Enterprise or Voyager

[G2309]

I would like to see which show people prefer.
a lot of the time Enterprise was awful but at least it took some risks with Star Trek. The third season was flawed as the story telling was all over the place untill the end but it had someinteresting characher moments and dilemas. Season 4 had its flaws but on the whole was a good season which felt like Star Trek. Another reason I prefer Enterprise is its technological limitations (although this was often ignored) they were less likely than Voyager to turn to techno nonsense for an answer.

Voyager on the other hand started badly, became almost tolerable then became really really bad. I don't think it added anything to star trek at all and is best ignored.

 

[Reanok]

I like Enterprise I like the characters. I watched Voyager but am not really a voyager fan. I got tired of all the stories about the Borg and Seven of nine's Borg nanites save the day storylines.

 

[Cornholio]

I didn't vote.

I enjoyed both series.

in some ways, VOY was more like my favorite, TOS, than any other. ENT was an interesting suggestion of what things might've been like before TOS.

in the end, they're both just a TV show.

 

[Kai Winn]

I would like to see which show people prefer.
a lot of the time Enterprise was awful but at least it took some risks with Star Trek. The third season was flawed as the story telling was all over the place untill the end but it had someinteresting characher moments and dilemas. Season 4 had its flaws but on the whole was a good season which felt like Star Trek. Another reason I prefer Enterprise is its technological limitations (although this was often ignored) they were less likely than Voyager to turn to techno nonsense for an answer.

Voyager on the other hand started badly, became almost tolerable then became really really bad. I don't think it added anything to star trek at all and is best ignored.

why look for opposites where there are none? voy and ent were made by the same people, braga and berman. many epsiodes of both shows were directed by the same people, livingston, mcneill, dawson. same with the writers. they are the closest relatives in the st universe.
voy had the best opening season since tos, while ent was as poor as ds9 and tng at their starts. maybe worse. voy's seasons 2 and 3 were not too good, but from 4 onward it was outstanding. if you don't like it, you are perfectly entitled to.
as much as i like enterprise, it's right there with tng with nonsensical contradictions within the same episodes. my favourite is storm front. at the beginning, it's stated that the germans took moscow. later on, we are told that lenin got killed in 1916 by some time tourist, the russian revolution never happened, and germany never attacked russia.

 

[jadzia_dax2369]

hey all

i cant stand Voyager(enough with seven there are others on the ship), so its gonna be Enterprise, i was watching it last nite and love it.

 

[Saquist]

Voyager made more sense. I was more often brilliant and smart with it's episode until they ran away with the Seven and Doc show in the last two seasons...but who in there right mind will complain about too much Jeri Ryan...(not me). Still the focus was excessive if not enjoyable.

Enterprise had some good dramatic moments at the end if you're willing to put the bad acting..no, no, no. The acting was AWFUL from Bakula and Blalock. I mean it was puking bad. Everytime Bakula has a confrontation seen he glares and yells at the floor. Like when Trip interferes with another culture and gets a person killed. BOY. I can imagine Janeway doing this...shucks I don't have to imagine. When Tuvok and B'lanna conspire together to take the tech from a world that would get them home and almost destroy the ship....Kate Mulgrew was magnificent. She was anger, despair and disappointment. The betrayal felt tangible in that ready room. Powerful moments. And Voyager's drama not only seemed real but were WELL set up in episodes before.

Enterprise has so many bad to average actors.

Compare:

Enterprise:
Bad actors
Bakula
Blalock
Montgomery

Best Average Actors
Keating
Park
Trinneer

Best Actor:
Billingsley


Voyager:
Worst Actors
None really (Maybe Beltran) Very 1 Dimensional acting.

Lots of Good Average actors:
Tim Russ
Ethan Philips
Robert Duncan McNeil
Dawson
Jennifer Lien

Good Actors
Mulgrew
Ryan
Picardo

It's no wonder why the majority of episodes focused around these characters.
Average Acting at it's best is what I call Entertaining Self Portrayal. We all know characters like this. Will Smith used to be the epitome of Entertaining Self Portrayal along with Drew Carey Kathy Griffin. William Shatner whos's world renowned at playing himself, Brent Spiner, etc.

These actors are entertaining but Generally speaking they aren't as good portraying anyone else, especially in serious acting roles, normally comedians but there are many others. Will Smith made an incredible transition from this to real acting and has left behind the heavy on comedy roles.

