What do Voyager fans think of Enterprise?

[Kio]

I've been watching Voyager lately, going through all 7 seasons, and I love it. To me, it's really the best Trek series, though I also enjoyed TOS and TNG (couldn't really get into DS9, too much Ferengi silliness).

I've seen maybe 1.5 episodes of Enterprise and it just didn't seem like Star Trek to me. It was obviously a show that would need to grow on me. So my question is, is it worth the effort? How does it compare to Voyager and are any of you fans of Enterprise?

 

[-Brett-]

Not a Voyager fan, but I don't see why they'd have a problem with it. The two shows are almost exactly the same.

 

[Caprica_Six]

The characters are horrid except for Trip and Phlox and there is very little redeemable about it.

 

[Akiraprise]

It's ok. It's easy to see how it lost so many viewers in the first two seasons. In fact if it wasn't Star Trek I probably would have quit after the first season. It gets a lot better in Season 3 and 4 so if you start watching it stick with it.

 

[Caprica_Six]

It's ok. It's easy to see how it lost so many viewers in the first two seasons. In fact if it wasn't Star Trek I probably would have quit after the first season. It gets a lot better in Season 3 and 4 so if you start watching it stick with it.

Actually I started watching in season 3 and thought it was bad then. Way too predictable and the Xindi were dull.

 

[Akiraprise]

One of my favorite things was the absence of the reset button in Season 3 (except for a couple of episodes) and onwards. The Xindi were dumb, I agree with you there. Who tests your doomsday weapon on the planet you intend to blow up, therefore giving your enemy plenty of time to come up with a defense? Stupid.
But the season in general was pretty good, if only for the SFX.

 

[startrekwatcher]

One of my favorite things was the absence of the reset button in Season 3 (except for a couple of episodes) and onwards. The Xindi were dumb, I agree with you there. Who tests your doomsday weapon on the planet you intend to blow up, therefore giving your enemy plenty of time to come up with a defense? Stupid.

It was a necessary stretch I was willing to allow and wasn't necessarily stupid. Afterall Archer would never have known it was the Xindi or that he should start looking for them in the Expanse without FutureGuy. Were it not for his intereference, how would Starfleet or the Vulcans even begin to identify the corpse or where the probe came from. In fact, the most reasonable conclusion for SF to draw is that the attacker was someone Archer pissed off in his many encounters in the first two years of the series and not a preemptive attack from a race Archer never encountered before in a region of space SF never visited all because of something Earth does in 400 years.

But I do agree the Xindi arc was fun and was one of the first series I remember that experimented with the style/format that became popular with Heroe/Lost. It did have some mystery, some neat sci-fi elements, suspense, outstanding visuals, battles, interesting Xindi and Expanse mythology.

 

[Akiraprise]

When I first saw the episode where the Xindi attacked Earth I went
You test your weapon on an uninhabited planet. Not the one you intend to destroy before you're ready, tipping off your enemies as to your plan for them. That's dumb. Even if Starfleet didn't know who attacked them and didn't go into the Expanse don't you think they'd step up ship production, orbital defense platforms, or weapon development to defend themselves?
The Xinidi just made their mission ten times harder.

 

[crouteru]

The first two seasons of Enterprise, like all of Voyager's seasons, was mostly standard acceptable fare that didn't try too much that was 'new', but instead offer solid sci-fi entertainment.

However, the third and fourth seasons of Enterprise are what elevates it above Voyager, and it was the 'new blood' that helped. The third season may have side-stepped the premise for a while, but it was exciting and kept me interested right up to the end. The fourth season was a tour-de-force for Star Trek fans save for a couple of mis-guided outings.

So there, I've said it. I think Enterprise is better than Voyager, but only marginally. TOS, TNG and DS9 will always be my favourites.

 

[Orac Zen]

Enterprise is the only Trek series I found unwatchable. It comprehensively failed my primary criterion for liking any TV show: Namely, interesting characters. In all honesty the only Enterprise character I found even remotely interesting was Porthos, and when the most interesting character in a show is (literally) a dog it's not a good thing. If I can't get interested in the characters in a show, I couldn't care less about what they do. And what they did didn't interest me much anyway. It was generic, formulaic and bland.

To each their own, but the show wasn't for me and thus I stopped watching.

 

[Timo]

I valued VOY for its "concept" structure, the Gilligan's Island gimmick that carried the stories through seven years. For me, the added value from that raised the show above TNG in the final count, even though VOY had fewer characters that would have been really interesting, and did a bit less with those characters that did show an interesting arc.

ENT lacked a concept, or rather failed to milk the concept of "we're the first Earthlings out there" or "This is how it all began" to the fullest, which lowered its score versus VOY for me. Had there not been such a concept show before, there wouldn't have been this negative impact, either... In more objective terms, I must agree with the lack of interesting characters in ENT. Granted, it's a tad more difficult to come up with interesting angles when all your heroes are standard humans rather than aliens with built-in story gimmicks such as "logic" or "anger" or "greed". But every other, non-scifi show manages without such aliens - and ENT was the Trek show the most akin to non-scifi, contemporary drama, if only through the fact that it took place in the near future and in a relatively familiar setting where "alienness" was only slowly being introduced.

