Star Trek Enterprise - Is it that Bad?

Myrddin

Just finished a run through of all four seasons. In the past, I've been defensive of the show, feeling that it was finding its feet by the end of season 4....this time however, for whatever reason, I'm of the opposite opinion.

It was painfully slow to get started, plot recycle after plot recycle, boring characters, boring antagonists, boring stories, etc etc. This continued mostly up to the end of season 2. There were a few episodes of note from the first two seasons, (namely Minefield, Dead Stop, The Catwalk, Dawn, Regeneration, and The Expanse, all from Season 2), but mostly, the first two seasons are a complete slog.

Things pick up for Season 3, with the Expanse arc. It however, runs on painfully long really...the entire season is taken up with it, & by the end, I just felt I couldn't wait for it to end. Episodes of note in Season 3 are Extinction, Impule, Exile, Twilight, Simultude, Carpenter Street, and Stratagem. It was an improvement over Seasons 1 & 2, but again, it dragged on way too long, & the ending felt rushed and hastened. It's as if they padded the season out too much, forgetting they had to end it at some point!

Season 4, christ almighty what were they thinking with that two part opener - Nazi aliens....again??? We've already seen the Hirogen do this, but this took things to an almighty low. The season definitely didn't kick off well. You could kind of tell they wanted to fit in as many good scripts as they had left though, there were some good arcs in this season. Borderland, Cold Station 12, & The Augments is probably the best three parter of the whole show (it had Brent Spiner in it, which is always a plus). It was very good, & I liked the pacing and acting. Babel 1, United, & The Aenar form another good trio arc, with the Romulans conspiring to prevent an alliance.

Affliction & Divergence was another enjoyable arc, explaining the whole Klingon ridges thing (or lack thereof, in TOS). While this was completely unneccessary, I actually enjoyed the explanation and execution of the episodes. In a Mirror Darkly then was also very enjoyable, exploring the mirror universe and the fate of the TOS Defiant.

That's pretty much all there is though. The series finale was nothing short of a kick in the teeth to the show, and the actors themselves. Absolutely dreadful stuff, the biggest damp squib of any finale, & it's more like a lost TNG episode than a fitting end to Enterprise.

So yes, I'll say it now, and while my opinion may change in the future, for now I feel Enterprise is that bad. The characters are never engaging, they got the Vulcans so unbelievably wrong that it ruins any scenes with them in it, it kept changing its focus from season to season, never really finding a consistent groove, and being a prequel, it was always going to struggle. A lot of the CGI is truly awful too, it has not at all aged well.

I liked Archer, Trip & T'Pol (T'Pol only got decent from Season 2 onwards...before that she was like the rest of the Vulcans, played all wrong). I loved Shran (Jeffrey Combs, you can't go wrong really), and I liked Hoshi too...she was well played I thought. Honestly though, I'm delighted it's over & I can move on to greener pastures...

degrassinoel

I think at the time Enterprise was being filmed and airing was a dreadful time for the US historically and the events of the real world impacted severely on some of the entertainment industry. That's not to say i hated the show, i quite liked it and watched it again recently too.

The whole Xindi thing was imo an attempt to show empathy with the nation after 9/11 and possibly justify the conflict in Iraq.. Or maybe they just wanted to curry favour with current events-like story arcs - i think the entire Xindi plot was precisely that, and ye know, it wasn't a bad plot but it was overbearing to have it in the forefront and background for so long and have no mention of that species in any of the other shows. (or at least very little if at all)

I'd have preferred a 'birth of the federation' show rather than what we got in the end. Even so, i did like some of the characters and Archer was a decent captain when he was playing the explorer rather than the military captain.

Myrddin

Indeed, I never got the dislike for Archer, & still don't.

LeinsterDub

Enterprise's issue for me was it was neither a continuing story arc nor one off episodes.

Compare Enterprise and BSG .

Each episode of BSG was important hinting at the overall plot building tension you couldn't miss one.

With Enterprise you have time war, day trip to a moon , time war , day trip to flu planet , the Expanse,.... . The one off episodes felt like filler and the arcs felt undeveloped and not committed too enough. By the time they got around to the arc again you'd forgotten half the stuff it was about.

Myrddin

^^ fully agree. It was hugely inconsistent, & doing a fairly full on run through, this becomes abundantly clear. For me, ultimately, it was the writing that failed the show...it didn't know what it was, what it wanted to be, where it wanted to go, and how to get there...and that showed through to the viewer.