Bad Acting Can be Self Portrayal as well but it goes further. It's 1 dimensional meaning limited expression and emphasis and limited inflection in all situations. Sometimes playing robotic or logical figures can give this perception but in the case of Tuvok and Data the actors are actually doing a great job suppressing their natural personality. Neither Time Russ or Spiner have any like the personalities their characters portray. While They don't have excelling acting ability it is still convincing and unforced.

Great acting is usually from those that have taken Theater. Stewart, Nimoy, Mulgrew. Sometimes those that do take theater as bad as well, like Gates McFadden but she got better as time went on. Ryan is a great modern actor (although limited too). There is something about the theater acts. They can be both natural and exaggerated, they make a role great rather than the role making them.

 

[JiNX-01]

You might have gotten a broader response if you had posted this in GTD.

I vote for Enterprise.

OTOH, I do also like VOY. And I know a lot of fans didn't like the Borg invasion in season 4 but I found Seven's journey to be an interesting one. She struggles to become human again, to have a mind of her own, to pursue her own dreams, to learn to get along with people with different personalities who aren't all thinking the same thought. To become comfortable in her own skin.

Contrast that with T'Pol (Trek's "other" sex kitten).

IMO, T'Pol would have been more interesting had she been Vulcan throughout the show, rather than trying to turn herself into a human with pixie ears (can you spell Trellium?).

Almost all of the other aliens on ENT shared various characteristics with humanity -- humor, violence, bigoty, religious zeal, lust, greed, jealousy, etc., so we could identify with them.

We had already seen built-in friendships between Kirk and Spock and Janeway and Tuvok. The prequel concept gave us the opportunity to see how humans would learn to accept a truly alien alien as colleague, friend and perhaps even lover.

 

[Mach5]

You might have gotten a broader response if you had posted this in GTD.

GTD already has a thread identical to this one (even has the same title). >>> http://www.trekbbs.com/showthread.php?t=118774

Anywayz, I'll just quote my own post from there:

Okay, here it goes...

THE CREW:

Archer - not very competent, and much of the time not very likable
Janeway - hmm, appears both competent and likable, but prone to making terrible choices...

I used to like Archer more, perhaps I still do, but I declare a tie. ENT:VOY 1:1

T'Pol - intriguing, intelligent, eccentric (by Vulcan standards), undoubtedly competent and breathtakingly beautiful
Chakotay - A handsome dude without a shred of charisma. A bland, boring, and utterly forgettable character.

T'Pol wins this one easily. ENT:VOY 2:1

Trip - Fun, lovable, smart, charismatic, brilliant
B'Elanna - An interesting character, smart, charismatic, kinda brilliant, hot tempered...

I like BLT, but I LOVE Trip Tucker! ENT:VOY 3:1

Dr.Phlox - uhm, he's okay...
EMH - awesome

Phlox doesn't stand any chance against The Doc. ENT:VOY 3:2

Travis Mayweather - they say he was the helmsman, but I can't remember ever seeing him on screen...
Tom Paris - Well, that guy was pretty awesome throughout the show...

ENT:VOY 3:3

Lt. Malcolm Reed - I liked this guy, too bad his character never truly developed to his full potential
Tuvok - My favorite character on VOY, by far! A real old school Vulcan, charismatic, intriguing, honorable...

ENT:VOY 3:4

ENT doesn't have an OPS officer, but I guess I could match Harry Kim against Hoshi Sato. I like both of them, and I know Harry isn't exactly wining any popularity contests among the fans, but I always liked the character, for all of his flaws, not despite them.

ENT:VOY 3:5

I've used up all the characters from Enterprise, but VOY deserves a +1 for Seven of Nine, which means the score is now ENT:VOY 3:6

Now there's the question of Neelix... I hate him. He is the single most annoying character in all of Star Trek which makes Wesley Crusher look like Bone McCoy in comparison. -2.5 for VOY. They should have killed off that fur ball pedo f#ck when they had the chance (preferably in "Caretaker").

Final tally: ENT:VOY 3:3.5, a close victory for VOY, but a victory none the less.

THE PLOT:

Lets just say that in its short, four year run, Enterprise offered much more than VOY did in its full seven seasons. VOY completely demystified the Borg, neutered it, took away every single shred of scariness that the TNG Borg possessed.

In my mind, VOY killed the Borg. David Mack managed to bring back a lot of these lost qualities in his "Destiny" novels, but it just wasn't the same. Not for me, at least.

Then there were the 8472's... What did they do with them? Nothing! These aliens had the potential of becoming Trek's next uber-villains, but nooooooo...

