SHIP OF THINGS TO COME UPN HEADS OUT INTO 'THE FINAL FRONTIER' AGAIN.

Byline: David Kronke Television Writer

When returning back to the future for the fifth live-action ``Star Trek'' series, executive producers Rick Berman and Brannon Braga decided to go forward, to the series' past.

UPN's ``Enterprise,'' which debuted last week, is set in the 22nd century, 100 years before James T. Kirk slithered into those high-waters and boots and broke hearts and kicked butts in every galaxy he visited.

The title comments as much on the actual ``Star Trek'' starship as it does on the money machine this franchise has become. Last week's two-hour premiere episode drew 12.5 million viewers, the second-highest rating in UPN history.

Scott Bakula, who has some experience with being part of a sci-fi phenomenon from his old series ``Quantum Leap,'' stars as Capt. Jonathan Archer, who establishes the template for Starfleet's starship commanders. And he's not as ruminative as recent ``Trek'' captains have been - unlike Picard or Janeway, you'll see him bloodying his knuckles and pursuing a sex life.

``This character is bold and brash and, yes, the closest to Kirk, even though I'm a hundred years before Kirk, than any of the other captains,'' Bakula says.

There is also a Vulcan - Jolene Blalock plays Vulcan Sub Commander T'Pol. ``My favorite was Spock, so it's really strange for me,'' Blalock says. ``My favorite relationship was between Bones and Spock because it was just like this animosity and this love-hate relationship, but overall there was such utter loyalty between all three of them. I love the way Bones would be, like, 'You green-blooded fool!' ''

Making it up

Another alien aboard the fledgling starship is Dr. Phlox, of whom John Billingsley, who essays the role, says, ``He's an as-yet-unnamed species from an as-yet-unnamed planet. I'm sure they will conjure up a backstory for me that contradicts everything that I've created. My own sense is that this guy comes from a planet of, in essence, monastic philosophers who have so emphasized the inner journey that they've decided they need have no truck with the rest of the universe. My character is somewhat in rebellion and decides that it's important to be out in the world and has left his planet to go on a lifelong pilgrimage.''

Billingsley sits in the makeup chair two hours every day to have his forehead, chin and ears manipulated - they'll be ridged and his skin will be, as he says, ``all kind of mottled with a burnt sienna.''

His character, Billingsley explains, is ``on Earth as part of the Vulcan Interspecies Medical Exchange Program - when you can spit that stuff out, you get the part. That's how I got the job, I can say that really quickly.

``When I initially auditioned,'' Billingsley adds, ``I had the conceit that on his own home world, he sounded like a bird. So when I first auditioned, I squawked a couple of times, in moments of rapture or transport. And then they hired me, and I wondered, 'Did they hire me because of the squawk or in spite of the squawk?' I got to the first day on the set and I squawked, and there was silence on the set, and, uh, in spite of the squawk. 'Memo to self: Lose the squawk.' ''

Music for ``Enterprise'' differs from the traditional orchestrated scores, with a more contemporary sensibility. James Cromwell, who appeared in the ``Trek'' film ``First Contact'' as the scientist who developed warp drive, put in an appearance in ``Enterprise's'' debut - not much of one, however, since Cromwell has his own series, ``Citizen Baines,'' over on CBS.

New, unimproved

But perhaps the most interest surrounding ``Enterprise'' has focused on the look of the show - since it will take place before the original ``Star Trek,'' which looks kind of cheesy nowadays, ``Enterprise'' can't look too sophisticated and high-tech. The show's designers have responded accordingly.

Sets are largely gun-metal gray, representing a sort of retro-futurism - sort of what might've happened if '50s sci-fi design cliches had had today's technology to work with. There are plenty of plasma screens, sure, but there's also a simpler mechanical feel - there are simply missiles, not photon torpedoes, in the armory; the navigator's chair on the bridge slides on a console and sits before toggles, switches and a joystick that actually steers the ship. (Bakula's captain's chair was pried out of a '67 Porsche.)

But, as opposed to past series, viewers will note that this starship's environs are a smidgen cramped, 22nd-century technology having not allowed for the luxuriously spacious starships of ``Enterprise's'' forebears.

``We wanted to make the bridge a comfortable, hospitable place that people would want to come back and visit every week, but we also wanted to make it, again, contemporary,'' executive producer Berman explains.

``We visited a nuclear submarine to get a look at an enclosed environment where people live for long periods of time, and a lot of elements of the set were influenced by that. It's some very cool stuff, just not quite the same sleekness and size as previous Enterprises.

``It's a good mixture of things. We have beams in the Ready Room - we got this from the submarine, too - where the captain sort of has to bend down to go to certain parts or else he'll bang his head.

``There's a great irony about developing things that you don't want to be more advanced than things that you know are going to come in 90 years, at the time of Kirk,'' Berman continues. ``That's a problem we have right now. The computer that sat on Capt. Janeway's desk (in ``Voyager'') was bulkier than the one that sits on my desk now. There are cellular phones that are far more compact than the communicators Capt. Kirk used.''

Part of the appeal of tackling ``Enterprise'' was going backward, creating more primitive originals of the gizmos and gadgets that looked so cool and feasible on the other series. Executive producer Braga says, ``We have paid close attention to all things 'Star Trek' in conceiving the show and plan to utilize and exploit the things that people have come to appreciate about 'Star Trek.' ''

Berman adds, ``We're having fun with seeing these things when they don't operate perfectly, when they're being developed and perfected.''

No phantom torpedoes

Braga elaborates: ``We don't have shields; we have something called hull plating. Photon torpedoes don't exist. We have a transporter that's designed just for cargo. It's been approved for people, Starfleet has approved it, but nobody wants to use it. They're all nervous about it.'' In fact, in the first episode, the transporter is only used on Bakula's character in an emergency situation - a battlefield test.

Berman and Braga also had to consider creating a plausible world view for the 22nd century, given what fans already know about the ``Star Trek'' universe. ``It's a very terrifying place in that everything is unknown to this crew,'' Braga says. ``Earth is in much better shape than it was in the movie 'First Contact' in that poverty, crime, disease and hunger have all been eradicated for the most part, but the Federation is a long way off. And Starfleet is very, very young and this crew has met very few alien species since the Vulcans arrived. So the landscape of the universe is virtually unknown to these people, and they will meet many friendly and also many terrifying aliens.''

``The Picards and the Kirks of the world tended to take meeting alien races for granted,'' Berman adds. ``For this crew, it's a pretty spooky occasion. It's filled with awe and excitement and a little bit of trepidation and fear - it's more like any one of us finding ourselves in the situation where we're about to run into an alien species.''

All that is well and good, but let's talk about that which is nearest and dearest to Paramount/Viacom's heart - the merchandising. All of the actors had to sign an agreement to be rendered as plastic action figures before they were even hired.

Which doesn't seem to bother Billingsley too much. ``Who wouldn't want to have a toy of themselves?'' he says. ``I don't have kids, but I'm sure my wife will play with it - busy day on the set? I can leave her with a toy.''

``ENTERPRISE''

What: The latest in the ``Star Trek'' series.

The stars: Scott Bakula, Jolene Blalock, John Billingsley, Connor Trinneer, Dominic Keating, Linda Park and Anthony Montgomery.

Where: UPN (Channel 13).

When: 8 p.m. Wednesdays, repeated at 8 p.m. the following Sunday.

CAPTION(S):

4 photos

Photo:

(1 -- cover -- color) SEEKING OUT NEW LIFE

Creators and cast of UPN's `Enterprise' push `Star Trek' franchise ahead to the past

(2) BLALOCK

(3) BILLINGSLEY

(4) BAKULA