Did Enterprise Jump Shark?

[tim851]

Yes, it jumped shark the first time they rubbed baby oil on a half-naked Jolene Blalock. Must've been somewhere in episode 1. From that moment on you knew, that the show was trying to hard.

Less sarcastically, it jumped the shark when the Xindi attacked. The whole Xindi-arc was badly done and once again, it was all too apparent that they were trying too hard. Season 3 actually increased the venus love trap factor when T'Pol was massaged in every other episode.
The remix of the theme song is the perfect example of how the powers that be were totally disconnected from the audience they were so desperately trying too reach. I mean, they reacted to all the criticism towards the original theme by making it more pop. These days, they would've made the Jonas Brothers cover it...

Season 4 was just bad most of the time. Characters became one-dimensional cardboard cutouts. Worst of them was the looney Vulcan Imperator or whatever rank he had. And who in the world thought the thing that Trek needed most was the soap-opera staple "Will they get each other, or will the not?"
Aside from that, they were in firefights every episode, the bridge was more on fire than not and it all culminated in the worst Star Trek Episode (apart from Clip Shows) ever: 4x16 "Divergence", I call it "Speed Trek". The first 10 minutes of that episode are ridiculous, almost satirical action.

Disclaimer: obviously, all of the above is personal opinion.

 

[SFRabid]

.... Now, those who didn't like the 4th season and claim it was all an attempt to grab the nostalgic crowd may have an argument for a shark jump, but since I liked season 4, I'm not in that camp.

I always figured that most of that crowd would never be happy unless they wrote the episodes themselves.

Now on the other hand, if the seasons were reversed I might have thought the series jumped the shark when they made Archer weave beads in his hair and use a chainsaw.

 

[commodore64]

Although I didn't like elements of seasons 3 and 4 (despite thinking season 3 kicks *ss), I don't think it ever jumped the shark. Silly story lines? Yes. Week after week of crappy story lines? No.

 

[ChristopherPike]

I always figured that most of that crowd would never be happy unless they wrote the episodes themselves.

A major part of it was undoubtedly seeing the name of their 'anti-Christ' on the credits and shouting to the sky above, "I CAN DO BETTER THAN THAT".

Well, they've had since 2005 to prove it... As much as I may be bubbling over with ideas for Season 5, having posted enough of them in the past to fill a novella at the very least, like most fans... putting it all into practice is "the Great Barrier".

 

[F. King Daniel]

IMO it didn't "jump the shark", it just had such rubbish crap in the first two seasons that everyone stopped watching by the time they hired decent writers for seasons three and four.

Or maybe it was that theme song. That was a real turn-off.

 

[bluedana]

I think the term "Jump the shark" is used too much. It's become a synonym for "went downhill", when it should, in my opinion, be reserved for when what made the show popular gets lost due to lack of ideas or writers checking out, and in its place comes crazy ideas designed not to continue the show in an effective way, but to keep the show floating for ratings. That was what originated the term; Happy Days degenerated to showing a two parter where the cliffhanger was, "Can the Fonz jump his water skis over this shark? Find out next time!"

Enterprise never reached that point, in my opinion. Now, those who didn't like the 4th season and claim it was all an attempt to grab the nostalgic crowd may have an argument for a shark jump, but since I liked season 4, I'm not in that camp.

This. See, I'm old enough to have watched the iconic shark jumping moment in its first run. The term has devolved from its original meaning. Now people slap it on any series or episode which they personally didn't like, or which even may be objectively bad. But that's not what it originally meant. When "jumping the shark" first came into parlance, it refered to a point when a show, fresh out of ideas and falling in the ratings, introduced a character or situation that was purely a ratings grab AND betrayed the original premise of the show. Fonzie's stunt was so poorly set up as a storyline, it permanently undercut the essential "coolness" of the character. You could compare it with one of the best episodes of the series, the one with the smash derby (yes, and Pinky Tuscadero) where the stunt was completely in character.

Probably a better jumping the shark moment comes from the Happy Days spinoff, Laverne and Shirley. They took the two characters (and of course, all their friends and family) out of the Milwaukee beer bottling company which was the basis of the whole show (and featured in the opening credits) and replanted them in LA. Then they did a bunch of other stupid things because Cindy Williams quit the show. THAT's jumping the shark. You can't come back from that.

