There is a reason why fandom broke up with Enterprise. That theme song never ceased to be annoying; the show was constantly embarrassing us in public, and ultimately kept lying about being a Star Trek show. Defending the totality of the final live action Star Trek series is similar to trying to defend a bad relationship. But there were good times with Enterprise!
However, in reassessing the most hated Trek of them all, I discovered a startling truth: I am a T’Pol/Trip shipper. So, with that in mind, here are six great moments that signify the good times with Enterprise. Not all of these are T’Pol/Trip stories, but fair warning all the same: lots of human on vulcan action ahead.
“Shuttlepod One”
Initially, Enterprise seemed like it was going to be a show in which things were grittier than on previous Trek shows. They don’t have shields yet, the transporter doesn’t really work right, and they’re constantly running out of fuel. In short, the show was supposed to be a link from how the world got from where we live now to the Star Trek world. Pretty quickly, the show dropped most of this grittiness in favor of “inventing” all the future stuff we’re all familiar with. This episode is an exception. Trip and Reed are trapped in a shuttlepod and actually have to deal with elements that would actually screw with people who are flying through space. Further, just like classic Trek this one seemed focused on putting real people in a space travel dilemma and letting us get to know them through that situation. This solid good, quiet character piece that probably kept a bunch of us watching at the start of the series.
“Carbon Creek”
While most of the better Enterprise stories come from its later seasons, this second season episode is really a standout, if only because it’s just so charming. Presented as a kind of an old family legend about T’Pol’s grandmother, the episode deals with the secret story of three vulcans crash-landing on Earth in 1957. After a few of the vulcans hustle some humans at pool, they decide to try and blend in with the culture until a rescue ship arrives. The conflicts between T’Mirr (T’Pol’s ancestor) and the other vulcans are particularly great because they demonstrate the mixed compassion aliens might have for our uncivilized little society. The final scene in which T’Pol goes to her room and pulls out the vintage 50’s purse does a nice job in confirming the truth of the anecdote and letting us know just how much T’Pol’s likes humans deep down.
“Observer Effect”
Though this is one of two episodes of Enterprise in which advanced aliens inhabit the bodies of Starfleet crewmembers, it is far and away the best. Organians (those non-corporeal lifeforms from the classic TOS episode “Errand of Mercy”) are jumping around in various bodies of the Enterprise crew in order to see how this group of lesser lifeforms responds to a super scary illness that starts infecting everyone. The Organians begin having conflicts between themselves about the ethics of subjecting lesser lifeforms to this scenario. The episode is made all the more interesting since it contains no actually guest stars, and the existing actors are all playing the Organians at various points in the action. If you’re into Star Trek to see debates about space ethics, then this episode is pretty great.
“Home”
In this one, the ship returns to Earth after finally completing all that war fighting stuff with the Xindi. Archer rekindles a romance with a fellow Starfleet captain, while Trip goes to the planet Vulcan with T’Pol to meet her family. Of the two storylines, Trip going to Vulcan with T’Pol is easily more interesting. This is the sort of episode that either rewards someone who liked the characters on this show, or could potentially get you to like them if you didn’t really know what was going on. T’Pol is in a sort of a legal situation with her family, and is forced into marriage with a vulcan she doesn’t love. When she kisses Trip on the cheek after the ceremony concludes despite the fact she just married this other guy, it’s totally adorable. It’s too bad the romance with Trip and T’Pol wasn’t developed more. In my opinion, both the actors were at their best with this kind of stuff.
“Similitude”
After Trip is injured, Dr. Phlox decides to grow a clone in order to get Trip much needed brain tissue. An accelerated version of Trip is created which the crew nicknames Sim. This clone has both the memories of the original Trip and his own memories of being raised on Enterprise. Things get really tricky when T’Pol and the fully-grown Sim decide to get it on! The dilemma grows further when Phlox realizes this clone won’t survive the transplant process. Obviously, they’re dealing with a complete sentient individual, separate and apart from Trip. This episode explores the ethical conundrums of cloning in an awesome way because the story primarily revolves around the naked honesty of Sim’s feelings about everything. If you ever wondered if this show was capable of stepping up with a story that had great character stuff, a wonderful science fiction premise and genuine speculation about the ethics of certain technology, then look no further. This episode is what Star Trek is all about.
“Demons”/”Terra Prime”
Probably the finest moment of the entire series, this two-parter deals with a xenophobic organization called Terra Prime, which is determined to drive out every single non-human from Earth. To this end, the fanatical head of the organization has created a human/vulcan hybrid baby using stolen DNA samples from Trip and T’Pol. Only in science fiction can two characters have a baby that they genuinely both don’t know about. The fact that Trip and T’pol have had a romance prior to this episode makes it all the more poignant. The fact that Star Trek has always presented an enlightened version of humanity is great. But here, we get to see how hard it would be to get to that point, and just how easy it would be for some extremists to turn the planet against benevolent aliens. There’s a particularly good scene in which Trip questions one of the Terra Prime members as to why he hates the vulcans. The guys basically blames the vulcans for WWIII, because he claims they could have intervened and saved lives. This kind of hypocritical dichotomy is pretty representative against how actual extremists think, and as a result the social commentary in this episode is totally effective. And I dare anyone to not have a little pang in their heart for Trip and T’Pol’s poor baby Elizabeth. If you only saw one Enteprise episode and it was this one, you’d wonder why the show was canceled.
