It's bad sometimes when a review glowingly approves every element in a pilot. Pilots are supposed to have rough edges, like reviewers. OK, the strobe lights as Archer approached the temporal chamber were cheesy. So there.

That out of the way, "Broken Bow" bested my expectations. I am in love with this show and hope it lasts for a long time. No worry about forgetting our roots either, as long as every episode presents such a salute to the Great Bird!

The Enterprise NX-01 is simply gorgeous. Like her namesake shuttle but unlike the NCC-1701, it's sufficiently ungainly to merit serious engineering attention. As attractive as her lines now appear on camera, subsequent analysis may impact the design down the road. The sets are functional and attractive though I still don't know where Tucker's Engineering fits into the layout. Likewise, where is Mayweather's anti-grav tunnel?

I recall "Encounter at Farpoint," and to be sure my local network didn't feed an all-day on-screen countdown to "Launch." (No one can blame the UPN media blitz as being unprepared!) "Farpoint" was crafted as some sort of test for humanity and yet it took non-healthy amounts of non-human crew members to eventually solve the riddle.

Thankfully "Enterprise" does not fail that way. This is a show about real people - even a fully repeat fully competent Vulcan gets lost in the snow (take the beagle next time!). Boxes block corridors. Yet for all Berman spoke of a "terrifying world," Archer's Earth doesn't seem so awful, even though I miss Majel's voice. (Our time already has talking computers. Where did they go?)

The cast selection is perfect, full of the special chemistry so crucial to success. There's really not a bad grape in the bunch, with due credit granted to the acting and writing talent. Roddenberry pulled it off twice. Berman and Braga have at least now pulled it off once.

The scenes in the crew's and captain's mess were priceless. The new communicators are fine, and we see an early tricorder settling from those distracting hand pads. The Suliban will certainly do, though I'm still convinced I see villainous pointed ears in that time-blur.

Question: As the pod pulled away from Rigel, Archer drifted into a dream, sailing the model ship with his father. One brief moment passes revealing T'Pol on a beach. Was she mind-melding with Archer to reduce the pain - or to take over the mission?

Good Trek highlights an Enterprise on an enjoyable trip to the stars. "Enterprise" is good Star Trek!