I’ve been randomly watching various Enterprise episodes lately, almost all of them for the first time since they aired, and it’s almost odd how much better a lot of them seem now. I always basically liked ENT — I was never one of the haters — but I mean, right now I’m even enjoying “Storm Front”. I hated “Storm Front” back in the day, thinking it as ridiculous as everyone else did, but now it seems perfectly enjoyable. I’m not entirely sure what’s changed.
A whole lot better, twenty-odd years later
- Thread starter FredH
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It's an interesting question, and one that's been touched on in a couple of threads here lately. I certainly think along the same lines as you, having had a more favourable opinion of the show over the last few years.
I thinking there's a few reasons for why I regularly see threads on here or reddit saying variations on 'Enterprise is actually pretty good'.
1) The show in certain respects is structured the same as TNG and VOY, so viewers were burnt out on it. This was happening at the same time Galactica and Firefly were doing relatively new things with serialised storytelling. It just seemed old-hat and uncool. Now that we're a couple of decades on from ENT, it is closer in time to TNG and VOY than we are to ENT, so it gets evaluated on a more level playing field. Objectively speaking, I feel TNG still beats ENT, but personally, I think it compares very favourably with VOY. I have no issue with heavily serialised stories, but it seems like only a few TV writers are capable of doing them successfully, for whatever reason. The pendulum is swinging back the other way a little bit now, and standalone shows such as SNW and early Mandolorian are getting good feedback. Similarly, I can put on an Enterprise episode, and I don't need to make a time commitment for a season long arc.
2) Visually, it's aging very well. It's subjective, but for my money, it's the last series that had a visual language that is mostly its own. Kelvin films look like Apple stores and early Marvel films. Discovery just looks like Mass Effect to me. Picard looks like a hybrid of Mass Effect and 90s Trek. SNW looks amazing, but is deriving its visuals from TOS and other mid 20th Centuray American influences. ENT's production design stands up today.
3) Maybe there's a self selection bias here? Maybe the people who come around to the series are looking back with a bit of nostalgia, and remember fondly shows that were made in a slightly retro way. I don't want to become a grumpy old man, but I miss watching characters that I can personally identify with, and use fewer colloquialisms. I have a hard time thinking someone twenty years younger than me would be likely to get into the show. Time moves on, and what people want to watch changes but I still like, and am nostalgic for, shows from the 80s, 90s and early 00s as well.
4) Enterprise is just fun. It's an engaging adventure show, with all sorts of plot lines, from T'Pol telling offbeat tales about Carbon Creek, to the Enterprise getting trashed in Azati Prime. There's a lot there to like.
I thinking there's a few reasons for why I regularly see threads on here or reddit saying variations on 'Enterprise is actually pretty good'.
1) The show in certain respects is structured the same as TNG and VOY, so viewers were burnt out on it. This was happening at the same time Galactica and Firefly were doing relatively new things with serialised storytelling. It just seemed old-hat and uncool. Now that we're a couple of decades on from ENT, it is closer in time to TNG and VOY than we are to ENT, so it gets evaluated on a more level playing field. Objectively speaking, I feel TNG still beats ENT, but personally, I think it compares very favourably with VOY. I have no issue with heavily serialised stories, but it seems like only a few TV writers are capable of doing them successfully, for whatever reason. The pendulum is swinging back the other way a little bit now, and standalone shows such as SNW and early Mandolorian are getting good feedback. Similarly, I can put on an Enterprise episode, and I don't need to make a time commitment for a season long arc.
2) Visually, it's aging very well. It's subjective, but for my money, it's the last series that had a visual language that is mostly its own. Kelvin films look like Apple stores and early Marvel films. Discovery just looks like Mass Effect to me. Picard looks like a hybrid of Mass Effect and 90s Trek. SNW looks amazing, but is deriving its visuals from TOS and other mid 20th Centuray American influences. ENT's production design stands up today.
