Star Trek at 60 — “Enterprise: The First Bold Step”

0:00Star Trek is 60, and during those years many series and characters have expanded the universe. This podcast series will look at all the series through my conversations throughout the years. This is exploring humanity through sci-fi. This continues my mission to get a better understanding of ourselves through sci-fi fantasy horror and comics as our mode of exploration. And a universe that definitely helped explore humanity was Star Trek. I turned to this series that chronicles humanity's earliest, most uncertain steps into the stars. Star Trek Enterprise. Earring from 2001 to 2005, Enterprise was the sixth Star Trek series, but the first chronologically, set a century before Kirk and Spock. It follows Captain Jonathan Archer, and the crew of the NX-01 as a navigate diplomacy, danger, and the growing pains of a species new to interstellar life. This premiere episodes features conversation with Linda Park,

1:05who played communications officer Hoshisato. Linda recalls the very first promo for Enterprise, remembering the thrill of introducing a new era of Star Trek. That's really cool. It's very, very, you know, techno-action-y kind of edgy, an edgyer quality that Star Trek has had before. Yes. Yeah, those are fun to see, because we're so inside our work, kind of be able to step back and see what excitement that an audience may feel, because we've been in it for a while now and so consumed by it in the technicalities, but seeing the trailers just goes back to the initial excitement and joy of the show, of this new prospect we're all going into, to be able to the Star Trek legacy. It really is overwhelming, especially with the trailers, just to see ourselves really as the

2:10characters, and that kind of format and see what the audience is probably the case of what the audience is going to see. More on my series Star Trek at 60 in a moment. She speaks one way of Scott Bacchula, describing him as a steady, generous captain, both on and off screen. I think you're in good hands, though, with the producers and also the people around you, your castmates. There's some very good talent on that cast, starting with Scott all the way down. Scott, an incredible captain, I think, I think it will really be so excited, excited about this new kind of blood he brings into the line of captains in the Star Trek legacy. He's a throwback to Kirk in a lot of ways in that space cowboy adventure, explore

3:17Han Solo-esque quality about his portrayal of Archer. Such a great thing to see. Such an enlivening thing for the rest of the crew because we kind of take the tone from our captain within the show and within the set, also, and seeing him having so much fun and really making Star Trek this exciting reel. That's the only way that I can a human experience. It gives us all, it gave us all the kind of go-ahead just to have fun with it and not feel that we were inhibited by the parameters of what a Star Trek actor should, you know, feel, we didn't feel those those boundaries. We were just playing our characters and I think for me, that's the most important thing is the best way that we can pay homage to the Star Trek legacy and kind of reverence is to go back to the story and not be a Star Trek crew member, but he

4:23poshisato in the situation or Captain Archer or Tucker or Paul and really just go back to telling a story of this crew who gets to explore space for the first time and how amazing that is and what an adventure and the awe and the wonderment and the fear and all these wonderful human, these human qualities set against this backdrop of the format of a sci-fi world. I think is what makes what makes Star Trek stand out against other sci-fi shows all these years. What is it about to Ensensato that appeals to you? Her humanity, I don't think that she has a much of a professional cover as a lot of people on the crew do because many of them have been out before on at least, you know, some missions and she's a teacher what she loves to do and

5:29that's what she was taken from doing when she went on board. She trained to go out to space, she knew she went through all the, and you know, she was ready to go, she was going to leave for her mission about two to three weeks later than she actually did. She was totally unprepared emotionally to go out to space, especially for this long of a period and on this kind of what turns out to be a dangerous mission, you know, even though they don't think that it will be when they first venture out. What's great about her is that I think the audience hopefully will really be able to connect to her experience of space because she feels she's having an and she's not good at covering it at first and she doubts herself a lot and but she also challenges ideas and she's just very human and she's flawed and she knows it and she's really,

6:35really trying to learn her way around this thing, you know, this thing called space and and she's trying to do her job but she loves that, there was, she knows that she's better than anybody else doing this, translating it's in languages, it's a passion for her and that's what's beautiful is it, that yes there is all this fear but where her strength is, is in this love of languages, is in this gift that she has and when she gets to translate, when she gets to when she gets to do her job, that's really fun because then I get to play it at what's at the heart of her, the explorer and her is about discovering new cultures in their languages and the way that they communicate with each other and this kind of this pattern that comes out of different languages based on syntax and grammar and I think there's a lot of growing that can, you know, be had and that'll be fun because they stay static through the whole time and

7:40and I hope that people will be able to watch her become, you know, a woman through the, because she is she is young, she's very young and she, she tries not to act it too often and she tries to, you know, because she is in the senior staff of the crew and she wants to remain professional and she also wants to prove to the rest of the crew that she is worthy of this job and that she's there for a reason and that she has a handle on things but there's, there'll be an exciting growth to watch not only in her work but in her as growing from a girl to a woman and that's always fun to watch on screen. More of episode one of Star Trek at 60 in a moment. Linda revisits an episode where Hoshi doubts her place in space a moment she believes made the character deeply relatable. She decides actually to, in that episode that she's just not cut out for space and she,

8:45she considers telling the captain that she wants to go back to the university and so it's kind of what makes her stay what, I mean, there's a lot that happens during that episode that you want to leave. Sure, sure. It's really, it's a really nice turning point early on in the series to where she can finally accept space instead of in the pilot more of a, oh, I hate space and it's just now get me out of here and then this is where she has to really take stock of what is amazing about this experience that she needs to swallow her fear and really, and really force herself to grow and stay out here and so it's a good, it's kind of a good first step. Kind of a, also came into fact and you know, it's kind of a tradition that previous Star Trek actors, they are so open