What about you? Any diamonds in the rough of Enterprise? (Any that don’t feature Trip and T’Pol?)
Ryan Britt is as staff writer for Tor.com. He recommends watching the opening credits of Enterprise while tipsy. The song doesn’t seem so bad when you’ve had a few.
I dispute ‘most-hated’; surely Voyager was that. I mean, Enterprise had it’s problems, but they wouldn’t have been franchise-killers had the previous show not spent seven years systematically driving away the audience and destroying the patience of those who remained…
Gotta agree with #1–Voyager did more to poison the well than Enterprise ever did. In fact, I recall Enterprise defenders pointing out that Voyager started horribly and was salvaged into “decent,” but I guess after that trek (pun intended!) the fans weren’t up for another series trying to iterate into consistent decency.
Which is a shame, since the worst of Enterprise is easily better than the worst of Voyager. I just wish they slowed down the tech progress a bit more and kept it more spit-and-bailing-wire Star Trek.
I never really watched this series as it aired, mostly due to Star Trek fatigue after TNG, then DS9 and Voyager (which I mostly watched to see Jeri Ryan in her painted on outfits), but also because I hate prequels…a lot.
When I was bored, I started watching a few episodes a couple of years ago, and before long there was an Enterprise episode with…the Borg. I mean, seriously…the Borg! Star Trek’s very own Daleks. They should just get a friggin toilet plunger attachment already. I stopped watching then. That franchise really really needs new blood.
And it may be bad to say this here, but it’s not surprising that the sequel to the 2009 ST movie is having problems. After all, how many more catch phrases are there to be shoved into the next movie?
Again, the Star Trek franchise really, really needs new blood, or at least a 15 year lay off like Doctor Who. Maybe 20 years.
I’m one who will stand firm on having loved this series. Even the theme song grew on me as its attitude fits with the idea of the Humans trying to prove their place in space. “Demons“/”Terra Prime” and the similar themed elements in the Alien Nation Series were fine explorations of potential Human reactions to having aliens among us.
The two episodes that stood out for me are not in your list. First was “The Andorian Incident” This episode filled in the backstory of the distrust between Vulcans and Andorians seen in Journey To Babel in TOS, and it illustrated how the idea of a United Federation would not be easy to achieve.
Second was “North Star” from the Third Season. Yes. The one others dismiss as “that campy western.” Even without being a Star Trek episode, this story is classic science fiction. A people removed from their normal environment and oppressed. They overthrow the oppressors only to become the oppressors while their society becomes stagnate. What happens when their former world discovers them? Can they live with what they have become?
While I loved the entire series, I count these two episodes among the best storytelling in the entire franchise.
@@.-@ Lundon
Yeah, I have a soft spot for “North Star” too. It’s a lot like the sort of episode classic Trek would do. With the old show we forgive the hammy execution, but on the contemporary shows we don’t. I think that’s a shame. It is Star Trek after all.
Well at the risk of losing what little respect anyone on Tor.com has for me, I actually quite liked the first season of Enterprise. And I thought the theme song was remarkably appropriate (though I didn’t care for the singer).
I liked that they tried very hard in the beginning to make the show Enterprise and not Star Trek: Enterprise. It was a nice idea that just couldn’t work with the expectation of the fans, I guess.
Anyway, Enterprise lost me on the second season, which I really hated. I’ve always meant to watch the whole series from start to end on Netflix but just haven’t gotten around to it. Ironically, however, every one of these episodes listed here I’ve seen. But I wasn’t a big fan of the T’Pol and Trip pairing and I didn’t care much for their genetically designed baby. One of the things that always bothered me about Star Trek was the need to make the token alien grow more human over time (because humans are the best!) and I’m really annoyed that they just had to do it with T’Pol too.
How can you have a list like this and not include the brilliant two parter “In a Mirror, Darkly”?
One of the best episodes of any Star Trek.
From the reshoot of the scene in First Contact, to the reworked opening credits, to the great story. It’s all amazing.
You cant blame ANYBODY for Enterprise failing. Given an imposable task of explaining how the future of 2000 could still be a tv show from 1968 what were they gonna do?
Man, I must be the only person alive who loved the opening credits from the very get-go.
@7 alseen. I have to say even as an Enterprise apologist, I don’t really like “In A Mirror, Darkly.” As a Star Trek fan, I like all the continuity porn and shout-outs to the original show, but having the story take place entirely with bad versions of the characters gets a little old upon a second viewing. I mean, everyone is just a jerk! A cool episode, but I’m not crazy about the story. Though I understand I’m kind of alone on that one.
@6 toryx We still like you.
I never hated Enterprise nor did I hate Voyager. I did think both suffered from lack of vision, writer burnout, and fan burnout from series over esposure.