You test your weapon on an uninhabited planet.

As for this old chestnut, there's little in ENT to indicate that the first attack was a "test". For all we know, the weapon (albeit a prototype) was already fully tested, and was intended to devastate Earth once and for all. It was in fact doing pretty good a job at that when it malfunctioned!

Of course, after that fiasco, the Xindi would certainly have to expect resistance - which is why they needed an all-new weapon, one that did the job with one giant shot so that there would be no time for the defenders to act.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Borg451]

^ maybe te future people wanted t ostart a conventional war between earth and xindi forces... so they gave improper info to the xindi..

 

[Timo]

They might even have promised the Xindi that they would use their time technology to retroactively launch the main attack before the initial strike...

Timo Saloniemi

 

[KayArr]

It's ok. It's easy to see how it lost so many viewers in the first two seasons. In fact if it wasn't Star Trek I probably would have quit after the first season. It gets a lot better in Season 3 and 4 so if you start watching it stick with it.

Well, actually the first two seasons are the best, and the fourth is the weakest, though I loved it all the way through.

Yes, Enterprise is great trek, and my favorite of all the series.

How was season 4 trying anything new? Brent Spiner? Mirror Universe? Enterprise characters disappearing in favor of fanwank? Yuck.

That said, though--most folks posting in this thread are right: it is all about characters. I loved the Enterprise characters and most of the Voyager characters, and the DS9 characters did nothing for me. Netflix a few Enterprise discs, and if you like the characters, keep watching, and if you don't, then give it up. It's really as simple as that.

 

[Tyberius]

One of my favorite things was the absence of the reset button in Season 3 (except for a couple of episodes) and onwards. The Xindi were dumb, I agree with you there. Who tests your doomsday weapon on the planet you intend to blow up, therefore giving your enemy plenty of time to come up with a defense? Stupid.
But the season in general was pretty good, if only for the SFX.

Not to get off the Voyager topic, but, I always thought that the original weapon was really supposed destroy the earth, but they didn't get it right. The revisionist history among the Xindi was that it was only a test (yeah, that's the ticket!)

For Enterprise, I felt that the arcs were too long. I never really liked them. I prefer character development through a series of different scenarios - that way the true arc is in the character development itself, and not the external narrative.

 

[Kegek]

I was one of the viewers ENT lost in its first two seasons; though I stuck with VOY for its duration. I felt that ENT had all of VOY's weaknesses; magnified; and few of VOY's strengths. There were never any characters comparable to the Doctor in sheer likeability, and T'Pol was Seven without personality. The cheesy sex manipulation factor which I thought had peaked in VOY's "Q2", went to new lengths of utter ridiculousness in "A Night in Sickbay", just one of the failings of VOY which felt a good deal more problematic on ENT.

I did and do give it credit for making a much more likeable version of Neelix with Phlox.

When I went back to see the other seasons, I did like S4 the best. It had entertaining stories served up with generous dollops of fan service and, as KayArr notes, wisely chose not to focus on the characters too much.

 

[startrekwatcher]

When I first saw the episode where the Xindi attacked Earth I went
You test your weapon on an uninhabited planet. Not the one you intend to destroy before you're ready, tipping off your enemies as to your plan for them. That's dumb. Even if Starfleet didn't know who attacked them and didn't go into the Expanse don't you think they'd step up ship production, orbital defense platforms, or weapon development to defend themselves?
The Xinidi just made their mission ten times harder.

But the Sphere Builders could foresee the future so they knew it wouldn't change things. Just look at Twilight or Zero Hour--where was the orbital defense platforms or fleet of ships sufficient to prevent the weapon from being deployed.

And the Xindi would have succeeded but Daniels kept providing information to throw a curveball to the Sphere Builders plan. Everytime they would nudge the Xindi in one direction to compensate for any setback, Daniels came in to help Archer.

 

[KayArr]

I
When I went back to see the other seasons, I did like S4 the best. It had entertaining stories served up with generous dollops of fan service and, as KayArr notes, wisely chose not to focus on the characters too much.

WISELY!!!! Hey, now!!!!

 

[kimc]

I wasn't planning on watching any of it after the "Endgame" fiasco. However, a friend wanted to so we tried a few episodes but then agreed it was pointless.

Cute dog though.

 

[exodus]

I was one of the viewers ENT lost in its first two seasons; though I stuck with VOY for its duration. I felt that ENT had all of VOY's weaknesses; magnified; and few of VOY's strengths. There were never any characters comparable to the Doctor in sheer likeability, and T'Pol was Seven without personality. The cheesy sex manipulation factor which I thought had peaked in VOY's "Q2", went to new lengths of utter ridiculousness in "A Night in Sickbay", just one of the failings of VOY which felt a good deal more problematic on ENT.

I don't even have to write anything. This sums up why I don't like ENT. completely.