Never Gave ENT a Chance. Just Now Watching It For The First Time.

[Amaris]

I watched it on and off during first run, but didn't really think much of it until I gave it a rewatch a few years ago, and found that I actually liked it. Oh, it doesn't top DS9, TOS, or TNG, in my opinion, but it's better than I thought it was. When you watch it, you can see there's so much potential there, for a spectacular show, but it never really bloomed like I hoped it would. Still, it's definitely decent, and I think you'll find season 3 to be pretty good. Personally, my favorite episode is "Carbon Creek," which is from season 2, followed by "Similitude."

"Trip" Tucker quickly became a favorite character of mine, though I am forever endeared to Dr. Phlox, due in no small part to the excellent work of John Billingsley, who imbued Phlox with a real pathos, and gave us a nice view of humanity from an unfamiliar lens.

 

[Melakon]

Phlox seems to be the horniest ship's surgeon since Philip Boyce in "The Cage".

 

[Amaris]

Phlox seems to be the horniest ship's surgeon since Philip Boyce in "The Cage".

That explains the kinship I have with him, then.

 

[TerraNovan]

I remember a few Trek actresses from TOS who might have had to put up with the term "sex kitten." 50 years ago.

Hoshi was the comm officer, the linguistic genius and space rookie. The one who got to wear something other than the shapeless blue jumpsuit about 6 times over the course of the series. I really didn't get the impression that she was there to sex up the show
.

Well I think tpol is an obvious sex kitten, along with 7of9 and troi, if the only character not in uniform is in tight spandex, where you can pretty much have a perfect image of their proportions while naked they is a sex kitten.

I actually despise it, troi looked the most desirable when she actually dawned the uniform. My point was more a joke.

She had no redeemable qualities as a character. Her comm position was a good ideal, but she was never a believable linguistic genius. She just didnt have the depth to carry the role.

 

[Melakon]

My point was more a joke.

Jokes of that type don't go over well on the board. I had to learn that the hard way.

 

[Hopeful Romantic]

Well I think tpol is an obvious sex kitten, along with 7of9 and troi, if the only character not in uniform is in tight spandex, where you can pretty much have a perfect image of their proportions while naked they is a sex kitten.

I actually despise it, troi looked the most desirable when she actually dawned the uniform. My point was more a joke.

Jokes of that type don't go over well on the board. I had to learn that the hard way.

Melakon is wise. TerraNovan, I suggest you avoid painfully outdated and potentially off-putting terms like "sex kitten" or "sexy asian" anything and find some other way of conveying your point, okay? Thanks.

 

[TheFlutteringHorde]

I've heard ENT changes drastically in season 3. I sure hope it's for the better.

It really does. I have a hard time explaining to people that ENT is my least favorite series, but Season 4 -barring the first and last episodes- is one of my favorite seasons in all of Trek.

I actually liked Hoshi and Mayweather, they were both extremely underutilized. Cut out a few scenes of Archer's deranged lunatic moments, and give them more to do.

 

[TEACAKE'S PLEATHER DOME]

This stupid thread title, every time I see it I hear.. "all we are saying.. is give ENT a chance.

 

[gblews]

Another problem is the failure of these shows to create compelling new races or antagonists. TOS gave us Vulcans, Klingons and Romulans, all of which became staples the Star Trek franchise. TNG gave us Cardassians, The Borg, and Ferengi while expanding on the Romulans and Klingons. DS9 expanded on the Cardasians and Ferengi, and introduced us to some fantastic villains like Weyoun, Dukat, The Founders and The Dominion as a whole. What did Voyager and Enterprise give us? The Kazon? The Suliban? I suppose you could argue that Voyager expanded on the Borg a little bit, but it felt like they had already run their course with TNG, and Trek writers in general kept going back to The Borg too often IMO. They were no longer as interesting as they once were.

I'm going to agree with your assertion that neither Ent or Voy introduced any noteworthy alien races. The Kazon and Suliban were both infinetly forgettable, (although I thought the Xindi were at least interesting).

But I want to knit pick some of the other stuff here. IMO, TNG introduced one, and only one, great new alien race, the Borg. The Ferengi were only interesting "per character". In other words, not interesting as a race, but some of the individual Ferengi were interesting. TNG did do a great job of exploring the Klingons.

I found nothing interesting about the (DS9) Carrdasians. They were very similar to the Romulancs, haughty, condescending, not unlike the Vulcans too.

Voy did more than "expand" on the Borg a little bit. The show got deeply into that races' psyche and "culture (as it were). I think they did a great job on this.

Enterpresie was well on it's way to as deep an exploration of the Vulcans as we'd seen, what with the revelation that the High Council had been infiltrated and Romulan spies were everywhere, when the Ent had the plug pullled. Enterprise was also poised to present the most unique take on the Mirror Universe we'd seen; that is, the Mirror Universe as a "standalone" show within a show.

Ent may not have presented any great new alien races, but the show had a style completely it's own and certainly did not lack for creativity, at least after the first two seasons. None of the other spinoffs created the pre-credits cold openings like in Storm Front pt.2, IaMD. Ent was also the first Trek series to build an entire season around one single mission.

In fact, I would venture to say that from a creative standpoint, just like TNG and DS9, Ent's star was on the rise starting with seasons 3 and 4.

 

[Praetorian]

gblews,

What's with the spoilers, mate?

This is a first watch thread... Jesus...

Also, Cardassians were one of the most tridimensional species portrayed on Star Trek. Yes, there were some stereotypes, but DS9 showed many kind of Cardassians. Even specific Cardassian individuals showed differente sides to their personality.

