Getting hot and steamy with gel lathered all over barely clothed actors… and the captains dog?!
Star Trek: Enterprise tried to be sexy and failed.
Wednesday, Sept. 26, 2001.
The nightEnterprise, later to be namedStar Trek: Enterprise, premiered with Broken Bow.
I taped it on VHS and watched it with my mom a day or so later.
We both enjoyed it well enough.
Until we got to a certain scene.
The crew was just attacked on an alien planet.
The plot was ramping up.
We got to the next scene and resumed watching, never speaking of the inappropriate scene again.
I didnt rewatch Broken Bow until earlier this year and finally got to watch the forbidden scene.
A piece ofStar Trekthat was still all new to me!
This should have been exciting.
That scene was the least sexy thing Ive ever seen in my entire life.
This involved the crew needing to rub gel on each others skin to make it work.
Who can forget the leeringly uncomfortable workout Troi and Crusher did in front of a mirror inThe Next Generation?
But thisEnterprisescene was different.
It was beyond blatant.
This was going for steamy, something UPN clearly liked since it made it into an early promo forEnterprise.
The scene was met with heavy controversy.
Whatever happened to the renowned Vulcan abhorrence to touching anyone?
This scene not only was offensive to good taste, it was an offense to continuity!
There is nothing sexy about rubbing a dog with gel.
Braga explains that they wantedEnterpriseto, feel a little saucier.
A little sexier, than previousStar Trekshows.
Berman however was more ready to defend it, explaining where it all came from.
The whole idea was we didnt have the biofilters that exist in laterStar Trekseries.
That gave us the opportunity to do a very sexy scene.
You have two characters talking about some very unsexy stuff that deals with our plot.
Simultaneously theyre getting involved in something that obviously people would find… Rather hot.
He creepily adds, Jolenes figure didnt hurt (the scene) either.
Meant to be but clearly wasnt.
He acknowledges the controversy around the scene, pointing out, theres a LOT of nipple here.
A lot of penis.
Its pretty racy even by todays standards.
As Braga admitted in the 2013 commentary, the Decon chamber felt gratuitous after a while.
Next time I watch the episode Ill just fast forward through it.
My mom had the right idea.
