claim there in season 1
   
• Season 2 as the weakest of both series
   
• A high and similar quality of the series, but not quite close to TNG or DS9, which for me, however, together with Babylon - 5 are the3 best science fiction series of all time.
   
• Unfortunately, but also a lot of wasted potential, but we'll get to that later.

In Enterprise, I liked the Vulcan T'Pol as first officer and guide of the humans through the unknown areas of space – which are much less unknown to Vulcans.
This was helpful for the crew on many occasions, but on some occasions the Enterprise also helped the Vulcans - which was already a strong indication of the foundation of the Federation.

Which I did not like at all in and of itself and was especially seen in season 3:
Torture.
Torture by the Captain of the Enterprise of a prisoner in order to get information from him.
But what I really liked was that Archer in season 4 is very disillusioned, briefly depressed and ultimately self-reflected related to his actions.

And:
Saving humanity in season 3 was only possible through cooperation with the then assumed arch-enemy, the Xindi. Where humans as well as Xindi have paid a high price for saving both of them.

The Season-3 of Enterprise is unique anyway, as it is about 1 big mission, the rescue of mankind from an enemy, which takes place in a far away area of space.

Last but not least:
ENT has contributed a lot to the coherence and continuity within the Star-Trek-universe:
From important developments among the Vulcans to the genetic superhumans and the human optics of the Klingons in the 23rd century.

What I dislike about the series

Enterprise is the first Post 9/11 Star-Trek-series. And the influences of 11th September 2001 and the "War on Terror" can be clearly seen in the series.

Especially in season 3, this becomes very clear:
All the war and revenge rhetoric of those responsible towards the Xindi who have invaded Earth.
Torture of a prisoner, capture of important items of equipment from other ships - these are very dark actions, carried out by the post-9-11-spirit and which you have never seen in previous Star-Trek-series.

But just - as described above - this is only the one side, the other side is that of self-reflection and self-criticism.
And something like this from those responsible in the real world we have hardly heard about the post-9-11-wars – if heard at all.

And the Vulcans are portrayed for almost 3 seasons as a kind of villains, as opponents and troublemakers in their own house.
Now this is something that is not uninteresting and also not illogical. Because in the background it's about a key development of them, which only takes place towards the end of the series and makes a lot of things seem logical – to stay in the diction of the Vulcans ; -)
However, this intellectual alien species is already portrayed very flat and exaggerated.
This could have been told with a “finer blade” – and should have.

And then again:
Even more than Voyager Enterprise missed opportunities:

• Season 2 is a rock-bottom of the series and its quality in all Star Trek series from 1987-2005 was only undercut by seasons 1 & 2 from TNG.
  Remakes of other Star-Trek episodes or even motion-pictures at a modest level and with no discernible goal for the series.
   
• No narration of the foundation of the Federation - that would have been a main-reason to let the series take place during this time.
   
• No true innovations in storytelling compared to the predecessors, but only "More of the Same".

My negative chapter is concluded with the final-episode:
Not only does this make a sudden leap in time of 10 years, there is also a completely unnecessary death of chief-engineer and best friend of the Captain, Charles “Trip” Tucker.
Most importantly, the crew is denied a true Enterprise-final-episode by the series creators by presenting it as a holodock simulation of the TNG characters Commander Riker and Counsellor Troi.

My conclusion about Enterprise

ENT is the relatively weakest series in the Star-Trek-cycle from 1987-2005, but still really good.
I see it "clustered" with Voyager in several ways, especially in terms of quality.
Where Voyager is slightly ahead for me in terms of quality.
Enterprise, however, offers the better innovativeness for me, especially in seasons 3 and 4.

There is light and shadow, but definitely more light. I certainly wouldn't want to miss this series.

As a deeper message, I can perhaps interpret, that one is not immune from falling into the Zeitgeist, which can be very worrying, even dangerous, especially with 9/11 and the "war on terror".
However humans also have the ability to reflect on themselves and are able to learn.

I would like us humans in our societies to do this even more than the ENT-crew and to clearly develop awareness and stand against authoritarian tendencies with surveillance- and police-state - and in the recent times also against clear approaches of a corona-health-dictatorship.

All those who are not interested in politics still have a really interesting piece of Star-Trek and science-fiction with Enterprise today, which I can recommend to watch.

Today on 03rd November 2020 there are several important elections in the USA. In addition to a new president, the members of the House of Representatives and a part of the Senators are also elected.
On the occasion of this, I would like to point out some issues and provide some inputs.