I often felt one more season could have saved it, but now, today, I feel the cancellation came at the right time. Another season would have been yet another new arc...the viewers were well & truly lost by the end.

seamus

^^ Writing and structure I think let it down. I never really felt like I had any real grasp on WTF was going on, what the major plot arc was and what stage it was at. There was something a bit Lost-esque about the major arc; that there was nobody with a grand plan in their head, just putting it together as they went along.

I think it tried to merge the long-running and complicated arc format of its contemporaries like 24 with the traditional Trek format of self-contained episodes. And in doing so it failed in both.

Sci-Fi has for the most part been all about the one-off episodes and the most successful ones are the ones who stick to it. Just as Enterprise deviated from the format, so too did SG:U, and both fell flat on their face.

Myrddin

seamus wrote: »

I think it tried to merge the long-running and complicated arc format of its contemporaries like 24 with the traditional Trek format of self-contained episodes. And in doing so it failed in both

Perhaps so, which is all the more disappointing because DS9 nailed it several years beforehand.

Sci-Fi has for the most part been all about the one-off episodes and the most successful ones are the ones who stick to it. Just as Enterprise deviated from the format, so too did SG:U, and both fell flat on their face.

Hmm, not sure I'd competently agree there. Battlestar Galactica and Deep Space Nine spring to mind. Hell, even with Stargate SG1 & Stargate Atlantis there were long running arcs. The difference within these though, is the structure as you say...the writers understood their direction better, & could write accordingly. With Enterprise, it was chopping and changing the whole time. Season 4 is rife with mini arcs (the augments, the Vulcan coup, the Romulan drone ship, the Klingon ridges, the baby of T'Pol & Trip...)

ItHurtsWhenIP

Myrddin wrote: »

...
Hmm, not sure I'd competently agree there. Battlestar Galactica and Deep Space Nine spring to mind. Hell, even with Stargate SG1 & Stargate Atlantis there were long running arcs. The difference within these though, is the structure as you say...the writers understood their direction better, & could write accordingly.
...

Agreed about BSG, DS9, SG1 and SG:A. However I think the best long-arc Sci-Fi series ever was Babylon 5. J. M. Straczynski held that one tightly together, I think perfectly.

MisterDrak

Agree that the series was not that bad, and like previous posters, I did enjoy the Xindi / time war stuff. But; and its a big but, that opening theme song , the visuals were again relatively OK...

Myrddin

I actually really enjoyed the opening theme from seasons 1 & 2....they completely butchered it for seasons 3 & 4 though, while trying to introduce some forced beat to it.

LeinsterDub

Myrddin wrote: »

Perhaps so, which is all the more disappointing because DS9 nailed it several years beforehand.



Hmm, not sure I'd competently agree there. Battlestar Galactica and Deep Space Nine spring to mind. Hell, even with Stargate SG1 & Stargate Atlantis there were long running arcs. The difference within these though, is the structure as you say...the writers understood their direction better, & could write accordingly.

That and a focused approach.
BSG : Cylons are fraking going to kill us all.
SG1 : Goa'uld are going to kill us all best Macgyver us out of this situation, arguably SG1 went down hill after the Goa'uld weren't the many threat anymore.
SGA : Wraith are going to kill us all eh? Once again , once the Asurans were introduced it lost focus.

MisterDrak

Slightly off topic, but just watched the TNG "Best of Both worlds 1,2" again at the weekend, as part of Sy-Fy's best of Star Trek weekend. Some standout TV right there, IMDB score (9.3, 9.2)

The best scores for Enterprise are an 8.9 for Twilight (S3.E8) and then down from there.

Cookie_Monster

I run through it every now and again and despite plenty of flaws overall it remains my favourite series. I particularly like the tech level and development. It's a pity TNG just that 5-10 years more recent, would have gotten much better background effects and consoles etc.
And while it has a fair number of poor episodes, there are no unwatchable ones IMO, unlike any of the other series which have some howlers, Voyager in particular.

It's such a pity it didn't get series 5-7 as I really think we would have seen some good early Federation development.

helimachoptor

Myrddin wrote: »

Indeed, I never got the dislike for Archer, & still don't.

Me too, i though Archer was pretty good.

He for me was what i'd expect a captain to be like in a hundred years or so

Myrddin

helimachoptor wrote: »

He for me was what i'd expect a captain to be like in a hundred years or so

I think we'd be lucky to have someone like him tbh If it ever happens for us, it'd be more military-like I imagine...nuclear wessels in space.

Just getting back to the show, for the augments trilogy in season 4 was the highlight of the show, thanks in no small part to Brent Spiner. He's a class act. The acting of the main augments was very good too.

