Boy bands in space!

[Dukhat]

Anthony Montgomery literally has released an album plus several other CDs and singles. Travis was severely underutilized. If they had given him some side plot that involved him singing, with or without others, it could have more than doubled his screen time. Travis the singing pilot isn’t the most enthralling plot line but it is a plot line which is, sadly, more than he honestly had.

Yes, Travis was very underutilized. But making him a singer was not the answer. The answer was to focus on his Space Boomer background. He should have been THE most important person on that ship (other than T'Pol), with his knowledge of space. Because despite there being some kind of Earth Starfleet, the officers didn't seem to know jack shit about what was out there. Travis did.

 

[hbquikcomjamesl]

Singing, and being a space boomer, are hardly mutually exclusive. And it would hardly be difficult to write a script in which an instance of Travis singing is used to advance his space boomer backstory.

He should have been THE most important person on that ship (other than T'Pol), with his knowledge of space.

Why do I find myself thinking of Neelix?

 

[Dukhat]

Singing, and being a space boomer, are hardly mutually exclusive. And it would hardly be difficult to write a script in which an instance of Travis singing is used to advance his space boomer backstory.

If it has to do with the plot of the story, great. If it’s just something to give Travis to do because they can’t think of anything better for him to do, that’s a problem.

 

[hbquikcomjamesl]

Maybe he has type-2 diabetes, is on Jardiance for it, had a bad reaction tn an overdose, and keeps breaking out in severe production numbers. That would be a big story to tell.

 

[Sumire]

They kind of worked Robert Picardo’s love of singing into a few Voyager plots. Sometimes it was a little shoehorned in but when the EMH started humming opera at the end of “The Swarm,” that was pretty moving. If they could have given Travis a plot where his singing served some greater or deeper purpose it would make a few earlier showings of his skill a little easier to take, wouldn’t it? I’m not saying it would improve Enterprise or even that it really would have attracted more viewers but it would have given Travis something more to do and that’s not a bad thing, is it?

(I do agree though @Dukhat, his Boomer background should never be overshadowed by any other aspect of his character. It ought to have been extremely important. However, since it was discarded in service to absolutely nothing at all, anything seems better than nothing,.. maybe?)

 

[FederationHistorian]

If it has to do with the plot of the story, great. If it’s just something to give Travis to do because they can’t think of anything better for him to do, that’s a problem.

Actually, if Travis knows any jazz tunes, it would give a reason for Travis and T’Pol to bond.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

NSYNC join the MACOs in a rescue mission and all are gunned down in brutal fashion.

I'd pay good money to see that.

Kind of like this...

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[Anna Yolei]

I would bet good money that the "she" was Dawn Ostroff, president of UPN at the time. She was on record as saying that she wanted ENT to be 'sexier,' despite the fact that the show wasn't supposed to be about sexy people, it was supposed to be about the formation of the Federation. The inherent problem with Ms. Ostroff (and all the UPN executives in general) was that they were completely out of touch with what the show's fanbase wanted to see, or what the show was actually supposed to be about. Hence, the boy band idea, which I 100% believe was an actual thing she and the execs came up with.

A lot of people like to blame Berman and Braga for a lot of what went wrong with ENT, but UPN had far more to do with that than they did. For all their faults, B&B at least knew what Star Trek actually was.

Late to the party, but it's worth pointing out that UPN's direct competitor was the WB, and that ENT was up against genre shows like Smallville (that IIRC aired during ENT's tineslot) and BTVS and both would be decimated when American Idol did numbers not seen on a network show since MASH left the air.

I was here back when fans wanted to take the piss outta Bermaga for simply breathing, and I'd be lying if I said I miss their influence in modern Trek, but not every problem ENT face was one they created. It just wasn't. And theme song memery notwithstanding, I can't say I'm sad that they won this battle.

 

[SCE2Aux]

As with most things people do, Berman and Braga did some good things, some really bad. I'm certainly glad that they won this battle as well.

On a related front, I was on memory alpha the other day, reading the behind the scenes section of the Jonathan Archer page. I was startled to learn that in addition to the boy band stuff, UPN wanted to fire Bakula at the end of season 3, because they had some how gotten into their heads that the show's lacklustre viewership was somehow his fault. Berman apparently lobbied hard to keep Bakula in the show, and I'm so thankful that he won that battle too, since we would have missed out on some great performances throughout season 4 otherwise.

 

[Takeru]

On a related front, I was on memory alpha the other day, reading the behind the scenes section of the Jonathan Archer page. I was startled to learn that in addition to the boy band stuff, UPN wanted to fire Bakula at the end of season 3, because they had some how gotten into their heads that the show's lacklustre viewership was somehow his fault. Berman apparently lobbied hard to keep Bakula in the show, and I'm so thankful that he won that battle too, since we would have missed out on some great performances throughout season 4 otherwise.

Meh. I like Scott Bakula as an actor but Archer was a horrible character, he was incompetent, only got the job because of nepotism and never seemed to recognize his own shortcomings like when he snapped at Trip for teaching the cogenitor and screwing up the alien society, "You think that's what I would have done?!", yes Archer, he thinks that because that's exactly what you would have done. The show would have been os much better without him, imagine T'Pol as the lead, awesome!

 

[DonIago]

It could have been very interesting to have Archer leave the show one way or another at the end of S3 and have a new captain (would Earth let T'Pol captain the Enterprise?) in S4.

 

[Nerys Myk]

t, only got the job because of nepotism

Is there really anything in the show that actually shows this? And no, his dad creating the Warp 5 engine isn't proof.

 

[Takeru]

Is there really anything in the show that actually shows this? And no, his dad creating the Warp 5 engine isn't proof.

