NOTIFICATION: Star Trek: Enterprise Season 2

Next season to start will be:

Star Trek: Enterprise
Season 2
Initial run: 18/09/2002 - 21/05/2003

Starring:

Scott Bakula	as	Jonathan Archer
John Billingsley	as	Phlox
Jolene Blalock	as	T'Pol
Dominic Keating	as	Malcolm Reed
Anthony Montgomery	as	Travis Mayweather
Linda Park	as	Hoshi Sato
Connor Trinneer	as	Charles Tucker

Pre-season buzz (quotes):

• "A couple of the episodes this year were somewhat spawned out of some thoughts that I had at the end of the first season. I've said to them, 'you know there's a relationship that I think we could explore more and this is why' and then that spawned an episode. I said to them we have something on our ship that we haven't utilized since the pilot and that just became a big story." - Scott Bakula, quoted by TrekWeb.
• "The first season was to an extent about really focusing on the relationship between the Captain, Trip and T'Pol. The rest of us may not have had as much to do. I kind of get the impression in in the first five or so episodes [of the second season] that there may be more of an ensemble feel. It does seem as if everybody's being used more extensively." - John Billingsley, quoted by TrekWeb.
• "I really identify with this notion of exploring and I like this idea of exploring in a world where there are no rules. We're being told some of what the rules are sometimes by the Vulcans but they're really the only ones holding any kind of standards or bar that we're supposed to perform to out there. So I like that I continue to be somewhat of a maverick in that sense, feeling out each situation and talking amongst ourselves about what to do." - Scott Bakula, quoted by TrekWeb.

Pre-season buzz (from last season's finale):

• Obviously the biggest cliffhanger is that Archer is now stranded in an alternate 31st Century, with no clear way of getting back. I imagine they'll have to do a bit of trickery to get him out of that one.
• Back in the "present", Enterprise is just about to be destroyed by Silik and his men: again, this situation will be resolved by the end of the premiere episode, or else we would no longer have a show.
• The temporal cold war really reared its ugly head here in a fiercer way than in previous episodes. Perhaps this means the war will have more of an involvement in this season's episodes, though from what I've heard this is unlikely.

Pre-season buzz (statistical):

• The season premiere is simply titled "Shockwave, Part II" (or in some lists, just "Shockwave II"). It is the only episode of this programme to follow this naming format (in TNG, this kind of thing was done all the time across season finales/premieres, but I think it shows a bit of a lack of imagination). It begins immediately after the end of last season's finale.
  
• The season finale is titled "The Expanse". It is one of the episodes I'm most looking forward to, as I know it sets things up for the more continuous third season. There are 26 episodes in this season.
• The main cast does not change in this season, nor in any Enterprise season. However most of the recurring guests are brought back this season, such as Forrest, Soval, Shran, Silik and Daniels.
• This is currently the programme with the longest period since I last watched it (apart from programmes which I have completely finished such as The West Wing or Alias). This is mainly due to wanting to get other sci-fi shows out of the way first such as Farscape's special features and Futurama.
• I bought the DVD almost immediately after finale day 7, along with the other seasons to premiere around this time, and this is the first of these.
  
• At the time of writing, I've watched all my additional catch-up episodes ("Gill Girl", "Shane", "The Day Before", "An Owl In A Thornbush" and "Stranger In A Strange Land") but haven't reviewed them just yet. However once I have done, I'll be starting this season.