Enterprise - just what the doctor ordered!

It's odd for me, as Enterprise isn't a Trek that I've committed to memory completely. Growing up with TNG, DS9 and VOY I committed them to memory and could probably recite a lot of the TNG script!

But when Enterprise came my interest was waning. My writing about Star Trek was coming to an end (Anthony Montgomery and John Billingsley were some of the last interviews I did) and it never got into my memory like the others did.

In fact I never watched all episodes on the first run through, and I rewatched it all completely for the first time a number of years back but have since forgotten it! I think also as an adult the brain doesn't quite commit to memory like it does when you younger.

Anyway, that's a long winded way of saying I am a HUGE Star Trek fan, but Enterprise I have not got memorised.

So it was a real delight to turn on Enterprise again for a re-watch this week. Life is tough, and I just need something that is the equivalent of a sci-fi hug!

Broken Bow I remember thinking was good, but I still think it's a pretty damn good episode. It feels like Star Trek, but you can see Braga and Berman were trying to reinvent it a bit too. They were held back by UPN a lot, but the result does straddle both.

The concept I was a bit wary of at first, but it makes even more sense to me now - that kind of exploring, slightly wild west vibe... just not knowing what's around the corner. The sense of vulnerability in BB and Fight or Flight was tangible.

Bakula is a real delight and that's probably more evident in the face of new so-called Trek on the air. To be CAPTAIN MATERIAL and believe in that character.

All of the cast seem to just naturally go together very well, I think probably helped by the fact that even if the cast was new they were joining a well oiled machine with established crew.

Fundamentally it's nice to watch a Trek again that just feels uplifting. I don't want to go into a Discovery rant but I do feel Star Trek in name has given up on being hopeful, of being uplifting. It's great to pop into Enterprise and immediately get that vibe again.

Like missing an old friend.

I gotta say, even the theme. I know the theme is hated, and I have always been one of about three people worldwide that didn't mind it. But seeing the scenes of exploration, and the uplifting lyrics, it's like YEAH! Fuck yeah! Soul food.

I'm not entirely sure the point of this other than to say I'm watching Enterprise again, thankfully I don't remember every scene and while it didn't get the ratings back in the day... god this is the sort of show that I need right now, and I think the world needs too.

 

I feel the much the same way. I watched Enterprise when it first came out, but I don't think I had the same kind of excitement for it as when DS9 was released here in the UK (on VHS cassettes) - it was rather a long time ago now, and my memory has never been particularly good. However, as much as I love DS9, Enterprise is the Star Trek I usually turn to when I want a quick fix, and then usually only episodes from the first two seasons as they're mostly standalone, and have that sense of exploration, discovery, and joy (there's enough misery in the world, and I don't want to subject myself to it in fiction, too).

I recall finding Archer rather annoying and erratic when I first watched it all those years ago, and I could have quite happily watched Enterprise without him in it. But now I've warmed to him (it helps that Scott Bakula seems to be a great guy, and is wonderful in everything else I've seen him in) - but that could be because I'm only watching selected episodes in which he's not terribly irritating . Trip was my favourite back in the day (personality, looks, body - he had the complete package ), but the whole crew are fantastic, except maybe poor Mayweather who might as well not have been there for all the use he was.

The episodes I watch (and rewatch and rewatch) are mostly the odd, low-stakes, character-focused ones with amusing or fun scenes, such as "Acquisition", "Vox Sola", "Carbon Creek", "Dead Stop", "A Night In Sickbay", "Vanishing Point", and "Precious Cargo" - I'd like to say that "Vox Sola" is the one I've watched the most as it is the most 'Star Trek' (with first contacts, character growth, working together, Vaughn Armstrong!), but it's probably just edged out by "Precious Cargo"

So, yes, I agree that Enterprise (or at least parts of it) is a wonderful, uplifting show, just right for escaping from the world now and again. (Except the theme song - I don't hate it, but I don't like it and always skip it)

 

I've started again myself recently after more than a decade away and it is still a great show.

He seems to get a lot of stick around these parts but I've been a fan of Bakula since Quantum Leap and he never disappoints. A great actor. I think the problem with Archer is he is inconsistently written, but Bakula can make even bad material sing.

Speaking of getting a lot of stick...

It's fine by me! i wouldn't say it's my kind of music but it fits the show. I find I hum both the closing and opening themes at times when I'm riding the motorbike to work.

 

I can see a bit of that inconsistent writing with Archer in Cogenitor. He's reactions at the end I'm like WTF?

I have watched all of the first two seasons now, and it's solid really. There are episodes that I feel don't need to exist, and the nature of 26 episodes really shows the weak spots. Some moments are embarrassing, like T'Pol running around in her Pon Farr... I would hope if the show were made today that things like that didn't happen or Jolene Blalock would have the sway to say 'no, this isn't on'. It's a bit too much the Trip show, and would like to see more of Mayweather. But it's solid.

And as I only watched most of these episodes once, some twice, I don't remember a lot of it. Which is great. I wish I cold forget DS9 then watch it again in this way!

I'll probably take a little break now. I started to watch season 3, but T'Pol being immediately forced into Trip's storyline and that theme tune... I just thought I'll take a break as I've watched the first two so quickly.

I know things get good in terms of some of the arc stuff, I love the Xindi arc at the end of season 3 and Manny Coto is a great writer.

The revamped theme tune is awful. It upsets me as one of the rare people who liked the original, and it in no way will pacify those who hated it in the first place. Such a bad choice, but you can see UPN interfering.

 

The show contains a few paradoxes like male Denobulans don't like to be touched, but female Denobulans are all hands, and feet and... So HOW THE HELL DOES IT WORK???

Anyway, some good episodes here and there but also unfortunately some really awful ones.

 

On one hand, Seven of Nine isn’t running around in a catsuit anymore in PIC. But on the other, DIS had Burnham in her underwear in the series premiere. So who knows how T'Pol would be written if the show was made today.

And yeah, even during its original run, I noticed that the show was heavy on Trip. And it’s difficult to remember that Hoshi played a bit bigger role in the first couple of seasons and was on the Reed and Phlox tier unless you rewatch them.

Mayweather should have grown a beard. But they want to portray his character as bright eyed, optimistic, and naive, instead of someone with wisdom in space exploration. Episodes like "Canamar" should have been a Mayweather episode for sure. Archer's speech at the end of that episode would have still been as powerful.

 

That's really strange as I'm sure Canamar was the one where I was watching it thinking "This really doesn't need to be Trip, it could have been a chance for Mayweather or Reed".

 

Except maybe for the engineering part... Plus when Trip says "You could at least say thanks" and the Nausicaan says "Thanks", only he could make a face like that.

 

This was something I didn't notice so much as a child, but as adult, feels like one of the most dated parts of Star Trek - as old as it makes me to say that about Enterprise. The writers rooms and producing staff were super male dominated. Today, there's a lot more emphasis on more representative writers rooms, which I do think shows up in things like costumes (I know catsuits aren't the most flattering thing that I'd wear to a job where I'm doing a lot of moving around).