First of all I want to reference on my blog article about the elections from 2016 and also 2012.
These are small pieces of documented contemporary-history and reflect my positions, which have changed over time.

Since last election I have become very critical to both Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders. Both have proven to be very strongly attached to the political Establishment.
I am similarly disappointed by Donald Trump as I was by Barack Obama.
Obama has initiated 2 warlike conflicts, against Libya and Syria, but at least he has laudably called off an open war he USA against Syria 2013 at the last moment.
Although Trump did not start a new war, he did continue existing conflicts and even greatly worsened some of them, especially with regard to Iran and the Israel-Palestine conflict.

It is already very clear that both Donald Trump and Joe Biden are going to continue their aggressive policy towards China.

Since I have been dealing with the issue of US-presidential-elections, I am bothered that most media reports almost only about the candidates of the 2 major parties-but not about the numerous candidates of the so called 3rd Parties and independents.
This time, the candidates of the Liberals and Greens, Jo Jorgensen and Howie Hawkins, but also the world-famous musician Kanye West, outstand from this candidate-crowd.

A victory of a 3rd party candidate in the presidential election is de-facto impossible, but a decent-result of them could make a difference. In addition, it is very desirable if 3rd party candidates would celebrate success in congressional-elections, as well as at the state and local-level.

1 thing this time is different from all the previous US elections I've witnessed:
The polarization of society and the danger that the losing side does not accept the election result, but escalates the situation, that there are serious riots and at worst even civil war-like conditions.

I hope that moderate civil-society will raise its voice more and that, in the USA as well as in Europe, things are goingt to become less emotionalized but more rational.

Regular readers of my blog know that there are 2 things I like very much and adress regularly:

1. Anniversaries
2. Science Fiction Series.

For several Star-Trek-series, especially for "The Next Generation" and "Deep Space Nine", as well as for Babylon-5, I to each of them have already written 2 anniversary-tributes.

For Voyager (VOY) I leave it at 1 big tribute, the on of its 20th anniversary from 2015. But as this series turns 25 years today on the 16th January 2020, I contribute a supplementary-post.

Specifically, I would like to:

1. once again point on my 2015 blog-entry, which still is up to date and certainly still exciting :-)
2. make a few more supplements that have evolved in the last 5 years.

So here Uli‘s additions to Star Trek: Voyager from the years 2015-2019:

• Already mentioned last time however I would like to reiterate that there have been many particularly interesting episodes to me especially in season-1.
  Survival in far off alien territories combined with the Starfleet-Maquis-conflict makes Voyager unique in the Star Trek universe.
• I also like the changing pathway of  the "front-line" within the Voyager Crew particularly well.
  While at the serie‘s beginning, with the crystallisation-point of the deceased chief-engineer‘s succession, the conflict-lines clearly run between Starfleet and Maquis, these change completely soon after.
  For the chance to get technology that can bring the Voyager home, contrary to Federation law, Maquis as well as Starfleet crew-members then cooperate against Captain Janeway.
• But I am also one of those voices who think that the Starfleet Maquis conflict in the series has not escalated enough and ended too quickly.
  The episode "Learning Curve", where Tuvok sweats rebellious Maquis-members hard and finally all of them achieve a viable working relationship, was pretty much the only episode where the cold conflict got hot.
  You could have gotten more out of this, so a lost opportunity.

Apart from that, since 2018, I have also presented 2-3 Voyager episodes to friends of mine as part of movie- and series-nights – and they really enjoyed it.

Episodes like:
    • „Lifesigns“, with the background of true love
    • „Sacred Ground“, with the topic religion versus science
    • „Great War“, about propaganda through falsifying history by victors

are excellent for making people think about current issues from the real world.

Finally, I can only repeat my conclusion from 2015 that Star Trek: Voyager is not one of the very best, but one of the really good science-fiction-series. Still also in 2020.
Congratulations on the 25th anniversary!

Additional Links:

• 20 years Star Trek: Voyager (VOY)
• 30 years Star Trek: The next Generation (TNG)
• 25 years Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (DS9)

Exactly today 15 years ago on 23rd September 2003 the 1st episode of the most successful TV-series in the world, if not the most successful TV-series ever, was aired in the USA on CBS: NCIS or it's called at us in the German-speaking countries Navy-CIS.

That alone is reason enough for an anniversary-tribute on my part.  And at the same time this is so far a debut for me as it is my 1st tribute to a still-running series.

Reasons for the tremendous success

The series basis are criminal-cases, of course such of members of the US-Navy an the Marines, that the team of main-characters solve. Almost all cases are well elaborated and just with that the series belongs to the good represantatives of US-crime-series.

