It's abundantly clear that many of the creative choices for Enterprise originated from a desire to be different than the other Star Trek series which at that point had been running continuously for 14 years. Undoubtedly, the desire to have an opening credits backed by something other than a Jerry Goldsmith (or Goldsmith-inspired) orchestral piece sprang from this impulse. But I think this was a bad decision right out of the gate, no matter what song they'd selected.
I have watched a metric crap-ton of television in my lifetime, and I am hard-pressed to think of many other one-hour dramas that use a song with lyrics for the opening credits. Songs with lyrics are the stuff sitcoms -- of jaunty lightweight fare, sometimes cloyingly sentimental. Off the top of my head, the only one-hour drama I can think of that used a song was CSI -- and even then, they edited together a version of "Who Are You" that's more screams and falsetto hooting than any intelligible English. (The spin-offs then just kept using songs by The Who because that was their "thing.") A theme song with lyrics feels like it's for a show you're not meant to take seriously. And boy, do Star Trek fans hate it (Hate! It!) when the rest of the world doesn't take them seriously. So basically, my assumption is that there is no pop song that would have worked for Star Trek: Enterprise (and Star Trek fans).
Yet "Faith of the Heart" in particular seems an especially terrible choice. I'd posit that almost no one actually knew where the song had come from when they first watched the pilot episode "Broken Bow," but when they did a little digging and found out? They'd find only reasons to reflexively get mad. The song was written by for the movie Patch Adams -- a film that, while only three years old at the time -- was considered (on the charitable side) "forgettable" or (on the other end of the spectrum) "one of the worst things Robin Williams ever made."
The song was written by Diane Warren, aka the Most Wronged Person in the History of the Academy Awards. She specializes in sentimental songs from movies (most of which become hit singles). She has been nominated a whopping 15 times for Best Song without winning once. "Because You Loved Me," "Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now," "I Don't Wanna Miss a Thing" -- just a few of the more egregious Diane Warren snubs over the years. None of these may be your favorite song, but you can't deny that they're really good versions of that kind of song.
But let's just say that the Academy did get it right when they failed to even nominate "Faith of the Heart" -- it's sappy instead of stirring, tacky instead of touching. And I think the content of the song itself demonstrates its own inappropriateness for Star Trek. There are a lot of words you could use to describe drive and determination, hopefulness, optimism... undeniably "Star Trek tenets." But faith? To me, the religious connotations are too prominent to ignore. Too often throughout history (and in the modern day), religion has staked out a position in opposition to science. So I don't think it feels great to lead off a science fiction show with an anthem about "faith."
Sure, there's nothing explicitly religious about the lyrics in the Enterprise credits. But in part, that's because they cherry-picked the song's original lyrics. The version used by the show blends pieces of two different verses from the original as recorded by Rod Stewart. And then they pretend the song is actually called "Where My Heart Will Take Me" -- on at least a subconscious level, they seem to know that "Faith of the Heart" isn't the right tone to be setting. And I feel like there's just a certain "dog whistle" quality to the lyrics that breaks through, regardless of context. (The one notable cover version released between Rod Stewart's and the Enterprise opening title was by a Christian musician trying to break through in Country music. She claimed to have considered over 800 songs for her album, and out of all those, "Faith of the Heart" somehow was the one chosen. Hmm.)
The bad choices continue in the actual production of the song. They didn't have to get a Rod Stewart sound-alike to perform it for Enterprise. They didn't have to be so melodramatic. (The backup singers echoing "I've got -- I've got -- I've got" in panning stereo is especially cheesy.) They didn't have to end the officially released version of the song with the warp speed "whoosh" sound. But yeah, they did all that.
I even groan at the visuals that play on screen during the credits. Well, one in particular: the space shuttle Enterprise rolling out of its hangar. That's the one space shuttle that never actually flew in space -- so much for your lineage of exploration. Also, it was actually named for the fictitious Enterprise of the original Star Trek, making its inclusion here a fantasy-puncturing ouroboros.
There's a lot about Star Trek: Enterprise that's probably unfairly maligned. I may unfairly malign it myself as I review it in many posts to come. But I think that one aspect of the show that simply cannot be scorned and ridiculed enough is the opening credits, with that awful song. Thank goodness we now have the "Skip Intro" button.
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