Voyager started, I thought anyway, to get some direction when 7 of 9 was brought on. ST writers always seem to gear up for Borg & Klingon story arcs, not sure why. I did like when 7 of 9 stopped being a fanboys wet dream and started dressing appropriately – same with T’pol (although I don’t remember her being as cringe worthy as 7 of 9). ;-)
Also, I kind of liked the anti-alien bias on earth they showed. Nice to see that they all didn’t drink the Kool-Aid right away. That universal peace, love, & understanding (no, Elvis, there’s nothing funny about that), at least within the Federation, didn’t happen overnight. Things Trek fans take for granted with the other series are still being worked on in this one.
Kato
I did like the OPENING. Snicker “Good to know the local Rod Steward cover band got work!”
@9 nope, I loved them from the get-go as well. I loved the whole series except for the stupid dark universe episodes. I wish they had been able to properly finish the overarching story. It was a great series and I hate all the jerks who let it die.
I’m in agreement with Ryan on “In A Mirror, Darkly.” While it is fun to watch, it is not strong storytelling. It relies too much on the viewer’s knowledge of the original series and on specific episodes and, of course, on that scene from First Contact. I’d give “In A Mirror, Darkly” the same assessment as I’d give the “Wormhole X-Treme!” episode of Stargate SG-1. Fun within the contect of the series but poor as a stand alone story.
Compare the first season of Enterprise with the first season of any Star Trek. I think you will find that it is head and shoulders better.
I’m with the anti-“Mirror” side here, for many of the same reasons and because I’d like to challenge Ryan (or Tor.com’s resident Voyager Apologist, if there is one) to make a similar list for Voyager, with two caveats: 1: Only one episode that’s a spotlight on the Doctor allowed, and 2: The episode must star the actual Voyager crew and not a set of more interesting dopplegangers. So it wouldn’t be fair to let Enterprise get it’s doppleganger episode in in comparison. Personally, I don’t think it can be done.
On the other hand, I would definately want “The Andorian Incident” on the list, and also “Singularity”
@9: As I said, I liked the opening credits too.
@16: I completely agree. That’s why I was so disappointed with season 2.
@jeff R. I am also a Voyager apologist too. I actually think that when you pit the worst Star Trek episode of any series against an episode of almost any other TV show, at least 50 percent of the time, the content and ideas in the Star Trek show will be better. Or maybe I just like Star Trek.
And yeah, everyone is right. “The Andorian Incident” is good.
@Everyone: How is everyone liking all the streaming Trek on Netflix?
This is not my opinion, but that of my father, who has been a trek fan longer than I’ve been alive, and who watched every episode of Enterprise, and then watched them again on repeats.
In his opinion, what really killed the show was that they stopped focusing on the classic Trek premise: lots of self contained, but still really good science fiction stories, at least 1 per episode. They instead started writing a space adventure show, and put one long science fiction story over a season, which is a format that works for some shows, but is not true to the classic sort of Trek we all know and love. Part of the fun is to see what strange new adventure your beloved cast gets into this week, but Enterprise turned into the same old adventure, week after week.
And for the record, we both liked the opening theme. :)
As an aside, I was a bit devistated at the throwaway joke in the 2009 Trek movie, where Scottie mentions that he “Lost Captain Archer’s Prize Beagle” in the transporter. Instead of laughing at the Enterprise reference, all I could think was “NOOO PORTHOS! You killed Porthos you Bastard!”. Especially since Archer in Enterprise refused to let his dog through the transport in episode 1 season 1.
I think the series started off stronger than any of the others. Of course, I have the privilige of having watched the original series on prime time when it came out. I can’t believe I actually managed to get everybody else in the house to agree to watch it, but I did. And we continued to watch it until it’s cancellation.
On looking back, each of the series opening seasons were always a bit weaker. You’re dealing with a new set, new cast, new writers (usually) and attempting a whole new ‘take’ on a subject. For all that, “Enterprise” started out strong in my opinion.
You get to see Captain Archer take a real risk and push hard against the Vulcan’s “benevolent neglect” and manage to convince Star Fleet that his point of view might be superior to the Vulcan — ‘lets wait another century so you can be ready’ point of view.
As premieres go, clearly Enterprise holds the pole position for strength of opening. Compared to that, “Decision at Farpoint” looks tepid. And Voyager’s opening with the Maquis and Federation thrown together after being tossed across the universe seems more farfetched than the Stargate of SG:1.
I liked the opening sequence of Enterprise, though didn’t really like the song all that much. I did love the continuity of showing the different versions of the Enterprise, including the first two naval vessels and then the shuttle — awesome, in my book.
I think if I had to choose, I liked Enterprise more than all of them other than the original series. I definitely liked ST:TNG, but have to admit, upon rewatching it recently, it felt very forced for the entire first season and part of the second before the crew seemed to start to click and the writers found more solid — and fertile — ground from which to work.
Deep Space 9 was easier to get into, simply because it had been the scene and set of a few ST:TNG episodes and we were somewhat familiar with the location. Then, immediately adding in Chief O’Brien and later, Worf, made the series more like a real continuation than a complete and separate series. In fact, it takes place in the same time period and thus, no real new technology or old explanations need be considered.