But that alone for certain is too little to explain, why Navy-CIS is so good an so successful. From my point of view there are 5 main-reasons for it's great success:

1. Very well elaborated characters, main- as well as recurring characters and guest-stars.
   High-quality and at the same time well-known actors act as recurring performers and guest stars.
   Robert Wagner, Jamie-Lee Curtis, Armand Assante, Mimi Rogers, Robert Patrick and Marina Sirtis are only 6 of countless examples.
2. The relationships between the characters are also conceived smart as well as realistic. The relationships between the main-characters are also very warm-hearted, yet familial. Many people would like to belong to such a clique so great on the interpersonal level.
3. The whole lot ongoing story-arcs are elaborated intelligent and realistic. It's tempting watching this even again and again and discovering new aspects with every re-watch. Especially because this makes the series appear particularly realistic.
4. NCIS seriously offended my intelligence really 0 times! This is something, that only very few series manage and that I not only like, but that really impresses me.
   Other US-crime-series, like i.e. CSI, Criminal Minds or The Mentalist, at some point seriously offended my intelligence – and since then have lost their credit at me.
5. There is by far not always a clear friend-foe-thinking.
   The boundaries between good and evil regularly blur and it happens that there are alliances with suspects, political or intergovernmental opponents.
   Even within families of major-characters, fault-lines exist.

The points 3 and 4 are of course closely related and are of course subjective views of myself, though I am firmly convinced, that many fans see it in the same or in a similar way.

What bothers me about the series or I consider questionable

In short: I am bothered by a blend of self-justice, militarism and tendencies towards an unlawful authoritarian and surveillance-state.

• Hacking into other people's data is seen a trivial-offence.
• Even main-characters, above all the key-character of Leroy-Jethro Gibbs or Isreali Ziva David practice themselves in self-justice. This misbehaviour or even crimes is covered by their colleagues, up to the NCIS-director Leon Vance.
• As a series about the US-Navy or one of its intelligence-services a considerable militarism is also a cornerstone of the series. Serving the country and fighting for the cause of Americans is almost always shown as the right thing.
  At the same time, however, criticism is already being made of high-ranking military and political figures, which lead Gibbs temporarily quitting his service as an agent as reaction on sacrificing innocent soldiers the authorities.
• The state under the rule of law is shown as something, that's formally existing and basically is necessary, but which can be overtaken at time if necessary.
  Guatanamo? It may be contradicting to fundamental-rights as how much it wants, but it's used regularly as a form of pressure for making suspects docile.
  Military operations or even self-justice in foreign countries where US-authorities have no rights? No problem at all, the purpose justifies the means.

Neutral or ambiguous peculiarities of NCIS

Beside its intelligent and exciting entertainment and the great characters, each one stand-alone as well in their interaction, I like the series for categorizing the world not only as Black and White, but with many faceted intermediate tones.

• A parade-example of complexity is the key character of Leroy-Jethro Gibbs:
  A charismatic team leader, indeed a moral authority and desired father-figure of many people.
  He is not only outstanding good in his job, he is also a man endowed with an incredibly good instinct, who is rough but yet also in his way affectionate.
  He also has a strong social responsibility, helping people get an education, pensions, recognitions of their profession, psychological or medical help.
• On the other hand he particularly is also a broken man, who has lost his family in an assassination attempt by a Mexican drug-lord.
  He used to be vengeful and killed this drug-lord by his own hand.
  He covered the revenge-murder by his ex-mother-in-law, by grabbing dirty tricks to let her get away with it.
• Also other characters stand out for themselves through high integrity, but also playing-out deadly revenge cravings, such as Ziva David at Ilan Bodnar, or cover them, like NCIS-director Leon Vance himself.
• Also, to some extent, there are quite old, stupid patterns in the series, so people of the NCIS are almost always the smart ones, the others are almost always dumber than them. But there are also exceptions and very good partnerships with other organizations, especially with the FBI around Tobias Fornell.
• A lot of space and very positive presentation of people in middle and old age. Whether good, bad or neutral – at least this is an extreme counterpoint to the youthfulness-delusion of many other series.

Facts worth knowing

• Navy CIS ist a spin-off of Navy-legal-series JAG.
  It's true prelude is a so called backdoor-pilot within 2 JAG-episodes, where the NCIS-protagonists still serve as main-characters.
• In turn the NCIS has spawned to further spin-offs itself, it's sister-series in L.A. and New Orleans.
  The considered spin-off "Red", dealing with a mobile investigation-team was dumped in favour of the New-Orleans-series.
• The NCIS-series together with some other CBS-series take part in the same serial-universe. This, besides the mother-series JAG, so far includes Hawaii-five-0 and Scorpion.
• he main TV-news-station in the NCIS/JAG-serial-universe is not CNN, but ZNN.

