Star Trek Inc.

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Similarly, the new TV series, Enterprise, includes T'Pol, a Vulcan female who is shrink-wrapped in a cat suit that probably blocks circulation but beautifully accentuates the bosom that once landed actress Jolene Blalock, who plays T'Pol, on the cover of Maxim. The other woman on the bridge, Ensign Sato, has had trouble doing her subservient job — she's a translator — because she panics. Some Trekkies are annoyed. Earlier this year, feminist Donna Minkowitz argued in the Nation magazine that "[Enterprise] is the first Star Trek really interested in punishing women." That's an exaggeration, but Trek does seem to be returning to the gender roles of the original series, in which Kirk was a spectacular cad.

While the new captain, Jonathan Archer, doesn't canoodle much, he's like Kirk in another way. In 2000 conservative writer John Podhoretz noted in the Weekly Standard that while the original series "promoted an idealistic vision of the U.S. as an exporter of democracy," fluffy '90s Treks were "consumed by...multiculturalism and pacifism." Enterprise surely isn't. Archer unflinchingly charges into alien affairs. His chief foe is even called the Suliban, which Berman had named after the Taliban even before 9/11. So far, Archer is best remembered for the line, "You have no idea how much I'm restraining myself from knocking you on your ass!" (Which would be a lot more manly if he hadn't said it to a woman.)

But forget about politics. Will the new Trek sell? Star Trek: The Man Show doesn't sound promising — jocks and nerds, after all, don't commingle. Perhaps that's why Enterprise hasn't connected with people; it has one-third fewer viewers in its second season than Voyager did during its sophomore outing. Trek fans may also be a bit exhausted. "Perhaps we weren't careful enough in giving the audience some breathing room — a year or two they could have lain fallow," says Berman. Nemesis, however, may prove him wrong. In firing up one of the most riveting space battles in the history of the franchise, it just may get all those closeted Trekkies to come out for a day.