I don’t know the names of all the episodes, but the above list and subsequent add-ons are definitely good starting points. My favorite, though is the one where Phlox has to treat the being from a planet that his planet hundreds of years earlier, had decimated in a long and protracted war. Another good one, I think, was the one that showed Dr. Soong (played by Brent Spiner) and how he inadvertanly (through his arrogant belief that he was smarter — and thus wiser — than the rest of the Federation with regard to the Eugenics program) set free the individuals who would later be found by Kirk and crew and set the stage for “Wrath of Khan” (and seriously, who cannot like Ricardo Mantalban as Khan?)
I have to also agree that the Through a Mirror Darkly had a major failing: Not a hint of the other side (our side as it were) to show the difference between the two universes — nor did it provide any indication or point of exploration for how the NCC-1701A was in that space dock. Without the context of knowing the original Star Trek series, or episodes from Deep Space 9 (as TNG hardly dealt with it at all) you’d never know what the heck was going on.
I have to admit, though, I was totally flummoxed when the people started killing the Vulcans when they landed. What a surprise! I loved it. That’s the basis of a great alternate timeline. Still, though, having some ‘this side of the mirror’ events would have made a better foil and contrast for that episode.
Lastly, the episode where the Andorian (who also plays in DS9 as one of the Gamma Quadrant Vhuls helping the Cardassians to beat back the Federation) has to go into the ice caverns on his own planet (and shows how the Andorians ultimately genetically mix with the sub-species and gain limited telepathy) was probably one of the better episodes as well.
Agree with the technology crunch. Should have kept the “we’ll just have to make do” approach of the first half of season one and left it like that. The advances should have been slower in coming and I would have enjoyed a more, “to seek out new life, new civilizations and boldly go where no man has gone before” approach before sucking the entire series down into a We Have to Save the Human Race (Again) approach to the series.
My whole beef with Enterprise was the whole Temporal Cold War junk. Leave Time Travel to Dr. Who. It was worked to death in Trek and only worked well in Star Trek IV:The Voyage Home and in the TOS Episode “City on the Edge of Forever” (OK I admit the DS9 tribble episode was amusing).
Don’t remember much about Enterprise as that was on when I was in high school, working a job and taking honors/AP classes. Saw a bunch of the first season but soon was unable to catch the rest-and then it was cancelled. Oh well-never been the hugest Star Trek fan (big Doctor Who enrd first and foremost) but I always liked it well enough. Sad to say, the one series I probably have seen the most of is Voyager-which I find to be okay, much of what was wrong with it was the writers, not the actors (except for the guy that played Chakotay, never did like his character. The others were all right.) Will have to see the show again sometime, like the sound of these episodes-but first, I’d want to watch a bunch more classic Trek and Next Gen, especially as the rewatch threads have intrigued me…Also-my mother has to be the only person I’ve met who actually likes the Enterprise theme. We went to a convention once where different sci-fi themes were playing in the background, Enterprise theme came on and the crowd started booing. My mother had no idea no one else liked it (aside from her other family members) and she was quite shocked. It was amusing at the time, you had to be there…
Count me among thouse who realy enjoyed this exploration of the Trek Universe. Though I could have done without the temporal cold war stuff to.
I ship Tri’Pol. I always thought Phlox was an absolute stich. I actualy saw enterprise first so I knew Jeff Comps as Cdr Sran first then a Wayoon.
I liked the Mirror Darkly episodes. As it was done after they new they were canceled as kind of a what can we get away with bit.
There were some great explorations of ethical delemas though the episode with the two speccies where they are debating the prime directeve seriously pissed me off because evolution dosen’t work that way!!!
I loved them addressing the Klingon Warior Tradition (TM) and the fact that you cant run a society on just one industry. Some body has to build the ships after all.
As a special bonus, in the Ferengi episode the littlest one was the kid who played Baylock in “The Corbomite Manuver.”
Huge Trek fan, NOT a big Enterprise fan… but I agree with these selections. I recall it was a rare, pleasant surprise to come across a decent Enterprise episode, and I thought the ORIGINAL theme song and opening sequence was one of the best things about the show (I teared up the first time I saw it!), but I HATED its revamp. IMHO, here are the ST franchise-killers, in no particular order:
1) Capt. Janeway.
2) Saying “some sort of/some kind of” several times per episode, IE: TOO MUCH BAD WRITING!
3) Bloated, uninteresting story arcs (Dominion war, etc.). Doctor Who is currently stuck on this path.
4) Female characters usually poorly written and acted (see #1). However, very rewarding when developed into GOOD characters (Seven, Dax, etc).
5) Creating Borg queens and diminishing Borg scariness (though “I, Borg” was quite good).
6) Turning Data into a buffoon. Spiner shares the fault for this.
7) Not bringing in enough fresh, talented writers and fresh ideas.
8) Putting interesting characters/actors on the back burner until far too late in series (Odo, Dax, Worf, several others) and spending too much time with less interesting ones simply because they were captains or commanders or Starfleet admirals.
9) Forgetting that Trek is really about the infinite variety of relationships and conflicts between people; exploring ourselves while exploring space. I heartily agree that it’s not supposed to be simply space adventure/war.
What the hell? What’s with all the Janeway and Voyager hate?