3) Maybe there's a self selection bias here? Maybe the people who come around to the series are looking back with a bit of nostalgia, and remember fondly shows that were made in a slightly retro way. I don't want to become a grumpy old man, but I miss watching characters that I can personally identify with, and use fewer colloquialisms. I have a hard time thinking someone twenty years younger than me would be likely to get into the show. Time moves on, and what people want to watch changes but I still like, and am nostalgic for, shows from the 80s, 90s and early 00s as well.
4) Enterprise is just fun. It's an engaging adventure show, with all sorts of plot lines, from T'Pol telling offbeat tales about Carbon Creek, to the Enterprise getting trashed in Azati Prime. There's a lot there to like.
I dunno, I think I feel exactly the same. I always hated Season 1, loved a bunch of episode in Season 2 and disliked the rest, and was bored and impressed by differents parts of Season 3, and mostly really enjoyed Season 4. I'm doing a watch/rewatch so I can say I've fully watched the show but after it's done I don't think I'll ever come back to a lot of episodes again. This is how I feel about most Star Trek shows though.
I think I might feel this way about "The Orville" though, but I think my sense of humour has changed to appreciate it I guess.
I think I might feel this way about "The Orville" though, but I think my sense of humour has changed to appreciate it I guess.
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You would be surprised. I have, at long last, tracked down two Enterprise Discord servers (there’s one more out there and in the interest of completing my collection, I will not give up on tracking it down) and both were started by 20 year olds. Sure, there’s a fair amount of 40-somethings but just last night one of the young people posted about how they just got back from prom!
A year or so ago, I began a weekly Enterprise watch party with some people I knew on Discord who had never seen the show. I was expecting them to have middling takes on it, but they really loved it. A lot of it is the visual design I think. The near future concept and set design has aged well, and despite being obviously from the 2000s the sets are just busy enough to be believable and interesting, but not as sterile as some of the other shows. It also has an earnest quality to it. I'm pleased others are appreciating it more though, it's always been in my top 3.
I always liked ENT.
However, after Discovery premiered and absolutely broke my heart, I revisited ENT and realized just how good we had it. I like ENT exponentially more now than I did originally because now I know what we lost. I took it for granted at the time.
However, after Discovery premiered and absolutely broke my heart, I revisited ENT and realized just how good we had it. I like ENT exponentially more now than I did originally because now I know what we lost. I took it for granted at the time.
I went opposite. I'm much more forgiving of the bad episodes today, because I have WAY worse newer episode to compare to it.
Even the absolute worst of ENT is better than most anything they've been putting out now.
Even that episode where they're hiding in the warp nacelles??
I know people like to pick on "A night in sickbay" but to be the warp nacelle episode is far worse.
Even that episode where they're hiding in the warp nacelles??
I know people like to pick on "A night in sickbay" but to be the warp nacelle episode is far worse.
The warp nacelle episode isn't even that bad, especially compared to literally everything in DSC Season 1.
ENT "The Catwalk" is just kind of... boring. Much of Discovery is offensively bad.
Or the god damned SNW musical episode. I even largely like SNW but... hot damn was that actually painful.
I liked ENT when it first aired. but there was a level of burnout after more than a decade of new Star Trek,some with two series at the same time. A lot of the plots on ENT were just rehashed plots from TNG, DS9 and VOY. But I loved the Xindi Arc, and how they 'explained' the Klingon smooth head bumpy head thing. Also loved the character Shran. ABSOLUTELY HATED THE FINAL EPISODE.
But They cast it well. About the only character that annoyed me regularly was Malcolm Reed. I have watched it several times. It's better than most people remember. But it failed because of Star Trek fan burnout. They needed to take some time off.
I would love to see them bring back T'Pol and even Phlox on SNW. That would be fun to me.
But They cast it well. About the only character that annoyed me regularly was Malcolm Reed. I have watched it several times. It's better than most people remember. But it failed because of Star Trek fan burnout. They needed to take some time off.