ENT at least had the Xindi, whose story arc begun nicely, and had a spectacular closure.

All this being said, I find Enterprise to be a better show. Had it completed it's planned seven year run, I'm pretty sure it would have made VOY look like a kids show in comparison.

 

[Pemmer Harge]

I like Voyager better. Enterprise's characters never really came alive for me, so the show has a tendency to leave me cold, even when some aspects of it are quite good. Voyager played it safe, but I cared about the characters more.

 

[JiNX-01]

As I said above, I did like VOY, but Enterprise at least tried to live up to its premise. Yeah, sometimes it fell short, but more often than not, it worked. We had Archer making first contacts, sometimes successfully, sometimes not. When the Xindi attack, the NX-O1 really is the only starship available to deal with the greater threat. Season 4 let the series go out on a high note (if you can ignore that one sour note at the very end) with the coalition building in the Andorian/Romulan, Vulcan and Terra Prime episodes leading to the establishment of the coalition of planets.

VOY's premise was a starship alone in a region of space where they can't count on help being on the way. The show started out sticking to the premise, reducing power usage by limiting use of the replicators and the holodeck and starting a hydroponic garden and trading for food stores and equipment. Eventually, the show devolved into just another Federation starship running into aliens every week. No shortage of power or food or equipment or supplies. And in later episodes Barclay works harder to get the crew home than the crew does.

 

[SFRabid]

Enterprise. Why?

TCW > The stupid idea of rationing replicator because of low energy but running the holosuite non-stop.

Anthony getting little dialog > Voyager's bad actors getting lots of screen time.

Xindi conflict > Voyager neutering the Borg.

Ent take on Vulcans was interesting and different while Tuvok was boring.

Ent gave us Sharan > Voy gave us Neelex.

Enterprise cast was smaller but better.

 

[Rek]

Voyager.

Janeway felt like a real captain. The crew acted like a crew would when they upset/betrayed her. It felt real.

On Enteprise, the captain didn't seem real. The crews acting when it came to respecting him/being scared of him seemed pretty fake. It was a lot of screaming and temper tantrums. The dramma didn't feel real, the closeness a crew was suppose to develop over time didn't happen. Maybe a little bit with T'Pol when it came to getting closer to humans but I found the aliens that made contact with them made more connecton with the captain then he did with his crew.

Nevertheless, Enterprise was a fun show to watch - but not the best.

 

[Admiral Shran]

Mach5, you beat me to it.

Here's my response from that thread....

^ Okay, here's my take on that.

THE CREW:

Archer - Inconsistently written, but clearly improved toward the end. Not likable at times.
Janeway - Inconsistently written throughout the entire series. Not likable many times.

Archer wins. ENT = 1, VOY = 0

T'Pol - An interesting character that presented a view on Vulcans we hadn't seen before. And, she was drop dead sexy.
Chakotay - Who? Oh, Voyager's First Officer. Well.... .... .... .... he knew how to fill that chair next Janeway very well.

T'Pol wins. ENT =2, VOY = 0

Trip - An alright guy, but way too "honkey tonk" for my tastes.
B'Elanna - Fiesty, spirited, and, yet, damaged and fragile underneath her "tough girl" exterior. She also received a fair amount of development.

I think Trip is the better "engineer," but B'Elanna is the better overall character. B'Elanna wins. ENT = 2, VOY =1

Phlox - Optismistic, fun-loving, and kind. However, he practices these traits in moderation. He's not sickeningly-sweet. What Neelix should have been.
The Doctor - Awesome! What else is there to say?

Phlox and The Doctor tie. ENT = 3, VOY = 2

Mayweather - Who? Oh, Enterprise's Helmsman. Well.... .... .... .... he knew how to fill that chair in front of Archer very well.
Paris - Excellent character who received a good amount of development. He started out as the ship's rebel and became an upright family man.

Paris wins. ENT = 3, VOY = 3

Reed - Awesome character who would do whatever it took to protect his ship and crewmates. It's a shame he didn't get more development.
Tuvok - Awesome character who would do whatever it took to protect his ship and crewmates, only he did it logically. Again, a shame he didn't get more development.

Reed and Tuvok tie. ENT = 4, VOY = 4

Sato - An interesting character who received a little development. And, she was unbelieveably beautiful.
Kim - Who? Oh, Voyager's Ops Officer. Well.... .... .... .... who?