I liked the first season of Voyager, I liked the concept of being forced into self-sufficiency and isolation from the known world. I actually found 7 of 9 grating, although I tuned out of the show shortly after she came on board. (Not that I started to dislike the show, my personal circumstances just changed.)
I thought Janeway was fine as captain. Perhaps my only criticism was that the show tred in the footsteps of Next Generation casting a bit too closely with Janeway as a Picard clone etc.
UrsulaMinor @@@@@ 20:
Yeah, that bit about Porthos in Star Trek ’09 pissed me off too. I loved Porthos.
GuruJ @@@@@ 26:
For myself, I couldn’t watch Voyager because I see no point in watching a show whose entire premise depends on the main plot point never being resolved (being lost in space).
ryancbritt @@@@@ 19:
Thanks for pointing out that Star Trek is on Netflix now. I’ve been watching Enterprise ever since you pointed it out.
I’ve got to say, I’m like T’Pol more this second time around than the first time. I must be older and wiser and all that.
I place Enterprise a solid third behind #1: TOS and #2: DS9 when I rank my favorite Trek series. In general I find TNG kind of bland and boring. Voyager had great potential which it failed to meet. I know Voyager was not a ship of exploration like the Enterprise in TOS, but it ended up with an awesome opportunity to explore a completely new quadrant of the galaxy and really failed to do that.
I did think Enterprise had a stronger first season than most of the other series. However I strongly dislike the character assassination of the Vulcan race. They survived as logical, truthful, and noble through Voyager, and then Enterprise made them sneaky, self-serving, and dishonest. I agree with toryx@6, that there is a element of “humans are the best” that wasn’t present in TOS. Vulcans trying to keep the emotional and violent humans away from the wider universe makes some sense, but the Vulcan conspiracy doesn’t really fit. (Honestly in comparison to the other races the Vulcans would have met, the humans are not particularly violent and emotional.)
I think Enterprise’s attempt to jump on the serialized bandwagon with the complicated season long plot hurt it and lost casual viewers. While the zero growth and change of TOS wouldn’t fly now, Star Trek works better as episodic television IMO. It’s not quite the same for the fourth season’s plethora of multi-part episodes, but again it hurt casual viewership for a struggling show to tune in only to start with a “on last week’s episode” clip.
In some ways I was annoyed by some of the call backs to previous series like the Ferengi episode where the crew never sees them. The “explanation” of the Klingon ridged forehead which I never needed since we all knew the real reason was the bigger bucks for better special effects in the movies. And the Romulans showing up as spies on Vulcan when in TOS no one (not even Starship Captains patrolling the neutral zone) knew that Romulans were related to and looked like Vulcans. (I think that makes a good case for no one in Starfleet knowing that Romulans looked like Vulcans until the Enterprise discovered it.) Some call backs were neat but others were trying too to appeal to what the fans liked without regard to the fact that Enterprise was a prequel. I’ll admit to finding the Ferengi and Klingon races silly, boring, and such caricature that they seem unlikely to have ever achieved interplanetary travel.
I didn’t dislike the opening music or montage; although, it was a drastic change. However Enterprise harkened back to the TOS ideal of “exploring strange new worlds and civilizations” and could have easily used something very similar to Kirk’s voice-over as well. Even TNG did less exploring than Enterprise did.
Finally while I agree that “Demons”/”Terra Prime” has much to admire once it gets going, I have trouble getting past the insane idea that a Vulcan-hater would expend massive time, effort, and money to create a very cute Human/Vulcan hybrid baby in order to prove that humans need to get rid of aliens. And then add to it that he uses the genetic material from Trip and T’Pol – the only human/Vulcan couple that almost exists even though as far as I know their “relationship” such as it was wasn’t common knowledge.
There are some other rough edges, but over all I think Enterprise did better than is acknowledged. Four seasons is a pretty good run. It beat TOS by a season. In a modern comparison, Firefly ended at 14 episodes with only 11 airing before cancellation.
Re-watching the Enterprise episodes as I’ve begun to do (I’m only four or five episodes in) I’m disappointed that they didn’t focus more on the exploration and less on the action. I suppose it wouldn’t have been that successful in the long run but one of the overly used hallmarks of Trek has always been that every new planet has something really bad happen that puts people in danger.
How much more fun would it have been if they could have been dealing more with mystery and less with action? I just wish they could have found strange new worlds and civilizations and had to figure things out (how did this species evolve in this way, why does the civilization have these traits, etc.) rather than some dangerous situation to escape.
That would have been a truly bold new direction for a Trek show. Oh well.
