... would it have been better if they'd used the Rod Stewart version? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-XKy-wG9Z0
That's a shame, I was going to follow up my question by asking "Would Enterprise have been better if Rod Stewart had played Archer?".
Star Trek can't handle that much colour. Mind you first contact would be a whole lot more fun than the dull little speeches about wanting to get to know you Archer gives to bored aliens. "Tonight's the night.. everything is gonna be alright.."
Having bought the rights from Diane Warren at some expense presumably, and that song (for better or worse) destined to be forever associated with Enterprise... I think what I'd have done is shifted it to play over the end credits and changed the opening titles for "Archer's Theme". Maybe even reduced Faith to an instrumental version, like that heard while "Broken Bow" and "Fight or Flight" were ending. [yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mO4NvPjxEaU[/yt] Plus it would inevitably be credit squeezed to show viewers clips from what show was up next, and talked over by UPN announcers.
I always thought using a pop song for a main title was a big mistake, one of many made with that show. Star Trek is big, bold, (supposedly) epic. That song makes it sound like a daytime soap.
As much as I like Rod Stewart, no. What would have made that song better (other than not using it at all), would have been if they used the wordless end credits version shown in Broken Bow, which, of course, they got rid of as of episode 2. The only reason they used that pop song was an attempt to be "hip", or "cool". Instead, they came off as "silly".