Hell, even TNG, right on their first episode, managed to display three Cardassians, all with unique personalities, unlike Klingons, Romulans and Ferengi, who more often than not just acted like walking stereotypes, even if sometimes they would show an individual who diverged from the norm.

 

[ReedEnterprise]

I have to say that there are some good stand out episodes in the first 2 seasons. Some are better than the first 2 seasons of the other series. But that's my opinion.

I too think it was just bad timing, too much Trek and the prequel notion. But again.....I will say it became my favorite Trek

 

[johnjm22]

I've watched season 3 and am now into season 4. Thus far, it has been much more entertaining than seasons 1 & 2. The story arcs are decent, and they leave you wanting more after each episode ends.

Shifting from one story arc directly into another does feel a little bit forced at times, but still entertaining overall.

I have to say, the first time I heard the new "remixed" theme song I started laughing. I wasn't expecting it, and it just sounded so bad, and so out of place. What were they thinking? Just terrible.

Also, the Xindi, and the set designs associated with them, reminded me of something out of Farscape. Not necessarily a bad thing, except for the Insectoids, which not only had cheap/bad CGI, but also looked like something out of 1950's sci-fi movie. The special effects in general continue to be a problem.

I love T'Pol's new look. I still dislike the portrayal of Vulcans in general, but I understand it now. Tucker and Malcom have grown on me a bit too, and Archer isn't as much of a goody-good doofus which makes him more likeable.

 

[JeffinOakland]

By the time ENT got its sea legs under it in Season 3, it didn't matter. The built-in audience of ST fans had given up on it. The ratings just weren't there. As it is, 4 seasons is a respectable run for a sci-fi show on an independent network.

 

[TEACAKE'S PLEATHER DOME]

Three more than Firefly.

 

[Melakon]

This stupid thread title, every time I see it I hear.. "all we are saying.. is give ENT a chance.

Everybody's talking about
Bagism, Shagism, Dragism, Madism
Ragism, Tagism, this-ism, that-ism
Ism ism ism

All we are saying is give ENT a chance
All we are saying is give ENT a chance

 

[jespah]

This stupid thread title, every time I see it I hear.. "all we are saying.. is give ENT a chance.

Everybody's talking about
Bagism, Shagism, Dragism, Madism
Ragism, Tagism, this-ism, that-ism
Ism ism ism

All we are saying is give ENT a chance
All we are saying is give ENT a chance

/joins hands (well, in my case, it's bat wing claws) and sings/

 

[gblews]

gblews,

What's with the spoilers, mate?

This is a first watch thread... Jesus...

Yeah, my bad. Got a little carried away.

Also, Cardassians were one of the most tridimensional species portrayed on Star Trek. Yes, there were some stereotypes, but DS9 showed many kind of Cardassians. Even specific Cardassian individuals showed differente sides to their personality.

Hell, even TNG, right on their first episode, managed to display three Cardassians, all with unique personalities, unlike Klingons, Romulans and Ferengi, who more often than not just acted like walking stereotypes, even if sometimes they would show an individual who diverged from the norm.

I'm not saying that there were no interesting individual Cardassian characters (Ferengi, too) introduced on DS9, just that as a race, the Cardassians weren't that interesting. They were pretty much the Romulans pesonality-wise (not talking about the cultural stuff) with different make-up. We're talking about each series' introduction of new alien races and how interesting those races were.

BTW, I think the Xindi were somewhat interesting, (not Borg-level interesting, but interesting), was because the race was made up of like 5 competely (almost) different species.

 

[johnjm22]

Finished watching ENT the other day. Overall, I did enjoy it, but I still think it's tied with VOY as the worst ST series.

It just never felt completely fresh or original.

The format of the show was too similar to its predecessors, largely because the attempts to create a technology limited environment were half-hearted. Hull plating takes the place of shields, we get warp 5 instead of warp 9. Shuttle crafts and docking are used more often than the transportter, and there's no food replicators. Big deal. Other than the occasional difficulties with interspecies communication, none of these limitations had much of an impact on the story telling.

 

[alpha_leonis]

What I didn't like about ENT off the bat is that they were pretty obviously (to me) trying to recreate the dynamics of the original cast. Consider:

• Kirk became older
• Spock became a woman
• McCoy became an Engineer (southern accent and all)
• Scotty became a security officer (british accent and over-the-top obsession with his job)
• Sulu and Uhura switched races

Phlox is the only counterexample to that pattern. But maybe they just give him a famous scream and he'd be the next Chekov.

Like other folks pointed out, the earlier shows (first two seasons) were too derivative. They could have been rewritten for 23rd or 24th-Century Trek without too much effort.

The third season Xindi arc was just completely out of place, IMO. That season could have been rewritten for any sci-fi series (I could see it as a Farscape subplot, for example.) It didn't scream "Star Trek" to me.

Only season 4 turned out well in my opinion. That was the only season where they tried to develop the show into the *actual* Star Trek mythos that drew everybody to watch the TOS reruns in 1975. I especially liked the visit to the Andorian homeworld. I could even (almost) see the development from Season 4 "Enterprise" into "The Cage".

 

[dub]

The third season Xindi arc was just completely out of place, IMO. That season could have been rewritten for any sci-fi series (I could see it as a Farscape subplot, for example.) It didn't scream "Star Trek" to me.

I can see that, but I still enjoyed the heck out of S3!

Only season 4 turned out well in my opinion. That was the only season where they tried to develop the show into the *actual* Star Trek mythos that drew everybody to watch the TOS reruns in 1975. I especially liked the visit to the Andorian homeworld. I could even (almost) see the development from Season 4 "Enterprise" into "The Cage".

Agreed. But somehow I still enjoyed S3 more than S4. It's not quite a fair comparison though since S4 was cut short. Both seasons were excellent though! Minus...the obvious episode.