I’ve been rewatching all the treks for years now and just getting towards the end (the end of enterprise.)
what i cant understand is, what the hell is so hated about voyager? i admit that when ds9 and voyager first came on… i longed for TNG. these spin offs just seemed so much less interesting, however.. i remember liking voyager quite a bit more than ds9 when it began.
on my rewatchings however, i think that ds9 is the shining series as far as plot arcs and character development. tng is the best overall but voyager is way better than enterprise and tos. maybe if i watched tos when it first happened i would share more love for it but to me its just campy. the TOS movies on the other hand were really incredible compared to the substandard series origination.
having mentioned all the rest, i now want to explain how horrible i found enterprise to be when it was airing. i was a pretty devoted trek and scifi fan, and after that horrific reincarnation of star wars via prequels, the LAST thing i wanted was more prequel failure. I gave it a chance. After watching several really boring episodes featuring a cast of REALLY boring actors who seemed to be playing REEEEALLY boring characters… i was like screw this. this is not the star trek ive come to love. i stopped watching it out of protest devotion to the franchise and i chuckled when i heard it was being cancelled. GOOD! i thought! lol
so, on my rewatching i have actually found some bits to love about enterprise. tucker, who i absolutely hated initially really becomes the strongest character and the most interesting episodes seem to center around him. I’m very happy to see most people agree that the episode where he was cloned is the shining point of enterprise. That really brought me back to great star trek plots. so anyways, while ive grown to love him, this is a mixed bag for me. With past treks we had amazing unique characters like data, odo, dax, the doctor, worf, spock, 7of9 etc. but for enterprise, all we get is a charismatic redneck and an uptight vulcan bitch. and thats it. the other characters (and their accompanying actors) are of so little interest, they cant even find a good reason to make episodes about them or even include them in real-characters discussions.
Scott bakula FAILS in all kinds of ways. The first season or two, he just seems like this softy with no command presence. there is no way this kind of a guy acting this way could COMMAND a STARSHIP. in the third season they finally try to give him some balls but it still just feels all wrong. He’s this softy who they try to turn into this amoral hardened commander out to save earth at any cost but his acting and portrayl never fully meets the mark.
Compare his pathetic portrayl of a captain to william shatner or patrick stewarts. there is just no comparison. and in this i will conclude by compairing to voyager. Voyager was alot of fun… it had episodes which focused on all of the mostly interesting seeming characters. it wasn’t perfect. it did continue to sadly delete the scare-factor and horror from the borg (altho iborg started all that anyway) and it seemed like there was nothing voyager couldnt accomplish, to ridiculous standards, but still it had magic. enterprise never gets CLOSE to what voyager carries over from the other (better) treks. Janeway at least has the command presence that archer lacks. People hate her… i dont know why.
for my vote best to worst captains are : Picard, Kirk, Janeway, Sisko, Archer.
I quite like both sisko and janeway almost equally. sisko has some weird acting moments in some of the more emotional episodes and i didnt like it.. altho he completely delivers in many others.
so what the hell is so hated about janeway? she definitely seems more like a captain to me than this pathetic archer. my long 10cents
I can’t talk about Enterprise very long with getting uber-vexxed at the delusional, spiteful, fan-goy bashing directed at this quality television adventure. Sure it has some lame episodes, like every TV sho that evr existed, other than THE JEFFERSONS. Right out of the gate, the more sunlight-deprived members of the STREK Admirers Cabal turned on poor, noble Enterprise, because the Captain was flawed ‘n’ wet behind tha ears unlike demi-gods Shat/Stewart or literal god THE SISKO. And heavens forbid, Bakula even sometimes displayed Alpha Male behavior ( like most Cap’ns in reality would) which surely was offensive to the Omega Males amongst the audience faithful.
Typical fan complaints about Enterprise would be guff like “it’s supposed to take place before The Original Series but it doesn’t look like it does.” Actually I thought they made a great effort at making things look more primitive than other Berman era shows, but what do such “fans” want? That Enterprise should look like it takes place in the 1920s so to predate the 1960s aesthetic of The Original Series? Nearly all the gripings about timelines etc. were just completely oblivious to the realities of actual television production. And the villainization of Rick Berman? No dude other than Gene Galaxy Bird has done more to sustain the STrek juggernaut, yet the “fans” set their sites on the Berminator, out of what seems like little more than boredom.
I have to say the whole reaction to Enterprise does not make the STrekkite Nation look terribly peachy.
The problem wasn’t the show, it was the ST fans. The show started out strong in every way, but the more the die hard “Star Trek” fans couldn’t accept that it wouldn’t perfectly match TNG or DS9 or even Voyager, the more the writers and network caved in. That ‘s when the writing started to go downhill. Star Trek is about CHANGE. It’s about EXPLORATION. The fans who wanted Enterprise to be like every other Star Trek just didn’t understand the underlying heart of the original Star Trek premise.
The same thing happened with some of the Stargate fans and SGU. In a large part because of the inability of the fans to accept something new, both Enterprise and SGU failed. The only difference? At least Enterprise got 4 seasons. That might have been in part because at least the writers and network knew to NOT attach the Star Trek name to the show during the first two seasons. Once they changed the name… the show started to see fewer viewer numbers.
If SGU had simply been Universe, Destiny or some other single name title and placed in a good slot, it would have stood on its own with the stargate as a prop and the storyline free of the same formula used in SG1 and SGA. Instead, the Stargate fans went up in arms because it didn’t have sarcastic humor and bright background sets every two seconds… AND the whole franchise collapsed.
At least Star Trek fans get more movies.
Enterprise wasn’t the worst series – DS9 was by a long chalk.
T’Pol is however the hottest character on a Federation starship, although she must be the crappiest Vulcan in history – bawling her eyes out in S 3 Ep 18 for Archer’s potential death.