My personal bottom-line

Since season 14 to me NCIS still belongs to the good US-crime-series, but it has lost the status of being something extraordinary since Michael Weatherly as Tony DiNozzo quitting the series after season 13. And it has reached the peak in times with Cote de Pablo as Ziva David, so in seasons 3-11.

In recent times NCIS shows strong signs of wear and tear.
The story-lines and their realization are no longer that great they used to be in former times.
And from the original team there is also almost no one left: After the departure of Pauly Perette as  Cult-Forensic Abby Sciuto, only Mark Harmon as Gibbs and David McCallum as coroner Donald “Ducky” Mallard are on board anymore.

As much as I like the series – actually I must say as much I have liked to series – I would like it to be brought to a dignified end soon. Maybe, and hopefully, to one with Tony & Ziva.

I do not know whether the series is really the most popular of all times, as 2011 came out in a survey of the American Mark Research Institute Harris.
But it is definitely one of the best series of the present, probably even of all times, and has thus written television history.
For me, especially the first 13 seasons are absolutely worth watching and recommendable, most of all as already said the seasons 3-11.

Finally I can only congratulate the series on the 15th anniversary and entrust it to all those who are not yet familiar with it.

On 22nd of February 1993 the steeped in history but widely unknown science-fiction-series Babylon-5 (B5) made it's debut at US television-station PTEN.
Unfortunately, I did not make it on time for anniversary-day writing my big tribute-blog-post. In German I made it just a few days later, but here in English it took me over 2 weeks to make it.
However: Here is my big 25-years-tribute.

And B5 absolutely deserves it! Since the series not only has written science-fiction-, but general television-history – but nevertheless until now still remained a secret-tip for insiders.
To me it's something undeservedly, that it's popularity does not reach either that of Star Wars or Star Trek, nor the one of Stargate or Battlestar-Galactica.

A series, that has written history

Why B5 has written history:

1. It was the 1st television-series, that had been innately conceptualised with a continuous 5-year story-arc.
   Until then in was common in TV-series, that each episode has it's own plot, (largely) isolated from other  episodes.
2. And it was the 1st series, which did not use real models of the space-stations and space-ships, but only computer-generated models.
   In contrast in Star-Trek-series, that were made before or even at the same time as Babylon-5, there always had been real-models, that had to be filmed.

So B5 in 1992/1993 introduced things, which for contemporary series – even for those outside the sci-fi-genre – are absolutely common.

Still today one of the 3 best science-fiction-series ever!

Dark, realistic, critical of society and somehow unutopian.
Just as visionary, forward-looking and thought-provoking.
Und of course also humorous and just exciting.
All of these are attributes, that describe Babylon-5 really well.

Especially the darkness and the timeless problems of humanity, being described in the series, have made me think even at the series original-airing.
And after the events of 11th September 2001 and the proclaimed war against terrorism, including a sprawling surveillance-state, the B5's stories have gotten an enormous explosiveness.

But the series is also simply exciting and – despite in particular visible, limited production-budgets – really well conceived and realised.
Taking place in a totally different serial-universe B5 in my eyes can only be compared to the to me best Star-Trek-series "The next Generation" (TNG) and especially "Deep Space Nine" (DS9).
All 3 together for me still until today are he best science-fiction-series ever! And all 3 celebrate major-anniversaries within just under 5 months. TNG in September 2017 became 30 years, DS9 in early January 2018 also 25.

Babylon-5 and Star Trek

B5 always was the "little brother" of Star-Trek – and always was only modestly funded with resources, which particularly became visible in an "cheaper" visual-impression of the sets.
But at the same time the series also provided milestones with some pioneering digital-effects.

Above all there has been a common background-story of both franchises:
J. Michael Straczinsky, the ingenious creator of Babylon-5, in 1991offered his concept about a sci-fi-series taking place on a space station to the Star-Trek rights-holder Paramount – which had been rejected by them.
In 1993 Paramount launched "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine" and Warner Bros. "Babylon-5".
And both series have really many parallels – but at the same time there are also numerous differences.

And just in the face of certain conflicts of the fandoms, mainly because of this background-history, there has been a wonderful act of friendship and respect by Majel Barret-Roddenberry, widow of Star-Trek-creator Gene Roddenberry:
She has agreed to a  guest-appearance in Babylon-5 as a Centauri fortune-teller, who anticipated important elements in the development of the Centauri Londo Mollari.

