No one and no thing are immortal. That's a recurring theme we have heard while watching the various incarnations of Star Trek throughout the last three-and-a-half decades.



It's already known that Star Trek itself also is mortal. But if and when this franchise does die, it won't be anytime soon.



All right, all right, I won't make you read to the end of this review to figure out what I think like I normally do. So, I have to admit: I love this new series already. Yeah, I'm quite critical of episodic television, especially in this day and age when it appears that the dumber something is, the more studios like it. But while the creators of "Enterprise" tried to make this series less high-brow, they still didn't ignore the fundamental basics that has allowed Star Trek to endure for so long, even if they did forget to put those two famous words before the title.



I was quite shocked when the first seconds of the new show came pouring through my father's television set (Yeah, I like to watch Star Trek with my father ... so sue me), and there was a bar at the top and bottom of the screen. Several years ago, when people still confused DVD with a brand of underwear, people would've thrown things at their television set to watch anything in widescreen format. Movies were retranslated for the square screen, so anyone who was anyone knew that even thinking of filming an episode of television in widescreen was sacrilegious to say the least.



But the hairs rose on the back of my neck when I had a chance to watch the premiere episode in the format that Star Trek should always be in ... letterbox. I am the biggest supporter of widescreen, and rarely buy movies that are reformatted for television. And I think the widescreen provided more of an epical air to this new series. I just hope it wasn't a one-time thing for the pilot. Using widescreen format, in my opinion, will help separate "Enterprise" from most other shows by giving us something that we should've always had.



I know that in the weeks and months (and probably years) to come, there's going to be a lot of bitching about the opening credits. "How dare they add lyrics!" "What the hell is that mess of garbage that has nothing to do with space?" I thought that the opening credits sequence not only was intriguing and unique, but put us in the mood of exploration. I mean, isn't that what Star Trek is all about anyway? We saw the vessels that took us giant leaps in exploring the frontiers facing human beings ... from the oceans, to the skies and even into space.



And that was Russell Watson singing? This man is more amazing than I originally had realized. In anticipation of the new theme song, and because I have a place in my heart for opera, I picked up Watson's debut album last week, "The Voice," and was blown away by this man's abilities. If you read the album cover, it talks about how Watson considered doing different kinds of music, and even considered joining a boy band (gasp!), but decided to do opera instead. And hearing him perform the "Enterprise" theme song that was originally sang by Rod Stewart for "Patch Adams" showed the range this tenor can hit. (Incidentally, "Faith of the Heart" will be featured on Watson's new album, which will be released in October).



And with all the fear that we would lose the orchestral ballads that made up the score of previous Star Treks, it was nice to know that the work of our television composers is still intact, even if it is modernized a bit. And the camera angles. Wow! I had to keep reminding myself that this wasn't "The X-Files," the series -- other than "The West Wing" -- that has the greatest cinematography in all of television.



I literally sat at the edge of my seat through the entire episode, and that was strange in of itself. Not because I am normally mostly objective when watching television, but because I already knew what was going to happen from reading the script. James L. Conway must be commended for his directorial work ... and I want to see this level of varying camera angles, lighting (who would've thought we would have a white room like the sickbay on Star Trek?), and everything that made this episode as great as it was.



The writing just translated beautifully to the screen. I especially loved some of the lines from Hoshi Sato (Linda Park) who I already enjoy as an actress after seeing just two hours of her work. The scene in engineering when Capt. Archer (Scott Bakula) was having a discussion and Sato walks in, seeing everyone near the warp core, asks, "Is it safe to stand so close to that?" I always wondered the same thing when watching past Trek characters stand so close to the warp cores of their ship.



Bakula is perfect for the role as the captain. He has the modern feel that we need in a captain, and the emotion that we haven't seen from anyone since William Shatner's Capt. James T. Kirk. Wow ... how long ago that was.



Jolene Blalock gave a good performance as Sub-Cmdr. T'Pol, but I believe she still needs to do some serious work on her non-emotional state. There were some points that it seemed her scenes were forced, and part of that might be from some of the last-minute reshoots they did on the pilot to change her hairstyle. I believe some of those scenes were by herself, where she had to pretend she was interacting with different characters on screen.



In TV Guide last month, co-creator Rick Berman mentioned that although it's not something we'll see in the near future, they haven't ruled out considering having one of the characters gay. Reports are that Dominic Keating's Malcolm Reed will be the man to take that long-overdue role ... so I hope that on Rigel Ten, he was more interested in the butterflies than the women who were lapping them up.



The jury is still out on Connor Trinneer. I really don't know ... Trip Tucker is a character that probably helps make Star Trek more humanized, but there were a few instances where I just wanted to take his Alabama-style accent and ... well, you get the idea. The first 90 seconds of the zero-gravity scene with Anthony Montgomery (Ensign Joe Mayweather) was poorly done, especially when he loses his "footing" so to speak. The opening scene, however, in Archer's ready room with T'Pol worked out quite well ... the double-team against the Vulcan "Seven of Nine" did impress me. But not much else from that character did.



Montgomery has some good comedy scenes, especially when he learned about Klingons sharpening their teeth before battle, but I fear he is going to end up with Chakotay syndrome on this show. Which would be sad ... he seems like he could really give us an interesting character with Mayweather.



And John Billingsley! We didn't get to see a lot of his character in this episode, but if he ends up like Neelix ... Well, I just don't want to talk about that ...



I'm already excited about tuning in to the series next week. It should be amazing, thought-provoking, and God-willing, in widescreen once again.



And maybe, if you're lucky, this second installment will include something that also was forgotten in the premiere: The death of some red shirt ensign ...



Michael Hinman is the news editor and co-owner of Airlock Alpha. He lives in Tampa, Fla.