Enterprise has Stood the Test of Time

As we approach the 15th anniversary of the Star Trek: Enterprise, I think it is important to both look back on its origins, and to reflect on the massive impact that it has had on society and modern culture.

I hope that this thread can be a sounding board for beginnings of such a discussion.

I also hope to explore the relationship between Enterprise and the post-9/11 ecology of agitation in light of George Bush’s strategy of collective perceptual management. While most readings focus on its allegory of the war on terror, I would prefer to address the audiovisual strategies by which Enterprise appeals to the viewer’s senses, mapping the emergence of a post-9/11 sensibility. My suggestion is that the show’s relationship with the post-9/11 reality rests in the power to address the audience’s feelings. To this end, I think we should look Enterprise’s aesthetics of crisis as operating as an affective vector, playing out in an informational system that invests in affective solicitation to provoke a bodily response in the audience. Given the status of television as the principal medium of post-9/11 governmental perceptual modulation, I argue that Enterprise’s relationship with the war on terror is rooted in an ability to express meaning and feeling, keeping a sensation of agitation alive throughout a four-season run. To expose the political value of the show’s aesthetics, I look not at the codes, as at the expressions and style that make up a scenario of sensorial stimulation where feeling becomes a biopolitical operator. Indeed, Enterprise's cinematographic techniques and haptic visuals, chromatic shifts and aural evocations effectively manufacture agitation, exposing a tension between the show’s status as an allegory of the contemporary world and its complicity with practices of televised affective engineering.

And as for the series' staying power, not a day goes by that a friend does not have something positive to say about Archer. "You have to check out Archer! Archer is awesome! That show is hilarious."

And let's not forget that John Billingsley was on that episode of "Ghost Whisperer."

What about all of you?

Where were you when Enterprise first aired, and how has your life been forever changed by it?

 

I just watched it for T'Pol.

 

Does anyone know whether the two Horta eggs she was smuggling ever hatched?

 

I enjoyed Enterprise. I felt it had a good episode to bad episode ratio of 60/40 with the 4th season having most of the good episodes.
Manny Coto did wonders for the show and the characters were being written much better at the end. I still hold out hope for a possible tv movie or short series to kind of wrap Enterprise up, maybe a Netflix or Amazon series so it wouldn't affect JJ Abrams movies.

 

I have a special place in my heart for this show. It was the only Star Trek series I was able to watch from beginning to end while it was originally airing. I remember being so excited when it was announced Scott Bakula would be playing the captain, I think I annoyed some friends at school with my constant updates about the show. It was uneven the first two years, but I still loved it, and season 3 and especially 4 were amazing.

 

It managed to kill my interest in televised Star Trek during its second season, a lack of desire that never returned for a long, long time. That was quite an accomplishment, as up until that time I had never missed any episodes of any other Trek series. (I was a very obsessive child.) I don't think I ever saw seasons 3 or 4 until years afterwards, when they became avaialble online.

That said, though Enterprise largely sucked, I'll admit that it had its moments. (Very few moments, but moments nonetheless.) I just started rewatching it on Netflix and there's a few gems here and there – mostly in season 4. I forgot how hard it was to find episodes from the first two seasons that I can stand watching from beginning to end.

Cogley, do you still have your old Enterprise reviews saved anywhere? I tried looking them up on the Wayback Machine but no luck.

 

I like Enterprise much more than I do Star Trek: Voyager. That said, I wouldn't say it was particularly successful on a frequent enough basis to call it "good." Season two was especially boring.

 

I think it hasn't stood the test of time, I think it's spent the test of time on its knees. Getting pounded by haters but GUESS WHAT it enjoyed itself so nyah nyah.

 

About 1/2-2/3rds of Enterprise is still watchable today, the same as when it aired. I find only about 10-20% of TNG watchable now.

As for George Bush, paranoia, Archer's greatness and Horta eggs... shine on.

 

I would say 15 years is to early to say whether or not it has stood the test of time, come back in another 35 years and we'll see if it has withstood the test of time. Also how was the worlds sensibilites different before 9-11?

 

You know what show HASN'T stood the test of time? Voyager. Especially the early seasons.

On the other hand, ENT held up nicely.

 

There hasn't been enough time. It was like, yesterday.

 

Of course ENTERPRISE has held up well ... it's the most recent!

 

Where was I when it first aired?
I was at work. Fortunately I had a cassette recorder so I could catch up.

How has my life changed? I never would have considered going to a Trek convention until Enterprise. I thought people might make fun of me. And in fact, two of my brothers get a lot of mileage teasing me about it. But I don't care. I have made friends attending conventions, some of them from other countries.

I'm retired, so I'll be watching a marathon to celebrate Enterprise.

 

ENT has stood up pretty well, especially the last two seasons. I think season 3 and 4 contained most of the great stuff. It's a real shame the show was cancelled when it started hitting its prime. Seasons 1 and 2 waste a lot of time, when we should have been getting the Federation-building stuff right from the beginning. But even the first two seasons have a couple of gems. Hidden gems. There's a hell of a lot of episodic filler there.

I wish at least someone would make a fan film production of an ENT season 5. I'd watch it for sure

 

Enterprise needs more LOVE!

Here. Love.

 

Dawww!

And yet more love...

 

Come back in 40 years and we'll see if it has. Ten-ish years is not enough time.

Ignoring many of the things I heavily dislike about the series, overall it was okay. However, I will not forgive them for the moronic series finale; Killing off Trip the dumb way they did is almost as badly handled as Kirk's unnecessary death.

Things I dislike:
- Temporal Cold War arc
- NX class Akiraprise
- Trip's death

Fixes:
- Romulan War arc
(S1-S2 hints dropped about piracy, S3 piracy revealed to be Romulans, S4 Romulan War start, S5 Romulan War middle, S6 Romulan War end, S7 creation of coalition alliance leading to Federation charter being signed in series finale)
(If show cancelled and no S5+, squeeze Romulan War into S4 that takes place over few years)
- Daedalus class Enterprise
- Trip lives