3 Babylon-5 actors, I especially want to underline

In this tribute-post I want to go a little different paths than in both of my current Star-Trek anniversary-tributes, as well as in my B5-tribute 5 years ago. And I would like to create references to some necessary social-criticism and positive opportunities for future developments.
That's why I have picked out 3 actors, where each of them stands for something remarkable.

Jerry Doyle
Jerry Doyle first was pilot and then stock-broker before he made the decision to become an actor.
The role as security-chief Michael Garibaldi on space-station Babylon-5 was his first and only major-role. But he definitely embodied it very credibly and sympathetically and won many sympathies.
After the series' end he still embodied a number of supporting roles (among others in Stargate), but then also hung on acting as well.
After he had tried himself in vain in politics, failing to win a race for a candidacy for the US-Congress, the self-confessed Libertarian started his own political radio talk-show "The Jerry Doyle show" – and until his death in 2016 quite successful.
Despite his own position as Libertarian he had given room to other positions in his radio-program – something he received praise from various people.

Mira Furlan
The native Croatian Mira Furlan together with her Serbian-born husband in 1991, fearful from and in protest against the wars and other negative developments in decaying Yugoslavia, emigrated to the USA.
The part as Delenn, the ambassador of the alien Minbari, was her 1st major-role in Hollywood for her.
After Babylon-5 she has taken on a recurring-role in similar legendary and for the development of TV-series as important series "Lost".
Beside several guest-appearances in more or less well-know US-productions, for around 10 years time and again she also takes part in productions from the Balkan-countries and international-productions.

Bill Mumy
Bill Mumy still was a science-fiction-veteran before taking over the role as Minbari Lennier. Because already in the 1960s as a child-star he appeared in the, especially in the United-States, famous series "Lost in Space".
Since the end of B5 Mumy is still active as actor and is primarily seen in guest-appearances of larger and smaller productions.
I in particular want to emphasise Mumy's approach, that fans should not lose themselves in the vast expanse of fictitious-worlds, such as those of Babylon-5. Instead doing so, at conventions he regularly appeals, that each of use should bother yourself about mother-earth and make a personal  contribution, so that it still continues to exist and the are able to consign a viable world to our children.

Babylon-5 and my personal wrap-up

Before I start with the actual conclusion yet 2 important notes:

1. To fully understand my points of view on Babylon-5 and of course also because of the (hopefully) worthwhile thoughts please also read my 20-year-tribute to the series from 2013.
2. Although still mentioned then, another important issue to B5:
   It's really frightening how many actors of the series have already deceased.
   From 2013 until today to this sad as well as shocking we have had to add Jerry Doyle (security-chief Michael Garibaldi) in 2016 and Stephen Furst (the Centauri Vir Coto) in 2017.

I am a multi-faceted person, who is interested in intellectually challenging and "dark" things as well as in shallow and beautiful things in life.
And I am also good in creating appealing results with limited resources.
So just because this B5 perfectly fits to me!

And when vice-president Clark kills his predecessor Santiago and after that under the pretext of external threats creates a dictatorship, then I see historical allusions to the Kennedy assassination and anticipated allusions to 9/11.
Apart of that I really like B5's obscurity, the characters und the series' humour – things that in this kind today don't exist anymore in television-entertainment. Especially I really fancy Commander Ivanova's sarcastic manner.

Babylon-5 certainly deserved to be more than a secret tip at its premiere and still deserves this today. Therefore I can highly recommend this much underestimated piece of television-history for now and for the next 25 years to you – even if you are no die-hard sci-fi fans.
Hopefully there is going to be an opportunity to see the series in the big anniversary-years.
In German-language TV it has not been broadcast since the end of 2016.

And I just can concur the Bill Mumy's appeal: Enjoy the series, but also give thoughts on mother-earth.
In your personal microcosm – i.e. through ethical consumer-behaviour.
And in the large scale through political and social commitment for peace, freedom, environment and – just as Jerry Doyle – last but not least by tolerance towards political dissenters.

Further links:

• My 20-year-tribute to Babylon-5 from 2013:
  http://critical-constructive.over-blog.com/article-20-years-of-babylon-5-115616108.html
   
• 25 years Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (DS9):
  http://critical-constructive.over-blog.com/2018/01/star-trek-deep-space-nine-is-25-years-young.html
   
• 30 years Star Trek: The next Generation (TNG):
  http://critical-constructive.over-blog.com/2017/09/30-years-star-trek-the-next-generation.html