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Star Trek is beloved by legions of people from all ages, walks of life, and origins. But for the unfamiliar, starting on Star Trek for the first time can be overwhelming with 700+ hours of TV, over a dozen movies, and novels and comics to boot. Wondering where you should get started? If you’re looking to kick things off by watching Enterprise, here are some pointers.

Star Trek: Enterprise
Aired 2001-2005 —4 Seasons, 98 Episodes
Starring Scott Bakula, John Billingsley, Jolene Blalock, Dominic Keating, Anthony Montgomery, Linda Park, Connor Trinneer

Star Trek: Enterprise took to the air at the end of a decade and a half of constant Trek programming. 21 seasons of Star Trek had aired over a period of 14 years thanks to overlap of the three series that came before it. By the time it was Enterprise’s turn to hit the small screen, the public’s desire for Trek television was reaching its saturation point. Instead of airing the sheets for a few years and encouraging people to get back in the mood for more space-based adventuring, producers Rick Berman and Brannon Braga decided to create Enterprise, returning the franchise to its Original Series (1966) and Next Generation (1987) roots by following a captain and his crew as they explore the unknown. The difference is they did so without the diversity, intelligence, and creativity for which Star Trek had been known.

Deep Space Nine (1993) courageously explored dark stories, interpersonal conflicts and political struggles through serialized storytelling. Voyager’s artistic approach to Trek applied the most fiction to the science fiction franchise, with stories and technologies that pushed the borders of believability. Enterprise called back to the style of Picard (Patrick Stewart) and Kirk (William Shatner) journeying on a mission of exploration—except Enterprise’s Jonathan Archer (Scott Bakula) was set before either of those men were born. The new series charted the adventures of the Enterprise NX-01, the first ship bearing the Enterprise name, just after the invention of warp drive, well before Kirk’s Constitution-class NCC-1701 was even conceptually possible. The series is set in the mid-22nd century, a long time before everything else in Trek television, but still far into the future. A good premise? Maybe, maybe not—audiences never really found out.

The first bit of trouble came from the concept itself. Launching in 2001, Enterprise’s production quality was much more visually appealing than Roddenberry’s Original Series from 1966. Yet, the new show was to take place more than a century before its oldest brethren. In an effort to make the Enterprise NX-01 look less advanced than Kirk’s ship, as would be logical, Archer’s Enterprise may be richer in color and modern-day aesthetic but lacks a holodeck, a talking computer, and a sophisticated transporter. The crew members use treadmills and generally engage in behaviors more common to current day, and less like the futuristic regimens audiences had seen on other series. Still, it was challenging for people to wrap their minds around the idea that this ship and its nicely-costumed crew were inferior to Kirk’s high-colored, retro vessel. And the casting of Quantum Leap’s (1989) Bakula as a Starfleet captain was (and remains) a decision rife with heated controversy. If people can’t rally behind the captain on a Star Trek series, the problems will only grow from there.

Enterprise’s later two seasons are better received than its first two, as the series never achieved a consistency in storytelling or structure which has marred its lasting legacy. The first two seasons tend toward thin versions of episodic drama from TNG or Voyager, without Voyager’s advanced concepts or TNG’s philosophical insights. The third season examines the aftermath of a war and plays akin to DS9’s war stories, while the series’ fourth season found new creative personnel determined to investigate the show’s foundation as a prequel to everything else in Trek canon. That was its most intriguing premise, after all, but unfortunately it was squandered until the botched series was ready to be pulled from the air. The foundation upon which the series was built was never really utilized.

Enterprise’s characters remained underdeveloped and hard to sympathize with, its creative instincts never found their footing, and too often its affable stories feel like bland echoes of the several series that came before. Enterprise’s theme song, “Where My Heart Will Take Me,” a Rod Stewart cover originally written for the Patch Adams (1998) soundtrack, more or less sums up the series’ confused sense of identity. The show wasn’t even called Star Trek: Enterprise at first—simply titled Enterprise, the Star Trek didn’t show up until season three. On top of everything else, Enterprise had the misfortune of premiering just a few weeks after 9/11, in a time when Gene Roddenberry’s original vision for a utopian, harmonious human society felt more impossible than it had in decades.

With all that, Enterprise is best taken in as Star Trek comfort food—the big, fat, Star Trek brownie following the main course. It’s unlikely any Trek fan is going to recommend a beginner introduce themselves to the expansive world of Trek through this series. Starting with any other installation is a better option, and Enterprise should only be consumed after a love for Trek will allow one to look past its weaknesses. That said, here are some of its better moments:

Crucial Episodes:

Dear Doctor (Season 1, Episode 13)
Arguably the series’ first great episode, this complex story sees the Enterprise withholding a cure from a culture that has been stricken by a planet-wide plague, all in the name of promoting genetic superiority. Anthony Montgomery calls it the best episode of season one.

Star Trek: Enterprise - Carbon Creek

Carbon Creek (Season 2, Episode 2)
Jolene Blalock plays her character’s own Vulcan grandmother in this Enterprise-era period piece. It tells a story about acceptance and alienation using 1950s America as a backdrop for comparison—for obvious reasons. There is Vulcan humor and a good story, which contribute to one of Enterprise’s better early efforts.

Cogenitor (Season 2, Episode 22)
The Enterprise encounters the Vissians, a race that includes a third gender beyond male and female known as “cogenitors,” and who are treated as second-class citizens. The episode poses tough questions and offers even tougher answers, making it an easy standout in season two.

Similitude (Season 3, Episode 10)
Enterprise was never great at establishing thought-provoking storylines, but Similitude comes as close as any episode does to attaining the allegorical strength of previous series.

Affliction/Divergence (Season 4, Episodes 15 & 16)
A fourth season two-part installment aimed at hardcore Trek fans, Affliction/Divergence finally explained the changing appearance of Klingons—one of Star Trek’s biggest continuity concerns.

Star Trek: Enterprise - In a Mirror, Darkly

In a Mirror, Darkly (Season 4, Episode 18)
The first of another two-part episode, Commander Archer mutinies against Captain Forrest in order to capture a future Earth ship found in Tholian space. The episode makes use of the mirror universe first established in The Original Series, and technically serves as its prequel.

These Are the Voyages… (Season 4, Episode 22)
At the end of Enterprise’s run, its finale paid some fan service with a cool concept episode that put William Riker (Jonathan Frakes) back on Star Trek as he utilizes a holodeck simulation of Archer’s Enterprise for research. Rick Berman described it as “a Valentine to the fans,” and is an undeniably fun piece for fans of earlier generation Trek television. It is not really a great finale (Jolene Blalock was highly critical of it), but is a fun throwback.

Notable mentions include Demons (Season 4, Episode 20) and Terra Prime (Season 4, Episode 21), while the bulk of Enterprise’s fourth season was multiple-episode stories thanks to a mini-arc format developed by Manny Coto, Demons and Terra Prime stand as another memorable combo; First Flight (Season 2, Episode 24) wherein Archer reflects on his days in the NX test program; Shuttlepod One (Season 1, Episode 16) during which Tucker and Reed are convinced that Enterprise has been destroyed and try to face their own deaths; The Andorian Incident (Season 1, Episode 7) a routine episode with a substantial ending; and Broken Bow (Season 1, Episode 1), the series pilot.

(Looking for a similar guide for The Original Series, The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, or Voyager? Look no further.)