And of course, you CAN'T jump the shark in your first episode, because you haven't established the premise of the show enough to betray it.

Not every change in a show is a jump, though. Sometimes adding, changing, or killing a character makes it better, or advances the series story line in a way that's faithful to the original premise. NYPD Blue did this when main characters left the show. Sometimes an out of the ordinary, step outside the formula episode can keep the series fresh (best example I can think of is Quantum Leap's "Shock Theatre").

In my opinion, then, ENT never did jump the shark. It had some bad episodes, yes. It changed direction in S3 from stand alone episodes to arc-based storytelling, yes. It had storylines and episodes and occurrences within episodes that people didn't like. But the original premise, mankind taking its first steps into deep space and dealing with what it found there, remained constant and, again IMO, well drawn.

 

[ChristopherPike]

On the other hand... maybe it happened the instant we heard Riker say, "Computer. Freeze program." Then when they were done playing 'Faith of the Heart' and commericial breaks were over, we weren't even on our own show no more...

Had it actually jumped that shark and landed on the other side. As it was, the whole episode fell head first into it's jaws...

 

[Triskelion]

ENT didn't jump the shark. It was just finding its legs and got cut off at the knees.

Shows like Mutant X (due to basically the inevitable X Men copyright infringement coming home to roost), Andromeda (don't do crack - I have no idea what happened to that show), are better examples. Both of these shows departed from their first season premises so wildly they ceased to be identifiable. Call me simple-minded, but I liked the clear cut rules laid out in their first seasons, and I didn't really care for either of their reslants. Even Kevin Sorbo broke the fourth wall when his character said "this show has gone to the dogs", or something to that effect - what was that epi when they were stuck on that mad max new caprica planet?

 

[SonicRanger]

The entire 4th season was spent jumping over sharks left and right.

 

[Starbreaker]

I think Enterprise started off riding the Shark until it had good enough sense to jump off.

 

[Marius_Simon]

In my opinion, then, ENT never did jump the shark. It had some bad episodes, yes. It changed direction in S3 from stand alone episodes to arc-based storytelling, yes. It had storylines and episodes and occurrences within episodes that people didn't like. But the original premise, mankind taking its first steps into deep space and dealing with what it found there, remained constant and, again IMO, well drawn.

So true. I watched all of the EP's almost at one sit, took me about 2 - 3 weeks to watch them all. What a run! I was happy to see that all those "could-be-or-becomes-horrific-after-a-time" stand alone EP's were minority and the series went to arc-based storytelling. I liked the continuous on the stories as well as that the humans were underdogs almost everywhere they went. Not having the comfort of energy shielding and powerful weapons gave the show it's unique mark and feeling. So, ENT never jumped the shark IMO. ENT could have been remarkable show after 5 - 6 seasons, with proper ending. Now the ending is bad, even worse whit the incident involving "Trip" (don't want to spoil more if someone who hasn't watched the show completely is reading this).

This show was amazing! 5/5 stars.

Disclaimer: My english might be bad and I might say somethings that are taken the wrong way

 

[The Sneeze Police]

Personally, I think the first couple of seasons of ENT were better than the first couple of seasons of all of the previous incarnations of Trek except TOS. So, no, I don't think ENT ever Jumped Shark. It was cancelled just as it was hitting its stride.

 

[lceb]

For a show that started with good seasons one and two and got better on the third and fourth, I don't think it jumped shark, quite the opposite. I still cannot understand why it didn't have at least a fifth season

 

[Tuvok]

While not a Fan of Enterprise can't say it jumped the Shark.
Late season three and most of Season four was an improvement. Still, had a feeling it could have been more then what it was. Felt like the same kind of Trek episodes from Voyager and the next Generation instead of feeling the begining of something special.

 

[ALF]

Agreed with other posters. It Reverse-Jumped-The-Shark.

I think Enterprise started off riding the Shark until it had good enough sense to jump off.

Well done.

 

[teacherkarl]

I think ENT suffered from fan fatigue. There had been weekly episodes of Trek since 1987 at that point, plus all the movies, and at that point, there just wasn't much that was original the writers could really work with.

Who knows how good a Season 5 could have been?

 

[teacherkarl]

I never sat through a single episode and said to myself - "well, ther's an hour of my life I'll never get back." I can't say that about some of the other series; I enjoyed the entire, tiny, way too short run.

