HOLLYWOOD, Calif. — We have gone where no man, woman or Klingon has gone before. Inside Stage 18 at Paramount Pictures, TV critics explored the spaceship for UPN's Enterprise, the new fall Star Trek series starring Scott Bakula.

        The gray, metallic bridge of the experimental NX-01 starship was about half the size of the U.S.S. Enterprise commanded by Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) on Star Trek: The Next Generation. That's because Enterprise will be set in the 22nd century, about 125 years before the original Star Trek adventures of Captain James Kirk (William Shatner).

        The cramped quarters were “based on a submarine,” says Mr. Bakula, who plays Capt. Jonathan Archer on the series debuting Sept. 26.

        “They really wanted a claustrophobic, high-tech, cold gray feeling like in a nuclear submarine,” explained Eric Norman, a production staffer, during our quick tour of the bridge.

        The primitive spaceship — at least by Star Trek standards — fit the premise for the show. This Enterprise crew will be the first generation of space pioneers, predating the rich Star Trek mythology from phasers to Ferengis.

Testing the equipment

        Captain Archer and his six-person crew — a chief engineer, doctor, British armory specialist, ensign, translator and a female Vulcan science officer — will test the prototype transporters, tractor beams and all things Star Trek. They won't always work as perfectly as they did years later for Mr. Spock, Commander Riker or Captain Janeway.

        These young Star Fleet officers have never met an alien race other than the Vulcans. Captain Archer doesn't even know how to write an entry in the Captain's Log.

        Nobody will say “beam me up” because the transporter was only used for cargo in the first flights. It has been approved for use by people, but not one crew member has been brave enough to try it in the year 2164.

        “It's a very terrifying place in that everything is unknown to this crew,” said Brannon Braga, former executive producer for UPN's Star Trek: Voyager, who spent 2 1/2 years creating the new series.

        “The Picards and even the Kirks of the world, they tended to take meeting alien races for granted,” said Rick Berman, executive producer of all Star Trek series since Gene Roddenberry's death in 1991.

        “For these seven, it's a pretty spooky occasion. It's always something that's filled with awe, and excitement, and a little bit of trepidation and fear,” Mr. Berman said.

A NASA lookp>         Unlike the previous Star Trek series, Paramount designers could not recycle parts from previous spaceships.

        “They tried to reuse materials, but the producers ultimately said it would look too much like Voyager or the old Enterprise. This time the look we were going for was so incredibly different,” Mr. Norman said. He described the stark design as “like modern NASA.”

        The bridge — or command center — has 81 operating plasma screens, in contrast to the fake computer screens on the original 1966-69 NBC series. Crew members will sit at hundreds of dials and switches, some which were taken from old audio engineering boards used in recording studios.

        The captain's black leather and chrome captain's chair came from a 1967 Porsche, crew members said. The Enterprise commander won't have a seat belt or shoulder harness. (Neither did the Porsche.)

Shrinking technology

        For Mr. Berman, who first guided Star Trek: The Next Generation in 1987, the challenge (and fun) of Enterprise has been inventing the inventions that came before Kirk, Picard, Benjamin Sisko and Kathryn Janeway. But being totally consistent with the rich Star Trek lore has been impossible, as modern technology continues to shrink electronic devices.

        “The computer that sat on Captain Janeway's desk was bulkier than the one that sits on my desk right now,” Mr. Berman said. “There are cellular phones that are far more compact than the communicators that Captain Kirk used.”

        Then there was the small matter of the Eugenics Wars.

        “In the original series, it was established that in 1996, half the human race was killed in the Eugenics Wars. Well, what do you do?” Mr. Braga said. “So you take it on a case by case basis.”

        In terms of defense systems, the NX-01 will be like a flying submarine. It will fire 7-foot torpedoes-like missiles. The ship has no proton torpedoes, lasers or protective shields.

To the beginning

        The beauty of this universe, Mr. Bakula said, is that viewers who haven't watched the previous four series, and don't know a Betazoid from a Borg, can enjoy the adventures without feeling lost in space. The Enterprise crew literally will be making up the Star Trek mythology as they go along.

        “We wanted to do a show about people, humans, going out and exploring,” Mr. Berman said. “We decided to go back to a period where it all began, where ... people could watch all this stuff develop, and also where our characters could be closer to contemporary characters. These guys wear baseball caps sometimes, and they wear jeans and sneakers.”

        Ball caps, jeans and sneakers? Even if the drama isn't very compelling, merchandise should move off store shelves at warp speed for Enterprise, the first Star Trek series without Star Trek in the title.

        “If there's any one word that says Star Trek without actually saying Star Trek,” Mr. Berman said, “it's the word Enterprise.”

        TV Critic John Kiesewetter is reporting from the Television Critic Association's summer press tour. E-mail jkiesewetter@enquirer.com. Past columns at Enquirer.com/columns/kiese

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