On May 21, 2003, the voyages of the starship Enterprise came to an end, at least as they were intended. When the NX-01 launched two seasons earlier, on September 26, 2001, it was full of grit and optimism. Enterprise, as the show was initially called sans the “Star Trek” title, would tell the early days of humanity’s exploration into deep space, setting the stage for the adventures of Captains Kirk and Picard, but through a more grounded lens, for a new generation. But when season two ended with the Xindi destroying everything from Florida to Venezuela, Jonathan Archer and his crew were given a new mission.Unfortunately for the franchise, it was a mission that Star Trek wasn’t built to handle. Worse, mere months later, a new sci-fi show would launch, one that grappled with post-9/11 America far better than Star Trek ever could. The 2000s Battlestar Galactica reboot told complex and compelling stories about losing one’s humanity in pursuit of protection, while Enterprise briefly turned Starfleet into a stand-in for America, fighting a war on terror across the galaxy.cnx.cmd.push(function() {cnx({playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530",}).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796");});A Long RoadBy the time Enterprise finished its second season, it was clear that the series needed a change. At this point, The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, and Voyager had already shown that a good Trek show can come after a couple of rough initial seasons. But Enterprise didn’t have the same benefit of the doubt, in part because audience interest was waning after nearly 15 years of continuous Trek shows, and in part because the series had tried to distance itself from its predecessors. Not only did it drop the name “Star Trek” from its title and use a pop song for its opening credits (which we can now all admit is incredible), Enterprise took place a century before The Original Series, giving it more of a grounded, more American military feel.Whatever the producers hoped they’d get from this approach, it wasn’t working. The first two seasons of Enterprise either trod ground already covered by other Trek series, replaying the same first contact tales we already knew, and its emphasis on interpersonal conflict and sexual tension felt desperate and cheap. Worse, the Temporal Cold War arc that ran across the first two seasons failed to give the show a compelling direction, creating only more confusion for a show that seemed to want to underplay its connections to other Trek titles.hdParamount+ Amazon ChannelFlathdParamount+ Roku Premium ChannelFlathdParamount Plus Apple TV channelFlathdParamount Plus PremiumFlatSource: JustWatchIn short, Enterprise needed a big change, and the Xindi provided it. In the season 2 finale “The Expanse,” a new alien race called the Xindi (a people comprised of six different species) launch a preemptive attack on Earth, destroying a huge swath of the planet and killing the sister of Enterprise’s Commander Trip Tucker. The attack forces Enterprise to change its mission, coming back to Earth for a refit and then preparing to take the fight to the Xindi.The Xindi War would span across season 3, and would include some classic Trek concepts. We’d see characters like Trip dealing with loss, we’d see humans form alliances with alien species, and we’d see how conflicts stem from misunderstanding. In particular, the third season reveals that the Xindi attack Earth because mysterious, malevolent aliens called the Sphere-Builders convince them that they will be killed by Earthlings. Moreover, Archer succeeds in his mission by forming a connection with Degra, a humanoid Xindi who comes to trust Archer and recognize the Sphere-Builders’s deceit.Compelling as that sounds on paper, the execution left much to be desired. Archer was always written with a chip on his shoulder, due to the way that Vulcans disrupted his father’s career, and that chip only grew deeper after the Xindi attacked Earth without provocation. Worse, the war made cruel soldiers out of Trip and T’Pol, the show’s two best characters. For three out of the four seasons, Trip was a folksy engineer who tackled complex problems with down-home charm, while T’Pol was a Vulcan who overcame her prejudices to connect with the human crew of the NX-01. But once his sister dies, Trip becomes consumed by vengeance and righteous anger, calling for the execution of those who wronged him (it doesn’t help that his twang makes him sound like the decider himself, George W. Bush). T’Pol’s shift isn’t as spectacular, but her frustration with the Vulcan Council’s inaction drives her to defy them and their rules, making her into something of a maverick who has no use for laws or treaties.By the time the storyline ended with the season 3 finale “Zero Hour,” Archer and his crew had become blustering cowboys, jingoists who will only work with others if they form a “coalition of the willing” to go attack the terrorists, sacrificing Federation ideals in the process.But that’s not the real problem. The real problem is that Battlestar Galactica was doing it better.All Frak’ed UpWhen the Battlestar Galactica miniseries/pilot aired on the Sci-Fi Channel in December of 2003, it felt more like a curio than genre television that would speak to the problems of its time. After all, the original Battlestar Galactica was more admired than liked, a strange attempt to use network television and space opera to explore Mormon theological themes. The biggest draw to the miniseries wasn’t the source material, nor even respected thespians Edward James Olmos or Mary McDonnell. It was creator Ronald D. Moore, who had abandoned Star Trek after writing some of the best TNG and DS9 episodes to make a new show.Like “The Expanse,” the Battlestar Galactica miniseries features an unspeakable act of mass violence. Via her relationship with the human scientist Gaius Baltar, the Cylon Number Six launches an attack that destroys the planets occupied by humans.More than an inciting event that would launch the story engine of the Battlestar Galactica series, which took place upon the titular space ship, the destruction sets the mode and motivations for the characters. Humans had been lulled into a false sense of peace. They let their guard down against their enemies, enemies who could now live amongst them undetected, enemies who struck first and struck hard. Now, they’d have to take desperate actions to survive.hdParamount+ Amazon ChannelFlathdParamount+ Roku Premium ChannelFlathdParamount Plus Apple TV channelFlathdParamount Plus PremiumFlatSource: JustWatchNot unlike Archer and Trip, the heroes of Battlestar Galactica make some terrible moral decisions. Colonel Tigh succumbs to his alcoholism more than once. Chief Tyrol wrestles with his allegiances after learning that his lover Boomer is a Cylon. Commander Adama and President Roslin devote time and energy playing politics against one another instead of seeking consensus. Even Starbuck, the hot-shot pilot and most traditional action hero of the series, is an emotional wreck unsuited for anything but fighting.But those shortcomings aren’t covered over by the humans’ victories. The show doesn’t assume that we’ll forgive the humans because we want the humans to win and the Cylons to lose. Instead, Battlestar Galactica understood that flaws and shortcomings were part of the human experience, which was the whole thing the heroes were fighting to save. Moreover, the show understood that the heroes have much in common with the Cylon enemies, and that the way forward must necessarily involve a complicated, imperfect peace.Where Enterprise tried to turn the anxieties of post-9/11 America into some futuristic triumphalism, Battlestar Galactica understood that messy insecurity was our natural condition—and it showed us how to live in it.So Say We AllIronically, for all that Enterprise did badly and Battlestar Galactica did right, the two series ended on very different notes. After beginning with a coda that wrapped up dangling Temporal Cold War plots, the fourth season of Enterprise gave the show its best episodes. The series lacked grand ideas or big themes, but it did manage to tell entertaining stories about the early days of Starfleet and the founding of the Federation. Simply put, it became regular, old Star Trek.Conversely, Battlestar Galactica tried to move out of the moral morass in which it excelled with a high-concept finale that rivals only the ending of Lost for its ability to anger or excite its audience, even to this day. The show concludes by revealing that all the events took place in the distant past, and that the peace between Cylons and humans eventually leads to the creation of Earth and its people. Peaceful though the ending may be, its ending was too easy for a show that embraced complexities.Which is perhaps just as well. Star Trek has always been about looking beyond this present moment and toward a better future. Enterprise proved that the series stumbled when it tried to take on the current situation too directly. Fortunately, Battlestar Galactica could fill in the gap, if only for a few years.The post Star Trek vs. Battlestar Galactica: Remembering When Enterprise Lost Post-9/11 TV appeared first on Den of Geek.