2001 A New Space Odyssey

Turns out what's around that corner is refreshingly relatable territory for early-21st-century humanoids. The crew frequently references places like San Francisco and Oklahoma. When Trip disembarks on a strange planet, he brings his camera along to capture any freaky critters. Uniforms are modern-looking NASA jumpsuits as opposed to tight spandex. And the characters themselves are cut from a more familiar cloth, especially Archer. ''He's closer to Kirk than the others,'' notes Bakula. ''He bleeds. He gets hurt, he makes mistakes, and he gets dirty. And he's in there, mixing it up....The captains on the other ships, they've been there; they've traveled. But it's a new thing for us. The first Klingon we see, I look at his feet because it's like, 'What is that thing growing out of the top of his foot?'''

''We have no space etiquette,'' adds Keating. ''I guess the show is less PC. It's not quite so liberal bleeding heart, you know, walk in peace. We're not going into outer space with a complete Gandhi-loincloth approach. We'll fire first. Just this afternoon [while filming], I fired first. We don't wait to be hit upon. You look at me funny and I'm gonna f--- you up.''

Don't worry, these guys exhibit a softer side as well. For example, they've even brought a cuddly beagle named Porthos along for the ride! ''I loved that,'' says Bakula. ''Whatever you think of this Star Trek, it breaks the mold. Throw a dog on there, you couldn't have a more human thing going on....And he's the cutest dog in the wor--- I guess you could say in the entire galaxy.'' He might want to be careful about how much screen time the little pooch gets, however. ''When I talked to my folks the night [of the debut],'' says Trinneer, ''they said, 'The dog's a hit.' And I said, 'What do you mean, the dog's a hit?''' He shakes his head. ''Everybody loves the dog.''

It's actually funny...on purpose. Did you hear the one about the rabbi, the Tribble, and the Klingon? No, you didn't. That's because Trek has traditionally boasted about as many yuks as The Weather Channel. ''We're trying to make the show funnier out of the gate,'' says Braga. ''The way we approached humor in the past, we would occasionally do the funny episode. But there was always kind of a visceral feeling that the show was not inherently humorous. It was very serious, a somewhat brooding kind of thing. We wanted to create a show that would have organic humor every single week, humor that didn't feel forced.'' To that end, keep an eye on Trip, a sarcastic dude from the Florida Keys who's a gifted engineer but a high-level fish-out-of- water when it comes to interspecies relations. ''I don't think I would have been cast on Voyager,'' notes Trinneer. ''I was talking to somebody at the beginning of this series and they said, 'How's it going?' And I said, 'I think the tone's a little different, because if it's not, I'm going to suck.''' Chuckles Berman: ''My favorite line--the shuttle craft lands, and as the dog runs out of the craft into the woods, Trip looks up and goes, 'Where no dog has gone before.' And the dog is running right for a tree.'' Granted, it's not quite Seinfeld--nor should it try to be--but, c'mon, if you can't laugh at deep-space dog wee-wee, what can you laugh at?

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