Blazer

For years I was saying we needed a show that followed the birth of the Federation and the ensuing Kllingon War and the setting up of the Neutral zone etc..but then I hear the major enemy was the Xindi..I was like...who the fcuk are the Xindi???
Archer was excellent though in fairness.

Sparko

I think it shifted in the correct direction in season 4 but unfortunately it was too little too late.

I'll still happily watch season 3 & 4 anytime I see it on though.

ondafly

first off - this is my first ever viewing of Enterprise - and I've skimmed through the posts above to avoid spoilers. I know I'm very late to the party also

I inhaled the original series in the 80s along with the movies, loved NG and clearly remember watching the first ever episode (double) on RTE when it premiered. Took awhile to get into it, but was hooked. Then came DS9 and again, loved it. At some stage during this period NG was re-shown twice daily on Sky around 5pm and 11pm ? and I remember that Summer fondly. I honestly tried to like Voyager but it never fully clicked with me, and by the time Enterprise appeared, I think I watched the intro, heard the music and didn't give it a chance.

Many moons later, its appeared on Netflix and I have zipped through the first and nearly all of the second season at warp speed and I love the intro music. I would currently rank it higher than Voyager (bear in mind I've haven't finished it yet however). Perhaps I'm getting a buzz of nostalgia from the show by watching it during the summer, but I have to say I'll be disappointed when its over.

imitation

It didn't feel like star trek at all to me. You had this series with a huge background of history and races and it utilised none of it. Maybe it was the time they decided to set it in, but you had all these random races like the xindi who were a massive threat but obviously are never mentioned in any other show again. It just doesn't fit in.

I still found it watchable sci fi, but it was only really.

Oh and the last episode was just awful.

Myrddin

ondafly wrote: »

Many moons later, its appeared on Netflix and I have zipped through the first and nearly all of the second season at warp speed and I love the intro music. I would currently rank it higher than Voyager (bear in mind I've haven't finished it yet however). Perhaps I'm getting a buzz of nostalgia from the show by watching it during the summer, but I have to say I'll be disappointed when its over.

If you're still hanging in there by the end of Season 2, prepare to like it even more as it gets significantly better from here on I also really warmed to the intro theme, but that said, they butchered it for seasons 3 & 4 (listen for the new edgy 'beat' to it ). As above, I didn't enjoy this recent re-watch of mine, & couldn't wait for it to end!

Contrast that with me watching Firefly for the first time straight after Enterprise. Now that's how you do it! Wow, what a truly quality little show. More charm, wit, & thrills in 14 episodes, than Enterprise managed in 4 full seasons!

ScumLord

ondafly wrote: »

Many moons later, its appeared on Netflix and I have zipped through the first and nearly all of the second season at warp speed and I love the intro music.

I absolutely hated enterprises music, I had to skip it every time. What makes it worse is that it gets stuck in your head.

Enterprise was all right, decent sci fi show almost held back by the star trek box.

I've gotten as far as season 3 of DS9 now, I'm watching star trek series in order. I hadn't watched enterprise so I watched that first, followed by the 60s version, then tng and now ds9. The big problem for me is how militaristic the federation is. The show is sort of chained to violence and war because the federation is a military organisation. I didn't notice it as much when I was growing up and it's really becoming apparent in DS9.

Real life technology is also overtaking star trek technology in a lot of ways. Watching them go to a wall when they get a phone call is a bit daft. We'll probably have a data before we even get as far as mars.

The whole franchise could do with a pretty major shake up or the stories could run into all sorts of problems trying to ignore the fact the people watching the futuristic show will have more useful technology in their pockets than the crew of the enterprise have. We're also overlapping star trek history at this point aren't we?

They make good TV shows these days though, I'm hoping for good things but I'm expecting a cash in.

kierank01

Enterprise definitely lacked overall direction, which I think affected the writing & plot lines.

I'm not sure if TNG or SG1 were on/off cancelled after each season, but they went to 7 & 10 seasons & some of the early stuff form them was pure crap.

I can't help but think if enterprise was to have been done, without the threat of cancellation, the good stuff could have been expanded upon, without being shoehorned into a few episodes.

I do agree that throwing a load of random new species at it was never going to work, because you would have to engineer a complicated series of events to remove them for the later series...temporal cold war anyone?

AtomicHorror

ScumLord wrote: »

I absolutely hated enterprises music, I had to skip it every time. What makes it worse is that it gets stuck in your head.

I think the closing music was significantly worse. There was some sort of guitar solo in there, iirc.