9:47here to, if an actor would like to direct to kind of cultivating that, that, that craft and that wish to do so. So we, we really didn't, we had a couple days in sort of, we just, we all loved her. She was, she created a great atmosphere for the actor to work in, that it was okay to mess up, that it was okay to just play around with actors and sometimes it can get so technical and you get a variety of directors whose four days are whether they be with setting up shots or with dealing with special effects, they all have the four days in hers was really dealing with the actor, dealing with story, which was a great thing and I just, I think that she's such a lovely woman. She's, she's, she's holding on her own, she's the first female director that we've had and just her confidence and her just, quiet assurance is a great thing to see. Oh yeah. You know, it's especially for me being a lot, being a lot younger and and I'm still finding my footing as, as an actor, if not

10:52particularly in my craft, I'm finding my footing in how to deal with the business of it all. Sure, sure. She was a great person to see that she went through all this and she's, you know, she still knows who she is and she still has a great sense of herself and and a confidence in herself that that I think is, is um, sometimes it's rare to see in Hollywood, it can be Hollywood can be very stripping of anything people's spirits and their sense of self but she was um, she's very inspiring and and I know her husband, Eridoff, and Castney, my first TV. Oh, I know. So we have um, so it was kind of a, you know, we kind of knew each other through different little connections so it was very nice. Oh, that is great. That's a nice coincidence. I want to thank you for taking the time out to speak to me. It's been it's been a pleasure and I wish I think I can speak for a lot of fans that wish you and the rest of the cast a good send off. You know, for for for for Enterprise and

11:59hopefully it'll be seven great years like all the other recent series and I hope you all are very proud of the premiere of the show and you know are very excited about it as as much as we are and um know that we are working very hard to to make it a great show and and to um and to keep the legacy you know alive and she also shares her thoughts on the show's core theme humanity learning to trust. The theme of the show were to be boiled down to one line. I would say it was go back to that original victim of the bullsie goer no man or no one or no man or woman. It was before, you know, it's changed as I was every star track but we're no one has gone before and that's what I think will really bring this new life into the show. Yeah. It's going out into space not, you know, being out whether in a in a docking port or trying to find a way back home or it's it's back to that original

13:06idea of you know what made Star Trek Star Trek and the original series with Kirk. John Billingsley was Doctor Flux. We revisit an episode called Dear Doctor. This episode where Flux explores cultural differences, mortal dilemmas and even a flirtation with a human crew member. His reflections highlights enterprise's willingness to explore early inter-species relationships with humor, empathy and complexity. Well they found a way in Dear Doctor to do that. Yes they did. They did and you know and I'm very very glad we got to do that episode. It's been you know over the course of the tenor so shows we've done since then a bit more problematic I think for them. Trying to find a way to utilize me fully but that's also to be expected in a ensemble piece. Well first one I can recall for more than an episode that Doctor has a romance too which is kind of interesting. Yeah I'll be curious to see if that continues that Kelly Weymire is a terrific

14:11actress. She's actually I think got a recurring role I don't know if she's going to become effectively series regular on six feet under. Oh cool. And she also had a recurring role on the Lake Lamented Wolf Lake. Yes. But so whether or not she's going to be available to producers to continue on in the role of Maya Moore I don't know. Now that was one thing when I read the script I thought what's the doctor having these reservations for for God's sake. Come on! I got three wives for fourth wife and I'm going to kill me. That's right. It's maybe interesting too I think we've ever had a shipboard marriage on a Star Trek show. Hey actually except for Tom and Boan on the last show. So what I'd really love to do is sort of a lot of line of mubs women is have my wives visit and perhaps they could all be played by my own wife Bonnie Frieda Risi. Yeah that'd be cool. Yeah she'd be she'd play herself at three maybe all the women on my planet actually just look like Bonnie. We could clean up with the conventions she could come as the entire species. The early seasons

15:15explored first contact and also their first mistakes. Season three had to Zindiar or a weapon destroyed part of Florida and even killed trip sister. In that season led to grew into the expanse to stop Dazindi from making further weapons. Season four was Manicodo's Renaissance of the series. It included the Klingon Augment arc explaining how the Klingon's lost their ridges trying enterprise to the original series continuity. A key thing was the Vulcan Reformation arc featured a young to Paul and the rediscovery of Syrac and the philosophical purge of Vulcan and Dorian Tellerite human diplomacy all laying the groundwork for the alliances that would become the United Federation of Planets despite a fan-led campaign. UPN cancelled enterprise in 2005 which ended 18 years of continuous Star Trek television and that high it has lasted until Star

16:19Trek Discovery launched in 2017 another prequel a chronological sequel to Enterprise. Enterprise captured something no other Trek series did. The moment humanity stops dreaming about the stars and actually touches them. Yes it's messy, idealistic, frightened, hopeful and always reaching. Fall is here and sci-fi talk is in full operational mode. Get premium commercial free podcast and videos including movie deep dives featuring sit-down interviews film clips and red carpet action from around the world. There's special episodes and combo podcasts and videos. Jump in now for just a dollar 99 a month. Hit the link in the show notes and go plus today. I'm Tony Tolator.