So the AV club has done one of it's features on ENT. http://www.avclub.com/article/enterprise-was-forever-torn-between-our-future-and-207632 So do you agree with their episode choices?
"The Catwalk" and "Cogenitor" both made their list ? Wow, those were 2 of the 6 episodes that I first saw of Enterprise (someone had taped 6 episodes onto VHS because the show was only on cable in another city) and they were absolute garbage. I think I even fast-forwarded through both as they were extremely boring (I was falling a sleep while watching them) and in the case of "Cogenitor" extremely painful to watch. I would never show these two episodes to people who never saw the series's as "essential" episodes.
Keep in mind, they outright say they don't pick the 10 best, but the 10 that they feel most accurately reflects the show -- almost like mission statements. And no reflection is perfect, no matter what we might think (for example, they'll pick a an episode where the course of the show changes forever, sometimes badly). And on top of that, people have different opinions -- reviewer opinions aren't facts. But the questionable episodes they picked for Enterprise tend to be picked because they show growing pains until the show actually finds its footing. And all lists, like this article, are written so that lists can be discussed.
I really didn't read the first part (It was a long article) but if it was the best that the show would have to offer, I would have gotten rid of Acquisition (A really bad episode) and put in one of the episodes from the Vulcan Trilogy, like The Forge. That Vulcan trilogy might have been the best and most start trek thing Enterprise ever did.
Read the article. It's long as heck, but it's a very interesting analysis of Enterprise. The 10 episodes they chose are basically snapshots of what the show was going through during its run. Not all of them are the best episodes, but that's not the intention.