Aside from TATV, the only time I thought that was after watching "Extinction." Because I'm such a slow learner I actually re-watched it the other day, just to see if it was as bad as I remembered. No, it was worse! So that's TWO hours of my life I won't be getting back.

 

[Anna Yolei]

I liked some of what Manny Coto did for the show, but felt it was too little too late.

Rob

Me, too. The first time around, I thought season four was really rocking. Even now, I appreciate having at least one higher-up who wasn't dismissing all the criticism as pissed off basement dwellers with no lives and for which Trek was still fun.

But having looked at the last season a few months ago, the specail spark of Enterprise that made it different from the other shows was missing. Oh sure, it was nice not to see officers rubbing each other down with decon gel for giggles and shits, but there were just waaaaaaaaaaay too many TOS references crammed into the series...and as you said, it was way too late to be doing this kind of thing.

At least TPTb tried to right the ship (I'm ignoring TATV here). I guess that counts for something.

As I've said in this kind of thread before, I tend to agree with teacherkarl in that fan fatigue didn't help. I've known abused women who had less baggage than Enterprise was saddled with coming off of Voyager's heels.It wasn't the sole contributor and certainly ENT wasn't without its own shortcomings as a series...but there were plenty of fans who weren't going to take a chance on another Bermaga series after Voyager, and who can blame them for that?

 

[xortex]

Why is it always someone named Rick? The fans were bored with the same old production values - the overall dull look like a watered down BBC production, and the cannabilized two and three part story arcs. The alien nazis really did it for me. Not again. They were on Voyager - which had it's share of alot of good stories. So did Enterprise but it was underdeveloped and unfocased visionarily. Coto was only looking backwards and stealing from TOS and Brannon is only one person. Menosky is in Italy. He was one of the few breed of thinkers. not tinkerers and exploiters.

 

[ChristopherPike]

Who knows how good a Season 5 could have been?

I do! Oh wait, that's a rhetorcal question isn't it?

They were certainly building up some steam storywise. Romulans hostile to Archer's attempt to bring the Andorians, Vulcans and Tellarites together. Terra Prime, and xenophobia growing on Earth, gaining support ever since the Xindi attack. That aspect worked for me as a consquence of Season 3, and logically would've happened back home while audiences were busy concentrating on the crew's predicament. The situation going on with the Klingons, a virus spreading throughout their Empire altering the appearance of anyone affected. A return visit to the Mirror Universe, where those Terran versions of the cast are struggling to stay in power, probably stripping down the Defiant to study how to take advantage of 23rd Century technology. Then there's the small matter of bringing Jeffrey Combs' Shran into the cast full time... Season 5 would have had everything for me. Serial story arcs like Deep Space Nine, but not as downbeat and relentlessly dark, in the way nuBSG turned out.

I always find it funny people say Manny Coto's direction was too little too late. He only arrived in Season 3, with a whole year more or less locked down. Coming out of the starting gate with Similitude, then in charge next year, that's one heck of a rise to the top job and it paid off as far I'm concerned. At any other time in Star Trek's history (say when Paramount Television weren't distracted by a corporate takeover from CBS, who in turn wanted to cut costs and focus on the cheaper option of remastering TOS instead), a season like four would've pretty safely guaranteed a further three year run. So despite being labelled as a plunderer of TOS ideas, he could essentially been a reverse Fred Frieberger! One aspect that I loved and think came in once Manny Coto had a free hand to do what he liked, was how they ramped up of the colour. Some subtle touches to the sets, maybe the lighting? Blue doors and handrails. A primary red surround in the transporter room. They really pushed the look of the show in new directions for ENT once Digital cameras came in. You have the vibrancy of red on the planet Vulcan. The blues and greens during the Andorian/Romulan trilogy. The sudden change from a matter of fact, 'you are there' approach in the first 3 seasons, to something approaching 50's pulp Sci Fi during Storm Front, more comicbook in style by that final year.

I'm in that small camp who liked Enterprise all over and didn't see a distinction between Braga and Coto eras. It continually changed and evolved from year to year anyway. The dark blue uniforms became a lighter indigo by the next season. The third year altered several character's looks again... most noticably sexing up T'Pol and hard boiling Archer. This show wasn't exactly stuck in its ways that's for sure. I never thought I'd actually have something to thank declining ratings for.