Bleugh.

imitation

I've gotten as far as season 3 of DS9 now, I'm watching star trek series in order. I hadn't watched enterprise so I watched that first, followed by the 60s version, then tng and now ds9. The big problem for me is how militaristic the federation is. The show is sort of chained to violence and war because the federation is a military organisation. I didn't notice it as much when I was growing up and it's really becoming apparent in DS9.
.

Well its one of the main points of DS9 and why its so well liked. Its a more natural conclusion to having a galaxy full of threats and star fleet are the only guys with guns at the end of the day.

I liked it, it felt more natural than 400 people on a jolly through space. At the same time the bad guys were more compelling than the usual star trek baddies too, and after a the heaps of self contained episodes in TNG, Voyager and the first seasons of DS9, the story arc and continunity were really nice.

ScumLord

imitation wrote: »

Well its one of the main points of DS9 and why its so well liked. Its a more natural conclusion to having a galaxy full of threats and star fleet are the only guys with guns at the end of the day.

I liked it, it felt more natural than 400 people on a jolly through space. At the same time the bad guys were more compelling than the usual star trek baddies too, and after a the heaps of self contained episodes in TNG, Voyager and the first seasons of DS9, the story arc and continunity were really nice.

Don't get me wrong it's a good show, it's just far removed from the intentions of the original star trek and even tng. It doesn't really make much sense for there to be so many violent cultures in space, what are they fighting over anyway? The galaxy is full of resources, there's literally nothing to fight over.

The cultures are very one dimensional too. DS9 probably expanded the most on a species in the cardassian. But even then the characters don't live up to their cultures.

Humans take to much of a central role to, we seem to be the only decent species out there and everyone should be learning from us.

Myrddin

ScumLord wrote: »

Humans take to much of a central role to, we seem to be the only decent species out there and everyone should be learning from us.

I doubt that's to sing the praises of humanity, but more so to highlight our own individual inner exploration of the human condition. When a human character acts a certain way, we can explore that & contrast it with our own selves, our perspectives, and judgments. We do this because we know humans, we know humanity, and we can easily put ourselves into that characters position.

Doing that with an alien species though, we just know far less about them culturally, which makes it harder to relate. Unless you live in a caste system, it's hard to relate to how Klingons truly feel, and why they feel so. Same with the Romulans, unless you live in a very militaristic/totalitarian society, it's hard to get a true grasp of how the average Romulan feels, and again, why they feel so.

Don't get me wrong, I'd love a series set around alien cultures, something like the rebuilding of Cardassia after the Dominion War...I think it's too risky for the average executive suit to put pen to paper on though.

ScumLord

I'd like to see star trek completely reimagined from the ground up. It's basically a 40 year old sci fi concept now, it's outdated in many ways.

Myrddin

ScumLord wrote: »

I'd like to see star trek completely reimagined from the ground up. It's basically a 40 year old sci fi concept now, it's outdated in many ways.

At its heart, it's about humans overcoming their differences, uniting themselves, eradicating war, poverty, greed, and hunger, and sailing off into space in search of the new & unexplored. I don't know if I'd call it outdated, unrealistic maybe (:D), but certainly something for us to aspire towards.

There's enough of the dark, grim, & 'gritty' stuff out there imo, which makes the idealism of Star Trek that bit more appealing at times.

ScumLord

Myrddin wrote: »

At its heart, it's about humans overcoming their differences, uniting themselves, eradicating war, poverty, greed, and hunger, and sailing off into space in search of the new & unexplored. I don't know if I'd call it outdated, unrealistic maybe (:D), but certainly something for us to aspire towards.

But just humans, not them klingons. :pac:

We should be a bit past that by that stage though. THey shouldn't be dealing with normal everyday problems, just in space. Most our everyday problems will be gone by then. And I know this was a problem for TNG, in that it was supposed to be that show but they found it completely lacked drama. There are real problems to face in space, explore those rather than just setting a standard drama in space and ignoring the sci fi aspect.

I'm just finding most scf fi these days to be extremely lazy, they're going through the established motions and have completely stopped exploring the boundaries of possibilities. It's basically today, in space, with some slightly more advanced than today technology. It's not the future.

Myrddin

ScumLord wrote: »

But just humans, not them klingons. :pac:

Well of course, we're human, & Roddenbery's vision was that one day things for us would be better

Cookie_Monster

ScumLord wrote: »

I'd like to see star trek completely reimagined from the ground up. It's basically a 40 year old sci fi concept now, it's outdated in many ways.

isn't that basically what ST2009 is?

Any more of a re-imagination and it's just not Star Trek but some other franchise...