It's never directly stated but do you think he was qualified to lead a mission that would involve first contacts with various species? He had zero diplomatic skill, not much knowledge about other species and not a lot of interest in learning or he would have used T'Pol and vulcan resources much more than he did instead of dismissing T'Pol's warnings all the time. He was also arrogant and seemed to think the human way was generally the right way.

I can think of nothing that makes him qualified so the logical conclusion is that he got the job because of nepotism because I doubt there were no qualified humans on earth.

 

[Nerys Myk]

It's never directly stated but do you think he was qualified to lead a mission that would involve first contacts with various species? He had zero diplomatic skill, not much knowledge about other species and not a lot of interest in learning or he would have used T'Pol and vulcan resources much more than he did instead of dismissing T'Pol's warnings all the time. He was also arrogant and seemed to think the human way was generally the right way.

I can think of nothing that makes him qualified so the logical conclusion is that he got the job because of nepotism because I doubt there were no qualified humans on earth.

As qualified as any other fictional character in a similar situation.

 

[Dukhat]

The issue with Archer was that he was presented as someone who is always right, and the other characters only serve to reinforce this opinion, although if you actually delve into many of his decisions, you’d see that a lot of his actions actually weren’t right. Now if this aspect of his character was actually developed better, I think he would have come across as a more flawed and realistic character. But that’s not what happened.

Now with that said, an actor is only as good as the material he/she is given. Bakula was great in Quantum Leap, and mediocre at best in ENT. But it’s not because Bakula can’t act. Firing him because of some silly perceived notion that he was the problem smacks completely of the incompetence of the UPN executives. It’s no different from the idiotic NFL firing a head coach because their football team sucks. That coach can only work with what he’s given, and if he’s given a crap team to work with, the greatest coach in the world isn’t going to fix that.

 

[Nerys Myk]

I think "First Flight" gives us an idea of why Archer was chosen and also is a hint of the show Berman and Braga wanted to make. It oddly enough is similar to Moore's "For All Mankind".

 

[fireproof78]

I think "First Flight" gives us an idea of why Archer was chosen and also is a hint of the show Berman and Braga wanted to make. It oddly enough is similar to Moore's "For All Mankind".

I agree but I think "Broken Bow" and then the follow up episodes in the first Season really didn't show Archer with any strengths. He just fumbles at times with his speeches and it ends up just working out. He's not really a character that draws me in to follow him on this adventure. Yes, that's on the writers but ultimate what we saw was what we got.

 

[SCE2Aux]

I agree but I think "Broken Bow" and then the follow up episodes in the first Season really didn't show Archer with any strengths. He just fumbles at times with his speeches and it ends up just working out. He's not really a character that draws me in to follow him on this adventure. Yes, that's on the writers but ultimate what we saw was what we got.

I'd argue that there is room for interpretation there. Over the years numerous people have stated similar things about Archer being incompetent. The prevalence of this view makes me think the writers definitely could've spent a little more time highlighting just why he appeared to be so. If they did, he'd probably be considered not incompetent, but naïve, which I think was what they were going for. It's also why I love the Vulcan-Human dynamic in Enterprise - Vulcans were authoritarian and obstructive, but they also weren't wrong about how much humanity needed to learn to become a responsible player in the galactic neighbourhood. It isn't just about building a warp 5 engine.

The writers deliberately wrote him to be a little uncertain, especially in the first season (again, according to what I read on Archer's Memory Alpha page.) The hesitancy to let his crew build the phase cannons vs going back to Jupiter Station being a good example of this. He started out thinking that the job would be part test pilot, part sea captain. He didn't conceive there would be a need for high level diplomacy, beyond a cursory first contact, and indeed, no human of the era really appreciated what they were getting into when getting mixed up in inter-species affairs. And he explicitly stated that he hardly ever expected to go into combat, which was way over-optimistic, but then from their perspective, who the heck is the Romulan Star Empire? Or the Klingons? Or the Xindi?

As I said, numerous people have called him incompetent and I don't entirely disagree, but my feeling is that there is enough present in the four season narrative to interpret him as a man who came from a rather shielded corner of the galaxy, and learned on the job to accomplish more than he was expecting necessary. As awkward as that gazelle speech was, he was right: You don't go from test pilot to Starfleet Captain without a few stumbles. Going from Gazelles to 'The final frontier begins in this hall, let's explore it together!' is precisely why I find the character so engaging. It's a very human story.

 

[fireproof78]

As I said, numerous people have called him incompetent and I don't entirely disagree, but my feeling is that there is enough present in the four season narrative to interpret him as a man who came from a rather shielded corner of the galaxy, and learned on the job to accomplish more than he was expecting necessary. As awkward as that gazelle speech was, he was right: You don't go from test pilot to Starfleet Captain without a few stumbles. Going from Gazelles to 'The final frontier begins in this hall, let's explore it together!' is precisely why I find the character so engaging. It's a very human story.

The problem for me, and I'll owe this to as much disinterest in ENT over the years so my memory is limited, is that Archer gets there while feeling like he never gets there. I mean, he does, but only by virtue of he happened to be the guy there, not anything he does. I think that the struggles with the diplomacy side are things that Starfleet should have anticipated, and prepared for. It's not like humanity has not imagined other aliens or races or possible first contact. So I feel like they sent him out unprepared and then didn't do anything to say, "Whoah, that went sideways, let's change that." They just kept plowing foward and hoped.

Yeah, I guess it worked out, and yes it is a very human story, but this is a human I struggle with going "I want to see him succeed." and more "Someone throw him a lifeline."

 

[Skipper]

I'm thinking that from the point of view of the characters in the series it would have been like today's sailors on a carrier being forced to listen to a group specialized in 19th century folk songs every evening in the mess. Maybe a couple of times it would be fun, but after a while there would be a riot.