And the re-working of the theme tune to Enterprise above? Sadly, that sucked massive salty balls. Russell Waton’s original from Series 1 & 2 was just fine, but the musical re-arrangement from Series 3 onwards made it worse.
For my own part, Enterprise came out when I had gotten a bad case of burnout on the entire franchise. After so many years of TNG, followed by DS9 and Voyager, I just wasn’t ready for more. I am currently watching it on Netflix and I have to admit I am a huge T’Pol/Trip shipper, although I suspect that it was only the pa’nar syndrome that made it even possible.
I ‘ve just watched the entire Enterprise and loved them. After Enterprie, I tried to watch TNG, but couldn’t even finish the first episode.
One of my favorites is “Home”, (T’pol kissed Trip before the ceremony not after, though.) I also liked the three episodes of season 4 where Romulans had drons controled by an Inar.
I disagree with enterprise being the most hated incarnation of the franchise. Voyager and enterprise, whilst being the shakier additions to the startrek family, are actually quite good. Enterprise may have had a shaky start, but it did have its merits – the later seasons vouch for that. Terra Prime and similitude, along with carbon creek are definitalet some of the highlights though.
I find that enterprise, along with Voyager, is easier to watch than TOS or even TNG.
I own Enterprise on DVD but never watched it when it was airing. All in all a good series but I think the problems leave both the Trekkie Hardcore’s and more casual ones wtih the same equation: Too many Missed Opportunities in plot and charcter development.
Phlox, T’Pol, and Tucker are the only unqiuely interesting characters in this series. Scott Bakula isn’t horrid as Captain, but he’s clearly subpar. Sato and Merryweather are good character templates but horribly acted; Lt. Reed fails dramatically on both; I can’t think of a more two dimensional character poorly acted.
The temporal cold war was a horrible plot point. Its too much too early to enjoy since these concepts are not explored till later in Star Trek; but far more to the point – it detracts from the opening days of interstellar exploration. There is plenty of automatic excitement of touching the first missions. I had no issue with the subtext of Vulcan and Andorian antogonism. Yet they focused on conflict rather than fully exploring these species for their own interactions. Tellerites are also woefully ignored. For comparison, they did a good job in limited time with the early Orion syndicate, even as a backdrop for other plot arcs it did well.
I disagree with critics of the season 3 plot arc (the Xindi war) ; its a great backdrop, the problem is its too overpowering. My personal thought was, this is a show of exploration. Why not have the initial attack lead to Vulcan Intelligence that the Xindi were building weapons to destroy both Vulcan and Earth? However, they would need 10 years to build a pair of full sized weapons. The Vulcans and Humans would have a long time to build a fleet to destroy it – but could have sent Enterprise and a Vulcan ship (including Trillium D problems) to scout the delphonic expanse and learn as much about it as possible? Exploration with a global war backdrop.
Some good episodes; the problem isn’t that the series didn’t make enough “good” episodes – its that it made some really horrid ones.
Someone should have recast at least Sato and Mayweather; personnally I would have killed Reed off. My favorite series have been (in order):
Deep Space Nine (Not a single uninteresting character)
The Next Generation (Dr. Crusher and her son were weak but others got interesting in time)
The Original Series
Enterprise (I actually like some of the basic writing especially in season 1 & 4 enough to move it away from the cellar)
Voyager (Too redundant and other than 7 of 9 and a holographic doctor not really filled with anyone interesting)
Enterprise was an excellent show. The reason it was limited to 4 seasons was that it was the first ‘network’ show, and was held to a higher standard. All previous Star Trek franchises were syndicated. They did not have network officials watching every little move in ratings, or hanging onto every little complaint from critics.
The opening theme, while not in sync with all previous franchises, was very well done, and I loved it. It had a feel of optimism to it, which was the point. It was the very beginning of everything Star Trek (and Starfleet) and the opening credit scenes, and the music, were done in a great slow-build up unto the shot of the NX-01 Enterprise heading off into warp. So well done … not to mention it needed to be different because, again, it was a network show.
Ranking all the Star Trek franchises I would put Enterprise in the top 2 or 3, with The Next Generation being a clear #1. After TNG, Enterprise fits nicely into the 2nd slot. Then I would put TOS, followed by DS9 and lastly Voyager. Enterprise had a fantastic look. The NX Enterprise was very convincing as the original Enterprise, and first major warp ship that Earth started Starfleet with. It may have been the shows greatest achievement. Its look, inside and out, is very real, and looks very much like something that would predate TOS by a century +. The characters were it’s 2nd best asset. I was skeptical of Sam from Quantum Leap as captain; but, Bakula proved to be a great captain in the end. And Trip and T’Pol were so well done, and so well acted ….. absolutely perfect combination overall.
In the end, the show was short changed. And just when it started to hit its stride. By season 3 it was becoming a very solid mix of episodic, and serial – which is a great combination. Episodic only shows tend to be too bland for sci-fi. But mixing it in with a serial feel and it becomes magic! The show should have been given at least 2 more years, ideally 3 to 4, to complete a solid run. I think seasons 5 to 8 would have proven the show was very capable, and we would have been rewarded with 1 or 2 (maybe 3 to 4 …) of the most excellent Star Trek seasons ever. What COULD have been …. !!
