When I watched my first episode of Star Trek Enterprise, I
was almost appalled by the opening titles. What is this strange song? Why are
there almost country sounding lyrics instead of the beautiful, transcendent
instrumentals of previous series? And what are all of these weird historical
clips instead of images of planets and the Enterprise? Simply put, after just
rewatching Next Generation and Deep Space 9, I had very high standards and did
not like change.
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However,
just half a season into Enterprise, I was warming up to the concept and the
characters, and instead of immediately skipping the opening titles, I was
beginning to listen. The song was getting stuck in my head, and I found myself
weirdly inspired by it. As I examined it more, I realized that both the opening
titles and the show itself resonates the closest to where we as a species are
today. We are barely starting to explore realistic ideas of interplanetary
travel, and traveling between systems is nearly inconceivable.
Yet as the world seems to be
devolving into chaos more every year, it is more important than ever to have a
future that is worth moving towards, one that is neither a dystopic nightmare
nor a futuristic copy of the problems we already have. One of Star Trek’s main
themes is that the human spirit is about exploration and discovery, not about
violence and hatred and suffering. It is based on the faith that we are and
will continue improving and growing as a species.
Enterprise’s opening titles does
not focus on exploring new worlds and finding new civilizations, though that is
still the Enterprise’s primary mission. Instead, it focuses on the path of
progress that got humanity to the point they are at in 2151 at the start of
Enterprise season 1. The opening titles start as Rob Stewart’s Song “Faith of
the Heart” plays over a view of earth. This is important because unlike other shows that begin by showing other planets or space stations far away, Enterprise begins at Earth. We are still grounded here on earth, unable to go farther, but in Enterprise, humans are finally able to use warp travel to begin moving beyond the Sun's solar system.
The first verse is “It’s been a long
road getting from there to here. It’s been a long time, but my time is finally
near.” This is fitting to the clips and the theme of this part of the opening,
for most of the opening titles are depictions of humanity’s past navigating and
exploring. The opening shows a small ship navigating in the ocean and
progresses to a large sailing ship, specifically the HMS Enterprise. A few
clips later, the space shuttle Enterprise appears as well. These two Enterprise
ships not only begin to show the progression of navigation technology, it also
acts as a reminder that Enterprise’s legacy started long before space travel,
and so did humanity’s desire to explore. As the opening shows clips of sea
travel and navigation, the lyrics of the song are, “And I will see my dream
come alive at last, I will touch the sky.” This implies that the dream is
always to explore farther and higher than they could get before, and these
lyrics act as a beautiful transition from sea travel and exploration to air and
space travel as the lyrics “touch the sky” fade out as clips from air and space
travel fade in. It demonstrates that humanity is always moving forward, trying
to reach new heights that were previously impossible.
Sea travel shifts to air and space
exploration. There are clips of a hot air balloon, the Spirit of St. Louis, the
Wright brothers’ plane, a jet, an underwater science vessel, astronauts flying
in their ship and walking on the moon, space telescopes and satellites, and a
rover on mars. Time progresses quickly through just a few centuries, clearly
illustrating the technological progress that humans have made to help them
explore and discover new areas within and around our own world. The amount of
progress shown in less than a minute is staggering considering these inventions
span over just a few centuries, and it acts as a testament to human’s
technological progress, but this opening is about more than showing off
scientific progress. Part of the lyrics as these clips play includes, “I can do
anything. I’ve got strength of the soul. No one’s going to bend nor break me.” This
alludes to more than just the technology shown in the clips, indicating that
this exploration is about humanity’s strength and soulfulness as well as
discovery and progress. The last line, “no one’s going to bend nor break me”
can also be interpreted with the hopeful lens that Star Trek has, indicating
that humanity will keep moving forward and won’t be broken, even during
difficult times.
The most moving two lines of the
song for me personally are “I can reach any star. I’ve got faith, faith of the
heart.” These two lines are sung during the transition from current, real
inventions to a few inventions in the future, ending on the Enterprise warping
away. The opening title ends on the almost obligatory blink of the ship
disappearing into space, a call back to the opening titles of both the Original
Series and Next Generation. This short part of the opening titles builds on the
minute or so of the clips of humanity’s past technology for exploration and discovery.
Enterprise’s opening title is a reminder of how far we have come and the
progress that we have made, and it is a reminder that if we keep having faith,
then we can “reach any star” as long as we have “faith of the heart,” a faith
that goes beyond the technology itself. This opening title builds on Star Trek’s
optimism and encourages progress fueled by exploration and heartfelt desires,
not war or greed or fear, instead focusing on reaching for the stars and going
where no one has gone before.