Sato wins. ENT = 5, VOY = 4

Seven of Nine - An excellent character who added a lot to the show, was unbelieveably sexy, and received a great deal of development.
Kes - An interesting character who didn't receive the level of development she deserved.
Neelix - Why, oh why was this character included in the show?! He added nothing and was nothing - NOTHING - but annoying. They had the perfect chance to kill him off in Mortail Coil; they could have even let him kill himself and save everyone the trouble. But instead they kept him.

Enterprise had no characters to compare to these three. So, Seven and Kes each add a point for Voyager. However, Neelix negates both of them. So.... ENT = 5, VOY = 4

THE PLOT:

Enterprise - Humanity's first steps into interstellar exploration and the founding of the Federation. Absolutely excellent idea! The first two seasons really f#cked this up. The third season sort of healed some of the wounds. The final season finally fixed them.
Voyager - Starfleet and Maquis crew are forced to work together to get home from the other side of galaxy. Absolutely excellent idea! However, they royally f#cked this up by having next to no conflict between the Starfleet and Maquis crews.

Enterprise wins, in a very close race, just on the sheer awesomeness of its fourth season. ENT = 6, VOY = 4

THE VILLIANS:

Enterprise - The Suliban. The Xindi. The Romulans. The whole Temporal Cold War concept was ill-advised, ill-suited for a prequel series, and ill-executed. The Xindi were much better. However, they suffer from the facts that the Xindi Arc was part of the Temporal Cold War and that we had never heard one word about them in the entire 24 seasons of Trek previously viewed. The Romulans were the villians Enterprise needed from the beginning. It's shame they were used so little.
Voyager - The Kazon. The Borg. The Kazon were just awful and laughable. Period. The Borg were defanged, yes. But, I chalk that up to bad writing. Deep Space Nine showed, with the Dominion, that a constantly used villian can work, with good writing. I personally have no problem with using the Borg over and over again.

Voyager wins, in a VERY close race, just because Enterprise suffered from ill-conceived villians until it was too late. ENT = 6, VOY = 5

So, Enterprise wins the day. And like you said Mach5, if the show had been allowed to continue, it would have easily left Voyager in the dust.

 

[Saquist]

I like Voyager better. Enterprise's characters never really came alive for me, so the show has a tendency to leave me cold, even when some aspects of it are quite good. Voyager played it safe, but I cared about the characters more.

When you don't care about the characters you can't care about the events that happen to them. I feel that as well.

 

[lceb]

For me it's easy to answer, Enterprise by far. I cared about the characters, felt involved in the stories and it is my favorite Trek show.
Voyager was often fun to watch, had some very likeable characters, but it was no more than that.

 

[RegFan]

This question is very easy to answer. Enterprise. Voyager was the most consistent in quality out of all the series and had seven OK seasons. Enterprise, on the other hand, had two OK seasons and two awesome ones. Voyager was never serialized (I'm a big fan of story arcs) and Enterprise had an awesome story arc (it wasn't a good idea for a prequel, as it could have easily been done in Voyager, but it was still awesome). I cared for both series' characters, but Enterprise didn't have any annoying characters, unlike Voyager, although Neelix stopped being annoying at one point. Enterprise characters had more character development than most of VOY characters ever did in only four seasons. I wouldn't be surprised if Enterprise surpassed TNG as my favorite Trek series sometime in the future.

 

[Rek]

Enterprise didn't have any annoying characters

HUH?

I see Hoshi as one of the top annoying characters created in Star Trek history.

 

[SFRabid]

Enterprise didn't have any annoying characters

HUH?

I see Hoshi as one of the top annoying characters created in Star Trek history.

Really? I never thought she did enough to spark that strong of opinion.

For me, whenever Paris and Kim would go somewhere in a shuttle I could not help but think "Leave them. Leave them. Go. Now. Take off. ... Quick. Before they come back to the ship. Hurry. Get away. ..."

 

[sbk1234]

Honestly, I never understood the animosity toward either series. To each his own, I suppose.

 

[Rek]

Enterprise didn't have any annoying characters

HUH?

I see Hoshi as one of the top annoying characters created in Star Trek history.

Really? I never thought she did enough to spark that strong of opinion.

For me, whenever Paris and Kim would go somewhere in a shuttle I could not help but think "Leave them. Leave them. Go. Now. Take off. ... Quick. Before they come back to the ship. Hurry. Get away. ..."

Yeah. Maybe I missed a ep because I watched it online and some might of been missing, but I never saw any humor in her. All I saw was a whiny, scared women who thought she was "always alone". You get to know the depths of her self-loathing even more on the ep when she meets that guy with psychic powers. I just didn't like or care about her at all.