I quite like the starship design used through Enterprise (including the NX-01). I also love the look of the SS Conegosta!
I liked that the crew were culturally close to us. TNG et al is far removed from us, and so is (apropriately) harder to directly identify with. The clothes (civilian and uniform), the bars, clubs and the movie nights ('another ww3 epic, swept all the awards...') The Vulcan arc. I can't believe I disliked the way the Vulcans were portrayed when the show first came out - it's one of my favourite things about the show now. If a species has barely repressed extreme emotions, then of course they would go off the rails every now and then. T'Pol is awesome. The Earth starships are great for the era. Solid, primitive, generally outmatched. I liked how humans weren't completely ready for joining the interstellar community. What was perceived as unwelcome Vulcan restrictions was mostly just a case of them protecting a still naive humanity. There are episodes where the crew cause cultural contamination, got themselves mixed up in situations that could have been avoided by more experienced crews. They also found themselves ill-prepared for the threats they were facing. They had to learn as they went, and live with the consequences. Archer's character arc goes from test pilot to captain to soldier to diplomat, he's a great character. Any scene with him, Trip and T'Pol is likely to be very watchable. Season 4.
The Enterprise characters and the exploration of how humans dealt with the Vulcans and Andorians were some of my favorite things about this series. I did areawatch of the entire series and that's what I liked seeing how things changed in the four season of the series.
The fact that it has the best episode ever written for viewing while drunk out of your freaking skull, this being "A Night in Sickbay".
The pioneering spirit they tried to recapture Scott Bakula Space travel and alien contact as new and dangerous undertakings, and not just a milk run like the 24th century shows often felt like to me The Trip/Archer bromance Faith of the Heart (seriously) Archer being imperfect and flawed/impulsive. The sense of urgency in the Season 3 Xindi arc Phlox
The fact that a couple episodes, "Cogenitor" and "Dear Doctor", helped us to understand why the oft-reviled Prime Directive was ultimately necessary. And yes, I agree, Phlox was my favorite doctor by far. Beverly was boring except when she was phasering someone. Bashir annoyed me. Holodoc was Ok, and McCoy and Pulaski were cool enough. But I loved Phlox's relentless cheerfulness and his menagerie, especially his escape artist bat. But can't agree on "Faith of the Heart". I know that the song takes about 70 seconds, because it takes seven "+10s" presses to get past it.
This is a little thing I've always enjoyed. With the Next Generation era characters, it's always a little hard to relate as the characters are generally aesthetes - Picard's appreciation for Shakespeare, Riker's enjoyment of Jazz music, Data's talent for painting etc. I liked that the NX-01 crew felt a bit closer to us in their habits and tastes. Especially the little moments like Archer making small talk with Reed about football results, Trip reading Superman comics as a boy, Archer settling in to watch a water polo match with Trip and a few beers etc.
That's true. You saw some of the same on other TNG era Treks, too. Worf's opera, Harry the clarinetist, even Bashir being James Bond and him and O'Brien playing darts. Ben Sisko's love for baseball was a happy exception.
The best thing about Enterprise was the characters. They felt human to me. They weren’t perfect, they didn’t always get along, and they didn’t know everything. In fact, at times they didn’t know anything. A lot of the time they were just flying by the seat of their pants. The crew was also very diverse, not in the feckless PC sense, but in the personality sense. I liked the more utilitarian feel of the ship as well. It was more submarine than cruise liner. The uniforms, too, felt more functional than in the other iterations of Trek. I also liked the theme song. I know others hated it, but I quite liked it for some reason.
I liked the Vulcan centered episodes. I think they were headed in an interesting direction that got cut short.
A lot of potentially really good stuff got cut short. Including Elizabeth's life (had S5 been a thing, rumor has it that Phlox would have been able to cure her). And Shran being added to the main cast.
Though I overall never cared for the show, there were things I found I liked when I went back and watched some more of it. Porthos The latter season episodes, where the prequel angle was actually used, showing us a young T'Pau, some Augments, and the like. The Andorians. One of my favorite "Star Trek" races, and sadly this series is the only one that gives them any true attention. "E2." I'm trash for alternate timelines, and recently I've developed a particularly twisted fascination with characters from alternate futures, who were erased from history by the end of the episode. I also take great schadenfreude in seeing His Royal Snootiness Malcolm Reed faced with the reality that a high rank and lots of guns doesn't get him laid even when the ship is stranded and he's among the only options. Certain hallmarks of stupidity from its early seasons have become classic parts of "Star Trek" lore; the Klingon in the cornfield, pregnant Trip, and of course, my favorite of all... "If anything happens to Porthos, I'll be the one watering their holy trees!" Blows "Spock's Brain" and "Threshold" clean out of the water. The Temporal Cold War. I'm loath to admit that even before "Enterprise," "Star Trek" was full of inconsistencies. I love that the writers finally decided to write those initial fumbles into the lore, as part of a Time War plot.
Trip, Shran, and Phlox...three wonderful characters in a show that was, IMO, just finding it's footing. It will always be a source of disappointment how it ended, and was not allowed to continue.
[QUOTE="WarpTenLizard, post: 13537764, member: 66979"]The Temporal Cold War. I'm loath to admit that even before "Enterprise," "Star Trek" was full of inconsistencies. I love that the writers finally decided to write those initial fumbles into the lore, as part of a Time War plot.[/quote] Is that why they did that? I thought they just really liked time travel.
Well, I know "Enterprise" had to have a whole three-part episode explaining why their Vulcans were so off-base, and fixing that. The show, to it's credit, also gave an explanation for the changing appearance Klingons.
I always liked the 'explorer feeling' of the first season. Even if the given story was just another boring iteration of ten ST episodes I've seen before, the naivity and the pure 'soul' of the people saved the episode and the whole season. But I also liked it a lot, that they, while they began like every ST series, they grew into something different from time to time: at first in season 3 and for second in season 4. And when I'm reading about the author's ideas for the following season, I'm always a bit sad that ENT never had a chance to use this new spin.
What three-parter are you talking about? And how were any Vulcans other than T'pol off base? They explained that T'pol was more emotoinal due to the stress of how the humans treat her, and due to her drug problem. But I don't know what you're referring to with the Vulcans as a whole being off base.