I thought this was a show that was almost as completely botched as Voyager. The characters and actors were a HUGE step up from Voyagers severe case of the blands and the premise was good enough - a return to the frontier feeling of TOS with a little more action-adventure to the show while trying to get by without all the techno-comforts of the 24th century that most people had grown so tired of.
The problem was that, like Voyager, they dropped the premise within a handful of episodes. By the end of the pilot they had phasers with stun settings (while I couldn't help but think how cool it would be to have to see the main characters have to choose whether or not to use deadly force with their plasma pistols), they had used the transporter to rescue someone, and had made first contact with the Klingons (something that probably deserved a lot more time and attention than it was given).
They also had in the first season: holodeck episodes, a Ferengi episode, and terribly thought out time travel episodes. These were all things that I think most people were hoping to get away from with a prequel series where the idea was that characters might solve a few more problems with cunning instead of the technobabble solutions Voyager was so fond of.
By the 3rd season, they tried to save the show by starting a war (more or less). With a race no one had ever heard of or cared about. Now, war is good for drama and makes for some exciting action (a lesson learned on DS9), but who the hell cares about the Xindi? From the day this show aired, everyone wanted to see the Romulan War. It was just a sign that the producers and writers clearly had no idea what their audience wanted any more.
By season 4 there was a heavy turnover in the writers and in my opinion, we FINALLY got to see what we all wanted to see. The stories were written in small arcs (which Trek does much better than large arcs), there was a lot of stuff with Andorians and Tellarites and Vulcans... just a bunch of cool prequelly stuff. Even a quick jaunt over to the mirror universe to see how cool it was before DS9 ruined it. Some people criticize this season for being fanwankish and to some extent it was - but it was also the reason this show existed - to show the fanwankish, prequel crap that led up to the founding of the Federation.
My conclusion: It was a failure and it had a ton of issues, but it was still far more interesting than Voyager any day of the week.
The problem was that, like Voyager, they dropped the premise within a handful of episodes. By the end of the pilot they had phasers with stun settings (while I couldn't help but think how cool it would be to have to see the main characters have to choose whether or not to use deadly force with their plasma pistols), they had used the transporter to rescue someone, and had made first contact with the Klingons (something that probably deserved a lot more time and attention than it was given).
They also had in the first season: holodeck episodes, a Ferengi episode, and terribly thought out time travel episodes. These were all things that I think most people were hoping to get away from with a prequel series where the idea was that characters might solve a few more problems with cunning instead of the technobabble solutions Voyager was so fond of.
By the 3rd season, they tried to save the show by starting a war (more or less). With a race no one had ever heard of or cared about. Now, war is good for drama and makes for some exciting action (a lesson learned on DS9), but who the hell cares about the Xindi? From the day this show aired, everyone wanted to see the Romulan War. It was just a sign that the producers and writers clearly had no idea what their audience wanted any more.
By season 4 there was a heavy turnover in the writers and in my opinion, we FINALLY got to see what we all wanted to see. The stories were written in small arcs (which Trek does much better than large arcs), there was a lot of stuff with Andorians and Tellarites and Vulcans... just a bunch of cool prequelly stuff. Even a quick jaunt over to the mirror universe to see how cool it was before DS9 ruined it. Some people criticize this season for being fanwankish and to some extent it was - but it was also the reason this show existed - to show the fanwankish, prequel crap that led up to the founding of the Federation.
My conclusion: It was a failure and it had a ton of issues, but it was still far more interesting than Voyager any day of the week.
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