I would love to see them bring back T'Pol and even Phlox on SNW. That would be fun to me.
Eagerly awaiting 2044, when people are rewatching Discovery and saying how good it is compared to <insert 2044 Star Trek show here>
Time is great, you go back and watch something for what it was, not what you wish it was at the time.
Enterprise had good moments, and fucking dreadful moments. Ultimately it was a prequel that tried to be just more of the same TNG/VOY with the bonus that the recycled stories were chronologically "first" this time. And those kinds of stories are warmly nostalgic now.
Time is great, you go back and watch something for what it was, not what you wish it was at the time.
Enterprise had good moments, and fucking dreadful moments. Ultimately it was a prequel that tried to be just more of the same TNG/VOY with the bonus that the recycled stories were chronologically "first" this time. And those kinds of stories are warmly nostalgic now.
I would argue that Enterprise was (if we anthropomorphize the show as a whole) trying very hard to not be more of the same TNG/VOY. That’s just the pattern it was being held to.
I think of it more like an assortment of artists, of admittedly varying skill levels but mostly filled with determination to do right by something they loved, were told to paint a billboard (for UPN). They were given paints already chosen for them, told what message they had to convey and given very strong suggestions as to who/what should be featured on said billboard. Then they tried their hardest to make something artistic, something fresh and new, something with a message beyond the one given to them.
Many people looked at the billboard and thought “Sellouts, that’s not art.” Some people are now looking again and saying, “You know, with what they had, all those constraints, they did something pretty amazing, really, when you think about it.”
I think of it more like an assortment of artists, of admittedly varying skill levels but mostly filled with determination to do right by something they loved, were told to paint a billboard (for UPN). They were given paints already chosen for them, told what message they had to convey and given very strong suggestions as to who/what should be featured on said billboard. Then they tried their hardest to make something artistic, something fresh and new, something with a message beyond the one given to them.
Many people looked at the billboard and thought “Sellouts, that’s not art.” Some people are now looking again and saying, “You know, with what they had, all those constraints, they did something pretty amazing, really, when you think about it.”
I've had similar thoughts as well. However, if I'm still alive and kicking in 20 years, I'm not sure whether I'll come around to Discovery in the same way I did with Enterprise. There are too many structural flaws in that show, so despite it's strengths (and it does have strengths!) those positives are fundamentally tied to plot lines that are badly paced and badly thought out, cringe dialogue etc etc.Eagerly awaiting 2044, when people are rewatching Discovery and saying how good it is compared to <insert 2044 Star Trek show here>
For my money at least, Enterprise is comparatively easy to forgive its obvious flaws, and as you say, enjoy it for what it is, because you can always skip the episodes that are stinkers. And on the one occasion they attempt a season long arc, they mostly stick the landing.
I'm still not interested in it.20 years doesn't improve it.
Granted the amount of time is much less, but i've tried to go back to DSC S1 and rewatch. I know what it is now, I don't have any expectations for what it would be at the time.
It's still terrible. I might actually like it even less now. At the time, there was at least the excitement of a new Trek show after so long and an expectation that "well, the first season of Trek shows always suck... i'm sure it will get better..." And I mean, it did... mildly... but on a second watch, I don't have that hope. I know where it goes. I know most of the issues never go away.
These are all fantastic points. I would add one very important additional one:
It looks modern.
Out of all the "old" Trek shows, it is the only one filmed in HD, in 16:9, it has fantastic production value, no cheesy make-up made for low-definition, the only show with 100% computer generated vfx, regularly using green screen, it has movie like cinematography, staging, camera work and editing (compared even to VOY). Hell - even the new shows don't have fully animated aliens like the Xindi insectoids & aquatics!
To the modern viewer, it looks like a very traditional, old-school modern show. But it looks modern. The other shows - while sometimes having better writing - much more look their age, like a show from the 80s or 90s, where effects and nerd properties were uncommon. ENT instead still fits on modern television sets.
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