Writer Manny Coto admitted that when he arrived to work on the third season of Star Trek: Enterprise, he had seen few episodes from the first two seasons.

Speaking to Dreamwatch Magazine (via Sci Fi Pulse), Coto said that due to time constraints and the fact that he was working on Odyssey 5 when he came to Enterprise, he had missed most of the early seasons, but when he caught up, he was impressed.

"There were a huge amount of episodes I loved. I really liked what I saw, and I thought it was a great opportunity for me," he said.

One early episode that made an impression was "Cogenitor", in which Tucker tried to help a member of an alien third sex escape what he saw as sexual oppression. He also enjoyed "Regeneration", the Borg episode.

His next episode, "Chosen Realm", focuses on fundamentalist religion, presenting a species which has formed a religion around the space-time altering Spheres in the Expanse, "because they believe they're holy. They feel the Enterprise crew, in exploring the Spheres, has desecrated a holy site and they take steps against them."

The upcoming "Harbinger", also by Coto, "will ultimately reveal a great secret about the Spheres and who built them and why."

"Frankly, there are some things I like about the direction we've taken in season three and some things I miss," he confessed. "I miss the sense of wonder about the Enterprise being the first [Starfleet] ship out in the cosmos, and I miss the looseness of being able to go anywhere you want and do anything you want."

Because he wasn't one who "was trashing the first two seasons", Coto didn't strongly feel that the show needed to change. "But I think a lot of people felt it did, and viewers seem to really like the new direction."

He added that the Xindi arc "made Enterprise a more driven show. It's a little darker and edgier, and there's a strong sense of purpose. There have been some really terrific episodes this season."

Coto called executive story editor Andre Bormanis "the resident Star Trek fan" and the person he goes to when he needs to know if a particular storyline has already been used on a previous Star Trek show. He is very proud that fans embraced "Similitude", his first script.

For more on Coto, check out issue 113 of Dreamwatch or visit Sci Fi Pulse for more excerpts.

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