People, people,
Let’s make one thing clear; there is no such thing as bad Star Trek!!! There is fabulous Star Trek, great Star Trek and good Star Trek however, NEVER bad Star Trek!!!
Thanks for letting me share. Live Long and Prosper.
Some startrek series should be split into parts when judging and comparing them. The first two seasons of TNG were definitely the worst of the entire franchise. The last two seasons were definitely in the top 3 of the franchise.
Enterprise was the same way. The first two seasons, with the exception of a few great episodes, weren’t great. Worst of all was how unvulcan the Vulcans were, except for T’Pol. I didn’t like season 3, but that may just be my taste. I hate season long story arcs that are so overpowering of individual episodes.
But the 4th season was my favorite season of the whole franchise. It finally lived up to what Enterprise was supposed to be about, and it even unscrewed the Vulcan mess that had been so thoroughly made earlier in the series.
I personally loved the “In the Mirror Darkly” pair, in spite of the fact THAT Bacula’s acting therein was about the worst I have ever seen on TV.
I thought season 3 actually worked better on a rewatch-binge than it did coming out across a season. It turns into just a really long set piece, instead of an entire year of not much new being introduced (although they did what they could with the slow reveal of Xindi society, and their evolution from murderers to a complex society was pretty cool).
Enterprise was done in by two things: Trying too hard to tie in to everything in TOS and later series is the bane of prequels, and they leaned way too hard into it (“Hey, let’s show why some Klingons have forehead ridges and some don’t!” Kipling, phone home …). And, as others have said, the temporal cold war is a disaster of a plot line. Time travel stories _always_ fall apart if you look at them too closely. That is occasionally acceptable as a framing device if the goal is to make points about or have some fun with our own times (STIV or “Past Tense” on DS9, for example) but the more the entire plot turns on timeline “preservation” or, worse, timeline manipulation, it just turns into incoherence and an excuse for lazy writing. Every time I see (for one example) the VOY finale, I just can’t help but thinking of all the cascading butterfly-effect changes to the timeline … all the couples who suddenly have never met, the novels that have never been written, the children who have never been born, so that one dude can get medical treatment in time. I’m one of those who think it’s a logical impossibility anyway, but add ethical monstrousness on top of it and … bleh. Too many contradictions just slap you in the face and ruin the story. And ENT spread that out ACROSS THE ENTIRE RUN OF THE SHOW. Argh. The series had its moments, but never really dug out from those two pits.
S
I loved the theme so g once I got used to an ST theme with lyrics. It was all the pointless intrusions fro. The 24th c. That eventually killed the series for me.
I’m going to be banned for this, but FUCK YOU and stupid sexism.
I just saw this article for the first time and since everyone seems to be chiming to rank their favorite Trek series, I’ll join in, leaving out the new spin offs.
1. TNG: for one primary reason, Patrick Stewart. The gravitas and nuance he brought to the role made this must-watch TV for me. The only character who really annoyed me was Crusher. I remember an episode where she put everyone at risk by disobeying orders and developed a Stockholm Syndrome attraction to this loser terrorist who mesmerized her with his high-school art class level drawings. “Paint me like one of your insubordinate officers”…. blecch.
2. TOS. By far the best casting of any series. Shatner, Nimoy, Kelley, and the rest were all perfect for their roles. And the bro-love that developed between two disparate characters like Kirk and Spock was a pleasure to watch over the seasons.
3. DS-9. Honestly, DS9 was probably the best written and most compelling of all of the Trek series, but I just couldn’t get past my distaste for so many of the characters. Sisko is just bizarre at times with his creepy smiles and histrionics. Kira was a terrorist who killed innocents for a cause. Odo once wiped out the existence of thousands of people because he couldn’t get over his puppy love for Kira. My favorite character here was Garak, because while he was a duplicitous murdering bastard, at least he wasn’t a hypocrite. Jadzia was interesting too.
4. Enterprise. Yes, call me superficial, but I’m grading this way up because I thought T’Pol was the hottest thing in the alpha quadrant. Otherwise here as with Voyager, I wasn’t crazy about some of the casting. Archer spent most of season one getting hit in the face and not landing a single punch in return For my money, though, this was the best looking of the series. Kind of gritty and authentic rather than the stylized slickness of TNG for example.
5. Voyager. Janeway is infuriating, because I really like her attitude and I think when she got her dander up she was a formidable captain. But boy was she way too trusting. How many times did she not raise shields or let some alien have the run of the ship, who then turned out to be Bad People. Jeri Ryan as seven of nine was magnificent, and here I’m not just talking about looks. She hit the right note with that character every single time, except for that stupid misguided ridiculous unnecessary romantic thing with Chakotay in season 7. What the hell was that? There’s no way 7 would ever have been attracted to him, especially since Beltran played those scenes as if he was some kind of manipulating cheating husband trying to reel in the MILF next door. Still makes me squirm with discomfort just thinking about those scenes.
This article certainly needs revisiting, certainly not the most hated Star Trek. Hated I feel a strong word to describe Enterprise (or Voyager) but seems to almost be in use for some (or all) of the current spin offs